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I had taken a few months off from painting GW stuff. But then I ran into Mechanicum Jons Dark Eldar blog (on accident, as I was looking for regular Eldar), and was stupified. I spent the next three days going page by page through his P&M blog and ended up buying a crap ton of DE. So thanks Mechanicum Jon, for getting me back into this, and for making me try some techniques to make my models better (or at least - suck less)!

I'll start off with some of the 20mm Elhiem miniatures USMC. These were a commission piece I did for Ambush Alley Games. It was my first job as their staff painter. My apologies, as I need to look into making my photography suck less...

It's meant to be around the battle of Fallujah, so you'll see a lot of mismatched gear, the MARPAT desert digitals with woodland vests, and whatever color kneepads could be found cheap on GSA.


I ended up completing a platoons worth of USMC, and a platoons worth of US Army for that project, and while I love the Elhiem minis (looking at a platoon of russians as part of my payment!) I don't want to deal with them right now!

But I was seriously getting into the whole idea of digital camo, and wondering how it would look on SM models. So I've got a bunch of models that were collecting dust, and thought I would just do a small Task Force in something similar to the US Air Force ABU digital tiger stripe.

I'll end up painting 10 sniper scouts, a footslogging assault squad and a tactical squad or two like this, along with a captain, and an apothecary (sanguinary priest - they are blood angels).
I start out with an airbrushed coat of kommando khaki, then pattern it up with vallejo green grey, and german field grey WWII. a very very light thraka green wash, and a light was of badab black,

As for my DE, I want to go heavy with Wyches, and Venoms to transport them. I've got a squad already, and two more coming via Ebay. Now I just need 5 more Venoms after this one! I already have two, maybe three old Raiders, and one new complete - and a ton of old warriors I bought from a friend. They may be rehabbed in the future,

I found some airbrush paint for model cars while shopping at hobbytown yesterday, thought I would give it a try. As I had primed black, I had to go over the yellow portion with some airushed white to let the color come out brighter at the edge, and fade into a green. The effect which doesn't really seem to show well so far on camera, at least impressed my wife... and she thinks this hobby is stupid!

Now, even with all of this on my tray, I have 30 15mm modern minis a friend commissioned for a sort of Red Dawn scenario set in Madison, WI. they need to be done by Friday... I need to get on that now!

Nice start, I am definatley subscribing to this thread

. Just received my order from model miniatures. (model-miniature.com)

I ordered 3 packs of Modern Israeli infantry (pack1), A Cougar/Badger ILAV for my US Forces, and a Wolverine demining robot. Ordered on 24Feb12, and arriving 09Mar12. I never received any email correspondence from the company (shipping notification).

As far as scale goes, they work well with Elhiems, but are thinner and taller. I compared scale with an Israeli model standing up straight next to the Elhiem SOF Sniper. The sniper only came to eye level on the Israeli. Not perfect, but hardly noticable on the tabletop.

As shown below, the MM's are all multipart minis. The weapons have the weak side hand molded onto them, and must be connected to the arm, which will be glued into place on the shoulder. I mention this only to point out that options for posability are quite limited.


Flashing is very light, and even the mold lines have gone unnoticed so far (they'll likely become noticable after I've basecoated, highlighted washed - and can't do anything about it any longer!).

Then there was this guy....

I have never seen a resin model 'hollowed out' like this. I've seen bubbles before, but this guys leg is insane. I poked at it with my finger, and it's pretty solid. I've only gone through this one pack so far, and have not yet seen any others that look like this, but we'll see.

If you look at the end of his rifle, you'll see the A-Frame front sight is misshapen and the barrel does not exist forward of that point. Because of the slender nature of the model, and 'unchunkiness', there doesn't appear to be a lot I can do. I may try to drill some wire into their, but I am afraid that in doing so , I may end up breaking the handguards off from the receiver.

Overall, I think these models, look great, and should be relatively easy to work with. But I'm not sure how comfortable I would be using them in a game where anyone but myself handles them... They just look to be too fragile. They do nicely fill the niche though as, Israeli troops are hard to find!


Cougar / Badger ILAV.

Unboxing this model I immediately began comparing it with the S&S MRAP equivalent. The molding process was kind for the most part, bubbles and other flaws are few/far between. I'll put some pics up as soon as it gets out of its 'bubble bath'.

There are a lot of tiny parts with this model as well. Rearview mirrors, suspension, comm's... Tiny fiddly bits that are likely to drive me crazy and wish for a diecast alternative. Having said that, there are no instructions included in the kit. There are instructions on the webpage, along with photos of the real world vehicle.

Then I looked at the gunner. He's not wearing a helmet. What kind of no-good dirtbag individual grabasstic derelict is this guy?! I'll be replacing him with a gunner from Liberation or some other manufacturer while he undergoes courts-martial proceedings.

Overall I thought the turret looked good, but I found S&S is willing to sell individual metal turrets! So I could put a 249, a 240, Ma-deuce, or Mk-19 up in that badboy depending on mission requirements. I will likely magnetize the turrets to keep my options open.

Some of you may be wondering why a 249? The Army used to ask the same question all of the time. USAF Security Forces go with what they have. They don't get an additional weapon assigned for a vehicle. So when they do go out on an 'outside the wire' mission, they look at what gunners/weapons are available. In a standard squad, there is a single M-240B per squad, but a 249 available in each fire team... sometimes even in the same team that has the 240. M-2/Mk-19 qualified personnel are few and far between in the AF as well.

The demining robot, and EOD dude are fairly non-descript. This pleases me, as national origin or branch of service doesn't really matter. Just the fact that the guy shows up, clears the road and gets you moving again!

I'll post more pics as soon as the models are cleaned/assembled/primed.