And another FT-17

And here's another Renault FT-17, this time in WW1-style outlined three-colour camouflage.

15mm Renault FT-17

This is Battlefront's 15mm (1:100) scale Renault FT-17, an excellent little World War One-era tank that survived right through the inter-war years and into World War Two. The American 6-ton tank was pretty much a direct copy.

I've done this one in a plain drab scheme, and I haven't added any markings as yet because I'm not completely sure just how I'm going to use it. I have another (they come in a pack of two) which I intend to finish in a WW1 outlined three-colour disruptive pattern.

New and shiny vs. old and busted (not really busted)

I've bought myself a new gravity-feed airbrush, a Paasche Talon, to complement my ancient Badger 150 that has served me loyally and well for near enough to forty years. The Badger is at the top of the image, the Paasche is at bottom.

Thanks to the internet making it so cheap and easy to buy things from overseas, this new airbrush only cost me about $75. When I bought that Badger, it was near enough to $200, and that was in the mid-1970s; I'm not sure what that would be equivalent to now, but it would be a lot.

I elected to go for Paasche this time around because I'd used a couple of Paasche brushes at polytech, and found them generally smoother of action than my Badger 150. It meant having to fiddle around with thread converters to attach it to my compressor and what-not, but I thought it would be worth that small trouble.

Alas, this Paasche does not live up to the standard set by those I used at school. Its double-action air/paint trigger is rather abrupt, and quite difficult to use with any delicacy of touch. I've lubricated it as far as I can, but even so it's not nearly as smooth or gentle an action as the old Badger.

I think the issue lies with the machining of the trigger shaft; there are visible machining marks on the sides, as can be seen in the hugely bloated image to the left, and I think these striations are catching as the trigger is depressed, resulting in the brush's jerky and rather clumsy action.

I'll see if I can polish them out, and we'll see if that makes any appreciable difference.

The new Paasche isn't wholly unsatisfactory, by any means. I do like its system for limiting paint flow, which is easier and more accurate to adjust than that of the Badger. The top-mounted gravity feed cup is more convenient for very small volumes of liquid too; there's less wastage as it doesn't need to keep a siphon working. I'm hopeful that if I can ameliorate the trigger action, it will prove to be a very useful tool.

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Addendum:

The Talon has become my default brush over the last couple of months, mainly because the gravity-feed makes it a breeze to clean, and being able to use just a few drops of paint at a time is very convenient. I ordered the super-fine (0.25mm) and heavy duty (0.66mm) heads and needles as well, and the .25mm needle has ended up being the one I use all the time. It is quite fragile though; I've already bent its tip once, and although I managed to get it straightened out again I don't think it will take too much more of that sort of abuse.

The trigger is still somewhat problematic, but I no longer think it's to do with the trigger itself, but with the return valve — it has a propensity to stick in the "on" position, especially if being used at low air pressures.

Teensy-Tiny Brute Squad

Brute Squad

Some considerable time ago I picked up a pack of 10mm Warmaster ogres, because they were going cheap from the bargain-bin, and because I thought I might one day have a use for them. And now that day has come.

These are them, each with a front and back view. Ugly little suckers.

In 10mm scale they're huge and ogreish, naturally. In 28mm scale they're tiny, and would make good little goblins or something. In 15mm scale they're big, hefty dudes, a bit taller than your average 15mm figure, and definitely fatter, and it's in that scale that I intend to use them.

They're going to be my Brute Squad.

As I've mentioned before, I've been toying with using Warlord Games' Hail Caesar rules in a fantasy setting, and that's where I envisage using the Brute Squad. Not that they're all that fantastic; when it comes down to it they're just really big, mean dudes with sharp pointy things and a bad attitude. They're shock troops, so I'd give them a high Clash value, but not much staying-power — difficult to kill individually, but with brittle morale once they start falling.