ImagiNations Army 'photos

As hoped for, I took some 'photos of my 18thC army this evening, to show some of the units that have been completed. Sadly I'm no David Bailey, but hopefully you can get an idea of how they look from the following snaps.

Light Infantry armed with rifes and muskets.

The rifle armed Light infantry are leading.

Line Infantry.

The flags are temporary and will be replaced in due course.

A unit of County Militia.

The mix of dress makes them a nice unit to paint.

Taunton's Tarters. 17thC Ottomans masquerading as local light horse.

Horse Guards.

Dragoons.

Light and Medium artillery.

Command bases. The sculpting and detailing on these are a joy to behold.

Geese being driven to market.

6mm Leven Miniatures building on an 80mm x 80mm base to represent a BUA.

The vegetable patch at the back.

As mentioned yesterday, it is a lovely feeling to have a fully painted army that I can field on the table. I broad outline of how I go about painting the units can be found below:

• I glue the figures to 40mm x 20mm or 40mm x 30mm bases. I then add pva glue to the base and coat with sieved sharp sand.
• When the base is dry, normally overnight, I then prime everything with black paint.
• Once the black paint is dry, I paint the bases with varying shades of brown and beige. This mix I use across my scenery as well, to give a unified look to everything.
• The figures are then given a drybrush of a reddish brown, which helps bring out detail as well as hide bits missed when painting the main colours. This technique I learnt off Nik Harwood and it works a treat. Once on the table everything blends together, so you hardly notice any errors. You're painting the unit, not the figures, which is something I've finally taken on board.
• The figures are then given their base colours, working inside out, with webbing done last. 
• Everything is then given a coat of GW Devlin Mud wash. This ties everything together and gives depth to the figure.
• When this is dry, I add highlights to the clothes and webbing, one or two shade brigther than the base coat. It is important at this scale (1/144th or 10mm) to make the colours brighter than normal, otherwise the unit looks at bit dull once on the table.
• Once everything is dry I hand paint on Vallejo Matt Varnish, concentrating on areas that will get the most handling.
• I then leave everything overnight then add pva and static grass to finally finish the unit off.

The above method I have been using for years, but the concentrating on painting the unit as a whole, has made a big difference. Broadly speaking I can paint an infantry unit in around 2 hours, once the base has been painted. Cavalry takes about an hour, artillery the same.

Hopefully the above has been of interest or even useful and I hope you like what I have painted. It remains to be seen how they perform on the table tomorrow in their first action as a complete force!