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. 

28mm on hiatus

I have decided to finish (or at least make significant progress) on the 15mm War of the Roses project before resuming painting 28mm figures. 

I've rebased my 15mm WOTR to WRG standard. I didn't like the look of three archers on a 1" base, although I do prefer that look for MAA.  Anyway, I think rebasing to WRG standard is going to move the project along quite a bit in terms of motivation.  Painting a suitable ACOP/ACOS force was daunting.  I can get some sense of progress that I can at least field a WOTR DBA army.

I'm not sure at this point how to proceed with the basing and painting of the 28mm WOTR.  Singly based? Historical livery? Right now, I'm leaning towards singly basing the 28mm for WOTR variants of Dux Britaniarum/SAGA and keeping to 15mm for ACOS/ACOP.  I don't think I can paint enough figures to get a decent 28mm ACOS force in the time I have left on this earth...

That said, know thyself.  I'll probably decide at some point to try to do ACOP in 28mm so I should probably go with historical liveries.