Project IV/26

A heavy self-propelled howitzer, attempt two

I've been thinking about the incomplete Hummel project every once in a while and now I got a new one to work on. In case I didn't write it down earlier, when I was paying for the StuG III in Tieto-Nikkari I commented that "this called me the most, but had you had a Hummel I'd grabbed it immediately". The guy had his sales pants on, so he wrote down an order from any manufacturer in 1:35, and promised to call when they had it in the store. Two weeks later I got an SMS and I half-ran from work to fetch it, on just about the last summery day of 2025. At that point I hadn't even opened the box of the StuG. This model was also the reason I ordered a double set of the Panzer III/IV tracks.

 

Memories from the early two thousands

I accidentally found a few photos of the source for all this, the Dragon's Hummel that I had built and painted grey. The winter-geared crew was also assembled but completely unpainted. What cut my project in this stage back in the day? I had been very excited about it, of course, so it was very difficult to come up with an explanation or a reason. This was also my stage of painting all my German stuff grey, most likely because of the way they were depicted in Steel Panthers.

The timeline for these photos I could poke at by the Leman Russ in the background gifted by a friend, and the speaker connected to my father's Beomaster 6000, and the last photo's CRT display. Earliest it could be was 2003, and latest 2007 but I was unable to guess any better myself. Then I realized that the zip file was named based on the photo metadata and that told me they were taken in 2005, handily in the middle of my guesstimate.

A new bumblebee 

When done, I could somehow compare this one to the old memories, even with a very different crew and a completely different approach to painting. The variant was also different, the Dragon's had spare roadwheels on the front armour plates while this Tamiya one had them in the back hull. Tiny differences.

Paper stuff

First of all the box revealed a background information sheet with basic stuff about the Hummel in a few languages. There were two suggestions for a paitnjob, both from an unknown or unspecified unit. One of them was plain Dunkelgelb, the other in three-tone camo. I especially appreciated the third photo's "this is what we're talking about" section for those who didn't live and breath these devices.

Not many decals in a way, in addition to the Balkenkreuze and the unit number there was the black info sheet for the gun aimer. The rest belonged to the shells, I imagined, but didn't doublecheck from the instructions in advance.

In general the instructions were Tamiya-clear and I was very happy to see the 1:1 track schema in the second photo. I could use that when building the Panzerwerk tracks.

Bits and pieces

Hummel's Panzerwanne was a big single entity so that kept me safe from a funky-angled side walls. Painting the crew made me a bit worried but maybe I could survive especially if I didn't get more bright ideas of giving them camo patterns...

This sprue had a healthy set of shells and cartridges. The tracks looked acceptable but they'd go to the bits boxes for some unspecified future moment demanding greeblies of that type.

All the running gear in their sprues were doubled, and I was foreseeing half an eternity going to the painting and fixing the painting on the road wheels, idlers and friends. Maybe this time I should at least prime them in the sprues before getting much further, just to recude swearing.

 

Most of the remaining vehicle was then spread to the last two sprues. The cannon alone at most of one, then the deck and armour plates took the other. Pretty clear to me, as the manufacturer led me to expect. I doubted I had to spend insane amounts of time searching for the individual pieces all around the spruesets.

 

Finally we had a plastic bag with random things, like the tiny screwdriver, a bit of thread to play the part of a tow cable, some sets of poly caps and whanot. Hopefully I wasn't going to drop any on the floor for the cats to play with.

 

This'd be a lot of fun as long as I didn't make a fool of myself with the assembly/paint order choices.

Finished: Project III/26

The first Merc Lance

Finally I had the first Lance of the ISD's Devastators mercenary company painted and ready. The silly jokes for all the namings was still in progress, just like the composition of the other Lances. I really wanted to fill one Lance with LRM boats or dinghies at least. If I couldn't get four legged LRM platforms, one Arrow IV 'Mech would be also very fitting. The important thing was to get an indirect fire group into my gang.

This Lance was a heavy hitter that intended to make the enemies' ears ring with the sounds of their armor plates crumbling under the relentless barrages. You could almost hear the staccato thud of the Marauder's AC/10 slamming into a Davion 'Mech, heat sinks rupturing. 

I left the MechWarrior names unpondered because I didn't have delusions of being an author, or even good for fanfics. Should the inspiration strike me for more than the boss' name, I'd share them and probably update here as well. For any potential later tweaks I predicted redoing the canopies, for the purpleish things didn't work at all like I hoped. I'll try something else with the upcoming two Lances and then retrofit these.

Devastator DVS-2

As the boss and owner of the merc unit was captain firstName lastName, who roamed the battlefields in the cockpit of his DVS-2 while not drowning in paperwork. The captain's 'Mech's left shoulder had an american-style II as his rank marking. Of course the number 1 painted on the left shin also was some sort of a hint when you had to find your ride from the ground.

Both Devastators were of the same variant: a Gauss Rifle in each Arm, a PPC in each side torso, and with two Medium Laser in the Torsos and one in Head, and a fourth one in the back facing backstabbers. Just painting the Head and back -mounted ERLas red to turn them into Small Lasers this could've been called a DVS-11, but I tried to stick to the Classic timeline whenever the pieces allowed. Also, if blue was good in general, and the PPCs were a bit differently jeweled, this could've also been a DVS-1D with AC/10s in arms and Large Lasers in the side torsos.

Devastator DVS-2

The shop's second in command, a lieutenant firstName lastName also operated a DVS-2. This MechWarrior recognized their 'Mech, if not by the different camo, from the left shoulder's I rank bar and the left leg's number 2.

 

Marauder MAD-3D

On the much better-looking half of Thunder Lance was sergeant firstName lastName in their Marauder MAD-3D, its top hull had a <<< marking and the left leg carried a number 3 for recognition. MAD 3D carried the typical PPCs paired with a Medium Laser in both arms, and its dorsal gun was a Large Laser that removed the 3R model's problem with being reliant on ammo.

 

Marauder MAD-3R

The optional dorsal gun was, of course, the aforementioned AC/5 with its ammo load. 

KUVA 

Marauder MAD-5R

The other Marauder, decorated with a number 4, was driven by a lance corporal firstName lastName, their ego was also stroked with their << rank painted on the hull. This Marauder was recognizeable as the 5R variant by its different kind of a dorsal gun, a RAC-5 that was somewhat less ridiculous than the awful RAC-2. In its arms it had the more advanced ER PPCs but still paired with MLas rayguns. To the outside you couldn't tell it was also loaded with a Guardian ECM, a C3S system, and some additional armour.

Rear shots

 To accompany the more frontal and front-side shots I added here a few side-rear views to show the caution stripes better, and the Devastator back-facing death rays.

Now I didn't spot any more masking tape pieces on the minis. Took many enough rounds, that!

Devastators based

Bases

As so many times lately, I used Vallejo's Mud Effect to create some sort of an irregular terrain for my BattleMechs to stomp on, and let it cure overnight. It's been a nice and simple method for getting a quick non-flat ground that won't fall off the base when moving the minis. The next day I gave the ground bits and the 'Mech feet a drybrsuhing with a wood-coloured paint (VMA 71077 Wood).

A colleague commented my wip photos* and humbly suggested some sort of an edge highlighting to improve the readability of the minis. I had no argument against that, he just managed to express it better than my generic low-level annoyance of low readability. That was a useful term indeed. So I gave them a gentle drybrushing with a medium grey (VMA 71120 USAF Medium Grey). Despite my A4 background, or exactly because of it the minis ended up looking darker than in the other photos. Or I chose a worse place for the lights, or I simply didn't understand how my phone camera worked.

 

*) The WIP photos pointed out three more masking tape pieces. Hopefully those were the last ones. Unbelievable.

Devastators oiling and decorating

A sepia pin wash

I thinned down some brown oil wash (Abteilung ABT002 Sepia) and spread it over the bits, concentrating on panel edges and crevices. I also remembered to wash the dorsal gun options that I parked on pegs.

 

After about half an hour of waiting I cleaned the excess darknesses away. I concentrated mostly on the sun-kissed surfaces, the stronger shadows in the lower parts were not harmful.

As always, the difference between non-washed ones was incredible. What I hadn't planned in advance was the merc company decoration. These were, attitude-wise, very different from the Clan Warriors, Successor State armies, corporate troops, or the so-called serious mercenary companies. These were the troops that could have smiley faces, dice, Ace of Spades signs, catchphrases, skulls, graffiti, rainbows, unicorns, or whatever set out however. Of course in this scale any words would be unpaintable with my limited abilities, and I wasn't going to start decaling them either.

My main point with this pondering was that they should be decorated a bit differently from my usual approach. The other thought was that maybe I should've thought of it before doing the oil part? That could always be redone, but again I noticed that I had gone with my autopilot.

Lenses and panzer glasses

Aaaaanyway. I decided to do the energy weapon lenses and cockpit viewports now, because if I fumbled with them over any possible decorations, I would be cross. So black canvas, colours over. To compensate the sand yellow and green something blue would be good, maybe with a red tint. The mixture of blue/red was pretty low in brightness and didn't stand out as nicely as I had imagined. Redoing them all in blue was a solid plan b.

Devastator 1

The armament on the Devastators was very clear: the Gauss Rifles didn't need to be touched, the PPCs in the sides got the Electric Blue treatment and the four Medium Lasers got Escorpena Green on them. Plus the usual white-mixed layers, of course.

 

In this photo you could see that the viewport didn't really stand out.

Devastator 2

I worked on the Devastators in series, so the same descriptions applied here.

Both of their searchlights were painted with Fire Orange, and I used that on the targeting lasers on top of the Gauss Rifles as well.

Marauder 1

Not many weapon effects here: the Arm pods had PPCs and Medium Lasers. In the photo below I had the three-barreled version of an AC/5 installed.

A number of viewports were modeled on the Marauder model, I decided to use the lower and upper front viewports. The side ones and the one that looked like a skylight I skipped.

Marauder 2

Like the Devastators, I painted the Marauders in a series. Or more accurately I painted the weapons in the most numerous first -order (in this case Medium Lasers (12) -> PPCs (8) -> Large Lasers (2)) to supposedly save some time.

Group shot

Unique smudges

The stompers needed some individualism still. I had thought of random markings, graffiti, obscenities, or somesuch to be painted on these reckless mercs. But then I always remembered my subpar freehanding skills, so I didn't want to ruin my stuff just because.

Caution stripes 

At least I could do some kind of hazard stripes. I started that by painting some bits with Yellow Ochre, as the sections called my attention. I managed to find a good amount of space for them on the Marauder dorsal gun options, as well as their sides and ankles. The Devastators were a bit more boring and got stripes on their shoulders and Gauss Rifle sides. One of the Devastators had to take some hazard marks on its ankles when I noticed an underpainted area.

I tried to keep them in check instead of going overboard. 

Rank markings

Something gave me the idea that maybe these lucrewarriors could have their military ranks painted on their machines. I really wasn't up to speed on any military organizations, so I didn't know what kind of ranks the MechWarriors would generally have and my best idea came from the BT novels. Relying on the tried and tested Stetson-Harrison method the chief became a captain with a || painted on the Devastator's left shoulder. The next Devastator got a single | bar for a lieutenant. My Marauder pilots then got to be lower in rank than those, and the <<< and << were more visible than the silly bars. Probably in real world the chevron-folks were way too low in rank to be piloting things, but luckily I didn't need to care about that. Another option was that they all were ultra-admirals or something.

Numbers

Without too much pondering I painted numbers on the legs in black and white, or black grey and off-white. Maybe the different Lances would be using different colours to make them distinguishable? I had time to dwell on these little questions.

Shiny lenses

Now I iterated all the glasses with Vallejo's gloss varnish, the weapon lenses twice. IIRC Camospecs' B1BFlyer did at least three varnish layers on his energy weapons to get a nice convex shape on them.

 

Situation check

Next time I'd attack the hex bases. At that point maybe I should check the edges of the energy weapon barrels, so that the metallic surfaces didn't have a silly gloss on them.