World War II Project - Return to Normandy - Railroad Station - Arches

I sat down and did one, yes one, window arch. It takes longer than I would like it to but not as long as I had feared, maybe 15 minutes all told and it will likely go faster now that I'm not experimenting. This is one of those spots where the laser cutting really helps out. I just need to cut some of the brick to the proper length, cut it to the proper taper using the cut as a guide and I'm good to go. 

Starting off. I actually worked three bricks at once. One on the left, one on the center and one on the right. The key is to make sure the glue is good and dry before you try and cut the taper in the brick otherwise its going to slide on you and make a mess. Lesson learned (maybe).

And the finished arch, looks pretty good and all the marks will get cover with the "plaster". One arch down, nine to go. Oh and two of this decorative circular windows, that should be a load of fun.

Perry Miniatures - WWII Fallshirmjager

I have been going back and forth between the various Fallshirmjagers that are available in 28mm. I finally decided on the ones from Perry Miniatures. The final decision really came down to be able to put together the, more or less, correct historical organization with out ending up with a bunch of extra minis. I realize that these are really meant to go with their North Africa forces but since the uniform didn't really go through any significant changes, I'll be using these for Normandy. They are way down the list to be painted but at least I can cross them off the list of troops I need to acquire for Normandy.

I picked up three boxes of these. They will become the crews for the various self - propelled ATGs and Howitzers of the 21st Panzer.

81mm Mortar with crew

MG42 on Tripod with crew

Reaper Miniatures - Shipping Container - Fading and Rusting

I had a bit of an extended weekend and managed to work in some time on the Reaper Miniatures Shipping Container. The first thing to do was to start the chipping process. The chipping fluid had been applied between my base coat of reddish brown and the red layer. I think I waited much to long. You should do this as soon as the top layer drys. Since I waited to long it was hard to create the chipping effect, and when I did it went all the way down to the primer coat and in some cases down to the plastic. Not quite what I was hoping for but not a tragedy either.

This is where my last session ended

Using water and an old brush to start scrubbing the sides.

Here you can see some of the effects. The top layer has pulled away but so did my red brown layer, you are seeing the brown liner I used as a primer and in some places the bare plastic (lower right hand side).

Once I had that effect more or less completed it was time to fad the paint job. It was a pretty bright red coming out of the bottle and I need to tone that down a bit. For this I used some Golden Fluid Acrylic paint, Titanium White, and thinned it way down to a wash. I think I applied this over the red and it served to "fade" it down to a more sun exposed red. Worked out very nice, of course I forgot to take pictures of that part of the process. I didn't get any shots in until I had applied my first couple of rust washes.

I start with a dark rust wash from AMMO, and followed that on with a light rust wash, also from AMMO. At that point I had to pack up for the evening. So the next series of pictures show both the fading and the rust coats.

You can really see the difference in the red here. These containers can really be exposed to the sun for long periods of time when they are onboard ships or sitting in the dockyards.

While normally February in Colorado is in the mid 40s or so, with 50 degree temperatures not being uncommon, this year has been unusually warm. I think we hit a high of 80 one day. I took advantage of the warm weather and worked outside. Especially nice since I was working with primarily with enamel paints and pigments with mineral spirits. Oh and don't worry I'm sure we will be paying for this warm weather shortly with a big snow fall.

In the next step I really combined working with the enamel rusting washes and the pigments. I used the washes as a base and then streaked the pigments down over the top of the washes. With the warm weather everything dried pretty quickly. I usually work with a combination of the pigments and mineral spirits which allows me to vary the consistency from a wash to a paste or apply it dry and add the mineral spirits with a brush. The nice thing about working with the pigments is that I can go back and adjust them even after they have dried. I also discovered that its hard to take pictures outside of this kind of thing, the winter light is very harsh at this altitude.

Adding layers, you an see areas on the top that haven't dried yet.

This is after all the washes and the rust orange pigment from Secret Weapon has been applied.

Here you can see the lighter "fresher" rust being worked in.

My primary "paints" for this stage. From AMMO are the streaking dark and light rust washes. I applied these first. I followed that with the Secret Weapon orange rust and then the MIG new rust. You can make out the can of mineral spirits in the back.

Of course it looks like I managed to go overboard a bit and there is very little left of the red container. Sometimes playing with the rust is just to much fun! I may go back and rub off some of the rust on the sides and ends to see if I can restore at least a few patches of the red. I'm working out the designs I want to use on the sides for the graffiti now as well. I'm going to do both sides with some more mural like graffiti and just some tags on the end panels I think.

Diorama - Painting the Minis II

So more work on the minis. The colors are all blocked in at this point with some of the shading and highlighting done. Moving forward with some deeper shadows, more lining and some higher highlights to make things start to pop. I also took a look at the aliens I'll be using and decided they weren't cleaned up well enough so I'm taking the steel wool to them to make sure they really are ready for paint.

Here I have straighten then sword and its ready for a new coat of primer

The Aliens, I found some molds lines and rough spots on these guys so it was back to the steel wool treatment for them.

Diorama - Building the Base IV

I'm getting close to finally wrapping up the building portion on the base. I'm filling in some of the imperfections and crumbling other things to get the "feel" I want. The only thing I'm on the fence about is whether I should put something in the windows or not. There is already a lot going on and I don't want the story to lose focus. Sometimes I think its a good idea and sometimes I don't! Either way though I need to get curtains in the window to at least serve as a view block to the interior of the building. I have downloaded some period posters that I'll use to help further set the time period. The end is in sight!

Tail End of the Train - C&N adds a Caboose

Bachmann makes a pretty generic caboose, unfortunately its an 8 wheel caboose and I really wanted a 4 wheel "bobber" caboose for the C&N to match the two that they had. At some point on eBay I stumbled on a 4 wheel setup and I bought 2. I have been a little reluctant to work with them as they seem to be a little fragile. I removed the regular trucks and mounted up the 4 wheel truck last night. Popped some wheels on there and I was done. I'm still not sure about the look so I'm going to go ahead and hold often converting my other caboose.

I had already airbrushed my chosen tru-color paint onto a bunch of freight cars including the cabooses. At this point I just added the two C&N logo decals and I was ready to go. I gave it a quick spray with the dullcoat and let it dry. I figured since I already had all my weathering stuff out I may as well work on weathering it up.

Its a little heavy and it looks patchy in the pictures but it looks okay when I hold it in my hand and give it the 2' test.

So the results of this evenings endeavors:

The base coat of paint was already on my intended victim

Added a decal to each side. The C&N didn't number their cabooses.

Applied the soot first, let it streak down the sides

Applied rust both with a prismacolor pencil and a rust effect paint

Applied the dirt, doesn't look this patchy or this heavy in person. I may have to go back over it and lighten the effect.

Little lighter on this side. Definitely need to get a brush in there and even the powder across the surface.