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.



Sunday 5 February 2023

Winter Quarters

It's a pleasant, sunny winter's day here in the Midlands and, what is more relevant, the humidity is relatively low too. When you add to that a lack of chores and stuff making unreasonable demands on my time then all the stars have aligned for me to tackle the two Really Useful Boxes full of figures painted over the winter so far and awaiting varnishing. 

My preferred matt varnish medium is the Humbrol Acrylic Matt spray varnish which I deploy over the winter in front of an electric hot air heater/blower in GHQ. The hot air blowing over the varnished figures helps the varnish to set quickly and fully matt. (In summer months when I varnish outside in the sun I occasionally get the odd satin finish when the humidity is marginal.

The 'Newly Varnished' figures hardening off in the sun. These are the figures I've worked on over the last three or four months I'd guess, all bar one unit of Hanoverian infantry regiment Hardenberg for my French SYW army. The Hanoverians are by Front Rank while the French are from Casting Rooms Miniatures at Foundry.

Later this month there is a photoshoot scheduled to take place for Wargames Illustrated to accompany a piece I've written about the SYW expansion project. I've almost completed the second Hanoverian infantry regiment, Jung Zastrow, and plan to try and complete a command base of two mounted general's and a battery of artillery for the Hanoverian section of the Allied army. To these I can add some Hessians from my AWI collection to stiffen the Allies as it will be a while until the other figures in the Lead Pimple can be tackled.

20 comments:

  1. Very productive and splendidly turned out winter quarters work there.

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    1. Thanks Phil, it's been a struggle at times but seeing it like this is motivational for the next phase.

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  2. Varnish, I went from brush to spray then back to brush for no real reason. A lot of splendid effort there David.

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    1. Thanks George, effort yes, quality maybe?

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  3. I managed to get some priming in over the weekend for the first time in ages. I can't face spray lacquer due to the risks of blooming (when it goes slightly white), plus a bit tricky for 10mm figures IMHO. For the smaller scales I find Vallejo brush on lacquer works fine.

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    1. I lack the patience for brush on varnishing, painting them is bad enough!

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  4. A beautiful box of goodness. Good tip about putting warm air across the subject, not thought of that.

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    1. Thanks Norm. Has the back recovered from Vapnartak?

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  5. Lovely boxes of toys David…
    To spray or not to spray… these days I prefer to use a brush on varnish and undercoat, that way I don’t need to worry about weather conditions.
    Each to their own as we say.

    All the best. Aly

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  6. Impressive looking boxes of figures David I went back to brush finding it less impacted by atmospheric conditions

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    1. Thanks Matt. Hot air heater/blower is the spray's best friend I've found.

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  7. A very impressive few months work there! Interesting to see your success using the hot air while spraying. I went back to using the old humbrol 49 enamel brush varnish after experiencing several disasters! I may well try out your method 😷

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    1. Thanks for dropping in Paul. Note I accept no responsibility for any varnish disasters if you try my method😉

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  8. That's a fine display - shows why the mid-18th century is so very attractive too. Can we have a few close ups too, please? :-)

    Cheers,

    David.

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    1. Thank you David! They've all been featured on the blog previously as they were completed, but as you asked nicely I'll take some new pictures later in the month at the WI photoshoot.

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  9. I'm going to buy that issue. Your SYW project has been a real inspiration. I'm terrified to varnish any where near winter. Looking forward to seeing them on the table.

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    1. Thank you for your kind comment Mr L. I hope you will find the article useful or interesting when it appears.

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  10. I often wondered how the wargaming elite spent their Wintertime. Now I know. Im having a few issues with my matt varnish at the moment, and I cant decide whether its a bad batch or the cold weather we suffer here in the North. Whatever it is, its really annoying. A lovely ion to your armies David, well done.

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    1. Wargaming elite?😂🤣 More like Wargaming rabble I'd think. Jibe aside, for which you are forgiven, thanks for the positive response. As to cold Oop North, thought you be varnishing outside shirtless.

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