Combat Wombat Bullfrog Class Lander/VTOL

I've been hankering for one of the little VTOL Landers that Scott at Combat Wombat sells. I needed to place an order for some of Scotty's turned brass barrels for another project, so I took the opportunity to nab a couple.

The Bullfrog is a 15mm lander made in grey resin. It comes in kit form and requires a moderate amount of assembly. The parts had some flash on them, as a result of the drop casting technique, but a rub over on some 80 grit sandpaper soon cleared that up and smoothed off the slightly rounded back face of the parts. I assembled using Zap-a-Gap thick super glue and a Filla-Glue kicker pencil.

The model went together very easily and the parts fit together really well. I chopped the detail off the upper surface of the pod and fixed it straight to the spine, but you could easily leave it loose and magnetise it for additional variety if required.

Bullfrog Lander. Croak.

I washed the model in some warm, soapy water and then, in honour of the name, gave it an all-over coat of GW Gnarlock Green foundation paint straight over the resin. A lander called Bullfrog has to be green. I have found the now OOP GW foundation paints to be really good at covering, and I'm happy to use them straight onto bare resin most of the time.

Finished version and kit form sans pod.

Once the green was dry I dry-brushed Dheneb Stone straight over the top then added a few metallic areas using the newer GW Leadbelcher. I then stippled on some Khermi Brown to represent paint chips. In retrospect, this was too light and I should have used Charadon Granite or Adeptus Battlegrey. The cockpit windows were then shaded from dark to bright using Necron Abyss, Mordian Blue and a very, very old pot of Lightning Bolt Blue. The blues were blended together whilst still wet to give a fairly gradual change.

The model can be assembled with or without the lift engines on the leg struts.

A few areas of black were added around the engines and landing gear and then, as usual, I did the next bit in the wrong order. Instead of a gloss coat (or a coat of Pledge floor wax) and applying the decals from my Gundam 1/100 sets, the whole model got a a thin wash of the ever useful Devlan Mud with Nuln Oil in the metallic areas. I'll have to add the decals then dirty them up again before finally sealing the model.

GZG OUDF to the left and Armies Armies Neo-Sov on the right.

The finished model is very nice indeed. There are few bubbles here and there, but nothing really unsightly. They are also a bargain at $7 each, which works out to about £4.50 so even with postage - still a bargain! One of my landers was missing it's pod, but Scott replied promptly to my email and is sending out a replacement and a spare to act as scatter terrain, which is a very generous gesture.

Exit ramp.

I've prepared a Gruntz card for the lander. This version is unarmed, as I see it more as a utility lander than a combat asset, but I figured door guns would be possible.

15mm WW2 German Reinforced Rifle Platoon - fast and dirty paint up.

As part of our switch from Flames of War to Bolt Action MBB and I have started to collect some German troops. I've managed to do this bit by bit, picking up odds and ends of damaged blisters from bargain bins at various Salute and SELWG shows, plastic model kits from PSC and Zvezda and the few last bits from Peter Pig - mostly AT guns and crew.

In the spirit of my previous 15mm WW2 US Rifle Platoon Fast and Dirty Paint Up, I present my 15mm WW2 German Reinforced Rifle Platoon Paint up.

The paints I used for this were a mix of GW black undercoat, Tamiya XF-74 JGSDF Olive Drab, Tamiya XF-2 White and a selection of Vallejo Model (70.XXX) and Game (72,XXX) paints as shown below (excuse my crappy handwriting).

Check the paint codes below, I wrote some of them down wrong. It's XF-74, not XF-72, for instance.

I didn't have the equivalent Vallejo paint for the uniform base colour, Feldgrau, but after a little searching I found a recommendation for the Tamiya XF-74. The Tamiya website shows a very, very bright green colour for the XF-74 so I was initially sceptical. After I painted up a few test figures I was much more comfortable, though. The combination of a black base coat, heavy drybrush of XF-74 and then drybrush of XF-74/XF-2 mix as a highlight looked very good with a solid grey-green colour and not nearly as bright green as I had expected.

Black undercoat

XF-74 drybrush uniform base coat

Uniform highlight - 80/20 XF-74/XF2

Helmet, Gasmask holder and mess tin painted Heavy Charcoal (72.115)

Water bottle cover painted Beige Brown (70.875)

Camo cape and bread bag painted Brown Violet (70.887 - not 877 as indicated on chart above)

Rifle stocks and camo patches painted Flat Brown (70.984)

Ammo pouches and knapsack painted German Camo Black Brown (70.822)

Flesh painted with Flat Flesh (70.955)

Boots, Belts and Y-straps painted Black (70.950)

Any equipment, such as infantry mortars, ammo boxes, Panzerfausts was then painted with German Camo Orange Ochre. Mortar rounds were painted Cavalry Brown, as I'd read that German hi-explosive rounds were painted red somewhere. My Cavalry Brown is much more of a deep red than brown.

Once these steps were complete the figures got a generous wash with peat brown ink, allowing it to settle into the hollows but making sure it didn't pool anywhere. It's the same effect as you'd get from using one of the pre-made stains such as the Vallejo Washes, Army Painter strong/soft tone, a polyurethane wood stain any of the various recipes for "dip" using floor polish except much less sticky and smelly.  

Washed with Windsor and Newton Peat Brown ink

Completed platoon including Goliath, Panzershreks and support mortars and the materials and tools used.

The figures were then gently prized from the lolly sticks and based individually or in groups of 2-3 for the support weapons. For bases I used 2mm thick MDF circles in 20, 30 and 40mm diamter from Warbases

The figures still need to have their basing texture added and then be varnished, which I will do after I have painted the ATG's, IG's and various other bits that need to be based. AT the moment the ATG's are all loose, and I'm debating whether to base the motorbike teams, scout cars and Kubelwagens. I'm tempted to get a Kettenkrad and Schwimmwagen just for the lolz.

Here's the full platoon with an assortment of attachments. I have another 2 of the Zvezda Sdkf 251 halftracks to build, and a long barrelled PzIV on the way to me. The barrels on the Wiebelwind at the top right had to be replaced with brass rod as they were just too flimsy. I built up the muzzle brakes by dipping them into super-glue to get a blob on the end and then squirting it with accelerator to get it to dry fast, leaving behind a blob I could sand into shape easily.

Expensive lesson learnt - Ion Age Adders

I recently purchased a brace of Adder Support Sleds from Ion Age. I picked them up as part of the early supporter package, so they were a bargain at £3 each. I got 3 of the railgun armed ones, 3 of the gatling ones, a mortar and a missile launcher. The package arrived in good time and the models were really well protected. I also got the free early bird figure, a nice female adventurer.

I planned to paint them in a Berlin Brigade inspired urban camouflage of rust red, grey and white, like this:

picture sourced from the web - but I believe it's from Bovington Tank Museum

When the British army arrived in segregated Berlin in the 1960's with their green painted tanks, they realised they stuck out like a sore thumb on the streets of the city. All of the tanks got this distinctive urban pattern, in exactly the same style and design on each tank, so the East German secret police couldn't count how many tanks there were by comparing different camouflage patterns. It works quite well in a city environment:

So, my plan was to use a trusty can of Halfords Red undercoat for the red parts (also makes a quite good Rotbraun for WW2 tanks), then use my Anarchy Models HD stencil sheets to mask off the pattern, then over-spray with grey, repeat the masking and then spray with white. I could do all three from rattle cans - I could do all three with Halfords undercoat in fact as these are the three colours they come in.

Neat idea. However, I did lots of things wrong.

I didn't wash the models before assembly and then I didn't wash them before spraying them. Washing in warm water and washing up liquid removes any build up of grease and oil from handling during construction, and it also removes any of the mould release agent that is used to stop the model from sticking to the mould it is cast in. You can also use a good soaking in white vinegar to do the same thing.

I then sprayed in the middle of a hot day in direct sunlight. The paint dries very quickly from spray cans. In warm weather it can dry in the air before it hits a model, which can lead to poor adhesion and a rough, grainy surface. Spraying in strong, direct sunlight means the model itself can heat up, further speeding the drying time and lessening the adhesion. I also sprayed too much, too quickly. A single, thick coat is also less likely to adhere. Multiple thin coats are better than one thick one.

I left the models to dry for a while and then started to apply the stencils. I was just finishing my third model when I needed to reposition a stencil. The Anarchy Models stencils are made from a thin, vinyl film and have a good "stickiness" so they'll bend round corners and stay stuck down, instead of lifting off. As I peeled this one away to reposition it, it pulled a huge flake of the red paint away with it. A quick test showed the same problem on all the models - the usually brilliant Halfords paint hadn't adhered at all well. It needed to be removed and re-sprayed.

The Adders are made of a fine, grey resin with a few white metal accessories. My usual method of removing paint from resin and metal models is to dunk it in nail varnish remover for 24 hours then scrub with a toothbrush. I've had great results from this on any number of resin models so far, but mostly the "white chocolate" type resin, as AGG calls it. I separated the parts, arranged them in a suitable container and poured over the nail varnish remover, tightly sealed the lid to keep the stinky fumes down and went to watch The Lego Movie ("Everything is awesome!").

This morning I returned to the models to begin the scrubbing. However, the resin had reacted badly to the nail varnish remover and the tanks had softened and split in many places. The thinnest parts of the resin are the worst affected, with the thin walls of the turret wells in the main body especially bad - not a single one remains intact.Many of the details like the tool boxes and headlight clusters have softened and a few have broken off. The vehicle bodies themselves are also bulgy and distorted, as though they have expanded slightly. The glacis plate has split on another and a third has a big chunk of resin that has sloughed off from the underneath, where it looks like there was an air bubble just below the surface. The turrets seem OK, apart from one of the missiles on the launcher turret hace split off and one of the rail gun turrets has bulged and split underneath where I had drilled out a hole for a pin to keep the nose-heavy rail guns from pitching the turret forward.

The nail varnish remover also seems not to have removed the paint that well - in fact it seems like the paint has actually seeped into the resin. This would make sense if the resin became softened and porous as it reacted to and absorbed some of the nail varnish remover.

The vehicles are currently drying out in the sun to see if they can be salvaged, but I'm not hopeful. If the resin remain soft they won't accept any paint and will just have to be binned. If it does harden back up and the red paint isn't still a gooey mess I may be able to salvage a couple, but the remainder may only be good as burnt out wrecks.

So, a lesson learnt. I'm not sure why, but the softer, grey resin reacts badly with nail varnish remover. Possibly it may be that it has a higher plastic content similar to the new "restic" miniatures ranges such as the Reaper Bones and Sedition Wars figures.

The Adders are lovely models, and if I can't salvage them I probably will replace them in due course. The most annoying thing for me is that all of this could have been avoided had I just remembered all the things I should have, and usually would have, done.

Airbrush techniques course

Last weekend I attended an airbrush techniques course run by the guys at SnM Stuff in association with Anarchy Models. I'm not associated with either, but I was part of their Kickstarter campaign for the Anarchy Models HD airbrush stencils project. When the stencils arrived there was a discount voucher for the airbrushing course and since my airbrush skills are entirely self taught I thought I'd invest in a little tutoring.

The course is run in the back of the SnM shop near Farnborough, and was a 2 hour drive for me, but I'm not aware of similar courses elsewhere, so I was happy to spend the time. The instructor, Brian, was the driving force behind the stenscils, and he had a number of test models with him on the day that I'd seen during the kickstarter showing the effects that could be achieved.

The course ran from 10 am to 5pm, with a break for lunch. In the morning we covered a variety of basic airbrush techniques, including accuracy, stroke types, the amount of paint to put down on a model and how to clean the airbrush. The exercises were delivered in a clear and easy to understand way and built up our techniques well, learning how to get the paint where wanted it, how to make sure we were putting the right amount of paint down, effective use of the trigger and so on.

After lunch we started using the stencils and Brian talked us through how to apply the basic stencils, placement for some of the more complex ones and how to use the positive and negative stencils to achieve some really nice effects.

We also got to practice our skills on the test models we had brought along. In my case this was a £1.99 Mig 29 model kit from The Works. I undecorated it in Halfords grey primer (excellent stuff - highly recommended), which I also used as the base colour for the 3-tone cammo pattern I was going to try out. I used one of the mini-hexcam stencils and went for a grey, black and blue colour scheme:

I only painted 1/2 the model as I'd have been there all day trying to add the masks to the whole thing...

The masks give a nice, crisp edge  - the overspray around the wing root and on the panel line mid wing was my attempt to add some shading.

Shading along the fuselage and wing root.

Overall effect is quite spectacular - not what you'd call low observability but certainly would serve to break up the outline!

I was very impressed with the stencils. They adhered well, even along the curves of the wing and tail edges - you can see in the picture above where the pattern flows around the vertical stabiliser to cover both sides. Removing them was slightly arduous, as they are very thin and I ended up with a few surface scratches, but I expect that with practice this will be much easier.

One of the biggest selling points for me, though, was that they are reusable. The tack on the stencils is enough to allow them to be used 3 or 4 times, and there are LOADS of stencils on a sheet, especially the micro ones that I have. I have used the Mask FX stencils from Critical Mass Games before and achieved good results with them, but I think the Anarchy Models stencils are going to be more use to me. The CMG stencils are a waxed paper and much thicker, meaning that they have a tendency to only really adhere to flat surfaces and tear as you are removing them. The extra thickness does mean they are easier to remove, though. There is also a difference is in price - CMG are currently £4.50 for an A6 sheet and Anarchy Models are £8.99 for two A5 sheets, so you are getting more bang for your buck with Anarchy models.

We then went on to practice shading techniques, using the airbrush to add weathering and shading to a base coated model. My Mig wasn't really conducive to this, as the colours were quite dark, it was quite small and you don't tend to get a lot of mud and dust on a fighter jet. Instead I tried out some shading effects on the two Ash Wastes kitbash tanks I'd also brought along (Armourfast Pz III with various bits of sci-fi gubbins added).

Shading along panel lines and in the hollows of the model. Ideally I'd have shaded the turret ring before attaching the turret.

The tank on the right has some individual hexes added to the rear deck where I was practising using one of the negative masks (you use the mask to isolate areas where you WANT the paint to go instead of using the mask to cover up areas and leave an impression of the colour below) 

I only had a blue-black paint in my airbrush at this point, but the tracks and wheels could have benefited from their shading been in a dusty beige or muddy brown. Shading between the wheels gives the impression of shadow.

Some rather heavy handed shading on the front of the rear tank - precise trigger control is very important

Showing the panel line shading on the running boards and engine decks.

We used Vallejo Model Air paints during the day, and I was very impressed by them. Brian also pointed out that the Tamiya paints I usually airbrush with are based on an mixture which includes alcohol. AGG is always complaining that she gets headaches whenever I airbrush, even when I'm using my extractor fan. As Brian pointed out, atomising the Tamiya paint will also atomise the alcohol in the paint and thinners, which isn't great to inhale and is no doubt what is giving AGG her headaches.

To that end I purchased two of the Vallejo Model Air sets, the collection builder and the WW2 Allies paint set. This should give me a nice variety of colours to use instead of the Tamiya. I don't think I'll stop using the Tamiya paints entirely, as I have loads of them and can't afford to just bin them, but I'll certainly use the Vallejo ones more often to give AGG's nose a break.

Overall I had a very enjoyable day and learnt a great deal. I think the techniques I picked up will stand me in good stead, and I am looking forward to using the stencils and shading on some models on the workbench.

15mm WW2 US Rifle Platoon - fast and dirty paint up.

I've had a Peter Pig WW2 US rifle platoon sat in bare lead for over three years now. Originally bought for Flames of War, my local gaming buddies decided we were done with this set of rules, for reasons I won't go into here, and switched to micro scales for Blitzkrieg Commander and either Bolt Action or Chain Of Command for skirmish. As a result I was left with a lot of unpainted, and now mostly un-needed lead.

I decided to paint them up to sell on. I'd recently picked up a set of Cote D'arms WW2 US paints for my NVL 15mm Scifi troops. These are the same formulation as the original Citadel paints, which was what I cut my painting teeth on, so I was keen to try them out.

I worked out basic equivalences between the colours and my usual GW paints (this was before I switched to Vallejo - I'm such a paint floozy) based on a colour chart in the old FOW US handbook.

The figures were all glued to strips of corrugated cardboard and undecorated GW Chaos Black. The aim was to get an entire company, 3 platoons of 9 stands of 4 men with command, HQ and bazooka stands too. Just under 130 figures in all. By far the most figures I'd painted in one go. With this in mind I decided that the painting standard would be gaming quality - base colours and a wash. I'd never used the "dip" method before, although I do have a tin of unopened Army Painter Strong Tone, but I had heard good results could be achieved with brown ink. I picked up a bottle of Windsor and Newton Peat Brown for this project.

Each figure was block painted with the base colours on a production line, so all the jackets were done first, then the trousers and so on. I grouped the poses together, facing the same way, and worked out a way to paint the figure efficiently with the first in a group, and just repeated the process as I went along. I painted the large areas first, so that I didn't have to be super-precise, as everything else would be painting on each successive colour would be covering up any mistakes I had already done.

Step 3 - (photos for steps 1 and 2 were just too dark to see). Field drab jackets, tan earth trousers already painted. Olive Green helmets, grenades and entrenching tool covers.

Pale sand leggings added

Camo Green webbing, knapsack and ammo pouches. The camo green initially looked far too bright, and I considered painting over, but it actually does blend in OK. I caught the back of the chap on the right's helmet and didn't notice until they were all based up and varnished.

Flesh - it's at this point that a figure starts to look like a little person and not a hunk of lead, in my opinion.

Beige Brown added for boots, wooden stocks on weapons, entrenching tool handle, pistol holsters and knife sheath. Metallic gunmetal for the rifle barrel, MG's and SMG's.

The Coat d'arms paints covered well and flowed nicely. The lighter colours required two coats, but that's probably to be expected on a black basecoat. I did discover that in a few places, such as the rifleman kneeling second from the left, I had put far too much glue on the cardboard and it had glooped over the edge of the figures stand.

I used a Humbrol metallic on these figures, as it was quite a nice pewter/gunmetal in the pot - sort of like a GW Leadbelcher before Leadbelcher was available - but discovered that it took AGES to dry. To avoid the ink diluting the metallic and causing my US troops to get a sparkly makeover, I left the figures to dry overnight.

Next day the figures got a generous wash of undiluted peat brown ink. As i discovered, with ink, a little goes a long way. One dip in the pot usually had enough ink to do 8 or 9 figures. I tried not to let it pool anywhere, but seep into the cracks and crevices on the figures.

Lots of little dudes.

The ink leave the figures with a gloss finish, but really makes the details pop, and adds a nice shadow effect. It also toned down the bright camo green and light sand colours and blended them in, so they looked like faded cloth rather than day-glo disco wear.

The figures were then based on standard FoW bases and Windsor and Newton coarse texture medium  was mixed with W&N Burnt Umber. the mix had some fine ground cork added to it and was then plastered onto the bases. Uncovered areas were touched up with W&N burnt umber, which was then lightly dry brushed with GW Bestial Brown and Dheneb Stone. Flock and small sections of static grass clumps were added and the whole thing was given two coats of GW Purity Seal, followed by Testors Dullcoat to take away the shine.

Each of the 3 platoons was differentiated by some detail on the base. One platoon had just flock and clumps, one had a small cork boulder added and one had a piece of clump foliage added. HQ squad got two small boulders.

I'm really pleased with how they came out. For four evenings work I'm very impressed at what I have achieved. It's slightly irritating that I didn't take the time to paint them whilst we were still playing Flames of War, but I'm going to use the same technique on the US airborne platoon I have for Bolt Action/Chain of Command.