An Embarassing Discovery…

So while on a visit to a new FLGS that opened up locally, I was checking out the new Citadel Paint range, and I decided to pick up a couple of the new Base (Foundation) colours. I got a couple of the reds and also a yellow, as they looked to be much more vibrant than the previous versions, which only got limited use (and the Yellow really wasn’t a good base for painting yellow). I was surprised when the paint was smooth and went on nicely, without the “glug”, over-thickness or slight sandy texture that the previous ones often had/have. After that experience, I also picked up a few of the regular colours, and dammit, they’re good as well. I do understand that the new paints are made in the UK rather than China or France, and so it’s very possible that they’re made by HMG – maker of the original Citadel Paints, P3, and Coat D’Arms ranges.

They’re still overpriced of course at $6 a pot, (I’m in Australia, where GW likes to gouge heavily). But while I have alternate sources for my GW models, I don’t mind supporting the FLGS with a few paint purchases. Getting up to $100 worth of the GW paints now though! I’m thinking of stopping past the shop tonight to pick up some of the new yellows, in that never-ending search for a good yellow paint. I’m now also interested in trying some of the glazes.

I know “the thing” to do is hate them, simply because they’re GW and all that, but they are actually really good paints in my experience so far. I won’t stop using any of the other brands, Vallejo still makes the entire “old” GW range which will keep me in the older colours, but now that I’ve gotten over my irrational hate, I’m viewing them in the same way that I do Model Colour, or P3 or CDA’s Historical ranges – new and interesting shaes to compliment what I have rather than to replace it. So after trying it, I’m going to treat the new paint range maturely. Yeah, how embarassing!

 

1:6 Kitbash – Hot Toys TACP meets MIL/Merit Spanky.

Here’s a kitbash I put together awhile back. I took photos but for some reason it appears that I never posted them up here… you can tell it’s well over a year ago since the Warcraft login screen lists WotLK. It’s also my old monitor..

I’d had the Hot Toys figure for awhile, and always liked it, so I decided that one of the most romantic ways my wife and I could spend a Saturday evening and night was to play some World of Warcraft and put together a mandollie.

I wanted to put together a USAF TACP using the Hot Toys kit, but I also wanted to update him a bit. Since that early Hot Toys “ACU” is probably better off used in some kind of sci-fi bash, or as a commercial camo, I got out a spare “Lucas” 10th Mtn with BBi’s nice ACU print.

The other option was to use Multicam with Crye-cut pants, so I picked out a parted-down MIL/Merit “Spanky” to scavenge his clothes if needed. I also wanted to save the Jake Gyllenhall-alike head sculpt for my eventual Jarhead “Swoff”  bash.

The first pic shows the stuff I got out to work with – a Hot Toys nude from the Secret Service ERT figure, a broken-down Merit/MIL ”Spanky” figure, and BBi “Lucas”.

Hot Toys TACP - Boxed

Next 2 pics are pretty much the “unboxing” images from the TACP – the first with his gear in the tray, and the second with all of his gear taken out. In the second you can see my referencing Orion0800’s kitbash on OSW in the background. Orion is an actual USAF TACP, and complimented me on my work (along with another TACP active on OSW) – so that gave me a little warm glow and continues to do so when I look at this figure.

Hot Toys TACP Tray picture

Hot Toys TACP Unboxed!

From here, it was simply a matter of putting all the gear into a pile, working out which to go with, and then playing dolly-dress-up.

Gear Pile!

I wanted to keep it pretty much the same, despite swapping out both the figure and the uniform. I used Spanky’s boots since I wanted to keep the high-sitting HT beets for future bashing (and a lot of those hiking type boots look quite plasticky anyway), and the kneepads were obviously not needed since I was using the Crye cut pants. In the end I did go for the Multicam, since it appears to be more current and just looks better. I ended up using more of Spanky than I’d originally planned, but that’s okay.

TACP Kitbash - front view

Another view

TACP Rear View

In the end the parts breakdown is:

Body: HT Truetype Secret Service ERT
Uniform, Hat, Sunglasses, gloves, boots: MIL “Spanky”
Dropdown: PH USMC RCT
Smoke Grenades: Soldier Story (I think)
Everything Else: HT USAF TACP

TACP Kitbash - last pic!