Flames of War : The StuGs

Hi everyone,

Today's tale is one of tragedy, adversity and perseverance.  OK, OK, enough with the melodrama!, seriously though, this  is one post where you will see how things can go terribly wrong but end up on a good-but-not-so-bright-note.

So, it all begins with a box of 15mm StuGs.  I was tremendously happy with them and very, very motivated to start painting them up.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, I haven't played a historical game in quite awhile, and I'm really charged up for it.

Well, after I built them up I gave them an foundation coat of Dunkelgelb with my airbrush.  I had already done my research, and I decided to go with a hard edged camouflage scheme.


I then spry-painted them German brown.  This was to be my first camo pattern. After the brown dried properly, I got some Jovi soft playing dough to cover up areas I wanted the brown to show through.  After which I sprayed everything in olive green - my next camo colour.

When the olive green had dried, I added some more Jovi playing dough, to cover up the areas of olive green that I wanted visible and then finally sprayed everything with dunkelgelb again.  So far so good - or so it seemed!!!

TRAGEDY STRIKES!


It is not until I started to take off the Jovi playing dough that I discovered the true horror that awaited me.  The Jovi had stuck to most of the olive green, but strangely enough to none of the brown!!
After half an hour of cursing, I took several deep breaths and start the laborious chore of removing the f#*k*#g Jovi.  I did this with a blunted tooth-pick and slowly rubbed on the olive green areas very gently.  The picture above shows the process of removal an hour after commencing.

After nearly two hours I had managed to remove most of the Jovi, with only minimal olive paint removed, but the paint was significantly dulled to the point of not being olive green anymore. So I had to retouch most of the areas again with my trusty old series seven brush.
As you can see from the photo above, I did manage to salvage the StuGs.  Although for a moment there I was quite desperate.  Well, I then added the decals I bought from the Plastic Soldier Company, and started to add the details.

Painting in the details, like adding washes for depth, battle damage, and weathering are the most enjoyable part of the process.  Overall, I think I managed to turn tragedy into triumph, even though they did not come out exactly as I had envisioned them.  At least I have learned some vital lessons before painting my Tigers!

       NR