Weathering - C&S #22

I needed something a little different to work on so I pulled my Bachmann 2-6-0 off the shelf to see what I could do with it. This is lettered for the Colorado & Southern and represents (more or less) engine #22. Now the timer period for Calamity actually precludes this engine existing but since its for game purposes rather than model railroading purposes I'm okay with that.

I really just wanted to experiment with this one a bit. While I like the weathering it seems to be to subtle to really show up well in the photos. It was also a pretty quick job so I didn't really take any WIP photos.

I found a shot I had taken of #22 sometime ago in pristine, out of the box, condition

Kind of mid stream. Basic black has been softened with grays, getting ready to add some dirt and a little rust

Finished, Fireman's side

Finished, Engineer's side

Building Calamity 8 - Row House Finishing

I pulled out the weathering implements to try and finish off this Row House for Calamity. I'm pretty pleased with the results at this point. Of course I didn't quite get it completely finished. The front door has gone missing and I broke out the center framing piece in the front window. But other than that I'm ready to call this one finished.

A few pictures from the workbench.

Gathering a few materials together. Pan Pastels in the little canisters on the left, the applicator handles and the sponges in the middles, some of paint and my Liquitex Ram Umber ink (don't leave home with out it).

First step was to apply a strong wash on the roof to help pick out the shingles. I followed that up with  streaks of a lighter red brown Pan Pastel pigment.

I used several colors of Pan Pastel pigments on the outside after I scrubbed paint off to reveal the wood underneath for that peeled paint look.

After applying the pigments I streaked white paint down the outside to provide a highlight. I'm thinking this one is looking pretty good. Will need to do a little repair work but its ready for the board when I get that far.

Care Package - 1st Corps

Woohoo! Another care package hit the mailbox today. This one should just about finish off what I need for my British Paratroopers. I'm not sure if the 1st Corps minis w illreally mix all that well with the Warlord Games Paratroopers, they are a bit chunkier but I think they will be fine once I have them painted and mounted the same way.

So some pictures of the care package to keep everyone occupied while I get out the brushes for the rest of the evening

I picked up some more flame throwers, sniper teams and bren gunners. The third section should have two bren guns instead of the usual one. I was looking for some different poses to get some variety on the table.

These air dropped containers are what I was really after. I'm very pleased with the detail on these. They will make excellent objective markers or even markers for jumping off points.

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Care Package - Warlord Games

Nothing like arriving home to a little overseas care package. I had ordered a few extra troops to round out my British Para platoon. I picked up an HQ pack to convert into an FO team, an extra rifleman in a pose I didn't have, a flamethrower team, a sniper team and an extra Bren Gun team since the third section has two Bren guns instead of one. I also picked up a German Marder I for a little conversion project.

I didn't actually paint anything tonight since it was a roller hockey night. Ended up playing ironman hockey which means we only had the minimum number of skaters, 4, and a goalie. Our fifth player went down about 5 minutes into the game with a severely sprained ankle (possibly broken) but the game goes one so we played 36 minutes of hockey against a team with almost a full rotation of players. We lost, not surprising but it was a 7-6 game and we still had a chance to win with less than a minute to go after they tied it at 6-6.

Now the more interesting stuff, what's in the box!

Red Devils - Section 2 - Pt 2

The only significant work I managed over the weekend was working on my British Paras at Total Escape Games on Saturday. It was the monthly painting workshop for the CMPA and the attendance was light. Pretty much what I expected with the Thanksgiving holiday fast approaching and some rain and snow overnight that left the roads pretty icy until later in the day.

The paras are coming along although its hard to show progress when I'm down to the smaller detail bits. Primarily I worked on the webbing, a little lining, the boots and the gaiters. Should be able to finish these off this week, I hope. I had to order a few extra things to round the force out and I'm starting to accumulate the troops for one of the pint sized campaigns for Chain of Command from Two Fat Lardies.

The first three pictures are where I started the day. I had to touch up the basecoat on the berets as well.

Where I ended the day. Still need quite a bit more shading and highlighting but the bulk of the details are at least blocked in now.

Building Calamity 7 - Row House Painting

With the FT-17s out of the way I get to return to the Row House. I think I'm getting towards the end on this one now. I decided that I need to repaint some of the work on the interior that I had already done. Definitely need to be sure of the interior colors before I assembly the basic building. I repainted the interior walls with an airbrush and did the trim in the same color as that seem to be rather common. I then made some paper templates to cover the walls while I re-did the floor. Not a bad job getting these re-done. It would have been a real bear if I had decided to paint the interior trim a different color from the walls. On the outside I applied chipping fluid somewhat randomly but concentrated towards the bottom of the building.

I gave the roof a nice mahogany color to start with and then painted the trim on the whole building a nice green. After all of this needs time to set up before I start the weathering process.

Before I did any painting I applied the chipping fluid. This works like any other method like hairspray or rubber cement. Once you are done painting you rub gently with a pencil eraser and the top layer of paint will peel away to reveal the stained boards underneath.

The evenings accident. Squeezed a bottle of Vallejo a bit to hard and the cap popped off spewing paint all over the place. I know better than to do that, really I do.

I have already painted the interior you can see my quick and dirty templates in place when I painted the interior. I left them in place so I wouldn't get overspray from airbrushing the exterior going through the windows are catching the top portion of the interior walls.

The grey shingles are now a nice reddish brown

Green trim in place. you can just make out the wood floor on the interior through the open front door and the front window.

Ready for the next step, weathering!

Kickstarter Loot - Larry Elmore Artbook Vol 2

I had this package on the doorstep today. I was a little perplexed at first till I look at the label. I vaguely remember an update that said shipping had started but I guess I just wasn't expecting this to arrive yet. Quite excited about it though! I really like Larry's black and white artwork better than a lot of his color prints. This one also came with a pack a set of B&W prints that could probably be framed. I'll go through them and see if there are any that I would like to have displayed all the time.

Another kickstarter successfully received. I have actually done quite well overall I have only had one fail to deliver. The Up Front one still leaves a bad taste in my mouth though. Remember never just support with your heart do a little research first!

I do love to open a box

Nicely wrapped, love the cover artwork!

The set of 15 B&W prints

And out of the wrapper. The one on top is probably my least favorite one.

West Wind Productions - Weird War II - US Battlesuit w/ Bazooka & Assault Pod

This was my project to get into the current painting club going on at the Lead Adventures forum. One of the rules for the paint clubs is that it is a newly painted miniature, not a dusty one that was painted years ago, in this case that wasn't a problem. The theme this time is Weird War II, of course I don't have any miniatures from the genre. I spent a couple days digging through minis and finally decided on a US Battlesuit from West Wind. I made the order the Noble Knight Games and it arrived a few days later. Always great service from them. I was not particularly pleased with the casting and it took a lot more prep work to get it ready to paint than I would have liked.

I kept the paint job pretty basic but tried to make it look like its seen some action, so a bit of rust and a layer of dust was applied. I used the same basing style that I used for my Red Devils. Mostly because everything was handy to do that. It doesn't look as nice as it does on my paratroopers though, not sure exactly why. Still it gets the job done and I probably spent more time waiting for things to dry than I actually did painting it.

I couldn't post in my blog till I published the photo in LAF. I have been working on the battlesuit in between working on the FT-17s.

This time I remember to apply the basing goop before I got into the whole process.

Vallejo US Dark Green applied with the airbrush

Not a lot of extra colors needed for this one.

An out of focus shot of course this is the one that I applied my rust effects with.

Its shiny in this photo because I used pigment fixer on my dusty pigment colors I applied

And the finished product. Still looks a bit shiny, I'll have to give it another coat of Matt Varnish.