Saturday, December 31, 2016

Freikorps Beutepanzerwagen Mk. IV

Eventually, I have aspirations to start heavily playing the Interwar Period as I build up forces at an almost glacial slowness. The first unit were Tsuba's excellent "Red Marines" from the German Revolution and I will likely be expanding upon that force with the newly released Spartacists. But, as I covered in my review of this Trenchworx Mk IV kit, I got an almost free heavy hitter for the Freikorps.

I did a lot of research going in to painting this project but ultimately decided that, although the Freikorps had very few tracked AFVs in their fighting during the 1920s, I really wanted something a little more generic than the famous Marie Chen or Ermil present during the January Uprising. I ultimately ended up using the Fahrpanzer 5.3cm as a basis for the distinctive hard-edge, lined four-tone camouflage as well as Marie Chen's insignia for the skull and crossbones.


The problem came in looking at this picture before painting and not opening it again until painting was done. As such, the orange is too orange, the yellow too yellow, and the red brown is too brown! Oops - the green looks good though! So, let this be a lesson, check your source material several times throughout the painting process to ensure your colors are correct.

The four-tone camouflage is done in VMC Orange Brown (should really be 50% VMC Middlestone & 50% VMC Orange Brown), VMC German Camo Dark Green, VMC German Camo Dark Brown (should be a Red-Brown like Testors Acryl Rotbraun), and Reaper Candle Yellow (should really be Reaper Amber Gold). Lining is done using a 000 brush with plain Black (really painstaking). Bare metal is Pavement drybrushed with Pewter Grey and washed with P3 Armor Wash. The exhaust is basecoated in Chocolate Bar with successive heavy body washes of Testors Acryl Rust.

No decals here! The Skull and Crossbones insignias are all individually done with a brush. I'm actually really quite proud of these. The trick was to draw the ovoid outline of the skull in White, fill it in completely, and then paint the eye/nose sockets, teeth, and cross in the color underneath the skull. The bones are simply two heavy lines crossed at low angles and then two large dots are painted on all ends.

Weathering is done in oils and finished with Secret Weapon dry pigments.




Friday, December 30, 2016

Team Yankee Commission: US Armored Company

Despite a lot of setbacks, I was finally able to get around to completing my current commission. I really appreciate the patience and understanding of my client for this one, which ran almost a month over schedule.

All miniatures are BF Team Yankee. As I mentioned in my previous AH-1 post, I wasn't overly impressed with the build quality of these models. Many have gaps between parts that are easy to overlook until the miniature itself is complete and I felt like the quality of the plastic itself was very "cheap", closer to the softer plastics of companies like Zvezda. Overall though, for models primarily meant for gaming, they're pretty good and I'm sure many gamers would be perfectly fine with them.

The client asked for two schemes - the majority of the AFVs in NATO three-tone camouflage with one Abrams platoon in a two-tone REFORGER (REturn of FOrces to GERmany) camouflage scheme, both done in the style of Tacobat's excellent Bannon's Boys build. This was a big change from my usual style, especially the heavily contrasted edge chipping, but I did my best and like the end result. The REFORGER camo is interesting, as I couldn't come across any material online showing whether or not the lighter tan color was applied to the upper surfaces or not.

NATO camouflage is done in a base of Tamiya NATO Green, with airbrushed blobs of Tamiya NATO Brown and plain Black. REFORGER camouflage is done in a base of Tamiya NATO Green with larger bands of Reaper Tanned Leather (in hindsight, I should have done that in reverse - lighter color as base, darker color as blobs - to make painting easier). MGs are Pavement, drybrushed with Pewter Grey, then washed with P3 Armor Wash. Ammo boxes are done in Reaper Worn Olive with a wash of Secret Weapon Green. Rear lights are Flamenco Red and glass is Army Painter Blue.

AFV crew fatigues are a base of Reaper Olive Drab, highlighted with Reaper Worn Olive, then washed with Secret Weapon Green, with helmets done in VMC German Dark Camo Green. Mortar crew camouflage fatigues are a base of Reaper Olive Drab, highlighted with Reaper Worn Olive, with blotches of Black and VMC German Camo Dark Brown, then washed with Secret Weapon Green. Skin is VMC Light Flesh washed with Secret Weapon Flesh Wash.

Decals are BF and I-94.








Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Team Yankee Commission: AH-1 Cobra Squadron

First off the assembly line for my large Team Yankee commission are four Battlefront AH-1 Cobras. These are really rough kits that were difficult to assemble and make them look "right". The client chose the 1st Cav Division for unit insignia.

Helicopters are basecoated in Testors Acryl Green Drab, with very subtle panel highlighting in 75% Green Drab/25% White, panel lining in GW Green Ink washes. Gunmetal/bare metal parts are Pavement, highlighted with 75% Pavement/25% Pewter Gray, washed with P3 Armor Wash. Bare steel and chipping is Testors Acryl Steel.

Decals are Battlefront. These were a MAJOR pain to put on, many would not release from the decal sheet after repeated soakings and the remainder would not properly adhere to the piece itself. I have decals that are 15+ years old that aren't that bad and BF really needs to have more QC over their decals processing.




Monday, December 19, 2016

1/48 Horten HO-347


It's been pretty crazy around my house over the past month, dealing with a lot of personal issues, so I haven't been able to maintain the blog as much as I would have liked. The good news is that I'll have a lot of new work (both personal and commission) to post over the next few weeks. So, without further ado....

This is the DUST Tactics 1/48 Horten HO-347 "Der Adler" I picked up several months ago for about $12. It's kind of a rough kit designed more for gaming than for fine scale modeling but I love the overall aesthetic of the plane. It's very much in keeping with German Luftwaffe plane designs while also incorporating more "high-tech" Dieselpunk ideas.

Oddly, the DUST models all come pre-primed with decals, but I had to do a lot of work at removing mold lines and eliminating odd pieces (there's a "hook" on the upper fuselage, almost like for a child who wanted to hand it from the ceiling...), that I simply re-primed the entire piece. This was my first attempt at doing soft-edged Luftwaffe upper/lower painting and winter "squiggle" camouflage. Upper fuselage is done in a base of Testors Acryl Russian Armor Green with panel highlights of Testors Acryl Lightgrun. The lower fuselage basecolor (and squiggles) are Reaper Ghost Grey, lower fuselage is highlighted with pure white. Gunmetal/rockets are Pavement with VGC Scarlet Red warheads, panel lining in Secret Weapon Sewer Water wash, and chipping with Testors Acryl Steel.

Decals are from a variety of old, OLD aircraft decal sheets, so over 15 years old! Never throw away old decals unless they go bad.