Filming My Painting

I figured it was about time for me to film some of my projects. What you see here is my first attempt doing that. I found it incredibly awkward trying to paint with a camera getting in my way, but I think with a less invasive setup this will work out. As a test video, I did not both to narrate or even finish the model. This is just some simple paint chipping using Vallejo black brown. After the whole model is chipped, I'll get some streaking done on it.

Caestus Assault Ram WIP 1

It has been an incredibly stressful, but very good week for my family. April was a month filled with closure. To reward myself, I grabbed a Caestus Assault Ram which I had been hoarding for years in my forgworld drawer of shame. The is still quite a bit of stuff to paint on this beast. The biggest decision right now is what color to paint the missile pods. I was thinking of adding red, but that may be a bit too much. The missile tips themselves could be red if the housing were not. In any event, I am looking forward to adding smoke stains out the back of the missile pods, where the blast would vent that might necessitate a lighter color like off-white.

I should add, that as an eBay purchase, this model was fairly disappointing. Virtually nothing fit together right during construction. I don't remember my last Caestus being this far out of square.

Space Wolves Classic Rhino WIP Part 2

I may paint more than one of these, so It is time for some recipes.

Yellow

• Vallejo Model Air RAL 7028 Dark Yellow base
• GW Yriel Yellow mid tone
• GW Yriel Yellow + Vallejo RAL 1015 Pale Sand 50/50

Blue/Grey

• GW The Fang Air
• GW Russ Grey Air
• GW Fennrisian Grey Air

Interior

• Vallejo model air RLM 84 Grey  base
• Vallejo model air 70918 Ivory mixed into the above  highlight

Now that the housekeeping is done. The major progress here is on paint chipping, some filters, and some streaking effects. I went with German command vehicle markings to try and tone down the viking child handwriting rune stuff GW Space Wolf vehicles sometimes have going on. I like how the white and red contrast nicely with the pale blue, and echo the warmth of the yellow doors.

In terms of iconography, I've decided to use the SW company symbol instead of that of any one great company. I just think it looks more regal. These guys need to look less wild and more compenent  as they march off to kill Thousand Sons. All the normal space wolf stuff is just too overboard for me. Accent, not feature should be the key here.

Space Wolves Classic Paint Scheme WIP

I decided to take a break from painting WW2 miniature for a while and up a classic Space Wolves rhino. I've been in a pensive mood of late, resigned to the fact that I will be spending the next two weeks in court suing the destroyer of my company. With that in the background, I needed something classic and simple to paint. I've never liked the powder blue space wolves color scheme, but since I already had the GW air brush paints, it seemed like as good a choice as any.

First off, I have no idea what thinner to use with these airbrush paints. I tried X20-A and alcohol. Alcohol caused the paint to clump up. X20-A appeared to do the trick, but I did have drying issued with the air brush needle. Overall, I like the paints. I am impressed with their translucency, and ease of blending. I think the model speaks for itself. Even in just base colors, it looks pretty interesting.

Now that the base coat is down, the next step is paint chipping. I'll follow that with a coat of varnish and then oils. The GW airbrush paint is not terribly durable, so I think it is wise to skip past the details and get some varnish on the surface to protect it. I am concerned about the blue paint cracking due to the varnish drying, but there is not much I can do about that besides keeping the varnish layer thin.

It will be interesting to see if historical model weathering techniques can make this goofy color scheme work.

German Halftracks 1/72 Scale WIP

Germans had an unusual approach to painting camouflage on vehicles during ww2. For large stretches of the war vehicles were delivered in dark yellow, and it was up to crews to paint the camouflage on. For a modeler, this has the advantage that there are a huge variety of camouflage patterns.

Since our group is continuing to delve into Bolt Action at 1/72 scale, and I had already painted up US half tracks and trucks, it was time to give the german players some transport vehicles to use. I went for dark yellow with color modulation with green stripes meant to look like crew members sprayed on the green paint. These models still require some streaking grime and pigment work, but they are probably usable in this state.

As interesting as German paint schemes are, I am excited to give British 8th army a shot. Their early vehicles sometimes used sand color, grey, light blue, and pink in a bewildering sharp pattern.

Easy 28mm Sandbags Made Out of Chew Pouches

Sandbags are a big part of a city table I am planning, so I figured it was time to do some experimenting. What I need flexible sand bags,  so they will conform to terrain. Enter the chew pouch. I found these wintergreen pouches on amazon and have been using them in my experiments. All I do is soak the bags in glue and then press them into place. A quick airbrush of paint and a dousing in weathering powder and I am done. A word of warning though, these bags come wet, and they smell like the worst kind of wintergreen ever. They are repugnant. Resist the urge to try one just because you bought a bunch. Once you've tasted these, it is hard to even work with them.

Smaller pouches can be found. I plan to use pouches about 1/2 this size for our 1/72 boards.

Royal Tiger Bolt Action 1/72

I've been experimenting with camouflage for a while now, however I've been posting the results of that work. The Royal Tiger here (using the terminology from "Tigers In The Mud") was my attempt at German three color camouflage from the western front. This color scheme was produced using poster tack to mask off areas of the tank. The tracks are not complete yet, nor have the oil stains been added, but I think this guy could show up in a game and nobody would complain. 

I warned you with rant brackets so here goes... This model came with vinyl tracks. The directions said that a heated screwdriver should be used to melt each track into a single piece. That worked exceedingly poorly for me. Everything about working with these vinyl tracks was awful, and the huge mess I made on them means that I have to put way more mud on the tracks than I normally would want to. 

Just say no to vinyl. 

Foam Board Bricks Using Weathering Powders

This morning I decided to experiment with some brick painting techniques. Since I did not have bricks, I had to first create a quick brick wall segment to work on. I suspect that lots of folks have problems building terrain out of foam board, so what follows is a quick tutorial on creating the little wall segment I made above. I did this quick and dirty, with little attention to detail. If you want a better result, definitely spend more time carefully sculpting the bricks. For me though, this was just enough to let me experiment with powders. 

There are two ways I know of getting the effect of mortar on bricks. The first is using enamels. I am partial to that method already, because cleanup and blending is quite easy using thinner. I already use enamels on most of my models, so it is not much of a step to use them on buildings. 

The second approach is to use pigments to simulate mortar. This has the advantage that the grainy texture of the pigments add a lot to the realism. The down side is that pigments are very messy and do not wear well for gaming miniatures. Irrespective of this fact, I think I prefer the pigment method. There is a nice tactile quality to the process, and the results are nearly instantaneous. The above wall segment took about an hour in total. The next step would have been to add dirt, streaking effects, and perhaps some mossy areas. Due to  purity seal foggy on me, I don't get to experiment further. That wall segment is currently a fuzzy white color. Damn you purity seal! (It bears mentioning again, never, ever, ever, EVER, use lacquer from a spray can. By brush or by airbrush are models protected)

When sculpting with foam board it is necessary to peal off one of the paper sides in order to expose the foam.

To sculpt the bricks I used an exact knife and tooth pick. A press mold is a better way to accomplish this. I normally take an old paint brush and pull out the bristles. The metal tip can then be bent into a nice rectangle shape and used as a mold.

To get a nice smooth finish I put on a little modeling paste. My paste had dried out so it was not ideal. Again, take time doing this.

A quick sanding of the bricks and plasterwork provides a relatively nice surface to paint.

I used three colors of paint for the bricks. The goal was to provide a nice top coat on the plaster. You can see how my sloppy brick work really shows through!

The fun step involves loading up the model with Secret Weapon Miniatures white weathering powder. I haven't had a use for this color before.

After working the powder in with a brush I licked my finger and used it to rub away the powder on the bricks. The weathering powder tastes terrible by the way.