Tuesday 24 April 2018

Tanks. You're welcome!

I got the 28mm tanks finished.  And thanks to the Marx Brothers for the title of the post.  Here's the photos. 

The armoured car got it's three colour finish. For a long time I thought I should leave it as just the dark yellow and green, but finally resolved to make it like the others. 


A long shot. Basically most of the painting is done.   



A close view of curly, larry and moe, before they go to their vehicles.  


With transfers (decals) attached. They are a bit bright, but I left them as is. I also did very minimal weathering; not more than a dusting of earth on tyres and tracks as I'm not a fan of heavy weathering. 





A front view of the 3 stooges or 3 amigos in their vehicles. In any vehicles I do, I always try to have a figure to give them a personal touch. 


And a view of the Panzer IV with the skirts attached with blu-tak. I decided to leave the skirts loose to allow for representing different models in games.  (Apologies for the slightly fuzzy, shaky hand photos here).  




And that's them. I reckoned that if the chap who agreed to buy the tanks, wanted heavier weathering he could easily apply some more, or glue the skirts on to the Pz IV.  

They were passed over to their new owner, a chap at our club, who kindly agreed to contribute something to a friends justgiving page, where she's baking cakes and raising money for cancer research.  In case you may be interested, her page is here; 
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/yvonne-peebles

More later, as I try to progress the 28mm Napoleonic Italians or the 15mm Seven Years War stuff, or another of the projects on the go ... 

Saturday 14 April 2018

and another ongoing project ... tiger tiger

I got these 1/56 (28mm) German vehicles when I got my British for Bolt Action. I've decided to see if I can get them finished.

I bought these as a painting exercise, not for a game. I'd always intended to sell them once finished. I wanted to use the airbrush to try the two or three colour camouflage that was used from the mid-war onwards.  I also wanted to do the summer scheme, as I've always preferred it to the much darker green and brown used in the winter scheme.  

Anyhow, here's where they were several months ago. Only the Panzer IV had a test of the green camouflage. The colour is German light camouflage green. 


And all three with the green. My thoughts at this point were maybe I should have put thinner lines on the armoured car.  


Now with the red-brown added. I actually used a Vallejo air mud colour for this as I thought the panzer red-brown was still a bit dark.  I deliberately wanted to do much lighter tones on the vehicles, always thinking I could darken them later with paint or a wash if I wanted. The skirts on the Panzer IV are loose and may leave them that way, allowing for them to be used as different variants.  




Not too bad at that point. I did tidy up a couple of overspills. Then I went on to do the tracks with Vallejo dark rubber. This is a nice dark grey, and this and Vallejo back-grey have become two of favourites to use instead of black. I also did the crew figures; two in field grey and one in traditional black (... guess which tank gets the commander in black!). 



And finally a close-up of the crew. I tried to give the armoured car commander figure a yellow trim, to hint at someone clining on to their old cavalry traditions.  The chap in black was given pink trim and collar patches.


Overall, not too bad at this stage.  Next to be painted will be the various tools and cables on the vehicles, the exhausts and more on the treads and wheels.  

More later, 

Monday 9 April 2018

The Italians job

Another project underway is 28mm Napoleonic figures for a skirmish game.  I'd like to have a crack at the Napoleonic variants of Lion Rampant or The Men Who Would Be Kings with these figures.  

I've decided to paint these as Italians, just as a something different from the usual French.  I've chosen the 3rd regiment with green facings and red collars. 

Here's progress so far.  Victrix figures and they have nice poses. White spray undercoat serves as a base colour for the uniforms. I've experimented with a black wash and grey for shading and I'll tidy all this later. 


And this is waiting in the wings.  Warlord figures are in much more basic poses than Victrix and not too fond of French infantry in greatcoats, but I'll see how I get on. If I don't like them, then I'll put them on ebay.  

Like many gamers or painters, the usual problem I have is too many projects that I'd like to do.  Hopefully I'll find the time to finish the Italians.  

More later.