Miniature ivy creeper vines, one leaf at a time

Twigs, glue and birch seeds

This week I blended in the shield tip and feet of my 54mm Prince of Novograd figure to the base snow .  This took a few days as each day was glue on one layer of snow effect, wait for it to dry, then the next day do the next layer.  As the figure is all but done my wife mentioned that he needed some extra colour/bling.  She suggested some green growth on the rear tree.

Growing slowly

I first thought of using lichen but that never looks as good as you want it.  I just can’t seem to get it looking any better than just a lump of badly glued and painted lichen.  Should do some research on that.

My next idea was some laser cut or brass etched vine leaves.  I went to Hobbyco and got the “HO scale laser cut Mini Virginia Creeper” made by Noch.  Absolutely amazing detail on the paper laser cut vines.  However they are a bit small for 54mm.  No waste there as they are just right for 28mm figures.  Guess those wood elves are going to get some serious basing bling.

I had heard of people making their own vines by hand, but didn’t really know a good way to do this.  I recently got a copy of “The rise of fantasy” by Juan J Barrena (recommended reading) where he describes the process using twigs, super glue and birch seeds as leaves to make vines.  Since I already had the birch seeds and the garden has lots of twigs I gave it a try.

Action shot

One sick tree

Surprisingly it worked really well.  I was expecting a mess of glue and tears like my first attempts at making water reeds.  Instead I got some ok looking vines.  One of the key techniques is to let the super glue start to get tacky as that aids in holding the leaf.  Otherwise you are trying not to shake as you wait of the glue to dry, and usually failing.  Even with the very small attachment point the whole thing is very solid.  I’m sold and expect to be having vines and custom trees appearing a lot more in my bases to come.  I do however need to purchase a decent pair of tweezers as the $2 shop ones I have aren’t much chop.

Finishing off the Prince of Novograd figure base

Snow time

This week was all about finishing off the base for the Prince of Novograd figure.  After all my lovely oil colour work I covered it all up with snow effects.  The first layer was done with Noch snow glue with AP snow over the top.  Once this had dried overnight I did another layer of snow glue and sprinkled with Woodland scenics snowflakes.  Also some small brown grass tufts were glued in.  Once that had dried overnight I added a layer of 50/50 PVA/water mix and using the Noch static grass shaker applied 4Ground Snow static grass.  Again after that had dried overnight I was ready to check the results.

It was good but the final layer of static grass was a bit too fuzzy.  Ie the static grass was standing up too much.  This was especially noticeable on top the rock.  So I first wetted down all the static grass (not too much otherwise I ends up looking like alien fungus) and then applied a layer of 50/50 PVA/water mix over all of it to keep the static grass down.  This made the snow effects look much more like clumping snow which was good.

 

Getting close...

Then finally the figure has been glued on to the base.  I have repainted the bottom of the banner (some paint had rubbed off when it was stuck in the cork that was holding it) ready for it to be glued.  Also the pin in the helmet has been painted dark brown to hid the pin when it is stuck into the small tree.  Now the only really issue is how to stick the shield on securely.  There aren’t any attachment points so I’m thinking of drilling a small pin into the resin rock base and using that as the bottom anchor point for the shield.  Then a extra bit of snow can be used to hid the join.  Once all the pieces are glued in then the final blending of the figure into the base can be done with oils and/or pigments.  Almost there.

Basing and the 54mm Men-at-Arms Osprey Samurai with Naginata

Layer one of the snow

Well those oils on the display base of my knight took 5 days to dry so there wasn’t much progress on the base.  Next time I need to put the oil paints on some kitchen paper first for 30 minutes or so to soak out some of the oil first.  However the first layer of snow effects went down (the Army Painter snow base) and second will happen later tonight.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done any casting so I decided to make a new rock mould for figure bases.  I found a nice flat rock and cast it up in PinkySil.  I had a bit of extra Pinkysil left over so very quickly made up another mould box and cast a smaller rock rather than waste the silicon.  Always have a spare mould box ready just in case.  Saves a lot of harsh language.

Two new rocks

I did a few casts and the two new rocks are very nice.  The larger one if very flat but enough variation to look like natural ground.  I find the usual “add sand/etc over PVA glue” method of making ground work just always looks odd.  The sand particles are just too big.  I need to try and find some super fine sand I think.  Until then I find using rock textures works very well to simulate ground.  The texture is much finer than sand and the randomness of nature is hard to beat.

54mm Men-at-Arms Samurai

While I was waiting for oil paints to dry I went back to my 54mm samurai and finished off his prep work.  Since his arms are flat against his body I will have to paint them separately and glue them later on.  Since taking the picture I think his neck is too long so will need to trim that down a bit.

I originally purchased this figure as there is a wide range of colours that you can use and still be historically in step.  There were lots of colourful silks with patterns used in the period and a real attempt to look good.  A nice break of the brown, green and chainmail world.

Possible colour combo

Looking at the colour wheel I came up with the combo of yellow/purple/jade green with a yellow/tan trim.  I’m thinking the purple of the main tunic with yellow lapels.  Maybe the jade green on some of the armour pieces and the brown tan for the armour slats and trim.

For his base I was going for the traditional “Japanese wooden beam gateway on a path” image .  However I have a sheet of styrene paving that I decided would look good as the side of a Japanese castle wall (the type that have large stone foundations that slope back).  I went one step further and went for the entrance way so one side of the wall is sloped, the other vertical.  Before committing to that I’ll do a trial (as I have two whole sheets of the styrene paving).  So far I’ve done the undercoat and some zenithal shading in black sprayed upwards to catch the underside of the stones.  I also did more coats of the black on the lower half to darken it slightly.  Over this I plan to spray a gray and hopefully have the shading will come through.

One wall, just add castle

Basing and ground work

Trial layout

Milliput ground work

No update for a few weeks I’m afraid.  Real life and family issues overwhelming any painting time.  However this last week a few bits got done.  I also got seven old issues of the Figure International magazine off eBay :)

I continued to work on the base for my 54mm knight.  Originally I was going to use some foam to make up some of the ground work but decided that it was unnecessary.  Instead I used Milliput (standard) to make some rolling ground work.  I really like the water soluble nature of Milliput and you can shape it with a wet paint brush.  I however dislike  the slime factor which is why I normally use green stuff for ground work.  I always end up with yellow slime hands that smell for a day or so.  For the bigger base Milliput was a more cost effective solution.  Plus my Milliput has almost gone off so I wanted to get some use of out it.

Rear view of first paint trial

Once the Milliput had dried I primed with Vallejo black primer and then painted all the ground with VGC Earth.  This was then shaded with VGC Charred Brown and VGC Khaki.  After that I coated all the ground with matt varnish to take off some of the shine caused by the glazing.  The end result wasn’t what I was after.  I just looked like brown paint.  I should have textured the Milliput with some sand rather than leaving it smooth.

Breaking out the oil colours I re-did the ground.  I shaded down the burnt umber, payne’s grey and phthalo blue and shaded up with burnt sienna and white.  The blue added to the shadows really worked well.  I had picked this up from reading a few oil painting books.  This also matches up with real life (almost like those painters know what they are talking about) as when it gets darker things get bluer.  This was left to semi dry overnight.  I could have done this with acrylic paints but I just like playing with the oil paints.

Oil paint make great mud

The next day I got the white and a small amount burnt sienna and padded the white paint onto the ground where I thought snow fall would sit.  Not dry brushing, more like sponge applying but with a brush.  This resulted it the ground colour still being visible but there being a white covering/dusting.  Where the rock/tree was overhanging the ground I left the ground colour as is.  I was afraid that the contrast of the brown ground with the stark white flock/etc would be too much.  I think this will make a very good underlay and transition to the later snow effects I have trialled.

Rear view of the "snow" dusting

Now to wait a few days for the oil paints to dry before going onto the next stage and adding the snow effect products.