US infantry (winter war) #6

Road to Berlin 2026 event is getting closer and closer so it's high time to prepare the boys for 2 days long battle. After last year's event I was hoping to field 100% themed winter force but because of my pathetic painting speed - some suppoer weapons and vehicles still require painting. Still I am really glad I've managed to get gid US winter infantry box of the painting list. these are really cool and magnetized so moving between tables might be little bit easier. 

As for painting itself I tried to use similar color combo like on previous squads (contest squad or command squad). Sure each team is slightly different but they will sure look cool mixed together. I was hoping to work on some more US models but Hungarian Nimrod is also tempting - especially after really boring US olive/brown combo...

Scarab Lord Chaosmorph (Ilyad Games)

Last weekend I've finally managed to cross off the list special piece among stuff being seasoned in the pile of shame: Scarab Lord Chaosmorph from Ilyad Games. The company is dead for a long time and models from that line are nowdays very hard to get but these are must-have for all Rackham fans. 

I've been thinking about those companies recently and cannot believe they fell down - Rackham especially. Back days, when it was fully operational. it had top sculptors, top painters, wide range of models plus game system on top (never managed to see the rules though). But even though it collapsed and it was long before STL files and printers rammed into the miniatures market 🙄

Not sure what Ilyad Games line was supposed to be - spin off of Rackham's sculptors maybe? Cannot tell. But it had solid line of supercoll classic fantasy sculpts: knights, demons, barbarians, fantasy creatures. There was also short line of Chaosmorphs - no idea what was that: demon / mutant / fantasy race. I really liked them and even managed to get he big guy you can see below.

It's official paintwork was stunning - kinda like Rackham's stuff so I didn't even try to copy that. Instead I chose color combo based on classic genestealers: that plus rusty oil drum and voila! - we got ourselves nasty mutated crab straight from rad zone. I regret I run out of Tamiya Clear Red - some fresh blood splatted on claws would surely look eyecathing. So here it is:

And some scale shots: here NBC suit squad is about to get to reactor guarded by the Thing:

And here - the Thing is about to get some plague zombie burgers:

Sherman M4A2(76)W

This one is kinda re-post of model painted recently.

As you remember (or not) it was painted for local paining contest. After all entres were done one of organisers asked me to prepare another set of pictures, because the ones I sent were too messy. Those pics were taken on painting desk (which I actually cleaned a bit before taking shots...) bur there were some painting stuff, mug, plinths or crap like that.

Back days I tried to use different backdrops: white sheets, printed backgrounds etc. All in all conslusion is I cannot take  decent photos using any background except "natural ones" you can see on my pics. But contest has it's rules so if you don't like them - don't participate. For the second set of photos I took the only bright t-shirt I found in the closet. It's linda beige but colors on the model turned out pretty fine. I now can see I could use one more lamp straight from above to get rid the shadows. But apart from that - ain't that bad.

Here's the gallery of all entries - take a look, some really cool miniatures were painted for the contest!
And the final results are here - check the small scale infantry!

CV-35 tankette (Hungarian army)

Last month was pretty busy - sadly busy in real life, not just having huge line of models waiting for painting. Worse luck next 2 months don't seem to look any better because of some shit job I got involved into, but I guess Mighty Universe wouldn't give me a quest I'm not able to deal with 🙄

Anyway a month ago I dealt with 39.M Csaba for upcoming Hungarian project and just yesteday CV-35 tankette rolled off the painting station. Just like the previous model it's printed (that works great for vehicles) except for the commander. This dude comes from Warlord's tank crew set. The driver is nothing special but there was no other opcton and the idea was to make tankette bit more unique - in case I ever want to get the second one for the Axis ally.

Painting was fun - not sure the camo pattern is what I wanted to achieve but working with Blu Tack on such a small and kinda busy surface was problematic (contrary to Hetzer and Toldi). So here it is - ready to stop soviet invasion on Budapest:

The tank crew set contained models standing on ordinary bases (ready to add them to infantry squad or something) and some to be placed into hatches. Again - to make model more unique (and even more properly Hungarian) I replaced original German tank comander with the Hungarian. It's slightly smaller compared to original model, but it can be barely noticed from a distance, It's only gaming model after all: 

Cthulhu bust

After 39.M Csaba was done the plan was to work on some more hungarian armor. But since these models are pretty cute I wanted to make them even cooler - by adding the crew. Lucky for me Warlord released hungarian tank crew set which can be used on vehicles remaining in the pile of shame and to replace original german officer running the Hetzer.

Since I was waiting to get the crew anyway, decision was made to splash some paint on other piece of resin chunk waiting on the very bottom of Ye Bucket. It's old Cthulhu bust. The idea to get it done was spawned, because recently I started reading some Call of Cthulhu RPG materials and having good time reading those spooky stories and scenarios. The model cannot help with potencial gaming (both RPG and miniatures) but it might be nice background for taking photos of adventurers or cursed Dagon cultists. It also can be used as office decoration or as melee weapon (that wooden base should easily crush any skull).

As for painting - I wouldn't even think about it without having an airbrush ready for action. Sadly lots of parts are really hard to get (not only for painting but also for cleaning mould lines) so I had to hide these flaws in deeper shadows, properly taken pictures and hobby cheats like that. Original base was resin cast of wooden block, but IMO it wasn't big enough for such a model so I got something bit larger (proper wood this time). 

Any conclusion?
It was huge pain in the ass to paint but I'm glad having one more piece painted. It's always nice feeling having another model saved from the jar of shame (one of few jars actually). This one was eating lots of precious storage space. Hope you like it anyway 🦑

Already in the office - temporarly. Will be guarding the papers until I find better place for the piece: