It has been a while since my last contribution however you will be pleased to know that I have been busy painting during this period. My last post detailed the methods that I use to paint faces in 15mm. Although time consuming and frustrating at times, painting face details will provide you with some rewarding results. 
My spare time, over the past few months, has been dedicated to painting a platoon of German Grenadiers. I had initially started work on this platoon a couple of years ago, however due to unfortunate circumstances I had to put all painting on hold for an extended period. Ever since then these figures had been sitting on my painting desk looking forlornly at me with imploring eyes and so finally, I relented and got to work.
Base Designs
Originally I had completed the HQ team, one squad, and a mortar team - the first Flames of War figures I had ever painted! Initially I conceptualised a rural/forest theme on the eastern front and so I remained true to this for the remaining squads. The imagery of German Grenadiers bursting forth from forests into rural Russia gave me plenty of base designs ideas to work with. The only thing that was left to do was to paint the Grenadiers up and put these ideas into action.
When designing bases I find it helpful to think about striking features that would best represent the theme on the bases, while being interesting. From there I would work on techniques and materials in order to execute the design. I have found that there are a lot of helpful resources around on how to use materials and which is best to create different objects and effects. Research is one thing, however there is no better experience than to get stuck in and try some things out. I experiment using test bases to create different types of scenery and effects. These are fully fledged, completed bases (varnished and all) so that I can see what the final result will look like.
I have found that I can represent wood quite well with balsa wood (who would have thought). It is soft and can be carved very easily into any shape and is quite easy to create texture. Anything with a complex shape I sculpt using a product called green stuff. I won't go too much into it other than it comes as a two part putty that, when mixed, you can use to shape into pretty much anything. If you did have a look at my previous tutorial see if you can pick out some familiar faces in among the teams. Thanks for viewing and please feel free to leave your feedback on the forums.
