On The Go

Dragon of Melnibone - Leathery Brown Legs

Part 4

After the bone white highlight

The bone white highlight on the claws

Step 6. The final highlight uses Derivan Desert stone which is basically a bone white on the claw wrinkles 

The claws after the ink wash

Step 7. To finish off these leathery brown parts of the dragon, I washed over all of the areas using a 1 in 8 solution of Ecoline 245 ink. 

After the final - final bone white highlight

Step 8. As a bit of an afterthought, I decided to redo a highlight of Derivan Desert stone on the claw wrinkles.

Part 3

Step 4. For this layer I used Derivan Skin Tone Mid + Vallejo Tan Yellow. As ever, I cover less area with each highlight.

Step 5. Nearly there! This time a highlight with pure Vallejo Tan Yellow 

Part 2 

Golfrag Brown base layer

Step 2. I’ve given everything a light coat of GW Golfrag Brown, leaving the deeper recesses as is. This is one of their dry-brush formulations but I didn’t let that stop me!

 

With a glaze of Derivan Mid Skin Tone

Step 3. I used Derivan Skin Tone Mid to glaze the pure GW Golfrag Brown. As usual, I left some of the previous layer showing so that the highlights will build up. 

The legs before the upgrade

With the green and golden scales are now complete, it’s onto the dragon’s legs and the fingers of the wings. They look okay in the photos but in real life show some wear and tear. I um-ed and ah-ed about changing colour completely but in the end I think that the light brown tone go well with the colours of the scales.

Part 1

After the ink wash

Step 1. I applied a wash of 25% solution of Ecoline 245 ink, the same one I used on the golden scales. The aim being to give a consistent base colour.

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 6

The mighty Honour Guard. 

More Marauder / Citadel figures.

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 5

The Landwasters. Greybeards from Marauder / Citadel.

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 4

Slayers of the Marauder / Citadel persuasion

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 3

Some more Old Skool Harlequin slayer dwarfs.

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 2

Some more Woad Warriors. These guys are vintage Harlequin Miniatures figures designed by Kev Adams in around 1994.

Doughty Dwarfs 

Part 1

The Dwarves are coming! Slightly retouched and finally photographed, the Dwarven army is on its way.

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Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 2

Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 2 - Painting Golden Scales

The finished 'Golden' Scales

This next stage was  a bit of an adventure. I tried to try re-paint the dragon’s original metallic bronze / gold belly scales with a gold using non-metallic paints. Why? Good question… A couple of reasons, firstly, I wanted to try something new and secondly, I thought a non-metallic gold would look a bit more natural. The painting ‘recipe’ is based on one I found online with tweaks based on what colours I have at hand. Wish me luck!

The original bronze scales

Stage 1. Cover the original metallic scales with black - Vallejo Black

Black basecoat

Stage 2. A basecoat of a dark chocolate brown - Matisse Background Brown

Chocolate brown

Stage 3. Next is to paint some stripes with gaps in between to show the brown basecoat.They are meant to provide a base for some shading and highlights for the next steps. I used GW Golfrag Brown for the stripes in the darker regions on the sides of the scales. Then GW Ogryn Camo stripes in the brighter central areas of the scales.

Stripes applied

Houston we have a problem. Oh oh Chongo, Danger, Will Robinson, danger! … (those of you who recognise these cultural references are definitely my people) I had to have a rethink. I tried a test run for the next steps on a couple of scales but everything was just turning various shades of green. 

In short, I played my Chicken Out card and decided to go with what I know before I spent too much time for potentially just a headache. So…

Retreat! The orange glaze

Stage 4. To rapidly move to a golden base, I glazed the scales with Matisse Orange DPP. The good news is that the underlying stripes will still serve their purpose of providing highs and lows for later on.

One coat of deep yellow

After two coats of deep yellow

Stage 5. The next phase was to glaze over the orange with a couple of coats fairly diluted Matisse Yellow Deep. The second coat left a little bit showing from the first so as to start adding light and shade. You can still see the striping from Stage 3 (though it doesn’t show up so much in the photo) which also adds some highs and lows.

Glaze of Flash Gitz Yellow

After a second glaze of Flash Gitz Yellow

Stage 6. This stage is very similar to Stage 4. I glazed the scales with two layers of GW Flash Gitz Yellow. Again each coat left a little bit showing from the previous. I also tried to emphasise the underlying vertical stripes. 

The scales with white highlighting

Stage 7. I highlighted the edges of the scales with pure white. I tried not to be heavy handed, so the photo doesn’t show the white as much as on the painting table.

After two ink washes

Stage 8. This is the final step I used in painting the belly scales. I applied two washes of a 25% solution of Ecoline 245 ink, which is a nice orange-yellow colour somewhere between raw and burnt sienna. I only applied the ink to the recessed areas of the scales for a warm shadowing effect. 

Green Dragon Part 1 - Green Scales 

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Green Dragon of Melnibone Part 1

Green Dragon of Melnibone - Painting Green Scales

I’ve had this dragon model for years. It was originally a blue dragon, then I decided to fit it in with an Elric of Melnibone theme for Hordes of the Things (HOTT), so I plonked an elf rider on its back. Unsurprisingly, I was never really happy with the result. So with the advent of De Bellis Fantaisae (DBF), I decided on a complete upgrade.

The model is meant to represent Elric’s cousin, Dyvim Slorm, so obviously he needed to be sitting on something more to his station! So, step one was to create a saddle for the rider out of Green Stuff. The photo shows some basic painting of the saddle and saddle cloth. I’ll return to this later.

The saddle has been added

The Elric stories mentions green skinned dragons so that had to be the next upgrade. The photo above is at the same stage as the last. I’ve repainted the original blue scales black then applied a base coat of GW Caliban Green. I gave this a wash of GW Nuln Oil and then overpainted the scales with Caliban Green, leaving some areas of each scale the darker shade.

The dark green layers done

From there, I built up the layers of green of ever lightening shades, painting a slightly smaller area each time to give a graduated appearance. Here are the colours I used:

All highlighted

Mid green (Matisse Alpine Green) 

Light green (Matisse Permanent Green Light) - quite a transparent colour, so I did a couple of layers of this one 

A bright yellow (GW Flash Gitz Yellow) - This one was to highlight only edges and raised areas of the scales 

Ready for the belly scales

I finished off the green scales by toning back the yellow highlights with a slightly diluted coat of Tamiya X-25 Clear Green and think it did the job I wanted well. 

So, The green scales are completed. On to the belly scales, the post for which is here:

Green Dragon Part 2 - Golden Scales 

Let me know what you think. 

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Pictures from Palestine

Pictures From Palestine

This post is unusual in not strictly being of military in nature. It's more of a social history I suppose, being a set of photographs that my uncle Les sent home to mum in WW2. 

During WW2 Les served with the Australian 9th Division in North Africa. Palestine and later New Guinea. I've documented his service in more detail later in the post.

Les

Les was a colourful character and a favourite uncle of mine. Like most of his generation, he didn't talk much about what he saw and went through, at least not to me, a spotty young teenager with a too many questions. 

The one thing he did say was that at the Battle of El Alamein he remembered allied tanks being like turtles that enemy shells bounced off. I never could get him to identify what type of tank he meant despite the all Airfix models I showed him!

Anyway, The photos are all here. I've included what - if anything - Les wrote on the back of each photos with some further details that might be useful. They're quite small, approx  75mm x 55mm, plus the white border. Most of them were originally taken in the 1920s.

At Jaffa Gate

From the Australian War Memorial:

Les enlisted in the 2/15th Infantry Battalion which was raised at Redbank army camp in Brisbane on 1 May 1940, as part of the 20th Brigade. 

Mosque of Omar

The 20th Brigade transferred from the 7th to the 9th Division en route to the Middle East. It arrived at El Kantara in Egypt at the start of February 1941 and moved to Kilo 89 in Palestine for desert training. 

Turkish Baths Gaza

At the end of February the 2/15th travelled through the Libyan Desert to the front line at Kilo 789. The battalion relieved elements of 6th Division, becoming the most advanced part of the line. 

Pyramid in Egypt

When German forces landed at Tripoli and were advancing east. The 20th was involved in the withdrawal of British forces to Tobruk, the withdrawal cost the battalion heavily: the commanding officer, second in command, and 154 men were captured at El Gazala. 

No note on this one but he's probably a Zulu Warrior.

The battalion moved to Hill 69 near Gaza where it remained into 1942, before undertaking training and garrison duties in Lebanon and Syria.

Mount of Olives

In August the 2/15th relieved the 2/28th Infantry Battalion, holding the line from Hill 33 to the coast. On 1 September the 2/15th participated in Operation Bulimba, designed to test tactics and strategies for the upcoming Battle of El Elemaein. 

Tower of David

The fighting was vicious and the battalion suffered 183 casualties - about half its fighting strength. 

Arab Woman (Note: The water container is called a jarrah)

From 23 October to 4 November 1942 it fought with the brigade during the battle of El Alamein.

Arab women and their sheep

The 9th Division was recalled to Australia to face a new enemy - the Japanese.The 2/15th left Egypt aboard the Acquitania on the 25th January, 1943.

Young Arab Porter

After leave and jungle training on the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland the 2/15th embarked for Milne Bay in Papua on 2 August 1943.

Arab Women and their sheep

On 4 September the battalion landed on Red Beach, 15 miles north-west of Lae. Shortly after it fought its way ashore at Scarlet Beach near Finschhafen and defended the area against Japanese counter-attack. 

Via Dolorosa (Note: In the old city of Jerusalem)

The battalion also took part in the Huon Peninsula campaign, advancing along the northern coast of New Guinea from Lae to Sio.

Interior of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Les was discharged from service on 30 September 1944

Jewish Wailing Wall

Jerry para-troops (Note: These are German paratroopers about to embark for the invasion of Crete, 1941)

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre 

Camp picture show (Note: this must have been a contemporary photo, judging by the camouflage paint on the walls of the building and the vehicle)

This one is the only actual postcard in the collection. It's a pity he didn't write a little note on the back.

Again, no caption. It must have been from his time in New Guinea.

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