28mm WW2 Soviets

While downstairs in my gaming room looking for something, I noticed this forgotten project from this time last year. I wanted to do a big Late War game with a mate but we never got around to actually doing it. I had been inspired by another Bloggers project and wanted to copy oops I mean to do something similar.

I painted the Scouts first but had to order some more figures to complete the platoon so moved onto the Infantry. I wanted to make a rag tag look for them so added a few Partisan figures and an Artizan Leader. Not sure why I stopped doing this as I had enough figures to complete a Platoon. I also painted the Crusader gun and crew and then added a German crew made from Warlord plastics.

The NKVD section are figures I painted for a Stalingrad Demo game we put on years ago. I may rebase them as I don't like GW bases but am unsure if its worth the effort.

How I paint Flesh, without a wash.

I was asked on TMP by someone (who's name I now cannot recall) about how I paint flesh. Since I had these figures on my desk awaiting a gap in the queue, I thought that I should document the process. I also wanted to record this for myself as I had problems matching these figures to the earlier figures in my Pulp collection. I had made a mistake in the second skin layer and had to go back and repaint the figures which is annoying and is why the painting look a bit out of order in the photos.

I use GW's older paints for skin as I get a better result than using Vallejo paint. I have a good stock of these for the moment but will have to find equivalents at some stage. 

I start with a can of Black Automotive undercoat which may need to be touched up with GW Chaos Black. 

 I then roughly paint the flesh using Tanned Flesh trying to leave the eye sockets and gaps between fingers black.

I then mix a roughly 50/50 mix of Tanned Flesh and Dwarf Flesh and pick out the high points of the face, neck and hands.

I then use Dwarf Flesh to pick out the extreme high points on the face hands and dot the knuckles.

I then touch up the eye sockets and define the edges of the hands, weapons etc with black and put a small dot of white in each corner of the eyes. I often have to redo the eyes several times using black and white using a sharpened toothpick.

On other projects I also use Elf Flesh as a further highlight and don't always remember to paint in the eyes.

I will document my method of using a wash on the next batch of Robin Hood figures I paint.

Furniture for the Castle and Tavern

Most of these items are from Mega Miniatures.  I realized that I could use some of them for my Pirates I changed plans and mounted some items on Renedra plastic bases. Other items were glued into place. I still need to finish the fireplace and then have some items for the treasure room to do.

Cu Chi Tunnels

During my recent trip to Vietnam we visited the Cu Chi tunnels (pronounced Coo Chi according to our guide). The visit was rather rushed as we arrived late in the afternoon leaving us very little time to fire any weapons. I have owned several guns so was not really worried about it. I was also squeezed into the middle of a Chinese tour party when going under ground which was very claustrophobic, so I exited the first available hole. You could not really see much other than mud walls so I didn't feel like I missed out on anything.

I think the best advice I could give is make sure you allow plenty of time when visiting here so you can get to do everything.

Ventilation hole in Termite mound.

Trench.

Termite mound.

US manned Tank (according to guide)

Sandals made from old tires.

I prefer this type of Tunnel.