Commission Work: Orwell's Soviet Cavalry

I was contacted by one of my long-time clients to do a platoon of Soviet cavalry for Flames of War...but with a little twist. As an homage to Orwell's Animal Farm, he wanted to include some pigs on the stands - a clever in-joke and something right up my alley.

The cavalry itself is straightforward. Uniforms are Vallejo Russian Uniform, highlighted with a 50/50 Russian Uniform/Antique White mix, then washed with GW Green wash. Off-white/White isn't something I normally mix to lighten colors, as it tends to dull the base color. However, used sparingly, in a heavily worn military uniform it actually adds to the faded appearance. Skin is Vallejo Flat Flesh washed with GW Ogryn Flesh, kit is Burnt Umber, boots are Pure Black, sword hilts are Granite Grey with a highlight of 50/50 Granite Grey/Pure White, rifles are Vallejo Dark Brown with Pavement barrels.

The horses themselves are all ever so slightly different mixtures of browns, red-browns, tans, and greys. As I do more work painting horses, it's actually very interesting to learn just how different their coats really are, so I try to reflect that by painting each a little differently. Tack is a base of Pure Black, overcoated in certain place with Moss Green, then washed with Vallejo Olive Green wash. For the pigs, I attempted to do a dappled coat of a mid-tone grey mixed with patches of grey/pink, then washed with Vallejo Grey wash. 15mm pigs are hard to paint.

The client also asked for an upgraded IL-2 Shturmovik M to be painted identically to its basic cousin which I did here.

Commission: FOW Soviety Tankovy Company

So, I just realized I didn't post anything here at all for the entire month of May....yeesh, sorry about that dear readers. My family has been hit by some pretty major setbacks and projects in the past month. While I may have welcomed the change of issues, it certainly wasn't a change of pace.

Luckily, I was able to pump out an entire Flames of War Soviet Tankovy company for a client this past month in between issues. Everything you see here is from scratch - I cleaned, built, primed, painted, and decaled everything you see here. The client asked for a Mid to Late War Tankovy company in the (somewhat rare) two-tone camouflage scheme of Russian Armor Green and Green (really Brown) Ochre, that was applied in the field by some companies in the mid-war period.

This was my first foray into building the Battlefront plastics and, to be honest, I didn't really enjoy the assembly. Granted, the ISU was pretty much a breeze but the SU and T-34s have some issues that made it difficult to assemble them (floating barrel attachments, lower turret pieces not fitting correctly, and easy-to-lose separate exhaust pieces). The new plastic fenders are pretty spectacular in comparison to the old metal ones, which constantly chip and fall off my old T-43 Tankovy Co.; so I won't complain too much. The ISUs are missing their DshK AA MGs which have not been glued prior to shipping in the pics below.

Also, not pictured are the T-34/76 turrets I did for each tank as well

Base color is Testors Acryl Russian Armor Green (first time using this color and I love it!) with VMC Green Ochre stripes; detail washes with P3 Armor Wash and GW Green. Tracks are my usual Pavement Grey, washed with Testors Acryl Rust, then drybrushed with GW Boltgun Metal. Gunmetal parts are Pavement Grey, washed with P3 Armor wash, then highlighted Slate Grey. Tank crew wear my custom Telo Mimetico Blue, washed with GW Blue Ink; fleshtones in VMC Flat Flesh, washed with GW Ogryn Flesh.

Decals are either BF or I-94. Very slight weathering applied with Dark Earth Pigments.

A huge THANK YOU goes out to my always patient client on this one. Hope you enjoy it J!

Italian Beutepanzers & 10.5cm Artillery Battery

I'm coming up on the last few German platoons for Flames of War for the foreseeable future. This time it's a platoon of Italian P-40 "Heavy" tanks in Wehrmacht service. After the Italian armistice, the P-40's production facilities were taken over by the German authorities, who pressed this tank into service as the Pzfw. 40 737(i) in the Italian theater of operations. Unlike most other Italian tanks, the 737(i) performed reasonably well and was well-liked by panzer crews. Had it been developed earlier in the war, it may have provided the Italian tankers with a moderately successful medium tank design. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late for both the Italian and German armies.

I also re-did the 10.5cm Artillery Battery I had initially made to support Panzergruppe Guderian in Early War battles. While reasonably priced and versatile, I found myself rarely using it, opting instead for more AFVs in my lists. So I repainted the guns and added a Kubelwagen for use with my Grenadiers in mid- and late-war periods.

Luftwaffe 88mm Battery

This unit probably takes highest honors for "amount of time sitting on my workbench half-complete". I've been working on it in sporadically since before our move, something like building it around August of 2014 or so. It's long overdue, considering I've needed this unit in various incarnations from my Early War Mittlere Panzer Kompanie right up through my Late War StuG Batterie, so that's at least a couple of years' time.

Minis are Battlefront mounted on special lengthened plasticard bases to accommodate the unlimbered Flak37s. After reading Erhard Raus' excellent book Panzer Operations, I wanted these guns to look like they had been quickly brought up to the front to deal with heavy Allied AFVs, like the KV-1. 

These are painted using my usual Testors Acryl Panzershweregrau with a little bit of Royal Blue craft paint added. I know this is a little too blue for some modelers but I really like how this color pops at this scale. I wouldn't use this same ratio in 28mm. The Flak37s are soft-edged camouflaged using Testors Lichtolive. Details are painted using Vallejo acrylics.

Road to Adepticon 2015: 15mm Lumber Camp - 100% Complete!

The lumber camp is finally complete and I'm pretty pleased with the results considering the amount of time it took (work being done mostly on weeknights or during my son's naptimes over this past month). The entire complex, if not spread out, occupies around 2 sq. ft. - somewhere between a 1/4" and 1/3" of a table space. Considering it really only needs some roads and large tracts of woods, the size is "just right" for FOW.

I weathered the exterior wood surfaces using artist's inks in cool grey, sepia, and some very watered-down india ink black. I then drybrushed vertically (in most cases, perpendicular to the woodgrain) with pure white, with the dual outcome of the wood looking "streaked" and making the edges "pop". The tin roofs were basepainted a dark brown, then got multiple washes of rust red, and finally received a liberal dose of dry pigments.

The broken down truck behind the maintenance shed is a Zvezda ZIS-5 model with the wheels and cargo bed left off. The lumber mill's saw track is N gauge track with the ties removed, the attendant log cart is made from basswood and an N gauge riail "truck" with the actual wheels removed (it rests on the plastic hubcaps - for lack of a better term). The wooden barrels scattered throughout are available from Khurasan Miniatures. Timber piles were made by collecting sticks of various diameters and species, cutting them in roughly 1.5" lengths, and then stacking them haphazardly. I made the lumber stacks with basswood offcuts.

This lumber camp will be used to represent the Karelia Region of Finland/Russia in the FOW: Recon In Force tournament for Adepticon 2015. I should have used my Russians for size comparisons but instead grabbed some Early War Krauts!

15mm North Africa Terrain - Cyrenaica

A quick post for today following up on the previous North African terrain post. This time it's a collection of wadi (dry seasonal riverbed) banks and a small Greco-Roman ruin complex. The wadi banks are just 1/2" pink foamboard textured with sand. I made them in sections to be somewhat modular and they are just high enough for a 15mm figure to peek over and will conceal the hulls of most smaller tanks.

The Greco-Roman ruins are intended to portray ruins scattered around the Mediterranean coastline, much like Leptus Magna in Libya; though they could easily fill in for ruins in Greece or Crete as well. They're assembled using wood, foamboard, and a leftover 28mm Roman General mini.

15mm North Africa Terrain

I was lucky enough to find the awesome, sadly out of production, Crescent Root Studios "Adobe" buildings on Evilbay a few weeks back. I really liked this series - they had an awesome texture to the "stucco" finish and the cracks really show well when sponge painted. To match the CR buildings, I repainted the FOW Small Desert Buildings I already had to match.

Unfortunately, that still wasn't a very big village, so I scratchbuilt a few burnt and shelled buildings from 2mm MDF. After assembling I added the uncovered brick texture using my Dremel cutter tool and used layers of plaster and gesso for the "stuccoed" portions. While they aren't perfect, they match well with the other buildings from afar.

While using Google to search for paint colors, I came across some inspirational pics - a few showing cactus "hedges" in Libya and Tunisia and another showing the Air Raid sign just outside Tobruk. For the hedges, I used popsicle sticks for the base, some large gravel for boulders (and to add weight), and Pegasus Hobbies Small Cactus set. The Air Raid sign was made from basswood.

Honved Panzers on the Don River, 1942

A quick little mid-war Hungarian "Heavy" Panzer unit for the Eastern Front. These are all BF Panzer IVs with interchangeable barrels to switch between the Ausf. E or Ausf. F2. They are painted using my typical Testors Acryl Panzer Grey with 25% Royal Blue added. Decals are from I-94. 

On another note - many of you who regularly visit will notice that I've changed the blog layout a little. I figured it was time for a little change and I've had some grumblings over the old black-on-black background being harsh on some readers. Please let me know what you think!

German Looted T-34

I had a spare PSC T-34 left over from when I had assembled my old Finnish T-34 platoon, so I decided to turn it into a German Beutepanzer for my recently completed Grenadier Co.

Captured in the thick of fighting by the Mid-war period, many of the Soviet Beutepanzers were kept only in fighting condition through desperation and salvage work, being abandoned after the continued abuse finally made them non-operational. To this end, I used a variety of painting and weathering techniques to give the tank a heavily beaten appearance (salt chipping, filter washes, oil weathering, dry pigments, and finally plaster/pigment "mud").

Mid-War Monsters - The "Sturer Emil"

This is the 12.8cm Selbstfahrlafette auf VK3001(H) "Sturer (Stubborn) Emil" Tank Hunter, armed with the largest cannon I've seen mounted on an AFV - the 128mm K L/61 gun (compare that to the Konigstiger's 88mm L/71 gun ). By far, one of the nicest kits I've purchased in 15mm. It's a shame Battlefront hasn't done more one-off "experimental" kits like this.

Panzergruppe Guderian - Complete!

Finally able to post up some pics of my completed Early/Mid-War Mittlere Panzer Company, based on General Heinz Guderian's Panzergruppe. The majority of the tanks included here are Zvezda, with a smattering of Plastic Soldier Co. and Battlefront miniatures. Panzer camouflage schemes are the two-tone Early War blend of Panzer Grey and Deep Brown, with excellent decals from i-94 Enterprises.  

My shading is rather heavy due to running out of GW Black Wash right when they were transitioning to the new colors and having to substitute P3 Armor Wash instead. Weathering is done with Testors Acryl Rust washes and pigment-based "mud".

Panzer IV Ausf. D Platoon

Panzer III Ausf. G Platoon

Panzer II (Early) Platoons

StuG 33B Assault Tank Platoon

"Freida und Helga" - 8.8cm Sfl Bunkerflaks

"Husslin' Heinz" Objective - Gen. Guderian's Sdkfz 251 Command

Motorised Artillery Battery