Project Panzergrenadier Kompany – Pt2

Progress…

Added stowage to most of the half tracks.

Added jerry cans of three different types on the rear left side of some vehicles.

Used the plastic cans from the Battlefront sprue. You get one can per sprue. I had three.

Added Peter Pig jerry cans on a frame to about four.

Added pairs of metal single PP jerry cans also.

The stowage is from the metal sprue in the late war box set. You four per sprue and you get two sprues.

Well there you have it.

Also spray painted the tracks and wheels.. now primed have to hand paint them before glueing.  That however… as they say….is another story.

Wet Palette

Ok here is my wet palette.  I’ve only been using it for a couple of days but it is fantastic.  I’ve not really used it to blend paints which as far as I can tell a wet palette just makes easier.  The primary advantage I can see is it keeps the paint wet and useful for well pretty much the entire evening (since I paint in the evenings). Really this palette is just based on Jen Haley’s (the Paintrix) article describing the exact same thing.

wp1Here are the basic ingredients.  The plastic from a fairly shallow flames of war blister.  And a piece of Games Workshop foam with the edges on the bottom trimmed for a snug fit.  It’s small but since I only paint for a few hours in the evening generally it’s plenty big enough for my purposes.

wp2The foam in situ so to speak with a piece of baking paper for the semi permeable  barrier cut to size.  I created a card template so I can trace out and cut multiple sheets from the baking paper (Pams cause I’m cheap) at once.  Since every time you use it you end up chucking away the paper at the end.  With a palette this small though you can get uncountable (for me at least) sheets.

wp3Ok here is the adding the water part.  I’m not really sure how to show this picture wise and what I’ve done isn’t really sufficient.  But at anyrate you want the sponge to be wet but you don’t really want so much water as to be pooling on top of the sponge like if you saturated it.  To much water and the paper barrier also becomes saturated and begins to water down your paints, which is possibly not a bad thing but it’s nicer to be in control of that yourself.

wp4Here is probably a pointless photo of me trying to show how much water is in the sponge.  There is a bit, it is a sponge afterall but it’s not overloaded.  Ultimately you’ll probably figure out what works and what doesn’t when you start using it.  It’s only water so you can add to it and remove it without difficulty.

wp5This is with the paper on and some paint on the palette.  I’ve pushed the paper onto the sponge a little so you can see that it’s wet underneath.  This keeps the paint cool and wet, to give you some idea of the benefit in this, that is vallejo german grey on the palette.  That amount of that paint on a dry palette would be starting to dry in about 30mins, the pigment sticking together and the paint becoming crumbley and bitsy.  So if I was painting a lot of figures I’d have to do lots of little drops every now and then to ensure I was using fresh paint.  However on the wet palette that paint lasted all evening.  The photo was taken at about 8:00pm and when I finished painting at 11:00pm it was still wet and usable.

Warhammer 40K

Thanks to a 30% off voucher the boys and I purchased the 40K Assault on Black Reach starter box.  Fantasy wise Tommy likes Skaven and James likes Orcs.  Since theres a better than even chance I will purchase the Fantasy Box that comes out in July which has Skaven in it (and give them to Tommy) I felt I should probably do something for James.  Given that I already have an Orc & Goblin Fantasy army and James has shown quite an interest in 40K (he plays Dawn of War II a lot on the computer) and he’s very fond of Orks I thought pursuing the 40K route might be worth a shot.  So with the box set down to $92 in which you get 26 Orks and 3 helicopters as well as 16 Space Marines and a Dreadnaught to play against, and a rule book too I think it’s probably a pretty good score.  Now of course Tommy wants Tyranids. (Skaven and Tyranids, both horde armies, fantastic).  Anyway my backlog of unpainted figures is ever increasing.

I’ve got to say though the thought of playing 40K still doesn’t excite me, though I think the rule book changed since I stopped, painting them should be fun.  And perhaps 40K will be quicker and easier for the boys to get to grips with.  It’s nice to have kids who share your interests.

On that note I varnished my two FJ platoons this weekend, my recoiless guns and my kettenkrads.  Almost finished the FlaK38 crews now too.  I have a simple green bath soaking my wardancers and a bunch of LOTR figures Martin gave me.  So slowly ticking things over.