Jurassic Dead

This set of miniatures from HellDorado  was really unusual, and had some unexpected sculpting details!  I had started painting them as standard Lizardmen, but the more I worked on them, I started to realize what I thought was torn fabric or leather was skin!

Yes, they were shedding their skin.  My guess is that they might be undead lizards?  I was certainly caught by surprise, and I was forced to switch gears about 30% of the way through the process.

This is something that I have been emphasizing a lot on both my live sessions and the YouTube/Facebook live sessions.

It is also something that I have been demonstrating in the new "Army Painter" pledge levels on the Patreon page.  The idea is to construct the framework of  your lights and darks as quickly as possible, so that if you need to make some changes (especially significant ones like this adventure!), you don;t feel like you have lost a lot of working time.

That means that you will be more willing to make those adjustments, and end up with a better overall result.  You can find the Army Painter pledge on the patreon page here:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Music Man

To those who don't already know, a good portion of this Chaos Knight unit was painted with oils, with the final details completed with acrylics once they were dry.

When you are working on a large number of figures that have very similar colors, using the oil paints can be very handy!  The ability to still be able to wet blend new layers of paint into those applied one or two days before is a tremendous advantage when trying to match colors!

I have said this many times before, but now that more people are seeing this idea of oil painting, there are some misconceptions about why you would use this medium.

When people ask me how to get oil paints to dry faster, I always say: "I use acrylics instead".  The whole point of these is the longer drying time, and that ability to turn each of the figures themselves into a wet palette!

I was even seeing some people claim that I wanted them to have a different look, etc., which is definitely not the case.  To make that point, I painted the last one of this unit entirely in acrylics, and it looked just like all the others.

The process itself is not all that different, since I still use glazing when I am working with oils.  I may not remove as much paint as I do with the acrylics, where I am wiping away layers of glazing with a sponge.  For obvious reasons, that is just not possible with the oils, since the underlying layers are still wet.

I hope this all makes sense!  Now that we are back from GenCon, I can start diving back into my oils again!!  Stay tuned...

When the Bear Gets You...

Yeah, some days you get the bear, and some days he gets you.  Or you get to ride him.  if you are a goblin!

This Goblin Bear Rider is from Red Box Games.  His base is 50mm, so that gives you an idea of scale.

This was part of that very large forest creature project, filled with goblins, trolls and ogres!

As usual, the base was constructed of tree bark and Oxide Paste.

Massive Firepower

The bloody drama continues to play out across the Pripet Marshes, with the German forces trying to achieve an encirclement of the vast Soviet troop presence in this sector.  

Multiple attempts to outflank the Red Army were made by light armored elements such as the SDK fZ 232 armored car and the Panzer 38T.

Static units of the German force found themselves under constant barrage from the Soviet heavy artillery in the form of mortars, howitzers and the rocket launcher.  This team better get in its shots very quickly before the dreaded Red Menace can range in on them!!

While taking a number of casualties, the veteran units shrugged them off as they pushed even further into enemy occupied sectors.

However, the new Soviet commander was utilizing the deep river gullys that had been carved out over many years of lumber harvesting in this village.  In contrast, the German forces had to advance over mostly open terrain.

Speed was not on the minds of the Soviet commanders, as barely trained soldiers sloshed through the riverbeds...

The Red Army refused to use the bridge, choosing instead to take cover against the banks of the river.  While the German forces did not have much armor, that was making any direct use of the bridge very hazardous for the captured Blitzes.

As the main body of the Soviet forces sheltered in the river, the artillery continued to pound the German positions.  Once the invaders had been sufficiently weakened, the new Commissar Royamanov felt that he could finally push his troops into contact with his enemy.

However, the wily German commander had been waiting for this tactic, recalling what had happened in the first battle over the village.  The armored car opened fire with both its autocannon and machine gun, felling the Red Officer where he stood!

Commissar Royamanov suffered the fate of Commissar Royitski and Captain Albertofski... joining them as Heroes of the Soviet Union.

Unbelievably, the veteran unit had held out against point blank fire into the wooden church.  Could they anchor the final German advance and secure the victory, or would they be overrun by the Soviet Hordes...

It was now that the NKVD units began to push out from their hiding places in the river.  Perhaps seeing their new Commissar killed enraged them enough to disregard the hail of fire from the waiting German units.

The German units in this neutral sector tried valiantly to hold on, but they were ground down by continuous small arms fire.  After losing so many of their number from the rocket launcher, it did not take much to kill the rest.

Those casualties would prove decisive, as the Soviet advance was stalled just in time!

The loss of those two infantry squads made the difference, as the Germans lost the 2 points they were holding, in addition to the 2 points the Soviets received for the kills.

It is clear to the German High Command that this town will require a more powerful force to liquidate.  Those reinforcements are already on their way, and soon the battle will be rejoined.

Also on his way is the new Commissar Roytovka... will he be the next posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union?

Stay tuned.

Rockets Red Glare

The bloody struggle for the Pripet Marshes continues as the German forces seek another breakthrough in the rugged terrain of the Ostfront.

Seeking to cut off and encircle vast numbers of Soviet troops following the death of Captain Albertofsky in the previous battle, fast moving elements of the Wehrmacht would be in a fight to the death over 4 sectors of the field.

Most of the German mobile units were kept in reserve, while the entire mass of the Red Hordes deployed all at once!

Somehow the cheeky Bolsheviks had captured some Opel Blitzes, and would employ a bit of Maskirovka to confuse the German forces rushing into the 'neutral' sectors.

However, it was the heavy artillery of the Red Army that struck first, making it very dangerous for the German weapon teams stationed in a few of the log buildings.  Those did not stand much chance against medium howitzer and mortar shells...

Using the confusion of the bombardment, the massed infantry units sought to cross the river and set up a hasty defense against the advancing enemy.

As this was a rapid movement column, the Germans were without the heavy armor they used in the previous skirmish.  The Panzer 38T seemed to be quite perturbed by the heavy Maxim machine gun in the lumber mill.

Soviet artillery strikes again!  When the smoke and splinters had cleared, yet another Machine Gun team had been wiped out.

Stalin's Organ would rise to a crescendo as multiple advancing squads took casualties from direct hits!

However, the stalwart and well disciplined German units would regroup, and bravely continue the advance.

At last, the hardened veterans of the Barbarossa campaign located their quarry, which was hiding in the river.

The other veteran unit shrugged off all manner of small arms fire and made their way to the most vital position on the battlefield... the newly rebuilt wooden cathedral.  There was not much left of the original church once the Flak 88 targeted it at point blank range.

If these battle hardened troops can take and hold this structure, it just might secure a victory for the Axis forces.  Stay tuned for the next episode to see if the deadly rockets of the Katyusha can stem the tide...

Terrain Time!

When I first got back into airbrushing, I especially looked forward to its use on terrain pieces!  While I assumed it would save a lot of time (which it certainly does!), I was hoping that it would allow me to do more potentially 'delicate' pieces.

By that I mean ruined buildings that had shattered bits hanging off, or piles of bricks such as these.

Getting the darker colors jammed into those areas with a brush (even with watered down paint) can lead to pieces breaking off, etc.

The Stynlrez primers are ideal for my underlayment foam buildings.  I have several tutorial articles on how my various buildings were made.  Ultimately my goal is to have an entire town:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/10/heading-into-town.html

This blog post takes you through the stucco process:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/09/time-for-stucco.html

I had a few requests to show how effective the airbrush was at creating scorch marks and other effects, so I did that in the booth as well.  In the past I used weathering powders for this, but it is nice to use something more permanent like primer.

Once I get the bulk of the piece done with the airbrush, I can go back in and pick out more details such as bricks, cracks, etc.  I can even add furniture, posters and more.

Having the ability to reach this stage so quickly will make it far easier to get this entire town painted!  I am also getting more variety in my colors, since it is do easy to dust over a grayish tone here and there, even some greens.

Drybrushing terrain tends to have a very recognizable look on camera, and having this softer tone looks a bit nicer

After a few minutes of general work, I was already picking out individual bricks with a few brushed on colors, and even working on the mortar lines between the brick layers.

As I have mentioned, these are just a few of the buildings I have set for this new terrain board.  More are being constructed, so that I have more options for layout and placement.

Also, I am working on a few buildings to create "forced perspective" in order to tie in the painted backdrops with the rest of the board.  These will be ruined buildings or 'store fronts' which will be placed right in front of the painted backdrops.

This will add one more layer of perspective, making the board appear as if it is receding into the backdrop, instead of ending abruptly.

In some ways, the intact buildings are more difficult to paint.  They will certainly require more finishing details, such as wallpaper for the walls, and so on.  I have another tutorial planned for those interior spaces, so stay tuned!

The airbrush is very handy for getting inside the buildings, particularly those that are intact!  It is very difficult to get at these interior corners with a brush... at least in a timely fashion.

I have a number of terrain tutorials, including a few different methods for making these ruined houses:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-town-in-ruins.html

Unmasking

In addition to all the Busts, there were a number of vehicle painting demos.  I tried to show how I go about using the airbrush for my regular figures as well as things such as vehicles.

One of the things I discovered a few years ago is that Blu Tac works very well as a masking material!  I was already using it to attach figures and vehicles to paint jars and other things, so I was pleased to see that it could perform this task too!

I have the King Tiger platoon box from Warlord Games, and I am trying out some of the color schemes from the Ardennes and Hungarian theatres.

The Blu Tac does not leave any residue, and it does not tear away previous layers of paint.  Really handy in multi colored schemes like this.  By working the Blu Tac a bit, the paint seems to work its way out of the compound...

I also worked on some Dunkelgrau vehicles, and then some which required green.

As most of you already know, I love to use a series of Stynlrez primer colors for the initial layers on all my vehicles.  There are 12 colors, so that means I can match just about anything I might need!

This also means that I can have a very solid base on which to add my subsequent layers.  Very important when you will be handling these all the time and rolling dice into them.

I needed some specific markings on this Char B1 Bis, so out came the Blu Tac.  Once I had the areas masked off, I could spray a few progressively lighter layers or ochre colored primer...

Take it away an Poof!  All set for more glazes, weathering, staining, etc.

I had used the same set of greens, browns and rust colors on a late war Soviet IS2.

I tried to emphasize how I have as many things on the "Priming block" as possible, because you never know when you might need that color somewhere else.  For instance, I was also priming the new Sherman Crocodile, new US Infantry figs and even a Mierce Miniatures monster!

While this camera set up worked OK to allow a few folks to see what I was doing more easily, I am definitely hoping to have a much larger arrangement for next year.  The idea is to have a large monitor behind me, so that more people can watch at once.

Given how much noise there is in the vendor hall, I am trying to see if I can have some kind of mike and speaker set up to make it easier for folks to hear me!  Also, we want to have very specific demonstration times set in advance, so that people can make a plan to be around while the madness takes place!

I will now take all these vehicles that have been primed and get back to my usual live and recorded video sessions... stay tuned.