Man the Guns!

This is my third Laffly truck for my early war French army, but it has a few extra details that the others don't.  Before version 2 was released, there was a lot of questions about how many machine guns were active on these transports... and where exactly the guns were mounted.

The new version made things a lot clearer, but I'm still glad that I did these conversion elements to this great vehicle from Mad Bob's Miniatures.  Both machine guns can be removed, and the crew firing is a very fun addition!

If you want to see what this looked like when I first did the conversion, and a conversation of what it was like to hack away at the gun on the pewter figure, you can check out this previous post:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2017/07/conversion-corner.html

Most of the vehicle, and the figure as well, were painted with acrylics.  Of course, I have some Mig Ammo mud effects paints, and those made short work of adding the mud and splashes!

As I became more familiar with working on these historical vehicles, I started to get a better handle on things such as stowage and other ways to customize the vehicles.  When you have up to 3 of these in your army, it can be very handy for telling them apart from a distance in the middle of a game!

Here's a link to the Mad Bob's Miniatures site:

http://www.madbobminiatures.co.uk/shop/4587330663/laffly-w15t/9194431

With this completed, it is time to start filming the first of the battle reports!  I can't wait to see these on the Ardennes board, against their German Heer counterparts.

I have 13 other armies under way, so these battle reports will eventually cover every era and theatre of the conflict.  It will be part of my Patreon Page offerings once I get the recordings down and edited.

If you would like to be a part of making that all possible, here's the Page:

https://www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Conversion Corner

When we first started to play Bolt Action, the Axis players were getting confused about the Laffly transports and the two pintle mounted MMG's they carried.  Lines of sight were trickier then in first edition, so to prevent more 'conversations', I thought I would try to put the guns on the vehicle.

I found some extra bits from the British sprues, and mounted them on a piece of poylstyrene tubing.  At that time, it mattered if there was a group of passengers on the transport, so each gun not only swiveled, it could also be removed.

It took a while to determine where these guns should be placed, since the bast majority of photos and drawings are of the WTC 15 Tank Hunter, which showed it on the roof of the cab.  The best locations seemed to be where I have them.

I took a Warlord metal French figure that was loading a gun, and carved away that rifle and the hands.  Using hands from the British sprue, I attempted to make it seem as if he was about to grab the MMG.

The Laffly truck is from Mad Bob's Miniatures, by the way.

Here's the same set with the initial layers of paint, prior to glazing.  It gives you a better sense of how this will all look!

Here's the Mad Bob's Miniatures site, and all the fun stuff that's available!

http://www.madbobminiatures.co.uk/shop/4587330661/France

Panzer Zug

Picking up where we left off in the previous episode, it's time to add in the final part of the camo pattern.  This will be done will the yellow primer and a touch of deeper yellow airbrush paint (all fro Badger).

Just like the applications of the greenish colors, this will be lighter than the final result.  That leaves enough space to allow for subsequent glazes and weathering.

It makes an immediate difference.  Also, I try to have this lightest part of the camo strategically placed in areas where I wanted to have more chipping and rust effects.

By reducing the pressure in the compressor (sometimes down to 10-15 PSI) and using the Badger Extreme Patriot brush, it is possible to get some nice tight runs of the airbrush into the spots I wanted.

This picture focuses on the Hungarian vehicles.  The specific kits, such as the Nimrod, Toldi, Turan and Zryinyi kits are from Mad Bob's Miniatures, while the PZ 3 in the back is from Rubicon.

Let's reverse the process, putting the green part of the camo pattern on the Warlord Games Tiger and Stug.  Similar to the yellow, I will mix in a few deeper, darker greens with the green primer to do this color.

The primer not only adds extra stability to the paint as the vehicle is handled over and over again, but helps to thin the color down and allow it to flow more freely.

A comparison shot of the Stug, with green applied and the waiting Tiger.

While I could have approached all the tanks in the same way, I wanted to give the German vehicles that extra touch of yellow.  This is why I stuck with using a yellow base for the Tiger and Stug.

The Hungarian tanks needed to be more greenish, even though most of the camo was of a similar color set to the German versions.

So, I started with a green base to push the entire camo set in that direction.

Experimentation time!  I wanted to see what a very light application of the Badger Ghost tints might do to the lighter colors, specifically the yellows.

While various Mig AMMO filters will be applied in stage 3, I was very curious to see if the Ghost Tints could darken and intensify the yellow part of the camo pattern.

It only took a few shots of the Tints through the brush to know this was a good idea.  While having a marginal effect on the brown and green sections, the yellow parts really came to life!

I did this to all of the tanks, and called that particular experiment a great success.

In Part Three, I will get into the initial application of the oil based products, such as the filters.  Darker washes and glazes will be used to establish the shading in full.

Part Four will feature the decals, weathering and other special effects, so stay tuned!

Tank Wars

You have seen me post a few articles before about the use of Badger airbrush products over the last 10 months, mostly in the form of trial and error to see what might be possible.

In the intervening months, I have been testing, prodding, testing again, various materials and methods to see how I might be use this new set of tools.  I have also been changing the physical setup of the work area over and over again to see what works best, to figure out how to deal with the spray dust, and all the things that go along with airbrush use.

At this point, I have determined that the Airbush is ideal for mass application of Shaded Basecoat on figures and vehicles alike.  There is almost no difference in how I would do the Shaded Basecoat with a 'regular' brush, except that I can now work on 100 figures at a time instead of 20!

In fact, I work on so many simultaneous objects at once, that more time is spent figuring out ways to stage it all around the actual work area!!

In this post series, there will be a number of different vehicles and manufacturers.  There are Warlord Games tanks, Rubicon and Mad Bob's included.  There's even a Konflict '47 mech in there!

Starting with the black/orange primer blends, I did my darks and "pre weathering" as I normally do.  Since Badger makes so many different colors of primer, the vast majority of my painting is done with these primers.  You can check out those other articles in the airbrush section.

Over those darker tones (you can see those in the image above), I spray the green primer mixed with a slightly darker olive green paint.

Those initial layers of dark brown colors instantly create a perfect shadow color for tracks, treads and drive wheels.

The light yellow primer color is mixed in with the green to begin establishing some lighter colored areas.  The inset shows a Stug and Tiger which got the yellow treatment.  This is another reason why I need such a large staging area, because I am trying to maximize the use of every color.

Starting and stopping again while working on just one or two tanks at a time would not be a very good use of such a powerful system!

As more yellow is added to the mix, the lights keep getting brighter.  Keep in mind that you have to make the colors lighter than you want them to be in the end, just like the regular Shaded Basecoat!  You will be adding darker glazes and washes, plus weathering.  This means you need as light of a base as possible.

I even managed to sneak a French truck into the mass of vehicles!  You can really see the brighter yellow at this point.  Since I am not washing out the cup between layers, it maintains a grayish appearance.

You are not limited to working lighter only!  If needed, you can go back in with darker tones if you need to reestablish a shaded area, or tint something a bit.

I think this shows up most on the aft deck of the Tiger, where I wanted to see what kind of exhaust soot I could create by lightly spraying black over that zone.

To create the camo pattern, I started with the brown, and that's a mix of the orange and black primers (from Badger).  Like I mentioned in the beginning, I want as many layers to be primer as possible, since there is no base to grab onto these vehicles!  It will make the paint much sturdier in the process.

The mixed paint is placed in the cup, and I start spraying that part of the camo as needed.  If I want a sharp edge, I could apply some blue tac or other masking agent.

Quite a difference already!  I have carefully set up all the other vehicles in this set to be ready for painting this stage.  The Stug is ready for it's camo...

I tried to leave zones for the green part of the pattern.  Also, I was trying to leave the "leading edges", or other parts that would get chipped, scraped, etc., with the lighter parts of the pattern.  It's a lot easier to have your chipping and rust show up on the lighter colors, so isolating those zones lets you get a lot of chipping bang for very few bucks :-)

And now for the green vehicles.  By the way these are for my Hungarian army.  Most of them are from Mad Bob's Miniatures, but the PZ III is from Rubicon.

This view starts to give you a sense of how many things are finding their way in front of the nozzle!  Not only is this very efficient at getting a lot of things done rapidly, there will be a lot more consistency across the entire army.

At this stage, all of the vehicles and the extra armor have the brown part of the camo applied.

I will close out this first article with a peek at the next stage.  I will add the yellow bits of the pattern to all the Hungarian vehicles, so stay tuned!!

Hungarian Steel

From time to time, you have heard me mention an upcoming Hungarian army for my Bolt Action games.  While the infantry will come from a number of sources, Mad Bob's Miniatures supplies a handy array of vehicles.  I have some of these for you to look at in this post.

Let's begin with the Toldi II with spaced armor.  It is a light tank, but like many vehicles in the Hungarian army, it is of their own design.  

The Nimrod has a few different functions.  It comes with four metal crew members.

Here's the Turan II with mesh spaced armor.  It will be interesting to see if some of the alcohol based decal liquids will be able to 'melt' the decals into the recesses of the mesh.

If they are not successful, I will simply paint those in place.

I forgot to take some images of the decals, which are also available in the webstore.  Both the early war and later war insignia are available.  I think I may have to use both varieties, since the tanks that I have are focused more on the later war years.  This means using the simple white cross on the black square.

The Zrinyi is the largest of all the tanks, and may serve even more anti-infantry use in the version 2 rules.   I suppose that in certain cases this self propelled gun could take out a lighter tank, but I get the feeling that mobile HE will be vital to the defense of Budapest!

It is also heavily armored, not open topped.

There are some trucks that are also available, such as the Botond and Raba Ari.  I will try and get some of those to go along with the armor.  Speaking of armor, there also the Csaba armored car.

You can see all of these fantastic vehicles here:

http://www.madbobminiatures.co.uk/shop/4587330661/Hungary 

Tank Hunter

Hopefully most of you have already seen the article on the use of Mig AMMO products which featured my deadly tank hunter!  Now it's time to see the completed Laffly W15CTT in all its glory.

It's proven to be just as potent as I thought it would be, and just as flexible (as in MOBILE!)

I have a number of vehicles from Mad Bob's Miniatures, and I am very happy those are part of my armies.  They fill in many of the gaps in my early war forces.

French and Hungarians are covered very well, as you can see on the website:

http://www.madbobminiatures.co.uk/shop/4587330661/France

Ever since I first learned of the Laffly series of trucks by playing my Flames of War French, and have wanted to see what they would look like in 28mm, and how they would play in a game of Bolt Action.  They are my favorites... as the mobility is incredible.  Our terrain typically has roads, and the 48 inch run on a road has gotten the French forces around the board faster than a Formula One Grand Prix!

Most of the terrain will be rolling hills, rivers and forest, so I attempted to match that with the weathering and color choices.  

Given the nature of the rear mounted anti tank gun, I appreciate that second pivot that wheeled vehicles are allowed.  Once I got this vehicle from Mad Bob's, it became my go to choice in the tank slot!

This is just the first in a long line of Laffly vehicles, so get ready for the race to begin!!