As I explained in my last post, I am just starting to get into tabletop wargaming with miniatures. As such, I want to start slow. That means, when it comes to painting my first army, I will not amassing huge quantities of paints, washes, bases, etc. - at least not at first! In this post I describe how I painted my first set of minis with almost nothing other than materials I already had laying around the house.
The Finished results. Read on to see how I got here!
After some research into various scales and rule systems, I decided that 1/72 plastics was a good place to start. A box of 40 figures costs around $10, which is good for the budget. The figures are large enough to base individually for small scale skirmish games (which is where I am starting), but small enough to be used well on a small table. 1/72 plastics are also compatible with many of the very nice 20mm metal figures available, if I ever want to upgrade, or perhaps add a few heroes to the table.
As I said, I want to ease myself into the hobby as inexpensively as possible, so for my first project I determined that I would only use paints and materials that I already had on hand. In fact, other than the minis themselves, the only thing I purchased for this project was a small dropper bottle of Army Painter Quickshade.
Priming and Basecoating
I primed my minis with a can of spray primer I had out in my garage. Grey seemed to work well, although in the future it might be fun to experiment with different colors.
For basecoating, I used my wife's old dollar store craft paints.
A few figures in progress.
A selection of American Infantry, base coat finished.
The paint may seem a bit bright, but a coat of quckshade toned the colors down quite a bit. At this point, with the quickshade wash applied so think, I thought I had ruined my mini! Thankfully, however, the wash lightened up quite a bit while drying.
For basing single figures, I used pennies, wood filler, and homemade flock. The pennies are a perfect size for 1/72 figures, and the wood filler is a nice base for simulating dirt. I watered down some brown paint and dabbed it onto the filler while it was still freshly applied. The filler soaked up the paint unevenly which gave it a varied look.
For basing weapon teams, I simply used an old paint stirring stick, cut to appropriate lengths. It worked well, with no need to go buying all different sizes of bases. A 10-pack of 1 Gal. paint sticks cost me $0.98. Here you can also see what the wood filler looks like unpainted.
A finished figure! Completed using almost nothing other than materials found on hand.The flock is a combination of sawdust mixed with paint, and dried landscaping moss.
German Infantry
For my German Infantry, I used much the same process. However, as Apple Barrel craft paint doesn't have a "World War II" line of paints (perhaps they should!) I had to get a little creative in painting the German uniforms: I mixed my own feldgrau. I used two parts dark grey, one part hunter green, and a splash of black.
Applying the color. Looks close enough for the game table, I'd say.
The finished results. I decided to paint the old grey trousers on some of the German figures to delineate "Veteran" units. This is before applying a wash.
After a coat of quickshade wash, I based the individual figures on pennies, as before.
Add the wood-filler and flock, and done!
And here is a shot of my completed American Infantry.
I learned quite a bit during this project. Mainly, you don't have to break the bank when you are first starting out! Just take a look to see what you have around you and try to think of creative ways to use what you have on hand. I definitely want to keep learning and improving, however. Next time, I think I will try to take my time adding a few more little details, and especially use highlighting and dry brushing techniques. For now, I just hope to get these guys on the game table soon. Thanks for reading.