Ultra modern Soviet vehicles - after 'dusting' and matt varnish

Here are the same vehicles after they have been 'dusted' (sprayed with pale sand to simulate dust) and then matt varnished, with Vallejo varnish. The effects of the dusting were wiped out by the matt varnish, as was a lot of the contrast. I planned for some of the contrast to go at this stage. The models have turned out as I wanted, but I think that I should dust them after varnishing, so that this effect can be seen.

The colouring is now quite subtle. The vehicles attract the eye; I find myself trying to work out what colour they are. I don't know if I have expressed that very well. They look more interesting than an object which is flat.

When I have a chance to 'dust' the vehicles again I will take a few more photos from a slightly higher angle. I hope that will give you more of an idea what they look like from a gamers eye view.

Command Decision Modern Soviet vehicles

This is a work in progress. Inspired by the excellent work of "Troop of Shewe" I bought an IWATA airbrush (my third airbrush, since the other two didn't work out for me.) Over the past months, on and off, I have been putting together WW2 and modern vehicles. These soviet vehicles are my first trial. They are not finished. I still have to 'dust' the vehicles with my airbrush. Since that could trash my work I decided to take some interim photos.

What I like about Troop of Shewe's work is that his vehicles seem to 'glow'. I tried to recreate this by painting the vehicles dark green, over a black undercoat, and then 'high lighting' with successively lighter colours, but only in some spots of the vehicle. After this was done I used heavily diluted black ink wash to 'blend' everything together. It was nerve wracking to coat the vehicles with black ink! I think it worked out OK (so far.) I applied some dental cement to the vehicles in places to simulate dirt, and then brushed this with an earth tone, when the model was painted. I am not sure if I will do this for other models (although I have a few dozen undercoated models which have this dental cement in place, so I am stuck with the system for the next batches of vehicles.)

It is difficult to get the contrast on the vehicles right. The black ink wash toned everything down. Now I will 'dust' the vehicles by spraying Vallejo pale sand onto them from a distance. That is going to tone down the contrast again. Finally I will varnish with vallejo matt varnish, which does take some of the contrast out of any subject.

I am painting 12 BTR60s, 3 BRDM2 scout cars, 3 BRDM2 command variants and 3 BRDM2 with Spandrel A/T vehicles in this batch. I photographed the lot. A bit boring, but otherwise one vehicle may not be representative of my system. If I now find I trash the vehicles with 'dusting' and varnish, I will know roughly where I got to.
This white background, for the photos, is something new. It is actually a silk 'Panjabi' with an interesting weave (that doesn't show up in these photos.) I was concerned that my previous use of a static grass background, with some buildings, wasn't showing up the figures themselves.

WW2 1/32nd (54mm) Plastic Airfix US Paratroops

Quick update on my (1/32nd scale) WW2 US Paratroops. I have finished the shoulder patches. These are for the 82nd Airborne.
The first guy is not surrendering! He is holding a grenade in one hand and his Thompson in the other.

My first airbrush efforts 15mm Modern pickups

These are Command Decision 15mm pick up trucks, from Old Glory 25s, which are intended to be used as 'technicals' for modern scenarios in Somalia, Iraq etc. I chose them for my first airbrushing project as they were simple. I have a couple of hundred other vehicles primed and ready to go after this!
I airbrushed the vehicles previously but was not happy with the result. I ended up using a black ink wash over the lot, which improved the job significantly, and then airbrushing in the white 'highlights' again.

I want my work to look like vehicles from the excellent "Troop of Shewe". His vehicles seem to glow. It seems this is achieved by first painting the vehicles in a lighter shade, and then painting parts of the vehicles in the final colour(s) to make them "pop". I undercoated black, as I wanted anything I missed to disappear from sight. Next I hit the vehicles with a very light grey, which was to be the contrast colour. Finally (I thought) I slowly built up patches of white in the 'highlight' areas (just highlighted by contrast to the area surrounding). After a black in wash I repeated the white highlighting.

These photos seem to kill some of the contrast. I will have to fool around with my camera settings.

Next step - cold war Soviet vehicles.

WW2 1/32nd (54mm) Plastic Airfix US Paratroops

These are some more of the figures I bought at the Tripples Wargames show in Sheffield. I have hundreds of 20mm US paras to paint up, so I am painting these as a test of the uniform colour I am using.

I will be adding shoulder patches in time.

Warhammer 40K Cadians in WW2 German splinter cammo

Please forgive the fluff that appears to have colonised the lens of my camera. None of the detail was hidden, so I didn't take the snaps again. I actually painted these Cadians over a year ago. But I never got around to highlighting the solid colours.

It was a real headache to paint this scheme. I must remind myself never to do it again!

Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced one figure. I now have nineteen instead of twenty figures. Somewhere around my office a Cadian is lurking ambush.

WW2 1/32nd (54mm) Plastic Airfix Afrika Korps

These are some more of the figures I bought at the Tripples show in April in the UK.I had hundreds of Airfix figures when I was a child. I used to take them out into the garden and have mock wars across shrubberies; one force holding a rocky feature and another attacking it.