Saturday 11 February 2017

From ByronM: All Quiet on the Martian Front - Misc Vehicles (72 Points)

Well, after not posting anything last week, I am back this week with three different posts covering three very different scales and periods.  I didn't get a regular submission up last week because of working on two projects which I didn't want to post until they were complete, I was tempted too post partially completed forces but decided to hold off and wait until I had everything done.  Then, I finished them mid-week so figured why not get something else done and banged off these few odd bits for All Quiet on the Martian Front that have been sitting around for over a year with just primer on them.



For those that have not seen it, AQotMF is a cool little 18mm game (closer to 20-22mm as those bases are 60mm rounds!) that is set about 10 years after the War of the Worlds book.  The mechanics and game play are awesome as well, so its worth a try.

Here are some British mono tanks, although they have added training wheels as they were found to be too tippy and required some help at low speed.  They are fast and maneuverable though, and are just too cool looking to not be included!



Next up is a British tank with a rotating tri-barrel!  Bonkers as hell, and ugly as hell too!  However, it is super effective so I had to build one.



Lastly is one of the coolest tanks around (IMHO at least), the Tesla Tank!  This tank shoots out an electrical death ray that bounces around to the next closest unit and keeps bouncing down the line (to friend or foe) until it runs out of power!



All of these were just sitting around, and I kept meaning to get to them but never have.  So, I broke out the airbrush and put a quick and basic colour pattern on then, the added some decals, and some weathering powders and called them done.  They are nothing fancy, but took a total of less than 3 hours to do all 6 of them, and look good enough to serve their purpose on the table.  

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Ahh, it's wonderful to see some 'All's Quiet on the Martian Front' this year, and so wonderfully painted as well. 

I've always liked the whacky design of the British Mono Tanks, but I have to agree with you Byron, that Tesla Tank is the bee's knees. I especially like how you did the porcelain barrel with the copper cabling wrapped around it. And of course, your weathering for all of these jalopies is excellent (and the martian walker 'kill' markings are a great touch).

I'm going to score all these models as 20mm vehicles, with the Tesla counting as two. 72 points for your efforts. Thanks for the fun entry Byron!

20 comments:

  1. As a long time VSF affectionado I love these! That tri-barrel thank looks like a KV-1 on steroids, but the monotanks are my fav. The tripod kill markings are sweet too. Great stuff!

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  2. absolutely fabulous stuff! the basing is brilliant too.

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  3. I must say those tanks are really cool, very well painted. It really is too bad that the whole AQMF came such a spectacular cropper. I was just getting interested.

    John

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    1. It is, isn't it? The models and the game itself really are brilliant! The guy running it though was just completely lacking in communication or business skill / planning by all accounts. Probably the most important being communication skill. So many issues could have been sorted out by actually letting people know what the issues were and talking openly about them. Instead he went quiet and his company folded. The rights have been purchased though and things are starting to move again, so that's good at least!

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  4. Very nicely done - I need to get some of my AQMF stuff out to finish up

    The rights to the game and minis have been picked up by a new company - ironclad games (I think) - I wish them luck with the project

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  5. Absolutely bonkers armour but looking very nice :)

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  6. Straddling the line between genius and crazy just nicely! Great paintwork, the weathering works really well.

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  7. Thanks for the comments everyone, and to Curt, I just couldn't think of any other way to paint that up other than as porcelain insulators and copper wire, so went with it, it seemed the obvious way to go. The stark contrast against the dark green armour really helps set it off as well. I have seen a few painted where they were left green to match the tank, but that just didn't seem right. It's not like camouflage works on a tank that is steam powered since it would be spewing black coal smoke from the furnace anyway... So I figured, why bother!

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  8. Great looking mad tanks!
    Best Iain

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  9. Really lovely work on these.

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  10. Great job Byron, love the mono wheels

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  11. Marvellous stuff Byron. I love the weathering and the kill markings are just brilliant.

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  12. Cracking looking stuff! Would you mind telling me your recipe for that sublime green on these apparitions? That huge tank looks like it could be the bad twin of a KV-2.

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    1. Thanks Moiterei. No problem on the green, I just base it black and then pre-shade in the highlights with white quickly. Then base coat with vallejo Reflective green (70.890), then hit the corners with yellow green (70.881) and then with dark yellow (70.978). The real trick is the pre-shade, and mixing everything as 1/2 with glaze medium so that its translucent. I do the same thing for american ww2 tanks with a base coat of brown violet (70.887) instead of reflective green and then it matches sherman colours. Super fast to do. I recently showed Greg the method in person and we did 12 russian 15mm tanks in less than an hour. Then just hand paint details, decal, weather and your done.

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  13. Great fun, I'm thinking about getting some of this range.

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  14. Excellent detail work on these, Byron! They look well used. Although the kv analog and the tesla tank are really sweet, I'm fond of those mono tankettes. They look proper VSF!

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