David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Wednesday 7 October 2020

Cretan archers

 Either side of my Cornish holiday, in late September and early October, I've been working on a unit of Cretan archers for the Republican Romans. The unit(s) comprises four bases of three archers each in a mix of firing and loading poses. They are from Aventine Miniatures with the bases from Warbases, as ever.

It seems to take me ages to get all the base colours on the figures, painting them three at a time, but no time at all to do the highlights. I'm sure that's a subjective viewpoint myself, but it's how it seems to me. 


The bases are textured using a mixture of Woodlands Scenics Buff Ballast. It's in three grades: Coarse, Medium and Fine in a mix of about 1:1:2 or 3. I coat the MDF bases with Hobbycraft School grade PVA and then put the base in the mix and rock the box back and forth until the base is buried. I wait a few seconds and then take the base out, turn it upside down to remove the loose texture and out it aside to dry, usually overnight. For these bases first I've added a few random larger rocks in groups or singly to create more interest.

When the texture is dried hard I wash it with a diluted coat of Crafter's Acrylic Country Maple, about 50:50 paint to water. When this is thoroughly dry, and it may take a while, I apply the static grass to a pattern of PVA, rather like aircraft camouflage. I add clumps of larger grasses to taste, usually in three or four shades of green. For these bases I've added a larger clump here or there and a small clump of more obvious weeds. Overall I find the effect pleasing as well as having the added bonus of distracting the eye from my painting efforts!

24 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Wouldn't they be Rhodian slingers?🙂

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    2. Thanks Jon! Surprised you had time to post though, being so busy...

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    3. Ok, so I had a Bacon Bap as well .....

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    4. My, coffee & a bacon bap, and you being so busy too...

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  2. They look great David and nice to read how you go about your basing, which is very effective.

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  3. Nicely done Mr. B, drab but in a colourful way.

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    Replies
    1. Colourfully drab, a new concept in painting figures?

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    2. Drab is the new colourful🙂

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  4. A nice looking unit David
    They look like very useful troops... I suspect you could use them for both sides and a number of other armies...

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thank you Aly! I have no plans for other period armies though. But, I do have a project in mind for 2021...

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  5. I am coming to the end of my 25Kg bag of Sharp sand, never thought I would say that. So I may look at your way of doing the bases in the future, very nice.

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    Replies
    1. I shall look out for your take on the basing method in due course then George.

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  6. Both bowmen and bases are beautiful, David!

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  7. Lovely looking archers and great basing too!
    Best Iain

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