Thursday, August 7, 2014

Armor at Kursk

Did you ever have one of those weeks when you feel like you've been at work more than at home?  Anyways, I did take an opportunity to take a picture of the armor that's been rolling off the assembly lines here at SOUND OFFICERS CALL lately.  And on a completely different note, it looks like we need a new camera...

The Battle of Kursk and units for Battlegroup: Kursk have been my fascination lately and I thought I owed it to these tough tankers to re-do my armored forces.
The mighty Tiger.  This is a "Point of Contact" model that I repainted and will use to supplement my 2 x Battlefront models.

Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IV.  





A mighty Soviet Armored Host!  T-70s, T-34s, and KV-1s with the SU-76 on overwatch.  What's not to love here!

This is a PSC T-34 sprayed with "light olive" and dry brushed with a "pebble" color and sealed.  I am very happy with how this batch turned out.



Battlefront T-34.  Not quite as happy with this one.



"dirty bitch" An SU-76 with a generous application of mud: flock, PVA glue, and brown paint all mixed together.



My T-70s ready for action.  Here's an interesting thing I found out - I started using a very, very dark grey for the rubber around the road-wheels.  This has multiple advantages.  1st - if you're fussing around and make alot of mistakes, the grey blends in easier than plain black against the rest of the tank.  2nd - the grey has a more worn, subdued look to it that looks like it's been in the field more.  I'm very happy with how that turned out.  I HATE painting road wheels...






 Lots of armor left to finish, infantry to flock and other projects to get underway.  Yesterday I finished up my Micro-Flames of War Soviet armor with the completion of 3 JS-II heavies, and the command T-34/85 tank.  The Germans got their 3 x Hummel SPAs delivered and the stage is set for a grand, tiny showdown between these 6mm heavy-weights using Flames of War rules.

Also, lots more infantry on the table awaiting their uniforms and in Battlegroup Kursk speak, that's about 2 more Russian infantry platoons, another German infantry platoon, and their carriers.

6 comments:

  1. Nice looking collection. Soviet armour rolling down a road always looks intimidating!

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    1. Thank you, Mark. These buggers are the tip of the ice berg! Wait until I get the rest of the hordes re-painted!
      I'm waiting on the delivery of the PSC Russian Armor green and I'm thinking the "shade" of some of the tanks will denote the platoon they belong to... On the whole, I'm happy with how the light olive along with dry brushing has turned out on them. More to follow.

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  2. Hi Steven. A nice array of armour on the table.

    For Soviet or dark schemes I always start of with a black primer coat to remove the shine and help the main coat adhere.

    The next coat is the main colour and I spray or brush this from the top down, not worrying about the running gear or tracks.

    I then use a decent size brush to centre some paint in the middle of the wheels. This leaves the rims and tracks still black although rough.

    A quick dry brush of buff around the running gear and tracks hides any misses and looks like dried mud or dust while leaving some depth with the black background

    For the likes of large areas of rubber such as truck tyres I use a Vallejo Black-Grey over the black primer coat. I think it looks much better than a straight black as you have noted.

    Older rubber tends to look a tone of grey I reckon.

    For lighter schemes such as late war German I try and leave the rims the darker black to help make it stand out more.

    You nailed the dry brushing on the head mate. Again I am a believer in Buff. I think its really a question of technique to know how heavy or light to apply. The outcome however always seems to loo better than block painted items in my opinion.

    Model on and keep up the good work!

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    1. Paul,
      Some great tips there. I'm completely sold on buff-colored dry-brushing. I love how it makes the detail stand out and i'm going to take your advice on the road wheels. I particularly like how the dry brushing hides my mistakes.

      I'm going to keep fiddling with the dust look and applying mud to places on the track and running gear. I'm a big fan of spray painted over the block painting scheme.

      Soon I will have the plastic soldier company Russian Armor Paint and that's a little darker than the light olive I've been using. I'm going to keep this batch with the light olive to differentiate between platoons. (one came from the factory at Tula, one came from that place on the Volga!)

      Thanks for commenting, Paul. Stay tuned, more Red Steel on the way.

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  3. A very fine armoured force there, and looking good too. In respect of road wheels - for any vehicle - my favorite colour was panzergrau. Seriously. With a little bit of weathering the result I found very pleasing.

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    1. Thank you, AP. It's amazing I found that out by accident and the results seem to be worth it. There's plenty more armor on the way - stay tuned!

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