Inspiration
When ever I get in the objective building mood it usually starts with inspiration from some source. Inspiration can come from a variety of places. Battlefront did a Secret Santa a while back where staff built objectives from scratch. All of them turned out great and clearly each member of the staff drew on a different source for their inspiration. This included Hell Boy, a damsel in distress, Pimp my Ride, and a trip to the beach. The Battlefront article shows that objectives don't have to be serious all the time, you can really be creative and have fun with them as well. Here is another gallery of custom objectives I found online which are unique.
For todays drew my inspiration from, surprise surprise, Stalingrad. Specifically civilians trying to navigate the ruins. When I build my objectives I like them to look like they are part of the terrain and having civilians trying to make their way through the rubble add life to a ruined city fight. I am going to call this one "Escape from Stalingrad".
Resources
Like many of you I have boxes of bits laying around my hobby room. I frequently access these bits when tinkering with models and when building my objectives. Objectives are a great way to use up all those extra goodies you get when you purchase miniatures. Especially Battlefront who is really good about having lots of extra stuff in their boxes and blisters.
When I built those Greek Refugee objectives I had purchased a bunch of civilians from Peter Pig and had some left over so I will be using the figures up for this objective. I also had a bunch of loose Soviet troops. I am going to add one to the objective as a guide/ protector for the civilians. We are going to top that off with a couple random barrels from Baueda's WWII Accessories Range and other odds that I have laying around.
List:
Soviet Soldier - Battlefront
Dead Soldier- Battlefront
Tire- Battlefront
Civilians and Dog- Peter PigBarrels and Creates- Beauda
Eraser- Wife's Pencil Box (can easily be swiped from your kids pencil box as well)
Glue
Water
Super Glue
Hobby Knife
Large Base
Paint
Ballast
Put it Together
Once you gather your parts you need to start putting your objective together. I always stage my pieces before I start gluing them down to make sure everything will fit and look presentable once it is permanently fixed to the large base with my glue.
I want to give this objective the feel of Stalingrad so I have positioned the barrels, eraser chunks (which will become mounds of rubble) and the dead Soviet soldier to make a path that weaves through the base. I use a super glue that has a quick drying agent you spray on (zip kick). I love it because I don't have to hold piece together very long, but it is a little greasy so I have to let everything dry for about 30 minutes before I can add ballast to the base with white glue. Additionally some people like to wash their models before priming. I personally do not do this. I have never had any problems with not washing my figures other than occasionally needing to do a second prime coat, but that it rare. If you prefer washing your figures though now would be the time to do it.
Once everything is dry I mix white glue (3 parts) with water (1 part) and apply it to the base and around the figures then sink the bases into a mixture of ballast. I add the water because it makes it easier to spread the glue around and prevent it from being thick and globby, which can result in the glue inadvertently getting on the figures.
After that dries I go over all the ballast with another glue (1 part) water (1part) mixture. I dilute this one even more because to help it spread over and in all the nooks and crannies of the ballast. Once the glue dries it will seal all the ballast in and prevent it from flaking off and shedding in the future.
Paint It
Now that the Objective is assembled its time to paint it. I am going to prime the objective black and then paint it to match my Stalingrad themed armies, but I am not going to paint the base at this point.
Once all the figures and pieces are painted I am going to dip the whole objective with Dark Tone Quick Shade Dip from Warlord's Army Painter Quick Shade product line. I don't actually dip my figures in the quick shade, I apply it in small amounts using a brush. Once done make sure you rinse your brush with Mineral Spirits, which you can get at any good hardware store. Water and soap does not work and you will be throwing out your brush in the morning.
Army Painters Quick Shade takes twelve to eighteen hours to dry so I am any going to wash my hands and go to bed.
Once everything is dry I dry brush the base dark and light shades of brown. Once the brown is dry I dry brush all of the base grey. After the paint dries I hit the objective with a flat matte to seal the whole thing in and dull up the shine form the dip.
Note: you have to be conservative in the amount of flat matte you spray on a model you use the quick shade to dip on. Because the quick shade makes a slick shell on the out side of the figure the matte will pool up and turn white when it dries. This ruins the model and no amount of simple green and fix it. As a result of pulling back on the matte the figures will always look a little glossy, but this dulls out over time.
Finished Objective
Next time in What's Your Objective? Part 3 we will take a look at how to protect your objectives from getting damaged by your opponents tanks which have park on top of them to hold them during game play.
“Craig Baxter is a miniature wargamer from Anchorage, AK. When he’s not contributing to WWPD.net he is busy blogging, painting, modeling and rolling dice. You can find more of his work and articles at frozengamerak.blogspot.com.”
