6MMRPC: Tigers by the tail

So, for those who missed the announcement, LXG will be taking place in the Six Month Mountain Reduction Painting Challenge, or 6MMRPC.  My first up to bat were a group of Tiger I E tanks for my Flames of War Late German Eastern Front force.  Let's see how I did!

So. for my first pledge on this thing, I figured I'd finish up the last unit I need for my official Flames of War Late War Tourney Army- four Tiger I E tanks.  I had gotten an auction that had seven for a steal (mostly because I didn't realize until they made it to me that more than half of them were recasts...), but I only needed four, so I didn't know where the rest went.  The two that came in primed are Battlefront, the rest I'm pretty sure are recasts judging by the engines and whatnot. 

Don't you know, the funniest things happen when you rearrange your hobby room.  You find things you haven't seen in a long time:  old rulebooks, lost dice... oh, and some Tiger tanks.  So, aobut the time I had the base coat ready on the first four, it's prime and basecoat the rest- no reason not to finish them all at the same time, right? Here's the other three primed up, next to the first four.  You'll also notice one of the barrels is broken.  I plan on replacing that later- particularly because I don't know that I'm ever going to run seven cats at the same time anyway.

Not a lot to be done on the paint scheme I'm using for these guys:  German Field Grey, metal on the treads, decals, and whitewash.  Intentionally quick and easy, because my infantry are a pain in der Arsch to paint. Also, I always liked the look of whitewashed winter camo, so when the club decided to do a winter theme for our FoW, I was really kinda pleased.  Only one problem, really....

I forgot how much I despise decals.  Loathe. I know they're not hard, and they're sure cleaner than trying to etch numbers onto 15mm armor by hand... but mein Gott were they frustrating.  Especially because the ones I had were individual numbers, so stringing them together meant each digit was a separate placement. three digits and a cross on each side of each tank. If Germany had needed to apply insignia in this manner, they would have given up in 1943, I promise you.  Well... come to think of it, if they had been applying insignia with tweezers, they probably wouldn't have made it that long anyway, but you get the idea.  Long and short of it was it took me four nights of work.  Add to my general hated of waterslides the fact that these were a bit old, and didn't adhere perfectly.  That meant in between each one I needed to seal them in place to make sure the next one wouldn't lift all my work off.  Which I figured out when it happened really early on in the second numerals. 301-302 are Command models (which I'll never need most likely), while 311-315 are the Tiger Panzergruppe. I only plan on feilding three or four (points for aircraft nonwithstanding), but since I had seven, and they can be feilded in up to five for the list I intend, I figured there really wasn't a point in *not* batting for the cycle and finishing out the group. Did I mention hating decals?  I think I did...

With the decals done and sealed, all that was left was the whitewash striping for the winter camo.  This was easily accomplished with the Secret Weapon "Oxide White" weathering pigment & fixative, and some q-tips.  Basically dabbing the pigment onto the model, then following it up with dabbing the fixative will give a slightly uneven bleaching effect, similar to whitewash hastily applied by a sponge or broom head.  It gave me exactly the look I wanted, with no muss or fuss.   My intention is to detail the treads and road wheels with the Secret Weapon Wet Earth pigment set, but Merek had them for his project, so that will have to wait.  I'll probably do a small update when I get them done. The Tigers will look a lot better once they're reasonably dirty.  

So, there's one joker for me! First project in the bag, and fourteen points for the club Painting Board. My next project is going to be a post-apocalyptic 20mm gang for Devil's Run: Route 666 due to a challenge being run on the Gangs of Route 666 Facebook group.  Here's the before for my six road demons, which will be five cars and a buggy.  However, what I work on next after that I'll leave up to my diligent readers.  I've got a bunch that needs to get done, and more coming in very shortly- even though the 6MMRPC puts a moratorium on buying, it doens't affect outstanding purchases that are still coming in, and Kickstarters have a habit of trickling for a while.  I pretty much expect that even with no new purchases, I'll have projects adding into the list nearly as quickly as I can pull them off for the next couple months.  Anyway, Projects #3 to #Lots will be shown off at the end of each finished project log for me, and whichever one gets the most requests by the time I finish my current one will be next up on the painting table.  So, let me know what you think of the Tigers, and put in your two cents for the next group to be painted!  Thanks for reading!

Pulp Citizen counters, made form a mix of
the Pulp Family and Mars Attacks! townies

Pulp City random villain and evil minions.

Pulp City's Coven, a New Orleans themed techno-supernatural team.

What's left of my Pulp City Heroes that I haven't painted.

Counterblast Lancers.  Most of this group will be an A-Team themed Lancer Team,
 with the rest going to my Star Wars themed Lancers.  Oh, and a robotic butler model
 I picked up somewhere, because why not?