Hobby Roundup. Spring Clean 2024.

This would have to fit in the ‘dust off’ category. With Salute’s painting competition now being just round the corner I wanted to enter as many categories as possible. With London being so far away and quite expensive to get there I thought I would have a once in a lifetime trip. Hence my wanting to enter as many categories as possible. I picked something I had already completed and had a go at adding to it. As it turned out this was a great deal more arduous than I thought. I added more shading into the blue uniform with Wargames Foundry French Blue Shade. This I then highlighted with firstly GW Calgar Blue and Fenrisian Grey. For the black overalls I added further highlights with GW Dawnstone then Administratum Grey. The reds were made to pop with further highlights of GW Evil Sunz Scarlet and Wild Rider Red. I then reworked any areas that were clumsily finished and added GW Auric Gold  and Vallejo Chrome ( the latter very selectively) to all the ‘gold’areas including the buttons.

The gun carriage received selective shading with GW Agrax Earthshade and was highlighted with the base colour ( which I think was GW Goblin Green) and then edge highlighted (where possible) with GW Moot Green mixed with Vallejo Ice Yellow. The metal areas were washed with very thinned black ink ( the base being Vallejo Gunmetal). This was then highlighted with GW Iron Hands Silver and very careful spit highlights with Chrome. The barrel was repainted with GW Retributor Armour washed with heavily diluted Burnt Umber Ink. The original colour is then glazed over where the light would reflect off the metal and again tiny highlights were applied with chrome to really make the metal pop!

This rear view shows more clearly how I improved the base. I added some tiny tufts and shrubs from Gamer’s Grass. I also highlighted these and all the original tufts with GW Ushbati bone and added GW Agrax in the recesses and around the rocks on the base. I made wheel tracks with Vallejo thick mud and applied this sparingly also on the wheel rims. The water effect is Vallejo Still Water mixed with a tiny amount of Burnt Umber ink. I used various weathering  powders from Vallejo to add ‘dirt’ to the figures shoes and lower parts of their trousers and to blend the figures into their environment. I also ( not shown in photo) added Liquitex Burnt Umber Ink to the ‘mud’ which made it,I think, look better. I also added some Dirt Down Moss to the rocks on the base.