Basing a Strelkovy Company

Hey,

Seeing as I can never remember how I base things I thought I'd make a post about the steps I'm taking, that way I'll have a permanent reminder.

My current situation is this...all the HMGs (6), command teams (6) and commissar teams (6) have had vallejo brown earth applied and is dry.  All the 4 hole bases (14) have paste applied which is drying and the 5 hole bases (10) are awaiting magnets, which should arrive any day now.  The plan is that I will magnetize one hole for fausts, flame throwers or a piece of scenery.

Sample of current situation

Love this stuff

Hooray magnets have arrived and are now part of my ever growing rare earth magnet collection.  I have loads of different shapes and sizes.  These are 10mm x 1mm, I bought them on eBay.

Magnets glued into the bases and rocks

paste applied and 1 test fit

With that done I'm going to leave everything to dry over night before applying a diluted brown wash.  In the meantime I'm going to crack open my Jordanian Infantry.

The wash really darkens the base

The bases get a dry brush of Green Brown

A light drybrush of deck tan

I don't like the previous step, so a light brush of cork brown covers it

I add some rocks and leave overnight for the PVA to really dry

All rocks are painted Black Grey

Rocks get a heavy drybrush of Cold Grey

And now we pause to pay homage to the brave toy soldiers that passed during the making of this blog.  6 figures lost heads, arms and snapped at the ankles.  Fortunately I was able to salvage some of the fis so the net loss is 2 command stands.  I don't want to do into details as the memory is still too painful, and I shall never look at coving in the same way again.

After a massive break to get my some Jordanians painted I've returned to get these finished.  Good thing I made this post as it makes it easy to pick up where I left off, albeit a few stands less.

Rocks get a Stonewall Grey Drybrush

and a final drybrush of Deck Tan

A diluted brown wash blends the rocks

Now I have a dichotomy. My go to colour for painting the base edge was Green Brown, but Ben recently painted his Israelis beige brown and I followed suite.  I think it works really well with the desert coloured paste, but will it work for these guys?  I'm tempted to try.

I

I went with Green Brown in the end as it matches my other soviet stuff, also I've used up the last of my tufts.  One per base just wasn't enough and as I was deeply enthralled by Adam's podcasting from the ETC I just went for it until I'd run out.

Next I mix up a static grass blend.  Like paint I prefer to use a mix, so I use a big clump of dark and a small clump of light before stirring together

I've aimed to cover most of the base, but have left edges and corners for a lighter mix.

 This is the static grass I use.  For the second application I use a big clump of wild honey and a small clump of Burnt Grass.

Here's the end result. A fairly basic rural theme which should be repeatable.  I was tempted to add some twigs, but as it never stops raining I haven't been able to go and collect some.

I need to revisit the basing on some of my older stuff so it matches in with this...but that's true of all my stuff...where to find the time ????

Thanks for dropping by

Dave