How I lost the Salute Painting Contest... but still Won my Day
by Grégory Privat



I made this vignette in order to participate in the Salute ‘08 painting contest.

 I’ve not participated in many painting contests, but each time I have it has been a great experience. This is usually the occasion to buy some brand new brushes and to test new painting or sculpting techniques (which is maybe the main reason why I usually don’t win!). I use techniques that I’m discovering, and haven’t yet mastered. The other main reason I don’t win is of course that the other are better than I am.



8by6IMG_1066

There are two differences between trying something new for yourself, and for a contest; time and result obligation. The contest gives you a deadline (especially if you tell everyone that you are going to join the contest) that will keep you working on your project. Result: you will try your best whatever new technique you try. Oh, and one more thing, sometime you win contests.

 So this article is a fast walk through the work I did for the Salute 2008 Miniature Painting Contest.

As I had recently discovered the West Wind Weird World War range of miniatures, Secrets of The Third Reich (SOTR), via a painting contest on the net. I was lucky enough to win, and used my prize to “buy” some miniatures from them.

I ordered a “M203 Codename Sarge” and a “ME 362 Jet Mecha”.

The Sarge is a Sherman-inspired mech (one of those big armored robots with a pilot). The ME 362 is basically a Luftwaffe flying mech with a big reactor in the back and wing-like arms... which in my opinion gives it a bit of a “transformer” look (but hopefully, not too much).



My aim was to build a vignette depicting fighting between the 2 mechs. The place should be a broken bridge, and at the beginning, since the SOTR game take place in 1949, I was going to call it “Return to Arnhem”. I changed my mind as soon as I decided that I wasn't going to make a faithful reproduction of the original bridge... but the idea was there.

Both miniatures have a main body + legs + base casted in resin and the remaining accessories (cockpit, arms, weapons, etc.) in white metal. My first job was to cut the resin parts in little pieces to change the static original position of the miniatures and have them in a more dynamic position.

I started by removing the base from the Luft mech and cutting out the legs.

I did the same with the Sarge and then started to drill most parts to put some strong metal pieces inside.

 I removed every bit of flash I could with an Xacto-like modeling knife, then I put some Milliput in the holes left in the resin by the casting process (there are always holes in resin, even in miniatures cast by resin mini leaders like Fenryll or Forge World).

I use 
Milliput because it has the same resistance as resin when dried, and I can just clean the pieces with some light sandpaper.

I wanted the Sarge to look like it was falling backwards.

I had to re-make the middle segment of the legs. I used strong metal wire as a “skeleton inside pieces of balsa and recovered the balsa with some green stuff to remove the wood effect.

I also needed to remake the feet and toes as they had been damaged while getting them off the base (plastic card).



By this time, the base was already half done, but I'll explain how I did it later.

Everything was glued in place except the Luft pilot.

The Sarge had been painted with many, many different layers of very thin paint. The aim was to accentuate the natural shadows but keep it subtle given the size of the models. I wanted to let the normal environmental light do most of the job by itself.



I also started to make the rust effects in 'trompe l'oeil'. All the holes that you can see on the miniatures are just optical effects. This may look difficult to achieve, but in fact it's very simple - do a brownish-black irregular shape, paint the inside with some brown and orange (diluted, many layers), with the brownish-black still showing on the perimeter, then paint the lower side of the shape (the one catching the light) in a yellowish white (try to not use pure white or pure black except for very special effects).

To paint the Luft mech, I mainly used my airbrush. It's a new tool for me, and this miniature received a ton of different layers as I was getting used to the tool. All those layers were not there as a technical way to achieve a result, but just hiding past layers as I was not happy with the results until I found a way to paint them in a suitable way!

(Webmaster's note - see how effective Gregory's camoflauge is in the 2nd picture!)

The yellow stripes were painted with a GW Foundation yellowish paint.

I used a similar technique for the Luft mach’s chipped paint, but this time I replaced the rust by aluminium, to give it a less heavy look.

I also used a few decals. These were put on some gloss varnish, then varnished and painted over with thin (again) layers of paint so that their edges disappeared.



The main weathering was made with pure pigment, with or without a bit of water, put in place with a brush. Pure non-diluted pigment is just about putting on some powder then blowing on it to get it in place. I also used some pastels (for the first time). Between each stage, I used some thin layers of varnish to keep it in place. Some places were re-worked again with orange from the GW Foundation range, again very diluted.


Some other parts were made during the weathering process. The cockpit was made of blister plastic for the glass, and paper for the frame. I often use paper. I put it in place and then I let some superglue infiltrate it to harden it.

The camo net on the back of the Sarge is made of gauze, hardened with water-diluted PVA glue. I also put some paint in the water and glue mix to color its fibers.



The barbed wire is from a modeling material company which I forget the name of. It is brass-etched - I had it for a long time and it rusted by itself!



The base was very light at the beginning. I was intending to make a half of a bridge with just one pillar, but people kept asking me where the other pillar was or what it was, so I made the stone cliff under it. It's all made of foam with a bit of filling plaster, some sand,
 greenstuff, Milliput and some "Plasto" from Revell (for the concrete effect). The metal which comes out of the base is just metal wire.

I used some strong metal rods go everywhere in the base to the wooden base to keep everything together (up to the Sarge's leg, then the
 Sarge’s body, then his right arm, then left knee, leg and body).

The smoke coming out of the Luft reactor is there to hide another piece of metal that I added when I found that the original metal frame, although strong enough for my home, was being twisted by transporting and bringing the whole piece horizontal and vertical again and again while working on it. It was a necessary "safety measure" for the long journey to Salute.


Although I didn't win any prizes at Salute with that model, it was an interesting project! I've learned a lot (if still not enough) about using my airbrush and I hope this encourages you to join painting contests and to look at the SOTR 1949 rules and West Wind miniatures.

My webpage : http://gloarmy.free.fr
More info on the SOTR miniatures range