Keep on Truckin'

As you already know, my focus with the French army has geared itself towards transports.  Chief among these are the Laffly series, which proved to be quite the all purpose vehicle.  They hauled troops, guns, and more!

I already have a few of the official Bolt Action Laffly trucks, but when I saw the array of vehicles available from Mad Bob's Miniatures (yes, you read that correctly)  I just had to dive in and get some for my own French army!

This is the typical Laffly S20TL.  These have already served me quite well, so adding on with the Mad Bob's versions will add just a tiny bit of variety, making them easier to distinguish from one another on the battlefield.

This W15TCC Tank Hunter was even more vital, as Mad Bob is the only manufacturer I know who is producing it in this scale.  I first learned about the effectiveness of these in Flames of War.

Obviously there are differences between the two systems, but the mobility of a medium anti-tank gun for not so many points is significant to say the least!

I also got a standard set piece 47mm anti-tank gun, but our games have shown how easily that anchored gun is placed at a disadvantage quite often.

While I can use the Laffly trucks as a tow for my artillery, I like the idea of having an anti-tank gun which can move 24 inches on a road and still shoot!

Oh, and let's not forget how nice these are.  Prepping them was very easy, and they have proved to be resilient and strong.

These are just the first to arrive from Mad Bob's vehicle factory.  More will certainly be added.

I also have the Citroen Kegresse P19 VDP, which will make an interesting command vehicle. 

I think I mentioned in my last Bolt Action post about how much I am enjoying trucks in general.  While the tanks are fantastic, and lots of fun, there is a certain sense of realism here.  I have seen tanks on bases and in museums, but not generally driving down my street.

I see trucks of all kinds every day, so this factor makes these more near and dear to me. :-)

This shot has a few of my French troops to give you a sense of the scale, which is the same as the Bolt Action version.

Here is Mad Bob's webstore, showing not just the other French vehicles, but everything else too!!

http://www.madbobminiatures.co.uk/shop/4587330661/France

Rumble in the Jungle!

Let's get back to the Jungle with another wonderful figure from the Lizardman team that RN Estudios sent to me.  The figures were sculpted by Txarli Miniatures.

Here's another Saurus, done in that traditional turquoise color scheme.

This was done with a lot of glazing and tinting over an very light teal color.  Even the darkest purple areas were done by repeated glazes of the Reaper Clear paints... mixing the blue and purple together.

The Reaper clear paints make a fantastic glaze, as you can thin them down with water without worrying that they will break up in consistency... and they dry to a wonderful matte finish.  They also have a lot of pigment, so they leave behind a wonderful tint.

There are a number of colors in that set of clear paints... red. magenta, blue, green, yellow and purple.  I really love them!

I even mix them with other glaze colors from Vallejo and Secret Weapon.

Here's a link to the RN Estudios website, with all of the INCREDIBLE teams to see.  I definitely have to get some more of these!

http://rnestudio.webs.com/

Commanding Presence

I know it's been a while since you have seen some Victoria Miniatures here.  That's been a product of playing other games besides 40k... and not because I don't LOVE these fantastic miniatures.

This one was introduced at Adepticon, and I have wanted to paint it ever since.

I could not resist putting the light next to her, in order to provide a little warm back light to all the muted, cooler colors of the uniform.

The pose is one of my favorites.  Very stern, very much in charge... but still relaxed.  Not every figure needs to be scurrying around with its hair on fire. :-)

Check out more of her fantastic figures right on her website:

http://victoriaminiatures.highwire.com/

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322173139480?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

The Mystery Elf

I have no idea where I got this figure... or even who produces it.  I do know that I really liked it, and it was a joy to paint!!

As you can see, I had a lot of fun balancing out the various green hues, trying to work in some reddish browns as well to break that block of green up into more manageable chunks for the viewer :-)

And yes, another Green Stuff World texture roller base!  I had originally thought of doing a forest base for this figure, but there are those times when an adventurer just has to step indoors... into that dungeon or ruined temple!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/222168106094?

Passer Rating

Sukubus studios has created a number of really spectacular female blood bowl teams over the last few years... starting with the Succubus team!

This thrower figure is one of my favorites.  What amazed me was not only the highly detailed sculpts, but how solid they were for something that appears so dainty.

Incredibly, they were almost all one piece sculpts!  They were very dynamic poses, and there was a touch of humor and whimsy about each one.

A Solid Foundation

I thought you might like to see a few quick images of the Green Stuff World texture roller bases with some paint on them!

I didn't have to do anything very fancy, as I tried to let the texture itself do all the work :-)

The bases were painted with a few simple light to medium light tones, and then shaded, tinted and weathered with a variety of glazes.

Again, the texture created by the rollers has so much depth and interest, it was a lot of fun to simply let the glazes go where they wanted to.  As you might have seen already... I have a few articles posted on how I used those rollers.

This is an example of the new Mosaic tile roller:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/06/ancient-history.html

Here's the first miniature that I used with these texture bases.  Nothing like a runic base for a dwarf character!

These are all available from the Green Stuff World home page.

http://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/103-textures-and-molds

Target Lock

No army is complete without some artillery, so here is the first completed howitzer for the French, the vaunted 75mm.

I had painted a few Forgeworld artillery pieces years ago, but this was a very new experience for me... working on the gun, the crew, and the gun emplacement itself.

An article was already posted on how that was done.  Fortunately, I was already quite familiar with the 75, having painted an entire battery of them for Flames of War!

I loved creating a small vignette/diorama out of the crew and the gun.  It's one of the many things which has drawn me to the WW2 genre.  Not only was it fun to lay out this scene, it has come in handy during my games as well (even though light howitzers don't have spotters!). 

I decided to paint the crew "in-situ", as in place (minus the gun of course!).  It made it challenging to get my brush into certain locations, but I really wanted to integrate the figures into the diorama base, and that meant that a touch choice had to be made.

The foliage is a variety of Gamer's Grass products, Hangar 18 foliage, and even some old Woodland Scenics flock.

The next completed piece coming up is the 105mm scratch built howitzer.  And... I will be scratch building the mighty 150mm monster.  So stay tuned mon amis!!

And the Dead Shall Rise

This Lord of the Rings Army of the Dead figure was a fun exercise in the combination of glowing fluorescent paints and weathering!

In an attempt to mimick the effects that you see in the movies, I had to convey a sense of decay, but also an ethereal glow.  That glow is easy enough to establish when mixing the high chroma fluorescent paints, but 'weathering' them like a tank is another prospect all together.

I used my normal combination of Secret Weapon rust paints with the Vallejo Flesh wash.  This created the "sedimentation" effect that you have heard me mention several times.

This sedimentation will settle exactly where I need it... down into the crevices. However, since it is more of a wash, the bright glow of the original fluorescent paints is not completely lost!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/222165350022?

The Dark Nation

The Dark Nation of Wild West Exodus continues to grow, starting with this collection of massive critters!!

In the images, you see the great Wendigo Heavy Support, Avanco, and Big Horn.

Just like their Warrior Nation cousins, the Dark Nation have characters and heavy support that are creature based... but they are warped and twisted by the dreaded RJ-1027 energy source.

The Warrior Nation has shunned RJ-1027 as the weapon of the Enemy, but those in the Dark Nation believe that it frees them to be their true spirit animals... such as Walks Looking.

Soon I will have some contrasting images with the Warrior Nation, which will show the contrast even more starkly.

After painting all the blue Spirit Energy glow on their rivals, painting the Dark Nation in their sickly brown tones with the red glow of RJ-1027 has been fascinating.

It is these muted reddish and grayish browns that have allowed me to show a little more contrast than otherwise possible with a 'warm' orange on 'warm' browns.

The contrast with the Warrior Nation should be interesting, especially since all of the creatures were done in black fur and feathers, along with the blue glow!  Stay tuned!