Macro photography

I got a new camera. Its an Olympus SLR E420. Not leading edge, but certainly beyond my photographic talents and a step up from point and click digital cameras. Having said that, I got bored reading the instruction manual, and decided to do some point and click close-ups.

What I've learned is:

• I still have a lot to learn about photography
• macro photography can give great detail - which can be quite unforgiving to basic paint jobs

Be warned, some of the pictures below are very close-up for 28mm.

Quickshade Soft tone versus Dark tone

I decided to have a dabble with the Army Painter Quickshade products. I chose "Soft Tone" and "Dark Tone" (at £18 for each!). After checking various websites for examples of miniatures painted using Quickshade, I came to the conclusion that the Soft tone would not be effective on dark colours. So I painted up 4 Empire Pike men in very bright colours as test models. Basically this went something like:

• White undercoat.
  
• yellow & green for the tunic/pants.
• brown for the pike shaft, boots, straps.
• Chain mail for the breastplate, helmets, pike point.
• Elf flesh for skin.

I used very bright Bilious Green and 2 slightly different yellows (John Inman Lemon and Freddy Mercury Sunburst I think). After this I applied Dark tone to 2 of the models and Soft tone to the other 2. I used a brush to apply the QuickShade (I'll post another article about the "dipping" method). I'll let others judge the results from the above pictures. What I learned was:

• Apply good coats of base colour as the quick shade will show up weak coverage.
• Quickshade darkens everything, so use brighter/lighter colours.
• You need to brush away excessive pools of Quickshade that form on the model.
  
• Thin Quickshade with turps or white spirit - NOT Water.

Overall I think the Dark Tone is the better shade, although the Soft Tone will take the edge off flat areas of bright colour. Dark Tone exaggerates recessed detail - not a bad thing for miniatures (especially for cartoon/Manga stuff). QuickShade is definitely good for painting up large lots of rank and file troops to gaming table standard.

Voland's Venators

I've just put a rare Dogs of War set of 8 voland's Venators on Ebay. These are new and have been sealed since purchase many years ago. There are 8 different models including Voland, musician and Standard bearer, with extra lances if an all-lance regiment is desired.

Further details on the auction: click here

The Empire strikes back

I don't actually have or play a WHFB Empire army, but I painted these 4 gunners for use in Mordheim and skirmish games. Being part of a mercenary warband also gave me the option of painting them in any colours I fancied trying (I'm not a bad painter - just a lazy and non-disciplined one!).

Due to a) words having a different meaning these days, b) I live too near to Brighton, and c) I am terrified of saying something politically non-correct.....I would describe these colours as "bright and merry". My next paint job will be something a bit more butch like storm troopers or space marines (i.e. no long boots, no panteloons, no blousons, no feathered hats etc).