Dubbed "Gypsy" by the men and woman that crew her, the Gypsy Spade has seen the most fighting of any Spade in the 405th Outlander Battalion, with each "X" on her marking a skirmish. Gypsy has a a modified bed that makes it serve as a pickup truck instead of the usual flatbed hauler role for Spades.
The gunner position, which is usually the most dangerous position on a Warthog, is relatively safe when the SCMG-42 is mounted forward. The sheer bulk of Gypsy's cab, combined with the massive shields on the SCMG-42 leave the gunner almost hidden when looked at from the front.
Of the three vehicles I have made for the 405th (Warthog, Spade, Medivac Hornet) I can honestly say that I like this one the least. Granted, I love the thing, but I have to have a third favorite vehicle in the 405th, and this one is it.
There is something odd about this custom, and I have to A some Qs to explain it:
LishaThorne asks: "Do you coat your figs with varnish or some kind of clear coat? The facebook custom group said to use varnish at the joints so it does not peel off. Your paint jobs are great."
Answer: I have never used a finishing gloss on any of my customs until I made this one As for paint rubbing off, I try to use black/silver/gray parts where joints will be. I need to explain how I came to own a finishing gloss, because I didn't buy one on purpose. For every vehicle I paint or "metal" thing, I do a base coat of a brushed metallic black. It's a good, moderate sheen, metallic paint that works quite well on vehicles and weapons. Unfortunately, when I was putting the cap back on the bottle of brushed black, the cap broke off.
There was nothing else for me to do except go to the store and buy another bottle of metallic black. They didn't have one. They didn't have one two weeks later when I went to the store again. I decided to buy a silver and a black and just mix up my own metallic black. I grabbed a silver I knew to be quite runny, and a bottle of straight matte black. I also grabbed a bottle of "Extreme Glitter" black, so I could drop a heavier flake into the paint. One of the first things I do when I get back in the car after I buy paint is to take the cap off and look at it to see it. You can't really tell what color you've bought by the colored paper circle on top, and I like to see exactly what color it is to know if I need to run in and buy a slightly different shade before I leave.
I opened the bottle of "Extreme Glitter" Black, and much to my surprise, the paint was an off white with some black specks in it! I'm not about to return a two dollar bottle of paint to the store, so I kept it and went home. When I get new paint, I like to put a little stripe of it on something so I can see it after it dries. I put some onto a previous stripe of green and brown, and was amazed at how hard it was to get the white to even show up. I gave up and got to painting the Spade. About 15 minutes later, when I looked down, the paint was gone. It had dried on gloss clear!
When I got done painting the Spade, but before I put on the weathering, I gave the paint job a quick coat of the gloss clear on a whim. To my surprise, the thing ended up looking quite like it was made of metal. I added on the weathering and called it done.
To answer your question, as of now I do not put a clear finish on figures, because I want them to stay matte. I do put a clear finish on anything I want to be metallic. The 405th Marine I painted yesterday (the one you see pieces of in the Q&A topic, is done in matte, but his rocket launcher, grenades, pistol, and knife are "metal" so they have the clear gloss on it.
Hope this helps.
The gunner position, which is usually the most dangerous position on a Warthog, is relatively safe when the SCMG-42 is mounted forward. The sheer bulk of Gypsy's cab, combined with the massive shields on the SCMG-42 leave the gunner almost hidden when looked at from the front.
Of the three vehicles I have made for the 405th (Warthog, Spade, Medivac Hornet) I can honestly say that I like this one the least. Granted, I love the thing, but I have to have a third favorite vehicle in the 405th, and this one is it.
There is something odd about this custom, and I have to A some Qs to explain it:
LishaThorne asks: "Do you coat your figs with varnish or some kind of clear coat? The facebook custom group said to use varnish at the joints so it does not peel off. Your paint jobs are great."
Answer: I have never used a finishing gloss on any of my customs until I made this one As for paint rubbing off, I try to use black/silver/gray parts where joints will be. I need to explain how I came to own a finishing gloss, because I didn't buy one on purpose. For every vehicle I paint or "metal" thing, I do a base coat of a brushed metallic black. It's a good, moderate sheen, metallic paint that works quite well on vehicles and weapons. Unfortunately, when I was putting the cap back on the bottle of brushed black, the cap broke off.
There was nothing else for me to do except go to the store and buy another bottle of metallic black. They didn't have one. They didn't have one two weeks later when I went to the store again. I decided to buy a silver and a black and just mix up my own metallic black. I grabbed a silver I knew to be quite runny, and a bottle of straight matte black. I also grabbed a bottle of "Extreme Glitter" black, so I could drop a heavier flake into the paint. One of the first things I do when I get back in the car after I buy paint is to take the cap off and look at it to see it. You can't really tell what color you've bought by the colored paper circle on top, and I like to see exactly what color it is to know if I need to run in and buy a slightly different shade before I leave.
I opened the bottle of "Extreme Glitter" Black, and much to my surprise, the paint was an off white with some black specks in it! I'm not about to return a two dollar bottle of paint to the store, so I kept it and went home. When I get new paint, I like to put a little stripe of it on something so I can see it after it dries. I put some onto a previous stripe of green and brown, and was amazed at how hard it was to get the white to even show up. I gave up and got to painting the Spade. About 15 minutes later, when I looked down, the paint was gone. It had dried on gloss clear!
When I got done painting the Spade, but before I put on the weathering, I gave the paint job a quick coat of the gloss clear on a whim. To my surprise, the thing ended up looking quite like it was made of metal. I added on the weathering and called it done.
To answer your question, as of now I do not put a clear finish on figures, because I want them to stay matte. I do put a clear finish on anything I want to be metallic. The 405th Marine I painted yesterday (the one you see pieces of in the Q&A topic, is done in matte, but his rocket launcher, grenades, pistol, and knife are "metal" so they have the clear gloss on it.
Hope this helps.