British CMP 15cwt trucks

Two Rubicon Models British CMP 15cwt trucks for use with both my 2nd NZ Division and LRDG / SAS forces.

There's not much new here from a perspective of painting techniques as these models have been prepared to fit in with the Marmon-Herrington and M3 "Honey" Stuart for the New Zealanders, and the LRDG trucks for my Behind Enemy Lines force.

The Rubicon model has options for an open or enclosed tray, and if the canvas tilt is used then its back panel can be flipped open or tied shut. There can also be either one or two crew; a driver and an optional Bren gunner, positioned through a hatch in the roof. I decided on just the drivers as under the Bolt Action rules 15cwt trucks don't get an option for a gun.

The trucks were undercoated with Stynylrez yellow primer...

...and then base coated in VMA UK BSC 64 Portland Stone. The canvas tilt was painted with VMA Sand Yellow.

I created a simple hard-edged camouflage pattern by masking the vehicles and then spraying areas with VMC Light Green Blue.

The masking removed to show the light blue-grey colour that once weathered will end up a slivery-grey.

Air recognition RAF decals added to the roof and unit markings added to the front bumpers. The NZ Division silver fern was added on the left, and a red "52" for the 20th Battalion to the right.
 
There wasn't anywhere convenient to add the unit markings, so after having a look at some historical examples showing the location of markings I decided to affix a small plate to each side of the bumpers. I ended up making these from scrap sprue (specifically some of the parts numbers from the Rubicon kits), and then painting them to match.

After attaching the wheels and sealing the acrylic paint, AMMO of Mig Jimenez Ochre for Light Sand was used as a filter coat.

First truck fully finished with AK Interactive Africa Dust added to edges and areas where dust would build up, and finally some AK North Africa dust pigment dusted on and another sealing coat applied.

 And second truck done.

Next up the second section for the LRDG / SAS force.

LRDG & SAS troops

Some disreputable lads and their "borrowed" truck.

The first infantry finished for my Bolt Action Behind Enemy Lines force.

I decided I could tackle 10 without feeling overwhelmed and settled on a dismounted LRDG officer and his #2 along with a full strength SAS section, to ride in my captured Opel Blitz (which will be a "counts as" 30 cwt truck with a transport capacity of 10, rather than its original size).

All of the figures used are from Artizan, mostly from their SAS and LRDG range, though the chap with the Vickers K snuck in from the Commandos.

The figures were all primed with Stynylrez yellow and then basecoated largely following Artizan's 8th Army North Africa Colour Guide (PDF). Most of the paints used were the listed Vallejo colours, the flesh is Reaper MSP tanned flesh and flesh wash.

Army Painter Light tone was then used on the KD uniform, beige webbing, berets, and keffiyeh, while Soft tone was used on the darker woolen uniform. Military shader was used on the officer's khaki jersey and the khaki knitted hats.

After the washes highlights were applied in lightened tones of the base colours, and the figures based with fairly simple sand.

LRDG officer and his rather rough looking assistant.

These two could be SAS but just felt like LRDG to me, so the officer has a little brass badge on his hat for a scorpion.

SAS NCO, Vickers K gunner and loader

The NCO of the SAS section got a small plant on his base (like the officer) to make him easy to identify. The section only has a single LMG but it's been upgraded to a Vickers K, though the eagle-eyed will notice that his loader is rather unhelpfully carrying extra Bren clips. I'll have to add some round drums to another loader and swap this chap to a Bren team later.

SAS lads up to no good

The fellow on the left has a large pair of bolt cutters and is rather suspiciously clutching a satchel that's likely to contain something dangerous.

Rest of the section

Two riflemen and another Thompson wielding keffiyeh wearer round out the eight man SAS section.

So, that's HQ and one section, one more section and it'll be a legitimate (albeit, small) force ready to accompany my two LRDG trucks, and truck with Breda.

The second section will however also need transport, but fortunately for them the nice people at Rubicon recently released a CMP 15 cwt, which may be next up on the table.
 

LRDG truck with captured Breda gun

Finally it's off the bench. This addition to the LRDG patrol has taken far too long to finish, and I'm not completely sold on the outcome unfortunately.

My painting got put on enforced hiatus as we were getting the house painted - so at least some painting was going on - but my table was covered up to prevent dust and paint getting everywhere and modelling just wasn't an option for a while.

Afterwards it was a matter of trying (and failing) to get back in to the habit of getting even a little painting done each night, rather than just putting things off.

Offensive Miniatures Chevy, Company B Chevy, Company B Blitz Buggy

Unlike the previous LRDG trucks this one isn't a Warlord model, instead coming from the Offensive Miniatures 8th Army range. At about the same time I picked up a couple of vehicles and some crew from Company B; the crew in the front seat of this Breda armed truck are from Company B.

Size-wise the OM truck is a pretty good fit with Warlord - a bit shorter and a bit wider - but the figures I'm using for infantry are from Artizan and the OM figures are somewhat smaller. While that's not too noticeable on the Breda crew I wanted the front seat crew to match more closely. The Company B crew (sculpted by Paul Hicks) are quite similar in size and style to the other figures I'm using. The stowage is also a mix of the two.

The truck went together very easily, the Breda... not so much.  I ended up looking at as many reference photos as I could find, and concluded that the assembled example on the OM site doesn't actually quite mach the historical images around the sighting bar placement.

The truck, gun, and crew were all primed with Stynylrez yellow primer, and then the truck and gun were basecoated with an overall spray of VMA UK Light Stone, while the crew got VMC Iraqi Sand.

Freehand camouflage was added in VMA Hellblau (RLM65) for the blue, and a 1:1 mix of VGA Pale Flesh and VMA US Desert Sand for the pink.  I should have gone back and checked my own notes and used the 3:1 ratio as the Pink has almost disappeared after the weathering. (Mistake #1.)

Company B LRDG decals were added and sealed, crew, stowage, and accessories finished, and the components assembled.

The whole model was given a sealing coat and allowed to dry before weathering. For some reason I used Italeri Flat Acrylic for the sealant where previously I've been using AK Interactive Ultra Matte. Whether this was the cause, or the hot and humid weather we'd been having I don't know, but the enamels seemed to react a little with the sealant and ended up a bit sticky. (Mistake #2.)

 The truck was 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...and into some of the sticky areas.  The crew got a half-strength filter coat so they too would have the dusty desert look.

The end result is... OK?  I'm just not as happy with the outcome as with the two previous LRDG trucks, but at least the three are now done, which I suppose means I should get onto the infantry and the other transport vehicles.

Here's all three (with the captured Opel Blitz in the background), and a final size comparison photo.

Left to Right: Warlord LRDG Chevy, Offensive Miniatures LRDG Chevy with Breda, Rubicon Models Opel Blitz.

Reaper Yeti

Another not very productive month on the miniatures front, but I managed to squeak something else out before October. After the Hill Giants I thought continuing to work on the Bones would be good and picked out the four Yeti (or is that "Yetis"?) sculpted by Jason Wiebe from the Reaper Bones III Kickstarter.  Three of the four are available now in Bones from the Reaper store: Yeti Warrior, Yeti Shredder, and Yeti Shaman. The Chieftain doesn't seem to be available just yet in Bones, only in the original metal.

The Bones figures are all pretty good, though comparing with the metals it appears that the fingernails / claws of the new figures perhaps lack some definition. There are also the to-be-expected Bones mould lines, which I personally find quite hard to see before undercoating and then alarmingly obvious afterwards.

The Yeti were undercoated with a mix of MSP Sapphire Blue and Sealer, thinned for the airbrush. At the same time I undercoated the Ice Troll by Ben Siens, also available in Bones. (Interestingly the metal original is listed a "Hellborn Troll".)  He got a similar undercoat but with Denim Blue (and turns up in some of the photos).

The Yeti got some blue wash (AP Blue Tone) followed by several dry-brush applications, each lighter and dryer than the previous. The first coat was 2:1 White to Sapphire Blue, then 4:1, and then 12:1, and finally MSP Pure White.

MSP Yellowed Bone, Graveyard Bone, and Splintered Bone were applied to claws, and the skull on the Chieftain's shoulder. AP Phoenix Flames followed by Babe Blonde was used for the eyes, and AP Gorgon Hide for eyebrows. MSP Stone Grey to stone details, and MSP Murky Brown, Tanned Leather, and Oiled leather used for final areas.

The bases had also been painted in AP Gorgon Hide (a pale bluish off-white), and were coated with thinned PVA and scattered with Army Painter "Snow" grit.

The Ice Troll is still to be finished, along with an intrepid (and about to be seriously inconvenienced) Arctic Explorer, and Ogres are also clamoring for attention... along with an LRDG truck.

Oh well, perhaps October will be more productive.

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.