Hammer's Slammers Week - Day 1 - Combat Car

I received the Hammer's Slammers: The Crucible rule book for Christmas in 2013.  Although I've only managed to play 1 game so far, (Tomorrow's War being my usual choice, despite its drawbacks), I quite enjoyed it and I'd like to play some more.  To this end, I've obtained some of the Old Crow Hammer's Slammers range.  Having a baby last year has severely reduced my time for painting, gaming and blogging (hence the months between posts this last year and a half) but I'm gradually getting back into the swing of things...

I've painted my first batch of Slammers vehicles to try various techniques and I'm pretty pleased with the results so far.  So without further ado, I present Hammer's Slammers Week!

Day 1 - Combat Car

Anyone who has read the Slammers books will be familiar with the M9A1 Combat Car.  This is a lovely little kit, a resin body with metal crew and tribarrels, plus an etched brass splinter shield to protect the fighting compartment.  The legs on the splinter shield seem slightly too wide/long for the body of the vehicle but this isn't a major problem, you just need to flex them slightly as you assemble the kit.  I drilled fairly deep holes for the legs to make sure it's a firm fit.  I left the crew and splinter shield off so they could be painted individually.  Some Brigade Models jerry cans were added to the back and I carved some footholds up the side of the vehicle for access to the fighting compartment.  I still need to add the stowage to the top of the splinter shield, hence the grey undercoat still showing there.  An Ainsty Castings etched brass control panel was glued inside the fighting compartment.

Combat Car.

After a spray of grey Wilko undercoat, the vehicle received a base coat of Humbrol metalcote polished aluminium.  Being metalcote, it's designed to be polished after it has dried, giving a lovely metallic sheen.  I gave it a coat of pledge floor polish afterwards to seal it and avoid leaving any fingerprints during later stages of painting.  I wasn't sure how well this would work but it seems to be fine, the polish coated without any difficulty and has prevented any more of the silvery coating coming off on my fingers.  The skirts around the plenum chamber were painted Vallejo Reflective green, with a few replacement panels picked out in Luftwaffe Camouflage green and Stonewall grey.  The inside of the fighting compartment was painted brown to start, then dabbed with red/brown to give a rusty appearance, finally drybrushed with silver to show wear.

Combat Car - note steps on left side and replacement skirt panels.

Next was a 50/50 wash of Vallejo black ink and Pledge which was applied generously over the whole vehicle.  This gave a good base for applying some decals.  As well as the etched stowage baskets from Ainsty, I ordered some Hammer's Slammers decals.  These are lovely quality, I trimmed very closely around them to minimise the amount of carrier film, then tried out my new bottle of Vallejo Decal softener.  I'm extremely happy with the result, they conform well to the curving shape of the Combat Car's hull.  After 24 hours to dry, a couple of coats of Pledge sealed the decals in place.

Fighting compartment detail.

Given that a Combat Car has steel skirts, I gave them a drybrush of Humbrol 160 German camouflage red/brown with a few patches of 100 red/brown for a nice rusty effect.  A further drybrush of GW chainmail gives a good impression of the sort of wear they've been getting.

Ainsty control panel, fighting compartment detail.

The crew were painted using the same colours that I used on the Slammers troops I painted for the GZG web page, Vallejo brown fatigues with Humbrol 86 light olive body armour and helmets, followed by a sepia wash.

I'm pleased with the result, so I'd better get a move on and finish the other four!