Flames of War: The Black Brigade 8: Modelling the bases

So I thought that to round off the mountainous volumes of modelling blogs covering Stanislaw Maczek and the Black Brigade I thought it would be good to take a closer look at how I did the bases on all of these Black Brigade miniatures to round off this series (The Black Brigade uniforms post is having all of its stuff translated from Polish sources at the moment and is coming up).

I know that by now the majority of you will either have square eyes, will have slipped into a military history related coma or else just have no interest in reading my voluminous posts so this time we are going to deal with the modelling only. The bases. A short post...

So lets crack on...

The Basing of the Brigade...

I've been modelling the Polish for a couple of years now and whilst I may have thought a couple of years ago that my stuff was good, now I am smacked in the face with the faults of the painting and modelling every time I sort through them to have a look.

Fortunately I've had more than enough items to paint in my Polish army that I've been able to adjust what I've done until I've reached a level that I'm genuinely happy with what I'm turning out now. I think I reached that point with my Polish cavalry... I just love looking at them... mostly.

The one thing that has always got my hackles up is my bases.

I've spent years searching around and buying in stupid varieties of static flock to find a shade that I'm happy with, never having succeeded. The flock that I've used on my Poles I am convinced actually glows in the dark! (obviously I've never tested this out :D )

Until this project...

Furniture and fittings to be used to dress the bases to be made



I made the decision early on that because this was going to be my signal project for 2017 that the bases needed to be done with considerably more care and attention than my usual 'just get 'em knocked out' strategy and so because of this I started looking around and as so frequently happens with my modelling I found myself reading some stuff that Ruben (Torregrosa for those of you that don't know who he is) had put out to the community as a whole on how to go about creating bases with a little more zing.

Now his stuff is intensely insane, the amount of hours that he must put into it is a terrifying prospect to some of us out there and I just quite simply am not that patient a person. I need to see things finished if I am to stay interested in them, and so I decided that I would follow him in some areas but not in others!

I knew that I wanted my 10th Mounted Rifles based as if some of them would be fighting in Lancut and so I bought some furniture items off of Peter Pig and then sent abroad for bags of 'n scale' bricks...

These were all duly painted up in a day and made ready to apply to a certain number of bases. I should say now that even though I painted up everything I ordered I had no illusion that all of them would get used because of the extra work that those types of bases would involve.

Instead I just decided to plough on with the basing itself...

Plain old MDF bases with scored tops

So the first thing I should point out is that I immediately bin ALL Battlefront plastic bases. I much prefer working with wood. Materials grip SOOOO much better on wood AND the deeper straighter cut of the sides looks more attractive when presented properly I believe.

So the first thing to do is to take your bases, ensure they are the right way up (because these MDF bases from Tony at East Riding Miniatures generally have a slightly bevelled edge) and then score the top surface prodigiously to help provide some contouring for any of the materials you are intending sticking to the surface.

Magic Sculpt and Garden twigs used to provide some contrast and contouring on the bases

So, once the bases are all cleaned of rogue wood shavings (I just use an old stiff toothbrush to do this) the next thing to do is to provide some contouring to the bases so they don't just look like those sketchy old flat Napoleonic bases that you can see in '70's photographs of the Wargames Research Group and other such dinosaurs.

I used Magic Sculpt (one of my favourite sculptors epoxy resin) to sculpt some banks along the sides of the bases and then pushed a couple of garden twigs that I had prepared into the resin before it was set.

This was all then left to set for a couple of hours...

A layer of Tile Grout is applied.

Whilst waiting for the bases that have topographical contours to set I went to town on all the others.

My weapon of choice for basing is Tile Grout because its as cheap as chips and because of the environment that Tile Grout is designed to work in I have an unexplained belief that it can withstand more punishment than other materials you may use for basing, including being damp resistant, which in my abode is of no mean importance.

A thin layer is spread  across the base being pushed into the scores as you go, once completed the edge of the bases are tidied up by just running a wet finger along each edge to clean any excess off!

These are then left to set for a short period of maybe 10 minutes, maybe less, depending on how quickly your grout sets.

Wet brush strokes are applied to the grout

The next step to complete is the approximation of dirt road surfaces which were so prevalent across Poland in 1939. As I am modelling a Motorised Brigade I decided that these types of bases were an absolute must.

So with that in mind I decided that the best way to create this kind of surface would be to use a large old flat head brush and gently brush in the same general direction across the grouts surface to create an indication of the traffics direction of travel.

It is important to be careful about timing when you do this part. If the grout is freshly layed then the wet brush will lift most of the grout off as it goes across because grout sticks to itself REALLY well. On the other hand if you leave it too long then you may as well throw your wet brush away and dig out your chisels!

If you get it just right however you can continue to work the grout until you have a series of gentle undulations that give a good indication of general direction of travel of vehicles.

Make sure that when you finish this step that there is still some working time left in the grout as there is another step still to do.

The imprints of vehicle tires is added

Now, before we plunge in with preparing these bases there is something that you should do. I took a selection of wheels from the various vehicles that my Polish motorised troops used and put an example wheel of each pushed right into the middle of a cocktail stick.

With the grout still partially soft I was able to press the wheel into the grout and roll it along the base giving the impression of old tracks that have been left.

These bases are then left to totally dry.

Once dry the parts of the base where I want to replicate undisturbed dirt have fine sand applied to them using PVA glue and are then left overnight to dry completely.

A layer of brown is painted across the whole of the bases

The base coat of paint is now added across the whole base. This colour is REALLY important because it sets the tone for the whole base and I haven't found anything better for mass use than Vallejo's German Camo Medium Brown. I use so much of this on bases that I think I'm on bottle number 6 at the moment! :D

Doesn't matter if its really dilute so long as the whole base is covered and the colour is uniform. The more dilute the more washed out the eventual look will be which, if you like the dry and dusty look may be exactly where you want to take it...

A liberal drybrushing brings out the undisturbed dirt

The next step is to start breathing a little bit of life into the bases by working on the contrasts and set the final tone as an addition to the dominant tone (i.e the German Camo Medium Brown). This is done by using a heavy drybrush across the whole base with Vallejo's Green Ochre. Make sure you aren't applying it so heavily that you end up with paint splotches but heavy enough that there is an appreciable lightening of the base overall (although this could very well depend on your personal tastes).

This lightening will enable you to pick out the areas that you want to turn into dried mud and create the textural contrasts across the base itself.

The beginnings of the muddy track ways on the bases.

So now that we are looking at a much improved base this could be a perfect place to stop the painting stages on the base and add the flock BUT as I had a particular vision in my mind for how I wanted these to turn out I decided to go the extra mile for these ones.

The next task is to start building on the impression of dried mud tracks and pathways and this is done by firstly painting a couple of layers of AK Interactive's Dried Mud straight onto the base wherever you want bare earth to show.

This is left to dry completely although there are numerous different ways of applying this dried mud wash and numerous ways to deal with it once it is applied. This is the way that I chose to employ.

After feathering the dried mud effect the bases look much more homogenous

Once the Dried Mud wash is dry I used tradesman White Spirits to feather the dried wash into its surrounding terrain. Why do I leave the wash to dry completely before doing this? and why do I use tradesman White Spirits instead of artists white spirits?

Simple really. I use tradesman White Spirits because its harsher than artists white spirits (and I KNOW there will be plenty who disagree with this but I've had projects damaged that went perfectly when I swapped to my Daler & Rowney odourless white spirits) and when combined with the non uniform effect of the feathering that I was looking for I felt that a harsher solvent applied heavily on some of the dried areas and less heavily on others would provide what I was looking for.

In fact the overall result that I attained was to tone the whole base down and provide an effect that I was actually very satisfied with and thus retained it for all of the bases that I completed.

Anyway, once the feathering was complete the bases were once again left to dry completely before a layer of anti shine varnish is applied to the bases to seal the oil based wash and allow painting over the top.

All of the stones picked out... the devil is clearly in the detail!

Something that I stumbled across when I first started to build my various collections of 15mm armies is that the devil really is in the detail. If you get the details wrong, or omit them completely then it detracts an incredible amount from your miniatures and what they serve to represent.

Where my bases are concerned because I changed the type of sand that I was using a little while ago I noticed that there were, what amounted to, little pebbles included in it. So I decided that it would provide a great opportunity to create more contrast on the overall basing scheme and as such I decided to paint as many of them as I thought I could cope with.

I would first of all paint them in Vallejo's German Grey and then go back and pick them out with Vallejo's Neutral Grey.

The very last stage to make sure you have done to polish your bases off is to make sure that you tidy up the edges of the bases to make them presentable. Paint them in whichever colours you wish, Brown, green , red, yellow, pink or blue!

Me; I use Games Workshops Chaos Black for the simple reasons that its a relatively thick paint that provides good coverage and a lack of transparency and has a somewhat satin feel to it once it is dry.

Another layer of varnish is applied to the bases in order to seal everything before the flock is applied.

The bases after the final stage of flocking

The final stage on my basing is the flocking and I have to admit that flocking has proven quite a problem to me for years.

I have never found a flock that I have been satisfied with, and by now I think I have bought in the region of 30 something different colours. The greens are always just a bit too intense with too much regularity of colour and the sun bleached colours are just tooooooooo bleached... and of course I could never find something in the middle!

Eventually something so unbelievably obvious struck me... why don't I mix my own from the widely varying shades and lengths that I have in my possession?

I mixed about 60% of my 4mm sun bleached fibres with about 40% of my spring 2mm fibres and I essentially just added different volumes until I was satisfied with the colour cast that I had achieved.

Once I had mixed up a batch large enough I found a container to store them in and then turned to the bases.

On each of the bases I applied PVA glue to the 'undisturbed' areas of dirt that I decided I wanted covered with grass and then using my static flock applicator I liberally poured the flock onto the bases.

Once I felt that there was enough on the bases I tapped the excess off and left them to one side to dry

Bosh! Job done.... and not a bayonet in sight!

Flames of War: Polish Cavalry - The Dismounted Elements

After my last post, outlining the sum total of all of my mounted Polish Cavalry elements I thought it would be a great idea for my next post (i.e this one for those that struggle with inference) to be one that covers all of my dismounted elements for my Flames of War 19th Volhynian Uhlans... Not just the Dismounted Infantry and Horse Holders  in one post and Artillery and Anti Tank pieces in another! No! All together in one post... and all completed by the end of play 2016!

What I didn't realise when I started out on this epic slog was that I was, in point of fact, being an absolute clown shoe!

27 pots of paint, 2 spray cans of Varnish, 4 destroyed paintbrushes, 3 rolls of toilet roll (no comment!), a box of sand, bottomless pots of tea and a conveyor belt of coffee... and of course she who must be obeyed being deported to Poland for the duration and 7 looooooooooong weeks later; I have finally crossed the finishing line!

Thank God!

2016 is done and I have a clean sheet for new projects going into 2017.

So there isn't much to say with regards to the painting as the colours for the Polish cavalry uniforms are the same as for the infantry so I'll just get straight into it all.

The Horse Holders

These are all Forged in Battle Miniatures and whilst I don't think the horses themselves are as good as the True North miniatures they are a country mile ahead of Battlefronts pathetic attempts. The handlers themselves are also well cut and take paint well.

I have done a base for each of my mounted cavalry sections.

The Dismounted Uhlan Companies

The meat and gravy of any Polish Cavalry army for Flames of War. Absolutely hard core troops rated as Fearless Veteran! The best in the game. Dig these guys in and your opponents will need to call in Balfour Beatty to dig them out of your table again. Not particularly hard hitting, as they are only rifle teams BUT each platoon is accompanied by its own anti tank rifle team which in 1939 is not as much of a joke as you may think, especially as the Polish wz.35 'Ur' anti material rifle was a lot better than anybody elses at the start of the war.

These miniatures are predominantly Forged in Battle Miniatures although unfortunately FiB do not provide anti tank rifles for the Polish cavalry range and so these are provided by the excellent Polish range from True North Miniatures owned by Old Glory UK. The reason I chose FiB for the majority of my Dismounted Uhlans is principally because of the sculpts  which include some absolutely beautiful miniatures such as those firing their carbines. The only down side that I ever see from FiB is evidence of mould deterioration with some of the faces being very indistinct.

The True North Miniatures are my favourite overall choice because the sculpts are of a high enough standard, and in any case streets ahead of market leaders Battlefront Miniatures. They lend themselves to conversions well and are sculpted with enough depth that they take paint well enough to disguise any shortcomings... and of course a range of miniatures that is more wide ranging than anybody else for the Polish. The shortcomings being occasional inaccuracies of uniforms and very low quality vehicles sculpts.

I am, if nothing else, really fussy about the quality of the miniature that I will use in an army I choose to model. If there are alternatives I will ALWAYS choose the quality option. 

Heavy Machine Gun Platoon

As the rest of the boots on ground are only rifle teams the Heavy Machine Gun platoon provides some heavier firepower which when dug in is pretty much immovable!

There isn't anybody worth considering, other than True North miniatures who produces Polish Cavalry Heavy Machine Guns,  although I believe Alex (of Anatoli's Games Room) has used FiB French Heavy Machine Guns to represent them. As I have ordered plenty of stuff from True North however and liking their miniatures I decided to go ahead and order my heavy machine guns from them.

These do exactly as they say on the tin.

Dismounted Cavalry Anti Tank Platoon

In the Polish army of 1939 the anti tank workhorse was the excellent Swedish designed Bofors 37mm anti tank gun designated wz.36 37mm AT. Poland had license to produce these in country and was able to turn out quite a few before the war started and provided its thirteen cavalry brigades with a far above average ratio. The individual platoons was also provided for to a greater degree  with each platoon having two sections of two guns.

A wz.36 with cavalry crew set up and ready to pour it on!

A trained crew could fire 12 aimed rounds a minute from one of these and penetrate up to 40mm of armour at 300 metres at anything up to 60 degrees. Not to be sneezed at as in the German and Soviet armies of 1939 not a single armoured vehicle in their arsenals carried more than this. At just under a mile away this gun could still penetrate about 15mm of armour plating under ideal conditions.

Guns and crew are provided by True North miniatures again whilst on the command base the guy waving is a Forged in Battle miniature whilst the other two are also True North.

Now, the horse limbers are provided by Battlefront Miniature and took me about a year to get a hold of. As you can see, if you compare the quality of the horses next to horses provided by True North or even FiB you can see that the Battlefront horses are of a far FAR lower quality... however, at least they aren't so bad that the paint peels off of them in an effort to get away.

You can see the small pneumatic tyres provided on the limber in this photograph

The limbers themselves have had some small modifications to make them more in line with Polish cavalry AT gun limbers. Quite simply the wheels were replaced with small pneumatic tyres which I had spare from previous 37mm AT gun models from True North.

The limber crewman didn't need much work as the uniform that they are sculpted with are very nondescript but instead I limited myself to some head swaps and filing the puttees until they looked like full cavalry boots.

Bosh! Job done!

Horse Artillery Battery

These were considered the cream of the crop in a Polish army. Poland did not have ANY elite troops in 1939. The Cavalry and the Mountain Infantry were considered the best along with a limited number of the Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza (KOP - Border Protection Corp) battalions that had been well provided for. Within the Cavalry however the tradition of the Horse Artillery was maintained. They were the hardest trained and the highest skilled.

Following the surrender of the Soviet Union to Poland in 1921 Poland was left with a healthy amount of artillery pieces. There were more than a few 3" Putilov's (the ubiquitous 'Orthodox's') available and so the Polish rechambered them from 76.2mm to 75mm Polish ammunition and handed to thecavalry.

A Polish 75mm showing how the caisson would be set up next to it for easy access to ammunition

One of my pet hates about Battlefront miniatures is that their ranges are rife with incorrect provisions for the troop types in question and being pointed towards using incorrect miniatures to represent something gets me a little hot under the collar! Because Battlefronts artillery are all for Piechoty (Infantry) with even the guns being the incorrect versions, let alone infantry being called upon to represent cavalry I decided I needed to go my own way again.

A Polish 75mm showing how it would be limbered and drawn

True Norths 75mm's are badly sculpted so I needed another option and I found it in Peter Pigs World War 1 Russian range. By happy coincidence I also decided to utilise some other pieces from Peter Pigs ranges, such as the Sign Post on the mounted spotter base and the table, chairs and periscope on the Staff Team base.

The artillery, command, staff and spotter crews are all provided from True North Miniatures again. 

The mounted spotter had a slight conversion done on him to provide myself with a mounted spotting team. I took a mounted cavalry officer and removed his sword arm. I took a kneeling officer with binoculars and shaved his right arm away from his body keeping his binoculars in hand and removing the left hand from them. This right arm was then drilled and pinned onto the body of the mounted officer.

Personally, I like what I came up with!

...and there you have it! My completed Pulk Kawalerii! Of course there are other elements that the Polish cavalry in Flames of War can field such as Reconnaissance tank platoons and armoured car platoons, along with Motorised Anti Aircraft batteries as well as Infantry and KOP companies and Light Gun and Howitzer batteries from Infantry Divisions. All of these have already been painted previously... as the following photos of my completed army demonstrate! :D

The only thing left to do for Polish Cavalry which I am unlikely ever to field is a dismounted cyclist company, although they could make for an interesting modelling project at some point having tracked down a single photograph of a dismounted cyclist section on exercise and I reckon I could knock them up without much bother... but that's for another time I think!

Dismounted Cavalry Cyclist section. Uniforms are identical to mounted cavalry even down to the spurs!

Fix Bayonets!