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....
Friday, 12 June 2009
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
Monday, 4 May 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, 3 May 2009
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.
Sunday, 5 April 2009
Salute - 09 - Shewe best of Show!
It seems the hard work and hours expended paid off in the end, my Nomonhan game was presented with Best of Show and Best Demonstration Game. My thanks to Ian, Stewart, James, and Tim for their unfailing support with the game on numerous occasions.
I'll taking a break from Troop of Shewe demos for the rest of year although i will be supporting some Escape Committee Games. I will be back with a humdinger at Salute 2010 and a secret Project X -20mm game in conjunction with Stewart......
I also completed a vignette for Outpost Wargames Services for their Russo-Turkish war range. Martins sculpts really are coming along now, lovely detail in particular the faces. Jeff has ensured that for each pose there is a variety of different head types.
I also completed some 11 hour new releases for both BAM/Warlord and JTFM, both Shermans. Both sets are lovely in their own right, The BAM tracks are particularily good and the JTFM kits have stacks of stowage included, nice work Paul and Jeff.
As always pictures of all my commisions including the demos can be found in mt flickr galleries, link at the top of the page.
Monday, 23 March 2009
Thursday, 5 February 2009
More JTFM Panthers and Panzer IVs
Ok guys and girls, I'm beginning to loose count of the numbers of each of these little beauties I've done, I'm sure Jeff T can build a nice extension to his log cabin with the sales just of these two. Anyway, thought I'd try a little different camo on each than normal. Am particularly pleased with the Panthers, they look Kursk-ish ( yes i know they're late war!). In this case i have used Archer rub down transfers which are simply superb, fiddly but superb. Of note whereas the VVV crosses ( and all waterslide decals) work better on a gloss finish, the Archer work better on a Matt finish, so a little more planning and prep is needed. The 251 is Bolt Action/Warlord and part of a separate commission. Having issues with lighting again, there are two different styles here, let me know which people prefer on the web and i'll know next time.
Getting my skates on now for Salute, some 11hr painting with Six Company B IJA Type 89's winging there way over the Atlantic for my Salute demo, also some advance Bolt Action/Warlord Shermans for Chris Thompsons demo, two vignettes for Outpost, alongside 6ft of Nomonhan Terrain to finish!
As an appetizer i also have some lovely 1/48 kits just in, now these are gonna be special, but under wraps for now!
As always full sizes pictures in my flickr galleries.
- early evening update, I now have six Japanese imports! Type 89's courtesy of Brent and Bruce at Company B (and Jeff at JTFM), currently scrubbing the resin prior to primeing tomorrow, will keep you posted......
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Jan Commissions
Managed to clear a backlog over Christmas, lots completed, notibly some lovely 15mm FOW and a lareg batch of 1/56th Goodness form JTFM, BAM and ex-Chieftan models
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Company B Sumida & Chi Ha
New package has arrived, 28mm Japanese Sumida Rail Car and Chi Ha. Both lovely kits. I have up-detailed both, the addition of the aerial on one of the Chi Ha's and general bits and bobs on the Rail Car, both track and wheel varients. This will be pride of place on my rail track addition to the Nomonhan Demo for Salute, watch this space for more info.
Also a Hellcat and two HMCs extra detailed and stowed.
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Kubelwagen
Off to Brent at Company B, this lovely little cast, all available from Brent. Certainly the best "28mm" Kuble i've made and the "crew" fit lovely, which makes a change ;o)
Wild Faeries!!!!
Ok, a change for me this time. Two sculpts bought on a whim from Eureka Miniatures Avalons Burning range. I had fun painting these, trying for a forest theme with autuman hair colourings and deep shading the skin green. The bases are from the excellent back2basix range, which i thoroughly recommend. These little sprites look great in the flesh, although as you can see i had several problems with the photography. These are now on ebay, should be easy to find.
Charlie Company
Lots completed this month, check the flickr folders for full details. Particularily impressed with "Charlie Company", consisting of BAM M3s and M8s, suitabley updetailed.
Monday, 26 May 2008
26th May - General Update
Sorry, no pictures again but frantic activity behind the scenes. Firstly my laptop died so i'm selling off bits and pieces to get another one, hence picture updates will be delayed. The two M10s are the start of this, also hope to have finished ready for sale in a week or so:
BAM M3 x3
BAM M8 x2
BAM 251x 3 inc 37mm mounting
Ebob Opel Blitz
S and S 251 Engineer
S and S 251/22? the one with the 20mm recce turret.
Commisions in the pipeline are as listed previously , although there are some lovely JTFM Panthers ad Panzer IVs ( commisions) . Picked up some lovely vehicles from Ian at Chieftan models, named BT5's, Marder and Humber, looking forward to the Stug and Staghound.
On the demo front, finished the bulk of the terrain for Bovington, just airbrushing go, a bit different this time. Called in some favours from the talented brushes of Rene ( paint-in.com) and Mark (red line painting), will credit fully when i have pictures for upload. Enough for now.
BAM M3 x3
BAM M8 x2
BAM 251x 3 inc 37mm mounting
Ebob Opel Blitz
S and S 251 Engineer
S and S 251/22? the one with the 20mm recce turret.
Commisions in the pipeline are as listed previously , although there are some lovely JTFM Panthers ad Panzer IVs ( commisions) . Picked up some lovely vehicles from Ian at Chieftan models, named BT5's, Marder and Humber, looking forward to the Stug and Staghound.
On the demo front, finished the bulk of the terrain for Bovington, just airbrushing go, a bit different this time. Called in some favours from the talented brushes of Rene ( paint-in.com) and Mark (red line painting), will credit fully when i have pictures for upload. Enough for now.
Thursday, 27 March 2008
General Update
Currently tiling the bathroom so a few things are on hold. Just had some lovely battlefront Panzer IVs with Schutzen arrive together with some Tigers, so will slip them in somewhere. Current projects on the go, of varying priority and in no particular order :
- Continuing 15mm German force for Normandy, loads of Artillery and Infantry, nice King and Kerr Bases
- 15mm Eastern Phanlagites
- 15mm Russian FOW, are order that slipped....
- 28mm Prince Rupert and Ensign
- 28mm Company B Hellcats, HMCs, Kubels, 37mm and Howitzers
- 28mm BAM 251s to finish off
- Just started - up detailing SnS Models 28mm Jadgpanther with two Tigers
- 28mm Russo-Japanese
- Neils Top Secret 28mm Demo project....
Orders in the pipeline from Company B and JTFM, pick order from BAM at Salute.
Sunday, 16 March 2008
M10s & Achilles - Simple Updetailing
A Simple Project
The basic resin kit is 1/60 and from S and S models. The same hull and turret suffices for both the M10 and the Achilles, with substitute breech and barrels dependant on the version you get. I have been informed the kit represents a late variant without the armour attachment points ( circles on hull and turret) and rear stowage racks. I have made several of these in this configuration and they've came out fine, however they are distinctive elements of the vehicles so i decided on some simple up detailing for a commission Achilles and two M10s. I will add this is not a scale conversion, but simple modifications that most of us can do with a little effort. If i was doing a single top notch kit i would approach things differently.
The Hull
I first started with the racking on the rear sides, this is a simple affair using plastic strips from my spares box. I obtained extra Sherman tracks from Shaun and the only point of note is to make the spaces between vertical racking correct to fit track links. Next came the armour securing points these were slithers of plastic rod. I found getting square edges on the cut surfaces difficult so i super glued these in place by eye and filed flat once dry. Its adequate but I'm sure there's better methods out there. As with most things i then looked at my references and thought there's something missing..... the hull headlamps and what are presumably Turret and Hull slinging points. The slinging points where made from brass rod bent around the edge of some snipe nosed pliers. Once snipped to size the edges were dremeled flat and simply glued in the appropriate positions. These leaves the lamps, again the trusty wire was bent and dremeled and appropriate headlamps were found.
Note: I would now approach either BAM or Brent at Company B for either the M3 headlamps or the excellent set for the Company B hellcat and HMC. I'm not sure they are available separately but you can only ask :o)
Finally, all the barrels were replaced with brass tubing, unfortunatley the original barrels have poor definition.
Stowage
Now the hard bits were done i added the stowage. This was a rummage through my spares box which has been recharged with bits from the following ranges:
Chieftain Models, Bolt Action, Company B, S and S Models, Skytrex ( 20mm but a tarpaulin is a tarpaulin...), Hovels ( boxes)
I recommend picking up stowage whenever you can, I'm forever running out and mixing and matching produces the best results. Besides the gun barrel and breech the only things that separate the three models are the BAM helmets, British for the Achilles and you can guess the rest. A point on scale here, the kit is 1/60, i've used spares and parts from 1/56 ranges and stowage from 1/72 ranges, its all good. The .50 cals are BAM and are the best i've seen.
The sandbags were simple milliput rolls, roll a sausage and cut into equal segments. the action of the blade creates as suitable edge for the sandbag. These were then positioned around the vehicles and stitch lines added with a sculpting tool.
Painting
Not the intention of this update but the kits were then primed fully using spray black and touched up with Humbrol Black to create a solid coat. It is important to have a solid base coat ( whatever colour you choose) as a base for further painting. The kits were then airbrushed using Tamiya olive green and furthered detailed with lighter shadings. Once happy with your basic tones, cover with Johnsons Klear ( Future). This produces a sheen but dont worry, it gives a solid coat for further washing techniques. Various pin washes were added (concentrating on the detail recesses) stains and scratching etc.
At this stage i then paint the details, tracks, wheel rims, stowage and .50 cals. The weathering process for the vehicle is always seperate to the stowage. Pigments were applied at various stages and fixed with white spirit. Once happy the model was sprayed with Testors ( RIP - what am i going to use now!).
note: don't start burnishing the tracks and 50 cals until after the testors, understandably it dulls the burnish!
And finally additional pigments are used to "pull" the model together. I'm quiet happy with the results. The Achilles is off to a happy customer in Australia, the M10s are up for grabs, contact me for details. Both the finished kits and Work in Progress (WIP) shots can be found below.
The basic resin kit is 1/60 and from S and S models. The same hull and turret suffices for both the M10 and the Achilles, with substitute breech and barrels dependant on the version you get. I have been informed the kit represents a late variant without the armour attachment points ( circles on hull and turret) and rear stowage racks. I have made several of these in this configuration and they've came out fine, however they are distinctive elements of the vehicles so i decided on some simple up detailing for a commission Achilles and two M10s. I will add this is not a scale conversion, but simple modifications that most of us can do with a little effort. If i was doing a single top notch kit i would approach things differently.
The Hull
I first started with the racking on the rear sides, this is a simple affair using plastic strips from my spares box. I obtained extra Sherman tracks from Shaun and the only point of note is to make the spaces between vertical racking correct to fit track links. Next came the armour securing points these were slithers of plastic rod. I found getting square edges on the cut surfaces difficult so i super glued these in place by eye and filed flat once dry. Its adequate but I'm sure there's better methods out there. As with most things i then looked at my references and thought there's something missing..... the hull headlamps and what are presumably Turret and Hull slinging points. The slinging points where made from brass rod bent around the edge of some snipe nosed pliers. Once snipped to size the edges were dremeled flat and simply glued in the appropriate positions. These leaves the lamps, again the trusty wire was bent and dremeled and appropriate headlamps were found.
Note: I would now approach either BAM or Brent at Company B for either the M3 headlamps or the excellent set for the Company B hellcat and HMC. I'm not sure they are available separately but you can only ask :o)
Finally, all the barrels were replaced with brass tubing, unfortunatley the original barrels have poor definition.
Stowage
Now the hard bits were done i added the stowage. This was a rummage through my spares box which has been recharged with bits from the following ranges:
Chieftain Models, Bolt Action, Company B, S and S Models, Skytrex ( 20mm but a tarpaulin is a tarpaulin...), Hovels ( boxes)
I recommend picking up stowage whenever you can, I'm forever running out and mixing and matching produces the best results. Besides the gun barrel and breech the only things that separate the three models are the BAM helmets, British for the Achilles and you can guess the rest. A point on scale here, the kit is 1/60, i've used spares and parts from 1/56 ranges and stowage from 1/72 ranges, its all good. The .50 cals are BAM and are the best i've seen.
The sandbags were simple milliput rolls, roll a sausage and cut into equal segments. the action of the blade creates as suitable edge for the sandbag. These were then positioned around the vehicles and stitch lines added with a sculpting tool.
Painting
Not the intention of this update but the kits were then primed fully using spray black and touched up with Humbrol Black to create a solid coat. It is important to have a solid base coat ( whatever colour you choose) as a base for further painting. The kits were then airbrushed using Tamiya olive green and furthered detailed with lighter shadings. Once happy with your basic tones, cover with Johnsons Klear ( Future). This produces a sheen but dont worry, it gives a solid coat for further washing techniques. Various pin washes were added (concentrating on the detail recesses) stains and scratching etc.
At this stage i then paint the details, tracks, wheel rims, stowage and .50 cals. The weathering process for the vehicle is always seperate to the stowage. Pigments were applied at various stages and fixed with white spirit. Once happy the model was sprayed with Testors ( RIP - what am i going to use now!).
note: don't start burnishing the tracks and 50 cals until after the testors, understandably it dulls the burnish!
And finally additional pigments are used to "pull" the model together. I'm quiet happy with the results. The Achilles is off to a happy customer in Australia, the M10s are up for grabs, contact me for details. Both the finished kits and Work in Progress (WIP) shots can be found below.
Saturday, 8 March 2008
Almost There....
Been a slow start to the new year, although I'm now finally clearing some major backlogs. Finishing this weekend are 15mm FOW, 28mm German 12 SS Normandy and 28mm British Normandy. Pics of the following available in the Photo Album ( link above)
- 15mm Battlefront- Panthers, Stugs, Horch, Kubels, Opel Blitz, Sdkfz 11
- 28mm Bolt Action - Sdkfz 251 ( Engineer, Stummel, Platoon Command), Sdkfz 250 ( destroyed, troop carrier, 20mm), AEC Armoured car, 222 Armoured car.
- 28mm Company B- Kubels
- 28mm Westwind - Wirbelwind
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