Somua Strike

This was the first AFV that I painted for my original French Flames of War army, and then once again for my Bolt Action version.  It led to a lot of research, which continues to this day years later!

There were a number of very interesting Camo schemes for these vehicles, and I could not resist trying out this one. Here's a link to the first Facebook live session where it was painted:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209905678852713/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

Here is a link to the follow up episode:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209914909323469/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I have a lot of fun with the French vehicle color schemes, since the later war Allied vehicles are essentially one color.  While utilizing various weathering techniques to make those have more depth is also very interesting, the challenge of making something like this work is quite a test!

Many more tutorials are on the way, covering every era and theatre of the war.  You will be seeing many more videos on how I am approaching my Winter Soviets, so stay tuned!

You can see this tank in action in my Bolt Action battle report "Blood At Arras":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njN4D64zH1k

Gladiators of Rome

Now it is time to see the entire collection of Gladiators!  

I don't have the identification or wound markers included with the bases, so that's why you see those little gaps in the mosaic tile.

Each one can be assembled with a few different weapon options for each arm.  There was a shield, a bow, a sling, and a variety of swords/daggers.

I have not played the game myself, so I don't know what the significance of any stats are, or the mechanics.  These were painted up for a Warlord Games convention a few months ago in Oklahoma.

The majority of the painting was done using oils, as I was working on large numbers of figures all at once.  It was very handy to be able to blend those skin tones even a few hours after the original layers were applied!

In case you have not already seen it, here is a step by step article that I created to show how I approach the mosaic tile bases:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/05/mosaic-tile-basing.html

The final post in the series will show the group shots of all the mobs together!  Stay tuned...

Shaman

We have some more images of the old style Chaos Warrior knights which were painted primarily in oils.  

As I have mentioned before, when I am working in oils I try very hard to gather together as many figures as possible which will be using "common colors" in order to maximize the effectiveness of those oil paints.  In this case, I had a number of Bolt Action figures which needed a variety of tans and brown shades.

These figures meshed very well with the darker browns of the cloaks and fur, while the tans of the bone surfaces were similar enough to the tans of the Soviet bases and quilted uniforms to work there too.

I also had a few other figures whose bases were just right for that series of brown tones, and the deep skin colors of the inside of the cloaks meant that I could utilize some of the skin tones from those Soviet figures also.

Since the oils have a drying time of at least several hours, it is much easier to bounce back and forth between what might seem to be very disparate projects!

It is also a way to "keep things fresh", as I am not endlessly painting more fur cloaks or quilted uniforms for hours on end.  I could break up that by painting the metal surfaces, which would still need a fair amount of those brownish colors to be reflected in it.

A New Matilda! Part 2

The new Matilda tank from Victoria Miniatures comes with all sorts of weapon options.  These can be for the turret, hull mounts, sponsons, etc.

Here's a link to the website showing you this particular "Fury Assault" variant:

https://victoriaminiatures.com/collections/vehicles-and-bits-1/products/matilds-fury-assault-tank

I had a lot of fun with the Secret Weapon Heat paints, especially since they work quite well with metallics.  I also got a chance to explore the Vallejo metal medium, which you can mix into any color to turn it into a metallic.

This has been used on a few other projects, but this is the first time I have ever painted this many weapons with it!

I took the same kind of approach that I normally do with the historical vehicles, although the proportions for this are much different.  It is still quite ironic that in trying to make a semi-historical marking for the vehicle, it ended up having that 'V' right in the middle of it. :-)

The side sponsons can be removed if you don't want the weapons there.  A section of standard track guard takes its place.

The views from above indicate how massive this beast is!

One more look with yet another weapon option.  Check out the website for some amazing kits!

Sneaky Snakes

I have to say, these snake men/ Ophidians from Mierce Miniatures have to be my favorites from the entire line!

They are quite interesting, as each one is a different "character".  Instead of slightly different poses or slightly different weapons, they are entirely unique poses/shapes.  For instance, one of the 5 figures in the set is clearly a shaman, etc.

That is the other aspect which I find so interesting.  Monstrous infantry really is the specialty of Mierce.  If you check out some of my previous Mierce focused posts, you will see a variety of these huge creatures in unit form.  This is the case with the Walrus men (yes, you heard that right) and even Octopus.

I especially enjoyed painting the weapon on this.  Since this was done, I have had a number of discussions on how to approach NMM.  Lately I have been emphasizing the use of colors that you see on the figure or the "environment" around it.  This is very important, as metal is reflective!  

When I was asked about NMM paint sets, this really brought the idea to the forefront of the discussion.  I don't have go to colors to any kind of NMM these days.  I simply use variations of already existing colors, which enhances that 'reflectivity'

There are more of these on the way, so you will be able to get an idea of what I mean about these large creature "units".  In effect, you have the standard infantry sized versions which are sets of 10 (full command, etc.), then the monstrous infantry, and then a colossal beast from the same type of creature.

So stay tuned!!!

Panzer Command

The early war German force grows more complete each day, and there are a few more additions ready for action in the next Battle Report!!

The Panzer 38T (on the left) is an older resin/metal kit from Warlord which I painted in a live session a while back when I was first getting used to oils:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10209437544229640/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

The SDK fz 232 in the center will act as a command vehicle in the battle.  I had a lot of fun painting that, using the Secret Weapon Weathering Paints.  That's one that I had been looking forward to getting done for quite a while.

The radio antennae assembly comes off, so that I can rotate the turret.  There were a LOT of decals to put on that bugger!  It will be nice to have an armored car which is not open topped.  No random pins from small arms fire.

The Panzer 38T on the right is part of the new Platoon Box set from Warlord Games, which allows you to construct a number of versions of the Czech produced tank.

I painted that in the colors of the 7th Panzer division in France 1940, for obvious reasons.  I will be painting the other two versions in the box in winter and desert schemes for different theatres.

You can check out this YouTube live session in which that Panzer 38T was painted!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Z-eAAb1lI

Dragon's Lair

Over the last several weeks, I have been working on the big 5-headed dragon from Reaper.  It is made from BONES material of course, which thankfully makes it very rugged!

Here's a link to one of the original posts on this beast, which started at Gencon last year:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/08/wing-span.html

This will ultimately be finished off with oil paints, but I wanted to experiment with doing some follow up painting with the airbrush first.  Once I decided to do a lava style base, it meant that I could do a bit of light reflection on the wings!

On the flip side, I added more greens and dark blues, so that the orange tones would have even more contrast.

The same was done with the dragon body itself.  You can see a bit of the base too, which was made with chunks of pink foam carved and textured to match the original stones.

I don't have any fluorescent airbrush paints at the moment, but I know that I can do some very intense colors with the oils.  Again, the idea here was to indicate where I wanted some of these lighter areas to be, and get a sense of "how much is too much" etc.  

This had been toned down quite a bit since by those subsequent layers of oils.

I stuck in the wings to get a quick peek at what they looked like on the body, which led to more course corrections prior to working with those oil paints.  I tried to film a few sessions where I did that oil painting, and I will try to get those edited and posted as soon as I can to the YouTube channel!

Stay tuned...