The team over at Warlord Games Wigan have been hard at work – not just with making sure our first store outside of Nottingham is running smoothly, but on their own hobby projects too! We spotted Wigan staffer Tom’s fantastic Axis collection on a recent supply run to the shop, kidnapped it for a photoshoot at HQ, and made him tell us all about it. It’s a hard old life for the gang up North!
TR – I chose Konflikt ’47 as my first project to work on because I enjoy the combination of the science fiction and World War II aesthetics, as well as its lore. When it came to picking my first army, the Axis immediately won me over because of the variety within their model range. They’re an army I feel I could never get bored painting! One day I can be working on large, power-armoured Stahltruppen, and the next I can switch to something completely different and paint the grisly undead Totenkorps.
When choosing my colour scheme, I wanted to go with something different from the traditional box art. I decided on an almost bone-like armour colour, contrasted with bold red stripes and red helmets across the infantry. The scheme was incredibly quick to do; in fact, I managed to paint the entire army in just a single day! (Now that’s just showing off… -ed.) To achieve this effect quickly and efficiently, I utilised speed paints and heavy drybrushing techniques, which allowed me to get great depth and contrast without spending hours on every model.
To achieve the armour tone, I first primed all the models using Colour Forge Wight Bone, followed by a base coat of Army Painter Pallid Bone over the entire miniature. Once it was fully dry, I did a heavy drybrush of AK Interactive Buff across the model, purposefully leaving the darker Pallid Bone visible in the harder-to-reach recesses.
For an extra highlight, you can mix a small amount of white paint into the Buff and apply a much lighter drybrush to really make the raised edges pop. The red markings are incredibly simple to achieve; I painted red lines across the chosen armour panels, not worrying about perfectly straight lines because any imperfections are easily masked by weathering.
To create a realistic chipping effect, I took a small piece of foam from a blister pack, dipped it into the AK Interactive Buff, and dabbed most of it off on some kitchen roll. Lightly stippling this over the red stripes instantly creates a weathered, battle-worn look while perfectly hiding any wobbly brushwork.
For the basing, I used AK Interactive Terrain Dark Earth to give the miniatures a realistic, gritty foundation. Once completely dry, I drybrushed the texture with AK Interactive Buff to make all the earth details pop. Finally, I used a variety of Army Painter tufts to break up the earth tones and add some great spots of realistic colour across the army’s bases.
Since finishing this initial force, I have more than doubled the size of my Axis army! I have painted up a lot more Totenkorps and Stahltruppen, and I have just finished working on Hauptmann Heinrich Gross and his retinue. Looking ahead, I plan to add the behemoth Wotan walker with its devastating Schienenkanone to the roster in the near future. Sounds like we’ll need to get another photoshoot sorted! -ed.
Has Tom’s force got you inspired to join the ranks of the Green Vault?
