Ritterlich im Kriege, wachsam für den Frieden

Deutsches Afrika Korps on the Table… 

Last weekend I painted 18 DAK infantry for Bolt Action (BA).
Below are the painting steps and the list of paints I used… in case anyone likes it 😊

1.    I primed the figures with Earth Green (Early) (Vallejo).
2.    Did a dry brush over the figures with an old, worn-out brush using Pale Yellow Green (Ammo).
3.    Painted the uniforms with several colors – Yellow Green (Vallejo), Deathworld Forest (Citadel), and a mix of those with a little Sand Yellow (Vallejo).
4.    Faces and hands painted with Barbarian Flesh (Army Painter).
5.    Webbing painted with Iraqui Sand (Vallejo).
6.    Boots, shovel pouches, ammo pouches, and weapon straps painted with Red Leather (Vallejo).
7.    Ammo pouches highlighted again with Khaki (Vallejo).
8.    Canteens painted with Flat Earth (Vallejo).
9.    Areas between boots and trousers painted with German Camo Beige (Vallejo).
10.    Applied a slightly heavy dry brush of Desert Yellow (Vallejo) over everything.
11.    Wooden parts painted with Light Brown (Ammo).
12.    Helmets and gas mask canisters painted with Sand Yellow (Vallejo).
13.    Tops of grenades, canteen caps, and future metal parts of weapons painted with Black Grey (Vallejo).
14.    Belt buckles painted with some kind of Metallic (Vallejo).
15.    Scarves painted in several shades – Blue Green (Vallejo), Troll Slayer Orange (Citadel), and Mephiston Red (Citadel) as the base.

16.    Applied a wash made from a mix of several bottles:
•    3 parts Military Shade (Army Painter)
•    2 parts Sepia Tone (Army Painter)
•    2 parts Strong Tone (Army Painter)
•    2 parts Speedpaint Medium (Army Painter)
•    2 parts water


Let everything dry for about 2 hours.
17.    For metallic parts I used some Vallejo silver paint stored in a Citadel bottle.
18.    Gave the webbing a light pass with Pale Yellow Green.
19.    Added small dots/spots on helmets with Iraqui Sand (Vallejo).
20.    Applied Tanned Flesh (Army Painter) to faces and hands.
21.    Then covered faces and hands with Darkoath Flesh Contrast (Citadel).
22.    Finally, touched up faces and hands again with Barbarian Flesh (Army Painter).

The figures are finished, though there are still some small fixes left…
Basing – Decorating and Painting the Bases…
1.    Applied white wood glue to the bases and sprinkled on fine sea sand borrowed from the Adriatic 😊.
2.    Once dry, painted the sand first with Earth Green (Vallejo).
3.    Strong dry brush on the sand with Pale Yellow Green (Vallejo).
4.    Then a lighter dry brush with Sand Yellow (Vallejo).
5.    Final layer is a mix of Sand Yellow and White (both Vallejo).

Drying takes about half an hour at most, then I glaze the bases with contrast…

Contrast mix:
•    Agrax Earthshade (Citadel)
•    Gore-Grunta Fur Contrast (Citadel)
•    Nazdreg Yellow Contrast (Citadel)
•    Rust (Vallejo)
•    A little water

Dried overnight, then photos for the blog…

Haiku:
Stari kist leti,
Prolivene boje plaču,
Prljave ruke 

TomZG 2025_04

Silent steel and weary faces, waiting for their next battle...

 

Another project fresh from the painting desk… veterans and an old Panzer IV.
 
Warlord Games will financially ruin me :)

I already have plenty of painted German infantry for Bolt Action, but now the Veterans are arriving...
I really don’t see a reason not to assemble at least two squads of infantry… that was the plan. With my hobby friend Marko, I split the cost of a box—ending up with three-fifths of the figures, 18 out of 30.

I also picked up the new book for Germans (v3) and a few blisters (HQ, Support, Weapons…).
Shipping from Germany is expensive, so I ordered a bit more in one go, but at least FantasyWelt
delivers quickly.

I enjoyed putting together different combinations, trying to use every option to avoid duplicate models.

As for painting—I won’t say too much; this is my third entry in just a few days, so I don’t want to repeat myself. Let’s just say I didn’t do any touch-ups on the SpeedPaint colors, so the models are sitting on the shelf exactly as they turned out :)

The bases got a few bricks, mostly painted in bright red. I cut and shaped the plastic sprues from the new army kits—those became my bricks, my walls. Beside the bricks I planted some grass, scattered a bit of sand, and weathered everything with layers of paint.

Alongside the veterans, I painted an old Panzer IV, a late-war resin model with a badly cast gun barrel. I tried straightening it again and again until it finally snapped, leaving a bump in the middle :( The tank received side skirts (Schürzen), but I didn’t bother with turret skirts—too many fiddly bits. Honestly, I’d sooner learn to dance with two left feet than glue those properly :)

The Panzer IV is painted in green, its side skirts carry an improvised camouflage that still waits for decals and inspiration for repainting.

I spent several beautiful spring mornings on these models, and I don’t regret a thing. There’s nothing better than coffee on the balcony, cats by my side, and the quiet morning air keeping me company—perfect for relaxing, meditating, and painting some well-cast plastic :)

Besides, the paint dries quickly in the gentle breeze—barely 5 km/h, carrying the scents of pine and lavender through the air. I believe these Veterans will soon see the battlefield—at Kex’s game room. There are enough of them for most lists, maybe ten order dice worth. Perhaps one day I’ll even write a battlereport :)

Now I’m off to photograph the Veterans, and I just noticed—I *did* glue the turret skirts after all. No idea when that happened… time to cut back on the beer :)

 

 

 

Haiku:

U ruci kist je,

tišina govori glasno

prolazi vrijeme.

 

TomZG, 2025_03

Battle of the Bulge (BA)

 

 

Finally got back to the hobby after a break — this time working on the BA Battle of the Bulge set. Here’s how it went. 

 

I’m quite sure that in my last hobby package (sent to my old address) there was also the BA Battle of the Bulge box.
But just because something arrives doesn’t mean it’s first in line for painting… The sprues stayed untouched for months, still like new, apart from a bit of shifting things around in the box. What I can’t figure out is how everything I take out never seems to fit back in—like it somehow grows once it’s out in the open :)

After moving, I set up a hobby room of almost 2 square meters, bought a balcony table, and waited for the weather to improve. One chilly morning, I finally sat down and picked up the hobby again. Once more, I’m trying to bring a bit of history to life by assembling and painting minis.
For at least a year (or maybe two), I’ve been starting the same way: black primer, white drybrush… and then just following wherever creativity leads :)

This time I used last year’s Speedpaints. Since they’re not really intended for WWII, I had to do quite a bit of mixing and experimenting. In the end, I also needed some regular paints to make it all look right, so there were touch-ups here and there. Still, I was happy with the speed. In the meantime, during those months without painting, I had to start wearing glasses… Probably the “fault” of moving—20+ km east and suddenly worse eyesight. Definitely not because of age ;)

I left the ruins and the armored vehicle for the end.
Why the M20 instead of the M8? Because I already had the M8 from before.
The bases were kept simple—just a little snow on the grass and that’s it.
I know the US helmets and gloves turned out too bright and really catch the eye; maybe I’ll fix that one day. The winter coats were also too red at first, so I weathered, repainted, and adjusted them several times…
The box itself is very nice, with enough models to keep you busy assembling and painting for a whole month of weekends. It would be great if every starter didn’t always include the same terrain pieces, so there’d be more variety—but that would raise the price, and then there would be complaints again…

Here are a few photos to finish off.

 

 

TomZG, 2025-02 

Island assault box (BA)

 

 

 

 

I walked into the store (C.M.) just to grab some plastic glue.
I walked out with a big box of Bolt Action figures – to be precise, I bought the Island Assault box 😊
Luckily, my wife was waiting outside the store, so I didn’t have time to buy even more stuff.

Lately, I’ve been working a lot. I leave the apartment before 6, get back after 6 – in the evening.
So yeah, I treated myself with something to build during my vacation…
While everyone gives me weird looks for gluing and smudging paint on plastic, and here I am – past fifty.
Of course, part of the blame for the purchase goes to Rašo, too – he gave me a discount 😊
He gets me like that every time 😊

That evil transparent wrapping stopped me from tearing the box open right in front of the store and digging into that beautiful plastic… even though I knew exactly what was inside.
A few days later, I’m in Dalmatia… the sun just came up – perfect for clipping plastic off the sprues and assembling mighty warriors who look like they fought over Pacific islands back in the 1940s… of the last century.

…food, sea, beer… repeat a few times, and suddenly I’ve got 48 fat little warriors in front of me.
Since I’m also a bit heavier than my knees would prefer, I don’t mind that heroic scale.
The Chi-Ha’s built, later on the M3 half-truck too… black primer, white dry brush… time flies…

I’m already back in Zagreb… mixing the best paints I have, trying to hit the fine details with a brush.
That’s not going well – the tip of my cheap brush keeps bending the wrong way… there’s some fixing to do.
Can’t just slap on white glue and sea sand… got to treat those fine grains with shades of brown and yellow…
I need to bring in some jungle foliage…
I’ve got some dried lichen I picked up in the woods a few months ago…
I glue it on with superglue – gluing my fingers and the desk too – it holds great and burns a bit when peeled off the skin…
Drying, painting in matching tones, dipping in contrast and speedpaint washes…
Some of it falls off, sticks to my slippers…
The cats are loving it, the wife’s losing her mind…

I’m putting markings on the vehicles.
Trying to follow the instructions, as if the guys from Warlord really know which exact symbols were used.
They’re just looking at old photos – same as me.
The markings are clean – I hate it when they’re smudged after all that effort and then you can’t see a thing.
Maybe it’s just a phase, and one day I’ll mess them up with pigments 😊

I finished it all in two weeks minus a day, took some pics on the balcony and now I’m wondering:
Will this pumped-up squad ever see battle, or just show off in the box?

Here are a few photos too – gotta brighten up the post a bit…

 

 TomZG, 2025_01

 

Brzo bojanje brzim bojama (SpeedPaint)

 

Dalo bi se pričati o tome koliko je meni bojanje brzo… vid je sve lošiji mada se ja pretvaram da vidim i ove buhe u mjerilu 1/100.

Boje su stvarno „brze“; na bijeloj podlozi su baš učinkovite. Jedini problem je što se u ovom setu dobije od svega pomalo… puno premalo za WW2 period. Brze boje daju osjećaj da je nešto obojano s bar 3 nijanse tako da štete vrijeme; umjesto brzih boja mogle bi se zvati boje koje štede vrijeme – to je kraće ;)

 

FOTKA 01 – Cijeli vod na jednom mjestu mada djeluju pomalo plastično J

FOTKA 02 –Šaka modela skinutih sa spruea i isturpijanih baza, da mogu samostalno stajati.

 

FOTKA 03 – Okupani u vodi sobne temperature uz minimalno Čarlija radi skidanje masnoće, prljavoće… isprani tekućom vodom i brzo osušeni te za svaki slučaj ispuhani (za)dahom mladića koji nema ni 52 godine…

 

FOTKA 04 – Vojnici su zalijepljeni na malo veće baze nakon čega se dodatno suše. Ovo je zadnji trenutak njihove tvorničko sive faze…

 

FOTKA 05 – Svako bojanje započinjem prajmerom, crnim ako ga imam… ovo vojnici su zaslužili najbolji crni prajmer koji će odlično pokriti plastiku; Vallejo black J

 

FOTKA 06 – Radim dvostruku drybrush, prvo širokim kistom nanosim base Wraithbone (Citadel), a zatim nakon sušenja ide drugi drybrush malo gušćom bijelom bojom u koju dodajem malo vode. Boja je Titnium White (Liquitex).

 

FOTKA 07 – Komplet brzih boja nema previše sivih i zelenih pa sam prisiljen miješati boje što nije nikakav problem za nove nijanse. Obećao sam raditi tutorial bojanja pa ću priložiti tablicu s popisom svih boja koje sam koristio.

Fotkanje svakog vojnika nakon svake faze bojanje bi oduzelo previše vremena… bojanje bi se odužilo i ovo više ne bi bilo brzo bojanje. 

 

 

 Tablica boja – jakne (jacket), hlače (pants) i šljemovi/kape (helmet/cap)

Vojnik = Soldier

Koristio sam Army Painter SpeedPaint "Most wanted set 2.0"

 

 

Za opremu, oružje koristim iste boje pa nema potrebe za drugom tablicom:

Gas mask Cointainers, Ammo boxes, Granate - Forest Sprite + Shamrock Green

Water Canteen - Dark Wood + Palid Bone

Wooden parts (Entrenching tool, Cartrige belts) - (Dark Wood + Palid Bone) + Zealot Yellow (1/3) + Bright Red (1/4)

Equipment bag/ Bread bag, Gaiters - Zealot Yellow (1/2) + Palid Bone (1/2)

Metal parts - Breadsword Silver

Boots - Dark Wood (2/3) + Bright Red (1/3)

Cooking pot - Yealot Yellow

Face and hands - Crusader Skin

 

FOTKA 08 – Sada ide highlights radi isticanja detalja i tu opet koristim Wraithbone (Citadel). Radi se u tankom sloju boje pa nema razloga na čekanje sljedećeg koraka… i evo, radi žurbe i razmišljanja o nekim drugim stvarima, radim strašnu pogrešku… Umjesto da svakog vojnika premrljam obilnom slojem washa Strong Tone ja koristim već pripremljeni wash za baze; kombinaciju Dark Rust (Vallejo), Contrast Darkoath Flesh (Citadel), Athonian Camoshade (Citadel), Shade Coelia Greenshade (Citadel) i Contrast Black Legion (Citadel). Previše potamljujem neke nijanse tako da sivkaste postaju smeđe, kod zelenih nema previše promjena, lice i ruke su malo tamnije… Napravio sam pogrešku i neću je ispravljati…

 

FOTKA 09 – Modeli se dosta brzo suše, naslanjam ih na kistove da se što bolje vide. Fotka od naprijed…

 

FOTKA 10 - … i fotka od iza; da e vidi oprema.

 

FOTKA 11 – Recimo da su modeli bojani i da je ostalo uređenje baza. Na svaku malu bazu ide još manje super-ljepila koje „solim“ morskim pijeskom…

 

FOTKA 12 – Za bojanje baza koristim velike (isto akrilne) boje jer su puno jeftinije. Guste su pa dodajem malo vode. Prvo ide smeđa..

 

FOTKA 13 – zatim je na redu žuta…

 

FOTKA 14 – i na kraju bijela pa gore spomenuta kombinacija washa i lagani highlihgts bijelom jer je ipak zima J

DRUGI DIO: detaljne fotke svakog modela

Pazio sam da nije uključen makro jer bi se otkrilo previše pogrešaka J.

Ovdje se radi o blitzkrieg bojanju ili u prijevodu… nanesi boju i idi na sljedeći korak. Kod ovog bojanja sam se držao pravila da nema popravaka, kako ispadne tako ostaje.

Na kraju pojedinačne fotke svakog vojnika

Za pripremu, bojanje i baziranje mi je trebalo oko tri sata od trenutka vađenja spruea iz vrećice pa do završenih modela. Po meni, to je odlično vrijeme, a tako misli i FB ekipa (u 2 dana sam dobio preko 2.000 lajkova). Vojnici će služiti na naslikavanje s nekim tenkovima, za male WW2 diorame u mjerilu 1/100. S pola metra izgledaju dobro, s dva metra su odlični J

Ovaj tutorial je nastao kao obećanje ekipi na FB… objavio sam po jednu fotku dva ranije obojana voda ne očekujući previše komentara i lajkova… Nakon pola dana objava je skupila više od  700 lajkova pa sam napisao da ću napraviti tutorial bojanja ako se ti lajkovi popnu na 1.000. Cilj je dostignut u roku 2 sata.

Hebat ga, obećanje je obećanje J

Zaključak: uživao sam u bojanju, puno mi je vremena trebalo za srediti prilog... Ovo je treći vod brzog bojanja :)... možda naknadnoo stavim fotke prva dva voda

TomZG, 2024-08