Parting shots... (for a few weeks anyway!)

Hello all!

Well, the pack of the place is almost finished (he says as he looks around at a nearly fully assembled study still... ssshhhhh, don't ruin the mood with fact now! ;) ) and with the move away happening soon I thought I'd get one final sneaky bit of painting in.

Although my Aussies will have a number of imaginary elements in the future, I wanted to make sure I still had the basis of the 'true' Aussie army under the make-believe equipment I'll add to it.  Part of that includes the very nice M-777 artillery piece.  Purchased a few years back during a program that originally called for a mix of towed and self-propelled guns to replace our old M198 155mm and M119/ L118 'Hamel' 105mm artillery pieces.  Eventually the self-propelled contract fell through, so we brought more M-777s... that will be a story (and models :) ) for another day.

For now though, I have my first two M-777's to show you...

 Aussie M-777's, from what I have seen, remain mostly in the dark green colour shade that they are used with in US Service - the picture below shows them off in reality - credit to a Mr. M Barritt for the awesome shot, no idea who you are but it was a very helpful photo!

Anyway, for my models I tossed and turned between Vallejo's German Camo Dark Green and Luftwaffe Camo Green.  Eventually, I settled on the Luftwaffe Camo green - as it gave me just a tiny bit of brightness, which is inherently needed at such a small scale to help pick out differences.  There is also the rather distinct silvered/chromed element of the barrel... I used a Vallejo Gunmetal Grey colour, as it gave me just the right tinge of colour.

Camo netting:

Some of you are most likely wondering what I used for the 'camo netting' as well - all that is, is a regular piece of first-aid bandage that has been snipped to size, given a thorough thrashing through some 'camo' style paint colours (in these cases a base of Mahogany Brown and Khaki respectively) and then given random markings with Green Grey, Black Grey, Russian Uniform and Khaki to make 'camo' patterns.  The support struts are four staples that have were first bent straight, then cut in half to give me eight struts in total - four for each base.

Gunners:
The gunners come from GHQ's WW2 US Artillery crewmen-summer range, a few models had 'undershirts' on, whilst others were shirtless.  The shirtless blokes are painted in some 'flesh paint' mix I made a long time ago in my 40k painting days... so no idea what that is... and I used a random brown for the undershirts (we usually have brown undershirts in the Aussie services).

The pants are all camo painted, but it is a bit harder to see here.

Anyhow - that's my painting done for the next few weeks... have to obviously load everything up, get to where I am going next and then unpack and sort it all out!  :)  It will take a little bit, but give it another few weeks and you'll see another progress report soon.

My goals for next time are to figure out how to make a 'Carl Gustav' recoilless rifle using GHQ figures... I THINK I have a plan for this... but trial is needed... watch this space!


...no seriously, watch it... because I'm adding more pictures of the artillery ;)  Til later folks!

The Aussie Digger

"If I had to take hell, I would use the Australians to take it and the New Zealanders to hold it." -Erwin Rommel.

 

Well thankfully we're not going to have to take hell (I haven't yet found a DOOM-esque demon in 6mm) or hold it because I haven't got any Kiwi minis just yet... emphasis on "yet" ;)

However, if we have to take hell, we're halfway there - why?  Because I have some Aussie troops painted up and ready to get stuck in!

Here's my latest build for infantry - these guys were actually completed before the USMC troops, however that is only because I started these after putting the USMC on hiatus with the personal stuff that had to be resolved first.

I found the camo on these to be quite a challenge - AUSCAM is a very difficult camo to paint at this scale and like the Aussie armour you can make it either dark as a 'fresh' uniform, or use lighter colours to show a more 'used' set of cams.  The two examples here give an idea of just how much difference you can have between any sets!  I should also know as I have my own gear as part of my issue.

We also have some more 'American' style cams for our more specialised troops - such as in the image with the USMC guys, where I assume that 'Old Mate' in the middle of the image is probably an operator of some type.

In the end, I decided to 'honour' the look after a few test models using "German Camo Beige" as the basis... instead, I went with "Khaki" from Vallejo as my base paint - to give the idea of the multiple green blots (often called "Bunnies and Hearts" because of the way the camo dots are shaped) and did some light dotting of Mahogany Brown and Black-Grey in a few select areas of the miniatures.

Some of the minis also have 'Russian Uniform' green helmets - our helmets themselves are a dark green similar in tone, so I did a few troops with that for mixture.

The second group shown below includes the very first test mini I did... he's the poor sod who looks like he fell over in mud - that... well, story behind that.  You see, when I was testing the cam design, I accidentally smeared a whole brush of Mahogany Brown over him when I finished... once I had got over my initial 'have a small hissy fit about crapping on the work I just did', I looked at the brighter side and decided to have it tell said story.

They are meant to be fighting in a muddy area, so it would not surprise me if one or two of them had a tumble!

So, I let my inner Bob Ross out, and came out with a reasonable recovery ;)

Thank you Bob Ross - you are one of my many Spirit animals.
Others include Chuck Norris, Honey Badgers as an entire species; and the entire "Death-continent" that is Australia.

This is what they look like at 'Gaming Height'

The models I used come from the following two packs produced by GHQ:
GHQ French modern infantry - http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/n562.html
and
GHQ US Modern Infantry 2001-2014 - http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/n570.html

I have only one real gripe with both of these packs - so GHQ, if you're listening... "Why do you have to add so many machine guns and sniper rifles to your basic riflemen packs?"

Seriously, my French have more sharpshooters than there probably are in a whole French Divison and my US soldiers are using LMGs and Laser Designators as their standard issue weapons haha!  (Seriously though, an extra rifleman pose in each would be a blessing even if it meant a reduction in number of Laser Designators/ Snipers) 

Anyway, I did the best with what I had, and managed to get about six sets of troops, plus spares for weapons teams, so I'm not complaining too much - although an extra pose of rifleman or two would be a nice addition.

Finally, some people have been asking what I use to make my models - as my painting has been deemed "Not bad out of ten" by the community.

So folks, I present to you what I use! Oddly enough, while I think GW's models are okay - but wildly overpriced for what you get... there CITADEL gear, back in the day, was worth every overpriced cent!

The Citadel pliers are beasts, and I have never had any issue with them.  The Citadel brushes are also, hands down, my absolute favourite for painting as they are just so flexible with what I can do with them (and I treat them pretty roughly, so they can take a beating!)

The Army Painter masterclass fine tip brush you see is a replacement for my GW one, as when it died it's replacement was a stupidly high priced amount... I kind of need my other kidney still, so I couldn't afford to pawn it off, but the Army Painter brush is working brilliantly as well.

I also use Jeweller's files of different head types, and good old toothpicks for mixing paints/ testing colours.

Finally, I do not use anything fancy to hold my models, just my good old fingers... which have seen more than their fair share of superglue, paint and assorted scrap metal pieces.  I find the ability to be so close to the brush helps me to judge just how hard I am pressing a brush into the model, allowing me to better judge what kind of force I need.

Hope you find it useful!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

G'day everyone!

Apologies for the radio silence the last little while, it has been a hell of a ride the last few weeks.  I have had a fair bit of misfortune hit me in my personal life.  However, that has finally been resolved to a point where I now have some time again to myself and can focus on something better than the recent month!

So to celebrate having at least a bit of my life back I've got myself a few new bits and pieces...

Who am I kidding, it's a LOT more than a few bits! 

I recently re-read the 'Oz Invaded' campaign ruleset made by a fellow Aussie gamer called 'Bish', he mostly runs 3mm but he has began to get into 6mm as well - we all have our guilty pleasures right? ;)  He made a really interesting campaign for his fellow pico-armour players which I have used to help inspire me to get out there and re-start building my forces.

I found this to be quite inspirational in getting off my butt and building these Aussie forces;
and here's a link to his page if you want to have a look for yourself!


I also have had more than a little inspiration from fellow Aussie 'Tacobat' - this cat is a painting god, seriously, how the heck he can get a miniature to look how it does blows me away every time! 
A link to his page as well so you too can sit there and be amazed!

Anyway, back to what I am doing.  So following my last posts about my conversion work, I have made some 'Bushmaster' Protected Mobility Vehicles (PMV's - essentially one hell of an uparmoured truck!), some GHQ ASLAV-25's, and a number of CinC LAV-C vehicles with modifications to become ASLAV-PC's - the non-turreted armoured personnel carrier used by our Australian Army Cavalry regiments.

The Bushmasters had a small conversion done to them to give them a remote weapons station like the ones used in Afghanistan (although they also use the normal open top as well)

The weapon system I used was 'gifted' by GHQ's Israeli "Achzarit" heavy APC - it is a 'close enough' copy of the remote system used by our forces.  The Achzarit's will be previewed in a later force being operated by one of my Imagi-nations

To have the metal sit correctly meant cutting the MG away from the GHQ Bushmaster turret hatch, then very gently sanding it back so the remote turret could sit.  It didn't take the super glue well as it is a fiddly attachment, so I used some pigment heavy black-paint as a fixing agent to keep the two pieces together while the glue settled... apart from that little hiccup, it was an easy deal!

The ASLAV-25 is your standard issue GHQ ASLAV-25, they are available for purchase from GHQ right now.  A lovely model straight out of the box and I wouldn't be surprised if more than a few of these get used by USMC players for the extra details!

The ASLAV-C seen here is a hybrid vehicle.  As no-one to date makes the actual ASLAV-PC in 6mm *it has a 'square' troop compartment at the back as per the images below* I had to go with a 'close enough' approach to the design.

Eventually, I settled with using CinC's LAV-C chassis, primarily for "economy of effort" as I could get them as packs of three rather than having to split GHQ LAV-C/ LAV-L packs.  However, the 'Protector' remote weapon system is the same as that used by the US Stryker vehicles, so I bought a number of these weapons kits from GHQ as a parts order alongside my usual orders.

The actual conversion was very easy... if not a little hairy at first!

1. Use a hand-drill to drill a hole at the right size for the weapons systems on the LAV-C.
2. Dry fit - realise the weapons system doesn't sit right with all the smoke grenade launchers.
3. Go back to internet images for cross-referencing, notice that 'our' RWS doesn't have any dang smoke launchers... go back and cut the bottom layer off the GHQ RWS using my Games Workshop pliers (seriously, they make some GREAT pliers...) deciding to leave some on purely for cosmetic reasons.

Dangit!  *Goes for pliers...*

4. It fits!  It fits!!!!  Have a slight giddy chuckle after cutting twelve turrets and actually having the surgery work first time!
5. Paint... now that was the hard part!

The painting for all of these vehicles is my usual mixing style of "When it looks right to me", so do not quote my mix ratios, it is purely an estimate based off what I did.  Getting the look right was quite a choice, as you can see in the two pictures below (and the ones above) the actual "Camo" can really take on any variance of tone or sheen depending on the when/where/what said vehicle has been doing...

Australian Army "Brown/ Desert Red" - VALLEJO Mahogany Brown and Vallejoy Beige - Approximately a 90 Brown/10 Beige ratio.

Australian Army "Green" - VALLEJO Russian Uniform, no change, it looked right out of the bottle.

Australian Army "Black" -  VALLEJO Black Grey/ German Camo Black Grey / Black... this one literally was a mish-mash as I was never able to get a definitive equal to the glossy/not glossy look the Black gives depending on what light it is in.  I think the final mix was about 80% Black grey, and equal measures German Camo Black Grey and Vallejo Black to try and get a mix of the slight grey/satin black look.

Remote weapon station colours - The RWS on the Bushie is VALLEJO German Camo Beige, and the RWS on the ASLAV-PC is VALLEJO German Camo Dark Green. 

Windows/ Sights/ Lights - The blue of the windows and sight systems is VALLEJO Andrea Blue, the lights on the ASLAVs (and later on the Bushies) are VALLEJO Old Gold.

So there you have it... the beginnings of my Australian Army contigent - Four ASLAV-25's, Twelve ASLAV-PCs and Five *later to expand to ten* Bushmasters.  My force will eventually expand, but I'll follow that in another post.

Anyway, end result... with a few touchups *ASLAV-PC wheels need to be finished etc* I'd say it passes the 'not bad' test from tabletop height! :) 

6mm, where we begin - Part 2: Know the terrain.

So we've now got the lands of Eulanus - the poor, downtrodden lands that, in my eye, will probably become one of the major battle grounds in the area...

In which case, we're going to need to start adding things for people to fight over, right?

So starts my terrain building for Eulanus.  In my eye, Eulanus is a mixture of African and Australian bushland - with a fair mix of more desert and savannah type terrain towards the interior, and a coast that allows for more tropical features, and is the area where a majority of actual societal development occurred.

The example in the real world I am thinking of is my home state of Queensland, where a majority of people live within a hundred kilometres of the coast, and most industry exists there.  However, the majority of the state is scrubland, with varying levels of drought throughout the inland.

So you go from these kind of areas:
  

 

 

To, eventually, something like this...

 

 

One of the key things I want is the red, iron-rich soil like you find in Australian outbacks and African regions.  That will be a distinguishing feature of most of my units conducting this fight in Africa.


As such, to get this blend, I am using the following:

Basecoat with a balck acrylic paint - I don't have a fixed brand, just whatever artist's paint you want.  I usually go with a 'wetter' one so it doesn't dry out as fast in the tube.

Original coat, earth brown - Vallejo

Drybrush - combination blend (i.e "whatever looks good to me") of Vallejo Cavalry Brown and either a small dose of Iraqi Sand or an Earthen brown colour. 

Mix it up, then apply in layers until you have it looking "red" enough for you.  In reality, the 'red' dirt is more of an orange, but that does look kind of ridiculous in 6mm.

Nonetheless, here are some 90% completed terrain pieces!  They just need some basic flock to look a little more like the African savannah example.

As for the bases, I use 1mm plastic card as the base material, cut to shape and then with edges filed smooth.  From there, I build up around the miniature buildings with a combination paste made of builder's putty, PVA glue and a dash of model sand to provide grit.  

As this mixture seals, it WILL retract and crack in key points, likely quite considerably.  Once the initial coat dries and hardens, re-seal with the builder's putty by itself to smooth out the edges and fill cracks... just as it is meant to do job wise.

The first is going to be a regular occurrence, a dwelling that can mix it with either Afghanistan or Africa.  Eventually, this one will have a few "medicinal plants" growing within this small compound's walls :)  This compound is made from two seperate Gamecraft Miniatures 6mm Resin buildings. 

The second example is a prime example of the kind of dwellings I will have over a lot of my African-style boards... small shacks, huts and shanties that are the cramped hovels of the much, much less fortunate.  They have seen numerous horrors already, so the horror of war is probably just another day at the office for most!  This example comes from JR Minis 1:285 range.

So that is what I am up to, terrain, terrain and more terrain!