Vindice Tempesta

We were hard pressed by the enemy. Pinned down in the radioactive ashwastes, no way to advance. The Serjeant was gone, our vox operator dropped with a hole through his head. A few of us started praying to the Throne and I slapped the last powerpack into my lasgun. The we heard it. It began with a beeping, high and clear. A figure, man size, strode through the smoke and choking dust long coat snapping around mechanical legs. It stood there as slugs and lasbolts whipped past it. I remember thinking, Is this is it? Is this the help we were promised?

Then the earth shook.

Something massive stepped over me. Rusted metal screeched as a chainblade the size of a wall crashed down into the barricades before us. A toothshaking roar of some sort of cannon as the enemy were torn to a red mist. And still it strode on.

I realised I was standing like an idiot, my mouth open. The mechanical soldier looked at me, making a scraping noise I slowly realised was some form of laughter. "The Storm Of Vengeance Has Passed Over You," it rasped, "And You Have Been Saved." It nodded, and then strode on into the smoke.

This has been, as you can imagine, something of a long term project. I've been chipping (pardon the pun) away at it for the last few weeks in between marking exams and surviving until the end of the year. this was also partially as each step of the process required curing time before I could move on to the next. I am, I have to say, quite happy with the final result.

This required the use of the chipping fluid just like the Tank I did. the difficulty here was masking each different colour to allow the chipping to be carried out before every new stage.

All transfers were applied over a gloss coat and then chipped away with a scalpel to match the chipping of the paintwork underneath. In some cases they had green or beige painted in to show a lighter level of chipping. 

Finally painted, he looked pretty good. I added some rust streaks and oil but he needed some environmental effects. 

Again, I used weathering pigments on the lower half and flat surfaces; the model here was how muddy I get after a walk in the woods with the boys.

The base was constructed out of various bits of junk with bricks cut from old sprue. 

The overall colour scheme was the same as for the previous Knight Armigers I produced; I left the faceplate detachable to match these as required. 

I have one last little thing to finish up before Christmas and then I have the decks clear for new toys. Merry Christmas everyone!

Dasvidaniya Rodina

The Soviet T-34 was the tank that won the war. With its revolutionary design and the ruthless industrial might of the USSR behind its construction, it helped halt wehrmacht advance and turn the tide of the war. After watching me building the submarine, the Eldest asked for a model of his own; when he asked for a tank, I knew there was only one to make him. Along the way - although I knew this would be a display model -  I experimented with a few new techniques I intend to use on some wargaming miniatures.

Apologies but this going to a very detailed and pic-heavy post as I want to recrod step by step what I did for fufutre reference.

Step one, as always, was construction.

There were a few buts that needed filling. 

Sealing the rubber tracks required a bit of medieval technology....

But we ended up with a final piece. 

I painted the interior of the turret and breech - althought it seemed very unlikely you'd see in. 

making the antenna used the same candle to stretch some sprue - this is the first time I'd ever done this; normally I'd use very thin brass rod. 

Now onto the new techniques. I airbrushed the whole thing in rust tones (actually the same as Uruk Hai flesh but with orange patches. 

Then I hit the whole thing with Chipping Fluid and let it dry for an hour. 

Then I sprayed my base colour; given the historical variation in green paint used across just 1943 alone, I didn't feel too constrained. 

Then I started chipping the base colour off, revealing the rust beneath. 

Once happy with the overall look of the first layer of subractive weathering, it was timeto start adding. The first was a layer of grime - very, very thin smoky ink in this case. 

 I added the decals and then scraped them off to match the chipped paint beneath.

Then detail painting of the stowage and metal chipping added with a brush and sponge on some hard corners.

The painting of the tank was now finished. 

 Time to star weathering. This was all done with pigments and airbrush thinner or binder. First, a very thin mix is used to paint dest streaks on all flat areas.

Then a thicker mix with binder creates a paste which becmes mud on the tracks, mudguards and undersides. 

Finally a thin mix is gathered onto a flat brush and flicked on a cocktail stick; this creates mud splashes all over the sides, front and rear. 

Now it was on to the loader, peering out of the hatch to direct the tank. This turned out to be phenomenally easy - 1/35 is significantly larger than 28mm. 

 I was even able to add bags under his eyes and stubble.

A final daylight test to checkl the colours...

And on to the base. One tip I picked up from the Vallejo youtube tutorials was to use cheap picture frames on the bases - it's amazing how much more professional it makes the thing look. I roughed out the basic look...

Then libreally coated with polyfilla - making sure to create tracks for the tank. 

At this point adjusted the mud on the wheels having now got a feel for what the ground will look like. 

Aibrushed the base, making sure to change the colour of the disturbed mud where the tracks had churned it up. 

Static grass added

And then cracked the old favourite leaf punch out. 

And added some water effects in the deeper puddles. 

It was then just a matter of gluing the tank down and blending in some more pigment mud paste. 

The final piece: