Showing posts with label WIP. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WIP. Show all posts

Monday, 21 December 2020

A Little Kick in the Action

Howdy folks, I hope everyone has been well and safe over the past months. It is hard to believe that I am standing/sitting here at 9+months of isolation and social bubble controls. Given some of the unknowns with what is moving about and some of the realities of living in an immuno-compromised house, it is what it is. Also, looking at the log, it is hard to belive that just over 2 months has gone by with nothing but a peep or post from me to you.

I have kept up the painting, but I gotta be honest, the online portion is not always the easiest or most motivating to get to.

So, in the spirit of the season...that is nearly upon us...I thought that with a little modification, I could try to achieve "The 12 posts over Christmas - holidays..." I'm already to late to the game to sync up with Christmas Day...and well, okay...but WHAT, what if I can get 12 posts out between today (not counting this one of course) and 31 December? That's gotta be worth something, right? And afterall, I have had some progress in the total number of posts front...compared to other years when i sucked just a little bit more.

So...Here goes. The 12 posts over Christmas! Some will have painting...some will have random thoughts...but I will try to keep to the lyric of the song.

That is all for now...onto #1. Cheers.

Saturday, 10 September 2016

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...

Tuesday, 6 September 2016

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.
 



Friday, 29 July 2016

CEF - Artillery detachment...work in progress Part 1

Howdy folks,

It has been quite sometime since I dedicated time to conducting research, so for the past 4 weeks or so I've been googling, reading articles, and made my way through 5 books on the subject of Vimy Ridge.  With the 100th anniversary coming up in April, my buddy Ed (Mr. Maersk Grozny) and I are going to put together a Vimy inspired gaming table for Cangames 2017.

Inspired by my research and some of the images I've been able to find, I have taken this knowledge and put it into action in basing my Canadian Artillery Detachment.

Originally I had hoped to build up a similar looking position as pictured above, however with the size of the Battlefront bases and not wanting to overcrowd the base I went with the look below.
As you can see, the real estate gets pretty tight.  So with that in mind I adapted my approach from the pictured gun position above and started building a suitable gun platform.
 Work in progress picture #1 and #2... 

Unfortunately the picture is very very yellow, however I think it shows my attempts to show the duckboards and planking that were part of the construction of artillery positions in the build-up to the Easter assault.  An excellent resource in this case has been the book "Vimy Ridge: A Canadian Reassessment"...it is a series of essays which cover the build-up, fighting, and aftermath of the battle.