Grand'ma Redux!

Enjoy the following from John Sisk and his Custom painted Grand'ma. The picture above is for comparison for those who haven't seen an "official" version of the model. The unit card is available to view in the Unit Cards section. Finally, be sure to check out the new Awards section!! Good Gaming!!

The SSUs KV-47 is one of the coolest looking Dust models, in my opinion. So I was very excited when I finally got my grubby little mits on my very own Grand'ma!

The first thing I noticed is that, as cool as the model may be, its positioning looks a bit awkward. A little like it’s about to face plant! Some other skilled modelers I have seen have removed the legs and repositioned them to a more upright, static stance, and while those look very good, I saw an opportunity to do some "mad scientist" modeling to remedy Grand'ma’s drunken lurching!

So, thinking that this would be a wonderful excuse to destroy a $30 model, I selected a Luther hull and arms for an action oriented base. Grand'ma's leg position turned out to be perfect for a running leap pose over wreckage!

So 1 saws-all later (accompanied by much evil cackling!), I had two-thirds of a Luther, and a destroyed cannon arm! I drilled a 1/8 inch hole in the Luther and the pad of Grand’ma’s left foot and pinned it with a large plastic rod, and about a cup of thick gap-filler super glue, then used white craft glue, aka, Elmer’s, and pilled the base with sand, and small cinder blocks cut from square plastic rod. For paint, I wanted the wreck to look old, like it had been in the rubble for some time. Maybe a Luther destroyed months before in one of the Axis other assaults on whatever city they are trying to burn! So I used black primer, then a heavy dry-brush of GW Codex grey, and then progressively lighter layers of grey up to a dusting of GW fortress grey. Then a rough brushing of P3s Pig Iron on the Luther’s edges and surface plates. A thick, messy wash using a custom wash I make from Model Masters Acrylic 4606 Raw Umber. The umber dry’s leaving a dulled, busty look, with no glossy effect, great for, realistic, dirty weathering.

Grand'ma was a lot more difficult, simply because I couldn’t decide what colors to use! Eventually, I figured since it was a special character’s robot, something a little flashy was called for! The primary color, the green, I decided, would be a bit darker than typical Russian camo, so I used P3s Ordic Olive. This paint did NOT go on easy! It blotched, and separated, and beaded like crazy! So I ended up doing 4 thin coats and still had a subtle uneven look, witch, after the Umber wash looked great! For the reed upper parts ( 1 chose the upper most armor plates from each part of the model, shoulders, hips, and upper torso ) I used P3s Skorne Red, then brushed a very light dry brush of GW Blood Red. Then the Umber wash, a bit of chipping ( using blotched of Codex grey followed by smaller areas of Pig Iron ) then a light dry brush of Fortress grey over the legs and feet, to represent masonry dust, and its 90% finished!

I haven’t done the decals yet, and some of you may have noticed the butt-plate is missing? I removed it hand paint the words "follow me!" In Russian! And a couple other small details (spotlight, bullet holes in the chest, antenna) need to be finished. 

But, overall, I am quite pleased with my action pose Grand'ma! But now I have to paint and model the rest of my SSU to match....maybe I can get someone else to do it...... :)

~John Sisk