Sunday 19 July 2020

NORTHAG 10mm Russian Armour

NORTHAG 10mm Russian Armour




To top off all the goings on in the world the Cold War has kicked off as well!

Northag has finally arrived from PSC, I've been looking forward to this for a long time. Having played a lot of Warwicks Battlegroup I was excited to see his take on it. 
With the Covid restrictions in place a game is gonna have to wait, for once I might actually finish painting my models before I arrange my first game.
The Rules themselves are impressive and fortunately PSC happen to have a range of brand new minatures to go with them.

I've bought both the BAOR and the Russian hordes because they both have tanks, the Cheiftan for the Brits and everything T series for the Russians.

Assembly

Could easily be wiped out in one fail swoop!
BTR 60's and Infantry 

T64

BRDM 2

Assembled with 15mm PSC Stug for scale

Stug reviewing the assembled Russian armour.
Painting
Once mounted with blue tac on the 6" nails i sprayed them with Vallejo Russian Uniform, and painted the wheels, exhausts and guns with Vallejo Black Grey.
Next I applied an all over wash of Agrax Earthshade, and this is where the problems started! I was left with white frosting around a lot of the hatches and raised parts. I've never had this problem before and online one of the suggestions was it may be the primer, it was my first time using a Vallejo spray and it was the only difference as I normally use army painter sprays.
My solutions included washing the frosted area with more Agrax, with limited success and now much darker vehicles. Then I washed the frosted areas with water which seemed to dilute the wash and clear the frosting. 

Originally I had the problem with the BTR's, and when I moved onto the T64's I didn't allow the wash to pool like I normally would and this led to better results. Now I was getting a little frustrated and impatient and a quick drybrush of Russian Uniform to bring out the highlights was all I could bring myself to do. 
I did however try for the first time using a gloss and then a matt varnish, something I've heard about but never tried. They did come out better than i expected, my phone pictures don't really show this.

10mm is the smallest scale I've tried and for their size the models are full of detail and don't take long to paint. Some of the Russisns had a few air bubbles and slight depressions in, the British seem a lot better. The flash was minimal, but does require a sharp knife to remove it cleanly. I'm looking forward to painting the rest now that I've learnt a few things about the washes and varnishing.

What to paint next the Cheiftan's or the Russian hordes??