Tag!! Various Modern Figs...

Hey folks,

While I was enjoying my internets hiatus, I still passed the time with a brush in hand and a fig on the go...looking for any excuse to not paint Great War figs I was able to find an some stray minis from The Assault Group (TAG) from their Agents and Operatives pack...and I think a few strays from their US Delta in Civilian Clothing. I figure that these should work in a variety of settings; be it modern, zombie, pulp, etc...

I was kind of enjoying the chance to break away from the 'strive for historical accuracy' side of the painting and thought I'd try a couple of outlandish and improvised/freeflowing painting ideas inspired by some of my favourite tv shows and movies...

Enjoy and, as always, thanks for the views...comments and advice are welcome.

Cheers.

Like many folks, I have been a fan of Batman over the years, not a huge fan or suprfan, but I've enjoyed the Batman verse nonetheless...I actually think one of the most entertaining Joker characters is found in the Lego Batman game...if you move the stick slowly enough, you get to make the Joker strut...it is F'ing hilarious...

Of course, not to mention the work of Nicholson and Ledger...I quickly saw a link to a page saying that Heath Ledger had been heavily influenced by Brandon Lee's characterization of Eric Draven from the Crow...not sure if it's true, but damn...the Crow ranks in my top favourites list. 

The Joker-esque figure was fun to paint...a little misposed to be a direct representation of the Joker...but at about 1/5th the cost of the actual Joker figure...I'm willing to go on faith with this one.

The AK toting agent wasn't inspired by anything in particular, I just wanted to the chance to improvise some digicam on the ball cap and more colourful flare on his robe/tunic/moo-moo

Next, I thought it would be great to have an agent who dresses just like Herb Tarlek from WKRP in Cincinnati...truthfully, there was some hesitation on this one...I wasn't sure to go with Herbert J. Tarlek, or try to pick one of the fashion gems that Don Cherry is known to wear...

The biggest challenge was to have the lines of the coat somewhat uniform and parallel to each other...and flow accurately over the body in relation to his pose...but it was fun to pick the worst colour combination I could think of... 

The agent next to Agent T I thought I'd go with a simple black fatigues look kinda like Sly Stallone in Rambo 2...

The agent next to Sly Jr comes from the Delta pack...he wasn't inspired by any particular look...but was surprisingly quick to paint up... 

The tricep shadow came in pretty heavy...much darker than I would like...didn't become apparent until I snapped the pic...I'll fix that before I dullcoat the model... 

Group shot of the agents...

CEF Artillery Detachment - part 3...The Finishing

Howdy everyone,

I hope all has been going well...I am pretty pumped...as I said in Part 2, I had finished my two guns, I am now finally able to get some pics and get a post up!! I'm pretty happy with the finished product...the guns themselves were pretty easy to paint-up...I just used vj 924 Russian Uniform and then a lighter shade of 924 for highlights.  I did pick a few details out overall, but for the most part, the guns are a quick easy go.

This is one of the first times that I've actually attached a figure or two to the base...completed the basing...and then painted the figure.  It takes a little bit of finesse to manoeuvre around the base features and to get in the harder to reach places.  As well, this is probably the first time that I've added figures to the base after I've already completed painting and detailing the base...more importantly, added them and tried to make them blend-in...

Again, I'm pretty happy with that result...I laid down a bit more sand around the base of the individual figure and tried to match the terrain colours as best as I could.

Anyway, enough babbling...here are the pics.

Cheers.

Voila, the finished products...2 guns with crew...one with ammo carriage and the other without...I also modeled each gun with their own 'brass pile' of spent shell casings.

Profile view of the guns... 

Overhead...my main disappointment is with my improvised ammo...because I used a small brass tube, I could not crimp the front to look like a projectile...or on hindsight I should of filled the base with filler or clay...oh well, maybe for my German guns...or more Canadian gunners in my future... 

...rear view of the gun positions... 

Gun 1 with brass pile and neat organization of ammo for the fire mission...inspired by my own experience on the guns... 

...a 'touched up' pic of Gun 2...

CEF - Artillery detachment...work in progress Part 2

Howdy everyone,

I hope you have had a great summer...I have enjoyed my summer hiatus from the internets and am pretty pumped to get back logging and posting my gaming progress.  First off for the month, an update on my Vimy Ridge-esque artillery positions.  To be fully honest, I was able to recently complete them, but I'm pretty happy with the fact that I have actually catalogued their build from metal and dirt to functioning gun crew.

I layed out the initial bits of the gun platform in part 1 getting a feel for how busy and crowded the base would be...I also laid down some beams and sanded the base.  Moving forward from this, I then base coated the models in black and went to work with the base colours.  I used the base part of my painting guide for my 28mm Stormtroopers and went to work.

I quickly had my first couple of layers down before I remembered to take any pics...so you kind of miss out on the Flat Earth and Beige Brown layers...

  

First attempt at vj Tan Earth...I was hoping things would pop more...they didn't, but it was a nice transition from the previous colour... 

 

At this stage, I used another dry brush of vj Tan Earth on the contours of the base and edges of the platform beams...

 

 

The 'finished' product...bases ready for the crew and guns...I dry brushed the base and beams with vj Iraqi Sand and for the final touch I used strong wash to highlight the slats, cratering, and 'boggy' parts.

Next, the guns themselves...vj 924 Russian Uniform base coat with highlights on detail areas including brass on the recoil cylinder, wheel hubs, and breech assembly areas.

 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pics...part 3 is coming and I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Take care.