Thursday, December 20, 2012

Desert Rats

Got around to starting my small collection of M3 Lee-Grants.  I have to say - what a cool tank concept this thing was.  It's too bad about the rivets and the largely flat sides or else this would have been a nightmare on the battlefield.

The models are from Battlefront.  The guy in the TC hatch is supposed to be Major General Pip Roberts but I will use him as your everyday, run of the mill British Desert Rat officer.

The troops aren't too bad.  I like how their expressions turned out.  I ended up using Dave F's tried and true overlapping methodology where I painted darker layers underneath the flesh and clothing and ended up with these guys (Command Decision-Old Glory figs).
M3 Lee Grant with the TC in the turret hatch (reader will forgive the fact that the hatch is closed...)

Camo was hand painted and didn't turn out too badly


Trying to make sense of the terrain in the desert...

                                     


Still need to add the vehicle markings and of course the Desert Rats logo...  Also need to paint the tracks and road wheels.  I was thinking about adding a light brown wash to the model also.  Now onto the Infantry!

Basecoat of Graveyard Earth with an overcoat of Kommando Khako.  The webbing is Catachan Green.   Easy enough.  





And an added surprise....the evolution of a Panther :)  No - not biology either...The first installment in a continuing installment on the evolution of my next Panther D platoon.  Battlefront model.





6 comments:

  1. Very nice. I need to learn more about the painting technique.

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    1. John,
      Visit the Battlefront website (flamesofwar DOT com). They give some really, really good tutorials on the method. It's pretty simple. You basecoat the fig in black, then paint the flesh a tone darker than it is.

      You then "block" parts of the uniform, leaving black edges at the gaps (gap between clothing folds or when the arms meet the shoulders, etc).

      On the face, use the final shade, leaving some of the underneath color around the hard edges like the perimeter of the nose and mouth so the lighter parts stand out better.

      I am by no means "good" at this method, but I find that it's the quickest way for me to paint, and I personally think they look cool. :)

      My friend Dave is very skilled at this method and has produced some very, very nice figures. He has a few blogs but my favorite of his is "Charge Bayonet."

      You can find that on the blogs I follow along the right side of my blog.

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  2. Very nice! Your infantry seems to be really wonderful, a great work on it!
    Phil.

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    1. Thank you, Phil! Next batch I will correct some of the mistakes I made on this batch but overall I'm happy with them!

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  3. Lovely work Steve. The Lee Grant is definitely a sexy tank, even if its crews had issues with its height in the desert. In Rick Atkinson's An Army At Dawn he quotes an L-G TC who said he felt as conspicuous in the turret as if he was in the top of a church steel in the desert.
    I like the infantry, good jobs there too.
    Cheers mate,
    Mike

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    1. Thanks, Mike.
      I love the look of Lee Grant. I can completely relate to the feeling of the TC. Driving into fire makes any vehicle seem to big and conspicuous! Just imagine how it felt to sit atop one of those L-Gs...

      I'm going to crank out some more infantry then I can start on my NW Europe Brits and Canadians. Thanks for commenting!
      Steve

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