WIP shots New Korean War figs from Acheson

I've been very busy here trying to catch up on deliveries that should have been made at Cold Wars and still keep the other orders moving. To make a long story short Allison, who is a substitute teacher, has been appointed to a full time position until the end of the school year to fill a vacancy at the school. So we're short of painters here which has resulted in the schedule I had planned basically being tossed out the window. As a result I have quit taking on new customers and am concentrating on the work that is currently here.

Here's some WIP shots of some new figures that will be coming out from Acheson Creations. They are 28mm Korean War US and Chinese figures. Since the kit is basically the same as late WWII, these figures would also work for late winter WWII, and I think the Chinese would even fill in for some of the eastern divisions the Soviets used to halt the German advance.

These are getting pretty close to completion. There's some detail work to be picked out on them and then the basing needs done. I wasn't really happy with the way they were turning out but I put them aside for a few days and I suppose they don't look too bad.

Sculpted by Richard Deasey, they will be produced by Acheson Creations and will be the first of their Korean War line released. Once I get these finished up and sent off the Craig he can get some images done and get them put up in their webstore.

Speaking of upcoming items from Acheson here's a sneak peak of something in the works. These are images of the masters and I'm pretty excited to see what these will look like in the flesh:

Anybody want to guess what these are? I will tell you they are masters for both 15mm and 28mmm versions. I know Craig's been slow with the terrain of late but he's been busy trying to get their figure lines up to speed. With what's in the pipeline it may just be worth the delay.


I'm off to finish the Korean War figs and yet another 15mmm French Napoleonic army. <<sigh>> I think this makes what, number five?!? Once I get this banged out though there's some interesting stuff to give me a break from the Napoleonics in 15mm.

28mm JTFM WWII Vehicles

Doug Kline, the owner of Battlefield Terrain Concepts (BTC), recently gave us a few JTFM WWII vehicles to do for him. They included a Sherman Firefly, a StuG, and 2 SdKfz 251/1 halftracks. We completed them and delivered them at Cold Wars.

The vehicles were base-coated  with the airbrush using Vallejo Model Air paints. They were then highlighted with dry-brushing using Vallejo Model Color paints and the details were picked out as well. Finally, some pastels pastels were used to add some weathering. The pastels are Doc O'Brien's Weathering Powders.

Sherman Firefly

The German vehicles had some foliage added to them when I got to the show. I wanted to confirm with Doug a few details before adding the foliage. Here's the German vehicles before:

German SdKfz 251/1's and StuG

Here's the StuG with the foliage added and placed on the BTC bocage demo table they had set up at Cold Wars:

This is the view the Sherman Firefly would have of the disguised StuG. The StuG is at the point of the Y of the roads:

Overall I like the JTFM models. They have incredible detail. My only complaints are that some of the finer details are somewhat fragile being cast in resin. Also, some parts are sometimes warped. This can be mostly corrected with hot water. Despite the water in our house being extremely hot, some parts still had a slight warp to them. One halftrack's body suffered from this, but the foliage disguised it perfectly.

Oh, the the skirts for the StuG are a pain in the rear. It took some fiddling and trimming but I eventually got them to fit. Now that I have one under my belt I plan on going back and adding them to the StuG I did for us but never put them on.

Still they are nice models and I wouldn't overlook them on account of these two minor issues. They paint up beautifully.

Eureka Turtle Tank Completed

We recently did the Eureka Turtle Tank as a commission for a customer. Here's the images of the completed model:

Architects of War Terrain

Well I'm back from Cold Wars so now it's time to get cracking in the studio working on orders. As I said before I left I plan on posting some images of some of the orders we completed and delivered at the show. First up is some of the Architects of War terrain.

Some may recall a company a few years back called Barb's Bunker. Well Barb is back and it's quite a good thing. The new company is called Architects of War and they are producing some really stunning terrain pieces. These will add great flavor to any table and there will definitely be some finding their way onto mine.

Their plowed field:

The figure is a Perry miniatures War of the Roses figure. This gives a sense of scale to the field.

Their garden

The family plot

A well

Various campsite pieces

The major parts were in a resin with the details cast in metal.The resin pieces were all well cast with no visible air bubbles. They cleaned up in a snap with no mold release or residue left on them. They also took paint extremely well. Highly recommended.

Harbinger Heaven...

So, I got that Harbinger finished right before Cold Wars.  I'm sure the customer will be pleased.  As I said before, she should have been made of plastic (although I detest plastics for the most part).  To this very moment I keep worrying about whether or not she'll fall apart.  Bob did pin her joints and we used JB Weld, but I still worry; it's part of my nature. 

However, I want you to take a close look at our one, awesome modification.  (BTW: someone else may have come up with it, but I didn't see it anywhere on the web so <<raspberry>>) 

We used Jewelry Essentials CHAIN in gold Item#JC15173-02 from Michael's Craft Store.

The chain was JB Welded to her first; let to dry thoroughly over-night.

Then, the chain was positioned to them, cut to length, and JB Welded.  Again, it was let to dry over-night.

Originally, the chains that her attendants are holding were molded and part of the package.  Yeah, that wasn't going to work.  She would have had to have been positioned perfectly in place with each attendant in the correct position in order for those short, molded chains to fit correctly.  Guess what?  They didn't fit.  I told Bob "to hell with those chains we're going to use real ones". 

After the JB Weld was let to dry, I painted the gold chains Burnished Gold and washed them in Ogryn Flesh wash.

Now it looks like it was supposed to be there and I think it matches the molded chains that are dragging beneath the attendants pretty well.

Lastly, touch-ups were done to the hands of the attendants, to her gold hip-plates and her white robes.  Inevitably, I got JB Weld on her robes because I wanted to anchor those chains and the hip-plates securely.  You can hardly tell, even close-up and in person.

There you have it!  If you have this model, or want to purchase it but don't feel like breaking windows over her, go buy jewelry chain.

Heading out to Cold Wars and Burning the Midnight Oil

We're in the midst of getting things ready for Cold Wars. Hectic is the word of the day here as we frantically try to finish orders. We've even brought in the second shift:

One plus I noticed today with living in a 100+ year old house: plenty of ventilation! The wind was pretty heavy today and as a result, I had a constant breeze blowing over my lap from the window to my left. At least the cat helped keep me warm.

I wanted to get pictures up of the deliveries but I simply ran out of time. Tomorrow morning as I pack and load things I'll get some pics and get them up when I get back from the show.

I want to take the opportunity to thank a few of our friends, without whom we would have never been ready for the show: Bobby Dern, Eric and Christie Heese, and Mike Mullig. Thanks for the hard work guys and we really appreciate you.

See you at Cold Wars!

It was a Harbinger kind of Friday!

First let me start out by saying that Bob, my husband, nearly threw this out the window.  The only thing that stopped him was the thought of a broken window.  This model is horrible to put together.  I like to remind him that this is a hobby and that is why some models are overly complicated.  This one in particular is a trial of patience and more complicated than necessary.  Sadly, though I dislike plastics, it should have been done in plastic and not in metal.

Bob sprayed her with Bone Shadow (Reaper Master Series) with the airbrush.

Then she received a pseudo-Dallimore of Polished Bone (RMS) and a highlight of Stencil (Panzer Aces).  She was then washed with a solution of Stencil and water.  Remember, the watered down solution of the Stencil will run into the creases and soften the darker spots of the Bone Shadow.

Her metals are Burnished Gold and skin is Gold Shadow (RMS), pseudo-Dallimore of Golden Highlight and will be washed with Ogryn Flesh.

Like I said, she came in multiple pieces, to assemble all of it at once would have made it nearly impossible to paint so these are the parts left off, painted and will be assembled in the end.

The gold has been washed with Ogryn Flesh and so has her skin.

The cloaks/robes of the followers or attendants are done in Burgundy Wine (RMS), dry-brushed in Red (Model Color), dry-brushed in Red Violet (RMS).  Their hand bandages along with her stockings are Bone Shadow and highlighted in Polished Bone with a wash of Badab Black.

The person that ordered this wanted the insides of the sword to look as if there is fire within.  As you can see there is a little bit of red applied with orange and yellow to make it look fiery.

Her lips are done in a light blush color and washed in Ogryn Flesh.  Hair in Ocher (CV) and highlighted in Ocher 11.

I'm still not done with the painting but I think you see where I'm going with it.  Eventually I'll post the remaining images as it is finished.