Gesso as a Primer

I have found an alternative to priming my figures with a spray primer.  I have found using Gesso a good alternative to spray priming.  This is not a new idea of course and I read about it on this blog: Priming_With_Acrylic_Gesso by Dakka Dakka.  The first part of his post kind of turned me off to doing this as it was rather labor intensive, with all of the mixing of thinners, colors etc.. that was until I read to the end where he had updated his post based on someone else's suggestion to use the Gesso right out of the bottle.  I have to say that it works really well.

One of the reasons for this change is up here in the Pacific Northwest, the winters are wet and cold and trying to spray prime outside doesn't always work.  This method allows me to prime inside at my work table and there aren't any toxic fumes.   

The liquitex Gesso is a non-toxic product so it is safe to use.  Also it cleans up with water.  It comes in three colors Black, White and Grey.  I bought the black and grey colors.  I will use the grey on my 10mm figures and the black on the 15mm and larger figures.

This bottle cost me about $9.00 at Blick Art Supply.

For this experiment I decided to prime my Pulp figures I purchased from Bob Murch. I want to do a 1930's style noir game.

The above photos show how wet and gloppy the figures look after brushing the Gesso onto the figures.  The bottle says to let it dry for 24 hours.  Most of the detail is obscured by the Gesso. 

Less than 24 hours later the figures are dry.

You can see some places where there is a little bit metal showing through. This can be touched up with the Gesso.

Once the stuff dried the details POP! rather nicely and better, I feel, than the spray primers I've used in the past.

The best part of this was the clean up.  The brush cleaned up with water and once the Gesso dried I was able to peel it out of the tray and throw the piece of Gesso away.

2 Regiments of WWI Austrians Completed in 10mm!

It took me about a week longer than I had expected, due to some family stuff, but I've finished my first two regiments of WWI Austrians.  Unlike the huge Russian regiments which have 16 stands of Infantry, the Austrians only have 12.  Also, unlike the 4 Russian regiments that make up a division for 1914, the Austrians only have 2 regiments per division.  The Russian army is huge!  I have more Russians and Austrians on the way from Pendraken along with artillery and a few extras to help round out the forces for both sides.

Can't wait to get these on the table to game.

2 Regiments of WWI Russians done

Took me a couple of weeks but I finished up 2 regiments of WWI Russians for Great War Spearhead and Field of Battle: WWI by Piquet.  For those of you who are not familiar with either of these rule sets, a stand is a company, 4 companys are a Battalion with a MG stand attached, 4 Battalions make up a Regiment.  For the Russians, 4 Regiments make up a Division.  So I still have some more painting to do.  :-)  Each infantry stand has 4 figures, the MG stand have 2 figures and the Regimental HQs have 3 figures.  The stands are 1.25"x1.25"

In the meantime I've started work on my Austrians.  When looking at the pictures in the background of some you can see the Austrians on painting sticks.

Two Knights 1:16th scale

When I went to the model show a few weeks ago I picked two 1:16th scale knights to build and try to paint.  I've never done anything this large so it will be a new experience for me.  Hope I can do them justice.

Here are some pictures of them.

Maybe I can start a new gaming scale with these!  :-)

Trying to figure out what I have here.....?

So after posting this on TMP it has come to my attention from several people on there that my Roman army is outfitted more as a Early Imperial Roman Army than Republican Roman do to the lack of feathers on the helmets and the more squared shields than oval ones.  Guess I will have to reevaluate what I'm going to do here. 

As with many of us, while working on one project you are looking forward to the next one.  Well I think this is going to be my next BIG project.  I bought these 10mm Romans to game the era surrounding the Punic Wars.  

I am looking at using Piquet's Archon or Pulse of Battle for my rule set.  I've been doing some reading on the Romans for this time period to get better acquainted with their history and army setup. Now I'm trying to figure out exactly how, what I have will fit into the basing scheme for the above rule sets  which uses 4 bases to a unit and how that matches what they did for real.  

The pictures show the units in three bases, doubled ranked on a single base, which I like.  Except for the cavalry and the skirmishes which are in single ranks. It gives a nice deep, full looking base.  The bases are 40mm x 20mm.

So there are 3 units of Hastati, 2 units of Principes and 1 unit of Triarii.  2 units of Bow man.  2 units of heavy cavalry and 1 unit of light cavalry.  Also 1 unit of skirmishers.

So my question for all you Ancient Roman experts out there is how would you fill out what's here?

More progress on my WWI Russians.

Okay I've gotten some more painting done on my WWI Russians.  I finished blocking on the colors and after looking around and emailing with a few people I decided to try the "Miracle Dip" for these figures.  As some of you are aware this is essentially Minwax Polyshades Tudor Satin.  Instead of dipping the figures, since my figures are mounted on popsicle sticks, I brushed the dip onto the figures.  I was also able to control the stain a little bit more using this method.  Below are some pictures of the pre-dipped figures and then the dipped figures below that.

I think they turned out okay.  Once they are based I will spray a matt varnish on them, just to take a little bit of the shine off.

The above figures are pre-dipped.

These are the figures after being dipped.

I will get these off the sticks and onto some bases and then start the Austrians I have and go with the same method.