Winners of the Britannia Build at the Guild: the competition is over

The competition is over at the forum of the guildwargamers.
The first time ever I took part in such a thing and guess what - I really made 4th in the ranks of 34 competitors !!!
Not even that - I was later awarded with the price of the 3rd rank, because one of the top 3 ranks was also painting for the competition's sponsor on a regular basis.

In other words, I am 4th in the ranks but got awarded Bronze !!! I am proud that people liked my ZIL-157 truck and my T-55 Battle tank.

I will for sure take part in any other sponsored competition again in that forum. It was a funny, fair and an interesting match and made me finally paint something from start to finish in one go.

I will go back on working with my Chinese PLA next. Stay tuned!

Generic Iraqi Force: ZIL and T-55 finished !!

First pic shows spent 23mm ammo shells made from 2mm long pieces of 0,8mm thick copper wire, second the finally finished ZIL-157 with ZU-23-2 AA gun (removable to turn the truck into resupply vehicle) and the T-55 tank.

Generic Iraqi Force: ZIL-157 "Resupply"

I obviously so far didn't take any pics of the unarmed ZIL-157 variant I made for some reason - so here's the "Resupply" truck (above).

Oh, and I did paint the blinkers orange now. Looks better, doesn't it? Base done, too....

Generic Iraqi Force: detailing the ZIL-157

Got back to painting today and tried finishing off some stuff. Hence, I gave the ZU-23-2 a drybrushing in two stages for rusty, used and dusty look. I covered up some of the way too big blotches of chipping paint and totally repainted the wheels. I decided Tamiya's NATO black looks more like tires as GW Chaos Black ever will (lol).

Gave the ZIL an Iraqi liscence plate and in general just applied some details here and there. Than I had an (rather brilliant as it turned out to be) idea: dust effects on the windshields and a look as if the wiper blades have removed some of the desert sand from the windshield.

I did that by cutting some templates out of scotch tape with a scissors, applying these to the model and then just drybrush it with some GW Bleached Bone. I love the effect. Looks really cool.

That leaves the bases to be done, some more minor details and a repaint of the blinker(s) into a rather orange tone. Yellow's too bright IMO.

Generic Iraqi Force: first time used oil paint for washes

This was the first time I used oil paint for washes instead of GW products. I intended to give the ZU-23-2 a full wash for a rather dirty and rusty look but had so much thinned down Burnt Umber paint left that I started to give the tank rain marks (in Iraq, I know - lol) and rusty spots for the ZIL.

I also applied some Iraqi decals that I had left over from a SU-24 kit to the truck. Next step will be to try to conceal some of the "chipping paint effects" as I consider them to be too large for this scale to look convincing.

And then there is even more rust, dust, exhaust smoke and grease to be added. The painting war goes on :-)

Generic Iraqi Force: latest WIP shots of the Britannia-build contest

Well, its still not finished, but at least we are slowly getting there... Work on the tank is almost done, going to concentrate on the ZIL for now. Some quick shots of the progress so far can be seen above. Note the chipping paint - its the first time I use this sort of weathering.

Generic Iraqi Force: Some progress in painting my vehicles.

Yeah, I know. Not much done so far. I really need to spend more time on the painting table. I am sure the T-55 is going to look stunning once done. I am pleased with my work so far, although I could really need more practice. Oh well...