Sunday, September 15, 2013

Product Review: Warlord French AMC Schneider P16 Half-track

Trying to get ready for the new French and Allied book I picked up my first vehicle as I heard the Panhards may suck so I opted to go with the P16 Schneider half-track for a starting Armored Car.

Everything you get.

What I really liked the most is the detail of the tools stored on the vehicle.

The other side.

One thing I hate, air bubbles! 
I had to use some filler to fix it, no big issue.

The light kit and roller.

Tracks and tire kit.

Turrent with main gun and MMG

Assembled side shot.

Front shot.

Another side shot.

The rear.

The good: High detail with the tools and is a cool looking oldie but goodie for the French ranks.

The bad: Had some air bubbles in the rear, the tracks was a bit of a pain in the ass to line up. I also drilled out the MMG and pinned it in as I felt i would have popped off otherwise after the first game. The cable on the one side was a bit lumpish and I had to use some creative knife work to clean that spot. The light kits are also a bit of  pain to seat into those tiny holes! 

Overall I give it 3 out of 5 stars. It is a good kit, it has a few mold issues as you can tell that set me off a little as it made me do more work than I admit I like to do. I like clean mold models that require minimal work and slap together to get them to the painting table and then to the game table!


WW2 Bolt Action Painting Update

Well, over the past week or so I have been doing a variety of this and that for Bolt Action, here are the results of where I am at!

My Germans, on the final leg of touch ups and base work.

French Alpine Chaussers in progress.

My LMG team that I rebased.

American Lt and assistant for my Demo set.

Sniper Team for my Demo set

Squad 1 for the demo set.

close ups

better shot

some of the guys in the back

Squad 2 for the demo

Sgt and BAR

close up of the squad

more o the squad

Tiger, my first early attempt to airbrush the camo, going to touch it up. Not bad, but very light.

222 with green sprayed on some, still have to add rust and more green later.

Westwind Wierbelwind with green on it. Just playing around with my new airbrush paints.

About 40 French primered brown/green using the airbrush. 
Took about an hour as I am new to using an airbrush.

Rebased Alpine Chaussers LMG....I like the larger bases for a more scenic shot.

Judge Dredd - Ape Gang Progress

Well, I have been painting my Ape Gang slowly right now while I was waiting for m friend to get his Judges boxed set in, which arrived last week. I figure we will be playing some games soon enough once we both get our figures painted up.

While I am not finished yet, here is some teaser shots....

Ape Martial Artist - Brawler (Clix figure that I cut the weapons off, changed the base out and primered/repainted it). 

EL Camandre the ape leader of the APE REVOLUTION
(From the Boiler Apes line)

Brawler Ape that will be a minion.

Pulp City ape, but hey he had a chain gun!

O'trang Sniper 

Ape with flamethrower
(from the Apes in Boiler suits)

Judges beware! The Ape Revolution has begun! 
Freedom for Primates! 


A few random Old West Figures done!

I just finished off a few old west figures a few weeks back and they have been sitting on my painting desk ready to go into the case for storage. So, while I was cleaning up, I managed to snap few pictures. I think most are Foundry or Crusader.


Civilian with shotgun

 Tough with pistol and derby hat.

Bank robber.

Outlaw half breed.

Group shot!

Paint Talk

Well, I got  few new things in the mail this past week and figure I would chat about paints since that was a a majority of what I got in the last two packages as I have been trying to wrap up various painting projects....

So, I figured now is a good time to chat about paints and if you like post up your thoughts about paints you use.

I have been a long time user of Citadel paints since the early 90's (as you can see by the old bottle below) and of late have started to become a bit disappointed with how things have changed. First the bottles they moved from the old stopper top to the screw cap (wow that was bad and then the flip cap on the new ones. These past two choices have sucked ass frankly. Paint dries out too quickly if you get any air in them and with these cheap bottles, it happens. Plus I think GW has started to use a cheaper paint choice and are cutting corners on their quality. I have always liked several of their colors and including new ones like the Foundation colors but have since been moved to Base colors which are now lacking the quality that the Foundation had and the washes are not what the good ole inks used to be. Of late, I tend to buy limited choices of colors from the GW line as I am finding other colors that I like better.

A snap of the classic bottle! This is like classic Coke vs New Coke above! 

P3 has really impressed me, I only own about  half dozen of the colors so far and most are the browns and greens as well as their brown ink and I have to say this takes me back to the old desired days of GW quality. I will continue to dabble with using these paints and recommend to anyone that has not tried them to give them a try as to me they are well worth it.

Foundry paints I am in love with. My only gripe is the price as I have to pay the British Sterling cost and overseas shipping to get them. So, when I order I have to order big to make it worthwhile. The great thing about these colors is they are sold in a set of three. I love this as it gives you  base and highlights in one simple package with no mixing or blending. Just paint and go! I love that, painting done simple! A good company to purchase from. I love the stopper bottles again! Classic to old GW and if I recall, Foundry or Coat'D'arms uses to make paint for GW before they branched off on their own line.

Coat D'arms another decent color of paint, a bit  hard for me to get except via mail order as the only store in my area closed that sold it I have tried the Bleach Bone, Wolf Grey and some of their metallics (blue and green) with great results and love this type of paint. If you see it, well worth your money at least for the colors I have bought,

Game Color, the are old Vallejios I tried a long time back. The jade green is a nice and striking color to use on miniatures while the red was well a bit thin for my tastes and hard to use as I had to paint layers to get it right. I'd rather use other choices for red which can be a hard color to work with.

Vallejio Air, this is a new experiment for me as I just bought an Air Brush and looking for that right paint to see how it works out for me I used the Green-Brown for my French to do about 40 in less than an hour in base coats for the coats and uniforms. The color is close to the straight color main by Vallejio and blended well together. I also go a Medium Green that made for a nice camo striping on my German Vehicles. I have bought about 6 to play around with: Orche, Med. Green, Khaki Brown, Rust, Grey Base ( for primer work on bad weather days) and Green Brown. So far, I am happy with the results, while I have read you can add to an airbrush and paint I still found I needed to add a tad of alcohol to thin the paint slightly. Not much mind you,  just a little bit.

I snacked up a few new colors for Vallejio including some colors for my German vehicles and the French army that I am painting up. So far, I like what I have used so far which includes Green-Brown, US Dark Green, German Field Grey with a few other colors left to try. So far, two colors I plan to give another try for but feel they are just crap is the Track Primer from the Panzer Aces, it sounded cool but wow is just like liquid crap and does not cover worth a darn. Chocolate Brown is another color that was water like and didn't cover worth a crap and that is what it looked like when I squeezed it on my pallet but in the runny way!

This is up for a future test, War Paints,  I have read a few good things about their product and figure I would give them a shot. Stay tuned for he results. 

Badger Minitaire paint, I have heard good things about this paint but I have yet to give it a try as of yet. I have noticed some colors are a total bitch to order and was rather annoyed by that very fact. Guess everyone and their mother is trying this color. Still, I got some colors to try including a Ghost Tint Black which appears to be like an ink of sorts for an airbrush and the pallid flesh and an off white color. I figure the green would be nice for my Death Guard when I get to them and the white could make for a good general tone for my Veritechs for Robotech Tactics.

So, share your experiences with the paints above or other paints that I may not have covered! I always like to hear what the general public says about paints they use.