German Heer test

Heya for the last time in 2018 probably,

Looks like Bolt Action has totally dominated my webspace. So what's on menu today?
Warlord Games' placcy German Heer infantryman.
This is rather unusual for me, 'cause from what I recall until now I've painted only Hetzer and that  funny, unknown corporal below from zee Germanz range:

When I was coming back from September "Road to Berlin" event I got Heer infantry model from my Bruder - wanted to paint one of these for a while, these plastics seemed to be really cool.

And actually were: Warlord Games did really great work on plastic intantry. I can definitely recommend this stuff. In fact it was so cool I almost regret my US horde is pure metal (just check new US infantry box).

Almost...

So here it is anyway: 

wasn't aiming to paint uniform from any specific period, but rather mixed some black, white and blue and gave it a try. In the end model got wooden plinth and ended up as gift piece.
As for the model itself: sculpt is nice and sharp, plastic is easy to work on (file, cut etc.)  and this line of soliders is basically uniform, some leather elements (belts, boots), rifle and face. Which means work goes pretty fast and easy especially after finishing a couple of minis to find proper color combo. 

I was having fun working on this fella so I think I'll ask my bro for one or two more to paint, maybe this time I can get an officer or at least NCO...

Upgrading Sherman with Calliope set

Heyah,

As mentioned a while back my US armoured forced has been reinforced by T34 Calliope missle launcher. Must say it's been already tested in the field and results are promising:
the turn it moved onto battlefield it blew away Zee German Wirbelwind and spread terror among units around.
Next turn the game was over.
 
Yeah, yeah... It was nothing but the matter of luck but still model looks damn cool and brings lots of fun (mostly for US player) so I hope to include it in army lists frequently.

Sadly I don't have enough space to keep all models I've ever got so instead of purchasing another Sherman decision was made to upgrade model I've already had finished with Warlord's Calliope missle launcher set. While working on the model some pics were taken about both assembling and painting, which hopefully might be useful for fellow hobbyists.

So the operation started with M4 Sherman tank. Model you see below has been painted and sealed with matt varnish, therefore there was no need to undercoat it again before repainting:

Wasn't sure how well airbrushed paint would stick to varnished surface, so just for sure model was treated with very fine sandpaper. Don't think it was necessary but the surface become more porous:

Missle launcher assembly.

T34 set contains like 5 parts which could be assembled and attached with greenstuff and superglue, but since it's gaming model (often transportation) I decided to pin it to the turret. Just to minimalize risk of damage while getting to battlefield.

Assembled - still without glue.
As you can see heavy machine gun and antenna were removed from the turret:

Primed black:

And now something new for me: 

instead of painting model with airbrush and then working on shading, dark areas were painted before base color. Idea was to simply leave these "natural" shadows, making model look more realistic.
Don't care is sounds stupid - it works:

Base color:

Highlight:

Further highlight.

It was actually supposed to be much brighter but nozzle in my airbrush got fucked and is started spitting paints. Visible especially on the turret. 

Decision was made to finish this step before more severe damage is done to the patient:

After paint dried decals were applied: 

And some extra junk on sides and in the back:

Boring part: 

tracks and machine guns were painted silver:

And another new thing for me: oil paints.

I've heared lots about this stuff and recently got few colors to see what's all about. Using oils is way different that standard acrylics but works great on vehicles.

Below - model was shaded with black and brown oil wash:

More washes - reddish brown this time:

And more washing - brown, yellow. Also front / back lights were painted: 

And final details: tools, streaks, mud effect on the tracks.

The model is done: me likey.
It's always good idea to test new things, especially in the hobby. I'll surely use oil paints again on M7 Priest waiting patiently on my desk. I feel sick thinking there're still like 20 infantry models waiting for paintjob...
Anyway - hope you like the final result:

M4 Sherman T34 Calliope

Hey again,

It's been a while but real life duties once again did the job and pushed the hobby onto the side tracks. Trying to make things right again decision was made to work on the M4 Sherman model painted over 2 years ago.

There was nothing wrong with previous paintjob but I needed carrier for Calliope missle launcher battery which by bro delivered for the birthday.
Besides there were some other things to test like new paints, Vallejo mud and is oldie airbrush still reliable (it's totally fucked at this moment if anyone asks).

All in all I like the result, looking forward to see it in action - blasting hordes of advancing nazis straight back to Satan! Or wherever else they came from! Ka-boom!!!

Pictures are okish but kinda "yellow" (or maybe it's just the monitor). I might try to re-take them because some pics were taken during works reporting transformation of this into this:

Cheers!

Great Unclean One

Hey all,

As mentioned before I was working on Great Unclean One model before moving back to Bolt Action stuff and here's the result.

Must say I am very glad to see the big fella painted and crossed off the list but the result you can see below is not what I've been initially expecting. Almost not all.

I've always loved this model - I remember seeing it in the flesh for the first time like 8-10 years ago (?) - that one was painted by Ana from Chest of Colors group. I was simply stunned both by sculpt and painting quality. IIRC that piece was contest model. On that moment I knew I'll get and paint that demon some day.

So I got the model like 1,5 year ago but couldn't find enough strength to start working on it 'till now. It's just fucking huge and packed with details. Sweet, nasty details...
Not mentioning the fact I cannot really see it performing on the game table since I am pretty far from any sort of fantasy gaming nowadays. Although it should be great candidate for mission objective in skirmish games or for RPG - to visualize the final battle between group of goodie adventurers and arch evil thing from the last chater of the campaign scenario.

I had some ideas for painting:
first I wanted to paint it pale, white-ish maybe, so the guts and dark blood contrast strongly with the flesh. Then I wanted to paint it "fleshy" - kinda like more-less healthy skin with lots of fresh, bleeding wounds. But in the end I chose old and quite boring "green zombie" scheme.
The reason is there're some vehicles for US army waiting for painting and I needed to test some unused greens and oil washes (black blisters).

It's good to have another "painting goals" crossed off the list, if would be even better to give the piece amount of attention it really deserves. Oh well - maybe in the next life.   

If there anyone unaware of true size of the model - comparsion shot.
I think anti-tank gun would be better choice than medium machine guns... ^^

And since I've failed to capitalize painted Sherman the time has come to repaint and upgrade it yet before next game...

Some more Bolt Action bits and bobs

Right... Until now I was actually hoping to paint something else than Bolt Action miniatures but this stuff is way too tempting for me...

So here's official statement: 

it's the last Bolt Action stuff painted before finishing something else. 

Something totally different!
Most probably Great Unclean One or at least something similar size...

So what's on menu today? 

First of all I've finished medium machine gun for US force. Haven't used it combat yet but I think it might have some potential: mostly dealing pin markers and hopefully taking down enemy soliders.
Sometimes...

This particular one is Artizan version, I also have Warlord's model since US army can field more machine gun teams per slot than other armies. Huzzzah!!!

I really like Artizan's models, the only flaw of this set is shooter's face. I assume the mould was wearing off (or something) but half of the model's face was so screwed that it would fit Konflikt '47 better then Bolt Action as horrid result of Nazis experiments on POW...

All in all the model came back from that hell, got painted, armed to the teeth, well fed and so it's ready to take his revenge on zee Germanz!

Having support of machine gun is cool but having support of well placed machine gun is even better!

While waiting for paints to try I tried to assemble another tarrain piece for our battlefield. The idea was to make hill upgraded with some sand bags. All in all everything was quite quick and easy although result ain't that spectacular as I was hoping for.

Hill itself is made of two styrofoam sheets cut and shaped with hot wire and then covered with fine sand.

Sand bags are made of Milliput. Behind them there's just enough space for 60 mm base. Looking at this now I think they are bit too small and look more like bricks than sand bags. What do you think?

After paint dried most of hill was covered with PVA glue and sprinkled with static grass (finally I had occasion to use applicator built 1,5 year ago). And here's the result: 

And the last thing fot this time.

In the last post I mentioned about M3 Stuart tanks available for sale.

Well these two aren't available anymore since last week they started journey to England!

These models are cool and pretty nasty in combat (especially early Stuart's 23 machine guns' shots!) but don't really fit my game style and overall vision of the army. But since I don't like empty space in the glass case I've already ordered little something for my G.I.s:

M7 Priest is just supercool. That's it.

No idea about it's combat efficiency but I don't care - it's just too cool not to paint it.

And the other one is supposed to become taxi for my engineers squad: it's faster and at least half cheaper than M3 halftrack. just hope there's medium machine gun in the set.

So that's it for now, seeya!

Paras sent to liberate France

Hello,

This time there're only fresh photos of old stuff.
Last week my patatroopers found new home in France so before they were packed I took keepsake family photo of the squad.
All in all they are cool and reliable unit (and my first purchase from Bolt Action range if I remember correctly) but after year or so of playing I realised they just don't fit my vision of US force. I simply like ordinary troopers better.

Good news is the buyer already has solid paratroopers force so I am quite sure the guys will get along in no time.

What else?
Oh yeah, more pictures.

After sending paratroopers there was inspection of rest of my Bolt Action toys and it looks like there are two more pieces which I don't use too often, which could actually be changed into something fitting ground force better.

First one is M3A1 halftrack:
solid combat taxi, big enough to cary full squad of infantry:

The next one - M3A1 Stuart:
nasty piece, really: pretty cheap in points and armed with deadly flamer: 12" of range + 9" advance makes it just terrifying:

And mentioned before these were painted a while ago but in my opinion both look way better on printed background, than just standing on my messy hobby desk.

If you are interested in any of these from me a message or visit FB Bot Action buy/sell group for M3A1 halftrack and for M3A1 Stuart.

And finally paratroopers - good luck in France!