Soviet God of War

Starting my Soviet Artillery this week. Straight away I run in to a problem as i find that I am short one 76mm barrel but they gave me an extra gun-shield :( (I never seem to have much luck with BF)

I need to get all of these finished by Friday (wishful i know) as there's an upcoming tournament that they are needed for. Will be posting daily updates on these, but right now i'm pooped from last nights drive :-/

All guns and infantry cleaned ready for priming and base colours tomorrow.
The crews are also sorted with their corresponding guns for ease of assembling afterwards.

Cheers,

Manny

Recent Gaming

Just a quick update of the games I played last week. I took the newly painting tanks out for a spin using the Blitzkrieg Commander II rule set. I narrowly lost to the Finns as we were both down to our breakpoints.

I used the IS-85's as IS-2's, and they absolutely decimated the Finnish right flank.

However, a mix of Artillery and Mortars picked off nearly all my infantry :-/
Its just too powerful in this game

On Sunday before my drive back to work, the Mrs decided she wanted to play Zombies!!!

Such a Devious look.......

The town starts to grow as the plucky survivors start to explore.

She clears out the Fire station in one turn!! 

I head off to collect more health before trying to clear the Helipad....

....which turns out to be a bad idea, as a couple of turns later she gets to 20 kills!

So, throwing that 6 is a good then then eh?

I was sooo close too, with 19 kills. Neither of us died too.

She knows she kicked my ass!!

Finished Soviet Armour

Finished up the IS-85's and SU-122's tonight. I still have the tank commanders to paint  but i'll do them at the same time as I do the Artillery.

I wanted to weather the tanks to make them look as if they are fighting after a harsh winter, and the big thaw has come (hence the heavy mud). My infantry have melting snow on their bases, so I wanted this armour project to tie in together with them.

Any thoughts and critique on the weathering or the tanks as a whole are more them welcome.

Now on to the next project. Need to clear out the ridiculous piles of FoW that I have in my drawers. So whilst the weather outside may be frightful, un-boxing Soviets is sure delightful ;-)

Cheers for taking the time for looking,

Manny

Soviet SU-122's

Right guys, bad snow has kept me from driving home for the weekend, so I've been busy painting all day. The SU-122's are coming along. Just weathering powders to apply to these and the IS-85's.


That shouldn't take too long, and then I'll be starting on my Subtle 'God Of War' battery!!

Airbrushed white after the Salt Masking

After washing the salt off with cold water.

After 'brown lining'

After 'Mig Oil' streaks

Thoughts and Opinions welcome.

Cheers guys,

Manny 

Salt Masking Tutorial

Hey Guys,

Been asked by a couple of people for tips on how I did the salt masking. Since pictures paint a 1000 words thought i'd do this as a blog.

Hope people find this helpful. Any questions just ask.

Once your model has it's base colour ready, use a liquid mask over the decals.

Just standard Rock Salt

Pour out a little bit and grind slightly.

Once ground, add a small amount of water so that the  salt sticks together. (do not totally dissolve)

Using a brush apply the salt to the tank.

Apply extra water with a brush if needed to help the salt stick.

...and that's that :)

Hope this helps guys, and that it makes sense :)

Cheers,

Manny

SU-122's and Infantry

Hey guys, just quick update today. Didn't get too much done over the weekend, but i managed to get my SU-122's cleaned up and assembled.

Out of the 8 I have, 6 had damage to them, but I can't wait for replacements as they're needed quickly for a tournament. However, i did have to change my list slightly as one of them was far too bad :(

As you can see, that's a bit too bad to use :(

The 7 little beauties ready for painting this week.

Also thought i'd share some pictures of the infantry that the armour will be supporting, this platoon was designed to come together to form the famous Stalingrad fountain. I also did 18 more stands for this company to look like troops advancing through the open town square area, with supplies scattered throughout.

Really struggling with the lighting when taking pictures of my infantry :-/ any tips would be greatfully received.

Cheers,

Manny

Soviet IS-85's for Flames Of War - Part 2

Been working on the IS-85's again. painted the details and added some oil streaks and decals. All that's really left now is to add some weathering powders tomorrow. I decided to go for a worn winter wash camo on these tanks so that they match the Infantry that I painted, as they have melting snow on their bases.

DOH! Barrel needs repainting :-/

Oil streaks

This was my first attempt at using 'Oils'. I chose Mig "shadow Brown"  First placing a small dot under rivets, and joints, and using a flat headed brush wet with white spirit brushed downwards to blend it in.

Thoughts and comments welcome.

Cheers for looking guys,

Manny