Well, I'm leaving the rockets clean for now. After I've seen it on the game table I can always go back and apply some wash. But for now, this is it:

Finally starting on the axis walkers! (sorry, Blackhawk, you'll have to wait. I just don't really fancy you) I have been thinking about what I wanted to do with the Loth for a long time, so I decided to start with it. Here are the base colours:

I want it to look sort of like a construction/utility vehicle that was thrown into the war, so I went with a white coat, and some safety yellow details. Notice the modification to the MG's placement. As I hate the standard placement of the MG, I'm changing it for all my axis walkers, but with the Loth I did something unique. I removed the little ring on top of the hatch that holds the MG, and glued it to the circular air vent on the back. It fits very well, and with the hunkered down charging pose I like to keep the Loth in, the gun is facing straight ahead (with the other walkers, which I like to pose upright, that wouldn't work, as the gun would be pointing skyward).

Looking foward to see the main paint job! How you considered some achtung! and so waorking signs?

With the MG there means the crew can only fire it backwards though.

Major Mishap said:

"This weapon is remotely controlled by the pilot, who does not need to exit the machine to use it."

Don't see why it would have any problem firing in any direction from this new position.

And yeah, I plan of placing a couple of Achtung signs here and there.

Cool, where does it say that?

In the description of the Luther on the back of the Blue Thunder booklet.

Applied the wash, which made the whole thing look way too brown, so I had to go back heavily with the white to bring it back. Also highlighted the yellow and metallic parts, and applied some decals. Now just some heavy weathering to go.

Great job , very Nice

Thanks. It's a little annoying how little area the axis medium walker has for decals. It's only really got the front, which is fairly narrow, and the small space on the sides of the cockpit, which is often obscured by the arms. Other than that it's all covered with rivets and other surface detail. I really wish it had more clear surfaces, like the ally mediums, to put some axis crosses and those wonderful winged skulls...

Yeah, good stuff Loopy. I think you found great spots for the decals you did apply and it makes it pop a bit.

And here's the final Loth!

I went a little overboard with the chipping cause I figured that this guy is always charging headlong into other tanks, so that can't be good for the paint job. Very happy with the final result, it really stands out from the other walkers.

Loving your work and want to copy it so, how are you doing the chipping to the Axis walkers and what colours?

Hey, thanks! My chipping effect is nothing too fancy, really. For the Loth all I did was mix some dark gray with a bit of orange and dab it all over the edges with a piece of thin sponge. Then I just did a little mix of beige and yellow and applied it lightly to some areas with a brush. I really didn't apply much of that at all, since I didn't want my white walker (hey, a Game of Thrones pun!) to become too yellow.

You have painted great in my opinion, but wow that's ALLOT of rust!

Your a fast painter btw.

KillaRr said:

As I said before, I wanted it to look particularly beat up, since it's always charging against other walkers, which would certainly do murder to the paint job.

And no, I'm not a fast painter. It usually takes me about a week to paint a single unit. For walkers it's one or two nights to do the base colour, another night for washing and decals, and another one or two nights for highlights and weathering. At this rate I have estimated that I'll be done..... NEVER! Really. It should take me about 5 months to deal with what I currently have, and by that time I'm sure to have several new units waiting to be painted....

Base colours for the Luther:

I was out of ideas, so I thought I'd try my hand at the standard paintjob, with that weird camo. So I cut pieces of tape and created some random masks, then painted the whole thing white (and yellow for the claw). I had decent enough results, but my tape wasn't the best for this kind of thing, and I guess masking works much better for airbrushing than for simple brushing, cause some paint seeped under the tape, but no big deal. Applied a few decals and now on to washing this, so that it all blends better together.

For white try Tamiya masking tape (I also have used this green frog tape stuff from Lowes) and hit it with a white primer rattle can like GW's. Sevaral thin coats, full dry time between coats. Everything is looking great, soon you'll have to drop the 'newbie' from your header!

Uh-oh. It looks like Giganto Fett is about to punt the mech off your hobby table.

JigBakerSugar said:

Yeah, he does that sometimes.....

I think I'm done with the Luther:

Washed it, little bit of weathering and some mud to the lower parts. I wish it would "pop" a bit more, but it's tough to do highlights properly when the colour is always alternating like that. I didn't want to do much weathering cause I figured it already looked busy enough with the camo scheme.

And I also went ahead and finished the Ludwig. I think . Really unsure on this one:

I'm just not sure if it's too plain.Painted a few metallic parts, washed, highlighted and did just a little bit of black sponging. I don't want it too look all beat up and dirty, but I don't know whether I should add anything else to spice it up. One thing I was very happy with is the green ammo cartridges, which I thought was a splendidly original idea of mine, until I saw that the new Cerberus pattern from Dust Models is exactly like that...

PS: And I just realized that, in case I'm actually done with these two, this means I FINALLY finished painting my entire original core set!

I like the ludwig, i think you can leave it that way. But i'm not a fan of too much weathering and destroying so it's up to you;)

Looks well good and finished to me.

Thanks for the input guys. Yeah, I think I'm satisfied with the Ludwig as it is. Maybe weathering is sort of like adding a lens flare effect to a CG image. Sure, it makes it look more realistic, but it must be used only in the appropriate occasions, otherwise it just gets cheap and silly.

Started working on the Lothar, doing base colours and decals:

Yeah, I know, quite a garish colour! It was a suggestion from my fellow axis player, who thought the Lothar looked like a crab. Anyway, normally I would apply a second layer of paint, to make it completely even, and eliminate the gray tint from beneath, but I guess this colour doesn't really need any extra help to shine through, so I'm leaving it with just a single layer. Also, I did some tests, and the wash should tone it down some. I just thought the axis forces were in need of a bit of colour.