Plamo: My 30 Minute Missions “Jungle” Alto (+ Weapons & Armour set)

Most of my articles are written in advance, and thrown in a pile for publication on a Sunday. Some days I do well, and come up with several, thus saving me for those days when I'm not fit to write. Everything I put here either is an expression of creativity, or an attempt to manage my assorted neuroses. Or both. That said, if I'm happy with something, it gets bumped up the list. Like today's subject: another 30MM Alto with armour add-ons and a bigger gun that I was quite pleased with.

Now, the Alto Weapon Options are functionally similar to the Portanova's, although the design motifs tend more towards bullets, blocks, and swords. The high point is undoubtedly the assault rifle part with its under-slung grenade launcher, which is probably the most direct upgrade. This put me in mind of of modular guns like the FN SCAR, so I went "tacticool' and added the rounded sight and a side handle. Melee options are less of my cup of tea though, and while I initially liked the knife, it needed a better grip and a storage option. I'll probably return to those bits in my next Alto build, but what I ended up doing was breaking out the big choppa I'd previously on the yellow Portanova, this fitting the theme which had settled on.

I'd opted for the green Alto & Close Combat armour set, as a deliberate contrast to my previous 30MM projects, only for another idea to strike. Camouflage. A style of painting I have always dismissed as a boring pain in the arse. As an Ork player the concept baffles me so much as to when I painted Kommandos, I did them in High-Vis jackets to satirise the concept. (Ask your average urban explorer. It works!) Then the tumblers in my brain clicked together, as I remembered the 1986 film Predator, and the Catachan Jungle Fighters, and it was on. Surely, there is nothing sillier than a 18 metre mecha in a stealth paintjob, like an unironic Robo-Rambo? The question just was: how does one camo? Figuring this one out was tricky, but my Google-fu is strong, and if there's a lazy way, I will find it. I modified the technique found here, and the result was a pleasing success. Not perfection, but I know the next one will be better. Here's a how-to.

You will need

Sticky tack, aka Blu Tac, and possibly masking tape

Three spray paints in the colours you want

A safe place to spray, i.e a large cardboard box, outside.

1) Assemble the parts you wish to camo, making sure any joints are not subject to spray.

2) Transparent parts must be elsewhere.

3) Lightly spray with your darkest colour, and leave to dry.

4) once dry, attached a few blobs of Tac to the parts. Don't be neat, you are trying to break up straight lines.

5) Now lightly spray with your medium colour, and leave to dry.

6) Once dry, add more tac in a hodgepodge fashion.

7) Then spray with your lightest, or main, colour, and leave to dry.

8) Now the fun part, gently remove the tac.

Job done.