A new project!

Very brief announcment, I've been roped into collecting an army by some folks from the Facebook Bolt Action Forum. I'll be writing a piece about my army tomorrow. but for now here's a link to the projects blog.

Semper Fi!

http://ataleofbeardedwargamers.blogspot.co.uk/

As always you can keep track of my painting and check out my other work at Volley Fire Painting

Die Waffenkammer Armour review

With Christmas rapidly approaching I thought I'd do something totally festive and write about 2 bitter opponents from the Eastern Front, so here is my take on Die Waffenkammer (JTFM Enterprises) T34/76 UZTM turret kit, and also the Panzer IV Ausf H. First up, the T34.

Die Waffenkammer's T34 is a masterpiece of simplicity, comprising of a hull, seperate track units, a one piece turret and a big bag of stowage, as well as a nice commander figure. Next to no clean up was required, apart from a good wash in some washing up liquid to ensure that all the mold release agent is removed from the resin. I also used a grey automotive primer on the tank as this is far harder wearing than a standard acrylic primer. Both these steps are very important due to the nature of the resin used, although this extends to all resin (And metal) models as well.

After leaving the primer to dry for about 24 hours I attacked it with my airbrush, spraying the tank with through a range of green paints, starting with Vallejo 897 Brown Violet and finishing at 857 Golden Olive. Paint was misted on to give a sense of fading and wear to the green. Once this had dried I used artists oils as a wash into the recesses, and any excess paint was removed with a cotton bud. Mud was applied in a similar fashion to the wash, using Games Workshop Agrellan Earth left to pool in the recesses to give the impression of dried dust. a quick bit of googling provided a turret slogan which I painted on with Vallejo Silver Grey, and that was the T34 done!

Die Waffenkammers Panzer IV Ausf H Is just as good as the T34, being a very simple model to build with very crisp detail. I particularly like the Schurzen rail allowing you to have the side skirts separate from the model. This is actually the second one of these kits I have built, and I wanted to base this one on a vehicle from 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich after seeing a colourised photo in a forum. Paint was applied using the same techniques as the T 34, with the Dunkelgelb mixed using Vallejo Middlestone with increasing quantities of white mixed in. Yellow Olive Green camoflage patters were then sprayed on and the whole tank was dusted up with a watery coat of Vallejo Iraqi sand once all the inks and oils had dried.

Both these kits are superb, and fit perfectly with Warlord and Rubicon kits. I will be doing a size comparison once I have built a Rubicon T34 and some more Warlord Panzer IV's. Die Waffenkammer models can be bought either direct from Die Waffenkammers website, or ordered from Great Escape Games for those of you in the UK.

Time Line miniatures small farm outbuilding review

Another quick review!

I've recently decided that I need some terrain, so being as painting models is my day job I thought I'd best get stuff  that requires painting! With this in mind I set to looking for some MDF buildings, and in the process discovered Time Line Miniatures who produce a growing range of extremely affordable buildings.

Spying the outbuildings and farmhouse kits I placed an order which arrived amazingly quickly, and immediately built the out buildings to get some practice in before tackling the farmhouse. The mud in the yard was created using Humbrol weathering powders mixed wtih gloss varnish, and then once this had hardened I mixed more gloss varnish with Vallejo sand paint and applied it all over the yard, letting it pool and puddle to give the impression of watery mud.



The buildings went together very easily using PVA to glue them together, and were sprayed with some Halfords textured paint prior to detail painting. I was incredibly impressed with this kit, and will definitely be buying more!

Warlord Games Panzer IV Review PT 1

A few weeks ago I posted a review of Rubicons Panzer IV, and promised to review Warlords once it was released. Well it has been, and I have one that I've built as an Ausf F2. I was going to compare it for sizes with Rubicons and Die Waffenkammers kits today, but I'll save that for next time.

The kit is moulded in dark grey hard plastic, with crisp detail throughout. Particularly noteworthy is the commander figure who wears an M43 field cap, and will look great peeking out of any Mid to Late War German armour. My tank being early, the boss got boxed for the time being.

You have the options to build the tank as either a short barrelled Ausf F, a long Barrelled F2 an ausf G with L48 gun and finally an Ausf H with Schurzen. I'll look at the Ausf F and H variants in a later article, but each has great detail. 

Kit was a great fit and simple to assemble, with the instructions being clear and parts marked for each version. I found the fit of the hull front left a few small gaps, and I'd have liked to see the later 1 piece hatch for the Ausf H variant, but other than that it was great.  The suspension unit comes in 5 parts, with wheels and hull side as one piece, to which you attach the 2 piece track units and outer face of the drive sprocket and rear idler wheel.

Model was painted using my Iwata Eclipses, using Vallejo Dark Sea Green for the grey colour and weathered using artists oils for the shading, and both GW Agrellan Earth and Vallejo Dark Earth textured paint for the mud effects.

 The kit scales perfectly with other Panzer IV's on the market, and also looks good next to Warlords's 28mm figures. Personally I'm starting to really like plastic kits for my wargaming vehicles as they take me back to being a kid and buying Matchbox 1/76 scales kits with my pocket money!

More to come! As ever, check out out Volley Fire Painting Services for more examples of my work. Til the next time!

Pt3 Tiger Review! Late War Tiger review, featuring Warlord and Rubicon Models

 As promised, here's my comparison of both Warlord Games existing 28mm 1/56 resin and metal Tiger one, and also Rubicon Models new plastic Tiger. The Warlord model has the large patches of green and brown, whilst Rubicons is the lighter coloured vehicle. Rubicon's model wasn't finished at the time these pictures were take, so is still WIP.


As you can see from the photo's in terms of dimensions both are near perfectly compatible with one another. Rubicons model requires you to add Zimmerit, and being a plastic kit takes a little longer to assemble, however it does come with a large amount of optional parts to enable any Tiger variant to be built, and careful building would allow you to interchange the variants as well. 

Warlords Tiger comes in far less pieces and can be assembled quickly, however being resin requires a little more prep work, and some of the joints needed a touch of filler as well. Detail is fairly similar across both kits, however I think Rubicons has the slight edge as it has more relief in terms of detail in the running gear, and a more complete set of pioneer tools as well.

In conclusion, both kits are very nice, and largly come down to how much work you want to put into a model. Rubicons kit is stunning, and by sculpting Zimmerit on can result in a spectacular kit. (Or can be spectacular straight from the box if building an early version!) Warlords Tiger is also very nice with some great detail straight from the box, so ultimately pays your money and takes your choice. It's worth pointing out Warlord have announced a plastic late production Tiger as well, so it will be interesting to compare this to once it's released. As it stands Rubicons is also the cheaper of the two kits.

As always, more of my work can be seen at https://www.facebook.com/VolleyFirepainting

Rubicon Tiger Pt 2

 Well, I now have a new love of my life! Thoroughly enjoyed this kit. Now with that out the way I'll try and justify such a sweeping statement.
Apologies for the delay in getting the finished pictures of the Tiger uploaded, if you missed part one you can read it here http://volleyfirepainting.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/rubicon-tiger-review-pt1.html I've been working on a lot of commissions, and wanted to spend a bit of extra time on the Tiger as well.

 In the previous installment of this review I stated that I would be doing comparison pics with Warlords late Tiger, however to avoid filling up the article I'll save that for Pt 3, and focus on the modelling aspect of the Rubicon Tiger in this piece.  Once I had assembled the model I gave the tank a quick bath in my ultrasonic cleaner to remove any mold release agent, and also to ensure the surface of the milliput Zimmerit would accept paint.



 Once the model had air dried I used some grey automotive primer as a first layer on the model. I decided to model Michael Wittman the famed German tank ace's Tiger from the battle of Villers Bocage. According to my research it appears that Wittmans own Tiger had broken down, so he was using vehicle number 222 in the engagement, and the vehicles appear to have a stippled camo pattern, although there is evidence to suggest they also used broad patches of green and brown over the Dunkelgelb yellow base too. I liked the stipple though so went with that!

 To paint the tank I used my Iwata Eclipse airbrush, and used Vallejo paints for all the camo work. Colours used were middlestone for the dunkelgelb, red brown for the brown and yellow olive for the green. I also mixed some white into the middlestone to create some colour modulation in the camoflage of the Tiger, and once the camo pattern had been sprayed on I mixed 3 parts gloss varnish to 1 part Middlestone and sprayed this on in a weak glaze to key all the colours in, and also prepare the surface of the tank for having transfers applied.
 I used transfers from 3 different sources on the model, crosses from Rubicon, numbers from Warlord, and the crossed keys divisional symbol from my decal dungeon. To get the transfers to even think about settling down onto the surface of the zimmerit I've developed a cunning trick. I paint the surface to receive the transfer with Pledge Mutli Surface Wax, then whilst this is wet I apply the transfer, then paint more of the wax over the transfer. Through what I assume is magic as the wax dries it shrinks the transfer to the surface and the contours of the model, giving a great painted on look, without the cost of using decal softners.

Once all the potions and gubbins had dried for about 48 hours I set about weathering the Tiger. The real vehicle was fairly new in 1944, and not overly weathered or battle damaged. To start with I used some Vallejo gun metal applied with a sponge to simulate some light chipping around hatches and walk way areas, and then used some  Rowney artists Burnt Umber, painted into a weak wash into all the recesses of the model, (excepting the Zimmerit) to add depth to the paint job. After leaving the wash to dry for around half an hour, I used a cotton bud to remove any excess paint, rubbing the oils away from the surface to leave it only in the recesses. Deciding the tank needed a tad more gunkyness I mixed some black oil paint into a thin wash and applied this to the engine deck and fuel filler caps, again being careful not to over do the effect.
Using period photo's as a guide I set about weathering the track and running gear using Games Workshop Agrellan Earth special effect paint. This paint comes in a thick paste, and as it dries produces a cracked dried earth effect. I covered the entire suspension system with this fancy stuff, and whilst it was wet used my finger to wipe the paint away again, leaving it to concentrate in the recesses. Once dry, I applied more of my oily black wash to the centre of the road wheels, and picked out the areas of wear with some bright silver paint and a very small (And horribly expensive) paint brush.
At this stage the tank was nearly done, all that remained to do was add exhaust staining using some Humbrol weathering powders, and an aerial from fine fuse wire.  Deciding the model needed a bit of character, and having discovered a Warlord seated Michael Wittman figure I painted him up, and sat him inside the turret peeking out and surveying the battlefield. With him added and a coat of matt varnish the model was finished!

Thanks to Rubicon Models for providing the kit to review, you can find more information about their products here  http://www.rubiconmodels.com/ and as always you can find more of my work at the Volley Fire Painting Services page. More info about Michael Wittman can be read here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wittmann

Thanks for reading, and look out for part 3 where I compare the Rubicon and Warlord Tigers!

Rubicon Tiger Review, PT1

Morning everyone (It is now anyway...)So, here's part one of my Rubicon 1/56 scale (28mm) Tiger review! In this part I'll describe how the kit goes together, how I sculpted the Zimmerit and talk a little on the kits accuracy. In Part 2 I'll talk about the painting and weathering of the model, and compare it in size with Warlords and Die Waffenkammer's Tigers. Onwards!

 For me, the most impressive thing about the kit is the option to build any production variant, with optional road wheels, gun mantlets, turret roofs, hatches, smoke launchers spare tracks and head light configurations. The instructions are also clear about which parts go with which variant too I'm pleased to add. This kit also comes with a fairly extensive transfer sheet with crosses and numbers.

Rubicon's Tiger comes packed in a box the size of small castle, and it's crammed with parts too, with each sprue packed in it's own individual bag. Parts are very well moulded, and detail is very crisp. The design of the suspension and running gear is superb with each set of tracks being made up of three layers of wheels to give a far better level of detail than can be achieved in resin or one piece tracks.





Detail is very crisp, tools are moulded with good depth and relief, and the Engine decking is handled well.  It would be utterly be fantastic if one of the aftermarket companies such as Eduard brought out a photo etched upgrade set with engine grills, but I suspect that's wishful thinking!




After much pondering I've decided on building a late production vehicle with steel road wheels, late style turret with square loaders hatch and sliding Cupola, as well as Zimmerit anti magnetic mine paste. This was applied to all mid and late production Tigers. One hurdle in this though is the kit doesn't come with Zimmerit! I think Rubicon was wise to do this, as plastic Zimmerit doesn't tend to look that good in my opinion, and is relatively simple to apply, just time consuming to apply.


To make the Zimmerit I use pretty much the same techniques as was done on the real vehicles. I apply white Miliput applied evenly approximately 1mm deep along the the entire length of the surface to textured, leave it approximately 20 minutes for the Miliput to harden, then use a razor saw to add texture, dragging the teeth of the blade along for around 2mm. I then change the position of the saw slightly to add some variety to the texture pattern. It's very tedious, however does look good. The whole model too around 2 hours to Zimmerit, but I think it was worth the effort. 

That concludes part one, and so far I'm thoroughly impressed.Come back soon for part 2, with extra coatings of Dunkelgelb and Michael Wittmans!

More info on Rubicon models can be found on their website, here http://www.rubiconmodels.com/
And as always any comments or to see more of my work check out https://www.facebook.com/VolleyFirepainting