Scratch Blitz

Here's something a little different for you!  In the interest of experimenting with tows for various artillery pieces in our France 1940 Bolt Action games, I whipped up an Opel Blitz truck to haul around some guns! :-)

This was made in less than a few hours, using whatever materials I could find.  Sculpey was used to make the cab and the wheels, since I could sculpt it to any shape that I needed, and even carve in some additional details later.

I have balsa wood as well for my terrain pieces, so what better way to imitate wood texture than by using wood.  Crazy, I know.

It saved a lot of time later on, as I didn't have to carve out that texture.  Had I used sculpey for that section, I would have needed to carve that in.

I thought it might be fun to use some leftover sprue bits such as helmets and rifles to make the open bed more interesting.  The red material is the same Vallejo Oxide paste that I use on my bases.

Not only does this provide some extra texture, there is a structural purpose to using it.  I try to position it around joints to give them a little extra stability.

I put a lot of the oxide paste on the tires, which meant that I could save a LOT of time trying to sculpt or carve in the wheel treads!  By the time the weathering and other mud effects are added, most of the treads would be covered anyway.

It would be a little more difficult to do this on a sandy terrain vehicle like DAK, but this is for the early war Heer forces in the Low Countries.

These views show you the scale on which I was working, and a peek at how the wheels were sculpted.

All I had to do was flatten round balls of sculpey to the same diameter each time, and then press the cap of a super glue container to make the hub caps!  So easy, and it really looks like the actual tires.

First, you press the round edge of the lid into the sculpey to make that outer part of the rim.  Then you flip the cap around and use the five points on the tip to make the lug nut holes.  Tires in seconds!

A Laffly truck was used for scale.  When you see the Warlord Opel Blitz next to this guy, you will be shocked at just how close I got to the actual miniature.

Oh... and here is another peek into the future, the painted scratch build!

This was also a foray into the use of decals, so the experimentation continues at a furious pace.  Stay tuned for more images!

Nadia

I see that I forgot to post the other sister to Ingrid!  She has to have her sibling!!

This is Nadia, also from Siren Miniatures.

I had a lot of fun with the hair.  Since it carried through the entire miniature from top to bottom, I could do some brighter, more saturated mid tones and light colors and not worry about it popping too much.  The rest of the tones are quite muted in comparison.

I also added the grass clump to the base to make sure that intense burnt orange shade did go all the way down to the base.  The idea is to 'carry' the viewer's eye all the way through the piece, as I did when I was making 2D paintings.

That's a little easier by default when you are working on something that is already 3D, as opposed to trying to simulate such dimension on a canvas or watercolor paper.

You can see her and all other sorts of fantastic minis here:

http://sirenminiatures.com/

Wolf's Mane

Just like the previous post, this is another figure that I have painted more times that I can remember.  Many years ago, I got a batch of Reaper barbarian style characters for a Slaine RPG game that I wanted to run.  While I still have a number of Celtos figures for that purpose, I thought I would paint up a few of them now.

The colors on the figure were pretty similar to previous versions that I had done, but I did have some new foliage types that I wanted to test this time around.

These are the foliage tufts from Gamer's Grass, which could serve as a flowering bush or snow covered bushes.

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322161868698?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Sword Maiden

I think I have painted this gal once of twice before in years past, but I had much more fun this time around.

My goal was to make it look less like a paladin, and perhaps something darker or sinister.  

I also had another one of my new Celtic theme bases made with the Green Stuff World texture rollers.  I have done a number of articles on how I made these, which are all in the basing techniques section.

At some point I will have to find those older versions and make some side by side photo sets, to show just how dramatically a few color choices can alter the theme of the very same figure.

I have painted other figures as many as 5 times... and each time I used a very different set of colors, basing, and so on.  I never get bored, even when painting the same figure!

King of the Jungle?

We've got another one of the 1/72 scale tanks from the Little Wars demos (done in the Badger Airbrush booth) which has been completed... even with leaves.  

Just like the previous "Chia Tank" experiment, I love the added dimension that the leaves create.  My next vehicle to have leaves with be the French Laffly W15C tank destroyer.

If you want to see the original posts where this tank was painted, here's a link to part one:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/05/little-wars-part-one-new-arms-race.html

The view from above gave me a new perspective on how desperate the Axis forces were to hide their few remaining precious tanks from marauding P-47's!!  And be darned if that wouldn't be much tougher to spot from the air.

Here's part two of the painting of the toy tanks, courtesy of Badger Airbrush.  You will be seeing a LOT more Badger brushes on these pages very soon.

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/05/little-wars-part-two-more-than-toys.html

I will have a much finer airbrush to work with now, the Badger Extreme.  Up until this point, I have been getting myself re-acquainted with the airbrush using the standard Patriot:

http://www.badgerairbrush.com/Patriot_105.asp

What you have been seeing thus far is really the beginning of the beginning.  A lot of research, testing and experimentation has been going on behind the scenes.  I have tried to give you a few glimpses at this where possible.

A lot of things had to be tied together, and that has taken several months.  Starting the Flames of War and Bolt Action French armies has been the laboratory for all the testing... basing, terrain, special effects such as weathering, and so on.

For example, most of the weathering on this vehicle was done with regular paint and brushes while I was at Little Wars.  Some additional work was done with Secret Weapon weathering powders as well. 

The foundation was established back in May, where I got to try out the airbrush on miniatures for the very first time.  It truly has been a Blitzkrieg on this process!!

Heaven forbid... you will even see some decals!  Oh my!

There is a practical reason for this.  Some of the markings involve tiny lettering and symbols which are not practical to do with freehand.  I also want to have these be as correct as possible.  As you can see, there will be a LOT to learn.  

Hopefully I can make the journey interesting for you as well. :-)

Kitty Litter

Time for some images, now that the final miniature has been added to the base with the kitties!

I believe this Dark Sword figure is part of the Game of Thrones set.

It was important to keep the colors toned down here, but yet have enough difference from the cats and the base to be visible.  I used muted reds and light greens to play off the grey on the base and the yellowish tan of the Siamese cats.

Green and red are opposites, so those had to be muted as much as possible.  It would be quite festive otherwise! :-)

Toning them down is simple... greens were mixed into the reds, and vice versa. As you can see, imparting just a small amount of the opposite color is a way to make hues which would normally contrast work in harmony.

Once again, I used some foliage to tie in a color from the figure down into the base.  The red flowers were perfect for this!  They also brought a splash of color to the base, and helped to make the blue eyes of the cats a little more distinct.

Scenes and vignettes like this one are possible by "going vertical" on a base.  In this instance, it only involved creating a second 'level' to the base, so that the cats could be spread out a bit, and leave the central figure less obscured.

You can also see the "triangle" composition and the 2 to 1 ratio in effect.  That's the basic of composition.  Never have two equal sized objects standing side by side equidistant of each other, as that is very disturbing visually.

The triangle form of composition like this is closer to the golden ratio, which is the ideal mix of large and smaller objects together.

The cat's out of the bag

I thought I might snap a few pictures of this for you before the main figure is added.  I made a multi level base out of the pressed sculpey Green Stuff World textures, and then added a few things.

Like skulls... and KITTIES!!  

Yes, cute little kitties from a recent Dark Sword kickstarter campaign.

They seem to lend themselves to Siamese, so I have been painting them that way.

As for the base, you can see that it is a lot of fun to "age" the broken pieces of sculpey once they have been painted.  I also tried to make sure that the various shades and colors would not blend in too much with the kitties.

One more set of playful cats.  Who says that I don't post pictures of cats?