Pan European OGREs

  

Time for a couple of pictures of my OGRE/GEV Pan European OPFOR. Now back in 1992 when I was actively gaming OGRE/GEV there were no Pan European Ogres to be had, so I made my own, the first you see above.

Both of these OGREs are home brew conversions I made. Originally, the OGRE above was made as a Mk3, but when Ral-Partha produced the official Mk3, I started using this as a Pan European Ninja. The Ogre below was meant to be a Mk5, but after the official Mk5 became readily available, I imagined this was a Pan European Doppelsoldner .

I like my stuff to be quite battered looking, in an artistic way, and I have developed a system of weathering models that replicates real world process i.e. crud and grime applied, which is then washed, or worn off. This is all applied to the model after it has been first gloss varnished and then had a coat of matt varnish.

Now some of you may well realise that varnish is just varnish and wonder why use gloss and matt? Surely two coats of matt would be good enough? You would be right. However, in my experience it is easier to tell if you have fully coated the model when spraying gloss varnish, because any parts you miss will look matt, and vice-versa. So the alternates coats of varnish assure me that the finish is properly protected.

After the weathering I then use a fibre-glass metal polishing pen, available from good DIY stores that cater for light engineering etc. Google is your friend. Using the fibre-glass pen I gently polish off all the excess weathering. If the model starts to look glossy while you are doing this, stop, as it means you've polished off the protective coating. However, even if you do over do it, and remove all the paint, the result will still look okay. In fact it will look like freshly worn metal.

After I have cleaned up the model to my satisfaction I then varnish the model again to seal the finish and protect the model when being handled.