On Your Mark

While I continue to reboot my work areas on return from Reapercon, I was able to work on a few nearly completed vehicles.  All of these are for the early war France '40 campaign.

As I work on these, I am testing out all kind of materials, in just about every combination.  At the forefront of these tests are the oil based products from Mig AMMO.

While each of them is designed to take care of specific color and texture needs, such as the engine oil on the fuel tank, I am discovering many interesting combinations!

For the moment, I am doing the paint chips by hand, in a familiar way.  Subsequent vehicles will be the test subjects for the Mig chipping medium.  I believe those will be most effective on desert vehicles and later war camo schemes.

The most difficult challenge thus far has been researching the various insignia and markings of these early vehicles.  I suppose that I could have done a more common set of markings, such as the typical 3 numeral set on the turret.

Here's an example of what I discovered.  As you can see, I thought I might use this as a model for my early PZ IV.  There are many more tanks to come, so I will go with more traditional iconography there.

The view from above shows more markings, the tonal variations (mixing seafoam green in with the Dunkelgrau for example) and the weathering.  I tried to add a few leaves onto these horizontal surfaces so that they would look like they belonged with the infantry figures you saw earlier this week.

I have more PZ 35, 38 and III's on the way, so I will be able to explore the gamut of early war markings!!

These ground level views give you a peek at the treads and drive wheels.  I tried to get a nice set of shaded colors here, so that it would be as distinct as possible from those upper surfaces that are catching the light.

When you have weathering, it can be useful to enhance that shading, and push those contrasts a bit.  The various effects have the overall effect of darkening your colors.  However, it is possible to turn that on its head when working in these lower sections of the hull.

By making the colors darker, it is now easier to have rust, dust and even mud splashes show up more readily.

I will leave you with the tank commander, which was a fun finishing touch.  Stay tuned for much more!!!!

King of the Jungle?

We've got another one of the 1/72 scale tanks from the Little Wars demos (done in the Badger Airbrush booth) which has been completed... even with leaves.  

Just like the previous "Chia Tank" experiment, I love the added dimension that the leaves create.  My next vehicle to have leaves with be the French Laffly W15C tank destroyer.

If you want to see the original posts where this tank was painted, here's a link to part one:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/05/little-wars-part-one-new-arms-race.html

The view from above gave me a new perspective on how desperate the Axis forces were to hide their few remaining precious tanks from marauding P-47's!!  And be darned if that wouldn't be much tougher to spot from the air.

Here's part two of the painting of the toy tanks, courtesy of Badger Airbrush.  You will be seeing a LOT more Badger brushes on these pages very soon.

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/05/little-wars-part-two-more-than-toys.html

I will have a much finer airbrush to work with now, the Badger Extreme.  Up until this point, I have been getting myself re-acquainted with the airbrush using the standard Patriot:

http://www.badgerairbrush.com/Patriot_105.asp

What you have been seeing thus far is really the beginning of the beginning.  A lot of research, testing and experimentation has been going on behind the scenes.  I have tried to give you a few glimpses at this where possible.

A lot of things had to be tied together, and that has taken several months.  Starting the Flames of War and Bolt Action French armies has been the laboratory for all the testing... basing, terrain, special effects such as weathering, and so on.

For example, most of the weathering on this vehicle was done with regular paint and brushes while I was at Little Wars.  Some additional work was done with Secret Weapon weathering powders as well. 

The foundation was established back in May, where I got to try out the airbrush on miniatures for the very first time.  It truly has been a Blitzkrieg on this process!!

Heaven forbid... you will even see some decals!  Oh my!

There is a practical reason for this.  Some of the markings involve tiny lettering and symbols which are not practical to do with freehand.  I also want to have these be as correct as possible.  As you can see, there will be a LOT to learn.  

Hopefully I can make the journey interesting for you as well. :-)