While Steve busily paints up his Australians for our North Africa campaign, I've been sneakily painting up the big cats of the desert war. Flak 88's and Tiger tanks are iconic of the desert campaign, and give the axis force the right flavor. Allied tanks rightly feared both. What you see in these photos are the base colors, transfers, and oils completed. Weathering powders and chipping have yet to be applied with exception of the rusty exhaust. I mean, who can resist painting a rusty exhaust right?
The tiger is modeled after the actual tiger 112, which fought in Tunisia before being turned into a parts bucket for other vehicles. After the war, parts from that Tiger ended up in Maryland, a quick drive away from Washington. (Greg, you finally get to see that Tiger!)
The flak 88 comes with two trailer sections that will eventually be painted to match.
When it came to basing the Perry Brother's miniatures, I was at a loss. With so many miniatures to base, and the weird double stacked base that needed filling, what I really needed was a colored putty that I could paint on. That would fill the ridge gaps, and provide the base for the powders. The solution ended up being pretty simple
- Desert Sand putty (dries rather springy) + Steel Legion Drab mixed in to darken it
- spread the putty all around the base
- add a few slate rocks
- liberally douse with SWM Burning Sands weathering power
At some point we are going to have to play a standard from the book bolt action game. The narrative games have been amazing. Now I am curious how the game stands up with equally matched forces. Would I enjoy playing this game in a tournament?
Another experiment worth trying is playing a game of 40K using hybridized Bolt Action rules. I love 40K, and I have a fun army to paint, but the rules and game durations have made the game more of a marathon than I like. Why not just bolt on the story and miniatures from 40k onto the Bolt Action rule set? It would be fun seeing Space Marines function they way they appear to in the novels. One 10 man squad should be able to take out a platoon of infantry without much difficulty.
John,
ReplyDeleteTiger looks great! Been waiting for that update. That is one of my all time favorite tanks. Just so iconic and rightly feared!
Have you tried the kill team rules for 40k? They utilize small point low model count battles on a smaller board size.
Either way, curious to see the implementation of bolt action and 40k! When it comes down to it, it is your models, and how you play with them is up to you! :)
Do you use the pigment fixer after dousing the bases? I finally picked up some brown and black oils and mineral spirits to have some fun trying to make Stiening streaks :).
I am not using pigment fixer at the moment. I managed to open the SWM fixer and dump it all over my desk by accident. I definitely see the need for a fixer these days. Once I get around to ordering more supplies I will give it a go. At the moment I am using Tamiya X-20A as the base for the pigments. It keeps them on....ish.
ReplyDeleteThe 88 was a beast in WWII does it's rules match up in the game? They are looking awesome man.. very clean smooth fades! 8)
ReplyDeleteI haven't even looked at the rules for the 88. I just had to have them so we could play out desert war scenarios as well as a certain D-Day assault from one LT Winters.
DeleteAll I know...is that in company of heroes, it meant instant death for the allies!
DeleteI hope it is not instant death rules wise, but you are right about the effectiveness. These are meant to make cool objectives for out flanking LRDG forces.
Delete" Rommel made the most effective use of the weapon, as he lured tanks of the British 8th Army into traps by baiting them with apparently retreating German panzers. A mere two flak battalions destroyed 264 British tanks throughout 1941"
DeleteHopefully they are not as unbalanced in the game! We are really flexible with rules around here, so if they seem to powerful, we can just make them objectives.
DeleteI've got a painting project that I can't share with you until this weekend. I think it will fit in well with your Orcs. (color-wise)
Wonderful! I'm putting people and oranges into the walkers today :). Then out comes the varnish then the salt!!!
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