Slow Progress

 So I've managed to get some more painting done, and thought that I would show you what I've done.

Firstly are some more Dapol Platform passengers and staff from their Platform figures set. I have about 12 more of these to do, and they are a useful side project, so expect to see more at some point. Biggest problem is how to mount the sitting figures to the sticks for spraying/painting.

Next up is a project that has been on the bench for way too long, 3 M48 Patton tanks and 3 M47 tanks for my Jordanians. These are big vehicles and have taken a lot of work to pin wash, for example. In addition, I think I lost some enthusiam for the project, so they have taken longer than planned. The end result is good though. The Skytrex M48 is a great kit, while the Butler's 3D Models M47 has not come out badly at all, despite suffering from layer lines (particularly on the angled glacis). I did hit these with a file and putty during assembly which has helped a bit, and once painted, they are a lot harder to see.

So what's next? I currently have a half timbered house and a cattle dock on the bench, built so probably those, and some railway figures. Or I might decide to build another kit from the pile of shame!

Railway Figures

 So these were actually finish just before I went on holiday 3 weeks ago but I forgot to photograph them.

As such I'm correcting this now, here they are.

These are Dapol C008 Platform Figures, of a style I've painted before and are pretty nice models.

These have largely been another adventure in Speed Paint, unlike the previous batch. I think they have come out quite well.

 

2022: Year in review

Hey, so time to do our look back at 2022.

Not been a successful year on the painting front really with only 67, models painted, very poor compared to previous years (100+). Many reasons for this, work being put into the railway, for example. However my job has got even more manic this year and I don't think it has helped at all. The lack of a lockdown hasn't helped, but lets not ask to get that back!

I have made good progress on the Jordanian force however, getting a lot of their armour painted.

I also won Best Painted Army at the Corrivalry Flames of War Competition with my North West Europe WW2 British.

My Germans finally got their Panthers painted as well, my Soviets got a boost with some more tanks and aircraft and the Cold War British got their infantry and Harriers!

I also started a Tunesian German force. I have also been Playing around with the new Army Painter Speedpaint, meaning I got some models built.

I also built one of my biggest models, a G gauge FNA Wagon, for my collegue Phil's retirement present.

My model railway has seen a substantial amount of work, gaining several new buildings, and scenary this year. I've attached a couple of photos of the layout and the display shelf I've been building (Still WIP, awaiting track). Still plenty to do.

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.