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| Hunting pals. This picture does not adequately dwarf the Puma...it's more like a hunter's dog beside that. |
After a black basecoat I coat the model in GW Foundation Charadon Granite as the black gives too intense of a shadow effect. The schurzen spaced-armour plates are left off at this point to give access to the treads. These are based with GW Tin Bitz, brushed with gunmetal, and the wheels/lower hull get quick wipe of the yellow Vallejo Middlestone. All this gets a brown wash to shade/dirty the lower areas quickly and easily.
The main block painting is done with the same Vallejo Middlestone as my Dunkelgelb colour. Panel lines and breaks are left grey for contrast. Schurzen is attached after this step for most tanks, but on the Panther the panels are small and cover nothing to be seen, so I attached them before.
Highlighting done with Vallejo German C. Beige. This effect is far less noticeable than the picture makes it seem, but it tones down the vibrancy of the yellow. The model can be finished here if you're going for the 1942-43 colour scheme, but I found this a bit dull and added strips of red/green camo to late-war models.
The camo is applied in two steps. First, Vallejo Reflective Green and Flat Brown are mixed 50/50 with the base yellow and drybrushed/stippeled on with a soft brush in wide stripes. This gives the soft, sprayed-on effect I'm going for. I try to leave soft edges without filling in all the panel-lines carefully left exposed.
Finally the two colours are applied in the same way, but without being mixed. I leave a strip of the 50/50 mix on each side to blend it into the yellow base. All that remains is details, decals, and foliage!
Plastic Soldier Company Review:
My models are mainly from Battlefront, but for halftracks I couldn't even consider paying the ~$300 I'd need for the resin models. A google later I was at the aptly-named Platic Soldier Company site, and picked up a Panzergrenadier set w/ 15 SdKfz 251 halftracks and a company of infantry. I tacked on a box of 5 StuGs and 5 Panthers, and my total cost was still under $150. So, cost-wise, with a box of 5 vehicles running at about the cost of 2 from Battlefront, PSC is the clear victor.
I was impressed with all the models I received. Both the StuGs and the Panther came with two separate hulls for the different varients, and the StuG had every gun/mantlet combo ever fitted to the machine as options. The Panthers don't have Zimmerit coating, which is lame because most did, but for the late model Ausf G it's not such an issue. The quality was good, with none of the casting flaws inevitable on resin/metal and almost no gapping in my experience. A few miscasts are repeated in the Panther (front-side armour join) but overall isn't bad. Some people may mind the fiddly-scale of the details/guns: they are really 15mm scale, which is damn tiny when painting wargaming models.
On that note, the only issue with the halftracks would be the hair-thin nature of the MG42s. The ones with the tanks arent bad; the halftrack MGs are literally translucent. They are just not appropriate for wargaming models as they will snap off at a steady rate over time, no matter your storage. The tank kits had a bit of a lack in stowage pieces, but the halftracks came with plenty to spare including passengers sitting and various weapons (including one Panzerfaust per sprue :D).
I've head complaints that plastic is 'too flat' and makes for worse painting than metal/resin: these PSC models have tiny, tiny grooves etched into large flat areas such as on schurzen to help the paint disperse and stay put. The dry paint covers it entirely smooth, it's just a small touch that makes paining much faster and easier.
Overall, these PSC vehicles are excellent quality for the price. I've heard that the US Sherman kits experience way more gapping and assembly trouble, but I'll leave Jed to answer that one. HOWEVER: The infantry and commander models are disappointing: they are all very skinny beside the Battlefront lead miniatures, and come in rather lackluster poses. I have all the metal infantry I need and commanders to spare so it's no issue, but I would not recommend the infantry models as they do not fit with Battlefront miniatures as seamlessly as the vehicles. I would also take the time to find an old metal commander for your tank, as the PSC guy kinda ruins the seamless blend with BF vehicles.
Yeah, in my U.S. 4th Armd Coy I've got a mix of Battlefront Shermans and PSC Shermans. My M4A3E2's and M4A3E8's are BF and my M4A3(late)(105mm)'s are PSC and flat out the Battlefront minis are better. On base we have quite a few Shermans and the PSC minis look off. Their wheelbase is too thin making them look long and they're smaller than the BF minis overall. Also, while I thing BF has their gun diameter a little too big, PSC has them too small. this means the 76's on my E8's look the same diameter as the 105's.
ReplyDeleteThat said, the PSC infantry is good, they look a little better proportionate than the BF guys, but if you put them next to each other on a base you can just tell the difference.
I'm really liking the Forged in Battle minis, they're priced and detailed somewhere between the PSC tanks and the BF tanks. They're also almost identical when it comes to scale, and the people are very well proportioned. I'd go as far to say that I like them more, but when you've painted the models and put them side by side it's hard to tell. For example the jeeps look near identical, the difference being the driver and gunner.
Incredible job. Ive been painting up a bunch of infantry but I cant wrap my head around those tanks Im not really sure how to make them look good but Ill probably take this as both inspiration and a guide. I also, like most people, have taken a break from gaming to attend my studies, but Ill get some pictures up by the end of the weekend probably.
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