Manda (Amachan) goes to the Eastern Front

We obviously have a winner, the base on the left is obviously the best.

But now my mind is going wild again and I am thinking of potentially not doing wintery bases. It would make it a lot easier if I want to extend into other theatres later on that aren’t set in the winter. Plenty of stuff on the Eastern Front was not fought in the winter. Now I have my wintery bases in hand, I am going to want to try some other things. The 2 bases on the top are coated with AK Interactive Diorama Terrains Muddy Ground (AK8017) and I carved tracks in them. The 2 bases on the bottom I have put on a thin layer of a basic structure paste and added a couple of rocks in it. I want to see if I can get these painted without using a primer, the pot it comes in says I can so we’ll see. It has been very hot outside today and I managed to keep most of the heat out, if I can do so as well tomorrow I may be able to do some more work.

So the last 2 bases have dried and I am liking the look of this much more. There is still a little bit of a frosty shine to it, but it doesn’t look like glitter anymore.

So for the next 2 tests.

Left:
I have used a bit of a thicker mix as before with the GaleForce Nine Hobby Round: Snow (GFS027), water and PVA. Spread that on the base and carved the tracks into it. I then applied a couple of drops of water on the sides where the snow would be less disturbed and smoothed it out. I then sprinkled a bit more of the snow on there, we’ll see what that looks like when dry, but I think this is the winner.

Right:
I went back to have a look at my old Wintery Basing Experiments project and tried to apply that to the base on the right. I made a mix with Vallejo Water Texture Still Water (26.230) & Vallejo Weathering Effects Snow (73.820) and spread that on the base. I then carved in the tracks and added a little bit more water texture in there. I then sprinkled some of the GF9 snow on the sides. I will have to see how this looks like when dry.

I also prepped 2 more bases in the same way as before.

So, the bases have dried and I don’t recall having ever seeing snow with glitter in it…. So much for this snow powder being realistic….

So I still had some Galeforce 9 snow stuff laying about, not sure if it is still available since I got it ages ago, but it most likely is. I tried to do a similar thing as before. The first mix (left) was a bit too watery to model anything into it so I just spread a bit more of the snow stuff over it to see how that turns out. The second mix (right) I mixed a little bit thicker, not really thick enough to make tracks in it, but I tried. We’ll see how it turns out.

I then prepped a couple more bases and put some tracks into the muddy ground texture beforehand.

I vaguely recall having done a winter basing project at some point, I am going to have to look at how I did stuff back then.

The bases for this I will prime before I stick anything to it. I will paint each figure separately and then glue it to the primed base, but after that I am going to have to figure out what I am going to do. So here is a basing test. I started with a simple coat of AK Interactive Diorama Terrains Muddy Ground (AK8017).

I mixed a bit of GreenStuff World Realistic Model Snow Powder with a bit of PVA and water in 2 different ratios to see what they will look like and then prepped 2 more bases in the same way as I did before.

I have always had an interest in WWII and for some reason I have never actually done anything with it on the tabletop, so this will be it.

This project will follow my progress into Flames of War Eastern Front. I will be building 2 armies, 1 Soviet and 1 German set around the battle of Stalingrad. So late 1942, early 1943. This will be my first foray into 15mm wargaming and I will also need to build scenery and everything for this project.

To start off with I have ordered the Stalingrad 2 player starter set plus a couple of extras.

And while I would like to make a polka dot army, I am also really interested in the historical side of things and haven’t as of yet found any credible historical references that they painted their tanks like this or even had the time to do so around the battle of Stalingrad.