Thursday 31 January 2019

First bases and my old dice box.

I have now made a start on texturing the bases, having  thought long and hard about just how I wanted them to look. The washers were ugly if functional, and detracted from the painting so they had to be covered up. I have gone back to basics here (Old School?) and cut all the bases by hand from 2mm card which was then sealed with PVA before sticking the figures down. A 50/50 mix of powdered filler and PVA was then mixed and colour added from here (click). The result was a light tone that reflected the Spanish earth shade of this region (Valencia). I then applied by brush (not too watery so it does not dry flat), and once dry added a few fine stones from cat litter ground down in my wife's pestle and mortar which made sure I thoroughly cleaned afterwards! This morning I applied static grass sparingly and the result is as you see below. I'm still pondering if I should slightly tone the stones down with sepia ink, but for now I'm not sure. I had in mind when doing this the basing style of Bill Brewer of the Rye Stamp and Hobby Shop, who had on display some of the first 15mm figures I saw with fully textured bases. I was a regular visitor there in my lunch breaks when I worked for IPC Magazines in Southwark and would cycle over to Peckham Rye to buy my Minifigs. he was always painting or basing when not serving, and I enjoyed watching him work.

I'm starting on the French cavalry, which now comprise 48 figures in 8 x 6 figure units, 3 dragoons, 2 lancers, 1 Hussars, 1 Chasseur and 1 Horse Grenadiers, the latter to represent the C&C 'Guard Cavalry' type.

I don't intend to remove casualties, but rather mark them using 6mm micro dice (see below), these are quite non intrusive when placed behind a unit only when a unit takes it's first hit.

On the subject of dice, I thought I would share a couple of pics of my old dice box, 30 years old now and given to me a present by my sister in law for my birthday. The brass plate in inscribed 'Lee's HQ' with my date of birth 19 January 1958, and it holds my collection of dice.

Light Dragoons, 2 x 6 figure units.

Royal Horse Artillery.

A battalion of Guards.

A battalion of foot, possibly the Buffs!

The bases are slightly darker than they appear here.

6mm micro dice - unit reduced to 3 'blocks'.



30 odd years old, dice box.




15 comments:

  1. Good basing makes even poorly painted figures pop, and yours are not poorly painted - they look very nice!

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  2. The new bases look fantastic! And the dice box is also an interesting related hobby piece.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  3. Top notch box...And lovely minis!

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  4. Figures are just superb - I would expect nothing less, of course, but congrats anyway. As for the Lee's HQ box - dice? - come on, we know what you used to keep in there!

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    1. Thank you Sir, I'm enjoying painting the little Napoloenics again very much. As for the box, what could you be suggesting? I'm saying nothing, but it could have made a very fine stash box indeed. All perfectly legal and above board of course here in Valencia :-)

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  5. Very nicely done and the basing gives no indication of the ‘washer affair’ :-) I have been finding your Blue Moon figures to have a lot of charm ..... tempting!

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    1. Hi Norm, the washers seemed a good idea at the time, but I do prefer the texturing, time consuming as it is.

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  6. Great basing Lee. Bill Brewer now's there a name, a brilliant painter. I always wanted some of his painted figures but could never justify the expense.

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    1. Hi Robbie, Bill was quite a character and a great painter. It was a tight squeeze in that shop if there were just four customers, but the painted figures on display were so inspiring. I remember him getting quite agitated with a young boy and his mother as they had him go through box after box of minifigs and left with just a handful of figures!

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  7. Beautiful basing to highlight your painting Lee.
    Lovely dice box too!

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  8. Lovely basing and nice die box!
    Best Iain

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