Merry Christmas! Advent Calender finale 2024.
The final door on our Advent Calendar has been opened. So, how did we do? Let's have a look to see how our Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy Podcast team did this year.
Chris: One of the trickier aspects of finishing this unit for me was - funnily enough - the basing: it's a couple of years since adding to this forces so I had to remember the mix I used; luckily, I have the long-time habit of writing everything down in a notebook, so I was able to work it out again to match!Overall, I'm really pleased with how these dog handlers turned out - especially the fabric patterns (they do look better in reality, I promise!) - and it was all done with contrast paints plus black, white and silver. Merry Christmas, All!
Jasper: “Down brushes!”, says Guy, so this is what it is. To be fair to Guy, this time I can’t blame him. I knew up front that I wouldn’t be at my hobby desk for the entire advent period, so I did as much as I could before I’d have to pack up my suitcase and leave. I am ridiculously happy to have managed to complete painting the entire unit of 22 figures in three weeks to the standard I’m happy with. I’ll add the flags and finish basing at my leisure over the next few days.
We’re planning to discuss our experiences with this advent period painting project on the next podcast, but now that it’s still very fresh, I’ll jot down some notes. If I ever painted an entire unit of 20+ figures at once, it’s certainly been a while. Really making an effort to paint an hour every day helped, obviously, as was the discipline to paint all figures with whatever I was painting at that time. I have a terrible tendency to get bored with something after figure 10, but giving in to that boredom, slows me down enormously. I’ve never painted a test figure before starting on the bulk of a unit, so that was a new experience. I do think it helped me figure out a reasonable order of painting and ensure I needed the least number of repeat passes to touch things up, or to use the same paint more than once. But the primary conclusion really has to be: an hour a day keeps the lead pile at bay (thank you, Moiterei - https://bsky.app/profile/moiterei.bsky.social)
Angus: Painting 10mm figures is always a bit of a compromise. I typically approach it the same way I would 28mm, but the smaller scale just doesn't allow for the same level of detail—either it's not there, or I just can't capture it! Still, once they're based and on the table, I’m always impressed by how great 10mm Pendraken miniatures look.
This US Army Vietnam platoon is now complete and based for 'The Liberation of South Vietnam' ruleset (available on Wargames Vault). Looking at them now, I think I’ll need to grab some sabot bases to create sections of four men (two bases each).
And just in time for the holidays, a care package arrived from Pendraken HQ, packed with VC and civilians for my Christmas painting marathon!
Mark: or the final phase I just needed to complete the base. I used tacky glue and a bit of Woodland Scenics burnt grass fine scatter in irregular patches and then a bit of clump foliage to represent a tree. Less is more here. I want the bases to blend with the gaming mats and terrain boards I make. It’ll also need to serve in Greece, Italy, Afghanistan and even India so I’ll keep it pretty neutral. I will probably add a magnetic strip and name tag in the rear corner made of some magnetic paper, but I haven’t quite worked out which lettering style or colour I’m going to go with so will leave it plain for now.
While the Lasercast 2mm phalanx model obviously lacks sharply detailed individuals in the same way as a 28mm or even 6mm model, I feel it more than makes up for it in the way it depicts a proper formation. In game terms this single base will represent about 4-5,000 phalangites trundling across the battlefield. In 2mm the nice thing is you won’t get too hung up on if is meant to be Macedonians under Alexander, Ptolemaic or Seleucid, or even Pontic pikemen! Hopefully it’s inspired you to realise 2mm doesn’t need to be daunting and you can can paint a few thousand troops in a few hours and build proper sized armies. You’ll never see the eyes painted, but you will see a real looking formation of soldiers!
Guy: Phew! We got there and just in the nick of time! I ran out of steps for the advent process, but I'm planning to do a blog on how I painted all the minis, so people can follow in more detail. I was a little bit worried as to how they'd turn out but I'm pretty happy with the results. I will probably return and add some grass tufts and some more detail. The shoulder boards have been done but the parallel bars on the collar have not. I also have somewhere the decals for the stalhelms.
We hope you've enjoyed our Advent Calendar presentation this yeas and that it has inspired you to put some paint on your models. A very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from the team at Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy.
