AHPC XII 10th Entry - Early Imperial Romans

For my 10th submission, I painted up some 15mm Early Imperial Roman Legionaries and auxiliary archers to add to the force I painted up last year. I now have enough to filed the army for Art de la Guerre.

The post was published yesterday: linky-link

This was just a small entry, worth 84 points (plus the 6 bonus points Curt gave me for the hand-painted shields).

We're now into the final three weeks of the Challenge and I expect to be very busy - I think that I've got another eight posts to paint stuff for (some of it will appear in more than one post for story-telling purposes).

Paint Table Saturday 26 February 2022

 

With the Romans finished (I photographed them this morning), I've been keeping myself busy priming the SciFi terrain. Oh, and some models for the "Secret Project". 

I'll be doing some more priming tomorrow - I've got a fair pile still to go, but these should be quicker and easier than the pre-fab buildings I've done so far:

On Monday I will start painting the "Secret Project" figures and models, and then I'll move onto the rest of the figures I have primed (there aren't that many left) just to get everything done leaving me plenty of time to work on the SciFi terrain. 

Wednesday Workbench 23 February 2022

 

As you can see, I have a couple of projects on the workbench right now. The figures are some 15mm Early Imperial Romans:

I took the photo a few hours ago and have since done a bit more work on them. The only item left to so is highlighting the steel. I'll do that first thing tomorrow, then they can be varnished at some point during the day and stuck onto bases.

I've also been working on the remaining bits of the SciFi shopping centre:

I got most of the zenithal priming done yesterday, finishing it off this morning. This afternoon I blocked in the main colours using the airbrush. I'll start work on the detailing tomorrow.

AHPC XII 9th Entry - WW2 Japanese Pt. 4

 

My original plan, made many weeks ago, was to do all the Japanese in batches of one squad plus some supports. Last week was meant to be the turn of the Grenade Discharger ("Knee Mortar") squad with the extra rifle squad to follow next week. Those of you who have read my last few posts know that I actually accelerated things and got all the remaining bits for my Japanese force painted. 

I finished (just about - I realised afterwards that I'd missed a couple of details on the tank) the last bit of work yesterday, took photos and submitted the post yesterday. 

The post was published last night: linky-link

I started work on next week's submission last night (no pics until my Wednesday Workbench post!). Once that is out of the way, I will have three weeks to focus on the *Secret Project*. OK, I think everyone knows by now that it is "Operation Rescue Oscar", but I'm not going to tell you what it involves. I will say that the SciFi buildings will be making an appearance - I'll be working on those over the next week or two in between painting figures so that they're ready for the post(s) they will appear in.

Test Paint - Sci-Fi Building

 

With the Japanese finished and out of the way, I decided to spend some time today doing a test paint on the SciFi building I had primed yesterday. The main colours (walls, doors and roof) were airbrushed, then I did the rest by hand.

This piece is the entrance to a shopping centre, so I opted for bright colours. I quite like how they came out and will carry it through to the other sections. For the pre-fab housing I will probably go for a more neutral scheme with bright accents.

Paint Table Saturday 19 February 2022

 

The basing on the final (for now) WW2 Japanese figures is finished, but I haven't taken photos yet as the Chi-Ha tank still needs a little work.

This morning I started weathering it. For the first step, I decided to try using oil-dot filters. Having learnt some things I'd done wrong on the house, I duly prepared a bunch of slightly thinned oil paints in a palette:

I then began the process of weathering the tank:

Before

Oil dots applied

After

The photos above show the first area I did. I then continued the process over the rest of the tank.

The only problem was that the process managed to drag paint into some of the panel lines, so I had to wait a while until the paint had dried, then give it a a coat of varnish before re-doing the panel lining (the intro photo shows me set up to do that). I've now got to leave it until tomorrow before re-varnishing the tank ahead of further weathering with pigment powders.

As I didn't want to waste the afternoon, I decided to see if my airbrush primers would work on the MDF buildings. I selected one to do as a colour test and a small piece to look at different primers for zenithal pre-shading.

Primer colours left-to-right: Black, Panzer Grey, US Light Ghost Grey, Grey, White,US Light Ghost Grey.

There isn't much difference between the Black and Panzer Grey; the difference between Grey and White isn't much either. I think the best scheme for zenithal pre-shading will be Black -> Ghost Grey -> White.

The building you can see in the intro photo was done Black -> Grey -> White. Tomorrow, once I've finished the tank, taken photos of the Japanese and written the submission, I will test out a colour scheme or two on it using the airbrush.

I got some shinies from North Star in the post on Thursday:

The last figure I need for the "secret project" and the first few figures for a late war German platoon. I added a pack of the "Winter" figures as well, to see how they would mix with the smocked figures. IT turns out that they do work quite well. I've also been able to ascertain what extra figures I'll need for a platoon plus an extra section - for the latter I will probably use greatcoat figures.

Wednesday Workbench 16 February 2022

 

...and power on, I did! I've only got a few bits left to finish for the Japanese, which should be easily accomplished in time to do a big submission for Sunday.

The grenade discharger squad and extra rifle squad have been varnished. Just the basing to finsih on these.

I've also finished painting some more supports - a second MMG team, a 47mm AT gun team, a pair of flamethrowers and escorts and some tank hunter teams. I'll be varnishing them tomorrow, after which they'll just need to have the basing done.

I've finished painting the 47mm AT gun, and it will get varnished tomorrow. Yesterday I used the airbrush to start the camo on the tank and turret. I'll finish off painting and weathering them tomorrow, and varnish them on Friday.

If I have time, I might paint these up as well - two officers, two LMG gunners and a tank commander.

As you can tell, it's been a busy few days. Once these are out of the way, I might take a day off before starting the next batch of figures.

AHPC XII 8th Entry - Somewhere Near Arnhem

My 8th entry was posted yesterday evening, so you finally get to see the finished building diorama and British Airborne.

The post can be found here: linky-link

I'm a little surprised to find that I'm currently in 12th place on the points table. 

Paint Table Saturday 12 February 2022

 

I finished the diorama pieces yesterday, photographed them, wrote the post and submitted it last night. It will go live sometime tomorrow.

Last night I started work on the next batch of figures - more WW2 Japanese. I finished painting them earlier this evening, but to late to do the varnishing, so that will have to wait until tomorrow morning.

I've decided that this week I will power through the remaining Japanese. If all goes well, I should have all the figures painted by Wednesday evening, allowing me to get the basing done on Thursday. I can then focus on the tank and turret during the long drying stages of the basing.

Wednesday Workbench 09 February 2022

 

As you might be able to see from the photo above, I've done a bit more work on the diorama base. Sandbags have been added and the rubble piles have also been done (properly this time). I had a lot of spare texture paste (brown acrylic frame sealant, sand and a little water) left over, so I grabbed some terrain bases, added some styrofoam shapes and made some rubble scatter pieces. Those are painted and varnished now, so no photos until the submission gets posted.

I've also finished painting the British Airborne figures today, so no photos of them either.

Which just leaves what I'm working on at the moment - the diorama base. Earlier this evening I started playing with oil washes to tart up the building. So far, I've used burnt umber to shade the cracks on the outer walls:

Tomorrow, when the paint has had time to dry in the recesses, I'll do a bit more cleanup with white spirit. After that I'll do some "dot washes" to add some streaks, and some very thin washes to stain around the base of the building.

AHPC XII 7th Entry - WW2 Japanese Pt. 3

 My 7th entry in this year's Challenge was a continuation of my WW2 Japanese project. This time the third rifle squad for my core platoon, some snipers and a MMG team.

It was only when I went to add the photos here that I realised I hadn't taken a group shot of them, so you get individual pics!

MMG Team

Snipers

Rifle Squad

The post was published yesterday: linky-link

It includes the continuing Adventures of Oscar and the last (for a week or two) "Extract from the journal" for your entertainment.

Paint Table Saturday 05 February 2022

As you can probably tell, I decided not to do a test-paint of the sci-fi buildings after finishing the WW2 Japanese batch. I photographed those and submitted the post on Thursday, then looked at what else was coming up in the queue and decided to shift to WW2 British Airborne. 

A while ago I bought the HQ group from Artizan along with a pack of seated paras. I decided to make up a diorama base to show them off. I got the building mostly painted on Thursday, then did some initial weathering yesterday. I also sorted out a terrain base for it to go on and thought that it might be fun to add dugout in a small bank nearby - I cut that from some blue XPS foam. I then spent a while cutting up coffee stirrers to make "planks" to line the inside. 

The darker sections of ground are where I had initially placed XPS shapes but removed them after deciding the rubble piles would be easier to make by a different method.

I also started on a roof for the dugout using some longer "planks" and some of the corrugated card "wrinkly tin" pieces I'd cut out when I was doing the jungle buildings last year. I also thought it might be handy to have some crates scattered around, so I dragged out the pack I bought from Debris of War at Salute. Those got primed today, before  a wash with Agrax Earthshade followed by drybrushing.

Of course, an HQ and dugout need sandbags and a ruined building needs rubble. To that end I got out my pack of terracotta Milliput and some Das air drying clay. I started making sandbags with Milliput until I realised that with the number I would need that it might be better to switch to white Das clay. I also wanted to make some brick rubble, so I first flattened out the rest of the Milliput and applied a brick texture roller. That didn't look like it would produce enough bricks, so I also rolled out some terracotta Das clay and textured that as well. After the texture rolling, I scored along the brick courses to make them easier to break apart when they had cured.

Clockwise, beginning top left: sandbags; individual Milliput bricks; individual Das bricks; "blocks" of Das bricks.

I'll do a bit more work on the diorama base tomorrow, probably adding the rubble and sandbags, then on Monday I will switch to painting the British Airborne figures.

Wednesday Workbench 02 February 2022

 

I'm doing rather well this week. I've finished painting all of the WW2 Japanese that I was planning to submit for Sunday - I just need to finish the basing:

Since taking the photo above I have added herbs to the bases. I'll be "fixing" them this evening and they should be ready for taking photos tomorrow.

On Monday, some goodies from Antenociti's Workshop arrived:

Power junctions:

System control pads:

Display screens:

What's the big item at the back in the first pic? Something for the "secret project".

After I've taken photos of the Japanese tomorrow, what's next? I think I'll probably do a test-paint of one of the sci-fi buildings and if that looks OK, I might crack on with the rest. Well, at least to get the base colours done - detailing can wait until later.