Saturday 15 June 2013

Army in a Day - GZG UNSC and Antenocitis Workshop Grav-Tank

By Harold

Hi everyone, I've had these GZG UNSC-L and the AW light grav tank for a while now and I wanted to be able to field them on the table top.  I figured I'd see how many I could get done in one night.

While not the highest quality, I'm really happy with how they turned out.

I have painted:

2x 8-man squads with 2 SAWs
2x 2-man heavy sniper rifles
1x Command squad (4)
1x Light grav tank

This would probably be between 100 and 150 points in gruntz, depending on how you costed them out.  It'd make a great recon or patrol platoon.

Light grav tank and squad advance through the grasslands.
To complete them I:



1) Glue figures to bases. I use US pennies.

2) Clean all flash and mould lines. I use a file and x-acto knife.

3) Glue sand to bases. I like to use superglue because it's quick and I have a lot of control via the nozzle. I usually leave a small bit clear around the figures feet to avoid covering them.

4) Prime.  I used a light grey color.

5) Paint bases khaki color. I used graveyard earth. I then dry-brushed with bleached bone.

6) Paint gun and visor black.

7) Touch up any areas that got black on them by mistake with a color as close to the base color as possible.

8) Wash. I used army painter strong tone and heavily covered the whole figure. This is similar to the "dip technique" but with more control.

9)  When completely dry, matte varnish.  Normally I use paint on varnish, but because I had a whole group I sprayed them.

10) Brush on gloss coat on the right shoulder pad and visor. I applied it to the shoulder pad so I could apply the decal and it would stay better.

11) Apply decal to shoulder pad.  I use a brush and x-acto knife for this.

12) Apply Micro-sol setting solution to decal.  This helps to adhere to the model and give it a more painted-on look.

13) Apply matte varnish to the shoulder pad. I painted it on since it was such a small area and I didn't want to dull down the visor.

14) For the first time I used the little tufts for the grass. I really like it. They have adhesive on them, but I put a dab of super glue where I wanted them to go, just in case.  I used the 6mm Army Painter wasteland tufts.



Front of the grav tank.  Decals are from a model RR sheet.

Back of the grav tank.  I completed this in almost the same way as the infantry.

Command squad. 

The two heavy sniper teams.  The guns had a bit of flash I had a hard time of removing under the barrel. Grass tufts to the rescue!

Size comparison and a change to see what the bases look like.

For a night of painting I'm very happy with these.  The decals really helped to break up what would be a pretty bland paint job.  I like the color it added to it.  The gloss on the visor also helps to break up the colors. I also quite like the little tufts, and I will definitely be using them again.

Hope you've enjoyed this and please let me know if you have any questions!


23 comments:

  1. Excellent execution Harold. For a 'speedy' solution you appear to have no loss of quality, so I'm too jealous to comment any more! (Except to say 'great job'!)

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    1. Thanks! I was just as surprised as you. I had no black primer, only grey. And I first tried a black wash, which didn't look good. Once I did the strong tone wash, it really worked with the bases too.

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  2. Nice work! I've been wondering about getting one of those Grav tanks for a while and I think your quick and effective paint job has persuaded me!

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, those grav tanks as sweet. I left off a couple of bits (like headlights, and another part like that) just because I couldn't be bothered with the fiddly parts, and I still love how it looks!

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  3. Awesome looking job.

    I appreciate the step by step.

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  4. Awesome looking job.

    I appreciate the step by step.

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  5. These are brilliant. I really like the paint scheme, & the glossy black visors look great.

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  6. Sweet little force. They look excellent!

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  7. I like the little touch with the gloss varnish on the helmets. Makes all the difference.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! Yeah, I wanted to make sure I mixed up the textures on the models, since I wasn't going to have a lot of colors.

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  8. So

    Light grey undercoat and a strong army tone? No base colour or am I am being daft and misreading this?


    Top work, I'm going to try it

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    Replies
    1. No base coat, just used the light grey primer. No highlighting either!

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    2. my my

      really works well!

      Im assuming thats the army painter dips, as opposed to the inks?

      cheers

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    3. Nope, the paint on strong tone, comes in a bottle like the vallejo paints.

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  9. Nice work. This shows just why 15mm is so good to work with. The Army Painter wash: was this a tin of their dip that you just painted on? If so, did you thin it at all?

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    Replies
    1. It's the paint on strong tone, I just put some on my palette and painted away, no thinning at all, since I wanted it thick.

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    2. Comes in a bottle like vallejo paint.

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  10. Looks great, where did you get the decals?

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    Replies
    1. I believe the ones from the shoulder pads are from flames of war, and the ones on the tank are from a model rr set.

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  11. Very impressive for such a swift technique!

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