Leafy Reşiţa

So! I've got my Reşiţa anti-tank guns done for my Romanian army. I took photos along the way during the basing process. I'm not going to go into the painting process as it's pretty straight forward. I used the painting guide in Stalin's Europe for all of the color selections, so I'll skip straight to the basing procedure. All paints are from the Vallejo Model Colors range.

Step 1: Preparation
The first step is to prepare the base. Since the army is based in a shattered forest during autumn, I wanted to make sure that there is a lot of tree trunks and rocks to add depth to the base.
For the rocks I used cork. If you haven't used this stuff, it's great to work with. The little bits are easy to tear into natural-looking rocks.
The trees are simple bits of sticks.
I've also put some sand down on the base for texture.

Step 2: Base Painting 
The nest step was to paint the base. The ground was painted with Chocolate Brown (VP872) with a highlight of US Field Drab (VP873) followed by another highlight of USA Tan Earth (VP874). I painted the rocks Stone Grey (VP884) and hit them with a Smoke (VP939) magic wash. Smoke is an excellent wash medium as it actually contains small particles which simulate grit quite effectively. 

Step 3: Add Flock & Static Grass

I added some GF9 Parched Straw flock and static grass mix to the bases in spots. I tend to avoid covering whole bases with static grass as it really isn't all that realistic unless you're fighting on the set of Sound of Music. 

Step 4: Add Leaves

Once the base is painted and has dried, it is time to add the leaves. (For a quick how-to guide on leaves see below).

Step 5: Painting Green Brown

The leaf mix I made was a bit too dark so I've decided to go ahead and add highlights to them. I begin with a wide application of Green Brown (VP879) on about 75-80% of the leaves.

Step 6: Painting Orange

Next I added a small coverage of about 10-15% highlights using Orange Red (VP910).

Step 7: Painting Yellow

Finally I added a liberal (45-50% coverage) highlight of Golden Yellow (VP948).

And thats it! I've already done two rifle platoons and the third is at about Step 4. I'll have photos of those up soon hopefully. However, a strange new project has suddenly and unexpectedly cut in line, thanks to a pretty rad Christmas present from my brother... but more on that tomorrow!