Army Painter dip and Bank Robbers

At our Christmas meeting we traditionally play one game that all members can take part in, nothing too serious. You may remember that last year we played a Zombie game, kindly provided and run by Clint, where each member had to get their character out of a zombie filled underground car park...and how I was stitched up by my fellow members and was left to be eaten alive. Gits.

Anyway, this year I have arranged a western gunfight using the under utilised rule set 'Wanted: Dead or Alive', by Over the Wire Games. This is a simple little game but one that generates a lot of fun. It is played by using a set of playing cards, each player is dealt a hand and can only move or shoot etc according to the cards he has been dealt. Clubs are for moving, spades are for shooting, hearts are for defence against shooting and diamonds are for stealing turns from other players...this part is another cause of 'fun', usually as I get ganged up on and my turn stolen each time to much hilarity all round. Gits.

I will post soon about how this game goes, I have added a few surprises to make the game more festive and of course and everyone will have the now traditional Christmas cracker with wargamey gift. I sit up all night before the meeting making these with my own two hands 'cos I am such a nice club chairman and not a git...although Mrs. Wargamerson will no doubt have a view here. We have some nice new buildings for this game too from Sarissa, very neat models and well worth the money! http://www.sarissa-precision.co.uk/store/oldwestHR/

Pic taken from the Sarissa website, figures not mine either but you get the idea.

Anyway, I digress.

I only have a few western gunfight figures, some that came with the rule set when my son bought it many years ago. We painted these up together, as a father and young son (Anthony Leofwineson) should and very enjoyable it was too. Then he grew up and discovered skateboards, girls and cars of course. So some of the figures stayed with me and have done duty at the times when we at the club have played this game but, I thought it time I got a few of my own...so I didn't feel so guilty using his. I bought the Bank Robber pack from Artizan Designs, three nice figures for about a fiver. http://www.artizandesigns.com/

I set about painting these in my usual way, neat block colours, in readiness to apply my Strong Tone Army Painter dip. But then I stopped. These western figures would be quite dusty...unless it was raining of course but lets try and keep this post sensible...the dip would not really give that impression at all. I have previously experimented with highlighting the darkest colours, especially black, prior to applying dip with some success and so I thought I would try something new; at least new to me, I am sure others have tried this too. Once I had finished painting the three figures I dry brushed them all with Games Workshop 'Bleached Bone, a little at a time gradually building the effect where I thought it needed it. The trick here is knowing when to stop of course and with my colour blindness issues that can be a problem; I can't see the highlight at all on certain colours and shades! Once I was happy with the result I left them to dry out fully over night, always a good thing if you are going to apply a dip or even varnish. The paint, whilst touch dry, remains porous and you will get a very different result if you dip straight away; it sort of stains colours rather than coat them. I was tempted to leave them as they were to be honest, I was very pleased with the result so far, but I knew that the dip would give them that extra something....so I did, and here is the result.

OK, not exactly award winning I know but, given the simplicity of the paint job...and the fact that I only took a few hours to complete these from start to finish (albeit over two days) I am very pleased with the results. Once again, I was able to paint on the Army Painter Anti Shine varnish within a few hours of the dip becoming touch dry, a massive time saver and a highly recommended product. For me the mix of highlight and dip has worked well and given me the overall look I was after. Another result for the Army Painter Dip party I think!