From Chris H - Nearing the end and still no points bomb Russkies and a few little planes and base tutorial

We near the end and I note that some very large numbers are creeping into the challenge as the hoarders wait 'till the death knell to display their ill gotten gains, whoops sorry their magnificently painted miniatures. Again the quality and output is rather brilliant, how you all get the time is beyond me but congratulations none the less.

My entry this time is 17 x 28mm Russians for WWII that are new releases for Eureka Miniatures in Australia. I don't even think they have them online yet. But if you are quick enough I am sure Nic can caste some up for you prior to Salute in the UK. Our North American gamer's will have to order from well, Nic. (please note that I am not promoting the company I just really liked these Russians they are certainly nicer than some of the plastics I have, even though I like them too.)

Commanders

LMG

LMG

Half the squad including a commander and LMG

Stalin's children, the other half of an 11 man squad

I plan on using them as a veteran squad in Chain of Command or Bolt Action, prefer Chain of Command but more likely to see them in a Bolt Action game. I did note after photographing them that I have neglected to do the red star on the field cap, doh.

1/200 Scale Me109s from Scotia in the UK

Same three different angle, these are for Wings of Glory/War and a Battle of Britain game we want to have at the club. Still have to think of a flight unit and put the correct markings up the fuselage but they will look nice on the table.

Finally a couple of bases, I have had the odd comment about the nice bases, I put it down to the tufts rather than any real talent. But here is how it works.

Step 1 Beach sand or river sand from a plant nursery glued to the base with PVA (Elmers?). Let this dry.
Step 2 Brown Ink wash, yep brown ink not paint, the ink seems to flow via capillary action so much better than paint. It is not quite as sticky as paint but then if you had enough PVA glue it should work. let this dry.
Step 3 heavy dry brush with a yellow ochre artist paint (so much cheaper than Vallejo or other model paints). Let this dry.
Step 4 light dry brush with a light beige or cream (Vallejo Dark Sand). Dry again.
Step 5 Tufts and or static grass. Long gone is my Cathode Ray Tube screen so the static grass does not stand up but it still can look nice. Hence the use of tufts.

Oh and you do this with the minis glued on obviously. The image of the unadorned by miniature bases is for you to see the stages.

From left to right Stage 2-5 one final step is to paint the sides/lip however you want, black is my preference.

Points wise, 17 x 5 plus ??????? for the planes, maybe 5 each as well as they are sort of 28mm size?

Thanks for looking. Maybe a neat 100?

Lovely work Chris! Those new Eureka Russians look very nice indeed and you've done great service to them here. I also know many of us will appreciate your basing tutorial. I'm totally behind your use of inks to give both depth and blending to ground elements. Personally, I'm a big fan of acrylic texture gel sprinkled with tallus, but this is largely because I'm lazy. I've not heard of the cathode tube approach to static grass - I'm going to have to try that out. Great stuff.