The Oath Thread Season 9: Oath it like you mean it!

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Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I, Ilor, do oath this Panzer III (28mm Warlord Games/Italeri) for the month of May

# ¿ May 5, 2018 18:38

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 07:00

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Ilor posted:

I, Ilor, do oath this Panzer III (28mm Warlord Games/Italeri) for the month of May

Oath Complete!

I magmotized this one such that it's convertible! Here it is as a late-production (50mm) Panzer III G:

...and here it is as a short-barreled 75mm Panzer III N, complete with Sch�rzen:

I am claiming both A Faithful Replica for the North Africa paint scheme and this month's challenge Straight Edge for the kill-rings on the barrel of the Ausf G.

# ¿ May 9, 2018 03:57

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Schadenboner posted:

A sexy can of sauerkraut.

Thanks! It'll be sexier once I find the tank commander and stick him in the open cupola.

# ¿ May 9, 2018 05:43

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I, Ilor, do Oath to paint this squad of British Desert Rats (28mm, Perry Miniatures) for the month of June!

# ¿ Jun 5, 2018 03:30

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

It's nine million degrees and 100% humidity here so I can't give them the final Dull-Cote (needed before affixing foliage to the bases). Fortunately, finished bases aren't required! As such: Oath Complete!!!

For this month's entry, I'm claiming Guns Out, because these shorts-wearin', shirt-sleeves-rolled-up mofos are exposing a shocking amount of skin for men engaged in modern warfare. I am also claiming the Take one for the team achievement.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2018 19:49

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I, Ilor, do oath these two WW2 British 2-lb anti-tank guns and crews for the month of July! (28mm Perry Miniatures)

# ¿ Jul 21, 2018 06:24

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Oath Complete!

I'm claiming this month's Getting back to Nature jurnal for the scenic bases for my guns:

Here's how I did them:
Step 1: Using CA++ glue, stick some small, irregular rocks to a 2" metal disc.
Step 2: Using watered down PVA glue, attach some play sand to the disc.
Step 3: Prime with gray Rustoleum spray primer.
Step 4: Paint the sand with thinned VMC Iraqi Sand:

Be a little careful here - you want the paint to be thin enough that it's easy to apply, but if it's too thin you'll actually re-activate your PVA glue and your sand will start to come off. FWIW, this is why I always prime my bases after the sand is applied, as the layer of primer helps to prevent this.

Step 5: Heavily drybrush the sand with VMC Ivory (and don't take pictures of it in direct sunlight, apparently, because it totally blows out the variation)

Step 6: Hit the sand with GW Seraphim Sepia wash. Try to get your coverage irregular to break up uniformity

You can do this by applying a thin coat all-over, then when it's mostly dry, apply a few extra blobs here and there with a big brush. FWIW, I don't thin the wash at all for this step.

Step 7: With a large brush, liberally dab on Vallejo Light Yellow Ochre dry pigment, but only in spots. Again, make your coverage irregular. Fix the pigment in place with odorless mineral spirits

Step 8: Paint the "rocks" VMS US Field Drab.
Step 9: Give the rocks an irregular (in both thickness and coverage) wash of either super-watery VMC Dark Grey or super-watery VMC Russian Uniform (depending on your tastes, I used grey for these but green produces a nice tone that denotes moss or mold on the stone)
Step 10: Give the rocks a heavy drybrush of VMC Green Ochre
Step 11: Lightly drybrush the rocks with VMC Buff
Step 12: Seal lightly with your choice of matte sealer (I used Dull-Cote)
Step 13: Attach grass tufts (I use Green Stuff World 6mm dry grass tufts here) and bushes (Woodland Scenics Light Green foliage clumps) to taste. While the tufts are self-adhesive, I find a drop of PVA glue helps. For the bushes, you'll want to use cyanoacrylate glue, as PVA will make you curse and regret your life choices.

In addition, I am claiming the Daily Double achievement (June's Guns Out for all my shirtless l'il mans and January's Every Step You Take for the work-in-progress photos. Finally, I'ma claim the Recipe for Success achievement for the how-to on my bases.

Just for fun I decided to play some games with skin tones on these guys. It's a little hard to see in the final photos, but the dude on left in the group photo is rockin' a pretty wicked farmer tan. Clearly he's new to North Africa. Here's a shot of him before the MinWax wash was applied that shows it more clearly:

# ¿ Jul 29, 2018 02:25

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I, Ilor, do Oath the following for the month of August: 2x Haqqislam Kameel Remotes (28mm, Corvus Belli)

# ¿ Aug 10, 2018 18:19

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I absolutely love the way you've done his base.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2018 22:50

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

No, I meant the base. It actually looks like the way aquarium sand looks underwater, which is baller.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2018 23:49

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Oath Complete!

I'm claiming this month's Jurnal for the giant dish antenna and all the creepy drone eyes.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2018 14:04

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I, Ilor, do Oath two Pz III's for the month of September! (28mm Italeri/Warlord Games)

# ¿ Sep 8, 2018 02:42

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

A good doggo!

# ¿ Sep 8, 2018 22:20

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Oath Addition!

I'm going to paint these German and American patrol markers for Chain of Command.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2018 02:25

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Similarly, here's some speed-painting proof for my Oath Addition:

Man, painting double-sided tokens is a pain in the buttocks. I'll handle all the Jurnal and cheevo stuff once the rest of my Oath for this month is complete (just need to do the treads and weathering).

# ¿ Sep 16, 2018 19:37

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Dr. Gargunza posted:

Second Place, 2 points: Ilor

Again, a double-achiever, with a subdued color scheme and a delightful quantity of well-defined lenses across the models. The contrast between the component parts of the models really helps define their general outlines and draw the eye to the focal points.

Woot! Thanks for the props! I was a little hesitant about the color scheme (especially at the halfway-point before the stronger highlights were done), but I was happy with how the finished project turned out.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2018 23:09

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Oath Complete!

Requisite Oath Addition and Speed Painting pics:

And the main Oath itself, 2x Panzer IIIs, shown here in their Ausf J and Ausf L configurations:

...and here in their Ausf L/M and Ausf N configurations (with additional sch�rzen):

The side sch�rzen and additional front hull plate are magnetized. The turret glacis armor and three different barrel lengths are socket-fit, and everything is interchangeable (I even made sure to magnetize everything the same way such that all of the sch�rzen fit on all of the tanks).

Here's the Zug so far with the first one I finished back in May:

We don't talk about what happened to 413.

So all told I'm claiming this month's Jurnal, as well as the Get the Crystal and Speed Painting achievements.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2018 01:52

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I, Ilor, do Oath the following for the month of October: 5x Druze Shock Troops (28mm Corvus Belli)

# ¿ Oct 4, 2018 03:01

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Congrats!

# ¿ Oct 14, 2018 01:16

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Oath Complete!

Also, I'm claiming this month's Jurnal [sic] Technical Challenge for the blue-to-purple fade on the hair. This one was inspired by my wife, whose hair alternates between these two colors according to the season. This one was a challenge, because the color blend needed to happen on both the base colors as well as their highlights. The nice mid-transition lilac on the highlight color didn't seem to photograph very well, but I really like the way it came out IRL.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2018 01:12

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

grassy gnoll posted:

Second place, for two points: Ilor

The color fade on your hacker is very in keeping with the month's theme, and there's a ton of fiddly poo poo to paint on Druze, so I really appreciate the clean detailing here. The only thing holding them back from first place is the relative lack of color depth; I would have liked to see the helmets and armor plating get some stronger contrasts.

Thanks! And IRL, there's a lot more visible color depth (for instance there's a nice lime-greenish edge-lining on the armor plates and the helmets are a transition across 3 shades of red topped by a white underlight on a 4th pure red), I just can never seem to photograph them for poo poo. :sigh:

# ¿ Nov 18, 2018 17:54

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Between work stuff and the holidays, I'm doing a small one this month:

I, Ilor, do Oath this WW2 American Medic (28mm Black Tree Miniatures):

# ¿ Nov 21, 2018 02:51

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Oath Complete!

I'm claiming this month's Rip and Tear! challenge for being liberally covered with spattered, half-dried blood - an occupational hazard when you're a medic!

# ¿ Dec 1, 2018 03:34

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I, Ilor, do oath these two Fat Yuan Yuan for the month of December! (28mm, Corvus Belli):

I am claiming Rescue Ranger for these dudes, as I failed to complete them during one of last season's Oaths and haven't worked on them since.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2018 03:35

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Oath Complete! Behold my Fat Yuan Yuan!

Apologies for the washed-out color, my disk partition that had Adobe CS3 on it died and I can't find my install media, so I couldn't correct the white-balance.

I was very happy with the way the greasy smoke from the jet-pack turned out. Seems fitting that a greasy fat man descends to earth on a column of greasy smoke.

And speaking of grease, home-boy is housing some noodles:

But of course, he's a greasy fat man, so we all know how this ends:

This is why Fat Yuan Yuan should never wear white. The other guy's dingy mustard-yellow shirt hides stains way better - he is clearly a pro.

Corvus Belli eats a lot of (well deserved) poo poo for the cheesecake in their model line (especially the older stuff), but these sculpts are hilarious genius, from the double-chins to the sliver of belly hanging out of the t-shirt. The discarded beer keg is also surprisingly detailed:

As mentioned in my oath post for this month, this oath was a Rescue Ranger, as I'd originally started these guys as part of one of last season's oaths and just never got around to finishing them. Also, I am claiming this month's Multidimensional Mashup Challenge (Hey me, meet the Real Me!) for two different representations of the same character (hilariously labeled on the original packaging - a Chinese take-away box, of course - as "Combat Action!!!" and "Eating Action!!!").

Finally moving into our new house (huzzah!) also allows me to claim Spring Cleaning! Before:

After:

Unpacking all of my painting stuff was among my highest priorities in the new house. It's nice to have a dedicated space to do hobby stuff again.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2018 19:07

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I, Ilor, do Oath the following for the month of January: 1x 28mm WW2 Italian (Gaddis Games)

This guy is going to be my color-test mini. If he works out well, there will be an Oath Addition of more like him. If not, he'll get stripped and re-painted - repeatedly, if necessary.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2019 20:44

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Thanks for the nods, judges! I had a ton of fun painting those Fat Yuan Yuan.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2019 16:44

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Oath complete!

Claiming this month's Every Step You Take challenge, here are some WIP shots:
For my WW2 guys, I'm painting enough of them that I want to make it go quickly. As such, it's base-coat, oil-wash, details, done. This is with the base-coat complete and all the main colors blocked in:

Rear view:

This is after the oil wash. This was the first time I'd used black MinWax, and boy-howdy is it opaque! I needed to thin it quite a bit with mineral spirits to make a decent wash out of it. Note how shiny he is! The flesh tones and gun-stock were shaded with GW Seraphim Sepia:

A quick shot of Dull-Cote after the wash is dry helps me determine if things are working out OK. At this point, it's just details to finish:

This guy was the color-test mini for my Italian platoon. I think he came out way too dark. Even before the wash, he was pretty dark. I had to bump up the brightness in my final photos to show any detail at all. The main problem is that the Italian uniform is this weird bluish-grey-green color that I have yet to find a good base for in any paint line. I'm not excited about mixing such a color (especially given that the platoon is 40 dudes and I don't want to do that many in one go), but I guess I'll do it if I can't find something else that works.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2019 03:21

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Those are some super-sexy AdMech, DT! Nicely done!

# ¿ Feb 1, 2019 04:23

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Oh, man, between binge-watching both seasons of "The Handmaid's Tale" and binge-playing the new Gathering Storm expansion for Civ VI, the month has almost gotten away from me! Let's see if I can pull this one out! I, Ilor, do Oath this WW2 German engineer half-track (28mm Warlord/Italeri):

# ¿ Feb 23, 2019 17:25

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Gorgeous!!!

# ¿ Feb 28, 2019 05:57

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Oath Complete!!!

And because I can't stop myself, it's magnetized to take all the accessories to turn it into a Pionierwagen:

I'm claiming this month's Jurnal for both the heavy weathering and the light underlining on the areas of paint-chipping to give them the impression of depth.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2019 19:06

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Lotsa crap goin' on this month, so I'm gonna keep it simple. I, Ilor, do Oath the following for the month of March: 6 Confederate Skirmishers (15mm Battle Honors) and 6 55-gallon barrels (28mm scratch-built).

# ¿ Mar 12, 2019 02:15

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Geisladisk posted:

I really dig the personal belongings and assorted luggage in the cabin. Gives it a lot of depth.

Thanks! This one was a ton of fun to paint, and I'm really stoked about how it turned out.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2019 05:30

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Nice!

# ¿ Mar 24, 2019 06:28

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I finished and photographed these a couple of days ago, then left town before posting. Almost a whoops! In any event, Oath complete!

It sometimes amazes me how much detail sculptors can pack into these teeny-tiny 15mm dude-mans. It also infuriates me, because if the detail is there I find myself wanting to paint it.

I am claiming this month's Life is better down where it's wetter challenge for the oil-spill (which is actual oil-based black MinWax, funny enough). I'm not sure it photographed well, but IRL it looks suitably wet and sticky.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2019 03:51

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I, Ilor, do oath the following for the month of April: one WW2 British Crusader Tank (28mm Warlord Games)

Also, looking at the totals for this season going into the final month, I think congrats are already in order for Duct Tape. At this point, DT is the loving Gingerbread Man! Kudos!!!

# ¿ Apr 6, 2019 02:43

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

I don't know if it's strictly necessary, but here's an Oath Addition!!! (decoy truck covering - 28mm - wire, tissue paper, and PVA - scratch built):

# ¿ Apr 30, 2019 01:54

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 07:00

Ilor: Feb 2, 2008; That's a crit.

Oath Complete!

In honor of this month's You Can't See Me challenge, I decided to make a party-hat for my Crusader, something along these lines:

And here's what I ended up with:

Now perhaps it's time to stay awhile and listen...

quote:

Private Nigel Potts took a step back to appraise their handiwork under the first orange rays of the sun just now rising over the Egyptian desert. "I have to say, it looks like it was cobbled up by a blind pipe-fitter and his cross-eyed tailor assistant." Potts' section NCO, Corporal Wyatt mutely nodded in agreement.

"It's as good enough as makes no never mind," grumbled mustacioed Platoon Sergeant Simon Hayes. Hayes made a few last minute trims and tucks here and there to the canvas stretched over the makeshift pipe and wire framework, securing it against the desert wind that was even now just beginning to stir. The silhouette was meant to resemble a Bedford QLD 3-ton truck, at least in the abstract.

"Lipstick on a pig, sergeant," opined Potts. Gesturing to this and the other Crusader tanks similarly covered nearby, he asked, "D'you really think this lot will work?"

"I think, Private Potts, that from twenty thousand feet and with one eye always lookin' out for Hurricanes, Jerry's like not to look too close-up." This entire armored column had swapped places overnight with a B-Echelon unit. Even now, those trucks were being fitted with similar decoy frameworks to make them look like tanks to aerial reconnaissance. The last of the brigade would make the swap in the coming night. If all went well, the Germans would be unaware that nearly the entire armored might of the British 8th Army was now positioned over 60 miles from where they expected it - and be poised to strike. But that meant yet another long night of work assembling the decoys and affixing them to the tanks as they arrived. "Right, lads, let's see what those fools in the mess have made us for breakfast."

"More hard-tack and bully beef, I'll wager," complained Potts.

-----------------------------

Later that same evening, Staff Officer Heinrich Stumm examined the take from the day's reconnaissance flights, the curling photos still smelling faintly of the chemicals used to develop them less than an hour prior. Though grainy and perhaps a touch over-exposed, one set of photos clearly showed a large truck-park comprised of British support vehicles. As expected, little had changed at the enemy truck park - a few more tire tracks, a handful more vehicles perhaps, but nothing out of the ordinary. Prior to undertaking any offensive action, the British would surely relocate their logistics units to better support an advance. As such, the lack of any real change indicated that the British were content to stay put for the time being. Stumm indicated as much in his report, which he signed with a flourish and passed to an adjutant, secure in the knowledge that his keen insights into the enemy's intentions (or lack thereof) would make their way to the planning staff at Afrika Korps high command.

Finally, we have All Together Now:

I actually got a lot more painted this year that I thought I had. This Oath season was fun, and definitely motivated me through some of the times when I was given to serious slacking. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to participate next season (I have a bunch of writing projects to tackle), but I can't recommend just jumping into the process highly enough. Big thanks to Zark the Damned for organizing this madness!

# ¿ Apr 30, 2019 05:56

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > The Oath Thread Season 9: Oath it like you mean it!