GZG and Old Crow 15mm Sci-Fi

[Meier_Elf_Fanatic]

Even though I paint for a living, I do sometimes get some stuff of my own finished. Here's some pics of my Hov-Cav company and some Slammers I did...

[Inso]

Very nice little army you have there.  I'd like to see some better pix because it is very difficult to make things out though .

[Meier_Elf_Fanatic]

Drop me a PM with your email addy and I'll mail them over

[aircav]

Loveley work Mark 

[Meier_Elf_Fanatic]

Thanks Keith,

Here's  'How to' I wrote for the GZG site for those who may be interested.

Being in part an epic treatise on how to get 30 vehicles and 60 men on the table in 40 hours!
At the behest of our illustrious Webmaster I'm going to give you a quick and dirty rundown on how I painted and based the Hov-Cav force currently on show in the GZG gallery...
 
As I've been painting and winning prizes for 32 years (I'm only 43!) I've become quite jaded with the whole process. So, I decided from the outset to try to enjoy painting my 15mm sci-fi stuff.  I wanted a 'realistic' appearance using paints I don't normally even look at (Citadel Colour).
 
I normally work on a black basecoat (Halfords is by far the best, by the way) but I decided to try working on a base colour of grey.
 
After cleaning the models, I sprayed them with Plastikote 'Matt Super' 3102 grey. (A 400ml can cost me £6.99, covered evrything in the gallery AND despite leaking still has enough for 30 infantry in it). The beauty of this paint is that it can be cleaned with acetone nail polish remover as I found out when it leaked everywhere, including all over my hands. It must be noted that this was due to a broken nozzle.
 
Next I used the excellent (it pains me to admit it) Citadel Foundation Paints 'Calthan Brown' and 'Khemri Brown' to create a simple patch and stripe pattern on the models. Essentially, I painted a patch at each corner on the left and in the middle on the right, and then used the other shade to create a 'Y' shaped pattern between them.
 
The secret here is to get a nice smooth finish using a flat brush of reasonable quality with no stray hairs. Always spray undercoat as you'll get a much nicer finish.
 
Once dry (and I MEAN dry) I then simply and without ceremony painted the whole model with the 'Devlan Mud' (there I go again) Citadel Wash. It was not diluted, just brushed on and left to dry fully but without application of heat.
 
When this had dried fully I then used another soft flat brush to dry bush 9 it was a really dry, dry brush) of 'Dheneb Stone' to soften and give a 'gaussed out' appearance.
 
The hover skirt was painted dark grey, washed with the black wash (the name escapes me' and the lightly dry brushed with the base shade again.
 
Small details were then quickly added in simple schemes... (IE guns were blacked and then given a quick flick with Vallejo 'gunmetal')
 
Aerials were cut from a plastic 'yard brush' from the local 99p store and glued into place with super glue before being given a quick coat of matt black. Look for one of the silver plastic brushes which seem to have thinner bristles.
 
Simple as that folks... The secret is to keep it straight forward and look at photo's of real vehicle paint work that's been in the field.
 
The infantry was sprayed grey like the tanks and then washed with 'Asurmen Blue'. No highlighting or dry brushing was used. Flesh was in three stages - Calthan Brown, dark flesh (Vallejo) and then dark flesh and a bit of white.
 
Numerous two stage 'military shades' were used for the hats and webbing, and weapons were black followed by gunmetal'
 
For the basing I used thick canvas board. The Pampas was made with 'hair' from 'Woodland Scenics' which was made into little bunches and sealed at one end by 'kneading' general purpose adhesive. Once dry, make a small hole on the base where you want it to go and secure with a drop of G P adhesive. NOTE: DO NOT USE SUPER GLUE ON THIS MATERIAL - EVER. (It spreads through the hair, will burn you and gives off very nasty fumes.)
 
I painted the whole base with a 3:2 mix of PVA and earth coloured acrylic. I then dipped it into FINE BEACH SAND ( I actually go to Cleethorpes for mine  it's the best),. When dry, I then painted it with the same mix. This locks in the sand and stains it.
 
When thoroughly dry, I used a buff dry brush and then a lighter final flick of buff/white.
 
Rocks were cork chips and the grass and bushes were again by 'Woodland Scenics' which is without a doubt the best scenic material manufacturer in the world. So many people ruin a great miniature by using terrible basing materials. Static grass is great on larger scales but the 'Woodland Scenics' stuff can be blended for a realistic  shade and is available in many grades to allow you to create any type of ground cover. When applied with the brown PVA mix, you get a very realistic finish indeed.
 
As a quick aside, even a poor paint job can be really turned into something else with good basing - trust me on this. Again, look at real terrain for inspiration and think about the colour of your vehicles and infantry.
 
Bases were quickly edged in black. This 'frames' the model and draws the eye.
 
My next project will be around 50 vehicles and I'll be trying out the beautiful decals by 'Fighting Piranha Graphics' in the U.S who make such things as 'nose art' for 1/300 mechs!  I'll report on my experiences at a later date.
 
And in a nutshell folks that was how I painted the army in 40 hours (five shifts of 8 hours)
 

[Meier_Elf_Fanatic]

Were I to do this again, I'd use Silflor/Mininatur for the grass etc...

[Inso]

Thanks for the larger pix...it is a lovely little army  .

If I didn't know it was 15mm I would have thought it was 25mm...I love the nose art of the Old Crow combat cars.  Smashing stuff!

[Meier_Elf_Fanatic]

Ta

[Paddy649]

Nice stuff Mark!  Good to see clean combat cars - mine are littered with all sorts of baggage!
Can you tell me about where the figs and kit came from in the last photo?
Paddy

[Meier_Elf_Fanatic]

The figures are the GZG generic command

Everything else is card and plastic sprue. The iMac has pacman on the screen  too

[Paddy649]

Pac Man!.......far too relistic!

[Meier_Elf_Fanatic]

That was the idea... I have a picture of the screen somewhere...