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tiistai 21. tammikuuta 2014

Painting Challenge entry 7: Grenadier Guards Armor

Finished these guys late on a saturday just in time for the vehicle Fortnight challenge. Definately not the most imaginative choice compared to some of the others, but I needed to get these done to get some support for my US Airborne troops.

The minis are the Shermans (and Fireflys) from the Open Fire box that I got about a year ago. Finally gotten most of them done, with only a platoon of Germans and 2 Pak's left. These were a bit of a pain to build up to be honest and there are a lot of seams that probably should have been filled, but I was lazy :)

Painted (or decalled) them up as Grenadier Guards. Decalling took a lot longer than I anticipated as there are alltogether around 70 decals on the 8 tanks. And I did skip adding a few recognition stars... Not 100% sure about the positioning of them, as most of the reference pics show all the unit insignia etc. in different places. Paintwise I decided to take a bit of artistic liberty and paint all the tracks etc. rust colored just to add some variety and color to the paint job. In reality a tanks tracks don't really rust when it's in constant use, but it just looks better than black with metal chipping.

I went for a heavily weathered look with a lot of chipping, oil washes and dirt added to make them look like they've been through hell. Probably not the most realistic look as I have a feeling that muddy and beat up looking tanks wouldn't be tolerated, especially within the Grenadier Guards. Turned out quite nicely, eventhough I think adding oil streaks etc. at this scale didn't work out as nicely as I had expected. Thin lines don't show and thick ones look out-of-scale. I only went with one coat of dirt on them as I was getting too tired after fridays partying :) Laziness taking over as they aren't meant for showcase anyway.

 

My next entry is nearing the finish line. The final part of my Norse Gaels just needs some decals, a few washes and tufts on the bases to be ready to go. Next couple of evenings booked for other things though, so might end up being weekend before I get them sent to Curt.

5 kommenttia:

  1. Great work! Especially the weathering is nice.

    VastaaPoista
  2. They look terrific - a real veteran look to them. I've seen the Grenadier Guards in the field and they can look scruffy when they are doing the business, but if there's a maintenance day to fix and clean, their NCOs will make sure they take full advantage of it. Mind you, that was on exercise when no one was shooting at them for real.
    Well done.

    VastaaPoista
    Vastaukset
    1. Well what do you know, even the British allow themselves some breathing room with gear cleanliness :)

      And thank you Michael!

      Poista
  3. Great job mate, I really like the worn and dirty 'in action' look

    VastaaPoista