Dunkirk Sprit

As more squads and vehicles are completed, the BEF force continues to expand, and we grow ever closer to our France 1940 campaigns.

There's another Bren Carrier coming too!

I already did some posts on the captured Opel Blitz trucks, but it's nice to see them with passengers too!

I added the MMG team and the Matilda to this shot, but there are many other things that were not included, such as the artillery teams.  A few of those pieces are still under way...

This is just a portion of the total infantry as well.  As large as this backdrop is, I still can't fit everything on it.  I think the massive army shots will have to be shown on the terrain board itself.

There are about 38 to 40 completed infantry, as well as anti tank and light howitzers.  A big 25 pounder gun is nearing completion.

Some of the additions to this force also take it beyond this early war era, such as lend lease vehicles and other things that would be seen in 1944.  This was done to maximize the number of eras that could be covered with a "single" army.

The priority for the time being is on early war, which extends all the way to Barbarossa!  Stay tuned...

Flame and Staff

Continuing the experiments that I have been conducting with the Badger Airbrush Ghost tints, I tried to see how well I could take advantage of tinting my "primer painting" technique.

With so many organic surfaces to deal with, the ability to "map out" those areas of lights and darks with the various primer colors (Stynlrez, by the way) was huge.  As those were in place, I could use that framework to apply the various glazes of Secret Weapon weathering paints and Reaper Clear paints.

If you isolate small sections of the arms, legs, etc., you will notice 3 different transition types.  The obvious one is lighter or darker, but the key variations are in color temperature and saturation.  

That is, some of the 'yellow' is either rust colored, purple or even green!  This is done to show how reflective that gold is, and also to maintain enough visual interest across a complex maze of textures and shapes.

The blue force weapon was chosen to match stuff that was painted many years ago, but also to give me a chance to incorporate more greens into the gold, as the blues tinted it, etc.  I tried to strategically place areas of rust color next to bright zones of white/yellow that was cool by comparison in terms of temperature.

Unlike the red base of the other dreadnought, this one did not offer that same kind of reflection possibilities.  So, the colors of the dreadnought were made a little more saturated and warm, so that the cooler, duller reflections of the grayish floor would have something to contrast against.

I look forward to trying this kind of effect in oil paints, which I will do on a facebook live session.  Stay tuned!!

Dinotopia

Here you have it!  The entire group of six dinosaurs!

As I have mentioned over the series of posts, these presented some very unique challenges.

As for the colors, the task was to take some very grey/brown paint jobs and give them more life.  I really had to dig down into my own thought process and whatever reference images that I could find.

I have no problem doing these kinds of colors on fantasy figures, such as my Lizardmen, but I have been fed the same kind of "traditional" color schemes since I was a kid, and I kept wanting to paint them in those very same colors...

To help free up my own mind, I painted these while I was painting fantasy style creatures, such as dragon men, etc., to force myself to see them in that manner.

It did help a great deal, especially when I had worked my way through several of the figures, and getting differences between them and avoiding repetition became ever more challenging!

Sword and Shield

This was an interesting experiment in utilizing the combination of Badger Airbrush Ghost Tints and the Secret Weapon weathering paints.

I was able to set up a variety of interesting color shifts while doing the "primer painting" phase by adding a few drops of ghost tint to the primers.

From there, I was able to work off those initial tones with several glazes of the Secret Weapon paints, mostly in the "rust" range, and the wood weathering colors.

The last piece of the puzzle was the Reaper Clear paints, which helped to enhance those glazes with even more intensity.  The Clear Blue was used on the sword, while the Clear Purple made an excellent dark tone when mixed with the Secret Weapon Rust colors.

As usual, I had fun with the Object Source Lighting, and doing a bit of freehand on the shield.

Check out the Secret Weapon paints, which has now expanded to over 30 colors!  I will continue to do more facebook live sessions utilizing those.  You can get the Badger primers and Ghost tints here, and if you use the discount code "Wappellious", that will be a 42% discount.

http://webairbrushes.com/

Sub Sandwich

Step aside Puggy Baconbreath... we have something more "official" for the Halflings.

He really puts the "club" in club sandwich!

Da Stug Bug

The very early version StuG D should be interesting in our upcoming Barbarossa games.  Compared to later war versions, this faces some interesting challenges.  Having just a single weapon, it's use will have to be very strategic.

As we have seen, vehicle mounted machine guns tend to do very well in Bolt Action, and I will have to re train myself on this one!  Of course, It's really meant for bunker busting, and that will certainly take place in a variety of the Barbarossa scenarios.

I did my usual "primer painting" with the Badger Stynlrez primers, followed by glazes and layers of the Secret Weapon weathering paints.  This had to be completed in a hurry for GenCon, so I had to make sure that the vehicle would be dry enough so that I could put mud and dust effects on as well!

I have a number of facebook live sessions that show how I used the Secret Weapon paints:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10210892352838946/?type=2&theater

The mud and dirt effects were done with the Mig AMMO oils, adding some of the weathering powders into the wet paints.  Not only does this create a variety in the textures, but it helps to dry out the oils a little faster!

The leaves are actual leaves that were cut using the Green Stuff World leaf cutters,  I really love adding these, since it brings one more dimension to the vehicle.  Stay tuned for images of the Panzer 3 from early war!

Coin Flip

Joining the collection of the original Dwarf and Human refs from ages ago, we have the Goblin and Halfling versions.  These have a bit more character than the original counterparts, since they are really doing stuff that is either part of the game process, or more associated with that particular species :-)

I do enjoy the "Hospitality Funds" that are at this goblin's feet!