Sunday, July 31, 2016

Peace Officer

This Is Not A Test Peacekeeper Road Marshal

Blocked out colors
When faced with the constant attacks and chaos of the wastes, gentler folks look for peace wherever they can find it. When the Road Marshal ($6.50) brings his posse to town, they are ready to lay down the law.

The original kit from This Is Not A Test includes two weapon options, the submachine gun or a pistol. Since this is the leader for the NOVA Open Charitable Foundation Silent Auction, I decided to give him the SMG. To give him a more action intense pose, he is pointing to provide direction to his men.

Details being worked out
The original package come with two head options, one that is wearing a helmet with a gas mask and one that is totally open with mutton chops. I decided that the scheme for this warband would be close related to the Maryland State Police (MSP) Troopers since they are coming from the National Capital Area. To make this work, I selected one of the heads with the straw Stetson hat as worn by the MSP.

To get the hat color I started with the Vallejo Khaki Grey and then added some highlight with straight Vallejo Khaki. The highlights are along the ridges of the top of the hat and along the front brim of the hat. Along the front brim of the had, I extended the highlight back a bit more to bring the focus toward the face.

Final (front)
For the face, I wanted to show him as well exposed to the sun, so I went with the Reaper Sunburned Flesh as the base. I added some touch up to this with Reaper Caucasian Flesh. His hair started with Reaper Concrete Grey that was washed with Vallejo Flesh Wash to give it some added brown to the hair.

The traditional colors of the MSP are Olive Drab winter coats, khaki shirts, with brown pants with a black stripe. Now, the Vallejo Model Color USA Olive Drab worked really well with this figure and I used the Vallejo Stained Olive to deepen the contrast on the coat. The turned section is done up with Vallejo Golden Olive to make a stark contrast with the exterior of the coat and lighten up toward the face. The shirt is done with the Vallejo Khaki paint with the belts painted with Vallejo Gunmetal Grey. The center section and all of the rivets, buttons, and buckles were painted with Citadel Beaten Copper.
Final (Side)

The belts that are on the exterior of the coats and the chaps and belt pouches were started with Vallejo Black Grey. To deepen this, I used Vallejo Game Exta Opaque Heavy Charcoal watered down to be a wash. Usually I would highlight with a lighter grey as well to bring show wear and add highlight, but I left the bottom half darker to keep focus moving up the face. The small area where the pants can be seen was painted up with Army Painter Leather Brown. That was washed with the Game Color Flesh Wash.

Final (back)
The SMG was based with the black grey and then touched in a few spots with Vallejo Game Ink Black. The boots were painted strictly with the Heavy Charcoal.

The base is a Dragon Forge Design 30 mm Round Lip Concrete Finish base. This is a few layers of paint and washes. The base color is Reaper Ash Grey with touch up of Reaper Concrete grey for the highlight/wear locations. The areas between the slabs were washed with Vallejo European Dust, Vallejo Light Grey Wash, and Devlan Mud.

Be sure to check out the final set when it gets to NOVA Open this September.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

You can Depend-O-Bot on me!

This Is Not A Test Depend-O-Bot


Blocked colors
Keeping the peace sometimes requires a carrot and sometimes it requires a stick. When the Peacekeepers need a really big stick, they call in the Depend-O-Bot. Created just prior to the Great Fall, the Depend-O-Bot was the latest and greatest in the unmanned fighting force. Able to run efficiently on any available fuel, the Depend-O-Bot is a rugged and robust machine of destruction.


 The Depend-O-Bot ($6.50) provides an assured level of protection for a reasonable amount of barter script. The issue is more about finding a working Depend-O-Bot in the midst of piles and piles of rubble. Once it is found, getting it in working order can be an ordeal.

All of that stress and trouble is well worth the price when the bullets are flying or engaged in close combat. The capability to have an integral weapon allows the Depend-O-Bot to be equipped with a two-handed melee weapon as well as a ranged weapon. The additional armor keeps it running through whatever the enemy forces can throw at you.

Factory Paint

Depend-O-Bots were produced for military and civilian purposes. I chose a civilian outfitted model with a police style paint scheme. I blocked out the figure with Vallejo Model Color Flat Blue. I graduated the armor plating using a Vallejo White and Vallejo Light Gray blend. I started with an even mix for the first level and then slowly added more white to the mix to bring it up.

For all of the components of tubes, I used a mix of Vallejo Gunmetal Grey and Vallejo Black Grey. There a few sets of pipes along the neckline and going to his weapon and for the joints at the hips and back of the knees. The gun is a base of Vallejo Gunmetal Grey with an ammo feed of Citadel Game Colour Beaten Copper.

Most of the model was washed with Vallejo Dark Grey, mostly in the recesses. Some Citadel Boltgun metal was used to make some sections of wear to the model. I over painted the wear marks, then went back with the Vallejo Flat Blue and stippled it in to break up the wear marks.

Finished Depend-O-Bot
The "eye" was done with a base of Vallejo Flat Red which was followed with a lighter area of mixed Reaper Sunrise Orange with the Vallejo Flat Red. This didn't have enough of a pop to it though, so I added a center spot of Reaper Candlelight Yellow. To add some rusting to the body, I layered some wash with the Vallejo Dark Rust.


I based the miniature on a Secret Weapon Miniatures 30 mm round sewer base which I got as part of a swag bag from the NOVA Open. You can get it as part of the Town Square set ($10.00). This was painted up with the Vallejo Grey Black then highlighted with Citadel Game Colour Tin Bitz and washed with Vallejo Dark Grey and Vallejo European Dust.

This will be one of the Peacekeeper sets that will be part of the silent auction at NOVA Open this year, so stay tuned as the Peacekeepers get put together and painted up.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Not all Roaches are bad, some are Rad!

This Is Not A Test Rad Roach


Rad Roach (primed)
You can count on two things surviving the apocalypse. One is goo filled and leads to an early grave, the other is the cockroach. Once you just needed to get past the ick factor and put a boot onto them, but those days are long past.

Creatures of the darkness, scavengers of carrion, and opportunists to attack unsuspecting wastelanders. The Rad Roach ($6.50 for 1 or a swarm of 5 for $29.50)  a far surpassed survival. Thriving on a study diet of the detritus of the wasteland, the Rad Roach has adapted to tolerate high levels of radiation, either from direct exposure or bio accumulation.

Much as in days of the past, the Rad Roach is a nuisance in the wastes. And much like the days of the past where there is one Rad Roach there are many. Unlike days of the past, these will take down a herd of cows (or Caravanners) and clean the bones in a day.

Initial complete phase

Rad Roach Painting

 For this version of the Rad Roach, I decided to base it on an actual cockroach. Unfortunately, I am color blind (protan if you are interested) and I didn't have a direct match to the colors I wanted to use. I decided to mix up something that might work enough for what I needed and started to paint.

The main body of the Rad Roach was created by mixing Reaper HD Sunburn Flesh with Reaper HD Sunrise Orange and Vallejo Mahogany in a 6:1:4 ratio. To bring the color up, I added 1 drop each of Vallejo Candlelight Yellow and Sunrise Orange tot he remaining paint. I continued to bring the contrast up by repeating this step another time. With the layers of color added, the entire model was washed down with Devlan Mud. A round of touch ups to clean up the wash layer. Six additional drops of of the Candlelight Yellow to the remaining paint mixture and the final touch up for highlights.

Final model
With this base color applied, the roach that I selected had a highlighted color on the top of the carapace and on the legs. The actual roach's highlights were amber, an amber that I didn't have. I went with a bit of a wilder decision. I went with some Citadel Ivandian Darksun for the face, topmost carapace, and spiny protrusions.

Final Model
This gave me something that wasn't quite right, but I could not put my finger on exactly where I needed to make changes. I went to the Hobby Hangout Facebook group and solicited some advice. I was given suggestions to add some banding to the antenna, ink the lines, and bring the highlight color (Ivandian Darksun) up more. I used Game Ink Black to do the lining. I used another layer of the Ivandian Darksun to add the bands and the carapace highlights.