Wednesday, 6 May 2026

Frankly it's a Washout! Basecoat, Wash, Highlight Frankish Experiment

As mentioned recently in my Middle Imperial Roman Speed Painting/Wash Experiments article I'm attempting to speed up my painting, withy minimal loss of quality. This is purely to start to colour in the mahoosive amount of metal I have sitting about and get it onto the tabletop! Whilst I'm not 100% happy with the Middle Imperial Roman Speed Painting/Wash Experiments I reckon with some refinement, the wash can be made to be less garish and a lot more subtle. I managed to put together a completely different wash mix for the Franks (barring the armoured ones just below which were speed painted 20 years ago!) and I'm much happier with the results. There's a slight tincture of one particular colour in the eash, see if you can tell what it is. 

I promise I'll go into more detail about the mix of washes, Speedpaint Medium and Contrast Medium/Lahmian medium plus Army Painter Tones etc at a later date. I would much rather do this when I have the nailed wash/medium/tone mixes than talk everyone through every experiment I attempt!  I'm much more settled on a formula or formulas I have used here than the Middle imperial Roman experiments, which work on various amount of armour, different hues and saturation of colour. Possibly not so on the Franks ergo the change in formula! :>)

For comparison; Two Quickly Painted 20 Years Ago




The New Wash Mix




The New Wash Mix




I think this version of the wash has come out subtle enough to allow the second coat of paint, exactly the same as the basecoat, to fit with the original plus the wash without there being too much of a contrast. The technique is literally, basecoat, wash the whole miniatures (try not to let the wash settle in pools), use the basecoat again to highlight. Possibly touch up a few areas of the miniatures by "tagging" the extremities of any raised areas by adding VMC Ivory or VMC Off White to the basecoat. That is really it. 

Here are some (hopefully!) more or less actual size images:






More to come including, as promised, a full tutorial.

Tuesday, 5 May 2026

Wargames/History Books For Sale May 2026

I have the following books for sale. If you're interested please contact me via the contact form on the right hand side of the blog (from PC view). 

Or you can email me at: swartzemilch AT gmail DOT com

Beneath the Lilly Banners Second Edition Wargames Rules for 1660-1721, Barry Hilton

£20- PENDING


The Great War, Warhammer Historical

£30- PENDING


Bonnie Blue Flag, Fast Play ACW Rules, Kevin Calder

£5


Never Greater Slaughter, The Battle of Brunanburh and the Birth of England, Michael Livingston

£15


The Tudor Art of Warre, Volume 1, The conduct of War from Henry VII to Mary 1st.

£17


Roman Legionary vs Carthaginian Warrior, combat. Osprey.

£5


The Colonial New Zealand Wars, An Illustrated History with Colour Plates, Tim Ryan, Bill Parhan

£45

Friday, 1 May 2026

Reading list- Currently Re-Reading Battles of the Dark Ages, Peter Marren, 2006

Currently digging into Battles of the Dark Ages, Peter Marren this after seeing Dave and Neil's game of Dux Britanniarum being set up at the club! First read when it was published in 2006..... and man, yeah, that is 20 years ago! Ouch!