Panzer Wrecks #2: Painted Objective Marker

Next up in the objective marker/terrain piece project is the Panzer 1.  This one made me even happier that I didn't need to deal with recreating the wheel and track assembly!  It is very spindly and would have been quite fragile, so having a burned out hull in the mud was a much simpler prospect.

I needed to get both of these ready for the tournament very rapidly, so there were many elements that had to be simplified in shape and texture.  I knew that I could paint in some of that, which I had done many times before.  Also, the burned out nature of the vehicle would make it easier to sculpt more basic shapes without the need for great precision.  

For instance, the extra firm gray Sculpey clay can be carved and sanded once it is baked.  This would have made it possible to file down some uneven spots, or sharpen up and edge that had become a little fuzzy due to handling and fingerprints.

I have a previous post which shows how the vehicles were sculpted here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/04/objectives.html

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the Panzerwrecks series of books was very helpful.  There are dozens of them, covering all theatres and eras of the conflict.  

It details how each vehicle was destroyed, the weapons involved, and the effects they had on the vehicles.

I didn't actually get to use these in the tournament, as specific objective markers were not necessary.  However, I needed them for my own battle reports, and you will soon see them in my own games in the Barabrossa and Ardennes campaigns:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78AWDqiSgH4

Here is a test video that I recorded using XSplit, which is a new format that I was exploring for the Patron Page.  This is how I will create my new painting videos, which involves a lot less editing!  Instead of dozens of segments that need to be heavily edited with fades, text and images, it is all right there on the screen.

That means that I can do far more video tutorials, on a much greater range of topics!  They are more like the Facebook Live sessions, but more focused since I do not have to greet people and answer questions:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/04/objectives.html

Panzer Wrecks #1

Now that the Bolt Action tournament has come and gone, I have had some time to take images of the completed objective markers!

This first post will show the wrecked Panzer II, which was sculpted from scratch quite rapidly using the Extra Firm Gray Sculpey clay (which you bake in an oven).

Here's a link to the Facebook Live session where it was painted:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10212742054440330/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

As I have mentioned many times, I heard about the event at the very last minute, so I had to act very quickly.  There was no time to order intact vehicles to turn into wrecks, nor were there funds to do so.  Sculpting them from scratch took a few hours, and the total cost of materials was less than $5.

I took a great deal of shortcuts making these, which is OK as they are supposed to be wrecks!

Speaking of wrecks, one of my key references was one of these amazing books that Cathy had gotten my for Christmas.  Not only did it have a lot of images, but it went into great details on how each vehicle was destroyed, and the effects that had on the metals, interior, etc.

The key element was learning that as tanks burn up, the tortion bars of the suspension are weakened, and the hull settles into the mud.  This meant that I could save a tremendous amount of time on the most difficult part of sculpting any tracked vehicle... the tracks and tires!!

Instead of trying to create an entire track assembly with bogie wheels, sprockets and idlers, I could create toned down versions and sink them into the mud.  Also, the tracks could be broken down into strips of Sculpey, slightly textured and bent into the kinds of shapes that I saw in the photos.

I was shocked at just how close I was able to match actual model kits in such a short period of time as a result.  Utilizing the reference images that I found in a quick web search echoed what I had seen in a few tutorials, that the extreme heat not only burns off the paint, but alters the metal itself.

Initially I would have avoided rust effects, but it seems that the superheating and scorching of the metal cause some instant oxidization, resulting in a band of rust in between the blackened steel and the painted hull.

I would love to do a sculpting video on making one of these, so any support that could be offered on my Patreon Page would be very helpful, providing me with a little extra time to create a YouTube instructional video!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Objectives

When I learned of the Bolt Action tournament at Little Wars just a few weeks ago, that set off a scramble to prepare.  The army was painted, but I didn't have a display board, nor did I have objective markers.

While I am not sure if they are actually needed, I figured that have the standard 3 objectives on hand might be a wise precaution.  One of them is already set, but I needed 2 more that could cover a few different aspects.  They needed to fit my early war "what if" French army, but later on I wanted them to be potential terrain pieces which could work for both France 1940 and for our Barbarossa campaign.

This meant breaking out the extra firm Gray Sculpey, and seeing if I could get these sculpted, baked and based in a mere 2 hours!!!

The hulls of the Panzer 1 and 2 were a more simple task to create, but the wheel and track assemblies are always much tougher to construct.  I had to save major time, and after reading a book series called PanzerWreks, I discovered that burned out tanks had a tendency to end up on their belly armor buried in the dirt/mud. 

This is due to the rubber on the drive wheels burning off, but more importantly the tortion bars melting.  Once this happened, the weight of the vehicle made the remaining hull sink to the ground.

This was perfect, since it meant that I could set the hulls into the wood filler, as well as the scattered drive wheels and sprockets.  I could also make some very quick and easy folded track lengths, and bury those too!

This alone saved hours of painstaking work on something that was "destroyed".  Yet another reason I did not want to spend very long on this project!

I used my clay extruder/pasta machine to create metal 'plates', which I could cut up with the exacto knife and turn into hatches, hinges, viewports and so on.

I was hoping to keep the hulls intact so that I might even be able to make temporary "complete" wheel/track assemblies in case I needed a working tank, but this part of the vehicle is simple enough to sculpt that I could make more in a pinch.

It is mostly a matter of creating 'blocks' of the Sculpey clay, and cutting away at it to get the desired shapes.

Once the pieces were set into place, I added some more wood glue to cover up bits of the tracks, as well as provide a little more 'grip' for the shattered wheel assemblies.  It was pretty funny to see them sitting at such odd angles, but after looking at dozens of images of wrecks, this is fairly common.

I had a collection of debris from my previous terrain projects (the roads and display board), which made some very nice large rocks and other scatter bits.

The original bases were going to be larger, so that I could potentially have miniatures standing on them, but space on the display board is at a premium.  Also, this is a lot closer to the normal recommended size of Bolt Action objective markers.

These have already been primed, and I will try to paint them in some form of video tutorial.  It might be a facebook live, or an instagram live.  Not quite sure yet!!

As always, any support on my Patreon Page makes it easier to create how to articles such as these, terrain making videos, painting videos, and so on.  It is a lot of fun to do them, but they also add a lot of extra work to every project.

Any support is greatly appreciated!

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel