10mm Afrika Korps Battlegroup

[bigjackmac]

All,

I haven't gotten in any gaming lately, but I have taken advantage of the spare minute to hour here and there to be a painting and basing fool, so here's the latest, my 10mm Afrika Korps battlegroup, all from Pendraken.


Here's the whole battlegroup, with infantry on the left (consisting of 15 infantry bases), armor in the center (four PzMkIIIJ, three PzMkIVD, one Sdkfz 234, and two Sdkfz 222s), HQ on center right (CO w/Sdkfz 250, three company commanders, and nine platoon commanders), and Heavy Weapons at far right (88mm ATG, two PaK-38 ATGs, two 75mm field guns, three MG-42s, three 80mm mortars, and three 50mm light mortars).


A closeup of a single stand.  Great figs from Pendraken, with an MG-42 LMG team on left (I love the fact they are moving, which is perfect for my rifle squads), far right is from one of the rifle packs (they actually have two, and each has two different poses!), and the next guy in is from the MP-40 pack (which, sadly, has only one pose).  Painting wise, you can see that I never paint my Germans in a uniform manner.  For these Afrika Korps fellows I mixed and matched tunics, trousers, and hats/helmets in a mix of khaki (far left and far right trousers), sand (almost off-white, far left tunic and MP-40 helmet), desert yellow (far right helmet), and a faded olive green (obvious, I hope).


Closeup of the CO.


And the '88.'

For a whole lot more photos and descriptions, please visit my blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-pack-of-desert-foxes.html

V/R,
Jack

[jchaos79]

Looking good

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Very nice Jack!

[Womble67]

Yes very nice indeed

take care

andy

[nikharwood]

Nicely done 

[bigjackmac]

Thanks fellas, I appreciate it.

So, Nik and Lemmey bullied me into putting washes on all my figures, and I'm doing it.  When is somebody going to tell me how to do it?  Overall I like the look, but what about the big splotches?  How do I stop that from happening?  I'm sure I'm making a big mistake here: as I think the wash is too dark by itself, I cut it with water.  I've tried a lot of different ratios, from water 1:3 wash, up through 1:1 and all the way to 3:1, but always get the splotches.

Help!!!!

V/R,
Jack

[fred.]

You need something to improve the flow - water has a high surface tension, and at the scale of miniature figures doesn't flow very well.

I use acrylic medium - otherwise known as Future Floor Polish (aka Pledge or Klear). I mix this about 50:50 with water, with a few drops of ink, this flows nicely over the figure, and sinks down into the creases and folds. You can get similar stuff from art shops.

I have found that some commercial washes, act more like stains and colour the whole figure, rather than going into the deeper areas.

[Fenton]

I use Klear as well and it works well ( though I dont add water to it), you can either premix the ink  or just coat the figures in the Klear and add spots of ink afterwards

I also find the AP strong tone ink mixed about 50/50 with water gives a nice covering as well though you would need to highlight afterwards

[nikharwood]

Yep, Klear with water and ink 

[bigjackmac]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.  I've only been at this for a couple years now, so still a newbie and still learning; the recommendation to apply a wash has really made my guys look a lot better, I'll have to try this out.

V/R,
Jack

[Fenton]

As one final add

I would recommend using a really good matt varnish as well ,t really flattens the ink into the figure

After trying various matt varnish sprays I find Humbrol Acrylic matt varnish spray the best

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your figures