Tag Archives: Bolt Action

Airbrush trials

Bolt Action, ,

Well, I bought myself a cheap airbrush. Having never used or seen one before, it’s a real learning curve. The kit was pretty cheap, under £65 for 2 airbrushes, a pump and tank including all the pipes and attachments.

In a usually blokey manner, I couldn’t wait to get started and sprayed up a camo pattern on the Panzer III I’d built a few months ago. I used the exact same colour scheme as I had on the hand-painted Puma I’d done.

I used Halfords khaki basecoat spray, then painted on Vallejo Reflective Green and Vallejo Chocolate Brown for the camo pattern, then a liberal brush wash in Army Painter Strong Ink. A slight drybrush with a desert yellow to edge the armour panels followed by some weathering powders.

Very quick to paint. The difference between the handpainted Puma and the airbrushed Panzer III is enormous. Especially considering the exact same colours were used and I nearly copied the same patterns.

I’ve taken a few pics to compare. The Panzer III has the magnetised shurtzen I built in Playing with Magnets.

Compared to the old hand painted Puma…

And some scenery…

I found a pile of old model Hornby railway stuff in my Mum’s loft when clearing it out. I decided to paint up the track, glue it to boards and add a few wagons which I painted. It will make a nice piece of alternate scenery for games of Bolt Action. All in all I’ve done over 4 and a half foot of track and 4 wagons. That will at least go across a game board.

Where do I start?

Bolt Action, Deadzone, Frostgrave, ,

It’s been more than a month since I posted anything here… a rather close family bereavement with funerals to arrange (etc) kind of stops Blogs and real life in their tracks.

I have painted a few things during that time, mainly as it was taking my mind off the loss. Most are painted rather rapidly as well so not all my best works.

Here’s a quick photo compilation of things I’ve done.

 

Deadzone:

Firstly, a bunch of Asterians…

Overseer:

Sky Razor:

Cyphers:

Black Talon:

“Family Photo”:

Then there was some Forgefathers…

Forgeguard:

Iron Ancestor:

“Family Photo”:

And to finish Deadzone painting (for a while) there was a Plague Teraton:

Bolt Action:

I have managed to get a few Bolt Action items painted recently. First of all are some excellent resin scenery pieces from Ironclad Miniatures. They took a matter of 20 minutes each to paint. I’m going to get some more trench pieces when I’ve saved some money up.

I’ve also put together a resin M24 Chaffee – and of course magentised the turrent and HMG weapon – mainly so it can be removed when the vehicle is packed away in it’s case.

And to finish off with, I couldn’t resist getting this piece of scenery (from Games Workshop – argh) to use in Frostgrave.

Phew…

The end of summer

Bolt Action, Frostgrave,

Summer ended and a few projects I had planned are about finished. Now it’s back to work with less time to get any hobby things done.

Here’s the pics and a few notes on what I finished…

Bolt Action

I made a generic modellers field by using a £4 coir doormat cut into sections (I still have most of it left). I glued it to some plasticard then glued sand around the edges. A quick basing paint job and I have 2 fields. One is purely rectangular, the other was in an “L” shape.

I also managed to finish off a few Bolt Action figures laying around my desk. A couple of BAR equipped US troops to add to my squads – the plastic set didn’t quite come with enough imo. I also managed a US sniper team with sniper rifles and optional SMGs.

4 more German troops were finished off to add to one of my squads. Here’s all the pics…

Frostgrave

I built a few scenery pieces for this game.

First is the walls built with sponge bricks and lollypop/craft sticks. The sponge bricks were glued together onto the 6 inch craft stick bases. I coated the walls in a disgusting mix of sand/pva/black poster paint. A couple of shades of grey drybrushes later and they’re finished. The snow effect was just the large Army Painter snow tub glued on with pva.

Secondly is the freebie White Dwarf magazine Age of Sigmar model. I have no intention of playing that game (of scale creep and dumbing down of fantasy rules) but it seemed a waste to have a figure with no use. So, now it’s glued onto an old vitamin pill box with an mdf base and turned into a suitable statue for the centre of Frostgrave.

Playing with Magnets

Bolt Action, Paint Table

I spent a peaceful day (my wife and lad went on a day out) building a Panzer III I’d bought at the end of July. When I got started, I realised I couldn’t decide whether to build it with the armour skirts or not. So, I dug out the box of magnets and wondered how I’d do it.

The kit itself lent itself to magnetising so well in the end.

The 3 top rollers of the tracks fit a magnet perfectly. I attached magnets (with a combination of green-stuff and superglue) inside the top rollers before I finished off the track pieces. Making sure polarities were all matching so I could attach the armour skirts. I used a double magnet set up for the skirts to try and get the spacing correct.

As you can see in the pictures, the skirts are going to be optional extras incase I want to use an Ausf L with that option, otherwise, without them, you can’t see the magnets are there.

The kit had options for closed hatch or open with commander, so while the magnets were out, they got the same treatment. It means my Panzer III Ausf L can have a closed or open hatch with commander, or as an extra have the armour skirts.

🙂

Now all I have to do is paint it. 😦

Picture showing positions of magnets before tidying the mess the glue made:

Picture showing it all held together:

SdKfz 234/2 ‘Puma’

Bolt Action

One of my first Bolt Action purchases at the end of May was a Panther tank. I built it and undercoated it the week I got it, but ever since, I’ve been dreading trying to hand paint a camo pattern onto it. I don’t own an airbrush and the frown my wife gave me when I suggested it told me that hand painting was the way to go. 😦

Anyway, I still haven’t painted the Panther, but I recently bought a SdKfz 234/2 ‘Puma’ armoured car. I decided this was the model to test out if I could do a camo pattern using a paint brush.

The overall look isn’t too bad. As most photos of minis though – they look better in the flesh than in a photo. I’m feeling confident enough to try out the Panther. Soon. 🙂

DIY Hedges

Bolt Action, Paint Table

My wife and I had our first game of Bolt Action the other night – needless to say my wife’s Germans defended the village well, winning her the game.

Sooo…. I need more hedges for cover!!!

Thanks to my wife, she pointed me in the direction of a webpage with a guide on how to make some hedges. The page was Six-D-Six. I used it as a guide – kind of – to make some of my own hedges. The main difference was that they flocked theirs. I painted mine. The main reason was that I only have one colour of flock and I couldn’t flock the hedge the same as the ground. D’Oh. Anyway, a quick trip to the craft store got me 50 large lollypop style sticks – 6 inches long – for £1.  The bargain shop next door had a pack of 8 flat scourers for £1. The only other thing was to dig out the glue gun.

After cutting the scourers to size, I glued a core piece to the centre, then folded them over. All I had to do then was glue them to the “lollypop stick”. Glue gun essential.

Once this had dried. All I had to do was spray them brown – I used Halfords Camo Brown – although I’m sure there are much cheaper sprays – that was the one I had in the garage though.

To finish, all I needed to do was use a large drybrush to drybrush on the following colours working my way higher up the hedge each time; Castellan Green (GW), Loren Forest (GW), Goblin Green (AP) and Desert Yellow (AP).
The base was re-touched up with brown then flocked.

A few glue-gun sticks, some brown spray and £2 worth of parts made 10 hedges. There were 8 made from folding and I used the leftover parts to make a pair of triple-ply hedges.
60″ of hedging for £2. Bargain. 🙂

EDIT: I’ve added a pic of the Stone Walls I’ve just finished painting and varnishing. I used the last few pieces to make a small fenced hedge section that will connect the other hedges up using the last ends of scourer.

July Photo-fest

Bolt Action

I have a few weeks off work now. Time to chill. Also, time to finally take a few photos of some figures that are overdue and get them posted here.

First up, the US Army M1 57mm Anti-tank gun now finally has a crew.

Here’s some pics of the M3A1 Half-track (now with a driver), and some of the M4 Sherman I did a while ago.

Here’s some pics of the old M4 Sherman along with some more of the Half-track as well.

My lad told me I should post pics of them together on the same “road” because they looked good together. Good call. 🙂

In progress: US M3A1 Half-track

Bolt Action, Paint Table

I’ve had a chance to finish building and start paint work on an M3A1 US Half-track transporter.

I wasn’t sure if the points price of the extra MMGs on it would be worthwhile in game, so I sorted out a magnet system so the 3 guns can be removed for any configuration. Not quite a historically accurate gun attachment but it doesn’t look too bad.

You can see the magnet system pretty clearly on the unpainted version here. It also makes packing it away in a case a lot safer without all the guns poking out.

This photo’s after a spray with Halfords camo green spray, some base colours and an ink wash. (And an embarrassingly bad decal to fix.) No weathering yet… My wife says I should leave my models “factory fresh” as she prefers them looking cleaner. 🙂

Nearly finished for the last 2 photos. All that’s needed is the driver and a coat of varnish. I’ve still not got the skill with the weathering powders yet to get the look I really wanted, but I think it will look decent enough for a game.

Now I just need the humidity to drop (and the thunderflies to sod off) so I can varnish it safely and paint up the driver to glue in.

US M1 57mm AT Gun

Bolt Action, Paint Table

I had an evening to play around with some basing bits and (nearly) finish off a Bolt Action US M1 57mm AT Artillery Gun. I’ve still got the 3 crew to paint.
I decided on basing the gun alone (it can stay in game even if the crew are removed). It fit quite nicely on a 50mm by 100mm piece of 3mm thick mdf – which is the same size as the chariot bases I was using for Kings of War.

I’ve never used model barbed wire or clump foliage before so next time I use either, things will hopefully be better – I learned a few pitfalls to avoid and mistakes that make me cringe a little when I see the model now.

Anyway, here’s a photo of the gun on kitchen paper on the paint table still. Mobile camera for the photo. 😦

And for the record…. Even a slight coat of anti-shine matte varnish kills the nice lumpy effect weathering powder had on the wheels and turned it smooth – even though I used very little varnish and the powder had been set with Isopropanol. All a learning curve for me 🙂

Bolt Action Photos

Bolt Action

A rare chance this evening to try and take a few updated photos. I’ve touched up a few of the models to make corrections, although the German models still have their packs riding too high. Thankfully I’ve only made up 4 like this and the rest are still on sprues.

German Army  – painted so far

Infantry:

Sniper Team:

Red Skull: – Alternate HQ to engage my 9 year old lad

United States Army – painted so far

Infantry Squad 1:

Infantry Squad 2:

Captain America: – Alternate HQ to engage my 9 year old lad