Fire support

I thought just for some variety I would give one of these support guns a shield for extra protection. This should help to give this vehicle a bit more character and set it apart from the rest of the platoon. Although it’s been fun testing all the techniques on these guys, when the oil dries tomorrow on the guns I’m going to call it a day and varnish them. I feel I have tried everything now and learnt a lot for future jobs. I feel now though I’m going to ruin them if I keep on fiddling around. Every good thing has to come to an end... here’s to the next three!

Blue Tac Camo

Live and learn, this time around I used an old tooth brush rather than my fingers to scrub the resin in soapy warm water. Just to be on the safe side I also gave the model a very slight spray of grey primer to give the paint something to bind to. The results were much better with no paint coming off with the blue tac.

This is always my favourite part of the job, peeling of the blue tac to see what’s underneath. It’s like unwrapping a Christmas present.

Command APC

Rolling Thunder

Magnets!

 This has been one of those projects where you really feel like you have pushed yourself into some uncomfortable places but come out wiser for it. I have finally got to grips with oil washes, used a Dremel, two part opoxy glue, weathering oils and tonight I had a light bulb moment and dug out some magnets. I had almost forgotten these, bought years ago for sticking 15mm Mechs together, they now came into there own on these armoured vehicles.

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 These armoured vehicles looked great but were seriously lacking in the firepower department. So off to EBay I went again and found a great dealer called Any scale. On here I found some WWII American heavy machine guns for mounting on tanks etc. Although they are old looking, onced fixed  into place they should look fine.
At first I just had them stuck to the hull, this wasn’t perfect as they were low down and couldn’t swivel. Also they got in the way of anyone coming out of the hatch. It was around this time I remembered the magnets. Using some tiny but very strong ones I managed to build up the height of the gun mount that took it off the hull which allowed it to rotate 360%. Also when it was glued to the hull it was fragile and kept breaking off. I knew this would be a nightmare in storage, but with the magnets, the whole gun moved and could be removed without any worries. The main bonus for me though is the fact it can be moved around to aid game play and is now high enough to turn 360%. Finally got to use some magnets, another thing of the hobby bucket list.
I also used a larger couple of magnets in the command vehicle, again much joy at the sight of the turret rotating and staying in place. There has been ups and downs with this project but tonight has been a high. Magnets got to lov’em. As for the ‘Ground hogs’ they now look much more apt and look like they can put down some serious covering fire while their men mount up.

Southern Command APC

I’ve been enjoying this latest project so much I bought another vehicle to practice on. Again from EBay, this mighty APC strikes me more as a fast, well armoured command platform. It is a lovely looking thing with more than a slight whiff of ‘Aliens’ about it. It’s very hard not to paint in olive green but I think I will match the scheme to the ‘Groundhogs’, so the force ties together.

A bit of work with the Dremel, but not a lot compared to the other three. It has a wicked looking rotary cannon on its turret, so this commander has some real bite if he needs it. Let’s hope I don’t roll bad and get a poor commander who freezes under pressure...we all know how that turns out.

On Campaign at last

For Better or Worse

 Well today I went a bought some actual weathering oils and well, used them. The good thing about oils over acrylics is that you can re-activate them using enamel thinners. So this means you can keep working on a look until you are happy.

 It’s late now so I have to stop but I think I’ve gotten it into a place I’m happy with. It certainly looks like a vehicle that is in use. Let’s see what I think tomorrow when I look at them with fresh eyes. It’s all a learning curve at the moment and it’s the most fun modelling I’ve had for ages.

War on Xorif reaches critical levels

 As the war of Xorif reaches new heights, fresh troops are fed into the smasher. The Xorian mech walker makes its first appearance and inital reports are good, however against the Robot’s mega tank the walkers had no answer. Their long striding legs proved to be their down fall. The war rages on with no clear winner in sight. As soon as one force is smashed to pieces another seems to spring up from nowhere.

Mayday mayday...direct hit! Going dow...........