Oh Caenada!

The campaign for Caen continues.  If you recall, the valiant Desert Rats had been wiped out by the Panzer units, leaving the job of taking the town itself to the surviving Canadians.

They surged forward to avenge their fallen comrades.

But were in turn assaulted from German troops that had been hidden in the ruins!

While they were temporarily pinned down, they managed to get away some devastating firepower on the German positions, eliminating one!

However, The Desert Fox must have brought some of his legendary tank recovery teams with him, as a nearly destroyed Panzer unit regrouped and attacked fiercely. 

This did not stop the intrepid Canadians from taking the first set of ruins, as other infantry and armored units moved from other sectors into this deadly right flank.

The Germans attempted to shift some of their defending units in response.

A spectacular "Their Finest Hour" resulted in the simultaneous movement by all five units!  This could be devastating for the exposed German positions.

The results were not as good as hoped, but more infantry units were able to advance deeper into town, right on the cusp of the objectives.  Advancing trough Panzer tanks and heavy artillery was nothing short of courageous!

The lone Panzer unit continues to wreak havoc as it attempts to overrun deep behind Allied lines.

In the meantime, units of the center manage to score major damage on a Panzer unit, further weakening the possible Axis counterstrike.

Still, the Germans attempt to do so, but fail to take out the mobile artillery which has been dogging them on the right.

The lead elements of the Canadian force recon to the first objective!

The German Field Marshall is faced with a quandary.  Should he use his far off heavy guns to destroy the advancing Canadian infantry in town, or wipe out the mobile artillery once and for all?

The choice is made to target the Mobile artillery, which is hidden deep within the forest... and misses!  The artillery escapes yet again!

Desperate infantry units throw themselves against the Panzers, to no avail...

Heavy losses are suffered again when the furious tankers respond in kind.

A crack unit of highly trained infantry is sent to finish off the tank unit, which finally sets the tanks alight, thus securing the tenuous Allied hold on Caen!!!

Victory!!!!  Now, could this breakout be pushed even further?  Stay tuned!

A light at the end of the tunnel

Time to finish off those turrets!

I added some Secret Weapon Armor Wash to the rust mix to make it a bit more translucent. This way I cold make the initial rust/grime streak, and then add some additional lighter orange colors for the final rust effect.

I did that while the first layers were still wet, so that I could get some nice random blending inside the streaks.

A comparison of rust and no rust.

Faded in some areas, more prominent in others.

Last car on the rails!

Choo Choo!!!!

The ghosts of minis past...

OK, another batch of old timey minis for you!  Starting off with some Lord of the Rings figures.

There are more elaborate images of this piece in the Lord of the Rings section.

I'm not even sure if you can find these Twilight Ringwraiths any more.  I'd be bummed if I couldn't snag some of these again at some point.

The good old days of Confrontation minis!

Some old Reaper figs.  The dancing girl on the left was shown in a "Then and Now" post, where I compare the same figure painted at various points of my miniature painting over the years.  I think it spans 11 years of painting or something along those lines!

Another old doggie

Here's another pre-2010 figure.  The miniature itself must be very old, because I was told that this was GW's version of Leman Russ back in the day.  Tiny little bugger for a big bad Primarch! :-)

Compared to the new Forgeworld Primarchs, he's even tinier.

Nice little doggie...

The Rail Splitter

Hmm... I guess more than one person from Illinois has earned that nickname ;-)

Proceeding with the glazing of the rail sections, I had to take care of the railroad ties.  This was the trickiest part, since the color had to be a different hue from everything else (in this case slightly more reddish) but not hamper the light and dark patterns of the rails and the ground.

You can see, as with other glazes, that I emphasized more darks around the highlight areas of the rails, and the ground.  I had to constantly be aware to shift those values quickly, so that I did not have "dark next to a dark", etc.

The meant at times that I would use my fingers to wipe away some, or a very soft tissue.

You can see the difference.  Also, keep in mind that a few subsequent layers of rust and dust will be added to this!

Eventually all five sections were ready for preliminary rust treatments.

A few Secret Weapon washes were used to keep the mixtures flowing, while still adding some color.

I would work many different rust colors into the surface, some lighter, some darker.

Most of the rust effects would be concentrated on the spikes and the power conduits.

Rails at the ready!

A comparison shot.

Side by side!!!

I just had to place one of the train cars on the rails, even though more work will be done to each!

Seeing this made me all the more anxious to get to the final images. :-)

All aboard!

Can't ride the rails without rails!

SO, that huge Wild West Exodus siege train had one more huge element that you haven't seen yet.  Rails!  Five sections, in fact.

Hard to "ride the rails" without 'em!

Just like any other Shaded Basecoat phase, the idea is to work lighter, and glaze/tint later.

So, I kept working progressively lighter and lighter, although I did switch the colors a bit in various areas, mostly so I would have an indicator for when it was time to do the glazes which way I wanted to shift the hues.

Almost there!

The ground areas are done... now I just need to do something similar to the actual rails.

As you can see, the rails themselves have more shape to them. Ready for glazing!

I put an array of glazing colors out on my "palletes".  Yes, those are Dvd holders.  I have dozens of them around the house now after burning a few thousand disks!

There were Secret Weapon washes, Vallejo glazes, Reaper liner paints, and all the usual suspects.

I think you can see in this shot how I tried to let the colors blend together... sometimes green mixing with reds or tans freely, lighter or much darker in places.  

Weathering will be added to all of it later, so once again, I have to think a few moves ahead.

Here's a comparison to one section that has not gotten any of these glazes yet.

With the darker glazes added to the ground, it was time to hit the rails with their glazes!

For the rails, I used mostly the blue and black combos.  I did toss in a little of the Secret Weapon concrete wash, since that is semi opaque, and added a neat effect.

Next up, rust and dust!!!