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Done as it is going to get! Here is a heavy mortar battery of the Imperial Guard in action. The new things for me on this project were:

* Faces and eyes (again/still)
* More detailed basing
* More extensive use of decals as part of the overall appearance of the guns
* First-tie try at a multi-unit base (the vignette piece)
* Different method for coloring the earth tones


The individual gun themes are:

1) "Hang it on One!" (Position a round for firing on Number One Gun)
2) "Deflection Change!" (Number Two Gun- the base gun of the battery- is shifting the gun to fire a new mission- you can see the Tac-Fire computer on the ammo crate)
3) "Splash- over!" (Number Three Gun has fired, and the gun captainn is advising the Forward Observer that the round is nearig the end of its trajectory. This gives the FO time to bring his binoculars up to observe the fall of shot and pass back either firing adjustment data or battle damage assessment report- it saves the FO from keeping the heavy binos up to his eyes for the whole flight of the shell, which can be quite long, depending on the range of the fire mission.)

*******I tried to get the vignette base done tonight, so I could post the pics, but everything is still drying and some bits need another wash- so individual gun pics tonight, and more of the whole battery tomorrow!*******

The vignette theme is: "Fire Final Protective Fire!" The FPF is a pre-calculated fire mssion that is delivered when the enemy has overrun everything else and is threatening either the battery position of something of high value- a headquarters, hospital, ammo dump, landing zone, etc. In this vignette, you can see that the crew have their personal weapons on them- the gun captain on Gun 2 has his pistol out on the ammo crate right next to his Tac-Fire computer- where he can get at it quick. Mortarmen (at least, back in my day) hated to gun with weapons slung- they bounce around, cause bruises and are generally a nuisance. unless the baddies are _really_ close and you want to be able to mix it up on equal terms. An FPF also means that you throw everything including the kitchne sink- high explosive, white phosphurous, armor piercing, illumination, every round of ammuntion you have left, because it is highly likely the guns are going to get overrun too.

This was a lot of fun to do, but I''ve got to find a better basing material for the vginette sized piece than foam board and yard sale sign plastic- the foam board warps form the white glue being put on- even with weight on top! Maybe stripping the paper cover off, like Syro does, would help.

Also, need all y'alls advice on how to make the smoke plume on Gun Three look better. It's okay as is, but I think could be more better.

Here's the pics:

The Battery:

********To be posted tomorrow!************


Gun One (Hang it on One!):









Gun Two (Deflection Change!):











Gun Three (Splash, Over!):









Your observations and constructive criticism are always welcome.

More follows soonest!

Oh these are great!
Well done.
The only quirk I have is the muzzel effect on the mortar...
They usally aren't that "smokey"... if you know what I mean.
More like this


or this


But really, this is just nit-picky
They are great!

Nope you're right, Klaus (and good to hear from you!)- we need some fire in here. The muzzle effect is detachable from the mortar, so it'll b easy to play around with.

Thanks for the input!

The mortar teams look great, and as always so much individuality. Mortar one is probably my favorite, but it really cracks me up that the gun captain is watching Sponge Bob. As for advice on gun three's smoke plume, I would suggest attaching some cotton ball or fiber fill to what ever you attach to the mortar barrel, and pull it apart pretty thoroughly and have it pretty wispy. The hit it with some spray primer or hair spray, etc, to stiffen it up, then add the colors for the fire and smoke as you want.
Once again, looks great. I'm looking forward to the finished vignette base.

 Syro_ wrote:
The mortar teams look great, and as always so much individuality. Mortar one is probably my favorite, but it really cracks me up that the gun captain is watching Sponge Bob. As for advice on gun three's smoke plume, I would suggest attaching some cotton ball or fiber fill to what ever you attach to the mortar barrel, and pull it apart pretty thoroughly and have it pretty wispy. The hit it with some spray primer or hair spray, etc, to stiffen it up, then add the colors for the fire and smoke as you want.
Once again, looks great. I'm looking forward to the finished vignette base.

I was gunna say, that computer doesn’t look like it’s going to be that useful for figuring out how to reset the mortar.

As for the smoke it looks good as is but thinner/wispier would probably be better for indicating that the round wasn’t just launched.

Other than that they’re looking good!

Here's the (almost) last stage, with the three guns set in their battery vignette stand. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with how things came out, just need to find a better basing material than foam core and yard sign plastic. I fooled around with a couple of desk lamps, trying to get better light on the subject, so the lighting in some places is a little odd. But, I'm pushing the edge of the envelope. If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.

The last thing to do is fiddle with the smoke/fire effects for Gun Three. I've an idea of what I want to try thanks to the combined inputs from Klaus, Syro and ChaoticMind (thanks gang!) and we'll see what works out.

Here's some pics:



























Whew!

I love how the vignette base looks with all the piles of supplies everywhere, you did a great job. The real low angle shots you took where the view travels up over the gear to see the soldiers is really cool. Good luck with that smoke & fire effect you're working on.

That's a nifty little vignette. Seeing all the clutter scattered around really does tell a little story. Thanks for sharing.

There’s no way that’s a realistic mortar line MeerCat !
There’s no guys in shorts sunbathing or somebody cooking up bacon and eggs !

I picked up three of these soon-to-be-heavy-mortars.

 Syro_ wrote:
I love how the vignette base looks with all the piles of supplies everywhere, you did a great job. The real low angle shots you took where the view travels up over the gear to see the soldiers is really cool. Good luck with that smoke & fire effect you're working on.

Thanks Syro- I think your suggestion to work with cotton balls or batting and stiffening it with hairspray is the way to go. I did something a bit similar years ago for a Royal Horse Artillery rocket battery (Napoleonics), wanted to have the battery lighting off. I may change the name of Gun Three's theme from "Splash, over" to "Shot, out"- I'd like the gun to have just fired a round- really, just like the picture Klaus posted- you can _see_ the round inside the smoke and flame!

 JoshInJapan wrote:
That's a nifty little vignette. Seeing all the clutter scattered around really does tell a little story. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Josh! It didn't come out quite like I'd planned (this is what happens when you have only a vague idea in your head to start with) but I'm satisfied with it. I think the biggest thing I learned this go 'round is to _not_ over-crowd the vignette base with junk! A little cluttered is good- too much might be too much.

 Big H wrote:
There’s no way that’s a realistic mortar line MeerCat !
There’s no guys in shorts sunbathing or somebody cooking up bacon and eggs !

Too true Big H! Your comment reminded me of a picture I saw from the Libyan civil war: one the special Toyotas fitted out with a 25mm gun was firing in the background; in the foreground was a guy sitting on a cheap folding lawn chair, drinking a coffee and smoking a water pipe. The caption wrote itself: Dude- stop harshing my mellow! I may have to try to capture that in an Imperial Guard vignette one day.

 Briancj wrote:
I picked up three of these soon-to-be-heavy-mortars.

Good on ya, Brian- there are some of the Technolog/Robogear/Bronekorpus pieces that are really slick to work with for Warhammer 40k; I look forward to seeing what you make of them!

Thanks all for looking in- more follows soonest!

Good job all round.
Nice scattering of details.
Interesting to read about the specialist knowledge of how this kind of thing works.

A few thoughts for the future:
The basing is a bit "flat-with things stuck on". This makes the mortar teams look a bit exposed (I would expect them to be hiding behind something, but maybe that's not the thing that is actually done...?). Some landscaping on the display base, keeping the individual bases flat as they are, a rocky outcropping, sandbag walls, large bush, etc. would help.

Speaking of bushes, some plant-life (something I mention a lot for anyone asking how to make a model's base more "real". You have some flocking, but that doesn't stand out in the photos (more on that below). A bush or large clumps of grass, weeds, pretty flowers... etc. would break up the flatness of the base. Depends on setting though... you can't add much plant life to a desert setting obviously.

Details for more story, Add a tea/coffee cup/mug somewhere. It always fools the observer into thinking you've spent hours constructing the model (after all, you have) and you get the "wow you EVEN added a coffee cup" type comments. Just one, somewhere, is worth tens of other details all over the model. Obviously, this only* works for places where mugs are typically found...

*Although, a random mug in a marsh (or a desert in place of the plants you can't add) could tell an interesting story...

Photos:
Just like painting, more light is always better. The camera will scale down the brightness much better than upping dim lighting.
Beyond that, daylight bulbs do help a camera get the colour balance right.

But even then, some tinkering with the brightness and colour balance may be necessary on the computer.
The colour balance is mainly what you are missing here.
You don't need to buy any fancy software either, I use the Windows 10 built in "photos" program. All you need is to look for the "warmth" setting (edit>colour>warmth) and move it left/right until the picture looks right to you (a background of known colour can really help get it right). Sometimes that's all you need.

Hopefully some of that helps.
Good job. Nice work on getting the bases fitting in neatly too.

Hey Doc- and thank you for such a thoughtful (and extensive!) reply, I really appreciate the feedback. I knew there was something about this project: I'd put too much work into it not to like it better- if that makes sense! Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased at how much of what I set out to do I accomplished- the big thing being the try at insetting individual heavy weapon bases into a larger piece.


In fact, that's the first corollary I got from your feedback- I kept saying 'vignette' but I was thinking 'movement tray'. And what I wanted was 'vignette'! So your observations about a flat bit with things stuck on is highly accurate. In many ways I feel I'm still transitioning from painting/scratching pure 'gaming pieces' into something more artful, and I'm happy to make the trip in small steps rather than long strides.


Believe it or not, I've gunned mortars in terrain somewhat similar to what I tried to depict here- flat and sandy and barren. But, with as much kit as is scattered about, even if the guns hadn't been dug in, they'd have had shade or camo nets strung up over them (solider are religiously opposed to sweating unless someone else is doing it). To make a model visually interesting though, it needs some 'wave' to the ground. I had a crack at that with the armored car conversion, and want to give it another go on the next project- only more betterer.

Towards the end I also had a small case of 'get-it-done-itis'. I know I skimped on some details I could have added from what I have on hand, and others that I could have fabricated or ordered in fairly easily. Oddly, one of the things I wanted to tuck in was a coffee cup- maybe even a whole small brew-up scene with a spirit cooker, coffee pot, couple of cups, that would have given some sense of how quickly the fire mission had come down. Things to remember for the next one (which I already have in my mind).

Towards which end I have to admit that I may actually have to start doing a small sketch or something to keep the basic idea in mind, even if I let it evolve as it grows. Producing figures for me (forty years ago) was getting them out of the box and throwing paint at them from across the room. Now, I scrape the seams (need more patience), play with the arrangement of arms, legs, think about what combat equipment I'm going to add, primer, (try to) do faces, base paint, wash, highlight, wash again- and with resin now I have to wash and scrub that stuff before it'll glue up- never knew I had it in me!


Kicking and screaming I'm starting to routinely employ the techniques that you fellows whose work I admire use to produce first rate pieces. My dad taught amateur photography at one point in his orbit and used to tell his students: "You want to take a great picture? Take a lot of pictures." If I want to produce good looking pieces, I need to apply a little imagination and do the things that the good artists do!


Too easy.

Thanks again for the guidance- you'll see it show up one day in a project- I promise you!

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Hey Doc- and thank you for such a thoughtful (and extensive!) reply,

No problem. I sometimes tend to get carried away when leaving feedback; it'll start with "just a quick note" and I keep adding to it and an hour later I'm still typing.

...even if I let it evolve as it grows...

And that reminds me, I forgot to comment on this (at least I think it was you who mentioned about the project not turning out as you intended).
I've found that the more scratch-built a model becomes (as in kit > kit-bashing > converting > scratch-building) the more it wants to take on a life of it's own, and that may take it away from the initial plan / inspiration.
I say, embrace it; don't fight the model if it wants to go off in a different direction, or calls for an addition / removal, going with the flow will lead to a better final product.

That's why you'll see me commenting on my projects in the early stages with "we'll all see how it turns out in the end" or "I'm also interested to see how it turns out".
It's because I've fully embraced the model leading the progress; it starts with a piece of inspiration or idea from me, and I let it grow organically from there.

That method might not fit with everyone, but a little of letting the model go it's own way, can help everyone.

Great vignette Meer, that gunner watching Spongebob may be in trouble with the Commissar though.

Awesome looking mortar teams, Boss. Sweet.

That Laptop is amazing!

Hi all- thank you for looking in!

I'm pleased with how the laptop came out- but already have some ideas to try for the next one (and yep- the next project will require a laptop). I got the basic concept from Camkierhi- if you go back in his blog a few weeks you see where he (nonchalantly) whipped out a dozen or so computer panels for a laboratory he was making.

I'm actually a little chuffed about the Spongebob screen: I went through the newspaper sales flyers and found the image I wanted, clipped it to size and used Decal Fix to attach it to the laptop screen. Wasn't sure if it would hold, but it did and gave it a bit of a glazed look, like a computer screen IMO.

Havne't had time until tonight, but am going to fool aorund with a better smoke effect for Number 3 Gun- more follows soonest!

 Meer_Cat wrote:

...

The scenic base for all three Heavy Weapon Squads is awesome!

Thanks Private Benjamin! In a way, they're modeled a bit after the movement trays you were showing in your blog. As an artilleryman yourself, I was hoping you wouldn't think they looked too ridiculous- very glad you dropped in to take a look!

Unit looks really nice together.

On the smoke, if shell three is nearing the end of trajectory, smoke is going to be more sparse and wispy, so teased out cotton wool (or toy stuffing) is going to be the way to go I think.

Hey monkeytroll-thanks for stopping by and for the advice! You're right, even firing a close range FPF, by the time 'splash; is called, most of the smoke (at least what little there is from 20th and 21st century propellants) will have dispersed. Now, the 41st millennium still hasn't discovered or re-discovered the weld and insists on using rivets, so they may not have smokeless powder, cordite, or gun cotton, either!

So, given the photo that Klaus posted up, the vignette title is now 'Shot, over' and Gun 3 has just fired. You don't see the crewman who hung the round, because he is scampering off to grab another round, even as we see another ammo cutter fusing a round directly behind the gun, waiting for the command to step forward and hang it.


I've gotten some good work done in that regard using the teased out cotton that you and Syron have suggested- I think it's going to look very good (definitely better than the dwarf lead belcher smoke screen I had before). If I can get some good work in tonight, I'll be able to get some pics up.


I've even played with some (very limited) greenstuff sculpting- if I'm not careful I'll become a modern modeler!

More follows soonest!

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Hey monkeytroll-thanks for stopping by and for the advice! You're right, even firing a close range FPF, by the time 'splash; is called, most of the smoke (at least what little there is from 20th and 21st century propellants) will have dispersed. Now, the 41st millennium still hasn't discovered or re-discovered the weld and insists on using rivets, so they may not have smokeless powder, cordite, or gun cotton, either!

So, given the photo that Klaus posted up, the vignette title is now 'Shot, over' and Gun 3 has just fired. You don't see the crewman who hung the round, because he is scampering off to grab another round, even as we see another ammo cutter fusing a round directly behind the gun, waiting for the command to step forward and hang it.


I've gotten some good work done in that regard using the teased out cotton that you and Syron have suggested- I think it's going to look very good (definitely better than the dwarf lead belcher smoke screen I had before). If I can get some good work in tonight, I'll be able to get some pics up.


I've even played with some (very limited) greenstuff sculpting- if I'm not careful I'll become a modern modeler!

More follows soonest!

Hehe, if you're not happy with the cotton (I never was) and you're already at it with GreenStuff, maybe try it this way:


Well, smaller than this howitzer blast, but you get the gist

Or like this one on the POLEMOS

Good luck!

I remember seeing how you did these effects in your blog, Klaus. I'm at the farm for the weekend, but when I'm back at my bench on Monday will try the greenstuff approach. I'm halfway through messing about with the cotton- I've actually used that technique before- and fairly well like the results; but I'll post both up when finished and see what you all think.

Holy gak. Someone may have already said this but when I saw the sponge bob on the lap top of one of the mortar teams I busted out laughing. That’s one of the best Easter eggs I have ever seen on a model.

Thanks Schank! I have to admit, the idea came from the guy that had the gunner on an Imperial Hydra playing Pac Man on the gunnery console. I'm glad it worked out as well as it did here and that people find it amusing. I had some fun with this one!

 Meer_Cat wrote:
I had some fun with this one!

That is what counts, and may I say, it was hilarious and well executed idea. I am a sucker for hidden easter eggs and special effects so this is a double win for Your mortar crews in my book.

In between running between the raindrops with RL, I have been getting some things done on wrapping up the mortar battery. When last we tuned in, our hero was attempting to make a better muzzle flash for Number 3 Gun (which has been renamed from "Splash, Over" to "Shot, Out").

I'm trying two different techniques: one using cotton ball wisps and some other odds and ends, and the second going with greenstuff work, a' la Klaus- Not Santa. Up to this point, I'm having a lot of fun with both and look forward to all y'alls feedback when I can get finished pictures up.

Here are the materials for the cotton ball approach:



I've got a short ring that is the diameter of the interior diameter of the mortar tube (not in this picture, naturally), a very small diameter bit of tube to attach the cotton wisps to, the cotton balls and I'm embedding one of the steel flechettes I picked up awhile ago to give the suggestion of the round going up.


As it turns out, I couldn't cut the flechette with anything I had in my apartment in Virginia, so instead sharpened a bit of sprue and glued it into the pipette and ring collar:




Here's for the greenstuff route:




As it turns out here, I didn't need the central pipette to use as a foundation to support the greenstuff, I just had to straighten the GS as it cured as it wanted to slump a bit until it had hardened fully. I also (never having worked with GS before) 'way over-estimated the amount of GS I needed to do the job. I made _two_ muzzle flashes (in case I wanted to amke Gun 2 in the act of firing, or need it for a future project) and still had a ton left over:



I may try to make another (one or two or three, depending on how closely I jusge the GS amount) tonight, as these are a bit more rounded than what Klaus demonstrates in his blog (although for low-velocity weapons like mortars, that may be a good thing) and I want to try adding a belt around the bottom third mark, to pull out into a smoke ring like the real life photos show- we'll see if there is time. And I'm anxious to get to painting these, to see how they look with paint and washes on.


So here's what I did with the rest of the GS:








It came out to a couple of tarps with straps, a couple of blanket or tent rolls, an extra cargo strap coiled up and a pallet pile of goods (a' la Dr. H) with a tarp partially covering a pile of artillery shells (or gas canisters, rice containers or whatever is needed).

I'm actually pretty chuffed with this last bit, as the 'shells' are actually baby bottle party favors from the dollar store, glued down to a scrap piece of diamond pattern tread plate, with the tarp partially slung over the top. I think it looks pretty good already- but you guys will gently steer me back to reality if I'm kidding myself! This, I know!

So, more follows soonest. I have to pick aprt the cotton on the other muzzle flash and finish that off with some washes, and get some primer on the two greenstuff flashes to see how that comes out.

Your comments, observations, criticisms and suggestions are always very welcome.

It ain't done, until it's overdone!

Good use of the extra GS there, particularly like the partially unwrapped tarp.

Pallet looks good, only thing I'll add is to have at least the suggestion of a connection/closure point on the strapping.

Thanks Monkeytroll! Next go-round I figure to try carving in some more details, for these I reckon to shave some plastic bits and glue on for buckles. I tried to carve in buckles on the straps on the bedrolls- I believe I can do a lot better than that with practice. Also got to give more tools a tr- I did what little I have here just with the ends of my wide set of tweezers; from the YouTube videos I've now watched there's a lot of other common household items I can try for different effects.

Too much fun!