0As a prelude to an intensive painting session of 3 King Tigers (which I must make presentable enough to play within 5 days as we intend to photoshoot our next AAR this weekend) I decided to tidy my entire assembled chaos of figures, paints and, well everything in that department.
My tidying method is unorthodox.
I tend to pile everything up in a huge mass, and then work diligently through it. It was interesting to see the ‘pile’ one accumulates over the course of the year from a base of zero – because one year ago I didn’t know Flames of War even existed, and had barely even heard of any other gaming genre as I had left it entirely in my past.
The only brushes I had were ones to paint life sized walls with. Ones you didn’t really have to squint at for hours.
So As an homage to Big Lee’s popular blog with his Big Picture I took a snapshot for the Model Dads blog.
2 hours later and its all in one shelf 
Thats a lot of stuff accumulated in just a year. I dread to think what my pile would look like, especially if I included books. In fact its probably safer if I don’t put it all together because if Mrs BigLee saw how much I have bought over the last twelve months I’d be grounded!
You’ll just have to get it all out again when you start painting your kittys!
Tonight’s the night!
Late Mozart piano sonata’s, glass of Pinot Noir wine, three King Tigers and me.
Oh and a large packet of cheese and onion crisps!
Mozart?! Pinot Noir??!! King Tigers require Lied Der Panzertruppen, three crates of Becks and possibly two Bockwurst (for the munchies) Only at that point are you suitably mentally prepared for TriColour camo ambush scheme over Zimmeritt (I know I know it’s not historically accurate blah blah but it’s quite pretty in a tanky sort of way)
Just reading the post again: So your method of tidying up is to pull everything off the shelf, play with it for a few hours and then put it all back on the shelf again? Sounds like someone was finding a way of getting out of the washing up to me…
Mark
Well the furthest I go east with the classics is Mahler. I cant abide Wagner. (Unless we really go east, then it has to be Mussorgsky and Stravinsky)
Military music I can do if it has a soul, and leans towards nostalgia rather than triumphalism – Red Army Choir anyone?
With regard to the beer, a lot of this German beer seems to be ‘blond’ and I can abide the stuff. Nasty after taste. Can’t see why it’s so popular. Urgh.
Yes well in relation to the tidying, this is nothing. When I do a whole room, I will literally create something along these lines:
If people walk in while I am in progress, they think I’m either creating art or gone bonkers.
Welcome to my world.
any progress with the Kitties?
Well,
I am finding these tanks easier than my panthers mainly due to the fact that
a) I have not opted for any camo
b) My paint layers are less and thinner
c) Although these are only my second set of tanks I’ve ever painted, I’ve learnt a lot from the bodging on the first ones!
d) Wolfie’s early sonatas smoothed the way. A little Mendelssohn also.
Here’s where I’m at as of Friday morning:
I will try to get some of the dozens of little additional fixtures complete as possible but the skirts are the priority so I can achieve the overall look for the battlefield tomorrow night.
Keep up the good work! Did you undercoat black? Are you brush painting or airbrushing? And why did you paint all components seperately – personal preference or another reason? No camo??? (Chicken! – baawkbawkbawk). And I wonder why one hull has the cooling grille covered on one side only and another the other way round?
Here’s the sitauation at 7pm:
Still got 3 half tracks to do which Justin has requested for our AAR; they are going to be rough and ready but hey.
In response:
Did you undercoat black? > Black, then a dark green in preparation for a cammo then bottled it after I saw my Panthers
Are you brush painting or airbrushing? >Brush
And why did you paint all components separately > Saw over Justin’s shoulder he does this so just follow suit.
nd I wonder why one hull has the cooling grille covered on one side only and another the other way round?> This is part of the cast, no idea.
Should be done about midnight. So probably 2am. Bleary eyed for the battle then. I think he planned it this way
Mwahahahahaha…keep up the good work!
Can you write a list of the brand and names of colors used? At least the basic colors of the hull
Ps My wife saw me looking at this picture and asked if I was doing this painting on my tank ROFL
really nice model – wish I could get to that standard..
Anyway – question – what colour are those tracks meant to be? The BF forums and books have the opinion that the Germans primed their tracks with primer red brown but they are the only people I know who say this. My normal track colour is a black prime/metallic steel dry brush / Rust and Dark brown washes / Followed by weathering and shiny highlights. The phot here seems to show a primed track colour – or is it rust?
Thoughts anyone?
Here’s the link to the article
Its not related to German production but I did come across a nice track article and this one as well
11.44pm Just done the dullcote, all finished. No time for weathering as family all day tomorrow, went for a heavy dark rough wash, at 900 odd points to deploy the three my expectations are high.
Gallery page relating to this thread
What color names and brands did you use? Can you please write a list?
Chris! Chris!! Please tell me you didn’t fall for Justin’s “you’ve got to drive the Kitties down a country lane while I assault in your flank with two hordes of T34′s in the ‘how many tanks under an artillery barrage template’ formation” scenario??
No artillery or planes, but the going was very difficult off the road – true to the historical conditions
I think this picture explains what happened on one Russian flank. The other had some bad luck and then reservations about going toe to toe with a frontal armour way into the double figures.
Do I win a prize for spotting the T34/85s were back to front? and that only the /76s were blown up (and how does a whole unit get ko’d like that surely the ones at the back are concealed?)
No prizes because as yet we have no sponsors. Yes I did ‘cross the line’ to take some of the photos, giving the impression the tanks are facing the other way, and it does lead to issues with orientation which I try to keep as few as possible in our AAR, although this is not always possible.
They were concealed in part but gaps in the trees did appear (we play rules that allow for individual trees, there is a blog discussion about this) so all tanks became visible. I believe knocked out tanks do not block LOS?
I think I cocked up the rules here. I let Chris roll against Regular, rather than Veteran crews and then forgot about Concealed for wrecks and smoke.
Resounding Doh!
I’ll post on this debacle soon
They are dead now, let them rest in peace