Trenchworx - French WWI FT-17 - Finished

I'm content with the way the mud dried overnight. I probably should have done it in two parts the first coat with a darker, wetter looking mud and the second with the lighter, drying mud. I see some things that I will probably go back and fix, but these are for the gaming table and they should look really nice on the game table supporting my Marines.

My picture fu is weak today though:

Trenchworx - French WWI FT-17 - Pt 5

I was able to get back to the FT-17s tonight. They are basically finished at this point. But it takes time for the mud and weathering mixtures to drive. There are pictures below, but I'm actually not quite sure how the mud color will look until after they have dried completely. They should be dry by morning and I'll be able to finish them off tomorrow. I dried to add some mud texture with just the pigments that didn't work as well as I had hoped. So I made up a mud concoction using Golden regular gel (dries matte) and mixing pigments into it for the color. I think they are going to look pretty good, but ultimately they are just for the tabletop anyway and will definitely look good there.

My stash of weathering brushes.

Pigments from Secret Weapons Mud Set that I purchased a number of years ago. Pigments go a long way.

After rummaging through my MiG pigments I decided on Vietnam Earth as my third value.

Its hard to see but I heaped pigment into the treads and other places and then applied a wash of paint thinner to hold it into place. This method fixes the pigment in place but it can still be rubbed off unlike using a fixer which seals everything into place very effectively. The down side, well Paint Thinner, work in a well ventilated area!

Here we are after adding the mud mixture made from the gel medium and pigment colors. It needs to dry before I can really determine what the final color is going to look like

Trenchworx - WWI French FT-17 - Pt 4

I did some more work on the FT-17. The paintwork, and weathering is essentially done at this point. I need to go in and some "environment" to it. I'll start with a little mud (going light with the mud) and then hit it with the pigments. I'm closing in on the finish point now, one more solid session and they should be done.

I applied the an Raw Umbar ink as a filter to darken the overall look.

I applied a couple layers of rust, primarily on the tracks. I then went in with a wash rust and then wiped it downwards to streak it.

Went back in with some lighten versions of the camo colors to make things pop a bit.

Calling the basic work finished at this point and letting everything set so I can start in with the pigments and mud

A lightened version of the previous shot. I'm really quite pleased at this point.

Trenchworx - WWI French FT-17 - Pt 3

Three straight evenings with the FT-17s. Tonight I went in and added the black borders between the camo colors. I think it went well, I tried to keep a loose hand on the brush and not be particularly picky about the control. I think I achieved a nice jagged, and inconsistent look. Very pleased with it. I then painted the tracks with a darker older looking rust color as a base color I hit the muffler with it too. I like the color so far I think its going to be a nice base for the upcoming rust work. I then went in with a gloss coat. I need to dig through and find some decals to use, nothing to fancy though.

I need to let the gloss coat dry overnight and I'll continue on with the first steps in the weathering process. Well after I get the decals on or maybe not, there are plenty of examples of WWI tanks without any kind of markings.

All the basic paint is in place now.

Bright and shiny now!

A big bonus for today, not one but two packages in the mail. The first was a bag of doors and windows from the Tichy Train Group in S Scale. Looking forward to dressing up Calamity with these! The second package was from Noble Knight Games and it contained the Weird War II US Battlesuit from West Wind that I ordered. I hoped to get this one done in time for spot in the Weird War II painting group on Lead Adventure. A quick look at this casting shows that I definitely have my work cut out for me though. Its going to take some serious file work.

Trenchworx - WWI French FT-17 - Pt 2

I'm trying to push through the FT-17s as quickly as possible to try out these paints. Now the reddish brown is the only new paint at this stage, the green (Vallejo US Dark Green 893/095), yellow (Vallejo Green Ochre 914/119) and bluish grey (Reaper MSP Snow Shadow 9021) are all colors that I had on my paint shelf.

I have gone about as far as I'm willing to go this evening. I need to add the black border between all the colors next and follow that up with a gloss coat. Once that's applied I'll go in and start the weathering phase which will involve most of the other colors that I'm experimenting with.

This is where the evening ended:

I wanted to try out this new paint. I brushed it on this particular FT-17. Thinned nicely with water and went on nice and smooth. It was a little thinner than I expected so I may have added a bit to much water. But two coats is fine with me and I got a nice solid base color.

Same color but this time I airbrushed them. Airbrushed easily without to much thinning.

Airbrushed the other three colors. Tomorrow I'll add the black borders between the colors and hit the tracks. After that comes the gloss coat and weathering.