After a long break... a Konigstiger

I don't know what happened, i just got tired of painting. The house needed alot of work and the garden needed (and still does) alot of work, my son needs alot of work, i just didn't have the energy to start something, let alone finish something. Until this week...

I finished the second of 4 King Tigers. This one in a more Normandy 44 kinda-camo and you know what? I used Vallejo Middlestone for dunkelgelb on this one and it never looked better. Those 6 Panzer IV's will be sprayed in the same manner. Pictures below...

Second, I also finished my first Eight Army infantry platoon, still need to base them. Shouldn't be to hard to do, it's "just" sand :-)

And third, i finished my SS Heavy Platoon. So my SS-army is 99% complete. Pictures of those will be posted later. I'm getting good feedback from my gaming buddies, i sense a little jealousy there :-)

On with the pictures! Panzer March!

Argh! It's him again! and he brought his baby-brother!!

At last...

A Flames of War book about a battle in my homeland, one of the greatest battles of the Western Front during WW2. I always liked the way the Bulge started, the mighty German panzers roaring through the Ardennes, scaring the hell out of the Americans. I love it! ;-)

SS-Rocket Artillery Battery

Nebelwerfer 41 Rocket Artillery ist bereit!

Only the 2 kubelwagens for the observers i still need to finish. Tomorrow will be a big test for a 1750pts SS-Army list...

Anybody know if you can mix Turning Tide with Grey Wolf. I can only field Fearless Trained Nebels in Grey Wolf while the SS-kompanie from Turning Tide can field Veteran Nebelwerfers...

SS-Panzergrenadiers

Finally finished these little bastards! A quick post to show some badly taken pictures... not too happy with the basing but don't feel like doing them all over.

 Now time to finish my Nebelwerfers, all they need is some base-lovin' and then it's MG42 time...

Sometimes you just gotta paint a Konigstiger

"Sometimes you just gotta paint a Königstiger..."

Myself, April 2012

 

While searching for the correct Dunkelgelb i came across some WW2 Tank Sets from Lifecolor. Not too pricey so i ordered them directly from eBay. About 17€ each. I purchased them because they had a strange approach to the Dunkelgelb, it was very, very light. Considering everything I tried before was either to dark or to greenish I was very, very eager to try it out.

Königstiger (Henschel Turret), Poland 1944

Keeping in mind that it was a light-yellow colour i picked up one of my Königstigers, picked out a camo-pattern and started spraying like a madman! Thinned the Lifecolor with Vallejo Airbrush Cleaner (yes, you read that correctly) and like magic ... it worked!

I tried something like the pattern in the picture above. Used some new weathering techniques and i think, to be honest, it's one of my best pieces of work yet. A medal for me! Huzzah! No really, i like it alot, i have 2 more to paint and then its on to paint set number 2. I'm gonna use that to try some Bulge work...

Enjoy the pictures and let me know what you think!

A lone Sharpshooter...

This is not a tale of a lone sharpshooter, this is just to show what happens when one gets tired of waiting for some new paints to arrive and when one gets bored of painting SS Oak Leaf uniforms...

I was really fed up with painting those little 15mm guys in those annoying-to-paint uniforms so i took a small break. Since we decided to postpone our first 28mm ACW battle again, i'm gonna try to squeeze in my skirmishers. 14 figures to paint, one done, which was more of a tester.

The most famous of Union Sharpshooters is of course the 2nd US Sharpshooter Regiment led by Colonel Hiram Berdan. They had all green uniforms payed for by Hiram Berdan and the rifles they used was the Sharps Rifle. Some men brought their personal rifle with them. They fought on almost every field of battle in the East and became famous while defending Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Enjoy my little "tester" :-)

Dunkelgelb!

What is the correct colour to use for German Dunkelgelb? 

Maybe the most asked question next to what is the meaning of life?

Nobody seems to know the answer... at least, thats my assumption. While we have gazillion amounts of information on the internet about world war II, millions of bits & bytes worth of discussion about this period... still, nobody knows the answer to this rather simple question. Is it really that hard?

To be honest, my search for the correct Dark Yellow or Dunkelgelb ended where it began...

It all started with the Flames of War forums, searching through endless and endless pictures in the gallery of painted Panthers & Tigers. I had Ernst Barkmann in his Panther and 5 Late War Tigers on the workbench and i really wanted them to shine so i looked at thousands of pictures. I quickly came to the conclusion that Vallejo Green Ochre was the right type for me. Mixed with some Windex and drying retarder i sprayed away. I was a happy man!

But then things turned bad...

German Tritonal Camo became my worst nightmare ever. Vallejo Model Air, which i have alot of, is literally Airbrush Hell. clogging, clogging and then some more clogging. Evening after evening i tried and tried but nothing helped, so i started searching for a simple solution. Some people pointed me towards a japanese word, one simple Japanese word: Tamiya.

Tamiya has a small range of Acrylics based on Isopropyl-Alcohol. Thinning of these paints is easy. Just buy some Isopropyl-alcohol and you're set. It's that simple. Mix 50-50% and spray away!

Grabbed me a Tiger and sprayed some XF-60 Dark Yellow, Red Brown and Olive Green. It turned out nice but not nice enough to be honest. The brown and green were good but the dark yellow was just too ... well, dark. I tried again. Mixing Dark Yellow with XF-57 Buff for a ratio of 70%-30%. Sprayed the same camo pattern. Nope, still not what i wanted... I then sprayed a new model with Vallejo Green Ochre and used the Red Brown and Olive Green from Tamiya, which gave an odd result. For some reason those 2 brands don't like each other colour-wise The pattern just didn't 'match'...

Next test : Vallejo Middlestone; What the hell was that. It's just not my colour :-) didn't bother continueing with the camo. Tried in the past, one of my first tanks was painted with Middlestone. I remember looking at it at my bench ad thinking to myself; "Meh".

Next up was DOA Dunkelgelb: Too yellow, really TOO yellow. Like a fellow-blogger describes on his blog: DOA are good paints to spray but are just too dark, way to dark if you ask me. 15mm models need light colours imho.

In the end i came to the conclusion that i was the most happy with Vallejo colours. My Stugs turned out okay and they were painted with Vallejo. If only i could solve the clogging problem. Reading all day about people with the same VMA problems, i decided to try a new product (yeah, i know). Liquitex Airbrush Medium. Most people call it a MUST for Vallejo paints to work well in the Airbrush. Gonna order it today and pray, pray, pray to the Gods of the Airbrush.

Dunkelgelb! After all, Dunkelgelb is your choice! Not some guy who thinks he has found the correct mixture of colours, thinners, mediums and flow improvers to paint the correct Dunkelgelb on his tank only to show some pictures on some forum taken with a million-dollar camera with the wrong indoor-lighting settings! i like 914 Green Ochre d*mmit. It's easy. it looks okay and it's damn cheap too :-) 914 is my number!

Have a nice week :-)

Re-Action 2012. Part 1

Yesterday was fun. We went to the Action 2012 Wargaming Convention @ Rheindalen, Germany and we returned with lots of goodies.

A 90-minute drive and a wrong exit (I hate GPS-devices; I prefer the "put the road-map on the hood and start looking" way like any decent commander would do) and we arrived at the checkpoint where I had to open the trunk and the hood for inspection. After some directions from the bloke at the checkpoint we headed for the registration-office to get our car-pass. After that, it was on to the convention!

Lots of tables, though not as nice as the previous year tbh. Some good traders and a very nice, relaxed atmosphere! We hope this convention continues in the next year but future is looking grim as the Military Base is almost certain to close in the following years.

Part of my Flames of War treasure hunt; A Jagdpanther Platoon, Ernst Barkmann and my next Flames of War project; A British Airborne Company!

I was also looking for some Hetzers but at 10€ a piece i quickly restrained myself from buying. Either Maelstrom Games is getting my money or I'll try the Forged in Battle ones. Only thing that's holding me back is the bases on those. Maybe try trimming them is an option...

Next post will be about some other purchases i did over there... can't wait to paint those up!

A Day of Mouring...

Yesterday at Eleven in the morning, our country came to a stand-still for one minute. We honoured and remembered those children and teachers who died in the horibble bus-crash in Switserland last Wednesday.

I know this has nothing to do with wargaming but i have a need of writing this. As a father myself i hope this will never happen to me. Parents aren't suppose to bury their children, it should be the other way around.

I'm having trouble reading all the stuff they are writing in the papers about it, i'm even having trouble looking at the pictures. My heart broke when i saw the class-photo's from the 2 schools, knowing that at least in one school, the entire class will never return and be the same...

My feelings go out to everyone involved...

for those interested, follow the link

Stug III's ready for battle!

Phew!! Finally finished these guys. Actually, not 100%, one still needs the commander in the copula but i consider them done.

I tried all kinds of techniques and stuff on these tanks. Maybe a little too much. They all look very battle-worn, maybe a little too much battle-worn :-) Also, i had my time with Vallejo Model Air. It's all going in the bin! I'm switching to Tamiya. I had good (compared to Vallejo Model Air; excellent) results with those paints so i'm switching and not looking back. The only thing i need now are some empty dropper bottles with some ready-made-mixes of Tamiya paints with thinner. Maybe i can empty some of those droppers from Vallejo ;-)

Mixed in with the Assault Guns are my first SS-Panzergrenadier figures. The Company HQ with Panzershreck option. I painted some figures from the Pak40 gun crew that i mistook for the Panzershreck loaders. Damn, those Pak40 shells looked big compared to the Panzershreck's shell :-). The second team is coming with the first infantry, which i'm gonna paint next.

This Saturday we are gonna pay a visit to Re-action 2012. A wargaming convention in Mönchengladbach, Germany. It's small but very nice. Good atmosphere thanks to the location. A British military base better known as JHQ Rheindalen. Check out the link!