Thursday 30 September 2010

Green, green or green?

 Guess...it's all about paint,  green paint.

I was searching for a "classic" basing colour. As I don't have a store selling Dulux "Moss Green" in the neighbourhood, I compared following paints I had in the cupboard: Old GW Goblin Green (hexagon pots), New GW Goblin Green and a mat acryl mix from the paint store. I want both figure bases and base plates to be the same colour, which should also be the table colour.
-Top picture with colours automatically enhanced, lower picture as scanned.-

In reality (as above pictures distort the colours somewhat) the Levis mix really is  a good slightly olive green, just a touch lighter of tone than both GW greens and a shade just in between those two. I think I'll go for the Levis paint mix as I can have lots of it made cheaply, and I still have much of it left after making a wargames table for the boys' Warhammer armies (years ago). Also the Levis paint is finely grained/pigmented enough to paint the miniatures bases. Just add a tiny drop of washing up liquid to the water you dilute the paint with, just to break the surface tension.

Also, for the moment I'm not posting that much (yeah, thanks Pjotr, we didn't notice that, duh...). And the hobby time I have left I'd rather spend painting and modelling, so that in due time I can start presenting proper finished units and start developing the DDU story and commence other projects and...and...(I'm getting that 36 hour watch for X- Mas.

Anyway , next post will be the presentation of some new links I've started incorporating in the Chronicles. As always: remarks, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Happy gaming,
Pjotr


5 comments:

  1. My thoughts on table/basing green are these . . . first you don't want one that is too dark (or darker figures won't show up well against it) . . . second, you don't want one that is too "eye-catching"; after all, your table/basing color is the BACKGROUND against which your lovingly painted miniatures will show up against.

    Given the differences between the above paint samples, I can't really tell which I would prefer . . . but what I'd prefer doesn't matter; it is whatever YOU like.

    However, the ability to get more of the same color inexpensively is a big plus!


    -- Jeff

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  2. Given a choice of green, green or green, I'd probably go with green. Your Levis paint looks fairly similar to the local pasture lands in spring, It is also looks to be a fair match for a colour called Hauser Medium Green which I picked up because of the Hauser part of name but which matches the latex paint I put on my table. The only variation I had done is to dry brush both table and bases with a light green to break up unnatural monotone while still matching each other. It is probably not a coincidence that my brother's childhood O guage train set used this technique mumble years ago.

    Doing is definitely a better use of time than blogging when there isn't time for both,
    -Ross

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  3. If you are doing unflocked bases, I think there is a lot to be said for buying a tin of household emulsion (i.e. wall) paint in a shade which you like and which can be obtained again in the future, and then paint bases, figure bases and baseboard all with the same paint. It seems a bit crude to paint the bases of the actual figures with decorating paint, but I've been doing it for years and have had no problems - in fact my soldiers look far better than my walls...

    The other advantage of household paint is that it is cheap, especially if you buy it in 250ml sampler pots, and you will certainly have a local make which offers a "colour-match" service from your local DiY store.

    Tony

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  4. New GW Goblin Green-too dark.
    Old GW Goblin Green-well even if it was spot on, new stock would be hard to find.
    I think you have made the right choice-it looks Old School enough to look good and you can buy it in the quantities you need.

    Matt

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  5. Choice of shade is entirely up to you, but, looking at your colours again, I think they are maybe all too dark. Actual lawn grass is not anything like as dark as that, and rougher country gets even paler, with dead patches and scrub.

    Pale, natural, not-very-vivid greens give two extra advantages - they show off the uniform colours nicely, and, if you paint them on the wargames table, they don't darken the battlefield. My first attempt at painting my wargames table (in about 49BC) was with a shade a little darker than your New GW shade - and we had to put a 200w bulb in the lamp to see what we were doing - it REALLY made the place gloomy.

    Main thing is - it depends what you like!

    Regards

    Tony

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