Show us yer stuff!

[ACWBill]

Beautiful stuff Pete.

[pmskaar]

Thanks very much, Guroburov, Panzergator, and ACW Bill! I am working on some more Americans for NW Europe and I will post more later.

[ACWBill]

Battlecruisers which are part of my Jutland fleets, a little something different from my standard faire.

[Guroburov]

Nice work Bill. I love the photography.

[chrisswim]

ACWBill, those are great pic, I like them.

[whoa Mohamed]

Just a lot of amazing work .

[redleg]

Love the photography Bill! I can practically smell the smoke!

[BurtWolf]

Pete - wonderful, wonderful Shermans!! Love the paint job on these (as usual). Inspirational!

Bill - great looking micronauts and the historical backdrop is so cool. Feels like the real thing, thanks for posting!!

[BurtWolf]

Mk1 I meant to post a big thank you for the painting advice on the Italians - it was very helpful. Let you check out my stuff when I take the plunge... wish me luck.

[ACWBill]

I ran a scenario for Hurricon 2019 in Kissimmee Florida. I had to paint quite a number of early-war Russian behemoths for the game. Here are a few shots of my T-28s and T-35s.









Thanks,

Bill

[Guroburov]

Nice Bill. Very cool.

[Mk 1]

Good looking behemoths there, Bill.

Gives me a thought...




I did up some T-28s some time back. The GHQ model is what is generally called the T-28E (Ekrani -- add-on armor) or the T-28C (German designation). The add-on armor is visible around the turret. The armor was upgraded as a result of early combat in the Winter War with Finland, and the up-armored -E version entered combat during the later Soviet offensives against the Mannerheim line in that conflict.

The up-armored tanks were mostly the later Model 1938 tanks (called the T-28B by the Germans). This tank mounted the 76.2mm / 26 L-10 gun. This tank was itself a production upgrade to the original T-28 Model 1934 (called the T-28A by the Germans). This original production version had neither the up-graded applique armor nor the upgraded main gun, mounting the 76.2mm /16 M1927 gun.

(Maybe you can see where I'm going with this ...)

Well, when I did my T-28s, I wanted a mix of versions.




So I converted some to the original M1934 version. To do this I filed down the seams of the turret sides and roof a bit (to try to make the lip of the add-on armor less obvious), and I re-did the gun. Cutting the gun short would not have been enough, as the L10 had it's recoil system mounted above the barrel (very distinctive), while the M1927 has the barrel high in the mount, with the carriage and recoil system for the gun below. So I had to cut the barrel off back to the recuperator housing, file the barrel flat on it's sides and bottom (more or less), drill into the recuperator housing itself, and mount a short barrel (made of nylon rod) into that hole.

OK, the results were not awe-inspiring, but they get the job done.

Now it occurs to me I could have just ordered a few extra main turrets from the T-35 model! D'oh! Simplicity, thy name is not Mk 1!

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

[Mk 1]

Mk1 I meant to post a big thank you for the painting advice on the Italians - it was very helpful. Let you check out my stuff when I take the plunge... wish me luck.

Burt -

Continuing our discussion on Italian uniforms ... I was working on a couple projects, one of which involved some Italian artillery crewmen, and I thought I'd do a bit of a color experiment.

The question in my mind -- is the Vallejo Gray-Green a useful alternative for Italian continental uniforms? I currently use Polly-S Italian Camo Gray-Green, but the Polly-S line is no longer available, and when this bottle is done, what's a hobbyist to do? The Vallejo Gray-Green that I have is the color that I have seen sources recommend from the Vallejo palette.

So .. first step is to review my target.


This is a color plate from an Italian source on the WW2 Italian infantry platoon. This was sent to me by one of my Italian forum buddies (from this forum, if I recall correctly). I have used it for some time to guide me in both the organization of my infantry, and the color target for my uniforms.

The figures I was already doing were two standing Italian artillery crewmen. Since I already had some figures on the workbench that I was painting with the Polly-S Italian Camo Gray-Green that I have been using, I thought I might add one figure and try to do a similar job painting with the Vallejo Gray-Green. So I went to the extras bin and pulled out a marching figure from one of the other guys -- I did some forces with these figures decades ago. The figures look quite good, but the variety is insufficient, and they are far too fragile for actual wargaming use. So they've been replaced, and currently populate my extras bin in some numbers. And ... well ... who actually uses marching figures anyway?


Here they are on the worktable. They have been undercoated (white), base coated in their respective gray-greens, and faces and hands have been done in flesh. I have also done the boots on the figures I'm actually planning to use, but not on the test figure. The two artillery figures on the right are in Polly-S. The marching figure is in Vallejo.


Here they are tilted a bit to get better light on the bench. At this point they've also been hit with a dark wash. Helmets have not yet been painted.


Here the artillery crewmen have been finished. Helmets are painted, the round held by the loader has been painted, they are mounted on a base that has been textured, painted, and flocked. The test figure has had his helmet painted too, but nothing more.

Hmmmm. The Vallejo Gray-Green is notably more brown (or gray) than the Polly-S. The Polly-S is notably greener. They are not really compatible. But which one is closer to the right shade? I feel like the perfect color would be less brown than the Vallejo, and less green than the Polly-S.

However, given the amount of Italian kit I have already painted up, I'm probably going to have to live with it. Which still leaved me with no viable plan B after this bottle runs dry.

-Mark

[chrisswim]

Trees. A forest. Need to work on smaller trees.











Need to work on smaller trees for micro armor.

[redleg]

Mark, I don't know much about Italian uniform colors, but your dudes are beautifully painted. I'm blown away by the level of detail that you can put onto your micro troops! Fantastic work!

Chris, the trees look great. I love your work bench pics BTW - you don't have individual tanks sitting on your bench, you have battalions and squadrons!