'Armour' from Tamsin: 15mm Grav Tanks and APCs

Prepare yourselves for a shock folks - this may well be my only SciFi entry this Challenge.

(sounds of people fainting and hitting the floor hard)

OK, recovered? Then let's begin.

For this bonus theme round I decided to get some 15mm SciFi grav vehicles painted up. These are the Suharto MBT and the Sugama APC from Brigade Models. I also decided it would be a good opportunity to try out some of the HD stencils from Anarchy Models - I used the "mini" versions of the hexocam, digicam and tiger stripe, doing one tank and one APC in each pattern.

Hint #1 to anyone else who wants to use these stencils - don't press them onto the model too firmly; if you do, when you remove them at the end you may peel off the paint layers underneath. Yes, I did have to go back in with a brush for touch-ups.

The Suharto MBTs:

Hint #2 - make sure before painting that the colours aren't too close, unlike my green and dark grey...Until you've sprayed the last colour and peeled off all the stencils, you won't be able to tell how they look.

In hindsight, I should probably have gone with a green (or dark grey)/brown/tan scheme but it's too late now to go back and redo them..

All of these vehicles come with a resin body and metal parts (turrets, grav plates, hatches). If you look closely, you'll see that in some spots, the superglue I used seems to have reacted with the primer - odd when you consider that I left them a day or two before priming.

The Sugama APCs:

Hint #4 - check, double-check and then double-check your double-check that you have removed all the stencils before you varnish the models - especially with the digicam and hexocam!

Each of the three camo colours was airbrushed, with highlights also applied by airbrush (from about 80 degrees above).

Hint #5 - let each stage dry thoroughly before applying the next lot of stencils.

Once all the camo colours had been airbrushed on I removed all the stencils (apart from the ones I missed!). The models then got two light coats of Klear airbrushed on which I allowed to dry for a few days before washes - umber wash all over, then a targeted black wash. the lights were painted silver, then glazed with pale blue or dark red before everything was sprayed with matt varnish.

For the bases, I first did small patches of 4mm static grass, then brushed on more PVA and added 2mm static grass. I used my FlockBox from WarPainter for this - here's a close-up pic:

So, to round up this post. The stencils are very useful for doing camo patterns, particularly fiddly modern ones, but they do take a fair bit of time to apply and remove. And you do have to be very careful when using them (see all my hints above).

The FlockBox is a marvellous piece of kit and I'm glad I bought it at Colours this year. It gives a much better effect than puffer bottles. OK, so it's a bit more messy - just cover the bench with old newspaper and you'll be fine.

Anyway, that's enough wittering, for points this entry consists of six 15mm vehicles at 6 points each = 36 points plus the theme bonus points.