24 March 2009

New and Old, and got some work done over the weekend!

Well, I traded some Vietnam and Arab-Israeli figs for a boatload of kits, including some WWII Hetzers and Marders that will prove to be useful. Also, managed to get my hands on copies of Blitzkrieg, D-Day to Berlin and the new Osprey on the T-80 I especially enjoyed the T-80 book and found it very informative, with many earlier assumptions, such as the high-low tank design mix, and the planned progression of Soviet tank design (aka, the FST-1 of threat inflation fame) was actually low balling it in a few areas...gun caliber for one..152mm in a CiH design...YIKES!

In other news, I put together some of the kits I have gotten recently...and can sum it up this way. Dragon makes some nice kits..so does Trumpeter. I put together a Zaveda D-30...let's just say...ugh. But, they're the only game in town. I also mounted all my guns on plastic bases. I figured it will protect them a lot better in the long run.

In other news, am jazzed about H-Con 2010 and I am working on historicals more and more these days...even if finding folks to play 20mm close enough to DC that I am not making an epic trek is difficult. Not a knock on NOVAG, simply an observation.

09 March 2009

Painting? Is it easier with Historicals?

Well, I got a lot of work done this week. I rebased and touched up some Soviets for WWII, and painted a few of them. I am getting enamored of the "Popsicle stick" method of painting figures. It's something I have had a long time coming. Funny thing is, having gotten back into painting historicals? I find it EASIER than painting CBT. Why? You might ask:

Exhibit A

Ok, now look at my second piece of evidence.

Exhibit B

Same unit, same time period, but the base reds are different, and so is the the black. Heck, in A, I'd be hard pressed to say that was BLACK if I didn't know what the colors were. And both exhibits are from Camospecs, the official paintscheme site for CBT. Yes, I know there are such things as faded paint, weathering and the like, but it's also the descriptions of said colors. Vallejo thankfully, can do a million colors approximating just about every uniform shade in history, but good luck matching shads of units from a future that probably won't happen!

By the way, kudos to Artizan Designs! Their camo guide is nothing short of fantastic. It, combined with my copious Osprey collection has made painting almost anything WWII a snap! No matter what scale WWII you paint, go take a look.