Dust Tactics: Markus - Blutruez Korps Experiment

Nobody could ever accuse Dust Tactics of being dull. There's some many different and interesting concepts.

Generically engineered Axis combat gorillas are one such concept. Marcus was first specimen of the Kampaffen experiments following the Blutkruez Korps takeover of the program.

Markus comes with the Dust Tactics: Operation Seelowe Campaign Expansion.

Markus 'Kampaffe' 001 is full of rage, the intelligence enhancing drugs have convinced him of the bigotry of mankind at war and he knows all too well there is no place for simian kind in the aftermath of this world war. Markus can be devastating in his own right and his charge ability means he's even more likely to get stuck in.

Dust Tactics: Kampaffe 001 - Markus - Blutkruez Korps Experiment.

I love the dynamic sculpt. Paint treatment was pretty standard, base-coat, wash, dry-brush and detail. And I even managed to get a little X-27 Tamiya Clear Red on his tongue.

Dust Tactics: The Chef - Guglielmo Zanicotti - SOE

There are quite a few interesting characters in Dust Tactics. All of which present some intersting and individual painting opportunities. One of the quirkiest has to be 'The Chef'' Guglielmo Zanicotti. The Chef is one of the Alies chief spies and Rosie and Captain Joe Brown reply heavily on his insider information for the effective execution of many operations. He is currently thought to be deep in Berlin, obtaining information on the Axis Blutkruez Korps and VK expreiments.

The Chef comes with the Dust Tactics: Operation Cerberus Campaign Expansion.

My long term gaming buddy and Dust Tactics opponent James really doesn't like this dual wielding flame-thrower nutter, which is why it is nice to sneak him into a unit, get in close and use him to toast the Wehrmacht's finest.

Whislt vulnerable on his own he is an asset to any clsoe comabt unit he joins and is very effective against vehicles.

I used a pretty standard technique of base-coat, wash, touch-up, highlight and detail on this model. It was nice to be able to use some X-27 Tamiya Clear Red - TCR once again on the blood. Overall happy with result.

Incursion: 3D Play Set - Part 5

So with both Incursion gaming boards marked out and most of the floor tiles in place I went to work on sorting out some walls to give the board it's true 3D feel.

I stuck to a pretty simple method of using foam-core and wood glue, pinning as I glue and removing the pins once dry. I picked up a set of dressmaking pins for making LARP costumes and have honestly found as much, if not more, use making foam-core buildings. I suspect using expanded polystyrene or solid foam insulation might have been quicker, but once I'd started, I deceided to finish it that way.

Walls shown in situ. 40mm based miniature for scale.

It was fun for about the first 3-4 blocks, then it got a bit tedious, perhaps because there was so much ahead. Many weird world war 2 soundtracks were played and many cups of tea were drunk in the making of the rest of them.

I kept the height of the walls to 50mm, with an additional 5mm top. sat on the same surface as the cork tiles, so total actual height ended up around 53mm. Just high enough above the height of a standard model to feel like a wall but not too high so I couldn't get my fingers in to move them around.

Dust Tactics: Medium Combat Walker M2 - Steel Rain and Hot Dog Variants

As a following on from my previous post, here's two of the other Dust Tactics Allied Medium Combat Walker variants.

Dust Tactics Steel Rain M2-F Artillery Support Walker

You get one chassis and two turrets. The Steel Rain M2-F variant is the second turret and the other three share the same base, just using a different main gun.

Dust Tactics Hot Dog M2-B with Napalm Thrower

The Hot Dog M2-B uses the same turret as the Pounder M2-C (17 pounder swapped for flame-thrower) as does the third Mickey M2-A just without the long barrel gun, so hardly worth a picture.

The two turrets had the same paint treatment and I painted them alongside each other to make sure there wasn't any significant colour difference.

Dust Tactics: Pounder - Medium Combat Walker M2-C

One of the appeals of Dust Tactics universe is the 'Walkers'. Not zombies but walking tanks.

The M2 Combat Walker is the most successful of all the allied combat walkers. It first went into production in 1945 and the Pounder fields the heaviest gun they could mount on the chassis.

The Pounder Medium Combat Walker M2-C fields a turret mounted 17 pounder, a pintel mounted 50 cal Victory MG and forward facing .30 Cal Victory MG.

The model can be fielded with four variants, the Pounder as shown, a howitzer bearing 'Mickey', an artillery version equipped with a Petard Mortar and 4.2" rockets 'Steel Rain' and the anti-infantry napalm spitting 'Hot Dog'. All 4 variants can be fielded with the bits in the box and the parts are interchangeable, even when painted.

This model was painted using the hairspray method, however I have to admit a mistake, one that is worth sharing.

I was in a bit of a rush when I painted this and didn't take enough time to prep when I airbrushed it. As a consequence, the paint was too thin and didn't quite cover the well enough, so I topped it up with some matt white from a spray can. Big mistake. Where I'd used the spray can to cover up the parts with poor coverage, I was unable to remove the pain with warm water and a brush. Dr Google soon explained - paint thickness and microns... lesson, don't try the hairspray method with a spray can, only an airbrush.

The rest of the weathering was a combination of sponging, washes, dry-brushing and pencil. I'm pleased with the overall look, although I had intended for the model to have move of the original 'under the whitewash' colour showing.