Crossfire Kiwis

Good afternoon,

Well, I've just discovered washes. Citadel's Devlan Mud, to be precise. Andy Gorman suggested that it would be a quick way to paint up some Esci WW2 Brits (as Kiwis - they were all using the same equipment, after all), and low and behold, so it has proven to be!





In fact, these figures are probably the quickest I have ever been able to apply paint to. Having only 6 colours also helped. Well, 7 if you count the Dark Flesh that I applied to the second platoon before applying the Bronzed Flesh.

1. Citadel Chaos Black undercoat


2. Vallejo Dark Flesh


3. Vallejo English Uniform using a very heavy dry brush (actually, a lightly applied wet brush)


4. Vallejo Middlestone for the webbing


5. Vallejo Beasty Brown for the weapon furniture and water bottles


6. Vallejo Olive Grey for the helmets and Piat guns


7. Vallejo Chainmail Silver for the, well, silver bits


8. Citadel Bronzed Flesh highlight


9. Heavy wash of Citadel Devlan Mud


10. Highlight/Dry brush of the English Uniform and Middlestone respectively

...and Bob's your uncle. (Well, Brian's my uncle...it's just a turn of phrase...how do you turn a phrase?)

Andy helped me with the first platoon (three bases - 9 figures) in one evening last week, and I completed a further 9 of the boys yesterday and based them this morning. For me, that's lightning quick!

(They definitely needed those final highlights, they were looking quite dark without it).

For WW2, I'm pretty sure this is the way to go. For figures where I want a nice bright finish (like my VSF) I'm probably going to stick to my layered approach...mind you, a combination of a bright highlight over the wash...yeah, that might work...

Speaking of VSF, I'm thinking of getting hold of G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. for some skirmishing using my Airboat, Steam Tank and upcoming Electric Artillery and Steam Buggy Rider HOTT elements. Can you use Airboats in G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.?

Nick

Air Boat Kinda Done

Good afternoon,

Well, I've pasted the Gardiner Guns and crew atop Andy's Air Boat, and they look the biz.




It's a bit hard to see from this last photo (the camera's macro setting focused on the nearest Gardiner gun, rather than the whole 'vignette'), but the loader is one of the navy Gardiner crewmen with his arms replaced with the ones from the HaT Colonial Artillery loader, as inspired by S. M. Manix's contribution to HaT's Everything Toy Soldier page.

I also replaced an arm on the other main gun crewman, though the effect isn't a lot different to what he had originally.

Eventually I may put a solid railing/fence around the Gardiner guns, and I'll paste the officer with the telescope (once I've figured out how to do the braids on his jacket) on top by the ladder. Or on the bow. But I think closer to the bridge would make more sense, from a command perspective. In the meantime I'm happy enough to put it away.

Sweet, another thing down, now to work on my Late War Kiwis...oh, and that VSF steam driven magician artillery thingie I've got in mind, since I've got those spare gun carriages from the Gardiner and Gatling guns. A bit like this...



...with one carriage for the steam driven electricity generator and one for the electricity driven shooty thing, courtesy of a mad boffin type - hence the magician classification.

Nick

Steam Tank Update

Good morning,

Well, it's school holiday, so I've finally had some time to apply some paint to my Steam Tank. And yahoo! It's pretty much done!



As you can see, I chose to replicate the paint scheme that Andy applied to his (now my - yay!) Air Boat to try to give it more of a navy feel. I simply carefully applied some window masking tape, and mostly it worked quite well. The smoke is just some bear stuffing! Once it's based, I'm thinking of putting some down by the running gear.

Now for some closeups...







All in all, I'm really pleased with the silly little thing!

Next step, get Andy to base it for me to match the rest of his donated VSF army, and continue work on the Gardiner guns and crews.

Yay for school holidays!

Nick