Dusty little jeep and friends

There have been some bad news regarding our planned LRDG game. The convention we were supposed to be playing at will probably be cancelled. While there are other conventions in our general area they are all too early in time, so our planning is all off. We will probably be hosting a game at one of them, but it will not be the LRDG game. So there's a bit of conundrum for us: firstly we all have invested some time, and not a little amount of money buying stuff for the game. In my case I have bought a Caproni bomber model as well as some italian figures and a staff vehicle from SHQ. Secondly, we have to figure out (pardon the pun) a suitable scenario and prepare the forces needen, in a short time. Therefore we have to do something eastern front since we have a lot of suitable terrain and large german and soviet forces. However our gimmick is to play a battle from 70 years ago, so this year we have to do something that happened in 1942. Most of our stuff will still be usable so there will be a minimum of investment in new stuff. Although those long-barreled Panzer F2 do look very tempting... yes, a platoon of those will do. Just a small one though...

All this mean that my motivation for working on the LRDG project has been quite low. I still plan to finish it and we will probably playing a small game on our own, but it's more work than fun now, sadly. Since I sort of ran out of steam I haven't finished allt the vehicles, but I thought I would show what I have done so far.

The harsh contrasts of the chipping has been muted by MIG Pigments.

I have been working on bases and the jeep is now officially finished, except for the passenger. I redid the herry cans on the side and highlighted the wheels before mounting it on a base. The base was clipped from an old credit card and covered with Vallejo base gel and painted with Vallejo 847 Dark-  and 837 Light Sand.

I like the dusty look the pigments bring, but perhaps the backpacks should be more shaded.

The base gel contains some very fine granules which gives it texture and mimics the fine desert sand. My jar is grey so it needs colouring. Earlier I tried to mix it with pigments but I have found that it's both easier and better to just paint and drybrush it normally after drying.

The jeep and base was dusted with MIG P030 Beach Sand to tie it all together and mute the shades and highlights somewhat. The effect will lessen a little bit when varnishing though.

The Ford nearing completion, just some small details left.

The Ford was painted in the same way as the jeep, including chipping and weathering with pigments. I'm still thinking about adding a second lewis gun.

The Ford has a real couch as front seats for that extra comfort.

I stippled light grey on the sand channels to make them stand out a bit and suggest they are more heavily chipped than the rest of the car. I also made sure that pigments got stuck in the holes in the sand channels.

Notice the "flimsy" can in the back.

I tried to figure out how to accentuate the wood grain of the rear body. Ideally I should try to emulate the way paint scrapes off wood as opposed to the metal of the main bodywork. In the end I just painted the wood in the same way as the rest.

The gunner is now gripping the trigger of his gun properly.

Next up is the Chevrolet which will recieve exactly the same treatment.

The crew figures have a new member.

I dug out my old box of Revell Scottish Infantry, 8th army. It contains a very unuseable figure. He is sitting on an old oil drum, apparently eating his rations. However, it appears as he is sticking the spoon into his right ear which looks a bit silly. As all the other figures are in action poses I never used these (you get three in a box!) but figured I could make something of them now. So I carved away the barrel and cut off the spoon, which gives me a nice radio operator for the back of the Ford. Not sure if I should keep the helmet or change the head for something else.

So there you have it. Work plods along, but my mind is already on the next project. I must steel myself for the home stretch now. Otherwise they will never get finished, which would be a real shame.