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Well October is here, which is clearly the best month as it contains both my birthday and Halloween. All those chilly autumn evenings are perfect for painting models, not so cold your hands are stiff, but cold enough to warrant a little heating or perhaps a comfortable hoodie. My painting projects have jumped around a bit, for some reason I have 5 entirely different models on the go, but hopefully I’ll be more focused next month…or the month after. Instead I have something special to share with you, but first let's take a look at what the other bloggers have been up to.
M18 Hellcat & Chi-Ha (Bolt Action) by Hasvik
It’s getting spicy over in the Pacific as both my US and IJA Bolt Action armies have a new vehicle courtesy of the Warlord Games plastics range! For the US we have the M18 Hellcat, and the IJA have themselves a cheeky little Chi-Ha kitbash made from the alternative turret from the Chi-Ha kit. After all, why bother carting an entire tank all the way back to the home island for an upgrade when you can just bury it and call it a coastal defence. Yep, that was an actual thing the Japanese did. As ever, my style focuses on speed and maximum laziness rather than say talent, skill, or competence BUT they look pretty darn good from 3ft away in a dimly lit room. Success!
Keeping it simple, each tank got a Vallejo colour prime - Olive drab for the Hellcat and German Dark Yellow for the Chi-Ha - before painting the tracks black. Next, I got those decals on after a quick viewing of reference photos on Google. After that I took a shred of sponge from an old blister pack and started sponging on light to dark brown acrylics and Vallejo Metal Colours to represent mud splats and chips before tying it together in an all over sepia wash. Lastly, I deployed the ultimate hobby cheat - blasting the lower half of each tank with brown speedpaint. This gives a fancy gradient that looks like it took hours to achieve (LoL it didn’t) and gives that feeling of a week of hard fighting on the front. Lastly, slap down a basing mix, paint the rims with the original primer for each tank, and then carpet bomb them both in varnish. Bish bash bosh on goes the war effort.
Weapon X bunker as Endor bunker (MCP/Shatterpoint) by Sam de Smith
Ever since I saw the Weapon X bunker for Marvel Crisis Protocol, I had this notion that it would be really good for Shatterpoint - it just had total Endor vibes for me. So I leapt at the chance to convert one when I got my hands on one!
I filled the gaps on the bases with green stuff, and filled the recess where the fallen tree would normally go on the top with sprue off cuts and some gs to smoothe. The top of transmitter was mounted on the back corner instead, and the details used to make a new hatch to the right of the door and ridging detail on the left side (extra handholds for access, also). Rivets and hinges were likewise removed, because star wars. Finally, the roof vent was cut down flush, and some extra strips of plastic used to make more Imperial style flooring over the hazard stripes by the entrance.
The whole thing was primed with Colour Forge Standard Grey, and then the "hillside" section hit with Army Painter Speed Paint Dark Wood. Seams were filled with GW stirland mud, which was also daubed and scraped on in places, then drybrushed VJ dead flesh and Green Stuff World tufts added. The grey sections were drybrushed vj Ghost grey and then those not part of the basic concrete were washed with GW Nightshade and highlighted again with Wolf Grey. Lights were picked out in Arctic White, as was the addition of STAND CLEAR in Aurabesh, then VJ Dark Green and Scarlet Blood for the coloured lights. And, done!
Riptide Battlesuit (40k) by Ross Coulbeck via Chris
Something slightly different from me this month, but I’m sure you’ll agree, pretty epic. Firstly, I did not paint this. It’s my model, but my good friend Chris painted it. He’s a literal wizard as nothing he produces is anything less than magic. You can see for yourself this battlesuit is something else and is going to take pride of place in my home. I’ll see if Chris wants to show off any more of his work in the future as I’d love to share it with you, he collects mainly Tyranids and they are something behold. Although why he picked a massive horde army when he’s the slowest (but best) painter ever I’ll never know.
The model itself is initially amazing. I used to collect Tau back in the day but have since moved on to other things, but their battlesuits, especially the bigger ones will never not be epic. I love the massive gatling gun on one arm and the flared shield on the other. I love the missile pods (which Chris magnetised for me) and I love the shape of its body…ok getting a bit personal now, but still! My ONLY warning for this model is to watch the ankles. That’s a big piece of plastic connected only by 2 rather small ankles, which like mine you may end up having to put pins through to keep them from breaking.
Colour wise I haven’t got the full rundown from Chris, but I love his use of a vibrant orange with a very clean white, and white is far from easy to paint consistently. It’s exactly the right dual tone scheme and really makes it pop. Plus he’s done some awesome work on the base with a variety of rocks and grass, all realistically coloured. My attempts at rock don’t usually end up looking very rock like haha, so I’m glad I have this to admire.
I hope I can feature more like this soon.