Out in the Cold

It's been a long time since I last showed the winter Germans from Warlord Games.  This was the first use of the Secret Weapon Miniatures crushed glass on an entire army.

I had never gotten the opportunity to create a winter Army for myself, so this was very fun!

The set of metal figures is a nice one... I really enjoy the poses, with a lot of character.  This is the main infantry box:

https://us-store.warlordgames.com/products/german-grenadiers-in-winter-clothing/?utm_campaign=jamiet&utm_medium=click&utm_source=fbba

The crushed glass snow is ideal for these kinds of projects, since you can make the snow any consistency that you need... more melted, more icy, or more like a powder.  It also has a slightly transparent, crystallized appearance when you place a bit of it on clothing or helmets.

This is also another interesting exercise in muted colors and limited palettes.  It is very essential to keep all the colors more in the cooler range, and very grayed down... even skin tones! 

End Zone

Another blast from the past!  Here we have a few converted skeletons and zombies for an Undead Blood Bowl team.

I had some fun with the skin tones on the zombies... varying the colors from one to the next, and balancing all the greens against the purples, pinks and reds.  The purple was the key element in the transition between them, since green and purple make a grey as opposed to brown.

That grey is a nice 'dead' flesh color, as opposed to brown, which is what you will get from a green/red mix!

The purple is also handy, since that's part of the uniform colors!

Nothing crazy on the bases... just something to make them look like they are on a Blood Bowl pitch :-)

I went with a more intense green set on the right hand zombie, and that turned out to be a great contrast to the warmer purple color.  The colors on the guts were cooled down a bit to compensate.

Jungle Hero

This conversion was made for my Lizardman army to keep "super weapons" from wiping out my very expensive Temple Guard unit.  It's been a while, but I believe that if Chakax fought in a challenge, the opponent's magical weapon would only count as mundane, thus eliminating the 400 automatic unsaveable wounds those stupid things did!

The base for the conversion was a standard Saurus figure, of which I had many!  I attempted to make it as close to the original metal version as possible, but I did take some liberties to keep it in line with my scratch built Temple Guard unit... made from those same plastic Saurus.  

At the time, there was no plastic Temple Guard set.

A few more views for you.  There were a lot of interlocking surfaces which certainly made it more challenging to paint!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322517855142?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

I used a lot of brown stuff for the sculpting, since that holds an edge better than regular green stuff.  It is also a bit stronger and rigid, which is why I use it for things like horns, banners, parchments and other unsupported pieces.

The Magic Bus

This is probably the most unique vehicle that I have painted so far for our armies... the tiny little Bren carrier!  While it is quite small, it hold quite a bit.  The combination of tracked vehicle, rivets and several troops inside was quite interesting.

Here's a link to the kit itself:

https://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/british-army/products/mmg-carrier/?utm_campaign=jamiet&utm_medium=click&utm_source=fbba

There are a lot of vertical pieces to deal with on this, which means that the weathering and discoloration of some sections takes a different approach than the angled surfaces of a T-34 for example.

Since it is smaller, the weathering effects can get out of control in a hurry.  I tried to target just a few spots with key effects... a tiny bit of rust here, some mud there, etc.

The track assemblies and other bits are far smaller than regular tanks and transports, so I kept the track mud to a minimum.  One of the mud guards kept falling off, so I thought it might be interesting to leave that one off, and just call it as extra weathering! ;-)

Some views from above to show you what the crew compartment looks like.  The oil washes from Mig Ammo certainly helped to get down into the deep crevices.

The horizontal surfaces on the interior needed to have a touch more of the rust, since I figured that the water and other gunk would have more chances to sit there and interact with the paint, and the machine gun mount would also rough up the surface.

  

I took a few ground level views so that you could get a peek at the crew faces.  It's not easy to get at them while they are in the vehicle, but it was certainly worth it!  I have one more of these to go, so stay tuned for some side by side pics!

The Cleric

This was my favorite of the adventuring party.  I really liked the pose, and how the massive sword was set in her hand.  Like all Werner Klocke sculpted faces, you can do a lot of expressive looks.

Since I had freehand on the shield, I left the cloak as plain as possible.  There are some transitions in the blue, as it moves from a grayish blue in the lighter areas to a deeper purple shade towards the bottom.

In addition to the Green Stuff World leaf punches, I placed a few tree branches on the base.

Ground Cover

Some of you have seen my initial posts on the winter American army for Bastonge... and the basing articles on how they were created.  I just discovered these work in progress images showing the method I used to get some leaves, dirt and dust onto the bases, along with some minor applications of snow.

I wanted to have a "little bit of each", with a few scattered leaves, some dirt and a touch of snow.  The previous basing article is here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/02/urban-warfare.html

Using the Green Stuff World leaf punches (and some previously pressed and dried leaves), I made a selection of different colors and shapes.

I have discovered that the Mig AMMO Sand and Gravel glue is amazing!  It has incredible hold, and dries with a matt finish.  This is designed to hold actual dirt and dust to vehicles, so why not weathering powders and snow?!

In this case, I used Secret Weapon weathering powders.  Image 1 shows the glue and leaves added to the base... all I need to do is scatter the powders gently over the top, which you can see in image 2.

Scattering the powders over the top of the leaves makes them seem like part of the base, as opposed to something that was just tacked on!  The dust also sinks down into the cracks, and generally adds a little more texture to the base.

This set of images shows the process again... place some glue where you want the leaves and dirt, then add your leaves, followed by the weathering powders.

At this stage, you could even scatter a few small piles of snow flock into the glue, which will resemble a dusting of snow.  If you combine that with some of the dirt colored weathering powder, it will look like muddy snow in the streets.

Here are some examples prior to the application of that snow... with only the leaves and dirt.

This one includes the machine gun team... finished images of that are here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/04/making-nest.html

The inset shows what a difference in texture this can make, especially in "rubble strewn" areas like blasted structures.  For those looking to base your troops in those ruined urban landscapes, this additional texture can be a nice touch.

And now for a sneak peek at the finished figures!  I also used the crushed glass method to create slightly bigger piles on some figures, and get some scattered snow onto the figures too.  Stay tuned for more completed images of the army!

Striking Gold

While all non metallic metals are very fun to create, I especially like golds.  They allow for many interesting contrasts between lights and darks, muted and saturated colors, as well as warmer vs cooler tones.  

The key to all NMM is in that reflected light, and reflected colors.  This is interesting on regular metal, but with gold,  using warmer tans and sienna against the purples and blues reflected in it.

You can see the differences in the sword blade, where the same colors were reflected.  However, it is less of a temperature contrast.  I normally use a lot of purples and greens in my gold NMM, and this was an ideal candidate!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322526938993?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649