Stowing away again...

As Cathy was about to start back up again with her Sherman Tank, I wanted to do some testing on the Sandbags that we got from Secret Weapon Miniatures.  Here they are out of the package.

One thing I learned by experimenting is that you want to soak them first.  This not only, "fluffs them up", but it will give the outer fabric the proper texture.

I also suggest trimming down the two flattened strips on either end.  After putting them on my RAV 6 x 6, I realized that was something I wanted to do!

When you place them on the surface, it is a good idea to swab them with lots of wood glue or elmer's glue.  This will force them to keep their shape.

As you can see, I had used a variety of bits.  Some were GW, others from Reaper, and even some 1/45 scale that I had found years ago.

I also placed a Victoria Miniatures Highland Guard as the tank commander... and as a passenger!

If you check out some of my previous posts on the Secret Weapon RAV 6 x 6 vehicle, you will see just how many different weapons there are!  Options galore.  I think there are ten different gun options for the turret.  Ingenious!

Even the hull mounted weapon can be exchanged from heavy bolter to heavy flamer.

I was priming a ton of other things at the time, so I decided I would prime this as well.  I decided to tint my primer, which is something I do quite often.

The gray primer is from Badger Air.  I used a few other colors to move it in the direction of desert theme.  This works very well.  Even better with Secret Weapon resin, which does not have any of the hated and loathed mould release that plagues me on most other company's resin.

This makes life so much more ple\asant... thanks Mr. Justin! :-)

Here we are about to mix it all together for some "primer painting", as I call it.

And yes, you can brush on the Badger Airbrush primer.  I do it every day.

It's fun to see the crazy quilt of colors begin to become one!!!!

Yay!!  All set for painting!!  Not sure when that will happen... probably the next time I have these colors out on the palette.

This is going to be a fun tribute to the British Crusader tanks of WWII, painted in the same camo pattern you saw me use on the Memoir '44 tanks.

Since we have the Highland Guard as the crew, why not go with a Desert Rats theme?  It will also give me a chance to really go nuts with my Secret Weapon weathering powders.

Marauders!

Or at least that's what comes to mind when I see them.  I believe these are from Red Box Games.

Tre Manor would be the sculptor, I think. :-)

These are interesting, to say the least.

Stay tuned for more!

Big, Bigger, and Friggin' HUGE!

Okay... more pictures of bases for you!  Yes, they are all from DragonForge Designs.  Very nice to work with, as always!!

These 'tiny' bases are 40mm.

I am also working on 25mm versions as well. :-)

Then we get a bit bigger... even larger than all the 60mm bases you have seen!

And then really huge!

I really enjoy the layering on the bigger bases.  Some nice subtle ways to have variation in the height of the bases!

And a size comparison with one of the 60mm bases...

When Barbarians attack

Here are some closer shots of the barbarians.  These were resin figures.

As I mentioned yesterday, it involved retrofitting some older painting styles for me.

I had to limit the amount of flesh tone variations from what I do now, as I had to match what was done before :-)

Selecting the color scheme

New army.  New color scheme to choose!  For me, it is the most fun portion of any army project.

As I am selecting colors, several factors are involved.  First and foremost, I want it to look as different as possible from all the other forces I have seen.  This typically means doing some research, checking out as many sites as I can to see what other folks have done.

Story is HUGE for me, so the color scheme also has to come with at least a basic framework for a story.

As I was playing around with colors, I experimented with a scheme of white shirts, black hats, and glowing red stars.

Since I usually like to play my "good guys" as bad guys, or at least somewhat scary, I thought the glowing red stars and the black hats would be more imposing.  The idea here is that the townspeople fear them... and they dread the sight of the glowing stars.

At first I thought that I might need to make the shirts a much darker color to have those stars pop out, but the fluorescent paint is very helpful in this case! :-)

Just because they are feared, it doesn't mean my Lawmen can't be a hit with the ladies!

With the color choices solid, I can proceed with the mass production!  Yay!

Back to the future

Sometimes interesting things happen when you have painted miniatures for this long.  They say that if you walk around long enough, you eventually meet yourself.  In some ways, I have managed that :-)

In this case, I am matching the color/style of another painter who had previously been matching figures that I had painted about 8 years ago.  So, it's been interesting to think about how I approached figures 'back in the day'.

Obviously, so many things have changed since then.  In fact, the way I paint now barely resembles the approach I used in those days.

This is definitely something different.  You hear me talking about this all the time... that is, using Secret Weapon washes and mixing them with regular paint.  In this image, I mixed an off white with Baby Poop.

By doing this, I get a very nice shade of tan that is semi-opaque.  It is fantastic for tinting flesh tones, golds, etc.  I do this with all kinds of washes and paint combos.  As I said, flesh tones and metals benefit greatly from this approach.

Repair and restore.

This is one of my old, original terradons.  One of the wings had broken off, and the base was never actually finished.

As I was working on a bunch of other things, I dusted off the figure, and improved the base.

I added the plastic foliage, and painted it as I had with the other experimental bases.

The foliage had to be painted in a more subtle green than those I used on the Terradon.  As you can see, the colors on the leaves are more grayed down and cooler than those on the wings.

These views will give you a better view of the design on the base.