Reaper Hill Giants

With Bones 4 just finished on Kickstarter, and Bones 3 being delivered recently, I looked at the veritable mountain of unpainted Reaper miniatures I have hiding in every corner of the hobby room and decided to make a token gesture towards resolving this.

Burrowing through the pile I settled on the pair of Hill Giants that were part of Bones 2 four years ago. (Four years? Egads!)  Both are now available from the Reaper store: Golan, sculpted by Jason Wiebe, and Krug, by Tre Manor.

While cleaning them up and dry fitting parts they seemed to me to resemble a couple of movie characters, and so they have been dubbed Mr. Hyde and Mr. Gibbs. I'd note that mould lines became more obvious after undercoating... and could perhaps have been revisited (but weren't).

My previous experience with Bones had highlighted the hydrophobic properties of the plastic, and I wanted a really good foundation for the basecoat colours. Following advice from Reaper on priming and undercoating the miniatures were first washed thoroughly and then given a coat of Reaper MSP Murky Brown mixed with Reaper sealer (all thinned slightly to go through the airbrush).

 The base colours were a mixture of Reaper (MSP), Army Painter (AP), and Vallejo (VMA/VMC/VGC), all in the brown range. The MSP Tanned Flesh was mixed with a little brown to darken the first layers, lightened on successive layers. AP tones/washes were used on the furs and hair, and MSP Flesh Wash on the skin areas.

 Mr. Gibbs has iron manacles but otherwise I wanted to keep the metal areas in the gold/brown range so these were painted with either VMC Brass or AP Copper. These were darkened with AP Strong Tone, re-highlighted with metal, and then shaded with a mix of AP Green and Blue tone to create something of a weathered verdigris effect.

Golan got pink added to new scars, old scars were paled down, various skin lesions were added, and fur dry brushed to create texture.

Mr. Gibbs got some of the same, plus his bandages were painted using MSP bone shades, and the center shield on his belt coloured with VMC Black red to create a leather effect.

As I don't have a Garrick the Bold aka Sir Forscale I've substituted another knight...

...and that other universal standard of miniature scale: Brother Scala using his auspex to detect hostile xenos.

Next up... not sure yet , though I have another LRDG truck on the bench, this one with a Breda in the back.

Opel Blitz - under new management

After the two LRDG Chevrolet trucks with their masses of stowage, and as I been having trouble finding time to paint, I wanted to do something light and quick.  That was the plan anyway.

I've been wanting some transport for my Bolt Action LRDG/SAS force and rather liked the look of the Rubicon Models SdKfz 305 Opel Blitz.  Reuse of captured enemy vehicles was fairly common in the desert war so my plan was to use this model, but for simplicity as a "counts as" British truck for rules and transport capacity.  This Opel Blitz version is 3-ton, but the largest truck available in the "Behind Enemy Lines" list is half that at 30 cwt.  To indicate that only part of the larger vehicle is available for troop transport I decided to add... stowage.

I built a small block of stowage from some foam board (to give it height) topped with a pile of boxes under a tarp from Rubicon's Allied Stowage, along with a fuel drum and the spare wheel from the Opel Blitz kit. The German driver from the kit was replaced with an LRDG driver from a Rubicon Commonwealth jeep, with his legs trimmed off to fit into the cab.

After priming with Stynylrez yellow the truck body was basecoated Dunkelgelb and the rear section in a mid-brown. I painted a small dark shield-like shape on each truck door and then applied a small DAK insignia.  The body was then over-painted in UK Light Stone, with care taken to not fully obscure the DAK palm trees.The idea was to give the impression of a hurriedly re-painted vehicle; the interior of the cab is still Dunkelgelb, though this turned out to be nearly impossible to see without peering inside and using a light source.

An RAF air recognition insignia was added to the roof of the now British truck, along with a bundled up German flag that could be used in the event that pesky Luftwaffe were spotted. (I'm not sure if the LRDG ever did this, but have certainly read of the SAS carrying false air recognition signs painted onto boards.)

After a coat of varnish the truck was weathered with AMMO of Mig Jimenez Ochre for Light Sand as a filter coat on the truck body and Brown for Dark Yellow on the rear section, AK Interactive Africa Dust added to edges and crevices, and finally some AK North Africa dust pigment, mostly on the tires.

 

 Not sure what's next, but there are some Ghar staring at me.

LRDG Trucks completed

 

Finally. These two LRDG trucks and their six crew have taken much longer to complete than any of the previous vehicles. So much stowage.  And it hasn't helped that time available to paint has been less available.

Following on from the work in progress post, the basecoats were built up and the many, many pieces of stowage were painted, repainted, washed, and highlighted. The wheel hubs were airbrushed by making a small paper and tape mask to shield the rubber and light stone, blue, or pink was applied.

The Company B decals were added to both vehicles; the decals needed to have excess backing trimmed and were susceptible to surface scratching - more so than other decals I've used. The scratching wasn't very important as they were going to get weathered anyway, but it meant I had to be very careful during the process.

Each of the six crew was detailed, though I'm still not happy with my ability to do faces. The Warlord crew are in a nice variety of clothes, a mix of KD shirts and shorts, leather chaplis sandals, BD trousers and jerseys, FS and knitted caps, and the iconic Arab keffiyeh headdress. 

The crew and vehicles were assembled and varnished, and then weathered in much the same manner as the Marmon-Herrington armoured car using AMMO of Mig Jimenez Ochre for Light Sand as a filter coat, with AK Interactive Africa Dust added to edges and areas were dust would build up, and finally some AK North Africa dust pigment was added, mostly to the tires.

A final coat of varnish, and the first two LRDG 30 cwt trucks are finally ready to roll off my worktable.

I'm not sure what I'll do next.  Ideally it should either be Konflikt '47 infantry or some more of this "Behind Enemy Lines" force, but I think it'll have to be something simple and relaxing.

Konflikt 47 US Heavy Infantry

Work and other activities continue to reduce painting, but I did manage to complete five US Heavy Infantry for Konflikt '47.

The figures were primed with Vallejo Olive Drab surface primer before being base coated with VMA Olive Drab.

AK Interactive paints from a US Army set supplied red leather, canvas tone, field drab, and olive green for the belts, pouches, boots, and bits of equipment on the models. The US flags and the Sgt.'s stripes came courtesy of some Warlord paratrooper decals.

After sealing the acrylic an Ammo of Mig enamel wash was used - the same as for the M5A2 Coyote. I'd decided that as these models were encased in heavy armor that I'd treat them almost as mini-vehicles and repeat the same weathering techniques that I'd used on the walker, just a little less heavily.

The figures got some scavenged 30mm bases - the standard Warlord bases looked just a little small, but the Warlord 40mm bases looked huge.  These ones were donated by some Dreamforge troopers and seem to fir well. The bases were finished with some flock and Army Painter "tufts".

One of these days I might even have a finished Konflikt '47 force... just have to actually paint some standard infantry now.

Next up though there are two LRDG 30cwt trucks that are ever-so-slowly moving towards completion.

WIP and Winston Churchill

A work in progress post plus a single completed (sans base) personality figure.

I was unable to resist the urge to get a copy of the Operation Sea Lion book for Bolt Action, and local supplier Mighty Ape (who have a pretty good range of Warlord) also provided the launch figure of Winston Churchill with a tommy gun which provided some fun (and eye-strain) painting up. He still needs a base, which will of course have to be "green and pleasant".

Aside from Winny, I've been working on, but failing to complete some Konflikt '47 US heavy infantry, and two LRDG 30 cwt Chevrolet trucks.

Various home-life related things have meant I haven't had quite the same time or enthusiasm for painting these last couple of weeks, so the US troops are still sitting there waiting for detailing. The basic colours are done, but washes and highlights are needed, and as they are almost small walking vehicles I'm planning to use some armour weathering techniques too.

I did however get enthused to start work on my LRDG patrol, which along with some SAS sections will make a Bolt Action army using the "Behind Enemy Lines" theater selector. The LRDG portion of the army will be using LRDG Chevys from Warlord, Offensive Miniatures, and Company B; starting out with two Warlord trucks that have been waiting for quite a while.  I really like the Warlord LRDG vehicles, but they only have machine guns, the Offensive and Company B trucks will be providing a Breda and 37mm AT gun portee respectively.

The Warlord trucks, and a Jeep that came as part of the same bundle, have resin bodies with metal wheels, bumpers, guns, and crew. The trucks bodies are two part: a common front end, and two different rear sections stuffed with stowage. Each also comes with three crew: a driver that is the same for both, and front and rear gunners that are specific to the variants. The crew all have separate heads, with extras to choose from, so quite a bit of variety is possible.

The trucks went together very easily - one front section had a slightly warped under-carriage, but that was quickly fixed with some hot water while cleaning the pieces.

After assembly all were primed with Stynylrez yellow primer, the wheels were left off and painted separately. (The bumper is missing from the Jeep in this shot - I found it later in the packaging.)

I wasn't sure how best to spray the wheels, so some cocktail forks and a kebab skewer got turned into a makeshift frame with the wheels threaded on. These were first primed grey, and then painted with VMA Panzer Black Grey.

I thought I might try pre-shading the trucks, so sprayed dark (VMA Khaki No. 3) and light (Reaper Splintered Bone) on areas before applying the basecoat. It was a fairly subtle effect but is visible on the models; I still need to work on applying thin coats of paint.

The trucks were given an overall spray of VMA UK Light Stone, and then freehand camouflage patches of light blue and desert pink.  I had a hunt through my paints before settling on VMA Hellblau (RLM65) for the blue, and a 3:1 mix of VGA Pale Flesh and VMA US Desert Sand for the pink.  The first attempt at pink used a 1:1 mix, and looked about where I want the colour to end up, but once weathered would I think have pretty much disappeared, so I over-painted with the more pink mix.

Currently the trucks are getting their crews and all the stowage painted, and I'm waiting on decals from Company B with "T Patrol" markings.

M5A2 Coyote & Sherman T - Konflikt '47

After getting a bit distracted by the Marmon-Herrington and X-Wing, the US troops for Konflikt '47 have finally got back on track with a M5A2 Coyote light walker and M4A9 Sherman-T medium tank completed.

The walker does need a base, but I'm still considering how to base the US troops generally and want them consistently themed, so that can wait a bit.

Both were primed in the same way as the M8 Grizzly walker with Vallejo US Olive Drab surface primer, and then base-coated with some colour modulation using VMA US Olive Drab as the base, darkening with RLM 70 Black Green and lightening with Yellow Ochre.

Decals came from the Warlord Sherman kit and from a Rubicon Models generic Commonwealth sheet. On the walker I added a US flag on the right shoulder (as I'd done for the Grizzly) to blur the lines a little between vehicle and troop markings because of the walker's humanoid shape.

For the Coyote I decided to go a bit further, and as it's a one man suit decided to add rank markings. Carefully cutting apart a German cross provided some appropriately sized chevrons which got added to the left "fore-arm".

  

The Sherman's Tesla gun was painted with a Vallejo Dark Blue and then given several progressively lighter coats by adding Reaper MSP Sapphire Blue and LED Blue, each leaving a little of the darker colours in the depths. The final colours were pure MSP LED Blue and then some fine lines of MSP Maggot White.

 

When it came to weathering I changed the filter a bit.  I was happy with how the Grizzly turned out but felt that the Dark Brown for Green enamel (intended for use on Soviet armour) was perhaps just a bit dark and decided to try a lighter tone.

Both the tank and the walker were given a wash of Ammo of Mig Brown for German Dark Yellow. This didn't darken the olive drab as much but did seem to enrich the colour. I'm very happy with that result and plan to use the same wash on my heavy armoured troopers.

Streaking grime was used on the tank particularly and I had my first go with using an airbrush to spray mud off a paintbrush to create splashes.  Tip for the novice: reduce air pressure.  After cleaning up the initial mess I gently added new splashes.

I'm mostly happy with the final effects, the weathering is something I need to practice and work on; it's all a learning experience.

I also have five US heavy infantry partially completed, but am starting to feel LRDG-ish, so we'll have to see what gets painted next.

Bandai X-Wing 1/72 - mostly out-of-box build

Something slightly different - even considering my getting distracted and working on this and that. A couple of weeks back I received a Bandai Millenium Falcon 1/144 kit as a belated birthday present from my wife.  I'm intending to paint, detail and light the kit so my son was a bit disappointed that we couldn't just dive into an "out of the box" build; he and I have built a few Bandai Gundams in past.

I decided to pick up another kit from the same same range and build it with him just as it came, not painting, using the vinyl stickers rather than waterslide transfers, and so on. A local supplier was having a bit of a sale and I bought a Bandai X-Wing Red Squadron box.

The kit comes with two X-Wings, one at 1/72 which we planned to build, and one at 1/144 which I'm holding on to and will paint up to accompany the Falcon. Like all of the Bandai kits I've seen the engineering and detailing is superb, and the kit goes together without requiring glue. In many ways they're more 3D puzzles than traditional military kitsets.  

The kit is branded as "Rogue One" and the supplied stickers have squadron markings for Red 1 through 5 (by adding additional red flashes to the wings). The pilot was supplied in white plastic, with some helmet stickers, and the astromech came with gold stickers.

My son however was keen on Luke's "A New Hope" Red 5, which is where a little painting came in. He was happy with the vehicle markings as supplied, but wanted the pilot to be more like Luke and the astromech as R2D2.

So, orange jumpsuit with white harness, chest panel, etc., and a blue and silver droid. I also decided to paint the cockpit too in a very basic scheme as I'd some problems with the cockpit stickers. The large stickers are fine, and nicely detailed, but the the small stickers don't have much surface area for adhesion, and when you're trying to affix them to complex shapes it can be a little frustrating.

The paint-job was fairly basic, after priming the jumpsuit was painted with Reaper MSP Lava Orange and shaded with Army Painter Jumpsuit shader. I had intended to use AP Prison Jumpsuit (from an AP Zombicide paint set I'd picked up) but the AP orange was watery and useless. All of the other AP paints I've used have been great; I don't know if this is just an isolated case, or if the Zombicide sub-brand are different. The shader was fine, I'll have to try out the other paints in the set. The rest of the painting was mostly Vallejo this and that, and the helmet got the supplied waterslide red rebel symbols.

One warning for kit builders: the pilot cannot be fitted into the assembled cockpit. While the pilot and droid were being painted the build continued. The droid can be put in by removing a single part and sliding another (no glue remember), but after the pilot was ready we discovered that a large proportion of the fuselage had to be carefully disassembled to get his feet under the dashboard.

After finally getting the pilot in, many, many more stickers were added in order to get Red 5 ready to make that one in a million shot.

And now back to Konflikt '47 US troops... probably...