The League of Augsburg

We are almost there. The finishing touches are covered in this part of the series. Some of the effects worked early on in the tile grout can now be seen. Lots of cart tracks were traced using the wooden end of old paint brushes. All the areas of sand patches will be washed down in a 25 paint 75 water mix of brown and black to create some ground contrast.

Light sand highlight added to the...

four finished pieces in the context of a game.

Now we are getting to the interesting bit. Painting the construction and making it come alive. As previously mentioned, my way of building these pieces is crude and bold. I don't mess about with high contrast artwork on things that are essentially piles of mud, wood and stones. A dull, dirty aspect is what I am after.

Use emulsion paint - chocolate...

3 squadrons charge whilst another regiment awaits orders

Although my interest in the Great Northern War started in 1991 when I was introduced to the period through the collection of a gaming friend, never in the intervening time have I felt that games played in the period had enough Horse.

The new officer figure looks well as an unhorsed cornet

Those early games were played with Prince August style...

3 squadron Abo och Bjorneborgs in action in Poland

Toggy, Gerry and I had a conversation recently about painting miniatures and our attitudes to the task. A visit to various fora focusing on the subject will tell the story in full. At one end of the scale you have the block paint and dip brigade who just want to get the figures on the table. At the other end of the continuum are the artists who...

Clarence Harrison - I thought I'd hijack Barry's series(missed 'em? Follow the link) on basing to add my two cents. Barry and other LoA partners inspired my designs long before we had the chance to chat over the net. LoA games were regular features in Wargames Illustrated when I was just starting to build my wargames collections. That was what wargames should look like! Massed blocks of troops...

Barry Hilton - Sometimes when we painted something fine it is frustratingly lost amongst the welter of other figures placed in front of it. I long ago decided that height (within reason) could be a legitimate component of figure basing and have used some successful and admittedly not as successful attempts over the years.

Pirate command group atop the high ground Aharr!

The best way to approach it...

Clarence Harrison - It's all over! Just a few pics of the finished piece. Hopefully this has been useful for some of you! We'll try to do more on terrain in the future.

Determination in the face of the enemy

Barry Hilton - Personal preference I'll grant you, but I find lines of toy soldiers in the same pose, painted the same, spaced evenly and based unimaginatively as a bit of a lost opportunity. Basing is a very personal aspect of the hobby. Sometimes but less and less so, it is dictated by the restrictions of rules. That is perhaps which basing is such an...

Clarence Harrison- After letting all of the glue dry (again), it was finally time to start painting! I painted swatches of the colors from Games Workshop paints and carried them to my local hardware store to have pints mixed to match them. It is not important to use the same colors I use as you can get great results with many different earthtones, but I will include them here and use them in the...

A grenade explodes!

Barry Hilton - Things that have just happened are great for vignette pieces whether these are used for command bases or integral to a unit. I try as much as possible not to resort to heavy conversion work for several reasons;

If done quickly they can often look wrong. If too complex they can be fragile and thus your heart skips a beat every time someone picks them up or...