Painting

By Richard Steer

Many wargamers that I know keep a recipe book, a notebook that is used to record which paints have been used for a particular project. This record is invaluable should the project be put on hold for a time, or ends up being extended at a later date due to new releases, as it avoids the question of “what on earth did I paint those with?”

Model Colors is a free iOS application that I have started using in place of my own recipe book. At its core is a paint library holding over 24,000 products from a wide range of manufacturers, which includes other types of products such as inks, pigments, and thinners. It also has a number of features that mean it can serve as more than just a catalog of the paints that you own.

It is no secret that I love and even before the game came out, I had a few armies ready to go for play testing and when the game finally came out. One of the things I pleaded with Rufus and Kai to make sure that the game was not all trench warfare. I have always felt that the Great War was under-gamed because many just think of static trench warfare. When I gave demos of the game, I stated that I have no plans to build armies for the western front. However, as I talked about the game more to potential players, I noticed that many of them wanted the mud and blood of the trenches and by picking up some great kits I gave in, well almost since I still do not have any trenches.

By Howard West

Background – a group of us at Legions Games in Pittsburgh, PA have been playing Flames of War for many years and Team Yankee since it was released. Several of us wanted to start playing something different but not that far away for our passion for Flames and Team Yankee.

A smaller group of us had already started assembling NAM armies in the Winter of 2018/2019 and several of the Flames guys thought NAM would be a good 2nd game for them vs TY or Fate of the Nation. So now we are off to the races. As I was completing several of my units for my NAM force several of our folks asked me how did I paint the completed units.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Those that know me, know that I am a huge plane nerd.    So it might be odd that I did the A-10’s for my Team Yankee Americans last and not first. The reason for this was threefold:  In the previous version of Team Yankee, aircraft were too easily killed by AA fire, even humble vehicle machine guns.

Second, the very high AT weapons weren’t really needed in a game without M1A1s, Challengers and T-80s.  Third, they were the Battlefront resin kits, with the weapons in the wrong spot, painted in a Desert Scheme that wasn’t really used, plus I did not have access to decals even if I did repaint them.

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Alright, back at it, Team Yankee Americans. In this post, I am outlining my Desert MERDC camo M113 hulls.    MERDC camouflage was designed in the 70s to be a standardized pattern that could have 1 or two of the 4 colours repainted and thus transition from region or season.   In reality, apart from some White added for winter, the camo remained and was eventually replaced.   I like the look of it for my desert forces rather than the blander tan you see on most Desert Storm vehicles.   Since I am doing Texas National Guard units (with Texas-based regforce attached) I loved finding a pic of an M901ITV from Fort Hood at the NTC in this very camo!

Disregard the green M150 TOW in the foreground

By Paolo Paglianti

After having completed my British BAOR force and an antagonist URSS army, I wanted to move to a different theatre of Cold War. For a while, I was lingering on Fate of Nations setting, but the Oil War book gave me exactly what I was looking for: a new scenery for a brand fresh force, literally thousands of miles away from the ubiquitous NATO green.

As usual, I am going to create a core force of around 100 points for the two sides: at our club in Milan we like to have two opposing forces for every ruleset, so we can demo players wanting to get into the games we like. For Oil Wars, the first force I selected was IDF, and later this year I plan to complete the theatre with an Iranian/Syrian force. 

By Dennis Jensen

My first painted piece of the new year is the Taco Bell by .  This is an MDF and resin 28mm kit. Before gluing on the roof and the window frames I sprayed the building and the frames with a textured spray paint.  I experimented to see if the textures spray paint would hide the joins.

By Dennis “Wachtmeister” Jensen

On Sunday, January 19th, 2020 the gaming world unexpectedly lost Walt Langhans, an industry professional, and dear friend.  Along with his wife Michele, Walt was one of the owners of and it’s lead designer.

Walt’s designs were excellent and showed what MDF terrain could aspire to.  He was one of the first people to integrate non-MDF elements in his projects, to include drinking straws, acrylic elements and PVC pipes.

Walt also took steps to minimize visible lugs in his terrain, often using other pieces of MDF to cover visible lugs and seems.  He always had excellent customer service.

I remember one time I wrote him to say that a terrain piece I had ordered didn’t come with the plastic drinking straws but I was good to go because I pulled one out from my painted pipe set.  Walt almost shipped out an extra drinking straw because of the error.  I couldn’t accept this of course, but it just goes to show how great his customer service was.

If you play 3d wargames, you will want to have awesome battlefields. And which scenario could happen without some hills? The ones made by producers like Battlefront or Games Workshop are wonderful, but if you need a number they can become quite expensive. So, here is how we can do easy, scenic, beautiful hills with very affordable costs.

By Igor “Tadcaster” Torgeson

Choosing your Colours
After Matt Varnish’s , I’ve been tasked with British painting. Warlord’s new line of ships from the Age of Sail is close to my heart, as I spent some time as crew aboard HMS Rose, a replica of the British frigate from the Revolutionary war. Many of you will be familiar with HMS Rose, as she was purchased by 20th Century Fox and renamed Surprise for the film Master and Commander.

When it comes to painting British ships, I have good news and bad news. The good news is by the time of the Napoleonic wars, the colours of ships in the Royal Navy were mostly standardized. The bad news is I said “mostly.” Royal Navy captains had great latitude in the painting and upkeep of their ships, whether it was the hull, the sticks (masts and yards), or the brightwork (decoration).