WIP: Bolt Action German Panzer IV Prep & Undercoat

It's great to be back from vacation! I kid.

After experiencing hobby ennui over the fall, the busy season (read January through April) at my new job kicked in and I got little time in front of the ol' worktable.

But the fall wasn't a complete waste. While I didn't get paint on my Chaos warband in time for Oldhammer Day, I was able to attend the event and had a blast participating in the huge Warhammer battle. That's me in the first picture; handsome devil, ain't I?

In the interim, I decided to jump into Bolt Action (BA) after watching from the sidelines for some time. My parental units, the wonderful people that they are, gave unto me the D-Day Firefight starter kit as a Christmas gift.

It just so happened that Warlord Games was running a sweet deal over the holidays on the Firefight boxset, offering either of BA's newer plastic U.S. Sherman or German Panzer IV kits for free with the purchase of the starter kit. I chose the Panzer.

And while I had several projects sitting on the shelf waiting to be finished, including a couple Cawdor gang members and a Grot tank, I decided to break open the Panzer kit after being inspired by this gorgeous Panzer IV Ausf H by Giuseppe Artqdp (pictures used w/o permission).

The Panzer will be the beginning of a small 500- to 750-point German force I'd like to paint so I can play BA games at my FLGS. The Firefight kit comes with a handful of German infantry and a Hanomag half-track that will be useful for filling out the ranks.

To give the Panzer that lived-in feel and mimic Giuseppe's tank as best I could, I picked up some BA accessories. From left, we have the German Stowage Pack, Jerry Cans, and the Tarps and Rolls Stowage Pack.

The Panzer IV kit itself is fantastic. Both fit and finish are wonderful, and, other than some fiddliness around the turret schürzen, the tank went together like a breeze with the easy-to-read instructions.

And after a couple months buildout, voila:

With my inspiration being 1/35th scale and BA models being 1/56th, some compromises were necessary, but I think I managed to capture the spirt of Giuseppe's Panzer.

To achieve the look I deleted the front fenders, right headlamp, and side doors on the turret schürzen, and roughed up the track guards and rear fenders with a Dremel. I used white plastic styrene pieces to build a front bar  to hold the extra track links and the side schürzen connector bar.

I also magnetized the turret (forgot to take pictures of this) for ease of storage and transport. Stripped down picture-hanging wire became tow cables and I removed the plastic hangers on the extra road wheels to lay them flat on the front of the tank.

All the metal pieces are from the BA accessory packs. I used Instant Mold and Brown Stuff to make additional track links. And only because I'm a perfectionist did I also chose to fill in some gaps with Green Stuff.

And here is the Panzer after being homogenized with a fresh undercoat in the spray booth:

I'm excited to get some paint on that canvas.

Up next: Could be anything, we'll have to wait and see.

So until next time, keep painting!

New Stuff: Games & Gears Pro Studio Brushes

Last fall I took the plunge and backed my first Kickstarter campaign. Since then, I've pledged support for a few more.

One of the more recent campaigns I've backed was Games & Gears' Pro Studio brushes. A few weeks ago, I received my order:

I pledged at the £25 level and received a total of nine brushes, as pictured above.

This included the Core Set, which consists of brushes in sizes 000, 00, 0, 1 and 2:

As well as the stretch goal rewards of the 3LX, 4RX, and the S1 and S2 specialist brushes:

All of the brushes are sturdily constructed with big, thick handles. The Kolinsky sable hair bristles are strong and snap back with good resiliency. Also, the bellies provide an adequate reservoir for dispensing paint.

Interestingly, compared to the Raphael 8404 brushes I regularly use, the Pro Studio brush heads are noticeably smaller:

I don't know exactly what this will mean performance wise, as I've only been able to play around a bit with these Pro Studio brushes, but I'm excited to start using them.

I think the dual heads will be helpful in blending better highlights, and I'm looking forward to trying my hand at wet blending. After a little more experience with them, I'll be able to give a more thorough review.

Next up: An actual update on the basecoating and shading of the Grot Tank.

So until next time, keep painting!

Review: Forge World Model Masterclass Volume Two

While finishing prep work on some new projects, I thought I'd review one of the cooler books I recently picked up: Forge World's (FW) newish Imperial Armour Model Masterclass Volume Two.

This modeling and painting guide follows FW's popular Model Masterclass Volume One, and is laid out similarly to its predecessor.

The latest volume features detailed how-tos for painting FW vehicles, like an Imperial Reaver Titan and a Land Raider Proteus. It also shows the building and painting of several dioramas, including a pitched battle between Eldar and Imperial forces on an ice world, a snapshot of an Imperial airbase just before a mission, and an Imperial city sector captured and turned into an Ork stronghold:

There are also a number of shorter spreads on various FW models that touch on a few aspects of painting or just showcase the painted model itself, such as a Khorne Great Brass Scorpion, a Nurgle Blight Drone, an Imperial Guard (IG) Vulture Gunship, and a Renegade IG Minotaur. In total, the book covers 17 projects/models.

Additionally, the new volume details painting concepts not touched on in the first, including marbling (also called enameling), mottling, which is similar to marbling, lacquering, and lettering. It's worth noting that many of the techniques covered require an airbrush.

Almost all of the techniques covered, including weathering, metallics, and tonal variations, as well as the new concepts, are applicable across modeling platforms, which is one of the best things about the Masterclass series: You can take what you learn from the books and apply the knowledge to nearly any modeling project.

Overall, the new volume, like the first, is well organized, has beautifully detailed photos, and includes thorough step-by-step instructions. Still, much of the content is a holdover from the first volume, which in my opinion provides a much more thorough explanation of and better foundation for basic techniques like weathering and metallics.

Thus, I don't consider this latest volume to be a must-own like I do the first, and would only recommend purchasing it if you have an extra $40 lying around.

New Stuff: Vallejo Paints

Boy Howdy, do I love getting new hobby purchases in the mail. Who doesn't, right? Yesterday, I got in an order of new paints.

They're a combination of Vallejo Model Color (VMC), Game Color (VGC), and Model Air (VMA) colors:

VMCs include Transparent Woodgrain and Natural Wood, which I'm going to try out on the stocks of my Cawdor gang members' weapons - decided to go for an old school look. I also got Transparent Red (blood effects!) and Orange (wood tint).

Game Color paints include Wolf Grey, Dark Fleshtone, and Filthy Brown. I always meant to pick up the Citadel equivalents of these (Space Wolves Grey, Dark Flesh, and Vomit Brown, respectively), but never got around to it. And since GW doesn't make them anymore, I went with Vallejo.

Lastly, we have a selection of VMA metallics, including Aluminum, Chrome, Steel, Copper, Rust, and Black. I've been meaning to try these out, as they look really cool and I've read nothing but great things about them online.

I ordered these paints from the War Store, which runs a first-rate online hobby shop that fills in nicely for my FLGS when the latter doesn't have something I'm looking for. I say first-rate because I've always received good service from Neal and his crew, and this time was no different.

If you look closely at the picture above, you'll notice that instead of Black I actually have Metallic Gun. Turns out they packaged the wrong paint. But I sent an email last night and by this afternoon I had the correct paint on its way to my door.

These new paints will fit in nicely with my collection, which consists of a ton of older Citadel colors (Deadly Nightshade FTW!), some VMCs, a handful of VGCs and VMAs, a few Reaper pots (including some of their MSP HD series), and one P3 (Coal Black is kind of awesome).

You may have noticed in the pictures of my last post that all of my paints are in dropper bottles:

A few years ago, I bought a bunch online and transferred all of my Citadel colors into them. I would highly recommend this, as I haven't had a single color dry out on me and the droppers provide a high level of paint dispensing control that flip-top pots just can't reproduce.

Anyways, I'm gonna start trying out some of my new purchases, so, until next time, keep painting.