15mm Panzer Grenadier Company(ies)

Battlefront models, Kerr and King bases.

Bolt Action Tetrarch

Latest from BAM/Warlord, lovely little crisp cast.

A little experiment for me, 20mm M10s ETO, these are now for Sale, so poa.

Rhine Crossing

Nice little flotilla, one Grand Manner LCM and two JTFM LCVP "Higgins" boats, all 1/56. These have been painted and decalled for the Rhine crossing, hence the stars and OD upper decks. The kits are what you would expect, GM heavy and robust, JTFM fine and detailed. All have been drilled to facilitate the ramps moving up and down, some pinned as well as the resin doesn't really help this. As usual more pics in my flikcr galleries ( link at the top of the page) or click on the images for the "warts 'n all" pics.

Neil

Aug/Sept Update - lots

Some good news and bad... good news i have broken the back of some commissions recently so am back on track, bad news; sprained my right wrist Sunday, so i'm out of action for a week or so.

And something interesting, New Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Sci Fi. This is a 3D prototyping model ( no green stuff involved!), lots of armament options, hopefully i'll have more of these to come.







As always, click on the pics for larger detail ones, but remember the actual size of these pieces. More pics in my Flickr galleries, link at the top of the page

Several Commisions Complete

A few days off has allowed me to clear some more commisions, so i'm taking on new stuff if interested. I'll smatter these over the forums over the next couple of weeks, so a few teaser shots:
a) 15mm FOW Battlefront Anti-tank Battalion
b) two 1/56 Company B Stuarts, M5A1 Guards Armoured, Normandy
c) 1/56 Force of Arms/Army Group North T28, a lovely kit.
d) 20mm Trumpeteer Kits, modern USMC LAV25's + TOW launcher, fiddly kits but worked out lovely in the end. The crewed kit was a conversion, hatches drilled and new ones made.

n

RMASG Centaur & Arnhem "Beute" HumberIV

These have been completed for a while, although held back as they are BAM/Warlords show ones. Two releases , Humber painted as Grabners Humber (conjecture) for Arnhem and a Centaur painted as 2 Battery RMASG ( Royal Marine Armoured Assualt Group). I used 1/76 Dan Taylor modelworks transfers, quiet fiddly but seeing as i was crowbariing 1/76 onto 1/56 it was expected.

Click on the Images for full size, full detail views.

more pics in my flickr galleries.

Turkish Brigade - Russo Turkish War

Another in a continuing commission, majority Outpost Miniatures, run down as follows:

Foot General - Askari Miniatures
Mounted Command - Perry Miniatures
Field Gun - Old Glory
Artillery crew - Askari Miniatures
Foot Officer waving sword - Eureka Miniatures
All other foot and officers - Outpost Wargames Services.

The Outpost sculptor, Martin Baker, has certainly excelled with these figures. They have lovely detail, poising and style, recommended.

The horses and standards are my first run with the airbrush on non-AFVs, certainly the way forward.

n

Eureka moments.......and Ultrasonic Baths!

After some hesitancy, and in the pouring rain, i trooped down to the garden shed to do some airbrushing. Its a job i had put off for a while as it was "new territory" for me - Horses! For a while now i have been noticing the excellent results Ioannis (leuthan journal) has been acheiving by airbrushing his horses and knew i had to try it out. I suppose the problem isn't really the airbrushing but getting the combination of colours right and a fine enough spray for final detailing, this was the problem as i'm setup for OD and dunkelgelb. Anyways, i got started and whilst not perfect first time round it is clearly the only way to go, subtle transitions suit horses down to a "T", definatley 100% converted. ( pics mid week).

Whilst on a reasonable high i thought i'd also try out my lastest ebay purchase, an Ultrasonic Cleaner. I diligently cleaned the airbrush as normal and quiet simply put it in the ultrasonic bath for a three minute cycle. On reopening i was surprised at the accumulation of crud that it had removed, and i thought it was clean! This will now become a regular routine as well. Recommended.

Battered and Bruised T-34's

Army Group North, Early Version T34's. Painted to represent an amalgamated troop, there is subtle changes in shade, wear and tear and markings between the vehicles to betray their original units, although not too sure the pics show that off too well. click on the images for bigger pictures, as always more pics in my flickr galleries

Brigade Games - Schneider CA-1 - S.C.W

Brigade Games 1/56 WW1 Schneider painted for Spanish Civil War. Minor updetailing added such as crew climb holds, roof racking and some stowage. As always more details in my galleries.

Website Retiring Disordered.....

Well the time has finally come, the old web site is due to be removed. I've kept it going (although not updated) basically for nostalgic reasons. I'm sorry to see it go but it no longer accurately reflects the services ( or prices!) on offer these days.

This blog will serve as the main portal with the flickr galleries as, well my gallery! which is really what people want to see afterall. I'll keep www.troop-of-shewe.co.uk up for another couple of days, after that i'll redirect all here....

More 15mm Eye Candy

As the title says some more BF offerings. Some minor mods, replacement schurzen for the Panthers, distressed for the Pzr Ivs crewmen etc. Will hit the forums with the full sets soon, more pics in my flickr galleries

F.A.Q - New feature

I always try and share tips and techniques, unfortunately most of the answers are distributed in private emails and across various fora. I will now try and post the answers here, any questions just email me. I will add these will be just my take on things, i'm sure there are hundreds of ways for skinning these particular cats

Scratches and Scrapes

I also use an airbrush for the basecoat on my WWII tanks, then, for Germans, airbrush the camo on. From there, I usually drybrush with a lighter shade of Dunkelgelb, drybrush on dirt, then I’m done.I notice with YOUR models you have lot’s of small “nicks”, which seem to be black. Also, I’ve seen your models with great scratches running along the sides, just like a modern car would if it was driving through the woods. How do you achieve these effects?

[Troop writes] I have been experimenting with the well known technique of "dabbing" paint by using blister pack foam. Simply load the foam, dry off and dab on areas of high wear, less is more. This is then augmented with balck/hull red/dark brown applied with a detail brush. This part is laborious and best done in stages, put down, leave and then revisit. Its far to easy to overdo these bits. Finally scratches are "highlighted" using a light tone ( grey, light olive, khaki and yellow all work for OD) . This is just to give a light edge to some of the scratches, this is an out of scale technique but adds to the overall effect.


BLOWING PANELS/PRE-SHADING

Also, I’m guessing from looking at your models you’re using the airbrush for shading? I’d love to hear how you pull that off as well.

[Troop writes] For the OD vehicles, i start from a base black coat. Then use a darkened OD and spray out from the centre of any panels. The effect you are after is to leave some of the black showing through around the panel edges. Then use OD and do exactly the same but leaving some of the darkened OD showing, as you lighten the OD you get to a light point in the centre of the panel. If you get confident you can also lighten the top edges of panels and top surfaces for extra fading. An alternative method is to use your normal OD coat and then spray a wash colour ( raw umber) around the panel edges. This needs to be heavily thinned and is a bit more tricky, again less is more and work up to taste!. I also find the paint can often dry a lighter colour than when spraying so often stop and let dry to see the effect.

Paints

I'm experimneting with various diferent paints, Tamiya, Model Air and Vallejo Air. Tamiya is by far the easiest to work with, the other two have better colours but are very thin, this means a several sweep approach that can can be tricky on the smaller scale german camo.

Cleaning and Storage

Ref storage, i clean through as normal, each clean i pull the needle as well. Start with ditching the paint left in the cup, fill the cup with water dilute reside and ditch x 2. Hopefully i then have no paint bits in the cup i then use airbrush cleaner dilute and ditch, when confident no stray bits, blow through. As a final touch i spray some of the foaming airbrush cleaner in a can. Dissassemble and clean. On resassembly again some cleaner then half a cup blown through of water. As i can leave set up in the shed and its used frequently i usually leave some cleaner in the cup put the lid on and store upright in a holder. Its rarely put away dry, but woudljust miss the last step if i did.

Commissions

I'm afraid i'm going to have to shut shop to new customers.

My existing customers and a couple of new guys and girls mean my time is fully booked for a couple of months. Whilst most people know i dont operate a production line, rather batch work according to colours and techniques, i feel i'll loose any flexibility i have if I take on anything else.

As always i will try and accomodate existing customers, and that includes any recent email discussions.

Some finished commissions in my flickr galleries, a large 15mm Peter Pig Kampfgruppe and three commissions worth of Ardennes Armour, mainly Company B and BAM. More sets close on their heels and the first finished units for next years Salute.