So what happened?

Yeah, I wasn't making bad progress for a bit.

Unfortuately several issues hit, but an excess of work has been the main thing, as well as concentrating my very limited modelling time into something else (hopefully I can get a photo of this soon, need to order one final piece for this), and doing a couple of odd jobs for the railway.

Also my painting project was:

a) Taking more time than planned

b) Caused me to loose some inspiration, which can happen with big tank groups.

Nevertheless I've finished 5 M48 Pattons for my Jordanians, including two conversions of early M48 models (with the fuel tanks). Hopefully I will have some more of these finished soon, and that will put this project to bed.

Adventures in Speedpaint 3

Here we have a Reaper Bones Wraith. She has been an experiment in painting etheral creatures with a white zenithal highlight, over grey, picking out a few areas in thinned colours (the scythe, for example) then giving a thinned speedpaint wash of Malignant Green. Following this she was based, had the face hood emphsised with just Malignant Green and the lamp picked out. I also experimented with OSL. Total time taken, about an hour.

More Progress

I've been on leave this week, so have actually made some decent progress, getting 12 models painted.

First up, 2 T-70 Light Tanks and 4 BA-64 Armoured Cars. The T-70s are PSC and expand my existing collection (I only needed one as a command tank, but got a spare due to a botched order). These are good kits.

The BA-64s are Battlefront, and are good except for the turret spindle, which is easy to misglue,making the turret sit oddly on some of them. With hindsight I would probably have use magnets for these instead.

Next 3 Saladin Armoured Cars for my Jordanians. Theses are Butler's 3D models, and as such required quite a bit of prep to smooth them out. However these arn't easily available from elsewhere and are cheap, so they can be forgiven this.

Finally 3 5cm Pak 38 Anti-tank guns for my Tunesian German force. Again these are the Battlefront plastic kit and have come out well.

Adventures in Speedpaint 2

Fairly quick set of models here (about 1 hour). I've been playing around with Speedpaint again and finished these Reaper Bones Beetle Swarms. Not complex, but quite pleased with the Orc skin over metallic to get a slightly irradescent effect on the green beetles. considering the cheapness they are also fairly nice sculpts.

Again largely speed paint, with the only paints being Charred Brown for the base edge, Oily Steel as the green undercoat and a couple of strokes of US Field Drab on the brown beetle shells for texture.

Here Trisha disturbs a log pile and gets an unwelcome surprise!

I quite like the Reaper Bones models for these, as they are:

1. Cheap, so not a massive issue if it doesn't work out.

2. 28mm, so a different scale to normal.

3. Fantasy, so a different colour pallete and theme to normal, allowing me to be a bit more creative, try new techniques and use colours I wouldn't usually.

Maybe putting the speedpaint techniques into better use later this year, to get some board games stuff painted. We will have to see.

M113s

 This weekend I've managed to finish some M113s for my Jordanians. Five in total, one for a commander and a platoon of four. These are Battlefront kits as per the previous M113s. 

Vehicles of the Desert

I'm back with another update. In fact I've got 10 models painted this weekend! This is significant as it picks up my progress this year, so far it hasn't been great for painting numbers.

First is 6 Panzer IIIs. These are Ausf Ls with the long 5cm gun, which is typical of the Tunesian period that these are for. They have been split into a HQ of 2 and a platoon of 4.

The models are the latest Battlefront plastics and are a nice kit, fairly quick to put together and nicely detailed.

Second are 4 jeeps with 106mm recoilless rifles for my Jordanians. These are Battlefront resin and metal models, and I think they have come out very well.

Adventures in Speed Paint

So, this month I picked up some Reaper Bones Bloodscale Kobolds (as they were 6 models for cheap), with the intention of experimenting with Zenithal highlights and speed paint on them.

I'm fairly happy with the results I got. The casts have a couple of issues, lacking crispness in some areas (round the feet being the worst case). However, making use of the zenithal highlight technique and the extensive use of speed paint, I got all 6 of these done in about 2.5 hours, about 25 minutes a figure.

The only 'proper' paints I've used are Vallejo Charred Brown (base edge), Iraqui Sand (teeth and claws),  Tinny Tin and Oily Steel (weapon metallics).

They have come out pretty well. Also painting 6 models in this time has shown me some definite advantages for speed paint, especially for items which arn't going to see the board that much or for a long period of time (critters, for example). I can see this approach getting used for more board game pieces (Rebellion, for example).

Below, the adventuring party encounter the Kobold clan in a dungeon passage way (my patio, another experiment).

Special Transport

 So I've been a bit quiet for this month. That's because I've been working on a special project. One of my employees has retired, and as his retirement present I have built him a British Railways FNA Nuclear Flask Wagon

These are easily available in OO scale, but less so in G, which is his scale. As such, I had to scratch build this one on a chassis off eBay. It was a lot of work, about 30 hours, but he was pleased with the end result, and I guess that's what counts!

Panzer IV Special

Today, after a long wait, we have 3 Tunisian period Panzer IV ausf G, the notorious "Panzer IV special". Famed for their hard hitting long 75mm gun, they are capable of knocking out any tank of the period.

These 3 are from Battlefront and are from the new plastic kit.

Mage

 So I've managed to complete my small project today as well.

This is a 3D fantasy print mage which I picked out of the bargain bin to practice with Army Painter Speed Paints on.

I've had to highlight up in a few areas from the base speed paints, particularly the flames and the skin, but all in all it's been an interesting model to paint, and a change from the WW2 stuff.

Goods for Transport

Small update today, it's been a busy month (another holiday, for example), and while I've done some painting, I've not done nearly as much as I should have.

What I have managed to paint is these Skytrex crates and wool bales for the railway. I have another small project I'm working on, but that isn't done yet.

April Update

Wow, it has been a while since I updated on here!

In between a skiing holiday, a bout of Covid after the skiing holiday and taking advantage of the nice weather to get out and do some walking and seeing friends, the modelling progress has dropped off a bit recently.

So what have I actually been able to do?

Well I've been doing a lot of building and priming largely. Of particular note are these Jordanian M48 tanks which have been heavily converted from Skytrex M48A1s to model the cupola-less turrets and the rear mounted external fuel tanks these vehicles had in Jordanian service. The rear fuel decks were scratch built out of Plasticard and spare fuel tanks from PSC M3 Stuarts, while the top hatch is from Battlefront Centurion tanks with a .50 cal MG and mount from an old Battlefront Sherman kit and an M113 respectively.

In addition, I've build other stuff, here you can see my Jordanian M47 and M48 tanks, Saladin Amoured Cars, Jeeps mounting 106mm Recoilless Rifles and there are also some M113s (built last year) to be airbrushed as well just off shot. In addition, I have the start of my new Tunisian German force with 6 Panzer III and 3 Panzer IV. These are Battlefront and despite the good quality are from the excellent value new Kasserine set. Finally there is a Wizard character, who I picked up out the bargain bin at Battlefield Hobbies as a test piece for the new Army Painter Speed Paints (I also picked up the Mega Set while I was there).

 

 

Here we have 10 wooden barrels, which I have finished for the railway. In the background you can see some crates and wool bales, which I still need to finish. All of these are from Skytrex.

 

Finally, I attended the Corrivalry Flames of War event at Battlefield Hobbies at the start of this month. I had a good time, coming 8th out of 20 overall. I also won Best Painted Army for my British Armour, who you can see below. 

More Railway Buildings

So I've completed some more Superquick Kits for the railway.

The platform and shed weren't too hard to put together, but the Stationmasters House and Crossing Cottage has been a bit more of a pain and I've felt less motivated to finish these. I have now done so however.

Harriers

Well after a week or so of bad weather preventing me varnishing these, I have finally got my Harriers finished. While Cold War warplanes might not be massively tasteful ATM, this blog is to log my painting progress and these are what I have painted most recently.

These models are the old resin Harrier GR3, made by Battlefront. Quite nice kits, but one of the intakes had a nasty extra piece of resin and I had to repair one of the intakes with putty after I damaged it fixing the casting error. As these are now out of production, I had to sort it out myself, rather than get a replacement.

I think they have come out well.