So much armor...

Today marked an important day in any commission, the day you ship it back to the client.  This commission was a big one to be sure.  Thirty-nine 28mm vehicles and two guns for use in Bolt Action.  It took quite some time to complete due to a relocation across the country but it is all done.  Over the next few posts I will be going over the various parts of this commission, showing off the completed miniatures.  These posts will indeed be image intensive. 

Let's start off with the American forces that were part of this commission.  'MERICA!

LVT-4 Buffalo (Warlord)

LVT-4 Buffalo (Warlord)

M16 AA Halftrack (Warlord)

M26 Pershing (Warlord)

M3 Lee (Warlord)

M4A3 Sherman 105mm (Rubicon)

M4 Sherman (Warlord Plastic)

M4 Sherman (Warlord Plastic)

M4 Sherman (Warlord Plastic)

M3 Halftrack (Warlord)

M18 Hellcat (Warlord)

.50 Cal Jeeps (Warlord)

M5 3in AT Gun (Warlord)

Kuromorimine would be proud!

Sorry for the delay in posts but I have been quite busy with commissions and events.  Today will be a short update on the massive armor commission currently on my desk.  This update features a might Maus, a prototype German super heavy tank.  This beauty is painted to match the colors of the Maus used by Kuromomine in the anime Girls Und Panzer.  Only thing the beast is missing is a schoolgirl occupying the top hatch.  There are a few minor details remaining but aside from that it is done.

You might notice some other miniatures in the background.  This will be featured in future commissions so stay tuned.

Panzers on the march...

Last post I showed off some recently completed American tanks for Bolt Action, but they were not all that commission contained.  Part of this rather large commission were a good number of German vehicles.  These are not yet done being painted but I felt a few work in progress pictures would be cool.  I usually do not take many WIP pictures as I work on commissions.  I am usually too invested to take the time to snap a few pictures.  While it makes the clients happy as I am able to knock out the commissions faster it is quite boring to my readers.  So why not give it a shot today. 

Well you have Panthers, Tigers, and Opels...Oh My.  Yeah it is not the standard phrase but if you were an Allied tanker then "Oh My" would be the tamest thing you would say.  The Panthers here are in Ambush camouflage and merely await final touches.  The Halftracks and trucks are almost complete and feature a camo scheme matching some past German vehicles I have done.  The Panzer IVs will also feature Ambush once I get to them.  The other tanks will feature schemes chosen by my client.  That Maus will indeed be one of my favorites to work on as it gets the Girls Und Panzer treatment.  So much German armor but I must admit I quite enjoy painting German vehicles.

Armored Fury...again

I really need to update more often...  I will admit I do forget as I get quite involved in my commissions.  Lately I have completed several large commissions ranging from Ariadna from Infinity to large numbers of tanks for the game Bolt Action.  Todays update features some pictures from my recent batch of American vehicles.  This batch is part of a rather large commission featuring over 41 28mm vehicles for Bolt Action.  The commission ranges from the humble jeep to the massive German Maus.  The vehicles I completed recently were some of the most fun to paint vehicles in a while.  While the US primarily used the same color scheme on all its vehicles, I still had fun with all the variations I was able to achieve. 

Featured in the picture were three of the newer M4 Sherman plastic kits from Warlord Games which were a pleasure to work with.  Warlord is offering some great new kits in plastic and I very much enjoy working with them.  Also shown is an M4A3 Sherman 105 from Rubicon.  That kit is also plastic and includes quite a few options for variants.  The client wanted the 105mm variant and who could say no to a Sherman with a big gun.  The rest of the vehicles included an M3 Halftrack, an M16 AA Halftrack, the mighty M26 Pershing, an M3 Lee, two little Jeeps, and M18 Hellcat, and finally two workhorse LVTs.  The LVTs and Lee were where I decided to vary the usual scheme.  I decided to go with a more appropriate faded color scheme as those saw action is particularly tough areas.  Not much remains to be done on them, just some weathering pigments and some details on the crew. 

Stay tuned for my next update where I show off the recently completed Ariadna force for Infinity.

Troops assembled...

Yeah I know it is a boring title but what the hey.  Yesterday I finished the mass of troops for this American commission and for a second there I thought it was a Soviet army with so much infantry.  All told the count is as follows...

6x SMG equipped attendants
2x pistol equipped attendants
5x twelve man Rifle squads with an SMG and two BARs each
2x bazooka teams
2x sniper teams

So a total of 72 plastic infantry figures.  Now yesterday I was hoping to get them primed but the weather did not cooperate.  Today looks to be the same so I may be taking these to a friend's auto body shop to borrow his paint booth. 

This much infantry has me both dreading and yet still looking forward to starting my  Soviet army next month.  With this same client sending me Soviets at some point in the near future this will be good practice.  

Look for my next update on Monday.

Assembling the troops

Normally I come up with a nice title to go with the content of my updates and this one seemed to fit both literally and figuratively.   I have begun the task of assembling all the plastic miniatures which is something I do quite enjoy.   Out of this mass of figures there will be several squads,  some Bazooka teams, a few snipers, and a handful of attendants for the HQ units that can have them. 

As with any project featuring plastic figures I begin by clipping and cleaning the mold lines from the figures.  This is of course done with the back of a hobby knife to prevent gouging the plastic as you scape off the mold lines.  These figures all had a mold line running along the bodies but it is an easy one to remove.  The kneeling poses were assembled and all were glued to their bases.  I recommend only using plastic glue as I have almost never seen a good plastic figure assembled with super glue.

This evening starts the real fun as I glue pouches on the belts and get to work assembling the rest of the figures.   More updates to come.

Supporting fire incoming...

Friday I finished the weapons teams and command figures.  Aside from some mold lines these figures were done pretty quickly.  Now these were all done on 60mm round bases including the running pose models.  This was done for ease of moving the team as well as to give the opponent an easier time in identifying it as a MMG team.  With these done and ready for primer so begins the infantry.   Sixteen body/arm sprues and nine weapons sprues.  That is 80 infantryman.  Fun times ahead.

So I had this asked by a few readers so I will go over how I approach large projects.  For me I use a few tricks to prevent the dreaded burnout.  To begin I clean, assemble, and prime all the models around the same time.   I personally really enjoy this part just as much as the actual painting.  With plastic kits it really allows you to add a bit of character to otherwise generic miniatures by changing things up during assembly.  After all that is done it is time to tackle the painting.  Here I work in batches.  I usually start with characters as these being individuals I put a lot of detail into their paint job.  Next I go with whatever I feel like painting.   Maybe a few squads then some weapon teams and so on.  Now I tend to take short breaks, usually weekends, to paint some of my own miniatures.  These I make sure are something different than the current miniatures I am painting as it breaks up the monotony associated with large projects.  It may seem like it slows the project down but actually quite the opposite as when you get burned out you slow down your painting.  One last bit of advice is make sure before you start a project you have extra primer and paint just in case.

Look out for my next update as I begin assembling the troops and outfitting them for battle.

The Sleeping Giant...

Like Japanese Admiral Yamamoto once said about the United States this commission may live up to that quote.  I recently recieved another commission from a regular client in the mail and this one is a doozy.  It features an impressive amount of US miniatures from the Bolt Action range.  It is quite a lot to list but the picture should give you an idea.   As I work on the various parts I will be  gradually revealing tge true enormity of this commission.   There will be some works in progress as I go so I encourage you to check back often.  Here are also some pictures of most of the vehicles from this commission I knocked out yesterday.  Missing is one more M3 Halftrack in need of some replacement parts.  My next assembly project will be the weapons teams.  'MERICA

My other car is a SdKfz 222...

This is going to be a short post with pictures from the recently completed commission.  This one is a SdKfz 222 armored car and was a common scout vehicle used by the German Army in World War II.  I painted this one in the same scheme as the other two German vehicles.  Enjoy!

More Germans...

Following up on my post yesterday here is more pictures of the completed German tanks from the Bolt Action range.  This one is the Panzerjager 38T, better known as the Hetzer.  This is actually one of my favorite German tanks and maybe moreso than the humble Stug.  This one was painted in the same scheme as the Stug and upcoming SdKfz 222.  I enjoyed painting this one and here was the result.

While working on the client's Hetzer I was inspired to finally put paint on to my own Hetzer.  I decided to go a different route and went with Late War Ambush camouflage which is my favorite German camouflage pattern.  This one is still a work in progress but you can see how it is coming along so far.

Zee Germans are coming!

After a long time away from the Blog I have brought you a long awaited update.  I have finished quite a few commissions since my last update and so I will be posting pictures of them over the next few days.  This is the first of several posts focusing on the recently completed German tanks from the Bolt Action range.  To begin is the Stug III G which is one of my favorite German tanks of the war behind the humble Hetzer.  This one features a simple two tone camo scheme and shows some wear and tear as befits a hard fighting tank. 

German firepower!

It has been a while since I last updated the blog as the commissions have been keeping me busy.  Here is one of the many miniatures I have been working on.  The bases took a bit more time to finish than usual but the result is pretty neat.  These are weapons teams for the game Bolt Action and are Warlord Games miniatures.  These use custom bases provided by the client to match his existing army.  I am quite happy with how they turned out.  Enjoy these pictures of the completed miniatures.

German 8cm mortar team

Another view of the 8cm mortar team

German MG42 team from behind

front view of MG42 team

Nuts!

So back to work on other commissions I decided to knock out some US Airborne.  These were painted using the later Airborne uniform colors and based for Bastogne.  Rather than go too crazy with the snow I decided to leave a little dirt showing for contrast.  I am currently waiting on 101st decals to arrive so I can finish them up properly.  One thing I would like to note is the eyes on these models are not the best sculpted so my normally well painted eyes look...off.  Not much I could do about it but since the issues only affected three models it should not be a problem.  So enjoy some pictures and....NUTS!

I have returned...

I apologize to my readers for my long absence.  I recently lost my dog of 15 years so I have not been in much of a mood to post pictures of my work.  I have been busy during that time so here are some pictures of my recent commissions as well as a sneak peek of what I have on my desk right now...

Warlord Games T-34/85
The blank space on the turret will feature numbers

Close-up on the weathering and tank commander

Another view of the T-34/85

Warlord Games M24 Chaffee

Warlord Games M3 Halftrack

Warlord Games M4A3 Sherman

My next commission...  Gordon and Hague 15mm American Civil War(War of Northern Aggression for you southern folks) plastics - A full brigade of Union and Confederate each.

Stay tuned for updates on this new commission as I work to knock them out in a short period of time.