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...........

Immediate Evac Requested...

 Well here they are, three Southern G17 ‘Ground Hogs’, slow but tough and liked by the troops for their spacious interiors.

To add a little further detail to the resin mold I cut a piece of mesh and stuck it on top, hopefully this will look like a walk way for the troops.

 The decals are always fidley but they are worth it in the end. I think they can make a model and give focus to an area. The troopers seem to be happy with the added protection so that’s a bonus and makes everything worthwhile.

Pin Wash

 After watching a lot of YouTube, I thought I would give it a go at making my own pin wash from enamel thinners and oil paint. It was easy to do and I felt I had advanced an experience level in the world of hobby. It was a little tricky at first and In the end I kind of just went for it, making it up as I went along. It looked a lot easier on YouTube...

So really my pin washes became just a general wash all over. This was great for creating a greasey grime look. I also tried a slightly reddy oil brown for rust which worked quite well. Regardless of the results this part of the process was immense fun and rewarding. I have always looked at those military modeller magazines in shops and now I’m using their techniques, I felt I was learning something new.

I still have a few things to do, like paint the inside of the track housing black, add stoage and maybe some dirt/dust. I’m not quite sure how to make the dust stay on the model and fix it. More YouTube is required I think.

Decals

 Getting late now but the armour is still rolling forward. I used my collection of Gundam decals to put some detail on the panelling.

 I think I must be changing because a few years ago this was my idea of hell, but now I’m kind of enjoying applying the decals. I bought these for my 15mm Sci-Fi collection but again like the forest tarrain, they are useful for this scale too. I also bought some American tank names from EBay as these are going to be fighting the 2nd civil war.

Blue Tac Camo

 After a quick touch up with some black paint the APCs are back on the road. The next step is a coat of floor varnish to seal everything and get ready for the decals and pin washes.

 The camouflage certainly seems to be working, already the silhouettes of the vehicles are getting more difficult to make out.

The results are in

 The ocean gray colour is very military and suits these CONFED forces.

 Well all in all not bad although a slight hiccup with some of the paint not sticking. I think this came about because I used my fingers not a brush to scrub the pieces in the warm soapy water. Still this is a quick speed project and it’s all part of the learning for next time. Nothing a lick of black paint can’t fix.

Future Camouflage for APCs

 Right here we go.

 Let’s try this old and tested method of using blue tack to create some patterns. I’m kicking myself because over the years I’ve collected Tamiya masking tape for just such an accasion. However I can’t find them anywhere, even after turning everything upside down. I had planned to make the patterns with geometric straight edges but this was not meant to be. Maybe it was for the best because the models are very textured and time was a real issue again today, cutting all the tape into shapes would of taken much longer and I managed to crack this lot out in about 30 mins. They are drying at the moment so we’ll have to see how they turned out.
I always set out to do three colours but I have found sometimes the most striking patterns are just a combination of two. Also I don’t have an airbrush so I’m using humbrol spray paint, too many layers of this I think would start to cover fine detail.

Mobile Infantry

Well the epoxy glue was a success and with the vehicles holding together I thought I would try some shots for scale. Once a few figures came out it wasn’t long before trees and foliage started to follow. I made these bases for my 15mm Sci-Fi figs but they work just as well for this lot. Time to send out a recon patrol this place gives me the ‘grundarks’.