Sunday Workbench 29 April

Lots and lots of Gaslands goodness this weekend. As you can see from the photo above, I've been rather busy.

On Thursday I took the other 41 cheapo car bodies into work to spray prime, then gave them a wash of Agrax Earthshade on Friday evening. Yesterday I sponged on rust colours and then stippled on hairspray with a brush.

Should have taken a close-up pic to show the rust effect.

Of course, when I did the hairspray step I forgot that I hadn't hit them with spray varnish, but decided to go ahead anyway and just test a couple of cars before proceeding with the rest. Luckily it wasn't a disaster at all - maybe it's just with the salt technique where it's needed? After the two test cars I did the rest in batches, airbrushing the coat colour, letting it dry for a while and then chipping before repeating for the next batch.

And here's how they look:

The two light greens are actually subtly different shades.

Now I just need to get the plastic chassis and insert parts primed and painted. The only problem is that the weather doesn't look too good for that until the end of the week perhaps. Which rather stimies my plans.

The first 9 cars are finished for now - the plastic chassis and insert parts have been painted & rusted and the cars reassembled (handily these were screwed rather than riveted).

I'd used the second six to work on the hairspray technique, stippling it rather than painting it on. I think the effect looks much better than my first try:

Original salt; batch 2 hairspray; original hairspray.

Naturally, having watch a YouTube video after doing all 50 cars, I've realised that I could just have sprayed the hairspray all over the cars rather than stippling it on, which would have saved a lot of time. Lesson learned for next time!

When the other 41 are finished, I'll be givign them all a dirty wash or two to weather them, then they'll be used to make up some scatter terrain.

I've also been gradually working on the battle-bus. It's mostly done, just some details that need adding. The only problem is that I need some 1mm brass rod which I've discovered I've run out of and had to reorder. And some more 2mm brass road, which I have also run out of and forgot to order - drat!

Anyway, WIP pics of the battle-bus:

Crew pit with ledge for stocks of grenades, molotovs etc...

Not all of those wheel hubs are for the battle-bus - they're just going to get primed and painted together.

While I'm waiting for all the bits I need to arrive (and for the weather to improve so I can do spray priming) I'll have to find something to do. Maybe start prepping some vehicles for a couple of teams for Gaslands or maybe it's time to paint that test figure for my WW2 Aussies.

Wednesday Workbench 25 April

It's been a bitty few days so far this week, and will continue to be so while I work on my Gaslands project.

On Monday I airbrushed the chassis parts with gunmetal, then washed them with Nuln Oil (confession time - I did enter an outlet of the EEoN to buy a couple of things after work that day). I also gave the bodies a wash of Agrax Earthshade. Once the washes had dried I used sponges to stipple on a variety of red.brown and orange paints to create a rust look. I thought I had taken pics, but it seems I forgot.

On Tuesday I took the bodies to work and gave them a spray coat of satin varnish. In the evening I made a start on my rust chipping experiment. I took three of the varnished bodies and used them to test three different methods - salt, hairspray and PVA. I left them to dry overnight.

I also did a little bit of work on the coach - cutting out a couple of sections of plastic to create a crew pit on the roof.

This evening I carried on with the rust chipping experiment. First off I airbrushed all the bodies white, then left it a few minutes to dry. The next job was to dab off paint using a wet brush to give the chipped effect.

Salt, hairspray, PVA

Sprayed white

Chipped

Salt

Hairspray

PVA

The method that was easiest to use was hairspray as it allows greater control over where the chipping occurs.I just need a little bit of practice to get the right look. The salt method gave the best results as the chipping was more random, but everywhere you apply salt will get shipped whilst with the other methods you can be more selective about where to remove paint.

I did learn that for the salt method it needs a matt rather than satin coat - the water kept running off the satin. I also learned that table salt rather than rock salt is better for this scale of vehicle.

I'm not sure which method I will go with - I think it will depend on what I'm trying to achieve. Cars of scrapheap terrain might be best with the salt method; gaming piece cars might be best with the hairspray method.

This evening I've also been cutting up bits of mesh and plastic to armour up the coach. A bit later on I will start gluing them in place.

Sunday Workbench 22 April

Quite a mixed bag today. Yesterday I was painting the Gaslands gates and did a first dirty wash in the evening. This morning I did some further washes to make the steel look aged and a bit rusty. I gave them a spray coat of sating varnish this afternoon (yay for the nice weather!).

I also airbrushed the King of the Battlefield templates in a nice pink colour (I've decided not to do the alternate pink/gory red alternation) and they have been sprayed with gloss varnish. I will probably give them a thin black (or very dark red, maybe purple) wash to fill the recesses after which they'll get another spray coat of varnish.

I also did some priming yesterday - the Ming Chinese arquebusiers and rocketeers:

Back on the Gaslands front I've stripped the paint off a coach that's been sitting around for a couple of years and had a play with working out what I want to do with it. I've taken the rear wheels off two tractors from Poundland; the axles were too short so I removed them and cut some lengths of 3/32 brass rod to replace them. I'll be armouring and weaponising it during the course of the week before priming it.

I'm also busy stripping the rest of the cheap cars I bought from Argos (2 packs of 25 for £15 total; 9 of them have already been stripped and primed).

On top of all that, I've been prepping the 28mm figures acquired at Salute - just one more batch to do.

Army Shots - Sea Peoples

It's still Saturday somewhere in the world, so I haven't broken my promise to post them "today"!

LI javelin skirmishers out ahead; "common warriors" in the first battle line; retinue warriors and chariots in the second line with LMI javelin troops protecting the flanks; generals and baggage at the back.

Yes, one of the javelinmen bases is facing the wrong way

In their boxes:

Still plenty of room for more!

Hope you enjoyed the review!

Friday Workbench 20 April

With the Sea Peoples army finished (group shots tomorrow!) I've been working on some small bits. During my breaks at work, and to a small extent in the evening, I have been prepping the figures I bought at Salute. All the 15mm figures are done now, and I've started work on the 28mm figures.

The SYW Russians are all on painting sticks now, ready for priming which I will probably get done tomorrow.

These will give me 4 more regiments of line infantry (the regiments I'm missing for Zorndorf), 3 more Cossack regiments and two more artillery bases & limbers, plus one more howitzer.

Yesterday evening I got the 3 bridges painted and finished them (drybrushing and flocking) this evening. The stone work was done with a medium grey base sponge-splotched with a couple of lighter greys and then washed with a couple of different browns.

I also added some green wash around the waterline but I don't think you can see it in these pics - I'll take some better ones tomorrow.


Apart from priming the Russians, this weekend will see me carrying on with doing small bits. I'll be painting the gates for Gaslands; re-doing the King of the Battlefield templates I painted a few weeks ago - they hadn't been varnished before they were used for the Easter Monday game and the paintjob got scuffed; and I'll be testing rust techniques, mainly for working on cars for Gaslands.

Finished: 15mm Sea Peoples Chariots, Generals and Baggage

After nearly 7 weeks, the odyssey that was painting my Sea Peoples army is finally at an end. Well, until I decide to add some more chariots and some archers so that I can use them as Philistines as well. Or to add some heavy chariots. Well, you know how these things go.

But the last few are done, and here they are. I will do a group shot of the whole army tomorrow or Friday.

Chariots:

Baggage element:

Generals:

I'll be taking a short break from 15mm historicals to focus on some other things. Stay tuned to see what I'm doing.