World War II Project - Return to Normandy - The Gangs all Here - Streaking

This is really my first attempt at trying to create streaks and I don't feel like this first session was particularly successfully. It feels like I ended up with more of a filter than streaks. Again gaming pieces so they are good for practice and will look fine on the table. I think I'm going to do a second round of this just to try out a different method.

All of these products are from Ammo by Mig. The Oilbrushers are oils, the jars are enamels. The basic technique doesn't change since they are all, essentially, oil paints. The Oilbrushers are "liquid" version of tube oils, just with a much thinner viscosity. The enamels are pretty thin as well which I found to be a bit frustrating to work with.

The streaking effect is really hard to see on the more heavily camouflaged S307.

World War II Project - Return to Normandy - The Gangs all Here - Chipping II

I did decide to go back in an add some lighter chipping. I don't think this came out as well. In retrospect I should have done the light chipping first and then followed with the darker chipping. After this I'll move on to the serious weathering.

World War II Project - Return to Normandy - The Gangs all Here - Chipping

I am having a love hate relationship with chipping techniques. If I use a brush I struggle to make it look even remotely like chips but using a brush allows more control. The "sponge" technique seems to work best for me. I grab a piece of foam from a miniature package and tear it up a bit and hold it with a pair of tweezers as I dab it against the side of the vehicle. Unfortunately its much harder to control and I struggle with trying to get the excess paint off the foam before I dab against the surface.

This is the first round of chipping or it might even be the final round of chipping just depends on how I feel about it. Overall I think it came out rather well. I should probably go back on the S307 and chip it with the yellow on the green and brown camo colors. Its just hard to see the dark chip color in those areas. I really am going to need a lot more practice with this technique before I get back to the StuG IIIs. Fortunately I still have those 3 P107s coming up.

Its hard to see the dark chip color in some areas. This is where I should go back and try chipping with the base yellow in those spots.

You can see some spots on the interior where I didn't get enough paint off the foam especially the big spot to the right of the Pak 40.

The chipping looks better on the Lorraines I think. More yellow to really show the chipping off. I see I do need to get in there and do the muffler though.

I need to really practice both the lining and the chipping. I got sloppy on the S307(f) here and it really shows in the fighting compartment and around the tools in particular. There is definitely a learning curve on how long to let things dry before you "clean" it up with thinner. To soon and its not dry enough and you just spread things around, to long and its really hard make a dent in it and you have big swatches of "lining" that aren't really lining. I should be able to cover some of this with the weathering though and tighten things up a bit.

In the end all of these are gaming pieces anyway and are going to look just fine on the table.

World War II Project - Return to Normandy - The Gangs all Here - Fading

Next step trying to fade things a bit. In this instance I'm using the new Oilbrusher paints from Ammo as opposed to straight up oils. They are a little easier to use but I wasn't found of the green fade and I ended up mixing in a bit of the buff to lighten it a bit more. Its hard to see the photos though, the lights tend to wash things out a bit much.

Decide where to apply paint. The Oilbrusher has its own brush. On this first vehicle those dabs of buff paint are a little large. A drop of oil point goes a long way. If you choose to use straight up tube oils, you should put them on something (cardboard works) to pull out some of the excess oil.

All three faded. Most of it is on the upper surfaces. Clicking on the picture will give you a better idea of what's going on.

And on the Pak 40 S307(f)

And blended in. Blending done with some older brushes and clean. low odor, mineral spirits.

The three colors I tried. In the end the green wasn't a good choice and I added some buff to it to lighten it up.

All three camo colors blended. Next step is chipping but they need to dry for about 24 hours before I do that.

And the S307(f) finished up after the Lorraines.

It has  been an interesting process and its definitely going to take some practice to really pull it off effectively. Gaming models are the perfect test bed or this.

World War II Project - Return to Normandy - The Gangs all Here - Lining

Again, grabbing a few spare moments I was able to finish lining the three lorraine schleppers and the pak 40 S307. I see some spots that need more lining and some spots that need more cleaning, nothing like feeling a little rushed and missing things. Overall I like the effect so far, it really makes the vehicles "pop". Will see how it all works out with the weathering in the end.

World War II Project - Return to Normandy - The Gangs all here

There has been a lot of building and not much painting for a while now. Here is the line up for the paint shop

15cm sFH 135/1 (Sf) auf Geschutzwagen Lorraine Schlepper (f), Pak 40 auf S307 (f) both from MadBob Miniatures

Pak 40 auf S307 (f), Unic P107 Halftrack (f) [Warlord Games]

First up; a filter to help bring the colors together a bit more.

Filter applied and lining started on one of the schleppers. The filter affect is hard to see in the photos, it is subtle but the colors are a bit more unified because of it. The lining on the first schlepper may be to dark a brown might have been a better choice. Further weathering may tone it down quite a bit. I'm going to try a different wash for lining on the next one, more of an umber brown I think.