Extreme weathering in 15mm: Mark IV

Almost two years ago I received a number of lovely 15mm WWI tanks from Battlefront Miniatures, and I started immediately working on a video-tutorial to explain how to paint a British Mark IV tank. I completed the first part of the tutorial regarding how to paint the base color and published the video (see below). Nevertheless, the poor quality of the video discouraged me from recording a second part. Instead, I put the tank into a box with the idea of buying a new video camera in the future. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance (nor the money) to buy…

Painting mounted units

I hate painting horses. It is a fact. It is repetitive and monotonous. And I have never found it fun. However, here I am; I continue painting horses (at least another almost forty for my Thirty Years War army…). And I am not going to stop because although I hate painting horses, mounted units are very impressive, aren´t they? Somehow, I would like to share with you some tips I have learnt after painting several mounted units, although I have to concede that some of them are personal opinions. But you will agree with me that is not the same…

How to paint Afrika Korps vehicles

After painting two infantry platoons of Deutsche Afrika Korps for my brother, I have painted two vehicles units: three tank hunters Diana and two recon Sdkfz 232 8 rad. I wonder when he is going to start painting the rest of his army! Anyways, I wanted to share with you this simple painting guide to simulate the classical chipping effect on DAK vehicles using an easy technique. When I have a vehicle platoon in my hands, I always try to avoid the repetition and monotony. That is, whether I have three vehicles in the platoon, I will add different elements…

Mud splatter effects in 15mm

While I am working on different projects, such as the new PaintingWar book focused on the Spanish Civil War, I have no time to prepare any tutorial for my blog. It is a pity. Nonetheless, you can follow my work in www.ModelBrush.com, a blog which I run with some friends. Strikingly, I have found an abandoned painting guide in my computer (that is, unpublished) and I would like to exploit it, starting by this “mud splatter effects in 15mm” tutorial. A very simple but very effective weathering effect. I have already commented this effect several time in my blog, but…

How to paint a British Sherman tank, and a new book: Painting Wargame Tanks

It’s a great pleasure to announce a new book published by AMMO of Mig Jimenez where I have actively been collaborating beside Mig Jimenez and Carlos Cuesta. The book contains 96 pages. After a short introduction about general materials and techniques (differences between acrylics and enamels, what is a filter or a wash, how to clean the airbrush…) you can find ten complete painting guides “step by step” of different tanks (mostly Germans, but there are also from USA and Soviet Union). The three firsts pretend to assimilate the knowledge showed in the introduction (we can say “basic level”), while…

K.O. vehicles in 15mm

K.O. Wrecked vehicles. They have something special, aren’t they?. When we see an intact tank, we can usually know his history. If it is discolored and covered by dust, we can imagine it has been fighting in the desert of North Africa. If the mud blocks the tracks, the tank has been probably rolling on some Russian road. But what about an abandoned tank?. Which was his problem? Why the crews decided to give up their steel friend?.  Any possibility is right. The K.O. and wrecked vehicles are much more open to our imagination!. And because that, in my opinion…

Working with the terrain I

There are many ways to represent the sand base in our models or dioramas. We can just fix modeling sand with white glue and then paint it, we can use ready-to-use products, we can sculpt the texture, etc. In this post I want to explain another simple way using sands and clays from nature. You can find more information about how I preprared the vignete in the last issue of Wargames: Soldiers&Strategy. This way is not the best or the worst, it is just another way. I like it because I don’t have to paint the sand and therefore I…

Decals, transfer and stencils

Decals, transfer or stencils? Nowadays we have different possibilities when we want to put the Balkan cross in a Panzer IV, or the allied start in a Sherman. However, decals for vehicles are dominating the Wargames, thanks to games such as Flames of War or Bolt Action. But in large scales we can find other options, like transfer or stencils, and we can also use them for our 15mm models. Decals and transfer are too similar -a printed film above a paper-, but the application is different. Using decals, we wet the paper in first place, and when the decal…

How to paint 15mm tanks: German spider mech

While I am learning new hobbies (and sports) in this lovely Finish land, such as ice swimming, ice hockey or cross-country ski, I had enough time to paint and prepare a painting guide featuring an interesting Panzermech from ClockWork Goblin miniatures. I love this theme! In the past, I painted a couple of walkers from DreamPod9, and I currently attempt to paint as many E-series tanks as I can from Forged in Battle or Heer46. All in 1/100 scale or 15mm, of course!, my preferred scale. In this occasion, I’ve prepared a complete painting guide. However, I want to notice…

Weathering on horizontal panels in 15mm tanks

It’s very common to observe impressive streaking effects on vertical surfaces in Flames of War vehicles. However, we can’t apply the same effect on horizontal panels, because the gravity result is different, obviously. Here, I want to explain different ways or tools to work the horizontal panels. In vertical surfaces enamels and oils are usually used in this way: first we paint dots or vertical stripes with different colors. And then we blend all colors using a brush moistened in white spirit, by applying vertical strokes. The result are interesting vertical streaks. But these are illogical on a horizontal surface!.…