Challenge Day 86 - A Busy Day

Well, a busy afternoon and early evening at any rate.

NSL Reinforcements

The static grass was drybrushed with flesh paint, the figures and models were photographed and the post written and submitted.

And they've been up on the Challenge Blog for a couple of hours. These have boosted my tally to 2027 points, which means that I've already beaten my totals of the previous two Challenges with just under three weeks remaining. Now, that's impressive, even if I do say so myself.


ESU Spaceships

These got a spray coat of matt varnish early afternoon. I didn't like the look of that so I resprayed them with satin varnish. Much better. Then I glued flight peg toppers onto the undersides, waited a while for the superglue to dry and took a bunch of photos. The post has been drafted and submitted, but not posted on the blog yet.

Update - they have been posted!


Since then, I've added magnetic discs to the underside of the hex bases of the NSL power armour and support weapons. All the vehicles and figures have now been stowed away.

Plenty of space for more figures and vehicles...

Armoured vehicles and drones

Power armour troops

MAWPs and Panzer Grenadier specialists

Panzer Grenadier squads

The ESU spaceships have also been stowed away in a pluck foam tray. The great thing about the ESU ships is that they are so flat, which means that I've been able to double-up in the slots for the non-capital ships.

Lots of space for more ships - just as well, as I've got more ships to add at some point

I've got the whole week off work, so that will give me lots of time for painting. I'm still trying to decide what to paint next. I've pulled out the pike and shot figures I prepped and primed a few weeks ago - I haven't done any Thirty Years War stuff so far this Challenge.

I've also got the Mongols I prepped, and there are more 6mm ACW figures ready to go. Or maybe I could assemble some more Wars of the Roses figures. I'll think on it overnight.

Challenge Day 85 - ESU and NSL Bits Almost Finished

Two evenings of busyness have seen me very nearly finishing the ESU spaceships and the NSL reinforcements. Well, tonight was busy, last night less so.

Last night all that got done on the NSL was the sealing coat of ink/PVA on the basing texture. The ESU ships were sprayed with satin varnish then washed with Vallejo black wash (diluted with 10% flow aid - it was a bit thick and difficult to apply straight from the bottle).

This evening was definitely busier. The ESU have had the glow effect painted on weapons and engines. They look pretty good in my opinion.

Very faint green engine glow in the dark

All that's left for these is to give them a quick spray of matt varnish, then dab satin/gloss on the weapon glow. And add flight peg toppers.


The NSL reinforcements were what really kept me busy though. The basing texture has been drybrushed  and flock added. The flock will be drybrushed with dark flesh paint tomorrow, then they are done. I've also glued the hover drones onto their clear pegs.

Deliberately bad pic so as not to be a spoiler for the Challenge blog post

So, a little bit of work tomorrow, followed by a lot of photography and editing, plus writing the entry posts.

Challenge Day 84 - 3 Weeks Left

I did take the hover vehicles to work yesterday and sprayed them with matt varnish. Later on I dotted gloss varnish onto various lights.

In the evening I added texture mix to the bases of all the NSL reinforcements. Tonight I'll be sealing that with a mix of brown ink in 50% PVA. Drybrushing and flocking will be done on Friday night.

Once that was done, I made a start on detailing the ESU spaceships. Firstly, the black stripes were drybrushed with German Grey. The the weapons and engines were painted German Grey. Lastly I picked out some panels on all of the ships. Where there is only one ship of the class, they got a mix of Dark Prussian Blue and Black Green panels; where there were two, one got Dark Prussian Blue and the other got Black Green; where there were three, one got Dark Prussian Blue, one got Black Green and the third got Black Red.

Tonight I'll be doing something I don't really want to do - opening the bathroom window and spraying them with satin varnish. Once that has dried, they'll get a wash of heavily thinned black paint to bring out the details. Then it will be engine and weapon glow and the hangar opening on the Super dreadnought. That will be followed by a final spray coat of matt varnish. If I have time, I'll glue flight peg toppers to the undersides.

Challenge Day 83 - 6mm ACW Union Infantry and Artillery

These were my 16th entry in this year's Challenge - four bases of infantry to add to the eight already painted and a modest artillery park. Just the twelve bases of smoothbores and four of Parrott rifled guns.

Let's start with the artillery:

Getting close up on the smoothbores...

...and the Parrott rifles

And now for the infantry. My previous batches were painted up four bases (112 figures) at a time. That was actually a bit stressful - after painting the same tiny detail 56 or so times my brain (and bum) would start to feel numb.

This time I painted them up two bases at a time. It was much easier for me and from comments when Curt posted them, it may have helped with the standard of painting. I'd also revised the order in which I paint different colours to reduce the need for touching up.

This lot are probably the last of the 6mm ACW that I'll be painting during the Challenge. I've got a lot of other bits to paint up over the next 3 weeks, but if I have time before the end I might do some more.


There may be another post tonight - it will depend on how far I get with what I'm working on.

Challenge Day 82 - NSL Reinforcements WIP

You will have noticed that I didn't post anything last night. That wasn't because I didn't have anything to post, but because I was too busy cracking on with all the NSL stuff. I've finished painting them this evening; just the varnishing to be done. And the basing of course, but that won't be done tonight.

The hover tanks and APCs will be getting a coat of Klear after this post, then I'll take them into work tomorrow to hit them with matt spray. The rest will get a coat of brush on matt varnish tonight.

Hover APCs

Hover tanks

Hover drones

Hover MAWPs

Power Armour support weapons

Once the varnishing tonight is done, I'll probably do a,little bit of work on the ESU spaceships, highlighting the black stripes with a dark grey. So, tomorrow night will see me adding the basing texture mix to all of these and starting to do the detailing on the ESU fleet..

Challenge Day 80 - More Fun With The Airbrush

This afternoon saw me playing with the airbrush again. This time it was laying down the basic colour scheme on my ESU spaceships.

I forgot to take pics after the first two stages, but did remember after the third and fourth.

Step 1 - Basecoat of Hull Red
Step 2 - First highlight of equal parts Hull Red and Scarlet
Step 3 - Second highlight of Scarlet

Step 4 - Black striping

From this point on I'll be doing the rest with normal brushes. The black stripes will be highlighted with dark grey, then it's time to pick out some panels in a contrast colour (dark green or dark blue - I haven't made my mind up yet), weapons, engine glow. My plan is to do all that toward the end of the week.


After packing away the spray booth and washing out the cleaning jar, I set about cutting up an A4 magnetic sheet to stick onto the MDF bases the hover vehicles are mounted on. It was after sticking them on that I discovered that the sheet I'd cut up was actually flex-o-metal and not magnetic.

Drat!

Rip the bits of flex-o-metal off the bases, cut up another sheet (checking it is magnetic this time), stick to bases.

There is a good reason for having done this. Apart from the fact that eventually I'd be doing it anyway for storage and transport purposes. You see, I decided that it would be much better to do the vehicles at work in my lunch breaks than the smaller bits. I'll be starting on the APCs.

With all that sorted out, it was time to crack on with some painting. I started with the power armour troops and have taken them to being ready for the Strong Tone wash (I'll do that after posting). As I still had some of the Luftwaffe Uniform left, I did the bits on the MAWPs and hover drones that are that colour.

With a bit of luck, and a fair wind to fill my sails, I should be able to get the painting on these bits finished tomorrow night, leaving the varnishing for Tuesday evening. I'll do the basing once the vehicles are all finished.

Challenge Day 79 - Fun With The Airbrush

Much of today has been spent having fun with the airbrush. And some frustration and mild panic. The latter was caused by my own stupidity when trying to clean the colour channel mid-session - I accidentally dropped the trigger assembly out. After some frustration trying unsuccessfully to find instructions online for putting it back in, I finally worked it out for myself. Phew! I then hit more frustration after cleaning up at the end of the session - air was bubbling back into the cup. Fortunately I did find a guide online to likely causes and managed to sort it out.

Well, you want to know what I was doing with the airbrush. I probably should have taken some photos as I went along, but in true Tamsin fashion I completely forgot.

No, I am not going to go back and redo everything just to get photos for you. You'll just have to make do with the pics I have taken at the end and some explanatory text.

All the bits the airbrush hit today

Hover drones

MAWPs (Mobile Autonomous Weapon Platforms)

The drones and MAWPs were primed black. I then gave them a base coat of German Green. It didn't look right, so I went over them with camo dark green.

NSL Power Armour with SAWs and Plasma guns

 These have just been primed black - I'll be painting them with brushes!

The hover vehicles

Some close-ups of the hover vehicles to show the camo:

The hover vehicles were primed with German dark yellow (dunkelgelb). The first layer of camo was hull red. The second was dark grey blue (mainly because I somehow couldn't find the bottle of panzer dark grey out of my collection of a massive eighteen bottles) which I sprayed through the diamond-pattern mesh. This did work in patches but was awkward to get right - getting the right combination of air-pressure, trigger depression, distance of brush to mesh/model and distance of mesh to model  was a complete pain.

The final colour in the camo pattern was camo light green. This was sprayed a bit more successfully through the mesh with round holes. Although it does look rather bright now, that should get toned down when the models are washed.

I must say that for getting these done, the airbrush and compressor were well worth the small amount of money I paid for them.

The mesh does work, but will need a lot of practice. I think that I might have gone a little too busy with the camo pattern on these, but I'm not going to go back and redo them.


Once the airbrushing session was over I finished off the ACW artillery and infantry. The basing texture was drybrushed, then I glued the guns onto the artillery bases. After that was the flocking, then finally adding flags to the infantry. A quick photo session and then it was time to write up the post. That's all done and all it needs now is Curt's blurb and to be posted.

Update - while I was writing this, Curt has posted the ACW. Linkypoos



Tomorrow's plans

The airbrush will see some more duty tomorrow. I've got a couple of bits to do on the hover drones and then I will be testing colour schemes for the ESU spaceships. If I'm happy with them, I'll get them all done.

The main job for tomorrow though is to do the detailing on the hover vehicles. Assuming I don't spend too long on the spaceships...


Plans For Next Week

1. Complete painting of the hover vehicles and do the basing
2. Paint up the MAWPs, drones and NSL power armour. I might even be able to do those during lunch breaks at work.
3. Do the detail painting on the ESU spaceships.