My Airbrush Booth

Yes, it has been a shitty couple of months for me.  Which happens sometimes in life.

First I had pneumonia for the month of August.  Then I had surgery to have a steel plate removed from my arm.  My stitches come out tomorrow.  Needless to say I haven't painted in probably 3 months.  But I think I'm ready for a come back.

One thing I did manage to do between coughing my lungs out and getting my arm sliced open was build an Airbrush booth.  Figured it was time since I was having respiratory issues.

I cut a hole in a plastic bucket and attached a bathroom fan to the back of it.  Then I'll just toss the hose out the window.  I haven't had a chance to test it yet.  Probably after I get my stitches out tomorrow.

Patton Was Right!

While I'm in between posts here...(stupid Strelkovy) I thought I would point out some of my viewpoints on history.  And before anyone gets pissy with me, just remember this is only my opinion on something where the world will never have all of the facts.  Should be an entertaining read anyway...take it for what its worth.

Every since becoming interested in WWII the one thing that has really bothered me was the American perception of the war.  At least as far as Europe was concerned anyway.

U-571 anyone?

Part I - American Propaganda

Growing up it was always, the Americans won the war, with out the Americans there was no hope.  The industrial might of the Americans saved the world....blah blah blah.  I don't think the attitude of the American general public as they become more educated.  But American documentaries are still as bad as ever.

Not to take anything away from those men that fought and died, but the documentaries that are ra-ra america are always like "Huge losses", "Brutal, bitter - fighting" and what ever other phrases they say to make it seem like the american suffered so much but persevered.

I was having a conversation with a few friends, and I asked them "Why do the Americans think these were such crazy battles?".  We were talking about a documentary on the Pacific that we recently watched.  He replied "I think its because the fighting was so close quarters, so personal".  The narrator made Iwo Jimi sound like it was the most intense battle of the entire was with insane casualties.  To me this summed up the whole American (media anyway) attitude towards the war.  What a bunch of BS.

STALINGRAD.

At Stalingrad both sides lost more men in 6 months then the Americans did in the entire war.  And you can't get much more close quarter and brutal fighting then room to room in -40 degree weather.

Iwo Jima Casualties
Japan - 21,844 killed
USA - 6,821 killed

Stalingrad
German - 750,000 Killed, missing or wounded
Soviet - 478,741 killed or missing

I mean come on, not even in the same ball park on the same continent.

In fact only a few months ago, someone argued with me to the point of yelling that Americans could do no wrong.  "They never bombed civilians like the Germans did", he said.  I just laughed.  That didn't even warrant a response.   Sorry to say this was a Canadian that who was all Ra-Ra America.  But he only knows  what he saw on TV.  Those few American Propoganda documentaries that make people believe the war couldn't have been won without them.

Part II - D-Day Wasn't for Hitler. 

Not that you can trust documentaries but I watched a fantastic one a few months back called "Behind Closed Doors".  It was all about the relationship between the Allied Leaders.

It also confirmed something I was starting to suspect the more I got into Flames of War and learned more about the different theatres and battles.

The Americans did not win the war for anyone.  Not to belittle their contribution but lets look at some time lines.

Most people consider Stalingrad the turning point in the war... debatable.
So, February 1943 the Soviets starting pushing back towards Germany.
The Americans were getting their ASS kicked at the Kasserine Pass.

In July 1943 the Battle of Kursk happened basically at the same time the Allies landed in Sicily.  Yes this helped pull German troops off the line at Kursk but the Germans had no reserves.  The Soviets were already on their way to Berlin before the Allies landed in Europe.

Now back to this show "Behind Closed Doors".  All 3 leaders were going behind each others backs to wheel and deal.  And the more I find out about Churchill the more I think he just wanted more territory for the British Empire.  Nothing different then Stalin.

Apparently, the Allies told Stalin they would land in Europe in 1942, but didn't.  They then told him again they would land in 1943 (D-day) but didn't.  You are pissing off an already UBER paranoid psycho.  This show basically says they continually lied to Stalin, and each other.  Then they started having meetings behind each others backs.  Churchill was the worst of all of them in my mind.

Great show, how much truth there is to it, I have no idea.  But, it was pretty convincing.

Conclusion 

After watching this show and thinking about my own screwed up theories, I am 100% convinced that the Allies never intended to land in France to help the Russians.

The only reason the Allies landed in 1944 was because they realized "HOLY SHIT" the Russians really are on their way to Berlin without us.  They had to land,  not to stop Hitler, but to stop the Soviets from taking all of Europe.

And the more I learn about Churchill the more I'm convinced he is solely responsible for the entire Cold War.  Think about it.  How the Allies carved up Europe in WWI caused WWII.  And what the Allies did in at the end of WWII caused the cold war.

Ya, Stalin was looking for territory the whole time, but so was Churchill.  Which isn't the image of Heroism we were all led to believe about Churchill, or any "Allied - Democratic" leader.

I don't think the Allies were ever worried about Germany.

Patton Was Right!

Technical Pen Take 3

Well I've decided to try the technical pen again. Last time I tried to find one no one seemed to even know what a technical pen even was. I do live in a city that is 20 years behind the times. I mean everyone here thinks AC/DC is a cool new band.

Last week someone posted some pictures on our Flames of War Canada Forum.  Little did I know that it was Glen Tarbet who was interviewed in the first Art of War book.  I always loved his style, and took the opportunity to find out how he does it.

He told me the exact pen that he uses and I went on the hunt.  This time I found the correct pen.

A Kor-i-noor with a 3x0/.25 tip

I decided to do one soviet grey coat, and see how it turned out.

Looks kinda goofy in the close ups, but I must say it looks pretty striking at arms length (the dreaded 3ft rule).  It is going to slow me down, my already slow infantry painting process, but maybe with some practice...

Thinking about doing all my strelkovy like this now.  The wife thinks it looks cartoony, but I'm finding at this scale the more contrast the better it looks on the table.

Let me know your thoughts.  

New way better?

Older Infantry for comparison

Kampfgruppe Bäke Up Close

Here are my finished Kampfgruppe Bake Vehicles. They turned out pretty well. I still have a few tiny details that I forgot, but i'll get to them when I do the vehicle crews and finish the Bergepanther. I also have winter coat Germans to paint as well to totally finish up the Kampfgruppe Bake.

I used a blue background for these pictures because of the whitewash, so we'll see how they turn out.

Let me know what you think.

Kampfgruppe Bäke First Showing

Took my Kampfgruppe Bäke to their first tournament this weekend.  I didn't take as many pics as I thought, but later tonight I will post some beter pics of the finished vehicles.

2 great things happened at this tournament.

I met a few people that I've been chatting with on the FoW Canada Forum.  Chris and Wayne.
Chris is a funny funny guy.  Seems to have the same sarcastic humour that I have.  I suggest not letting him talk to "those" Saskatoon guys, because they will just end up hatting him.
And Wayne, who was all worried about his non-Battlefront miniatures.  Ended up he had like one little no BF guy mounted on his tanks.  Couldn't even tell.  Although he finished 2nd, so maybe I should call foul?  Na, what a good guy.  Apparently everyone else thought so because he was the only one to get FULL sportsmanship marks. 

The 2nd great thing is that the tournament app had its first successful run.  Even tested groups out.  There were 3 groups that didn't want to play each other.  The app preformed great.  Chris even mentions it in his Blog Report.  He was worried he and his buddy were going to end up playing each other.  We had one little hiccup because a player left early but didn't really affect any of the logic in the app. 

On to the tournament.

Round 1 I played Duncan.  This was the buddy that came with Chris.  I believe that Duncan is a newish player.  He showed me that I don't play enough.  I was forgetting all kinds of rules.  Not the rules nazi's greatest moment that is for sure.  I did end up beating him thanx to some bad rolling by Duncan.  He also wasn't as aggressive as a soviet player needs to be.  But he will be a good player if he keeps at it.  A joy to play for sure.  Squeaked out a 5-2 win.  

Round 2 I played Chris.  Well talk about the worst army on the worst table in the worst mission.  No Retreat  on the most open table I've ever seen.  I know lots of people hate really open tables, and even though this was the worst situation for my army ever, I still like open tables.  Armies don't always get to decide where battles happen.  The thing is when I say I like open tables,  people seem to think I only like open tables.  No, I think at tournaments there should be a mixture of terrain heavy tables and more open tables.  Needless to say, because the table was so open, and because Chris had so much AT, instead of sitting back and getting picked off little by little, I decided to be super aggressive away from the Konigstiger.  I was pretty much wiped off the map.  I think the one main key for me is true to form I failed my first Stormtrooper move and my half-tracks blocked everyone else's stormtrooper move.  But Chris was still very fun to play and I can say the only person I lost to was the Champion.<

Now my 3rd game is funny as hell.  I played the tournament organizers son a few months back in a for fun game and he absolutely spanked me.  So, I've been playing up that I need my revenge game and that the  Kampfgruppe Bäke was built specifically defeat him.  Because of that a few accusations were thrown my way when Levi and I were matched up in round 3.

We played Hasty Assault and I ended up being a defender.  How often do a bunch of tigers and panthers have to defend?  Things did not start off well for me.  I started with 4 Panthers and my 3 armoured AA guns on the table.  He came flying down with his T-34's.  At one point he had all my panthers and 1 of my AA guns bailed out.  Lucky for me my AA guns kept his Sturmovik at bay for a few turns.  I failed my first reserves roll and these were the only units I had on the table for 4 turns.

I think it was the 4th turn Levi's dice turned against him.  He had 4 side shots one of my panthers and couldn't finish him off.  I don't think he rolled higher then a 3 the rest of the game.  My tigers came on in the 5th turn and I went on the offensive.  My panthers and tigers together were just too much for the Soviet armour.  I ended up with a 6-1 win.

All in all a very fun tournament except for the heat.  The owner told us he was turning the AC on, but I think he thinks AC means turn the one fan on upstairs.  There was no AC.

Chris ended up taking first overall.  Wayne was 2nd and took home Best Sportsmanship.  2 of the "Non-Ass" Saskatoon guys (Rob and Lorne) took 2nd and 3rd overall...which doesn't really mean 2nd and 3rd overall.  since Wayne took sports and I was 3rd and took Best Historical.

Funny story that I took as a compliment, when they announced that I won best paint, Rob rolled his eyes and said "Curtis wins paint, again!".

Lance did up some cool little trophies as well, and I was lucky enough to take one.

Kampfgruppe Bäke Log Part IV - Test Models are for Beginners.

Don't know if everyone reads the comments, but someone had suggested that I try things on test models.  I don't really believe in that.  I'm a developer by trade, and in that world your test "environment" has to be exactly the same as your production.  I take painting tanks the same way.  If I try some new technique you never know what can affect the results.  So, I'm not going to paint an entire tank exactly how I want just so I can test using something new.  You never know what kind of chemical reaction can occur.  I may try BF's pigments on a test model where I didn't spray it with hairspray, paint it white, and try to scrub it all off.  It may look completely different.  I just can't justify painting 2 models every time I want to try something new.  especially since I almost always try something new on every model.

What I usually do is test most things on Transports that are part of the army.  For instance I tested a lot of this stuff on the kubalwagon in the armoured artillery battery.  Because most of the time transports don't matter.  I don't even have to take that piece if it turns out really crappy.  my HQ and scouts can just start unmounted.

But, everyone has their own way, and different things work for different people.  I just have too many things to paint.  I'd rather have a crappy model painted that I can fix later then more unpainted things.  If this Bake army doesn't turn out, ill leave it as is, and then some time down the road i'll put it in the Simple Green and try again.  This actually really works out for me because usually 6 months to a year down the road my painting has improved so much that I would end up wanting to paint it over again anyway, even if it was really good at the time.

Well, I've painted all the tracks muddy, and let some of the spray go up on the tank.  I really like this effect rather then using a brush.  Then I used devlin mud thinking it would make the creases darker.  It didn't.  So once again I'm still having terrible troubles with washes.  I just can't get them to do what I want.  Maybe I just have to go to a pen.

To be honest painting all the tracks like this was a total cop out.  The one thing I absolutely hate (because I suck at it) is painting the damn road wheels on tanks.  So, these tracks are full of mud and snow.  

I've started adding snow using Tamiya sticks, the same as the mud ones I used before...except snow.  I love these sticks, they work great, but they seem to get on the raised parts instead of more in the creases.  It's far more obvious with snow then it was with mud.  I'm going to try doing a bit more manual work on them today or tomorrow.  But using the 3 foot rule they definitely look like they are driving through snow.

I also tried for the first time the BF pigments.  Wow, these things are awesome.  I was really nervous about using them. (to bad I didn't have a test model.) And its really hard to find people who know how to use them.  One thing I did read is that most people use paint thinner with them.  Well that's just fine and dandy, but how much?

So, I said to hell with it and just tried it.  It turns out it doesn't really matter how much paint thinner.  Its not like mixing paint to go through an airbrush.  I brushed it on and it when on with a gritty texture.  It looked great.  I made the mistake of thinking it was going on like paint, because when it dried it turns back into a powder and still comes off on your fingers.  NOTE TO SELF: do pigments very very very last.

I put pigments on the gun barrels and tracks on the hull.  I'd have to say I really like how they look.   With the airbrushing my tracks and pigments, I'm thinking of totally revamping how I do tank tracks.  Pigments are now a MUST!  We'll just see how they look after the varnish.  Might have to do them again after.

So here is what they look like so far.  Again crappy pictures taken at workstation with phone...But I am almost done, so I will be good pictures soon.  Think I want to do a bit of pin washing, a bit more details, and I have to do the commanders.

Enjoy.

Kampfgruppe Bäke Log Part III - Hairspray is for Chicks

Ya...the hairspray thing didn't work so well.  I'm not really sure what happened.  I thought I had pretty good coverage, but maybe not.  Maybe my airbrush paint is too good.  Maybe I let the hairspray dry to long.  I used an aerosol can, but maybe should have just bought a bottle and ran it threw my airbrush.

But, I was led to believe that hairspray dissolves with water.  I scrubbed the shit out of these vehicles.  It was a struggle to get the paint that did come off removed.  At one point I even tried using a toothpick to scrape it off.

I was about to give up and drop every single vehicle in the Simple Green.  But, I figured I can do that any time so I might as well see how they turn out.

I'm still having a hell of a time with washes.  I decided to try Devlan Mud.  Works not to bad so far.  Basically the same as the BF Shades.

I'm giving everything a coat of thinned down devlan mud. and then going back over some parts with the white.  Makes it look kinda dirty.

Because not as much white came off as I had hoped, I decided to paint the entire tracks and wheels muddy. Then i'll put some packed snow here and there.  They are actually starting to turn out.  I may not dump them in the Simple green after all.  At least I know my paint and varnish work well, because I scrubbed the piss out of those things.

Pictures are just at my work station, so they kinda suck. but I'm sure you get the "picture"