Wayne Wanner

My friend Master Modeller Wayne Wanner sent me a few photos of his collection.

These HO scale Roco and Paul Heiser models show his great skill as a model builder, painter and weatherer.  

These WWII US Army vehicles are very well done and they fit together well.  Congratulations WW on another wonderful project completed.

Master Model Maker WW

Master Model Maker Wayne Wanner sent me a few photos of his work and some descriptions.  Great work as always on those Roco trucks:

 

Both of those guys are seconds. They were bought in lots off of E-bay. I stripped them and repainted em' both. The short stout fellow is a dwarf fighter, he's missing his shield. The other is a sorcerer, a magic user. He's missing his staff, a magic users prime tool. If I find a usable shield the dwarf will get one.

 

 

The sorcerer will just do without, as a game piece things like that typically get broken off.  They were painted with Testors enamels, and a couple Vallejo shades.

 

The trucks are a couple I've been experimenting on with the AK weathering paints. The "colors" are mud, dust, tire black, and rust.

 

I found that if used right from the jar they're much to dark, or they obliterate the base color. I noticed the same thing with the Vallejo "dip" wash. So much experimentation is in order.

Little Boxes

One of the characteristics of a master modeller is the ability to make masterpieces out of little things the rest of us would only gloss over as unworthy.

Here Master Modeller Wayne Wanner has taken a collection of various resin and plastic bits and created masterpieces out of them.  These boxes and crates are perfect for the back of a deuce and half or Opel Blitz truck.  He has painted them in green or gray for axis and allies.

Not the simple but effective shading on the tops of the boxes and the little red bags at the bottom corner to catch the eye.  Some of the boxes are small, some large and others are barrels.  Military loads are often uniform sizes, like a truck load of ammo but many are varied, spare parts, weapons, food, fuel.  I really like the cabling tied over the gray box to give it the shipping look!  Well done Wayne!

Great Wreck

One of the first rules of the hobby is: Never throw anything away. I sell hobby stuff, I trade hobby stuff, I give hobby stuff away, but I never throw hobby stuff away. Someday, some how there will be a need for it and you will wish you never tossed it out.

My old buddy, Wayne Wanner, Master Modeller, who is no stranger to this blog, almost forgot that rule recently. He got this tired old model in a collection he purchased and took one look at it and tossed it in the trash bin. Soon afterwards he rescued it from the landfill and turned a junked wreck into a useful junked wreck.

Battlefields are often littered with the dead vehicles of previous battles. In Afghanistan the Allied keep finding monuments in the form of BTRs and T-55s to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, burned out hulks that sit alone alongside a former ambush site.

On the wargame table these used up old warriors can be used as wrecks to clutter the battlefield. They can hide a sniper, or artillery observer, or an panzerfaust team. They can serve as an artillery reference point or a hull down position for a defending tank. They can canalize an attacking enemy force into the minefield or into a good position for a side shot by your long range anti-tank gun.

Even if you don't use the wreck for as a stand alone model, road wheels, gun breech, gun muzzle break, gun tube, bow machine gun, return rollers, drive wheel, all kinds of good bits there. That's the kind of stuff you scratch build or convert with or use as bits on your recovery vehicles.

I am proud of Wayne Wanner, Master Modeller, for bringing this old heap back to life.