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Greetings!

'A gaping silken dragon,/Puffed by the wind, suffices us for God./We, not the City, are the Empire's soul:/A rotten tree lives only in its rind.'

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Greens...

... but not as in stone ground bread, sandals, and difficult population pressure questions. I'm getting there with the T34, which was undercoated before I went to work, then, this evening, received its tracks, followed by the top and bottom of the hull joined. Without glue neither operation would have worked properly, and I wouldn't like to be a small child (the kit box stated 'my first kit') trying to struggle with the tracks. Anyway, construction was enough advanced for it to receive a basecoat green. It's a couple of years or so since I've painted up Soviet kit, and this was the first time I'd used Xtracrylix XA1811 Russian Tank Green, which looks like this:


Xtracrylix, of course, are made by Hannants, which offer a first rate mail order service. Although I have used their enamels in the past, they have one big drawback - the stink. Think major oil spillage and you're almost there. The acrylics range, happily, is non-pong, and wide, covering armour and aircraft. Now, on giving the T34 its Xtracrylix coat I was pleased by the look, but it made me think about my other 20mm Soviet kit:


This is some of my Soviet steamroller, but just look at the variety of greens - from the new T34 in the foreground to the comedy green heavy artillery at the back. Mmmm. If I was a 'modeller' I'd be worried. But I'm a toy soldier and wargame enthusiast - so I'm not! 


Tomorrow, weathering and .... Mig pigments.

6 comments:

  1. Looking good Stephen, I agree with your sentiments on the colour ranges of your kits.

    Variety is the spice of life, and wargamers!

    Keep up the good work.

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  2. Thanks, Paul. Well, if one factors in wear and tear, fading, different wartime paint batches (not to mention Lend-Lease colours), and, crucially, the growing inability of an ageing wargamer to differentiate one shasde from another, it's all ok anyway!

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  3. That Soviet Steamroller has been stopped and bashed about more than a small child at a Bully of the Year convention. Usually thanks to my GULAG-worthy 'generalship'...

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  4. Hee hee. But you were only a little fellow at the time.

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  5. Still - remember the refight of Beda Fomm? My Italians barely got off the road. Or the AWI game, where my big British unit got hammered by your smaller rebels?

    Maybe it's the dice...!

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    Replies
    1. Well, the Beda Fomm business was, at the least, historically accurate, and, until you reminded me, I'd entirely forgotten the AWI thing - was it with the handful of 20mm plastics? I wonder what happened to the propaganda/victory posters I used to draw after successful engagements?

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