Whitewashing history

     In an attempt to keep this blog alive (I've been busy) I thought I would do a quick post on a project I started at new year and a show a technique that I have been playing with - how to whitewash a WW2 Soviet tank. Ignore the bad lighting etc, I took these photos more for my own usage than to go up on here.

        First up I did my normal tank painting routine. Spray the appropriate colour, do the tracks and tyres, add the transfers and you have a factory fresh pristine tank with no highlights. At this point I gave the tank a quick varnish just to stop anything happening to it in the next stage.

       Next I sat down with a bowl of salt on my painting table. I blue-tacked over the transfers and then, using a wet brush, painted over the areas that I thought the whitewash would chip or rub off of the quickest, dunking the model into the salt before it could dry to stick the salt on.

      The next stage was to leave the salt to dry and once it was drybrush the whole tank white, then repeat the drying process. Once the white has dried (half hour or so just to make sure) wash off any salt your brush hasn't already taken off and remove the blue-tac. At this point, it is worth using more dry brushed white to tidy up the messy bits - so around the transfers and any bits that just plain got missed.

      Then the last stage is to do whatever counts as normal weathering for you. I went a bit over the top rusting the front armour tracks but I am pleased with the rest. I was aiming for an army set at the end of the winter so the whitewash is coming off and is caked in dirt. I also tried to add some of the snow flock I used on the bases of my soldiers just to tie them in but I think I will down that down on my next few tanks.

      The last photo is of my tank being used in it's maiden game (as a painted model), it did worse than the unpainted tank it was paired with but that's the way this stuff goes.

Thanks for reading

VBCW Albertines

     The Albertine faction for the Very British Civil War (VBCW) was the project I had on the go when I first started this blog and annoyingly it's the one big project I haven't even come close to finishing, so with 2015 drawing to a close I decided that this was the time to do something about it.

     First of all, I have to say I wasn't entirely happy with the look I had got from my figures originally, my painting style has changed slightly and there were a couple of bits on the old figures that were just plain wrong, so this project was more than just painting up a few new units, it was also doing a bit of work on the old 'finished' units too.

     The platoon up is based on the local militia, units that I have themed around organisations that I felt might stay together and are just locals putting military supplies on over their normal clothes, picking up a rifle and going to protect their interests. I've put a trained military officer in charge of the platoon and given one squad a retired serjeant as it's leader to make sure they are run effectively.

The first militia squad.

Second militia squad.

The command squad. It is being overseen by a spare officer from the local garrison, the cricket club's doctor and a few enthusiastic locals.

The local police force.

The cricket club.

       The second part of the project was the professional platoon, the trained military. These are the guys who will do the real heavy lifting of the army, they have more support and are better trained so will be doing a slightly different job than the masses of militia.

 The military command squad. This time the unit is made up of an actual military medic and real staff officers who can give proper advice.

First military squad.

Second military squad.

Vickers medium machine gun team.

 Militia experimental weapon. Rolled out from a museum somewhere.

Vickers light tank and first bit of transport for the faction.

Local priest - not part of the army but felt like the right place to post.

     At the moment I feel like this army is done, it needs some more transport and could do with another squad or two but over all it is enough to sit down and get a game in with and look to add to it in the future.

Thanks for reading