Historicon 2014! Might as well buy new shhh....er.......STUFF!!

Historicon 2014 is upon us! Just a few more weeks until my army will be complete and packed up ready to clear customs. Hope you had a good Canada Day and all of our friends down south, we hope you have a safe and fun July 4th! I've been trying to figure out what to bring to this years tournament. At 1485 points, it's easy to make a list with enough options to make it competitive. As for me, I look forward to just playing some games and making the most out of my second Nationals. I may not play in the I-95 Doubles Flames of War event on Thursday. SO....hopefully that will lead to a few more hours of checking out some of the other games and making the most of the shopping by picking up some more terrain for my home tables.

Now to what I've been working on. I had a list put together and was ready to just pack up models I already owned and painted to take with me to Historicon, but where is the fun in an army you had no hand in painting? When I decided to take a German list, my Panzergrenadiers are not painted by me, and for some reason I feel compelled to try and make my army look good for this one big event. I figured because I played my 82nd Airborne last year for the LW Nats, and my Australians are not a real fun list to play at 1485, I thought about a totally new list from scratch.

Sorry mate, no HE makes me CRAZY against Infantry!!

Below is a picture of just a few of the 15-16 tanks I am currently assembling and painting for this year. The one on the left is simply assembled and has two primer coats of grey, wondering whether or not to leave them that way took a little bit of research. I found that during the 1941-1942 time period, Germany was starting to use different color and camouflage schemes to better hide their armor against the Soviets. This leads me to the tank in the center, it's been painted with Plastic Soldier Company spray paint. In this case, I used the 'Dunkelgelb Yellow', it's a little different than the other color that is popular for this period, which would be DAK brown, or tan if you prefer.

PEW PEW!!

Masking off a few random areas on each tanks leaves some grey underneath once dry and gives a camo effect without the use of an airbrush and cuts down on the chances of imperfect lines if you use a paintbrush. Let's face it, I have a few weeks to get this done and on the table! Still working for a few more weeks before taking a much deserved holiday.
 
The last tank on the right is the one that is 99% complete, all I need to do is add a few markings and numbers. From beginning to end, once the dunkelgelb is dry. I might be looking at 20 minutes a tank. There really is no need to go overboard on these. Armor is simple and should be treated as such, large surface area with very few chances to be creative color scheme wise. I used the following in completing these: Black (Villejo) road wheels, 'Vermin Brown' (Citadel) for the tracks, Gun Metal Grey (Villejo) on the tools, box latches, machine guns and a light-medium grey drybrush once they have been washed with CGR 'Magic Mud'.

With any luck, I'll get them all done!

It looks a little darker up close, the fluorescent lighting in my shop is not the best for final photos. Once the wash goes on, it brings that yellow down to a nice 'sun-faded' look. You can also see that the 'perfect' lines that were masked off now look a little better as well. I think with a slightly feathered look to them, they look a little more realistic. Thanks for reading as always, and look for a short video in the next few days for a breakdown of this entire process.