New project, new period - WW1

I've been intending to do a WW1 project for years. I bought the Warhammer Great War and Through the Mud and the Blood rules when they came out, picked up reference books and costed out various options. But as with many projects it never got past the planning stage. 

Last year I was very close, read a good few books, looked at my reference material but started a Barbarossa project instead. Earlier this year I finally got round to reading my copy of  Alistair Horne's classic The Price of Glory about Verdun and was determined to start but I couldn't decide on the figure or game scale, or rules, so the project was postponed. Then I saw that Wargames Atlantic  were soon to release a set of plastic WW1 French that looked as good as their German Stormtrooper set. Decision made.

Starting with the Germans I decided not to buy a box of Stormtroopers but opted for 3 separate frames. Getting these from SGS Models they worked out slightly cheaper each frame than if I'd got the box. But the main reason for doing it this way was that I'd looked at pictures of the frame and there wasn't a lot of variety for rifleman arms. And I didn't want them to all look the same. 

When the frames came (along with a Warlord Games WW2 Winter German one, more on that another time), I was very pleased. Nice proportions and cleanly moulded with little flash, good selection of heads and easy to assemble. My only criticism was the slightly odd deltoid development of the figures which has been noted in other reviews.

Assembly was straightforward enough although there was no guide, so it was trial and error what arms best fitted each body. Where appropriate I did a little shoulder reduction and I also added slightly longer epaulets with Green Stuff which helped to balance these out.

The figures were based on 2ps courtesy of my Dad, who had been hoarding them as he couldn't be bothered to take them to the bank. Thanks Dad, I'm set up for a good few projects now. I prefer basing plastics on 2ps as it gives a bit of heft and stability to the figures and are a lot cheaper than buying the MDFs bases which I find perplexing but is that just me?. 

Here's the steps of how I completed the figures :

1. Primed in Humbrol 75 Bronze Green. This also served as the basecoat.
2. Heavy drybrush of VMC German Field Grey mixed with AP Ash Grey in an approximate 60/40 ratio. 
3. Skin and rifles basecoated with Citadel Foundation Calthan Brown.
4. Wash of AP Dark, Light, Strong Tones in an approximate equal mix of each with a touch of VGC  Blue ink over the uniforms and rifles.
5. Skin was given a first coat of Citadel Tallarn Flesh 
6. At this point I added a layer of cheap household filler onto the bases to the level of the figures' integral bases. 
7. All leather items painted either VMC Leather Brown or VMC Black. 
8. All metal items painted VMC Black.
9. Skin washed with mix of VGC Dwarf Skin, VGC Flesh Ink, Citadel Flesh Wash, VMC Glaze Wash and water. This was done ad- hoc I'm not sure of the ratios.
10. Breadbags painted approximate 50/50 mix of VMC Green Ochre and VMC Green Grey.
11. Water bottles, hafts of entrenching tools and handles of stick grenades painted VMC US Field Drab
12. Helmets and heads of stick grenades painted VMC German Grey Black.
13. Breadbags and water bottles washed with AP Soft Tone.
14. Hafts of entrenching tools and handles of stick grenades washed with AP Light Tone. 
15. Helmets and heads of stick grenades, brown leather items washed with AP Dark Tone.
16. Helmet straps pained VMC Black.
17. Skin areas lightly highlighted with VGC Dwarf Skin and VGC Elf Skin approximate 75/25 mix.
18. Added layer of Vallejo Earth Texture Dark Earth to bases and lightly to figures' boots.
19. Drybrush entire figure in Citadel Foundation Khemri Brown. This gave a grubby highlight to everything and I think worked really well.
20. Bayonets painted VGC Gunmetal
21. Bases drybrushed with Citadel Foundation Khemri Brown and AP Ash Grey mix approximately 60/40.
22. Final drybrush of bases with VGC Dead White added to the mix of stage 21.
23. Base edges painted VMC German C. Black Brown.
24. Varnish with three coats of AP Anti-shine Matt mixed 50/50 with water.

From priming to completion took about 5 days, but I didn't spend more than a couple of hours a day on them, somedays even less. I tried to do an area or item, move onto another while that dried and then I could wash the previous area/item while the one I'd just done dried. The warmer weather helped with this to a point but I can't paint during certain times of the day, as it's too hot in the room where my painting table is. 

I was very pleased with the grubby look of the figures, recalling what was said about the state of the frontline soldiers when they were at Verdun. It gives them a lot of character.

Overall the worst part was the assembly and trying to make them look different with the limited selection of arms. I'm not too happy with a couple of the poses. But there's no duplicate figures, all of the bodies have different heads and arm combinations and differ in their equipment. 

I now need to do the third sprue but these will be officers and NCOs so I can add a bit variety. The time taken to document what I did will pay dividends when I paint the subsequent batches and speed this up.