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Thursday, November 28, 2013

Painting Snow On Bases And How to Whip Up Some Quick Objectives


Old Man Morin here: With the Bolt Action Grand Tournament quickly approaching (this weekend) and after getting buried with work I, Old Man Morin had to shelve my Germans... AGAIN! Though I got really close to getting them done, there was just no way.... Luckily, about the time I came to this crushing realisation, Warlord Tobu informed me that he finished the Artizan greatcoat Americans he had been painting for me.  Now I asked Tobie to leave the bases because I wanted to do a Battle of the Bulge, mud and snow thing with the bases.  He put a basic texture on them for me and left them dark brown.  PERFECT!  I started by dry brushing the brown a lighter brown to give the brown some depth.  I did not go too light because I wanted there to be a nice contrast with the white of the snow later.  Below you can see the dark brown in the from and the dry brushed lighter browns in the back.


From there I painted white splotches onto the bases.  This is a necessary step to ensure a nice white snow later.

Next I pulled out my magic jar of snow pumice.  I love this stuff.  I have used it for a bunch of armies and I am not even close to having used half the of container.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!

I then yanked out an old brush and rather lumpily applied the pumice.  It dries well and in a nice textured fashion.  Having spent enough of my life living in freezing cold places, I don't like flat boring snow. To make lumpy but fresh powdery snow, use the same steps but PVA glue Citadel or GF9 snow flock on top of the pumice and Shazam!  You are in business.  I have done this for a number of my armies but I didn't think it worked for this project.  In related news....  for the GT I needed three objectives.  Now I am short on time but I could steal about ten/twenty minutes a day.  Tobie had painted me a few extra character models soooo I though I would use these.  Their bases are too small for my purpose so I built them out using a temporary ring (I don;t want to use them as objectives forever. I started by making a ring of green stuff on a 40mm base.  I then smoothed down the edges and used the base of an old space marine to ensure that the sides matched the hight and diameter of one of my bases.  You can see a model standing in the ring below:

I then just followed the steps for snow basing that I listed above.  And there you have it.  Quick and easy.  And thanks to Tobie... I have objectives that are very good to look at.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Review of Warlord's Atlantik Wall Terrain Set




I LOVE a good looking table.  There is nothing better in my mind than playing a good game on a great table with fully painted models.  It is the perfect combination.  Apparently I am not alone as up at MOAB passerby after passerby would stop to get a closer look at the great tables and armies.  Now, I am time poor and a slow painter.  This means that I am constantly battling my age old nemesis… time… to get armies to the point that I feel comfortable putting them on the table.  This leaves little time to build and paint terrain…  This is why I am such a big fan of Gale Force Nine’s battlefield in a box range.  Pre-painted, good looking durable terrain? Yes please!  Now I will get back to GF9’s products soon as I am a big fan BUT today it is time to talk competition!  Warlord Games has stepped into the pre-painted terrain business in a big way with the release of their Atlantic Wall set.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

A Review Of The Company B STUG 33b

As covered in an earlier post, I purchased a STUG 33b from Company B a while back and as I did not know exactly what to call it in the game, it sat in the back of the bits box until, DaveOWar and I figured out what it was.  After the success of the KV2 at MOAB I got to thinking that maybe playing around with a heavy tank could work after all in Bolt Action.  The result, the ol' STUG got called up to the workbench and hobby time began!

I have ordered from Company B a number of times in the past and I have to say that I am very happy with their customer service.  Their prices are on par with other manufacturers and their shipping times are excellent! I have had a few small hiccups quality wise in a few of the products but this kit was the first time that I actually cringed at the quality of a resin model.

The main body of the kit was pitted badly and several of the hatches looked soft edged and melted.  additionally the back right track guard was missing and the left was dangerously thin.  I have included pictures above in black and white so show these defects as clearly as my camera allows.

This is not enough to get Mama Morin's boy down though.  As an old school model maker I did not get frustrated or angry.  I got converting!  I added stowage from Company B, Die Waffenkammer and Warlord games all over the kit to cover problem areas that shaving could not fix. I also removed the rear track guards entirely on both sides so they matched and re-enforced the remaining front guards with thin layers of green stuff (underneath).  I then built back the edges of the exhaust boxes on the rear sides so they had a hard 90 degree corner to them, at least I did to the best of my abilities.  The end result looked like this.

I like the final results ALOT!  I think the extra gear covering the tank gives it an experienced campaigner look that I look forward to painting.  It also adds beef to an already intimidatingly large beast of a tank.  VERY SEXY!!!

In short, I love it!  I could have asked for a new kit from Company B and I am sure they would have replaced it given their reputation (with me at least) for being helpful and friendly.  Will this keep me from ordering other Company B kits?  Nope... I bought and Japanese truck yesterday.  Could it have ben better?  Yup, but then I never would have spent as much time doing me best work to make the kit work.  Sometimes I think the best results I get as a hobbyist come from mistakes and broken models.  The extra effort goes a long way I suppose. Time to get painting!!!



Saturday, October 12, 2013

My Love of Impractical Things (STUG 33B in Bolt Action)


Well, I am back from MOAB and I have all sorts of interesting army list ideas floating around in my wee head.  As this was my first foray into the larger Bolt Action community I was keen to see what people were bringing to the table list wise and painting wise.  I have to say list wise I was very impressed! (not to say that the painting was shabby, quite the opposite)  Players were taking lists that used all levels of experience, lists that mixed experience levels within lists and themed armies that not only fit historic battles but also worked well on the table top.  In my last game I played Richard who came first overall.  He ran a KV-2 in very themed Russian list.  Now, Heavy tanks are not something that one often encounters on the BA field (at least here in Melbourne) and I was shocked at how effective this tank was.  This got me thinking after my old buddy DaveOWar dropped in the other night and helped me identify a tank I bought when I first started playing BA (cuz I thought it looked cool!).  The Stug 33b (P.S. Thanks Dave!!!)
Company B sells this big bad boy and I initially thought it was the SIG 33 based on the panzer 1 chassis but a good look on google disproved this notion.  As I could not find the tanks technical label in the German book I assumed that the writer’s of BA had left that variant of that tank out of the book.  I was wrong.  With Dave’s help we found and cross checked and sure enough…  It is the Stug 33b.  This is 310 heavy tank totes a heavy howitzer and an mmg and on paper looks remarkably like the KV-2 I played in Richard’s list.  Now… it is more expensive and lacks a turret…  which well… sucks BUT it is a MUCH cheaper version of the Sturmtiger that I have been trying to shoehorn into a list for over a year now.  True, it does not fire a 4D6 HE shot, BUT 3D6 should be enough to deal with most threats. 

Now I can hear people in internet land screaming at me from here…  DON’T DO IT!!!  HEAVY TANKS SUCK IN BOLT ACTION!!!!  I get it.  I do.  That said I think the model looks BOSS and hey…  I could say I have a finished German army because it is a heck of a point sink.  I have signed up for the BA GT in Sydney in late November and I need an army and honestly, I need a break from the Partisans and I want to take something radically different.  My Germans are modeled with city fight bases and the STUG 33b is a tank built for urban assault.  Sounds like a good match…  I think I need to trial a few lists and see where this goes…

FYI: From Wikipedia
The Sturm-Infanteriegeschütz 33B was a German self-propelled heavy infantry gun used during World War II. A new, fully enclosed, and heavily armored boxy casemate superstructure was built on the chassis of the Sturmgeschütz III. It mounted the improved sIG 33/1 infantry gun, offset to the right side and a Maschinengewehr 34 machine-gun was fitted in a ball mount on the left side of the superstructure.
The first dozen were delivered by the end of October 1942 and assigned to Sturmgeschütz-Abteilungen (Assault Gun Battalions) 177 and 244, then fighting in Stalingrad. The remaining dozen vehicles could not be delivered to Sturmgeschütz-Abteilungen 243 and 245, also fighting in Stalingrad, after the Soviets surrounded the German 6th Army on 21 November. Instead, the vehicles were formed into Sturm-Infanterie-Geschütz-Batterie/Lehr-Bataillon (Assault Infantry Gun Batterie/Demonstration Battalion) XVII. The battalion was assigned to the 22nd Panzer Division as the Germans attempted to relieve the trapped 6th Army. The Division was virtually wiped out in the fighting and the battery was assigned to the 23rd Panzer Division where it became the Sturm-Infanterie-Geschütz-Batterie/Panzer-Regiment 201 (also known as 9. Kompanie/Panzer-Regiment 201) for the rest of the war. The last strength report to mention them lists five remaining in September 1944.Only one survived at the Kubinka NIIBT Research Collection at Russia.[3]

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Old Man Morin Paints Up Some Partisans

Well, I survived MOAB.  I came 7th and had a blast! (More soon... lots to discuss)

I was also able to get all of the additional partisan models done to finish the army.  Here are a few of the finished models.





HE love!

My Objectives

The Hortch Field Car

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Partisans VS Germans... BOLT ACTION STYLE!!!


Today Brad and I ran through a game of Supply Run (5 objective grab from the MOAB player pack) with my Germans against Brad’s Partisans. I was running what I considered to be a reasonably tough German list without taking the piss or going over board in any way:


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Partisans (Post Game Thoughts)



Hey there Bolt Action fans!  For those of you following at home I have been actively exploring the new Partisans list from the Armies of France and their Allies.  I began to unpack this and strategize in the most recent LRDG podcast with Dave of War and Warlord Tobu (Episode 5 for those at home… which you can now find in the ITunes store).  My Partisans are based in the late war period and are modeled on Polish forces in the Warsaw Uprising.   Now BA theory hammer is one thing but getting boots on the table is quite another animal and when playing games really clarifies unit roles, practical implications of rules and allows us to try out those hair brained ideas that always bounce around our heads.  This in mind, I took on the formidable might of DaveOWar’s brand new German troops in a 1000 point battle with the my Partisan forces and learned a hell of a lot. 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Part 2 of the Partisans!

As discussed a few posts back, I bought a lovely partisan army from a very talented gentleman over at WWPD.  Now the question... What to do with it?

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Viva La France! (A Guest Post)


Today we have a guest post from my ol' buddy Patch

Having just put the finishing touches in my USMC force I was looking for a new project to get stuck into when talk of the French and Allies book came about on the Australian Facebook page. Predictably much of the talk was involving white flags and moral tests each round to determine if the entire army throws weapons down and surrenders. Beings a bit of a sucker for the underdog I took it upon myself to be a French champion and challenged all the negativity with accounts of bravery on behalf of French forces during the Battle of France.

This research led me down the path of some of the heroic actions of the French Foreign Legion forces and the steadfast fighting retreats they made in order to stall the German advances. Whilst doing so some units were entirely wiped out with others accruing losses of 2/3 of their men in order to save their adopted countrymen from the seemingly unstoppable German Blitzkrieg. I had just found my new army!

Referencing the French PDF I noted that the Foreign Legion had the special rule of stubborn, what a perfect counter to all the French bandwagon bashes if my Veteran French units were almost never likely to fail those moral tests and run away on loss of half the amount of troops! I decided on having a core unit of two squads of Foreign Legion troops and started to form an army around them, basic context is that during the chaos and retreat many units were mashed together so it would not have been uncommon for inexperienced, regular and veteran troops to be sharing a defensive position or attempting a counter attack.

My army was starting to form and along with the two squads of Veteran Foreign Legionnaires (Artizan) I would base the reinforced platoon from an inexperienced Militia unit of a 2nd LT and four squads of inexperienced troops (Warlord). Support would be in the form of a Regular Army Sniper team and AT team, an inexperienced medium howitzer gun team and mortar team as well as a Regular tank in the shape of the mighty Char 2C. The Char 2C is somewhat of a stretch as they never saw combat but it is just such an amazing throw back to WW1 that I had to fit it into my list.

Now the fun part of painting the toy soldiers, the Foreign Legion squads naturally were the priority and after some referencing with the assistance of the Facebook group I was able to go off a picture of the Legion during the Battle of France. The colour may best be described as dark khaki tending towards brown and this gave me the perfect opportunity to try out the new  Plastic Soldier British Khaki with a pretty good result and close enough match for me (the neckbeards may have other opinions!). 

I still have the bulk of the army to paint and if the boys here at LRDG are willing I may be able to put some more WIP shots up as I complete the various units. (YES, WE ARE!!!)

Cheers,
Patch


Thanks mate!
Brad

Thursday, September 12, 2013

One Man's Dusty Box in the Back of a Closet IS Another Man's Treasure (Warsaw Uprising Army)


So, I am a wargaming forum addict.  I regularly check multiple forums for various game systems (mostly Bolt Action these days) and I have found that if you tune in regularly to over time and if you have a high patience for trolling (on some forums more than others)... you can get a good deal.

That opportunity arose for me two weeks ago when this beauty popped up for sale:



Friday, August 16, 2013

Painting German Gaiters


Old Man Morin here.  My obsession with painting German gaiters has been a running joke on the podcast and on the Facebook page for some time now.  So much so that I have actually had requests to demonstrate how I do it.  Well, as many of you know, we never turn down requests here on the LRDG.  Without further ado… Here we go!


Now I understand that most gaiters will not look like mine.  I took a quick look at a few pictures of Germans soldiers and based my method on pictures like this:

I usually start the gaiter painting later in the painting process.  I don’t wait until the end (after the last highlight) in case my fingers rub a little of the paint off.  I start by base coating the area a medium grey colour (Grey/Green by Vallejo for example) and washing that base with a black wash of some sort (I usually use whatever dark GW wash I have kicking around, these days I am using Nuln Oil).  I am not terrible neat at this point.  The area ends up looking like this:


I then use a fine detail brush (or something equivalent) to paint very thin lines at the top and bottom of the gaiter area.  I use GW’s Nurgling Green.  It has nice coverage and goes well with the grey/green uniforms of my Germans. 


From there I very carefully paint in one to three parallel lines depending on the gap between the top and bottom lines.  Without fail I will make mistakes in this process so I usually have to go back and neatly black line between the Nurgling Green lines. 


And Voila!  Finished gaiters.  Sure they look stripy up close up but on the table top they look great (at least I think so).  Thanks for checking in.  Til next time!!!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Old Man Morin Checks Out The Assault Group Germans


As we have been discussing on the LRDG podcast, when it comes to 28mm WWII models there is a wide variety of companies selling a WIDE variety of wares catering to our gaming wants and needs.  Today I will be taking a close and critical look at German assault rifles and assault rifle troopers from The Assault Group.

A majority of my German infantry for my BA Germans are Warlord plastic models with addition Warlord metal heads.  I have mounted them on a variety of ruined bases and I have painted my boys with a late war feel.  That said... Late war Germans need assault rifles and a fair few of them!

I started my Assault Group experience by ordering a pack of 10 of Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifles by themselves.  This is key as the Warlord plastic boxed sets only have a few plastic assault rifles and up until recently they did not sell them as additional bits.  Anyway.  I ordered the rifles and they arrived VERY promptly and with very little flash.  They looked beefier than their Warlord counterparts BUT that is perfectly fine by me as the Warlord plastic weapons are notoriously fragile.  Here is a Warlord plastic German with a metal assault rifle:

In order to get the rife to fit properly I trimmed the stock of the gun, as the stock is naturally wider than the gap left between the model's arm and the model's torso. This is not a major hobby job and only took a minute or two per dude.  The end result looks good and I am happy to have a bunch of these guys in my force.  Problem is that even when varying the legs and heads...  the plastics do get sort of boring pose wise after a while and I really wanted to mix up my infantry a bit.  Soooooo I ordered some Assault Group Germans with assault rifles.

Once again the models came promptly but unlike my previous Assault Group experience these models were fairly covered in rather annoying flash.  Here is an example of one trooper with a hideous model line running straight down his face.


This was a pain to clean without significant effort.  I spent the time and eventually got everything the way I wanted. Here is a shot of all four guys that came in the blister prior to cleaning:


Needless to say I was not a fan.  I cleaned the models, clipped them from their tabs and stuck them to their new bases.  I then began my rather arduous German painting process.  I should probably learn to paint Ze Germans faster BUT what can I say... I like the results...

The Assault Group Germans have lots of pouches and gear hanging from their webbing.  I really like that about these models and really gave them character.  I also like that two of the four guys came with caps on (a large number of my guys are wearing caps rather than helmets...  What can I say...  I like the look).  The weapons they carry are unsurprisingly the same as the separate ones I used on my plastics which, as I said before, I really liked.  The problem comes with the faces.  Maybe I am used to painting a particular style of face but I found the Assault Group guys' faces to be a real challenge to paint correctly.  It is almost as though they have baby faces... if that makes sense.  I struggled to get the detail into their cheeks and around their eyes.  In the end I solved the problem by highlighting the skin another layer or two (depending on the model) higher to give the illusion of depth that was not always there on the model.  This sounds harsh but I needed them to match my existing Germans.  Here you can see some close up shots of my Assault Group Germans:


Here is an Assault Group Metal (on the right) next to a Warlord plastic (on the left) that has a matching Assault Group metal assault rifle.
Here is a comparison shot of a Warlord plastic with a plastic assault rifle next to an Assault Group metal with metal assault rifle.
To sum up...  I like the Assault Group Germans.  True, they took some work and sometimes they were a pain BUT they are sturdily built, they are characterful and the have original poses which allows you to add variety to your force (as long as you are mixing them with other company's models).  Would I buy from them again?  Heck yeah!  I just got some Marines to bulk out my Warlord metals AND a pack of .50 cals.  Who would not love that?!?

Til next time gang!

Old Man Morin

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

To Paint a Panther

Hey Guys, Tobie (Tobu) here,

So, today we’re going to paint a Panther! This particular Panther is a very pretty one courtesy of JTFM Enterprises or Die Waffenkammer (http://www.diewaffenkammer.com). The model was fantastic to work with and I highly recommend the JTFM wares.

My inspiration for the paint scheme

The colours for this project where based on (stolen from) Vallejo’s new AFV painting system. Specifically the German Dark Yellow set (http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/afv-dunkelgelb/family/17/116). I already owned all of the colours bar the primer so did not get the set itself, but if you wanted to follow along with this guide it would be a handy way to arm yourself with most of the necessary paints. So after a trip to my FLGS I was with the suitable primer and was ready to gird my loins and get to work.

Most of the painting herein was done with an airbrush. You could have a crack at doing it by hand, but it would be very difficult and time-consuming to replicate the soft blending effect you get when using an airbrush. However, I imagine using the same colours in progressively lighter drybrush stages could yield good results for the airbush-less amongst you.

The method I have tried to replicate is one pioneered by the scale model world and is known as ‘Colour Modulation’. I’m not going to go through the details of this method here as you’ll get an idea from this article, some people may already be familiar with it, and as always – Google is your friend.

On to the painting!

Step 1: Cleaning

Ok no painting yet – slow down there hombre. JTFM recommend cleaning their resin models with warm, soapy water to remove any mould release agent – which can cause problems if you paint over it later. I had a big slab of paint chip off another resin model (not from JTFM) when I forgot this step in the past, so I have become a bit paranoid and now all of my resin and metal models get a bath before assembly. I use standard dishwashing liquid. Allow the model to dry thoroughly (overnight) on paper towel before continuing.

Clean as a whistle!

Step 2: Drilling

This stage is optional and comes down to personal taste – drilling gun barrels. I usually don’t bother I’ll be honest, but the muzzle thingy on the end of the Panther’s gun was too badass for me not to in this instance.

*Insert 'Holy ____ Batman' Joke*

Step 3: Priming I

JTFM also recommend priming their products with a specialist plastic primer. I went to my local hardware store armed with information from a fellow friendly gamer (thanks Patch!) and picked up a clear enamel plastic primer which is for protecting plastic furniture etc. 

I didn’t take a photo of this stage as it’s almost impossible to tell the difference (as the primer dried clear) – however this stuff was not designed for models so I just gave it a very fine ‘misting’. Apparently colour enamel-based model primers are also suitable for this priming stage.

Step 3: Priming II

Holy Colour Primer Batman! Prime the entire model, except the tracks (remember they’re primed but it’s clear) with acrylic Vallejo German Dark Yellow Primer (604). I smashed this shit straight in the airbrush with no thinner (apparently they’re designed for this) and it was all good. I kept the model disassembled to make sure I could hit all the areas I wanted. 

This was probably the most time-consuming stage as I needed good, even coverage. The airbrush sprays thin layers of paint so it does take a little while to build up sexy, solid basecoats, but I guarantee after 4 or 5 coats are on there you will be very aroused.

You're barring up right now aren't you?

YOU FILTHY BASTARD

The skirting and all of the bobbins where blu-tacked to a wooden thing so they wouldn’t obscure any parts of the tank. 



Step 4: Tracks

I painted the tracks German Dark Brown (70.822) by hand. This stage could have been done after the highlight in hindsight, but I was toying with the idea of assembling the tank after the pieces were primed which would have made painting the tracks difficult. I ended up not doing this and keeping everything separate as this allowed greater freedom with the airbrush and saved me from having to resort to masking tape.



Step 5: Highlight I – The Phantom Highlight

Now we’re on to the fun part! The first highlight was done with Model Air Dark Yellow (70.025). As with the primer, the Model Air range is designed for airbrushes so not much (or sometimes any) dilution is required. I mixed this colour 3:1 with water and it sprayed nicely. 

This is where you start to build up a nice gradient effect. For this first step you want to hit every part of the tank that is not recessed. This will leave the majority of the tank coloured with Dark Yellow, with the darker primer remaining in the recesses providing shading. More shading will be added in the weathering stages.



Step 6: Highlight II – Attack of the Highlight

The second highlight in the delicious highlighting process used Model Air Sand Yellow (70.028). When applying this stage think about where you want the highlights to be. On some areas, such as the front Glacis plate and the sloped areas of the turret the position of the highlights is reasonably obvious.

Things get more complex when you think about the sides and top of the vehicle. The Colour Modulation method uses a Zenithal light-source where the light is directly above the model shining down. However, you don’t typically see vehicles painted in this way – at least in the gaming scene (scale modelers are a different, and uniquely terrifying breed). 40K vehicles, for example, seem to be usually painted in the ‘GW style’ (massive generalisation)using blocks of colour, with recesses shaded and line highlighting on the edges of all the panels, with no real heed paid to the direction of the light source. This is probably because painting blended colours, lightening as they get closer to the light-source is hard on big, flat surfaces without an airbrush.  And also because even with an airbrush it is frakking hard! And also because when done well the ‘GW style’ looks rad-balls too.

This rather useful picture for highlight placement comes from http://www.uschivdr.com

I wanted to try this new (for me) technique though, and I struggled a lot with this, my first frolic into Colour Modulation. It’s not really a matter of struggling with technique either – I don’t think this is a particularly advanced application of the airbrush. It’s all about learning where to put the highlights. I don’t have all that many pointers in this regard as I did most of it by trial and error – have the last colour on standby to cover up mistakes! I also take back what I said earlier, this was definitely the most time-consuming stage of the painting.

I will say the most useful technique I found for finding those highlights is to shine a lamp on the model and take photos. Chuck those photos up on a screen next to you while you paint and look at what the light hits – then in turn hit that area with your paint. I definitely learned I need to practice more to build up intuition for where those highlights go.

Anyway, after much time and cursing, you will be left with:

Not perfect, but it will do!

I didn’t really conform to the colour modulation shit with the side skirts as it looked weird when I did the first one. Trial and error I say!


Step 7: Highlight III – Revenge of the Highlight

The next highlight uses Model Colour Pale Sand (70.837). Unlike the other paints so far, this is not from the Model Air range and so I diluted the paint 1:3 with water and added a tiny amount of Liquitex Matte Medium (http://www.liquitex.com/mattemedium/). Liquitex Matte Medium is the nectar of the Gods and I would drink it if I could – but that is for another article.

This stage is a lot easier as you have already decided where the highlights are going. Simply go over them again, ensuring not to cover them completely in a continuation of the gushing graduating.

Look at all that graduationating and shit

Step 8: Highlight IV – A New Highlight (& assembly)

For the final (subtle) highlight I mixed a drop (exact measurement) of GW Skull White into my airbrush cup which still had Highlight III loaded and mixed it all up. I then sprayed a very fine amount onto the utmost areas and onto little parts I wanted to draw attention to.

After this the model was assembled (sans side skirts):



Step 9: Weathering I

For weathering I made a very thin glaze of 1:8 Devlan Mud and Water. I applied this to the whole tank. Be sure not to just slap this on as it will pool and look shite. Load your brush with glaze, wipe your brush on paper towel and then apply in a very thin layer. It should be thin enough that you can see the glaze dry almost as soon as it is applied. This is somewhat time-consuming and the effect is subtle but when viewed in the flesh it is nice.

Once you have covered the entire tank a couple of times with the above method, begin doing the same, but building the glaze up in recessed areas to enhance the shading. You can make rain/dirt marks by building up 7-8 layers too. As the thin glazes dry so quickly, this doesn’t take long.



And now it’s pigment time!

Step 10: Weathering II and final touches

I mixed up a combination of Vallejo Pigments 50:50 Natural Umber and Light Sienna with enough Vallejo Pigment glaze to make a paste with slightly-thicker-than-PVA sort of consistency. This was applied to the tracks and splashed around other areas a bit too. I added a selection of small scratches with Vallejo Dark Grey (70.818) and my finest brush.

I drilled some holes in totally historically-accurate locations and attached guitar string for the antennae. Prime the metal string before painting as per other Metal parts below.

The Man in the tank was painted German Dark Brown, washed with GW Badab Black and the highlighted with GDB, then GDB with some GW Skull White. I can’t remember the recipe for the skin, I’m sorry but presumably it was done in a skin-like fashion.

Metal parts were painted with Vallejo Dark Grey  (70.166), washed with GW Badab Black and the highlighted with Dark Grey mixed with a little GW Skull White. I added some average-looking rust to the the exhaust with Vallejo Cavalry Brown (70.818).

Wooden parts were painted P3 Bootstrap Leather and then washed with GW Devlan Mud.

Decals where then applied and after they were dry I put a couple of thin layers of the glaze from Step 9 over the top. I don’t think I would do this decal glaze again as it made the edges of the decals stand out a little bit – but meh whatever.

Done!

Step 11: Get on it

The pigments take a while (24 hours or so) to dry so go to the pub and get the darkest beer they have in their largest receptacle, drink it and then get another – You’ve earned it (kind of).

Fuck yeah

Final Photos

Outside in the good light:





Thanks everyone for reading and I hope at least portions of this were of some use to you!


Tobu out.