Basing, part 4

For the basing I like square 1.5 inch bases from www.litko.net GMB109H. After the miniatures dry from glueing them with pva. I use School Elmers to attach grout sand to the whole base. I think I paid $5 for a one pound bag 10 years ago. The beauty of the grout sand is how fine it is right out of the bag. There's no sifting required.

When that drys I make a wash of brown craft paint. The paint gets absorbed into the sand and wood.  

Then after that drys I get the school glue out again to fasten the static grass from Woodland Scenics and Gail Force 9. My recipe is to first put a dark green grass down and then a spring mix on top. The dark green gives a little shadow and the spring mix pops. The next step is to add the coconut grit.

The final step is to paint the rim of the base Wedgewood green. And I'm done.
 

Varnished and ready for mounting, part 3

 I used some Scale 75 Instant Colors for the back pack, bed roll and water bottle. And I did some highlights with some acrylics. Then finished with a matte varnish. Next I'll mount them to their stands and finish them.

Speed Paint base coats part 2

 

So far I've only used my new Speed Paints.

Priming and dry brushing the under coat

 I have become a fan of "Slap Chop" under coating my miniatures. I've always primed in black anyway. Now I have added two coats of dry brushing before using a Speed Paint or Contrast style paint. In my version, I like to use a majority color as the middle coat instead of grey. For these French I used a blue. 

The next step will be priming the skin areas in Vallejo light flesh.