Sherman III

I recently purchased a Sherman III tank from Warlord Games. One of the theaters that my friend Jack and I have focused on for Bolt Action is the Mediterranean, from the Western Desert Campaign to Sicily and Italy:  essentially everything covered by the Duel in the Sun supplement.

Jack's Desert Rats so I decided to do up a Sherman to add to his forces. I decided on painting a Sherman III from the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters).

Tiger Tank, Part 3

I don't have all that much experience with weathering. For most of the model vehicles I've done, the weathering consisted of slapping one some mud colored paint, and if I was feeling particularly ambitious, making some paint chips, smoke marks, and rust streaks. Doing it the "right" way, or at least, more in depth than that, seemed pretty daunting.

Swatches

I have an unhealthy obsession with getting the "right" color for my miniatures. In trying to figure out the color I need for a particular project, picking the right color by its depiction on a store's website is impossible. They never match. Looking at a paint pot or bottle doesn't work either, because sometimes the paint is unmixed, and wet paint is usually a slightly different shade than what it is when dried.

So I make swatches.

It's pretty simple: I just cut out a lot of 2-inch squares of posterboard, and then painted them with each of my colors. Now I know just what the color looks like when dry.  Whenever I'm dithering over which color to pick, I grab some of the swatches and do a comparison until I make my decision.  A 2-inch square is also good in case I need to go to Home Depot and buy a pint of paint for larger projects.

Tiger Tank, Part 2

I have a love/hate relationship with decals. When I was young and before I got into miniature painting, I did model kits, primarily aircraft and warships. Most of them had waterslide decals, and applying them was pretty straight forward: soak them in water until they come off the paper, and use a paintbrush to put them on the model and adjust them...and voila, all done.

Commission: U.S. Marine

Apparently due to the popularity of my Woodland and Desert MARPAT tutorials, recently I was contacted to do a commission. The task was to paint two identical 28mm miniatures, one in Woodland MARPAT, one in Desert MARPAT.

Tiger Tank, Part 1

I see the incredible potential of airbrushes for model painting, but my experience is limited. Even so, I have managed some decent results, but getting them has not been without some frustration (this frustration is admittedly due to my unfamiliarity with airbrushing.

Painting M81 Woodland Tutorial

Here is my latest camouflage painting tutorial, and this time we go back to a classic, M81 Woodland Camouflage.  This camouflage was introduced to the US military in, you guessed it, 1981.  Since then it has become one of the most common camouflage patterns in the world. 

Painting ABU Tutorial

Here is a step by step guide to paint the United States Air Force's Airman Battle Uniform (ABU) camouflage pattern.

I'm not in the USAF, but from what I understand, it's not exactly the most popular uniform with airmen.  The tiger-stripe pattern has been criticized for being ineffective in tactical environments - complaints similar to those about the US Army's Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP).  The Warhammer 40,000 universe, however, has many more types of environment than Terra does.  The ABU tiger-stripe camouflage still looks cool.  So somewhere in the vast but grim darkness of the far future, surely there is a place for the ABU.

That Elusive Coyote

A while back I put up a tutorial on how to paint the USMC Woodland MARPAT camouflage.  Here is the image of a swatch I made--my attempt at matching the colors using mostly GW paints:


The colors are Chaos Black, Khemri Brown, Snakebite Leather, and the green is an odd blend of Vallejo's Gunship Green mixed with a few GW colors.  It was an imperfect solution at best.  Clearly the weakest match in the mix is the Snakebite Leather masquerading as Coyote 476 (FS20150), which in a way has become the USMC's signature color.  In addition to the color being prominent in the MARPAT pattern itself, it also is the color of their boots and body armor.

Painting MultiCam Tutorial

Following up on my tutorials for ACUPAT, MARPAT, and Desert MARPAT, this is my fourth camouflage tutorial, focusing on Crye Precision's popular "MultiCam".

Brazen Claws: Completed!

It took me far, far too long to paint them, but here they are.  It is with a sense of accomplishment and no small amount of relief that I present them:  the Brazen Claws 2nd Company, a detachment of support units and the Chapter Master his retinue.  I think it is fitting that this is also my 300th post to Arcadia Prime.

Inspired by Art (2)

A while back (yipe, almost two years ago!) I made a post called Inspired by Art, where I showed a bunch of pictures of models that I had converted that was inspired by 40k artwork.

Devlan Mud

Devlan Mud.  This stuff is awesome.  It's fantastic for pulling a model together, making for a great finishing touch on a model, giving it just the right amount of dirt and grime to tone down too bright colors.

But since it's so useful, GW needs to sell this by the gallon, rather than the little pots it comes in...

So I calculated how much that would cost.  It's $3.70 for 12ml...so that comes to...$1,167 a gallon.  I can't help but think that GW's profit margin on their paints must be ridiculous.  But if GW offered Devlan Mud for sale by the gallon, you'd have to think they'd give you a discount for buying in bulk.  I'm sure they wouldn't charge you a penny more than $1,150 for it.

Balrog: Part 4

Primed. I'm considering painting the flames using the technique I've never tried before. This worries me a little bit, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Lexicanium Calistarius

This guy was a pain in the butt.  I tried to paint him similar to the way he was painted in the rulebook.  Most of it wasn't too hard, but trying to get the force axe to look right was a trial.  With time I think I have gotten better at using layering as a technique, but blending/feathering continues to elude me.  I tried painting that axe over and over again, and it got to the point that I had to sand the layers of paint off the blade and start over...twice.  Clearly I need much more practice with it.  Perhaps I needed to try it first on a larger surface.  I'm still not entirely happy with it, but I'll have to chalk it up to experience...

Balrog: Part 3

Did the assembly and some gap filling.

Brother Claudio

Brother Claudio rounds out my terminators except for Lexicanium Calistarius, who is next.

Balrog: Part 2

Finished the assembly of the miniatures themselves, next step is to fill in all the joins with green stuff. Did some looking for a base to mount them on, and wasn't all that happy with what was available. I'll be looking for something more suitable at the hobby store later this week if I can make it down there.

Sergeant Gideon

And Sergeant Gideon finishes up the second squad.  Now it's off to paint up Librarian Calistarius.

Balrog: Part 1

I had originally posted this on my defunct fantasy blog.  Since I'm getting back into finishing this project, I figured I'd post my updates here instead, but that means a repost or two until I catch up to where I left off...

I received my first miniatures commission recently. Well, sort of. It's more a favor for a friend, who promised to do it for another friend, but doesn't have the time (she has a good excuse--she's leaving for the Peace Corps soon). Lest you think I'm doing this solely out of the kindness of my heart, since my friend will be out of country for a few years, she kindly sent me all of her paints, plus some stray miniatures that she's had in storage.