Statue Scatter Terrain

Even with the current hysteria surrounding statues here in the US at the moment, it was actually by complete coincidence that I finished these pieces this week. I recently came into possession of a lot of modeling stuff since a distant relative passed away who was also a long-time historical modeler. Among all the different models, were a small collection of 54mm figures that were rather old and not very well cast, so I decided to give them a new lease on life. I cleaned each of them up, cut up some wood for plinths, and put them all together.

To paint them, I tried a very different technique than the one I normally use, most recently on my Hungarian statue. This time I primed the plinths with gesso and used a tan-colored chalk paint for the color and texture, highlighting with white mixes, washing with Vallejo European Earth, and finally adding some light earth color with a dry pigment wash of Yellow Earth. The statues themselves were primed grey, basecoated in Pavement grey, with successive drybrushing of a blue-green paint mix. Unlike most earlier statues, I tried to to leave the dark grey base showing through in areas of shadow and focused the verdigris more on the blue side of the color wheel. What really helped was a good wash of Secret Weapon Cool Grey which helped to mellow the colors (which I also carried into parts of the plinth to imitate weathering). I also added some whitish discoloration on horizontal surfaces to simulate the effects of bird poop. All in all, I really like the final effect and will use it going forward.

Included in the set are two Napoleonic statues, an American Revolution statue, a Confederate soldier statue, and a Spanish-American War soldier statue.

The two statues below (one Spanish-American War, one Napoleonic) are for sale for $25 each. Drop me an email if you're interested in buying one or both.

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.

Eastern Front Terrain: Kursk Village

Here it is, fully complete! To be honest, I've been battling the flu this past week, which means I've had zero energy and patience and I finally just reached a point where I wanted this project done. There are things about it I'd change if I had the chance to do it again (make the houses a little smaller, more variation in roof styles, more gubbinz, and some more weathering) but I'm content with how it turned out for now. Enjoy!