Advancing on all fronts!

Two weeks have already passed on the new year. Since it's my goal to update this blog once a week I'm already behind! But I haven't been sitting idle, on the contrary! I have been working on a number of different stuff, snapping pics occasionally for a future blog post, and here I am with two dozens of Work in Progress-pictures... doh!

GHQ SdKfz 11, small but insanely detailed. The base is only 30x20mm.

In the left column you can see I have started a list of painted figures during 2013. So far there's only one item added it to it, a german half-track in 6mm scale shown above. I have even played a game already, but I don't have any pictures of either the finished figure or the game... Double-doh! The game was IABSM, an old scenario of the month called "Two fat ladies -- 88", set in the desert during 1941. It was a blast, everyone had a fun time while being flabbergasted (love that word) by the resilience of Italian troops and tanks at this stage during the war. What about the rest of the stuff I have done then? Well, I'll show you.


I have been working simultaneously on my PSC StuGs and Universal Carriers. While converting figures for the carrier crews I also started basing my PSC british and thinking about how to paint them. While I had my bases and movement trays out I also based a couple of the PSC german heavy weapons.

My kitchen table today, two hours before my mom was to arrive for lunch.

I have also been playing Lego LotR and watching the LotR movies with my kids, so the figures from the Hobbit battle game has also been on my mind and I have been trying out different ways of painting the goblins.

The barrels on the Stugs were drilled out.

Work on the StuGs meant assembling the two vehicles still left in the box. I didn't attach the skirts for ease of painting, otherwise I glued everything on. Some modifications were made like drilling out the barrel ends on the guns and adding some stowage.

Green stuff simulating cast iron and weld lines.

I also stippled liquid green stuff on the mantlets to simulate the rough texture of cast iron. Since there was a join right down the middle I needed to fill and smooth it anyway. I also tried to add weld lines along the shot deflector in front of the commander's cupola, but I don't think it will show much after painting.

One of the StuGs got a commander in the cupola even though they would button down in combat.

I have basecoated the StuGs in GW Tau Sept Ochre, a foundation paint not available any more. It's too cold to spray outside right now so I have to basecoat by hand even though I hate it.

Ahh, a pair of beauties. Only basecoated so far though...

On a similar note I have been thinking about how to paint the Carriers. I got the a tip of highlighting Tamiya's Olive Drab with dark yellow (in this case GW Iyanden Darksun, another foundation paint) to weather it and off-set the scale effect. After trying it though I read that british vehicles greener than the U.S. vehicles. I also replaced the bren guns supplied in the kit with left-over guns from PSC's british infantry set. If you recall I complained about the guns in the carrier kit being too bulky to fit and lacking the flash supressor. Strangely the guns in the infantry kit were more slender and all had their flash supressors intact. It's strange because I think the PSC kits and figures are digitally sculpted, meaning the sculpt for the gun could (would?) have been copied straight to the carrier kit. Maybe I just got a dodgy copy.

Test paint on the left, a bit too brownish for my taste. Also note the bren guns.

Next photo is of a couple of test paints from the PSC british set. They are identically painted except for the webbing as I wanted to test two different colours. In the end I wasn't satisfied with any of them and settled for a third colour for the webbing. I will be doing a full tutorial later so I won't reveal anything now, except that they are painted over a white basecoat and shaded with the Army painter 'dip'.

British test figures. The glare is from the Army painter dip that dries glossy.

I don't have any pictures of the Hobbit figures unfortunately. So far I have only been splashing various shades of ink on white-coated Goblins. I'm a bit intimidated by all the dwarfs, so I have been putting them off for a while now... perhaps I need to rewatch the movie.