Dad's Guys: A local tank museum!

It sure took a while, but I finally finished a big bunch of Armenian fighters a few days ago. I've been into painting larger groups of figures lately, so that definitely slowed me down some, but mainly I was slowed down by glazing. Usually I glaze my figures by hand with Vallejo gloss varnish, wait a few days for them to dry thoroughly and then cover them by hand with Army Painter Anti-Shine. I've been disappointed with the process though, the figures I finished have been still too glossy for me, especially darker colors like black. For these figures I waited eight days for the gloss varnish to dry (it was really humid here for days on end). I also found a better alternative to Anti-Shine ... Vallejo's matte varnish. It mixes easier and works better. (So good in fact, I'm taking a few days to work on some past figures).

The pictures I took today came out a bit dark, but I'm very pleased with the set, oddly the varnish discovery is a big part of it. It's been fun to go over an enjoy figures I've worked on this year ... very motivating.

For this group I did quite a few head swaps as usual. I also used green stuff to sculpt big collars, jacket extensions and for two guys I went all out and gave them some civilian pullovers. I painted them with more camouflage then my first group of Fall/Winter Armenians, mostly VSR.

RH Models MULTBHAK; MULT*AK with head swap; HDBRPG; EER2W

RH Models RUSAK* with head swap; HDBAK; MULTBHRPK; MULTBABESQU

RH Models MULT40AK; RMRAK* with head swap; MULT*AK with head swap; MULT*AK with head swap

RH Models MULT40AK; RMRAK* with head swap; MULT*COM with head swap; MULTBHAK

RH Models MULT*AK with head swap; MULTBHPKM; RUSAK* with head swap; EER2W

RH Models MULTBHAK; RMRAK* with head swap; MULTBAK; MULTBHRPD

Below are some pictures that inspired me:

Armenians defending the village of Askeran on the border of Nagorno-Karabakh. (March, 1992)

Armenian fighters in the city of Askeran. (March 19th, 1992)

Martuninsky Region, Nagorno-Karabakh - Armenian fighter (December 10th, 1992)

Armenian fighters, Eagle and Garegin detachment

Armenian liberators of Agdam

Armenian fighters

In April, 2019 a large tank museum, The American Heritage Museum, run by the awesome Collings Foundation is opening near my home - just a few towns over! A couple of years ago they bought the Jacques M. Littlefield Collection (which includes a running Panther!). I've been waiting ever since for them to move everything from California to Massachusetts and put it on display. This weekend was the preview opening of the museum. There is still work to be done (no information posted), but 95% of the vehicles are already in place. I was of course very interested in their Soviet stuff; although all of it is great. As you can see in the pictures below the vehicles are in great shape, well lit and displayed with all hatches open. I'll definitely be going to this place often.

Here's some pictures. Not shown in the pictures, but interest to me were a ZSU-23-4 SHILKA and a 2S1 GVOZDIKA.

Looking down at the World War II section