Mortars, APC's and Jet Bikes (Rough Riders)

Well its been a busy month for me and my old miniatures, at the moment, all my personal time seems to be taken up with painting. Which is nice, those odd hours here and there do seem to add up. With me planning my the time better, so ensuring I varnish on a 'short' period to allow them to dry, means it works well. The last couple of projects have been around a mix of things. First was a mortar crew, but knowing I need to fit them into my case I also looked at magnetising them too.

 This was a little test run, posing the models and seeing how it looks. The guy on the left needed adjusting as he had way to much waist.

After some modification and painting the group looks like this now, with the mortars and crew on magnets.

Which you can see with this little video of me swapping them about.

After these I moved onto some old Bullock and Guard Jet Bikes. These are not usable in 8th Edition 40k, but are still lovely models, so the plan is proxy them as Rough Riders. The Sergeant I was using is a old converted 'Worldburner' Imperial Army figure I'd acquired, someone had already removed his legs and given him a naff looking axe. It seemed like a good idea to upgrade him to a chain-sword, then clean up the fill lines other bits. They have also all been magnatised, though it would seem no all strong enough. This means I'm going to need to go back to some of the bikes and swap them for larger ones. The weight of the metal figures makes them a bit unstable compared to plastics I've done before. Fortunately I'd tested with one larger version with seems to have worked very well.

 Starting bikes.

 The painted riders.

 Bikes together.

 While the crew are the same, I've tried to paint them up different.

 Worldburner modification.

Bit of lean on this chap, not sure I like the look now.

Finally APC's, I'm just acquiring vehicles for my old Guard battalion, with a couple of Leman Russ's and this Chimera. Its a bit naff that I can't use my old Rhinos and Predator with this troops, but that is the way of things. 

I've tried to paint this at rather a bit of speed, using Coat D'Arms Shadow Grey, which is a nice light blue. Fitting in well with my squads uban uniform scheme. The gold tracks seem to contrast well with the base colour of the system. Its all shaded with a quick wash of Nuln Oil and little Highlight of a light blue, boom, all done. One fancy looking APC, the weapons are just base black, with a silver dry brush. Then a little bit of detail on the sides with a 'card' and 'dice' for the 'Lucky Sevens'.

It's Like Watching Paint Strip

The only problem with collecting old miniatures from my youth (80/90s) is that sometimes they come covered in loads of paint. Occasionally that paint job is pretty awesome and worth saving, but most of the time its not to my taste. Even to the point that I'm stripping stuff I painted when I was 15. I've made plans and style choices about the miniatures and it just doesn't fit with my current ideas. So over the last 18 months, I've used a few different things to strip them, each without damaging the metal or plastic. First was Fairy Power Spray, then metholated spirits, and more recently BioStrip 20 and BioStrip Basic. Both of these recent additions strip paint and glue from metal miniatures, but more importantly they also work on plastics. So far I've tried a mixture of different plastic types, some old 89/90 Rogue Trader Imperial Guard, metal Eldar with plastic arms, and more recent GW plastics.

Between the BioStrip 20 and BioStrip Basic the main difference is the price. But while 20 is more expensive, in my experience I would say is does a much better job. You need less scrubbing of the details and recesses, while it seems to shift those stubborn bits of paint without additional soaking.

 Before, using BioStrip.

 After, and a little scrubbing in hot soapy water.

My jet bikes.

Original Blacked Bullock Jetbike now all shiney.

Pretty much everything I have painted up till recently I have been using BioStrip 20 to sort my minis, its only within the last month that I've move to just BioStrip. As long as you don't mind the little bit extra effort, its well worth using.