28mm Russian Infantry

Base: Khaki Grey:German Camo Orange Ochre 1:1

1st Highlight:  Khaki 988:German Camo Orange Ochre 1:1

2nd Highlight: Base: 982 Light Flesh 2:1

28mm Grenadier, 24 PzDiv, 1942

• Uniform: Andrea Field Grey Set
• Flesh: Andrea Flesh Set, lower lip VMC Beige Red
• Leather: As below
• Gas mask Canister: VMC 830 Field Grey, wash 2X AP Dark Tone ink, highlight/chip VGC Gunmetal, 
• Gas mask canister strap: Khaki 988
• Gas Cape: Base VMC Green Grey, shadow Green Grey + VMC Field Grey 830, highlight Green Grey + VMC Ivory
• Canteen Cup: Same as gas mask canister
• Mess Tin: Same as gas mask canister
• Bread Bag: VMC Khaki 988, wash 2X AP Dark Tone ink, highlight with base, highlight 988 Khaki + VMC Ivory
• Zeltbahn: VMC German Camo Beige, wash 2X Dark Tone ink, highlight with base
• Canteen: VMC Beige Brown
• Grenades: VMC 830 Field Grey base
• Collar/epaulets: German Camo Extra Dark Green
• Litzen: Ivory
• Waffenfarbe: VMC Golden Yellow
• Weapon metal/buckles: Base VMC Dark Seagreen, shadow VMC Black; highlight VGC Gunmetal
• Weapon wood: Base VMC Flat Brown, shadow VMC Black; highlight VMC Flat Brown + VMC Beige Brown, extreme highlight VPA Old Wood
• Sling: German Camo Black Brown
• Helmet: Shade VMC German Grey; base VMC Dark Seagreen

Painting Black Leather in 28mm

Shadow: VMC Flat Black
Base: VMC Flat Black:Rose Brown 1:1
Highlight: VMC Flat Black:Rose Brown:Light Flesh 1:1:1

Lifecolor acrylics

Lifecolor sprays very well through the Badger 200 thinned 1:1 with Vallejo 71.061 Airbrush Thinner, with a bit of Flow Aid. 15 psi. 

Painting 15mm German Infantry

1. Uniforms
1. Shade VMC Field Grey 830
2. Base LifeColor Field Grey 1
3. First highlight: VMC Green Grey 886
4. Second highlight: VMC Green Grey 886 : Ivory 918 1:1
5. Collar/epaulets: 
2. Helmet: VMC Reflective Green 890 : Black 950 4:1

The LifeColor Field Grey may be too light.  It is a near-exact match for VMC 886 Green Grey.

Painting 10mm German Panzer Grey

1. Prime black
2. 1:1 VMA German Grey:Light Grey. Thinned 4:1, 15 psi.
3. First highlight: VMC German Grey:Pale Bluegrey 2:3
4. Second highlight: VMC German Grey:Pale Bluegrey 1:3
5. Very light drybrush Pale Bluegrey
6. Future
7. Decals
8.  

10mm Stalingrad

I think I've finally settled in on 10mm as my scale of choice for the Stalingrad project.  It is a compromise.  I much prefer 15mm infantry, but my 15mm painting is too painstaking and slow for me to ever complete 3-400 infantry.  Furthermore, 15mm buildings are going to be either underscale or prohibitively large for the scope of this. Realizing that, I experimented with MicroArmour.  The GHQ vehicles are frankly amazing in their detail, but the infantry is just too small to be useful on a terrain-dense board.  Stalingrad was a highly infantry-centric battle and the 1/285 infantry just isn't big enough or distinctive enough to take center stage.

I'm impressed with the 10mm Pendraken infantry.  I wish they did some appropriate German pioniers, but Phil at Pithead assures me that he intends to release an updated pack net year sometime.  I'll be looking forward to that.  I have a slight preference for the Pendraken infantry, but the Pithead infantry is certainly serviceable. For vehicles, I am greatly impressed with the Pithead offerings.  Hopefully I can put up some photos later this week.

I've made a couple of drawings of my proposed mapboard (version 2) of Central Stalingrad.  The whole map:

It actually cuts off the railroad crossing in the south.  It also lacks the central landing stage and any detail on the banks of the Volga below the city.  At 4" = 100yd, it does compress the center of the area quite a bit, so it isn't completely accurate.  There isn't a lot of important terrain in the NW corner, but the hex grain forces me to put it there.

I drew this on hexes with the original intent of using Spearhead rules, which use squares to represent urban "sectors" or "zones."  Basically urban terrain is "area" terrain and LOS only exists between adjacent sectors.  Edge sectors are treated as regular terrain. The red lines delineate the edges.

I don't think this would be workable with traditional measures at battalion level, hence the hexes and sectors. 

Main buildings/features:

• Stalingrad Rail Station #1
• Children's House
• Nail Factory
• Fallen Fighters Square
• Univermag Department Store
• Specialists' House
• Water Works
• State Bank
• Brewery
• Flour Mill
• Warehouse
• Pavlov's House
• Zabolotny House
• 9 January Square
• Voyentarg Corner
• Milchaus
• Railyard

Here's a drawing of the NE corner around Pavlov's House.  The map has since been revised but I want to save it because I like the setup and want to stick pretty close to it.

 

Progress update

...or lack thereof.

For everything, a season.  It appears that spring is going to be devoted to varmint shooting, summer to fishing, and fall to big game hunting.  That leaves winter for painting little men and shooting 3-gun.

The biggest hurdle I've overcame is I now have a plan for terrain building.  I'm going to make my own hexes in the fashion of GHQ Terrain Maker. This will enable me to play Crossfire with a hex representing a terrain feature or SLiM.

Ongoing projects

1. I am pretty much stuck with the painting area in the shape it's in.  So, not going to make any progress until I get the house renovation done and get things squared away.
2. 15mm Stalingrad.  I have some Russians  based and ready to finish.  Still working on getting good rubble bases.
3. Terrain building in 15mm
4. 6mm Ostfront.  I think I will start with recreating 24th Panzer, as here: http://lancasterwargamers.blogspot.com/2013/01/toe-for-german-24th-panzer-division-at.html
5. 28mm WWII skirmish with Lardies Chain of Command.  I have enough plastic Bolt Action figures to do a German platoon and a Russian platoon.  I want to make some significant 15mm and 6mm progress before I start this.

So, it looks like Ostfront is the focus, with 6mm at thel level of 1 stand = 1 platoon, 15mm 1 stand = 1 squad, and 28mm skirmish.

Oh, shiny!

Getting the urge to do some WOTR/Dark Ages/Crusades/fantasy again.  And there's that nagging interest in 15mm sci-fi.  Damnit.

Microarmour Painting Log

#1 Ritterkrieg Method

Basecoat 3:1:2 Tamiya German Grey:Flat Flesh:Flat White: Thinned 1:1 Tamiya thinner.

Future. Washed with AK Blue Filter for Panzer Grey. Excellent results. Would be better if I could get a more even coat of color on the flats. 

#5 Glazing

Vallejo German Grey:Glazing Medium 1:5 with 1 Flow Aid. Did not work, at any ratio.  Going to try spraying the glaze on with the Renegade.

PSC/OF! Stug III Build Notes

Procedure:

1. Prime Vallejo.  White for OF! Stugs, black for PSC.
2. Basecoat Tamiya Dark Yellow.
3. Three-color scheme on OF! Stugs, airbrushed freehand with Renegade.
4. Two coats of straight Future.  PSC Stug dried overnight, OF! for two hours.
5. Wash with AK Interactive Brown Wash for Panzer Yellow.
6. Dry two hours, rub off with Q-tip.  The Future drying time on the OF Stug was not adequate; some paint was removed.
7. Flat coat of 3:1 Future:Tamiya Flat Clear X-21.  Turned out well.
8. Pigments after flat coat dries overnight.

Ongoing Vallejo Surface Primer (White) Log

OI will keep updating this post as I try to make white Vallejo Surface Primer work.

10 Jan 2014
Model: 15mm Stug (BF)
Airbrush: Paasche H, #1 tip, color cup, tip four turns up
Primer: unthinned, shaken
Pressure: 15 PSI to start

Results: Adequate coverage.  No tip dry in about 1/3 cup.  Stippling. Raised pressure to 25PSI to alleviate stippling, then tip dry.

Based on internet research, I have two issues:

• The "stipple adjuster" in front of the trigger button was halfway out.  According to what I read it should be screwed all the way down.  I will try that on my next attempt.
• There should be an o-ring (packing) around the threads on the needle.  There isn't.

There also isn't an o-ring on the aircap.  There was but I removed it because it was in bad shape.

Update 13 Jan 2014: Putting this on hold until the new parts arrive for the Paasche H and the Badger 250. Then I will revisit. I am going to have to spray the primer on to something nonabsorbent. The cardboard doesn't work; it absorbs the paint so I can't see the dot pattern. Maybe if I rattlecan it first in a contrasting color. 

Damned OCD. 

Open Fire! Stug III

I recall seeing a model of a Stug III when I was young. I really didn't understand, it looked like a tank, but where was the turret? I recall concluding that it was a remote control tank, because there was no turret for the crew. What can I say, I was maybe 9 at the time. It was the coolest model I'd seen. 

Of course I couldn't afford it. The nicer models were out of my reach in those days. I remember lusting after the Tamiya models, but my budget permitted only kits such as Monogram and Revell. Besides, Tamiya kits were for "real" modelers, not silly little kids.  Funny, to this day I still get a thrill buying Tamiya products. 

Anyway, since that day I've been a fan of the Stug.  Even more so once I found out what their tactical role originally was. 

The Open Fire! Stugs catch a lot of flak online. They deserve it. Poorly designed and poorly fitted. PSC's version is head and shoulders above Battllefront's offering. That said, I built the OF Stugs over the past couple nights. Especially with their schurtzen, they will be a nice learning tool for the new airbrush. I'm not going to be too broken up if they don't turn out well. Going to try modulation, assuming I can figure out what it is...

The Stugs are built and primed. I can't get consistently satisfactory results with the Vallejo white surface primer, although the black sprays beautifully through the airbrush and dries perfectly. If I didn't want to use up the white primer, and if I cared about how these models turn out, I would prime with the black. I don't understand why my results are so inconsistent with the white primer. I want to like it but I am nearly done.  

Checking in with myself

So the 28mm WOTR went nowhere, although I have a very nice bunch of Perry Miniatures and am a couple hundred dollars poorer. It was largely abandoned due to unsatisfactory painting results. Ridiculously high standards/fallacy of perfection.

BUT my attempts at 28mm bore substantial fruit in 15mm. I have started painting by layering the infantry for my long-dormant 15mm Ostfront/Stalingrad/Barbarossa project. They are turning out to be the best miniatures I have ever produced and I am doing them without washes and drybrushing, which both seem to put a limit on the quality of my figure painting.  I should elaborate on that in a future post. 

I will be posting some painted WWII 15mm before too long. Still waiting for my bases from Litko to arrive.