Yavasa’s Team Yankee

Hello all,

so I am still working on my French guys but I have finally managed to capture on camera *dum dum dum* the stages and how the colour hues differ. I used an airbrush to apply layers but a brush is also recommended. Just takes more time. I hope you will find this helpful.

Cheers and stay safe

One of the boxes that I have bought was the Durand’s Devils starter for the French Army which contains two Gazelle Helicopters and 3 AMX-30/AMX AUF1 kits. I decided to take care of the armour first and so I have built the tanks and the artillery. I did make one mistake here. I did not glue the magnets under the hull and when I glued them on top of it the space between the turret and the hull was too big and it looked as if the turrets were hoovering. No worries, I used some glue activator and took of the magnets. Learn from one’s mistakes 🙂

Anyway the AMX-30 tank was first delivered to the French Army in 1966. It was armed with a 105 mm gun. The self-propelled howitzer is armed with a 155 mm gun. The problem with the AMX-30 design was the transmission. The AMX-30 saw combat during the Gulf War.

So, sadly I did not take pictures of the whole batch of units and infantry that I have undercoated black, varnished with a mat varnish. I took all my stock and sprayed it with AK Interactive NATO Green followed with a wash of Anthonian Camoshade from Games Workshop. From here I started working on individual platoons.

First up, with no particular reason I started working on the Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Missile Launcher based on the AMX-30 chasis which carried the Roland Missile. Surprise, surprise called AMX-30 Roland. 😀 The prototype was tested in 1976 and the final development finished in 1977 with a total order of 183 vehicles.

So, the steps that I took for all land vehicles are here:

• undercoat: black
• base colour: AMMO NATO Green
• shade: GW Anthonian Camoshade
• first highlight: AMMO NATO Green simply omitting the shaded areas
• second highlight: Hataka Vert Ir Otan
• Satin varnish. I use the one from Vallejo
• Pin wash of AK-Interactive’s wash for NATO tanks. It’s enamel so that’s why we need the earlier varnish. I clean the excess with odorless thinner
• Drybrush of GW’s Steel Legion Drab followed by Zandri Dust
• Satin Varnish

In between I painted the tracks using AMMO Dark tracks, wash of Nuln Oil and a clean up of the base colour. The rocket launcher was painted with Zandri Dust.

Hello friends,

so this is my second project OnTableTop. First one is my Warmachine & Hordes project that mainly focuses on the Cygnar faction. Sadly, Warmachine is almost dead in my region so I decided after several talks with my friends to take up Team Yankee and what is more to take the French forces.

First of all, this is my first voyage into 15mm scale. I was quite happy to take the path of a smaller scale because it allows me to paint more and faster as it turned out. Plus, the models take a lot less space in the cave lol.

Secondly, I was a little bit afraid of the, as I like to call it, historical colour scheme accuracy or simply your hue of green is not correct so you cannot play. I must admit that it took me a month ot two of research and looking for the paint colours that I thought would match the French Vert Otan colour from the 1980’s. After that time I said to myself: man you are nuts. Who cares whether the green will be more NATO green or French paler one? So, I said F&*^ it and started hoarding models and painting them. Yet, I admit… I did buy Battlefront’s painting guide when it came out 🙂

What is more, if you have seen some of my painted models they are usually clean and neat with little or rather I should say no weathering. I decided to change that a bit and started to use some simple yrt effective techniques like pin washing with enamel washes and simple drybrushing.

For now, the project will focus on the French forces but I will not limit myself to that army only and from time to time you will probably see some other armies. I must say that I am thinking of painting some Brits, plus I have the two player starter set with US and Soviet tanks.

I can only hope to be regular with the posts but I cannot tell you that I will. 🙂

Anyway, keep the brushes wet and play it painted.