6MMRPC Week Thirteen: Great War Landships WiP

This week I was able to get the three landships from Sam's Great War British commission project assembled and also worked some on the Kawasaki Ki-45.  This also gets me nearly to the half-way point in the challenge, I'll have a follow-up later this week.

Sam asked me to build two Mark IVs and a Mark A Whippet for his British army and they came together pretty easily.  All of those machine gun barrels and the frames on the Mark IV were time consuming, but it was pretty straight-forward with minimal clean-up.  The resin tracks on the Mark IVs were really clean, though the sponsons have some sink marks I'll need to fill.  I also decided to magnetize the sponsons so Sam could run them as either Male or Female.  (Insert joke here)

A Mark IV still in it's original paint.  There's some controversy as to what color these should be, but I'll go with something like this.

All assembled but I ran out of primer...  Guns are next up.

Magnets for easy swap-out of Male to Female. (Artillery Guns or Machine-Guns)

The Ki-45 is still waiting on the interior paint color, it's a mysterious one from what I've been able to dig up on the inter-webs.  I did get all of my sub-assembly finished and put a coat of Tamiya surface primer on it, which went down like a dream.

Three main sub-assemblies, with some small parts left off until after painting.  Closed up the wheel wells for simplicity.

6MMRPC Week Twelve: Throw-back to the year 2000

This week I was sitting at my desk, trying to break through the hobby coma that recently hit me.  I wanted desperately to pull some Flames of War models out and put paint to pewter, but I didn't have a clue what to do.  Sam's Great War British need all of their mold lines cleaned up before I can put any paint on them, and the first basecoat will be from my airbrush once all of them are ready.  My next event will be in January but I'm still uncertain what I want to bring.  Without an army in mind, I find it very difficult to get anything accomplished.  I sat there, befuddled, until my eye caught a stack of cardboard boxes collecting dust on the top of my bookshelf...

This.  This would be my next project, the first model airplane I've worked on in fifteen years.  I bought this a few years back from the consignment pile at Viking Hobbies when I still lived near Sacramento, CA.  It's not even a subject I really like!  I got an idea in my head back then about building aircraft from the Battle of Midway and went in to shop around, but they didn't have a single subject I wanted.  I settled on this because, hey, it's Japanese, and in the right scale. (1/72)  This Kawasaki Ki-45 kai 'Toyru' would be perfect to practice some different techniques and might just break me out of my funk.

Plastic airplanes were my gateway drug, man!  Way back in about 1987 or so I bought my first model kit and that led into miniature wargaming fifteen years later.  Things are coming full circle, as I think the skills I've developed through building and painting Flames of War minis will translate back to models.  Multi-media with resin and metal?  Check.  Airbrush work?  Done it.  Weathering and detailing?  Yep. Additionally, now that so many Flames of War minis are going plastic, practicing on this makes sense.   I won't be afraid of 'messing up' this one, as I have no plans for it after I'm done.  Maybe I'll hang it from my kids' ceiling, like I used to do.  

Eight sprues of grey and clear plastic.  Hasegawa makes some of the nicer kits in this scale, if I remember correctly.

Sub-assemblies before airbrushing the interior.  

I'll need to wait on a paint order before I do much else, the interior color is a strange one.  I hope this little project holds me over until I can finalize a list for Shifting Sands in January.  Once I have that nailed down, I can start building it once I finish the commission projct of Sam's.

6MMRPC Week Eleven: Nothing at All

A non-update update, as it were.  A deep post-event funk has set in around the painting table, as Historicon has passed and the next event I plan on attending will be in January.  I'm definately a deadline painter, and until then I'll continue to work on the Great War British commission for Col. Sam, though the joints in my hands bark at me before I can  make much progress on them.  Cleaning mold lines off of so many infantry dudes gets painful, and I get a few hours in per week at most.

On a brighter note, Shifting Sands 2016 has been announced for January 16 & 17 in Phoenix, AZ and it will be a Blitzkrieg theme next year, 1500 points with only lists from the book plus the Dutch PDF allowed so far.  I'm campaigning for the allowance of a few appropriate lists to be included as well, with ideas for Fallschirmjäger and Gebirgsjäger lists, with some easy modifications to existing lists from Burning Empires.  The planning phase has also started on what to bring next year, and I can get an Infanteriekompanie together without needed to buy any more than a single halftrack model, though if they decide to allow the two lists I suggested I may build one of them up.  I should have the models for either of those in the stash somewhere.

Next week I expect to have something to show you!

6MMRPC Week Ten: Nothing to See Here, Folks...

It's been a slow week, painting wise.  So slow, in fact, that nothing at all was accomplished...  I did get to start playing in a new 5th ed. D and D campaign that my friend Mike is running.  Guess I need to dig through my unpainted minis for a figure to represent the swashbuckling rogue I'm playing and get it painted up.

And speaking of swashbuckling rogues, my painting table has apparently been commandeered by buccaneers!

Did I mention I've rediscovered Lego?

6MMRPC Week Nine: Great War British WiP

Didn't get much done this week, spent most of my spare time with the family. I did get some Great War British cleaned up and primed for a commission job for my friend Sam back in CA, this will eventually be a full army, HQ, two infantry platoons, two HMG platoons, a full artillery battery, mortars, and three tanks. Nearly all of the figs are by Battlefront with a few Peter Pig guys thrown in. Once I have all of the infantry and gun crew primed I'll use the airbrush to base coat them.