Madbob's Miniatures - An Evening of Priming

I continue to make progress on the armor from Madbob's Miniatures. Like I did with the 15mm cold war armor I decided to try modulation type priming on these. They are a lot bigger and it should have a better effect. I think in the end I wasn't controlled enough with the lighter primer and I ended up with more of a zenithal effect than I wanted.

Ready for some primer!

Darker grey on the lower and some of the interior survaces

Then the lighter grey on the upper surfaces. Could have controlled the airbrush better for this part of it.

Madbob's Miniatures - Prepping time with a Milliput wash

I have been slowly working on the PaK 40 Auf S307(f), and Geschutzwagen 39H(f) from Madbob's kickstarter. As I mentioned in those posts the resin he uses is a little rough and the details are not as sharp as I would like them to be. While I can't really do anything about the detail short of doing some super detail work (and these are game pieces after all) I can fix some of the roughness of the resin.

This is a trick I learned for dealing with pitted metal miniatures. I think I picked this up from either a class with Jeremie Bonamant or with Lilly Troy. The idea is to fix something like this as quickly and easily as possible, what could be simpler than a wash?

First mix up a small bit of Milliput (I prefer the regular but the super fine works for this too). Add water to some small container (I typically use the plastic from a blister pack). Add the Milliput and work it into the water. This is not quite as easy as it sounds, you kind of use a mortar and pestle type motion to breakdown the Milliput into the water. I find the end of a paint brush to be quite handy for this. I recommend wearing gloves as Milliput is slightly toxic. If you feel the tips of your fingers tingling you forgot the gloves.

You are looking for a consistency about like cream. You want it to flow off the brush yet remain thick enough to be a filler and not drip down the side of your model. I just keep adding Milliput or water till I get the consistency I want. A little Milliput goes a long way!

Once I'm happy with the mixture I use an old craft brush and just paint it on to the surfaces that are rough or pitted. For the Madbob armor one coat was enough to reduce the roughness to an acceptable level. I restricted myself to just dealing, mostly, with the armor panels. If its a very pitted surface it might take two coats. It dries pretty fast when its painted on like this. 

The Geschutzwagen had some air bubbles in the top of the shell cases. I pulled out the Squadron Green for that. Overall these are really good castings from an air bubble perspective. You also need to watch out for the bogies on anything based on the Lorraine Schlepper chassis as there is a spot that doesn't fill well right on the outside of each bogie.

The blob of Milliput that I mixed up. I used, maybe, a quarter of this. I should have had some bases sitting nearby to work on!

This is the Milliput wash. It flows but it doesn't drip.

Its hard to see here, but the whiter portions of the vehicles are the original resin. I didn't apply the wash to the tires, treads, bogies, or guns. The armor is a slightly yellower color, that's where I applied my wash. These are now ready for some primer, finally!

Kickstarter Loot 6 - French Vehicles of WWII by Mad Bob Miniatures in 1:56 (28mm)

Another package arrive on the doorstep and it took me a couple of minutes to figure out what it might be. I had completely forgotten that Mad Bob Miniatures was in the shipping phase for their WWII French vehicle Kickstarter! Since the weekend was, again, devoted to renovation work I didn't get to really look into this box until this morning. One of the things that really had me invest in this particular Kickstarter was that it included some of the German conversions of French armor used by the 21st Panzer Division in Normandy.

For my 3 vehicle reward I picked out the Pak 40 Auf S307(f) which is the Pak 40 AT gun mounted on a French Unix Halftrack. I could have used the SdKfz 251/22 but I like to use the actual vehicles when I can. I decided to get 2 of these.

For my last vehicles I decided to go with the Geschutzwagen 39H(f). This is the French H39 tank converted to carry either the Pak 40 or the 10,5cm Howitzer. I'm still hoping to successfully finish my conversion but this will do in a pinch for the Kampfgruppe Von Luck mini campaign for Chain of Command. I might ask if I can just order the 10,5cm Howitzer for use in that conversion if I decide to go through with it.

I am quite pleased with these vehicles. The details are good but not quite as crisp as the ones from Trenchworx. From a gaming perspective they are great and the price is right as both Trenchworx and Warlord are a bit expensive. Its especially nice that they have a good selection of uncommon vehicles which means you might not have to make that conversion! The vehicles are starting to stack up I really need to pull out the airbrush and start working on some of these!

You should run over to the web site and take a look: MadBobMiniatures

A few pictures to salivate over:

Maybe not the best packing job in the world and either the UK or US postal service crunched one side of the box,

Here is the Pak 40 auf S307(f)  (Somua MCG on the Mad Bob site). This one has a slightly bent gun barrel (the other kit's barrel is nice and straight), hopefully some hot water will straighten it out. Nice clean castings, with no bubbles on the major exterior surfaces and just a few mold lines on the tracks. Should clean up quite nicely.

Here is the Geschutzwagen 39H(f). The howitzer barrel is also slightly bent. Again another very clean casting. There are bubbles in the interior on the tops of the shell storage. Should clean up quite nicely too.

I was just looking over the website again myself and I found the Lorraine Schlepper that I was trying to convert from the Warlord kit. Now I have to decide if I should just order it or continue on with the conversions!

Kickstarter Loot 5 - WW II Western Front - Trenchworx

As many of you know I am a big fan of Trenchworx after I was involved in their WWI Kickstarter which netted me a Rolls Royce AC and 3 FT-17s. While house renovations kept me from really diving in on their WW II Western Front Kickstarter I did manage to get in on a 3 pack pledge. While the Kickstarter didn't quite get to the PzKfw Vs (Panthers) it did manage to unlock some of my favorite vehicles.

The package arrived at the house on Monday but I didn't get a chance to open it until Tuesday. There is nothing quite as exciting as a box full of bubble wrap!

For my reward I picked the M4A1 76mm Sherman, the M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer and the Jagdpanther Tank Destroyer. Quite honestly I'm totally blown away by the quality of these vehicles. They are damn near perfect right out of the box and I think the only mold lines I may have to deal with are on the white metal parts.

I could grab some spray paint and do some quick weathering and I could have these ready for battle by the weekend without a problem. Of course I'm not going to do that, I think each one of these beauties needs some serious attention; nice paint, and a lot of extra stowage and gear for that lived in look. My only regret right now is that I couldn't afford more these during the kickstarter.

Hopefully as the weather gets colder I'm going to have more time for modeling like this. I still have a my German SdKfz 135/1 to finish off plus some more 21st Panzer conversions coming from another kickstarter. Looks like there will be a lot of vehicles in my future.

I got to meet Dave Baker from Trenchworx at Reaper Con. I overheard him discussing something vehicle oriented while I was doing entry registration and I just kind of butted my way into the conversation. At least he remembered my Rolls Royce Armored Car (The Bullet Proof Ghost) which was nice, I'm sure he has seen a lot of renditions of it. The whitewall tires I used really stood out in his mind.

The M4A1 76mm Sherman

The M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer (My favorite American Tank Destoyer)

The Jagdpanther (SdKfz 173) - I think this one counts as a Big Cat!

Kickstarter Loot 5 - WW II Western Front - Trenchworx

As many of you know I am a big fan of Trenchworx after I was involved in their WWI Kickstarter which netted me a Rolls Royce AC and 3 FT-17s. While house renovations kept me from really diving in on their WW II Western Front Kickstarter I did manage to get in on a 3 pack pledge. While the Kickstarter didn't quite get to the PzKfw Vs (Panthers) it did manage to unlock some of my favorite vehicles.

The package arrived at the house on Monday but I didn't get a chance to open it until Tuesday. There is nothing quite as exciting as a box full of bubble wrap!

For my reward I picked the M4A1 76mm Sherman, the M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer and the Jagdpanther Tank Destroyer. Quite honestly I'm totally blown away by the quality of these vehicles. They are damn near perfect right out of the box and I think the only mold lines I may have to deal with are on the white metal parts.

I could grab some spray paint and do some quick weathering and I could have these ready for battle by the weekend without a problem. Of course I'm not going to do that, I think each one of these beauties needs some serious attention; nice paint, and a lot of extra stowage and gear for that lived in look. My only regret right now is that I couldn't afford more these during the kickstarter.

Hopefully as the weather gets colder I'm going to have more time for modeling like this. I still have a my German SdKfz 135/1 to finish off plus some more 21st Panzer conversions coming from another kickstarter. Looks like there will be a lot of vehicles in my future.

I got to meet Dave Baker from Trenchworx at Reaper Con. I overheard him discussing something vehicle oriented while I was doing entry registration and I just kind of butted my way into the conversation. At least he remembered my Rolls Royce Armored Car (The Bullet Proof Ghost) which was nice, I'm sure he has seen a lot of renditions of it. The whitewall tires I used really stood out in his mind.

The M4A1 76mm Sherman

The M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyer (My favorite American Tank Destoyer)

The Jagdpanther (SdKfz 173) - I think this one counts as a Big Cat!