It ain't 'easy' being green

Back to the late war Easy Eight.

When we last left our intrepid tank crew, the final touches of the Shaded Basecoat phase were being added.  As usual, the idea behind this is to set up subsequent glazing, shading and tinting.

To do the glazing phase, the usual suspects made their appearance.

Lots of washes from Secret Weapon, augmented by a few Vallejo glazes.

You can see the various glazes set up on the palette, ready for action.

Just as I did with the Shaded Basecoat, I want to be very aware of color temperature... that is, vary the greens from warmer to cooler.  That's why there are so many glaze color options out here.

This view shows the difference some of the warmer glazes on the wheel assemblies.  The cooler glaze colors will be placed on upward facing surfaces.

The turret is another key area for that warm/cool balance.  The vertical walls will have more warmth to them... but the opposite on the top.

You can see the basic glazes starting to take shape.

Also, keep in mind that you can do a number of glazes in one area to make it darker if needed.  It's far better to do this gradual approach, as you get some nice smooth shading that way!

Once the primary glazes and shading are complete, I get to do the next fun part.  That will involve mixing the glaze colors with the regular paints and working in the middle tones.

Once I am done with that, I will do the weathering effects.  I have added a few cursory paint chips for now.  Much more to come, so stay tuned!

Brookfield Zoo

OK kids!  Time for a trip to the zoo!!!

This is a batch of those Mierce Miniatures Monsters... all on 60mm bases.

Lots of fur to deal with on these guys. :-)

And some big honkin' weapons too!

Not as much armor though...

More to come!

Eight is enough

After all the very tiny Memoir '44 vehicles, it was suggested that I try out the "next size up", which would be Flames of War scale.  

Rich donated a U.S. Easy Eight for the experiment.

This is an example of "Primer Painting", where my first layer is a combination of regular paint and primer.

Early on, I had to feel around for the various details, as I would have to get familiar with the various cuts and shapes.  I didn't prep this, which is the time I normally use to pre plan where certain lights and darks will be placed.

The hull and turret are each very different for me, as I have been painting early war Shermans with the one piece cast hulls and short barreled guns.

Even at this early stage, I am trying to think about where I want warmer or cooler greens to go.  This is very important in limited palette exercises such as these... where all I have to choose from is a variety of green!

This is about the extent of the cooler greens, highlighting to a very grayish green.

Adding some yellow should be just enough to warm up a few highlight areas.

This variety in warm/cool shades of green will keep this from being too boring to look at.  When you combine this with the eventual rust and dirt effects, there should be lots of fun stuff for the viewer to check out!

Also, I have been using the #6 filbert the whole time.  It keeps the line moving, not letting me get bogged down in one area for too long!

This is getting closer and closer to the glazing stage.

OK... time for glazing!!!

Stay tuned!