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?