Painting uniforms

7 December 2016 2 Re.

I obtained a nice feedback from the “philosophical” article I posted regarding how to paint mounted units; where instead of discussing technical issues (or “how to paint…”), I paid more attention on the question mark “why”: why we do what we do. In my opinion, painting miniatures for wargames is not only about the painting, but it is also about telling a story. And these stories might be based on the (military) history; something that is real. And therefore, we can try to reflect this reality in our tiny armies. And in this post I would like to discuss some…

Painting mounted units

31 August 2016 No re.

I hate painting horses. It is a fact. It is repetitive and monotonous. And I have never found it fun. However, here I am; I continue painting horses (at least another almost forty for my Thirty Years War army…). And I am not going to stop because although I hate painting horses, mounted units are very impressive, aren´t they? Somehow, I would like to share with you some tips I have learnt after painting several mounted units, although I have to concede that some of them are personal opinions. But you will agree with me that is not the same…

Painting Wargame Tanks 2nd Edition

11 July 2016 No re.

I am so happy to see that many people found interesting my book about painting 15mm (1:100) tanks and edited by AMMO of Mig Jiménez, so that a second edition has been published. Therefore, if you didn’t have the chance to buy your own copy, do it now! In the book you can go through nine painting guides from a basic level to more skilled techniques. Everything you need to paint your tiny tanks! You can find a review in the following post.   And what is next? Take a look at this sneak preview 🙂

How to paint Afrika Korps vehicles

30 December 2015 2 Re.

After painting two infantry platoons of Deutsche Afrika Korps for my brother, I have painted two vehicles units: three tank hunters Diana and two recon Sdkfz 232 8 rad. I wonder when he is going to start painting the rest of his army! Anyways, I wanted to share with you this simple painting guide to simulate the classical chipping effect on DAK vehicles using an easy technique. When I have a vehicle platoon in my hands, I always try to avoid the repetition and monotony. That is, whether I have three vehicles in the platoon, I will add different elements…

PaintingWAR: Spanish Civil War

6 December 2015 No re.

Once again I am pretty happy to announce a new book: PaintingWAR: Spanish Civil War. Thanks to the Editor, Quino, and the co-workers (Rafa, Pepe, Nacho and so on) for this new oportunity. If you don’t know the line of books PaintingWAR from Proyecto Cruz, you are missing a very nice source of information. There are foor published books so far, every one focused on an army and war time (WWII and Napolonic Wars at the moment). I have the honor to sign the fifth book of the series, centred on the Spanish Civil War, and covering both the Nationalist…

Mud splatter effects in 15mm

25 October 2015 No re.

While I am working on different projects, such as the new PaintingWar book focused on the Spanish Civil War, I have no time to prepare any tutorial for my blog. It is a pity. Nonetheless, you can follow my work in www.ModelBrush.com, a blog which I run with some friends. Strikingly, I have found an abandoned painting guide in my computer (that is, unpublished) and I would like to exploit it, starting by this “mud splatter effects in 15mm” tutorial. A very simple but very effective weathering effect. I have already commented this effect several time in my blog, but…

How to paint Thirty Years War artillery (1618-1648)

22 June 2015 3 Re.

The WW2 has dominated my desk for…several years! And you have probably noticed that the last entries in my blog were focused exclusively in this period (but the last one is about the SCW). However, I want to bring back today my second preferred historical period: the Modern era. I mean, the era dominated by the pikes, black powder and religion wars (sadly this is not so different from our current “modern era”). And the main reason is that a new 15mm brand has appeared: Totentanz Miniatures, which has totally captured my hearth! The second reason is a new rulebook…

Spanish Civil War – How to paint a Spanish rural house

28 March 2015 No re.

My last post was four months ago. Apologies. I’m still alive in the north! Indeed now I can say that I’ve seen the northern lights. I’ve achieved one of my dreams! Anyway, I have been painting a lot during this time. Different projects have occupied my free time. And probably the most important one is a new PaintingWar magazine focused on the Spanish Civil War (it has just released the issue 3 about the WWII US and Japanese armies, yopu can see here). The painting work and texts have been already sent, so in the following months it should be…

Working with the terrain I

14 September 2014 No re.

There are many ways to represent the sand base in our models or dioramas. We can just fix modeling sand with white glue and then paint it, we can use ready-to-use products, we can sculpt the texture, etc. In this post I want to explain another simple way using sands and clays from nature. You can find more information about how I preprared the vignete in the last issue of Wargames: Soldiers&Strategy. This way is not the best or the worst, it is just another way. I like it because I don’t have to paint the sand and therefore I…

Decals, transfer and stencils

10 May 2014 1 Re.

Decals, transfer or stencils? Nowadays we have different possibilities when we want to put the Balkan cross in a Panzer IV, or the allied start in a Sherman. However, decals for vehicles are dominating the Wargames, thanks to games such as Flames of War or Bolt Action. But in large scales we can find other options, like transfer or stencils, and we can also use them for our 15mm models. Decals and transfer are too similar -a printed film above a paper-, but the application is different. Using decals, we wet the paper in first place, and when the decal…