David's Painting and Modeling Log
04 February 2012 Painting hasn't completely stalled over the last few weeks, but being back at work after Christmas holidays has chopped into my painting energy.
Ed from Two Hour Wargames announced the release of 5150: Star Army and 5150: New Beginnings stats for the Kurgen from Rebel Miniatures. A gentleman I know on TMP, and through various blogs, as Umpapa contacted me, wondering if I had any comparison pictures of Kurgen and GZG Alien Mercenaries. I didn’t but I managed to put some together today (even though my GZG Alien Mercenaries are still not finished).
The Kurgen are all pretty consistent in size – they are relatively human sized and of a similar build. The Alien Mercenaries, on the other hand come in two sizes – large and larger. They also have broad shoulders and muscular arms and are more of the traditional inverted triangle shape of the body builder.
Interestingly, the Alien Mercenaries have relatively thick bases compared with the Kurgens, but when I placed the Kurgen on a second washer, he proved to be a similar height to the smaller of the Alien Mercenary types. So, will the Kurgen and the Alien Mercenaries work together? I think they will. The Alien Mercenaries are on a more heroic scale, but this could represent some form of species dimorphism where the leader/warrior types are larger than the worker/drone types.
04 January 2012
I’m toying with the idea of getting a second pack of Chewks purely for the “kick over the ants’ nest” effect that could be achieved. It would also give me the opportunity of disarming the two leader poses for urban/RPG encounters.
I was very surprised at just how easy it was to remove the existing head/helmet and how smoothly the new head, from Astro Miniatures, just popped into the neck hole I drilled. I then took the helmet I had removed, dished the base of it with a drill, and glued it to the figure’s belt.
My intention was to create a character figure for 5150: New Beginnings and I am very pleased with the result.
There are several other Ventauran figures which are prime candidates for similar surgery. This should really lift this unit. As New Years resolutions go, this is a small one, but I aim to show more painted figures in this modblog this year and fewer bare metal photos - unless the new figures are really cool! At the moment, I'm about a day away from finishing my first ten Harook from Mad Robot Miniatures, as well as getting stuck into my 2nd Squad of Venatuarans. I'm certainly doing better than this time, last year.
07 December 2011
From Blue Moon, I received some Fereen, a pair of Goranax-mounted Fereen, some Vleta Reavers, some Zennox, a Twanax Horde, and some Shivan Sisterhood. I like all of these figures – the Goranax in particular are spectacular – and even the Shivan Sisterhood’s bayonet-armed muskets are growing on me. I look forward to painting these figures up.
I’ve decided that these are civilianised military vehicles, used for cross-country work, which explains the oversized wheels. I’ve also being looking at various Real Life SUVs and some of the larger ones are very big vehicles. My Police vehicles look like a combination Black Maria/squad car, with room for a squad of officers up front.
And here are the Sybots (above). Very nice figures and quite sinister in metallic blue.
25 September 2011 After numerous delays, I received in quick succession orders from Khurasan Miniatures and 15mm.co.uk. The former included heavily armed Ursoid mercenaries, a starship crew, and Chewks; while the latter included Uhul and Aliens of the Galaxy - both sculpted by my Dropship Horizon co-contributer and friend, Eli - Draccians (including a massive Draccian Overlord), a couple of Laserburn Vehicles, and a selection of droids from the Hordes of the Future range. So, more toys to paint, and two small orders still inbound from Khurasan and Critical Mass Games - Felid and ARC Fleet grav bikes amongst other things.
The model is resin and, while there is a faint pattening on the hull from the printing process, it is a nice, clean cast. I very nearly managed to glue one of the track assembles on upside down, even after taking special care to ensure they were both facing in the same direction. The clue was noticing that the traveler wheels were on the bottom on one side, and on the top on the other. Luckily, the glue had not set very hard and the assembly just popped off.
The Rockhopper is a nice little model and I think I might get a couple Back in March I bought a pack of Splintered Light Dark Elf Crossbowmen with the cunning plan of converting them into science fiction figures. This cunning plan hinged on being able to uptech the Elves' weaponry. Then Astro Miniatures announced the release of, amongst other things, a sprue of laser pistols. So, putting the two together, I ended up with the figures to right ... These first three were more of a proof-of-concept than anything, and I'm happy in how they turned out. The swords were relatively easy to remove and I left the crossbow-pistols intact as either suriken catapults (if thinking Warhammer 40K) or as small bowcasters (if thinking Star Wars-ish Space Opera). With a number of the next group of figures, I have cut the bows off the crossbows to leave an energy pistol-like hand gun. The chainmail was painted as fabric, so it has a ringlet pattern, while the armour plates were painted Tamiya Metallic Blue over black undercoat. This, with my Tamiya Grey "interior" base colour, makes the figures look rather dark and sinister - which was rather the effect I was going for. Originally, I was going to use these guys for Darrians, but now I'm thinking of a nocturnal carnivorous hunter race with a reputation for raiding - high tech Morlocks. The species exhibits a form of dimorphism, with bands lead by a physically larger, psionically endowered, leader caste.
08 September 2011 This is a rewrite of my post on Dropship Horizon. During the last week or so, a number of anticipated parcels arrived in the letterbox. One of the first was from Rebel Minis. Along with a packet each of Earth Force Armoured Troops (MAEF8) and Earth Force Droptroopers (RMDT1) – both excellent packs of figures and I need to get more of them. And if I could paint them half as well as Jeff Racel has done, as seen on TMP, I would be a happy man! – I picked up some other figures of interest as well. There has been a lot of talk about ‘In the Emperor’s Name’ recently, a Dark Future version of the FUBAR family of one page rules-with-setting. Now, I’m not a fan of the 28mm Dark Future wargame rules, produced by a certain large, UK based company, but having had the opportunity of playing the role-playing game, ‘Dark Heresy’, I found myself quite enjoying the film-noirishness of the setting. With that idea floating about in my head, I picked up a pack each of the Titan Scouts (RMTS1) and the Earth Force Gun Clerics (RMGC1).
Straight out of the bag, these figures could be detectives, or agents, or sinister villains, or even Cult leaders. With a little bit of modification, their versatility increases.
Like the Gun Clerics, the Task Force members are in fairly static poses which works for a couple of them, but is an opportunity missed for the aiming figure (middle of the group) and the drawing figure (extreme right). For these two, something a little more dynamic, perhaps semi crouched like the Titan Scouts, would have really set this group off. As they are, they are well-detailed, functional figures that will make good characters, guards or general NPCs. I’m thinking of modifying the shotgun-armed guy (second from left) by turning his gun into a laser carbine just to SciFi him a bit.
Having said all that, the riders are really worth the price of admission and I will be buying a couple more sets, I think. I have discovered that, with no modification, I could easily mount the riders on a number of alternate rides –
In all, a great selection of figures from Rebel Miniatures and I'm looking forward to painting them up.
10 August 2011
The missile launcher could be tricked up, I think, so that it looks less like a RPG. I'll have to have a look through my bits box and see what I have on hand. The Heavy Support Weapon I have yet to come up with a solution for. The heavy tripod and the size of the weapon would indicate that it is not something quickly transportable. Such a squad support weapon should really be mounted on a vehicle. Leaving the Heavy Weapon issue to one side for the time being, I'm thinking of using my Ventaurans as the basis of a force creation exercise for Dropship Horizon where I will attempt to come up with alternatives and variations to provide a broad mix of support equipment for my unit.
In my Traveller Universe, the Ventaurans will become the Kalar-Wi, I've been looking at the various Ventauran figures and wondering about doing headswops. It should be fairly straight forward to replace a helmeted head with a bare head and I'm thinking of getting some of Astro Miniatures Pointy Eared Heads as the Kalar-Wi have pointy ears. And while I've been thinking about headswops, my order from Rebel Miniatures arrived today, so I've got quite a few figures to talk about and prep.
07 August 2011
Peter Pan's Adventures in Neverland Had a mental health day last week and finally finished off fourteen figures. A mix of GZG Ravagers, 15mm.co.uk HOF Rimraiders and Laserburn Adventurers, a Eureka Miniatures WWII Chinese Infantryman, and OOP Citadel Traveller figures - part of a group I bought via eBay - this lot are the villainous crew of the raider Hevvekkii, as detailed in the scenario Sandpit.
![]() OOP Citadel crewman and Merchant Captain, GZG Ravagers from Pack 'A', Eureka Miniatures WWII Chinese infantryman.
30 July 2011 Not a lot done over the last two months, though I did make some pitcher plants as part of an article on scatter terrain for the Dropship Horizon blog.
I pretty much followed my recipe from this article which, in turn, is based upon something I saw on the Terragenesis site. I'm quite pleased with how the pitcher plants turned out, and the article was quite well received by the Dropship followers.
08 May 2011
I'm lost in a forest, all alone." The Cure - A Forest
I finally managed to find plastic aquarium plants in one of the myriad of $2 Shops locally. Sold as long stemmed, weed-like plants, they came apart in approximately 6” sections, each with a ring-like foot. I was also able to salvage the base of the weed group, which had a large number of anchor lugs on it.
The bases were coated with PVA and then sprinkled with builders’ sand and undercoated black. I then painted the bases red, watering down a Military Miniatures Red that was part of a bunch of 20 year-old paints I got off a friend last year. I later dry-brushed the coarse sand particles GW Burnt Brown as brown rocks. Some sprinkles of my ‘desert brown/green’ flock were also added to the bases, as well as coated on the branches of the trees. And the odd bit of gravel was added as well. The thorn bushes had their spines painted black. So, a bit of modeling fun and lots of trees and bushes resulting. Model for the Win!
25 April 2011
So, I finally finished the Marine Platoon that I received from Ground Zero Games as part of my USMC High Tech battle Force back at Christmas. The vehicles are undercoated, but I haven't got much further with them. I decided to paint these guys up as Imperial Marines for my Traveller campaign, hence the Tamiya X-7 Red battledress.
The sixteen marines I finally finished back in December 2009 will serve as the Scout squad for the Platoon, and will retain their blue-based camo armour. I need a couple of senior officers for the platoon. Unless Jon at GZG reworks the UNSC as he has done with the NAC line, I guess I'll have to get another pack of UNSC and try some head swaps.
Can't believe that I haven't updated this log for two months - actually, I can. Painting has been pretty much a bust as we've sweltered under 26 - 32 degree days - the paint was drying on the brush faster than I could slap it on the GZG UNSC Marines I started during the Christmas break. Then I got busy with an edit job from Spica Publishing that ate most of January and a The amazing winter weather in the Northern Hemisphere threw shipping schedules out the window (where they were promptly buried under fourteen feet of snow), so I've had various Christmas and birthday figure orders dribbling in all over the place. One of the first orders for 2011 was from Splintered Light Miniatures.
Now, I hadn't ordered from Splintered Light before. And while they specialise in 15mm Fantasy, I was interested in the Armed and Unarmed Space Crew packs they stock, as these had received favourable reviews on The Miniatures Page, but what I was really curious about was their DAEL 03 Dark Elf Crossbows. Looking at these boys, I was struck by how like
When I line the Splintered Light figures up with examples from GZG and Critical Mass Games, as below, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well they fit in. So, while I don't need any more Spacer Crew, I will keep an eye on Splinted Light for other useful Fantasy figures to convert, as their service is excellent.
Along with the High Tech Battle Force I received from Ground Zero Games at Christmas, I also picked up a pack of Hammer's Slammers Skimmers. Now, I've never read any of Drake's Slammers' stories, but I did once see some of GZG's Slammers' infantry painted up, and really liked the look of them.
The Skimmers are, unfortunately, one of a number of older items on the GZG on-line catalog that don't have photos. And that's a real shame as they're delightful little models.
As you can see, the pilot lies on the vehicle, as on some sort of jet ski or crazy home-made trolley. He has a visored helmet with the retro clamshell ear coms. The vehicle doesn't appear to be armed or, if it is, it is only lightly armed. As a one-piece casting, there is a little loss of detail along where the body of the pilot meets the deck of the machine. But even so, the pilot has a weapon slung over his shoulder, and there is detail on the engine cowling between his legs.I really like these figures - what's not to like about skimmers/grav bikes? I've loved them ever since I saw Empire Strikes Back and the speeder bike sequence on Endor. Riding a bike's like flying - riding a grav bike would be like ... wow! I've ordered another pack of these boys, and some of the Slammers' infantry, to make up a mercenary unit of Light Cavalry or Dragoons. The skimmers, themselves, don't come with bases but I decided to fly these guys on some extra bases I had left over from some grav gunbots.
24 December 2010
I ran out of inspiration for my GZG Alien Mercenaries – I’m still having issues with their skin colour – when an order from Scotty at Combat Wombat arrived. I then decided to do some work on my vehicle fleet as a form of procrastination and leave the Alien Mercenaries for a while.
I had ordered a second ARC Fleet Heavy Grav tank platoon from Critical Mass Games, which arrived back in October – I managed to get this order in before CMG was obliged to increase their prices, so I had six ARC Fleet Tanks to finish.
I have had a bit of fun with the ARC Fleet Grav Tanks. Readers may recall that I was initially puzzled by an ‘M’-shaped structure on the rear of the tank turrets I received last year. Craig from Critical Mass Games quickly confirmed that this structure was sprue and could be
I ended up flying the Combat Wombat Chariot IFVs and the Centurion GEV/Grav Tanks on small Games Workshop flight stands, glued to 36mm washers. The washers should help stabilise the flight stands, as they are a little small for the size of the vehicles and I thought that the large GW flight stands were too oversized. I did cut the shanks down as the original shanks are much too long, in my opinion, and I also wanted to have the vehicles flying at different heights.
16 October 2010
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines" Pink Floyd - Time
I want to try this with Stargrunt, but I might run it through first with Use Me, especially as Use Me has soloplay rules. I have the militia/mercenary figures all painted up and ready to go. For the Kalar-Wi, I have been tossing up between GZG's Kra'Vak and Alien Mercenaries. When I saw Rebel Minis' Kurgan, I hoped that they would be a match for GZG's Alien Mercenaries and so I bought a pack. Unfortunately, the Kurgan are smaller and slighter than the Mercs. The Kalar-Wi have a subject race called the Kiang, native of Gaidon/Cabria - interestingly, the only description I have of the Kiang mentions their large ears - so it looks like the Kurgan will become Kiang, cannon fodder for the Kalar-Wi. After painting up two Kurgan to join the Alien Legion, I was left with three 6 x sophont fire teams to support the Kalar-Wi/GZG Alien Mercenaries.
I was a little disapointed with the Sons of Thunder from Rebel Minis (pictured above right), while I liked the almost-retro pressure suits they're wearing, they just don't really grab me as figures. I'll see how they paint up as they will look better with less bare metal. The Retained Knights Command from 15mm.co.uk were a pleasant surprise - the photos on the 15mm.co.uk webpage often don't do their figures justice. I've cut the silly bayonets off the ends of the figures' rifles but, as you can see, the command pack contains a number of interesting personalities - and a couple of 'red shirts' like the guy at the left of the group. The guy second-from-right has something like a PDA or comm unit in his right hand while the guy third-from-right looks like some sort of Archbishop with robes over his armour and a relic on a staff. I can't work out what he's holding - it's either a war fan, or some form of Collection Plate of Badassery.
I had seen the Dracci reviewed on Dropship Horizon, thought they looked cool, and bought some. They're big boys - around 20mm in height - and I had to clip the ends of their bases to get them to fit on a 16mm washer. They're cruder sculpts than the Garn from Khurasan Miniatures, but are still nicely detailed.
Along with the Dracci, I picked up a couple of individual Rimraiders (one wearing a breather mask and one with a beard) for my pirate crew, a couple of Octopod Officers (one for the Alien Legion and one for the 'podi force), a couple of Octopod The Rimraiders have quite a lot of character and I look forward to mixing them in with my GZG Reavers and my Citadel Thugs and Ruffians to produce a vile and scurvey crew. The Octopod Officers and riflebeings will help me round out my Octopod unit. I quite like the officers shoulder pads - it looks as if he is wearing some form of light body armour. So, a lot to paint up, and then there is the order that arrived from Critical Mass Games ...
26 September 2010
Though it could be arranged With just a word in Mr. Churchill's ear" Elvis Costello - Oliver's Army I have wanted to finish off my Ground Zero Games Islamic Federation troopers for a little while, though inspiration has been lacking. Then, a little while back, I saw an article on a blog (the name of which now escapes me) where the poster had, with paint, converted the basic IF helmet from a fairly low-tech affair with a visor into a fully enclosed headpiece.
That piece of information, plus the discovery of the two gentlemen, pictured to the left, in my painting queue – part of a successful purchase of OOP Citadel Traveller figures from eBay in 2009 - suddenly solved my dilemma. The Islamic Federation lads were going to join my Mid-Tech Mercenary Company and the two Citadel Traveller militia figures would become officers in that unit as well.
Using the same colour scheme as I used for the OUDF figures and the original Colonial Militia figures, I uniformed them with a base coat of GW Desert Yellow and added a camo pattern of GW Graveyard Brown. Webbing and pouches were done in GW Burnt Brown. The sanded bases were done in a plain Tamiya X-9 Brown wash/dry brush over black undercoat. The IF troopers had their faces painted GW Boltgun Metal and then this was painted over with GW Sunburst Yellow. The original painting guide had suggested a dull orange but my only orange is very bright, so I went for yellow instead. The idea was to hint at some sort of glassy, backlit faceplate with the figure's features visible inside.
And there we have it - a motley collection of Mid-Tech guys with a variety of kit load outs and body armour, ready for the next ticket.
16 September 2010
The TMP entity known as Wiff Waff has sculpted figures for a number of manufacturers. During 2009 he set up a web presence as Green Eyed Miniatures and, amongst other items, released 15mm Yetis and Tolero - the latter are short, hairy, ewok-like creatures while the former are tall, hairy, wookie-ish creatures.
Unfortunately, in 2010 Wiff Waff withdrew the Yetis and Tolero After undercoating in black, I painted the Yetis' hands and faces GW Desert Yellow. Some of the Yetis' fur was given a drybrush of GW Codex Grey and then all received a drybrush of Tamiya X-9 Brown. Straps, pouches and bowcasters were painted GW Graveyard Brown and buckles, bowcaster fittings and blades were painted Tamiya XF-56 Metallic Grey. The Yetis are very nice figures and I'm still surprised that there were eight different poses in a pack of eight figures.
13 September 2010
President Gas on everything but roller skates" The Psychedelic Furs - President Gas I’m not dead, yet, but have been tied up with other projects. Figure-wise, I’ve finished painting up my order from Rebel Minis – two Titan Marine Mk. III Support HAMR suits, a pack of Earth Force Marines and a pack of Earth Force Marines Gun Team. I received this order back in July so, for me, this was a pretty quick turnaround.
With all the figures painted up, I reorganised my Kamperelian Combat Team again - I now have two infantry platoons, each of two squads of two fire teams; a support platoon of one rifle squad, a Cyclops Battlesuit squad, and two heavy support weapons; and a pair of HAMRs. I still intend to get some GZG OCT-APCs for the infantry squads, and am thinking that another packet of Earthforce Marines, a heavy weapons pack, and another four Cyclops suits would enable me to put another two HAMRs onto the roster for a pretty heavy company combat team. I painted up the HAMR suits in the same fashion as both the Earthforce Marines and the Cyclopes suits - undercoat of black, then a coat of Tamiya X7 Red. The canopies were painted black and then dry brushed with Tamiya X-13 Metallic Blue and the base of the canopies was painted GW Beaten Copper. The heads of the energy weapons were also painted Tamiya X-13 Metallic Blue and then the model was finished off with a splash of GW Black Wash. The wash makes the HAMR legs and engine fins look all oily and smokey which is pretty much the effect I wanted.
But the wait was worth it. I received two of the John Bear Ross designed Titan Marine Mk. III Support HAMR suits, a pack of Earth Force Marines and a pack of Earth Force Marines Gun Team.
All these figures will go toward building up my Kamperalian Republican Force, discussed back in March.
The HAMR suits are a four piece model: the base, legs and cockpit form one piece; there are two separate weapons systems; and the top-mounted missile box makes up the final piece. I assembled one of the two HAMRs straight out of the bag, but decided to have a play around with the second one. The missile box is moulded with a traverse ring so, by filing off the mounting lugs on the missile box, I was able to mount it in an offset position, as if the operator was tracking a target. I
I mounted the HAMRs on 20mm washers and have given them a preliminary coat of Tamiya X7 Red over a light black undercoat. In other painting news, I finally finished my OUDF troops from Ground Zero Games which I have had since December 2008! The initial green camo scheme just did not inspire me and the OUDFs got sidelined as more interesting projects came up. I've now decided to group them with my Militia figures as a mercenary unit and have redone them in the desert camo that the latter wear.
And I have finished my GZG Crusties as well. The hard thing was to get the initial colours - for the Ixx, for example, as soon as I decided that they were similar to Praying Mantis' in colour, the rest of the paint job came together. For the Crusties, having seen
Starting with a base colour of AeroMaster US Tan, I dry-brushed on a coat of Games Workshop Regal Blue. This was followed by a wash of GW Asurmen Blue and the hooves were touched up with a second coat of AeroMaster US Tan. Fangs were picked out in GW Skull White and the eyes/eye sockets were painted Two of the Crusties were picked out to join the Alien Legion and had their bases finished with Tamiya XF24 Dark Grey while the rest of the Crusties had their bases finished with a wash of Tamiya X9 Brown. The Alien Legion Crusties also had their shoulder pads and parts of their guns painted GW Shadow Grey, one of the Legion's primary colours.
21 June 2010
There was never meant to be only one" Incubus - Megalomaniac
Sitting in the sun in the lounge, finally feeling warm, and with a fresh cup of coffee, I opened the package. And what neat 15mm goodness was inside! Three Pelagic Dominate Sea Wasp Light Grav vehicles, two packs of Pelagic Dominate Orca Assault Warriors, two Felid Barons, a Felid Heavy Battle Circle, and a pack of Mekanoid Grenadier Infantrybots. According to Khurasan Miniatures' backstory, the Pelagic Dominate is an Interstellar Empire consisting of aquatic life forms. I already have some of the Karkarine (sharkmen) landser, who are still awaiting painting, and the new Orca Assault troops were too good to pass up. Interestingly, the Orca are cast without bases. I simply glued them straight on to 16mm washers. The figures come with a selection of weapons – miniguns and either speargun-type spears or harpoons - and with orca faces or visored faces. I opted for the visored faces as I have a cunning idea for using these figures in my Traveller campaign for a megatherium-like race.
The Felid Baron wears command/battledress - ie heavy armour - and I bought two specifically so I could have one as a command figure and one as as a character figure. A gentle bend of the gun arm of one of the figures enabled me to differentiate between the two of them.
The three Sea Wasp Light Grav vehicles assembled very easily. The vehicles and weapon mounts are resin, while base and shank are lead. Each vehicle comes with a choice of three weapons mounts: a large disk thing (some sort of sensor disk, I guess - these are scout vehicles after all), a dual energy/kinetic weapon mount, and a mini-gun mount. I decided on the dual energy weapon mount for all three vehicles. The mini-guns may end up on my ARC Fleet grav tanks from Critical Mass Games and the sensor disks (visible on the Sea Wasp in the top picture of this post) actually look like bank-vault style hatches. If they don't end up on a vehicle, I might incorporate them into some scenics I've got planned. So, a nice haul. Very happy with the figures and very happy with the speed of delivery from Khurasan Miniatures. Now, just need to make some time to get all these guys painted up.
18 March 2010
All these things we'll one day swallow whole" Radiohead - Street Spirit (fade out)
I now have a light platoon of three squads - each squad consists of two fire teams (including a support weapon) and a weapons team. My long term goal is to build a second platoon - two packs of Crusaders and a Heavy Weapons pack - and round out the resulting light company with a Crusader Command pack. These Crusaders will be serving as Geithurian Republic Marines. The Republican Marines get the best equipment available - Tech Level 12 - which still leaves them ill-equipped to confront Imperial Marines head-on.
Someday, someday We won't talk of rain around here" Opshop - Big Energy in Little Spaces
I’ve never been a big fan of walkers, but this explanation seemed quite plausible to me. Kamperalian infantry either walk or deploy in APC walkers, such as those produced by Ground Zero Games; each squad is supported by two Heavy Battlesuits (Ground Zero Games Cyclops Heavy battlesuits); and armoured support
Both the Marines and the Battlesuits were lightly undercoated. A base uniform colour of Tamiya X7 Red was applied and then the backpacks of the Marines were painted GW Blood Red. Weapons, belt pouches and helmet hoses were painted matt black, while helmet visors were painted GW Beaten Copper. Squad colour stripes were added to the helmets - GW Ice Blue and GW Blazing Orange. Bases were coated with fine sand and then painted black. A wash of watery AeroMaster US Tan was followed by a drybrush with Tamiya X-24 Dark Grey. Chunky green flock was applied with dabs of PVA to represent weeds growing through a hard surface. A green shoulder flash may be added to the troopers. The battlesuits had the exhaust ports on their jump packs painted black and a light camo slashing of GW Blazing Orange across the armour base colour of Tamiya X7 Red. Helmet visors were painted GW Beaten Copper and a light wash of GW Babadab was apllied to the entire battlesuit to bring out the detail of the armour and its articulations.
15 February 2010
I got cat class and I got cat style" The Stray Cats - Stray Cat Strut
03 February 2010
Visions in blue" Ultravox - Visions in Blue
At present, 1st Squad of the Alien Legion is complete and consists of three humans and five aliens. I still need to do an officer and this may be a Protolene Khanate/Vargr.
Basic uniform is GW Shadow Grey with hats and body armour panels of Aeromaster US Blue Grey. Boots and some belts are GW Graveyard Brown while all weapons are Tamiya X-18 Semi Gloss Black, drybrushed with Tamiya XF-56 Metallic Grey.
The Octopods lurk in the Galactic Strangeness Section of the Hordes of the Future (HOF) range.
The good folks at 15mm.co.uk very generously threw in three Saurian hunting lizards (which the Saurian riders are usually mounted on) and a 111 Female Adventurer. Thanks guys!
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14 January 2010
Mr Dun-robes originally held a staff in his right hand. This has been cut down to a ‘plasma sword’, and painted accordingly. The burst of ‘mental energy’ from his left hand has gone through a number of colour combinations before arriving at the current one.
His companion is essentially the original figure with a paint job.
Finally finished the Peter Pig Company Marines I received back in March of 2009 as well. Very svelte figures, wearing SAS-like hoods and strange Samurai-like wicker shoulder and thigh guards. I decided to paint them up as corporate ninja types and am quite happy with the results. The figure range has been sold by Peter Pig to Moonfleet Miniatures who, while specialising in 28mm Science Fiction, also make the 18mm tall Smoggers.
And a day's painting saw me complete 24 ESU Naval Infantry from Ground Zero Games - in spite of having to repaint some kit twice to get a colour match with the Naval Infantry I finished back in 2007. Base uniform colour is GW Shadow Grey with an Aeromaster US Blue Grey helmet. Gloves and boots are GW Graveyard Brown and weapons and visors Tamiya X-18 Semi-gloss Black. All weapons were then dry brushed with Tamiya XF-56 Metallic Grey. Camo cloaks are Vallejo USA Uniform Green 084 with GW Graveyard Brown dot pattern and the grey pattern camo on the uniforms is Vallejo Light Grey 155.
And finally, some scenery. I mentioned back on 31 December that I'd being having some fun with packaging. From the plastic packaging for a pair of D-size batteries, a plastic panel from a photocopier, and the tine-protectors from a new electrical plug, I assembled a small bunker/store shed/garage. To give the structure some rigidity, I glued it to an old CD which was then coated with sand, painted, and had some flock grass and scrub added around the edge of the building. A nice, simple recycle job that doesn't look too bad. I have nearly finished painting the first couple of fire teams for my Alien Legion Project as well - some Human Adventurers and a couple of Octopods from 15mm.co.uk - and hope to have them completed this week.
I'm very pleased with how my flitcars from 15mm.co.uk turned out and how just a hint of colour gives the impression that the dashboards have lots of lights and dials. They are nice little models.
I went for a very basic colour scheme for the Grav Truck - Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey for the deck and Tamiya XF-65 Field Grey for the truck body. The grav plates, underneath the body of the truck, were painted GW Midnight Blue with a wash of GW Ice Blue.
I have been basing all my science fiction figures individually on 16mm diameter washers. The reasoning being that the washers gave stability and ‘heft’ to the individual figures, allowing them to be used for both Role Playing Games as well as Skirmish wargames. But at the back of my mind has been the desire play "higher echelon" style wargames using fireteams as the basic combat element.
Having tried, and discarded, one style of fireteam basing, as discussed back in October, I now had the idea of using actual Battlefront Flames of War plastic fire team bases, with magnetic sheet strips glued on in the appropriate places and the rest of the base tricked out in appropriate style to match the figure bases.
1cm by 1cm squares of magnetic sheet were glued into the centers of the 'base' areas to hold the figures. While not a hundred percent perfect, the magnetic sheet does hold the figures if the base is tipped. So it works, in a weird way, and it doesn't look too bad. I'll finish off the Marines and try out some other unit groups and see how it looks. John dropped by today and seems quite keen to work on a set of fireteam scale rules for tabletop gaming. As we're both Traveller fans, we may have a common approach which will produce something useable. It's an 'off-period' for John, but one I can provide both sides for, so we may get a result!
It's gonna break the speed of sound" Deep Purple - Highway Star
So, the mystery pack contained two V101 Civilan Flit cars - lovely little two seater grav cars - and a V005 Heavy Laser Cannon. Personally, I would have preferred the Hover Van or the Support wagon, but the pack was free so I can't complain. And, as a bonus, the crew figures from the Ground Zero Games G-sled (V15-30B) fit the Flit cars perfectly.
I ordered more Szithk, Erts, Mandblexs and Orts to make up full fire teams with the ones I already have, as well as to give me a few left over for my Alien Legion project.
I also got a 207a Jetbike (which is a lovely little model). The bike comes with no rider so I ordered a Saurian rider (MSM25) to see if he was either compatible or convertible. The Saurian rider comes with open legs and no saddle gear (apparently the various riding beasts have saddles moulded on them) so fits the bike perfectly. I mounted all the grav vehicles on small Games Workshop flight stands, Also in this order I received some Ort Cyborgs (which look really neat), some Mandiblex in power armour (which look more like environment suits), six vaguely lion-like Smat and two Smat in armoured suits. I also got a Shantek Cyborg, a Nixecon and an Anog - again for my Alien Legion.
Find of the Month is this Panzer-Spähwagen Armoured Reconnaissance Tank (!) from German toymaker Siku, above left, and available in our local Toyworld for $NZ5.99. The pamphlet with the toy suggests that it might be 1/87th scale - will have to get a few more of these! And lastly, a size comparison shot of the Critical Mass Games Protolene Khanate and Praesentia Ancient figures with a GZG ESU Naval Infantryman and a Peter Pig Large Green Martian.
As mentioned in the entry for the 8th of December, my Christmas present this year had a very 'Aliens amd Armour' theme. I discussed the Aliens on the 8th, and now it's the Armour.
Amongst the Christmas goodies from Ground Zero Games was a pack of the new Grav Drones, and a pack of the bases that go with them. The drones are quite neat with a smooth dome-like upper side and a 'busy' underside that includes two anti-grav plates. About half the size of the Tau gun drones I have been intending to paint up for nearly two years, I really like them and can't wait to complete them.
08 December 2009
My Christmas presents arrived from Ground Zero Games and Critical Mass Games, six days from send to receive for the former and seven days for the latter, which has got me enthused about painting again, and just as well as my painting table is filling up.
Prior to the arrival of my Christmas presents, I got a small sampler order in from Nic at Eureka Miniatures in Australia. I’ve been working on getting together some figures to use as Jedi Knights or some sort of similar, psionic order, especially after watching the Star Wars: Clone Wars series on TV. Strangely enough, there are not a lot of Psionic Mystical
On the lookout for other PMKT (Psionic Mystical Knight-types), I was intrigued by the mages in Eureka’s 18mm Fantasy range. Selecting the mages from both the Wood Elf and Elves of the Lofty Spires ranges, I also picked up a pair of Orc shamans as
Whether as a Pulp Evil Genius, the Mistress of the Lost Temple, or the leader of the Mysterious Cult, one always needs minions,
Another figure of interest from the Eureka Samurai range is the Geisha (300SAM23). When I showed her to my wife, my wife asked, “Is that And finally, from Eureka’s 15mm World War Two range, a Soviet militia/partisan accordionist 300WWT156. I thought this figure was seated, as the other Partisan is seated, but it turns out that he is not which is a bit of a pity. Still, he's a wonderful figure with loads of character. And here are some size comparisons:
The Kra'Vak are old figures and rather bland by Ground Zero Games' current standards. The Kra'Vak power armoured troops, on the other hand are rather nice (if you ignore the silly axe the officer is carrying). The troopers actually remind me of Dr Who's old enemies, the The Crusties were Jon’s little surprise for the 15mm SciFi world. Apparently based on the aliens in the movie ‘District 9’, these figures just seemed to come out of nowhere.
My Christmas present from Critical Mass Games continues the 'Armour and Aliens' theme with a platoon pack of ARC Fleet Grav tanks and four packs of the Protolene Khanate caninoids. And the excellent Craig at Critical Mass threw in a test sculpt of a Praesentia Ancient as well - photos to come.
12 November 2009
We're space truckin' round the stars" Deep Purple - Space Truckin'
From Khurasan I received another three Garn Warriors; two packs of Karkarine Landser (eight Kark infantry) and a Command/Heavy Weapons team; and two Felid Battle Circles (20 warriors). The figures are lovely and I'm looking forward to painting them up. The felids, in particular, with their little bobbed tails, have a lot of character.
The G-sled has Traveller "air/raft" written all over it. I mounted it on a cut down Games Workshop small flight stand to have it 'flying'. The vehicle comes with two crew - one in field cap and the other in 'bone-dome' helmet. I think I'll paint both up, but not glue them into position so either, or both, can crew the vehicle. The plasma gun and two crew will, I think, be mounted on a piece of plastic card so I can have them on the air/raft tray, or ground mounted, as I so choose. The Alien Mercs II pack adds three new sculpts to the 'Alien' range and are a welcome addition. I quite like the figures, even with the goofy flying goggles some of them wear. I wonder if Jon will consider doing them in fuller armour? With their pronounced shoulders and unusual weapons, they are quite different in shape to normal humans. The Assault Team consists of four figures in caps, perhaps three troopers and an NCO, plus four character figures. The characters include an impassive bald man, a leader type, another male with a backpack, and a female. It was when I saw them painted up on a Stargate-inspired website that I twigged to the possible inspiration for this set, and why it was associated with SG15-SFE1 Science Fiction Egyptians with Jackal-head helmets. D’oh! The Ixx party pack includes a couple of Ixx with support weapons, so with the four I have finished already, I will have quite a sizeable attack group of them.
11 November 2009
from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow." Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song
Each of the troopers has a cloth mask over the lower part of their face, and wears some form of high tech visor over their eyes and the upper part of their face. I painted the cloth mask Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey The figures were mounted on 16mm diameter washers and the bases built up with polyfilla. Rather than coating the bases in sand, as is my usual style, I undercoated the bases in black, and then painted on a thick first coat of Vallejo 990 Light Grey. I then stuck on clumps of my foam chip flock and dry brushed both the base and the flock with Vallejo 951 White. This gave the flock a nice snowy-bush effect. The edges of the bases were tidied up with GW Codex Grey. I'm very please with the final result.
01 November 2009
With the Armoured Infantry, I decided to continue with the basic colour scheme I used on the Jager Light Infantry I finished at the beginning of October. A base coat of GW Terracotta went on over the black undercoat. As these troopers are wearing body armour, I then gave them two coats of Humbrol 51, a metallic red/pink. This gave their armour a gloss effect. Camo splotches of GW Dark Angel Green went on next, before I tidied up their weapons with a base coat of Tamiya X-18 Semi-gloss Black and finished with a dry brush of Tamiya XF-56 Metallic Grey. I had been going to do the helmet visors For the Power Armoured Infantry, I decided to use the 'don't-use-undercoat' technique I had first used with the 15mm.co.uk Crusaders back in September. A couple of the Power Armoured troops had been partially undercoated in black when I painted their bases, so after three coats of Humbrol 51 I had a variety of armour colours ranging from rose to pinky-black. Weapons were painted Tamiya X-18 Semi-gloss Black and finished with a dry brush of Tamiya XF-56 Metallic Grey and visors were painted Tamiya X-18 Semi-gloss Black with a dry brush of GW Midnight Blue. Bases were painted GW Graveyard Brown and then flocked with my 'dry-grass' flock.
The ESU Power Armoured infantry were the first lot of science fiction figures I tried my wonky Testors Gunmetal effect on, as described during the painting of my Large Green Martians/Sydites. In this case, I painted the Power Armour matt black and then followed this with a Also finished were some more ‘droids. These started life as plastic Epic Eldar Wraithlords. I cut off the silly shoulder sticky-up-things-of-no-apparent-function, mounted the miniatures on my favourite 16mm washers, and then painted. Base colour was GW Storm Blue with GW Dark Angel Green feet, knees and elbow joints. The head cowl was painted GW Beaten Copper and the gun-arm and power claw were finished off with Tamiya XF-56 Metallic Grey. The bases were sanded with fine sand and then painted Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey.
Jethro Tull - Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day
But while this sounds good, RAFM charges like an angry groat when it comes to shipping outside the US/Canada - $US15 is the base shipping and handling fee. I’m not sure how many packs you can get shipped at this rate, but for me, looking to only get a couple of packs of Aslan and Vargr, I might hang on and see what happens to the price of figures on eBay, or wait until the caninoid Protolene Khanates figures are released by Critical Mass Games in November.
Rather than having human faces as I first thought, the Ert have large eyes and an almost kif-like snout. The rifle-ert has a set of goggles pushed up on his helmet while the launcher-ert has pulled his down over his eyes. Each Ert has an impressive collection of belt pouches and packs.
The body of the jacket was painted Aero Master US Blue Grey while the sleeves and helmet were painted GW Shadow Grey. The goggles were painted Vallejo Cam. Medium Brown with GW Liche Purple lenses. Gloves and boots were Tamiya X9 Brown and belt pouches and backpack were Vallejo Cam. Medium Brown. For the skin/facial fur, I mixed Vallejo Cam. Medium Brown with Vallejo White until I arrived at a café au lait colour. The large eyes were The second group of figures to be finished this week were a pack of Ground Zero Games Neu Swabian League Jagers I’ve had on my painting table since at least 2007, if not earlier. For the NSL troopers, I decided to follow a camo pattern I had developed for my 6mm OPFOR, way back in May 2007. Base colour is GW Terracotta with spots of GW Dark Angel Green. Boots are standard black. The coarse sand coated bases were painted GW Graveyard Brown and then flocked with my ‘drylands’ flock. Weapons and helmet ear pieces were finished in Tamiya XF-56 Metallic Grey.
17 September 2009
When staging the comparison pictures I posted on the 15th September, I completely forgot to include shots of my new Space Demon figures from Khurasan Miniatures, and then I've had a couple of busy days. Today, I finally get to correct the error, and to include some other miniatures as well.
15 September 2009
Shriekback - All Lined Up Continuing the topic of scale comparison photos inspired by a thread on The Miniatures Page, here are a further series.
14 September 2009
After a very long shift on Saturday, I arrived home to discover that my order from Khurasan Miniatures had arrived. From their 15mm Science Fiction range Update: The Karkarine have now been released and very nice pictures posted on the Khurasan Miniatures site.
The Garn are lovely models and apart from the officer, 2nd from left, can be fitted with a choice of weapons via a rather ingenious attachment I look at the Garn and think “Drakarans” from GURPS Traveller; Alien Races 1, except that the Garn aren’t monocular. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to painting these guys up.
Comparing them with the Szithk from the Laserburn Alien Forces range, and the Saurians from the Asgard Space Marines and Aliens line, both available from 15mm.co.uk, is quite interesting from a design, as well as from a quality of sculpting point of view.
Size-wise, they match up quite nicely with the Xenomorph SG15-X1 from Ground Zero Games, the latter is larger and more statically posed. While prepping the Space Demons for undercoating, I did notice what appeared to be a bit of flash on some of the bodies, usually between one of the back legs and the tail. "That's a shame," I thought, "the moulds are wearing out." I emailed Khurasan Miniatures to let them know and got a very quick and courteous response. Apparently, the sculptor was a little over-ambitious in the way he sculpted the leg and tail portion of some of the bodies and there is a little bit of metal leakage. This is easily removed with the point of a sharp scalpel.
To man the machines" Pete Townshend - The Iron Man
Have finally finished my 10 Crusader figures, purchased from 15mm.co.uk back in May. Way back in (good grief!) February I spotted a neat painting article on Dropship Horizon suggesting alternate ways of painting body armour - the don't-use-undercoat-method - which I decided to try on the Crusaders. So, I went for three coats of Humbrol 50 “Metallic Green” enamel over bare metal. What was interesting, and which doesn’t really show up in the pictures, is that the paint went progressively darker as it accumulated in crevices in the armour, around joints, and in the visor slits.
Guns were painted Tamiya X-18 Semi Gloss Black and then dry brushed with my latest discovery, Tamiya XF-56 Metallic Grey! At last, a gunmetal like the gunmetal of yore, and not the over-silvered stuff Games Workshop flogs as Boltgun metal! I dithered over the figures’ backpacks for a while, before painting them GW Catachan Green. There are lots of interesting features that cry out for detailing but the backpacks look like they should be droppable, which means basic camo and no frills. Will have to think further on this. Bases were coated in sand, undercoated black and then painted Tamiya XF-67 Nato Green. After a coat of watered down PVA glue was applied, they were dusted with my ‘greener’ flock and then had small bushes of green spongy stuff added.
And now to the figures that inspired the quote at the top of this entry. I’ve never been a great fan of ‘mechs – in all honesty I find the arguments put forward to justify their existence as bordering on the science fantasy. However, I can see the point of power armour, and see how it might evolve into larger and larger units. To my mind, there is a top end of development where the advantages of having a guy in power armour are out weighed by the likelihood of him becoming Target Number 1.
While playing around with the Tau drone, I decided to chop off the sticky-up thing they have (as that looks silly and, guess what gets caught on low branches?) and then realised that the resulting piece made an excellent machine gun/gauss gun for the other walker. The walkers each had a large canopy, which I decided to paint copper. The first canopy I glued in place. The second I decided to glue in an open position. I happened to have a couple of tank commander figures in my bits box and so I decided to show that these fearsome machines were still commanded by men. The console in front of the walker commander is a piece of plastic half-round I had in stock, painted black.
15 August 2009
The Security Guard colour scheme ended up as: GW Blood Red jackets (not Gore Red as I have noted elsewhere, Gore Red is a darker red than I wanted), Aero Master US Blue-grey AER1048 trousers and caps, GW Graveyard Brown boots and belts, Humbrol Gold 5016 shoulder badges/chest badge/cap badge. Bases were painted Tamiya NATO green XF-67 and then flocked with a 'green' flock.
The colour scheme for the Cops was also fairly simple: GW Regal Blue jackets and caps, GW Codex Grey trousers, Tamiya Brown X-9 belts and holsters, Tamiya Semi-gloss Black X-18 boots, and GW Blazing Orange shoulder and cap badges. The bases were dusted with sand, undercoated Black and then painted Tamiya Dark Grey XF-24. The edges of the bases were finished in black for effect.
Once again the figures are drawn from SG15-V6 Security (Cops), SG15-V7 Armed Civilians/Colonists pack A, SG15-V8 Armed Civilians/Colonists pack B, and SG15-V9 Armed Civilans/Colonists pack C. Pretty much anyone with a baseball-style cap ended up as either a security guard or a cop with the security guards being slightly more static in pose.
3 August 2009
Update: The 'how-to' article has been written and is here. Have nearly finished painting up another group of security guards and cops from Ground Zero Games, as well as the squad of Crusaders from the Hordes of the Future range I bought from 15mm.co.uk back in May. The latter have been painted in a style I saw recommended on the Dropship Horizon blog, namely several coats of a metallic paint over bare metal. Should have pictures up in the next few days.
'That doesn't look too hard,' I thought and carefully swiped a couple of straws the next time I had cause to pass a McD's. Now, the writer of the article on the Terragenesis page recommends using a cigarette lighter to apply heat to the straws. I found that a tea light candle worked just as well and didn’t blister the end of my finger as the lighter did! To each his own, I guess. I intend writing up the making of the plants as an article for this site so this photo is by way of a tease. The straws were attached to the card bases with a big blob of PVA glue. The clear plants are made from the tubes one finds protecting the bristles of paint brushes - being thicker plastic, they don't tend to collapse as fast as the drinking straws do, though 'hole' just as nicely along their sides. Update: The 'how-to' article has been written and is here. Also finished today were the seven figures mentioned in the 11th July entry. From the SG15-V7, V8 and V9 Armed Civilians/Colonists packs by Ground Zero Games, I am quite pleased at how these figures have come to life, especially when compared with the bare lead of a year ago.
11 July 2009
The three completed figures, from the Ground Zero Games SG15-V6 Colonial Security and the SG15-V8 and V9 Armed Civilians packs, have been painted up as Cops. Like the figures completed on 8 July 2009, they've been sitting around for about a year, awaiting the touch of a paint brush. As these guys are to be police, rather than security guards, I decided to paint their jackets GW Regal Blue and their trousers GW Codex Grey. Again, the pollyfilla-ed bases were coated with fine sand and then painted Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey, and the edges of the bases were completed in black. The shoulder and cap badges were painted GW Blazing Orange.
The effect was quite interesting, making the terracotta base quite glossy – sorta sweaty skin :). The Martian leaders were holding short swords aloft, so I cut these off and replaced them with ray pistols scratch-built from plastic sprue.
The Armed Civilians/Colonists, from Ground Zero Games, are nicely cast figures. I happened to grab two males and two females to paint up. One of the males is wearing a 'duster' style coat and stetson-type hat and carries what looks like an autorifle. Colour choices for him were easy: brown coat, denim blue trousers, gloss black high boots, white shirt and brown hat - I'm thinking of painting the hat band but may not. As with the Large Green Martians/Sydites, I coated the Armed Civilans/Colonists' bases with fine sand and then painted them Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey. The edges are finished in black.
25 June 2009 How cool! Someone likes this modeling log enough to post a story about it on The Miniatures Page! And the story's had 563 hits as of today. Thanks Monkeyborg Dirtside, whoever you are, I'll just have to keep painting and posting :)
24 June 2009
There had been a bit of discussion on the 15mm SciFi Yahoo Group as to how big these new figures actually are in the hand, so I posed a Yeti and a Tolero with an older GZG Islamic Federation Trooper, a recent GZG Adventurer, and a Peter Pig Company Wars trooper. The Tolero is obviously smaller - Adam says they are 10mm tall, which matches my measuring, while the Yetis are 17mm to the eyes. They're nice figures and I'm looking forward to painting them.
First to be finished were the GZG Pkz VII Sturmkampfer Infantry Walkers DSM-143 that I received from Ground Zero Games back in December. I had already decided that these figures were going to be 15mm robots and, after watching a couple of episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars with my daughter, I decided to paint them up in a style similar to the ubiquitous Trade Federation battle ‘droids (who both die in droves in the series and have some of the funnier one-liners). With the ‘droids finished, and inspired by a thread on TMP, I decided to finish off the four insectoid Ixx I had received in the same shipment as the Infantry Walkers.
The colour scheme for the Ixx was suggested by the numerous praying-mantis’ (mantisi?) we had in our garden during autumn. I started with a base coat of GW Dark Angels Green and then dulled this down with a second coat of GW Catachan Green.
– with apologies to Arthur Clarke
Rebel Miniatures were first off the block. I ordered a pack of Earth Force Marines MAEF1 and a pack of Sahadeen Infantry MAS1, after seeing reviews on Dropship Horizon and pictures of the figures on the Rebel Miniatures website. Very nice figures, almost no flash. The moulding of the bases was a little odd, and they needed a little filing for the figures to stand easily but, otherwise, very nice, slim figures. I particularly like the Sahadeen.
It was suggested on the TMP that the Sahadeen could be conceivably painted as arctic troops. It is possible, I think, but the Sahadeen don’t seem to be wearing bulky enough clothing to have cold weather gear on - witness the GZG Scan Fed trooper in arctic kit in the photo above right.
I’ve added several alien races to my Traveller game, one of which has facial cilia that act as scent and taste organs. The Octopod figures are the closest to my mental picture of this race that I have found. ![]() Since I had already decided to order the Octopods it made sense to sample some of 15mm.co.uk’s other figure lines as well. Also from the Hordes of the Future line, I picked up a pack of Crusader Troopers, who look a little like the gunners on the Death Star’s main energy weapon in the original Star Wars movie. The Crusaders are nice, crisp, slim figures, and I do like their armour.
Finally, I picked up some samples of some of the minor races on offer; the vaguely insect-like Mandiblex and the dome-headed Ort from the
Asgard Space Marines range; and the Ert from the Laserburn Aliens, Warriors and Creatures range. Quite an impressive haul!
Lastly, but no means leastly, I received an order from the truly awesome Ground Zero Games. I picked up a pack of the new
NAC A8 rifles pack, the Free Trader Crew X04A and X04B, X05 Alien mercenary squad, and V15 armed crew in light vaccsuits. Very pleased with all my shiny new lead - just need some painting time, now!
31 March 2009
The bases were again coated in sand and painted black. Some highlights were picked out in Tamiya X-9 Brown. Two items of interest occurred during the week just gone – on Tuesday part of my long-awaited figure order from Caliver Books arrived (figures from Peter Pig and Pendraken), while on Thursday I finally completed the painting and basing of my two packs of Phalon infantry from Ground Zero Games.
Stargrunt rules for Phalons, written by Allan Goodall, can be located at Hyperbear.com and also include some interesting ideas on the Phalon as a species. These ideas actually appeal to me more than the write-up in GT: Alien Races 4 and I have plans for Phalons/J’aadje in my Traveller Universe.
After mounting the figures on 16mm washers, I undercoated them in black. I had decided to follow Allan Goodall’s ideas and make my Phalons an amphibian, or amphibian-related race and so wanted to achieve a tree frog-like skin colour. A base colour of Tamiya XF-67 Nato Green was laid down and then I dry-brushed Games Workshop Fiery Orange on in patches. The optic orb was painted GW Liche Purple with three dots of GW Blood Red to mark the infer-red sense pits. GW Codex Grey boots completed the main paint job, before I re-blacked and dry-brushed GW Boltgun Metal on their weapons. Belts and straps were touched up with Tamiya Nato Green.
The arrival of part of my figure order from Caliver Books was very welcome. Around New Year I decided to finally order some of Peter Pig’s Large Green Aliens from their ‘War in the Age
Well, in between post-Christmas restocks and some sort of communication breakdown between the companies, only part of the order could be sent. So, no lizardmen, and no Red Aliens (apart from the Hero and Princess). The Large Green Aliens are enormous – 30mm tall! That should freak the players out when these bad boys show up! The Red Aliens and the Company Troopers are rather slight and slender – similar in heft to the Eureka Miniatures WWII Chinese I bought as ESU militia, though slightly smaller. The Walker, from Pendraken, is a large sized droid in 15mm, standing about 25mm tall. It appears to mount dual autocannons or heavy machine guns in the 'head' and has two energy weapons as arms. The Peter Pig figures are quite nicely detailed, especially the Company Wars Troopers but, frustratingly, little things like clearing the inside of the arms appears to have been missed. I’ll wait until I have them painted to pass final judgement, but as RPG characters they should work fine. 12 March 2009 Inspired by Mark's excellent Dropship Horizon Blog, I finally finished off my two packs of GZG 15mm New Israeli troops in hardsuits.
After a discussion with Spinwardpirate and Far-Trader on the Citizens of the Imperium Traveller discussion group, I decided to paint the bases Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey which gave them an interesting lava-scape finish. For some reason, it proved very difficult to get a decent photo of these guys 7 March 2009
The figures are based on washers, as discussed in the July blog entry. Again, I had a dilemma. Did I make the bases look 'urban' or 'starship deck' for Roleplaying games, or did I give the bases foliage for Skirmish games? Foliage won on this occasion, though I may vary things with future groups.
The APCs I bought from Scotty at Combat Wombat are also finished. The grey-blue one to right is the 'Adventurers' model. I added a domed turret, made from half a
The other two APCs I got from Scotty ended up with a blue/grey/green camo pattern and are more 'military'. The vehicle pictured to left has a spare wheel mounted on the right hand side - there were several extra wheels on the wheel sprue and I didn't want to waste them. Having got to this stage, I'm now getting enthused about finishing the rest of the sci-fi figures I have half-done. And then to try some Stargrunt I think! Not much has happened in the world of model making for, what, five months as I've had a couple of other projects on the go. With two weeks leave coming up, I hope to get some long delayed painting done. For Christmas I treated myself to a small order from Ground Zero Games which arrived about a week before the big day. I got two packs of Jon's new insectoid Ixx, a packet of OUDF Aboriginal/New Guinean infantry, a pack of Xenomorphs and a pack of 6mm scale Infantry Walkers.
Jon at Ground Zero Games had another of his mini-sales to celebrate the launch of a new selection of 15mm Civilians. So, quick as a flash, I ordered some and they arrived two days ago. The figures are very nice, slimmer than the various infantry figures I have, so obviously not wearing body armour. Each pack contains four sculpts twice - ie four different poses, and two figures of each pose - for a total of eight figures. The figures are armed with a selection of pistols, hunting rifles and shotguns and include both males and females. Initially, I wasn't too sure about the guy in the cowboy hat (V9), but he's starting to grow on me.
11 May 2008
I'm thinking of mounting the GEVs on the small bits of clear plastic sprue that come attached to Games Workshop flight stands (and which I remorselessly hoard). The idea is to 'float' the vehicles about 5mm above ground level.
30 April 2008
A cool thing happened yesterday. A week or so back my friend Chris visited Salute in London. Salute is a ginormous wargames convention-cum-trade fair run by the South London Warlords. As Ground Zero Games had a stand at the show, I had asked Chris if he could check out the 25mm GZG Phalon ground vehicles to see how they looked with 15mm figures - Jon at GZG has yet to make any 15mm Phalon vehicles, though he has just released some 15mm Kra'Vak vehicles. Anyway, Chris e-mailed me some photos of the show and how the trains weren't running and this and that and "oh, by the way, I've just sent you a package" and he was tired and his feet hurt. Anyway, I get home from work yesterday and there's this package sitting on my computer desk, and it's from Chris and has crossed the world in about a week. So, I open the package and there's a note in Chris' instantly recognizable handwriting to the effect that he couldn't work out whether the 25mm vehicles were overscale or not, and could I do it myself. Included with the note were three lovely resin vehicles - 25-901 Phalon Recon Pod, 25-902 Phalon GEV APC and 25-903 Phalon GEV light assualt tank. Wow! Hope to post some pictures tomorrow. 24 April 2008 The first half of my week off (first week of school holidays) disappeared with various jobs that needed doing and end-of-year tax stuff. Today, I sat down with some PVA glue and three CD/DVD tower cases, plus a bunker-like hard plastic dish that once held strawberries. My aim is to do three more buildings in the style of the one I did back in September. Hope to finish painting my ATVs tomorrow. 10 March 2008
28 February 2008
A chap called Scotty has set up a little webstore under the trade name Combat Wombat selling resin science fiction vehicles. I ordered three wheeled APCs and these arrived the day before yesterday. And very nice they are, too. I glued the two-part hulls together today and have started cutting the wheels off the wheel-sprue. A slip of the scalpel has left me with a gashed middle finger which is more annoying than painful. Will have to take more care tomorrow. 23 December 2007 Work slowly progresses on my ships. The Zheng He class Scout (FT232), two Warsaw class Destroyers (FT205), two Ural class Destroyers (FT235), two 'new build' Heavy Destroyers (FT255), the 'new build' Battledreadnought (FT241) and the Konstantin Attack Carrier (FT213) have hull colours, plus GW Skull White and Ral Partha trim done. All bar the Konstantin also have GW Fiery Orange trim. Haven't done any more work on the fighters. 14 December 2007 Have spent the last week and a bit slowly getting all the fighters from my last two orders based - fourteen flights done, with the last flight of Strelets Light Fighters (FT231) to get glued tonight. Twelve flights have had the 'wiggle' test and every single flight lost at least one fighter! Dropped by the Games Workshop store in St Luke's on my way home tonight and bought their very last pack of large flight stands. So, my Konstantin Attack Carrier (FT213) has now been based and should be ready for its hull colour tomorrow. When that is done, then all my new ESU ships will at the 'ready to paint' stage. So far, I have a squadron of one Zheng He class Scout (FT232), two Warsaw class Destroyers (FT205), two Ural class Destroyers (FT235), two 'new build' Heavy Destroyers (FT255), and a 'new build' Battledreadnought (FT241) nearing completion, plus a flight of Kisha Heavy Fighters (FT221) and a flight of Slava Heavy Fighters (FT251). Items still to do:
27 November 2007 And today's post brought my little order from Eureka Miniatures. I got a Konstantin Attack Carrier (FT213), two packs of Kilo fighters (FT201A) and a pack of Katya fighters (FT201B) - Eureka's fighter packs contain 12 ships, unlike Ground Zero Games' packs which contain six. Nic also threw in a half pack of Kilo's and a sample NSL ship, FT535 Missile DDM, which was very nice of him. Many ships to paint! 26 November 2007 My order from Ground Zero Games arrived today. Christmas shipping has really put a crimp in Jon's delivery time! I received a Shengfeng Carrier, an Escort carrier, four Ural class destroyers and eight packs of fighters of various types, plus the goody bag consisted of two new style heavy destroyers and three strike boats. So, quite a few ships to do. I have started the basic assembly process and have eight fighter flight bases to drill out :(. All the ESU ships from the earlier order now have their basic hull colour done (Tamiya XF-67 Nato Green). Over the weekend, I tidied up the Islamic Federation Heavy Cruiser a bit and think I might leave the colour scheme as is. The Slava Heavy Fighters (FT251) have been given GW Shadow Grey hulls while the Kisha Heavy Fighters (FT221) have GW Blood Red hulls. I even found some time to splash a bit of colour on the bases of my UNSC marines (SG15-U1), who I haven't touched for ... a long time. Might get them finished this week. 16 November 2007 The Fighters and all other new ships are undercoated. I've also finished two Saladin class Destroyers and the three Strikeboats. I'm mostly happy with the paint jobs. I'm having real problems with a colour scheme for the Islamic Federation Heavy Cruiser - I am not happy with the one I've done and am seriously thinking of stripping it right back and starting again. It's very hard to paint straight lines on such 'busy' hulls and I'm swinging back to larger, simpler, geometric patterns such as I used on the destroyers. Ground Zero Games announced their annual Christmas sale at the end of last week so I promptly ordered another Shengfeng Carrier, an Escort carrier, four Ural class destroyers and eight packs of fighters of various types. These should arrive tomorrow, which would be nice. Items still to do:
03 November 2007 Well, three out of the 12 fighters failed the 'wiggle' test and fell off their mounts. They have now been reglued and I hope to start undercoating this evening! 01 November 2007 Have finally assembled and based all my new ships, and mounted my two flights of fighters. I really like the look of the new ESU Slava Heavy Fighters (FT251). They are quite a bit bigger than the Kisha Heavy Fighters (FT221) - some 10mm long against 7mm - but should paint up nicely.
The 'New' battlecruiser (FT239) gave me more trouble in the assembly process than the 'New' battleship (FT240). I just could not get the engine pods to stick and ended up drilling and pinning them. The mount points on the hull have moulded half-slots for the engine pod mount points. This works great except for the fact there is no bottom side to the slots and consequently no support for what is in effect two heavy bits of lead sticking out either side of the hull. For some strange reason, the engine pods for the battleship glued on quite happily - tighter fit in the half-slots, I guess? The Warsaw destroyers (FT205) and the Rostov BDN (FT211) were the 'least-clean' castings - the moulds are showing a lot of wear. I pointed this out to Jon at Ground Zero Games and he indicated that these older ships will be discontinued as the moulds fail, which is a bit sad. I hope he lets Nic at Eureka Miniatures continue with them as there's quite a lot of charm in the old ships. 24 October 2007 I ended up getting my GW Dark Angels Green paint from Vagabonds in the IMAX centre, so that was all good. And my ships from Ground Zero Games arrived yesterday, as well! I received an Islamic Federation Heavy Battleship (FT1011), ESU Kisha Heavy Fighters (FT221) and Slava Heavy Fighters (FT251), two ESU Warsaw (FT205) and two Ural (FT235) Destroyers, a 'New' ESU Battlecruiser (FT239) and Battleship (FT240), an ESU Rostov Battledreadnought (FT211) and a pack of ESU Zeng He Scoutships (FT232). The moulds for the Warsaws and the Rosov are starting to show their age, which was a little disappointing, but all the rest of the figures were crisp and clean. And, once again, Jon got the figures me in about a week from ordering to delivery, including ordering at the weekend, a potential mail strike in the UK and Labour Weekend here in New Zealand. Now to make some painting time! Items still to do:
18 October 2007 Well, it's been nearly a month since I touched a paint brush - too much else going on. Did a bit more work on my four al-Hawar class frigates (FT104) and the second Saladin class destroyer (FT1105) and have discovered that my GW Dark Angels Green has nearly dried out. Guess I'll have to swing by the GW shop in St Luke's on the way home from work tomorrow - oh, the calamity! :) 19 September 2007 Started painting up some more Islamic Federation Ships from Ground Zero Games on Sunday and did a bit more yesterday. I've got four al-Hawar class frigates (FT104) and a second Saladin class destroyer (FT1105) on the go. I started with a coat of Humbrol Gloss White 5022 over the black undercoat and then a coat of GW Skull White over that to "whiten" up the white. I intend, at least with the destroyer, to do the GW Dark Angel Green pattern I did on the first Saladin (see 03 June) as I'm quite pleased how that came out. Finished off the barrel house, finally. After several coats of white poster paint, I finished off the wall colour with a wash of Vallejo Gris Palido 990 (Light Grey). The window and door frames were painted GW Graveyard Brown. For the climbing plants, I painted a creeper shape in GW Desert Yellow. When this was dry, I traced the creeper with PVA, then sprinkled on some of my yellow/brown flock.
Also did some more work on the UNSC marines (SG15-U1) and Security Guards (SG15-V5), both of which are now nearly finished. For the marines I finally settled on a Tamiya XF-67 Nato Green and GW Terracotta pattern over the base Aero Master 1015 RLM 24 Blue. This has actually come up quite nicely. Hope to finish off fittings and bases tomorrow. 26 August 2007 Managed to get a bit of paintin' time today, and finished off some more ships - well, one ship and four flights of fighters. The big, new, ESU Attack Carrier Shengfeng (FT 244) is complete and an SSD for it is here. I also finished two flights of UNSC Dauntless (FT 1101) and two flights of UNSC Defender (FT 1121) class fighters, which completes the current UNSC painting project. Also did a bit more work on some of my 15mm Stargrunt figures. The UNSC marines (SG15-U1) are not going well - the 'zebra' stripe idea didn't really work. I'm now looking at adding green and brown camo patches over the base of Aero Master 1015 RLM 24 Blue. The Security Guards (SG15-V5) did end up with GW Gore Red jackets. I've just done faces and hands (four in GW Elf Flesh and four in GW Scorched Brown), so they're starting to look alive. Items still to do:
18 August 2007
Today, with the door frame nice and dry, I melded it with the cupola with several layers of tissue Once this is all dry, I'll undercoat the new bits and move on to painting the entire structure. While I had some of my water/PVA mix, I repaired a fault I had noticed on the base of the DVD barrel. Basically, some of the original paper-maché had rucked up while I was laying it and had dried before I had noticed the fold. So I covered this with some new paper-maché (the white bit at the bottom left of the picture). 17 August 2007 Added a door frame of match sticks to the cupola I added to the DVD 'barrel' house last night. 16 August 2007 Added a cupola to the roof of the DVD 'barrel' house - made from part of a Kinder Surprise Egg case (which I used here as a mould for casting building bits). I then covered the cupola in tissue paper-maché so it matched the texture of the rest of the building. This, incidently, helped tie the two bits of building together. 14 August 2007 Attached window and door frames made from match sticks to the DVD 'barrel' house last night, melding the frames to the structure with tissue paper-maché. Also added a step/stoop. Tonight, I undercoated with entire structure in black.
Had a bit of time for modelling and painting today. I've decided against the 'leopard spot' camo pattern for the UNSC marines (SG15-U1). I saw a 'boy-racer' car in Henderson on Friday tricked out in white zebra stripes and have decided to try for a similar effect on the marines. I've also started two new modelling projects - a couple of 'desert-style' buildings and a couple of slag heaps/waste piles. The latter was inspired by a post on one of the Yahoo groups I belong to (and which I now cannot find, so I can credit the poster). The basic structures for the 'desert buildings' are an empty DVD 'barrel' and a plastic container mushrooms were packed in. I have covered both with layers of tissue paper soaked in a PVA and water mix. This will soften the 'harsh' lines of the plastic and give the structures' surfaces a more natural texture. 09 August 2007 Yay! Two more ESU Strke Boats (FT 233) and a Heavy Destroyer (FT 255) finished. I've now done SSDs for both and they are here.Items still to do:
06 August 2007 Managed to slap a bit of paint on the UNSC Marines (SG15-U1) over the weekend. I decided to repeat the colour scheme used on the UNSC ships (GW Skull White trim and Aero Master 1015 RLM 24 Blue hull) for the marines. The reasoning being that in peace-keeping roles, the marines would need high visability. So the hardsuits are now RLM 24 Blue with Skull White leopard spot camo pattern (we had a power cut this afternoon when I got home from work - so with no computer, I got some more painting done!). The security guards (SG15-V5) have Aeromaster US Blue Grey trousers and hats and will probably have red jackets. 31 July 2007 Laid down the base brown colour on the 24 15mm Stargrunt figures I'm painting up. Hope to add a couple more shades of brown and a bit of grey this evening.30 July 2007 Haven't done a lot of modelling or painting over the last couple of weeks - and working on the website ate last weekend. Rapidfilla-ing the bases of 100 15mm Stargrunt figures has been completed, and the bases have been undercoated. I've undercoated the first 24 figures I plan to paint and, over the weekend, began texturing their bases with coarse sand. Hope to do some more on them tomorrow. 18 July 2007 Finally watched 'Serenity' last night while basing up another fifty 15mm GZG Stargrunt figures on washers. I need more washers as I have a couple of packs to go, and I want to rebase the figures I've already painted and based on fire team bases. Tonight I made a start on Rapidfillaing the bases before I paint and texture them. Last night was rather productive as I also finished off the reports for the Stellar Conquest-based Full Thrust campaign I'm running. I suddenly realise that I had better finish painting some ships soon. The next turn of the campaign could have a major fleet battle and some the fleet elements are only half done.
Had to buy another fifty washers today, as the fifty I bought yesterday were only enough for the figures that arrived a couple of days ago.
Finally got around to doing the "wiggle" test on the UNSC Looking at the UNSC Hardsuited troops I received from GZG, I was rather struck by the helmet design. If you look closely (and wish very hard) they could almost be Traveller Imperial Marines. 10 July 2007 My copy of Stargrunt II and figures arrived from GZG today - six days from the UK, again! From GZG's 15mm range I received a pack of Colonial Security, two packs of New Israeli Hardsuited troops (one of kneeling and prone troopers and one of standing troops), a pack of Phalons, a pack of UNSC hardsuits and a pack of Colonial Miltia. As I have the next couple of days off, and the weather's packed up, I may even get some painting done! 08 July 2007 Managed to get the last three flights of UNSC fighters mounted on their flight stands today. Need to give them the old "wiggle" test before undercoating them tomorrow. Ground Zero Games suddenly had a '4th of July' Sale so I've ordered a copy of Stargrunt II and several packs of 15mm figures including Phalons, UNSC hardsuited troops, and New Israeli hardsuited troops. I'm still tossing up between Striker, Dirtside II/Stargrunt II and possibly Flames of War for a set of combat rules, so I want to see how Stargrunt plays before I make a decision between the three. 29 June 2007 Not much has happened on the painting and modeling front in the last little while - too busy with real life. The flight stands I ordered through the local Games Workshop shop finally arrived and I picked them up yesterday. Hope to get the last of my UNSC fighters mounted this weekend. 17 June 2007
I've run out of Games Workshop flight stands (which I use to mount my fighters) and have discovered that GW is phasing them out of their shop stock. I have a bag on order through the local GW shop in St Luke's but haven't heard a thing in a week. Items still to do:
13 June 2007 Have Boltgun metalled the pointy bits on the UNSC Gaia, which is now about finished, the two ESU Strke Boats and Heavy Destroyer, and the IF Saladin. The Gaia just needs its Ship ID stuck on.
10 June 2007 Started the 'fitting out' painting for two ESU Strike Boats, another "new build" Heavy Destroyer, and the UNSC Gaia class SDN. The Saladin class IF destroyer is almost finished, with details picked out in Ral Partha yellow and GW Blood Red. I need to touch up the white and green hull colours.
03 June 2007 Have finished my three ESU Strike Boats, my "new build" Heavy Destroyer, and my UNSC Point class Battlecruiser, and updated my master ship list. Have applied some GW Dark Angels Green to my white-coated Saladin class IF destroyer - essentially painting a green triangle on the aft section of the hull. The contrast between white and green looks quite good so this may work as a colour scheme. Items still to do:
02 June 2007 A little bit of work on a number of things. Have made a start on my next three ESU Strike Boats (FT252) and a ESU "new build" Heavy Destroyer (FT255), plus added some detail to my second UNSC Point class Battlecruiser. I've also grabbed one of my IF Saladin class destroyers (FT1005) and painted it GW Skull White. I've been stuck for a paint scheme for the Islamic Federation and am now wondering if white and green may not be the best.
27 May 2007 Finished painting the ships I have been working on, yesterday, and updated my Master Ship List. I need to work out Ship System Displays (SSDs) for the Strike Boats as I don't recall seeing any stats for the ESU ones. I might do a variant of the Islamic Federation Stingboats from the IF Beta List. Have decided that my Industrial Habitat is about finished. This now has a central, four base-equivalent, factory, with eight surrounding modules. The two extra habs will become residential habs and I'll do a little more work on them. Have added a smoke plume to the flare tower of the factory. Items still to do:
Items still to do:
19 May 2007 Just finished an eight-day stretch of early mornings so no real time for modelling. Grabbed some time today to do the base hull colour on my new UNSC ships from Ground Zero Games – I'm working on a Gaia Class Superdreadnought (FT1112), two Point Class Battlecruisers (FT1109) and two Comet Class Escort Carriers (FT1117). Also managed to finally do the camo colour on the three Puma Grav Self-propelled guns (DFA04) for my 6mm OPFOR. Hope to finish them off tomorrow as well as do some more ship painting. Items still to do:
10 May 2007
As there are no official stats for the Poryshkins in the Full Thrust literature, I have created my own Karpov class. The latter models just need ship IDs stuck on their bases, which I have just done, and they are complete. Items still to do:
08 May 2007 My ships arrived from GZG today, that’s five days from the UK! Have tomorrow and Thursday off work, as I’m working the weekend. Intend to do some more painting and a spot of ship assembly. Items still to do:
05 May 2007 Managed to do a little painting today – undercoating the new habitat bases and the pipes and towers I’ve added to my factory structure, and then painting them Games Workshop Codex Grey. Just need a little tidy up with a small brush and then I’ll finish off the bases. I have painted the bases Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey, coated them with a water/PVA mix, and then coated them with a layer of fine sand. When dry, I paint the sand with Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey and then re-ink the transport links with a felt tip pen. Ordered some more United Nations Star Command ships from Ground Zero Games, the day before yesterday, to augment my fleet/Antony’s campaign fleet. I’m getting a Gaia Class SDN, two Point class Battlecruisers, two Comet Class Escort Carriers and four packets of fighters (two Dauntless and two Defender). Interestingly, I priced these ships from both GZG in the UK and Eureka Miniatures in Australia, and to buy these ships and ship them to New Zealand costs $12 less from the UK, including postage, than from Australia, with postage on top. Items still to do:
27 April 2007 After taking a break from the modelling for a couple of days, am back into it. Have started work on two more habitat bases for my urban area, and have done some more work on the factory structure. For the latter I have used some fluted dowel pegs to make cooling towers, with 2mm plastic rod running up the side for condensate pipes – one condensate pipe ends above the cooling tower as a flare tower, would it be too over the top to make a flare? Will have a think about that. I have found some thicker plastic tubing which makes me wonder if I can make some surface pipe lines. Which I now have – using thin slices of polystyrene as joint blocks/pumping stations. Just letting things dry before undercoating and painting. For undercoating, I have always used black paint. I have tried white in the past, but found it hard to get a good first coat on bare metal. When painting my English Civil War Royalist Army, I had lots of problems getting a red or yellow coat colour that would go over black. I solved this problem partially by multiple applications of paint, and partially by using a light brown undercoat over the black, but before the coat colour was applied. Games Workshop paints are now so common in New Zealand (outside of Model Railway/RC Car shops which tend to stock Tamiya or Humbrol) that I have shifted pretty much to them. I used to use Games Workshop Chaos Black as my undercoat of choice but was burning through so much of it that I eventually went to my local Mitre 10 hardware store and got a test pot of water-based black – 250 mls for about the same price as a 12 ml GW pot! I still use the Chaos Black pot for my painting, just refilling it from the test pot as and when I need to. Items still to do:
22 April 2007 Finished the UN Fighters and the UN Carrier today. Have marked up the Carrier’s base (I use large Game Workshop Flight Stands for my large space ships, and scribe a hex and firing arc lines on the base. I then mark them up with a black felt tip pen which works quite well) and glued the support rod to the base. So, the four Dauntless flights are white, Games Workshop Fiery Orange, Ral Partha Yellow (this yellow is so old that the label has faded to illegibility – the paint is still good, though), and Games Workshop Ice Blue (which has almost dried up – must get some more). The Defender flights are Games Workshop Blood Red and Tamiya XF-67 Nato Green. The UN Carrier is trimmed in white and Ral Partha Yellow. The exhaust nozzles and pointy gun bits are Games Workshop Bolt Gun Metal. Just need to put the flight and ship IDs on and they’re all done! And now they are. That’s 24 flights of fighters and 95 ships completed since painting began back in late 2005! Items still to do:
16 – 21 April 2007 Thought it time to make up a list of things I’m working on, in case the website ever gets off the ground. I'm in the final stages of painting up some United Nations Star Command (UNSC) fighters from Ground Zero Games’ Full Thrust range. Have two flights of 6 Defender Class Heavy Fighters (FT1121) and four flights of Dauntless Class Standard Fighters (FT1101) almost ready to go. Drilled the flight stands (I use the bases of Games Workshop Flight Stands for my fighters) on Monday and got the wire pins for the fighters mounted Tuesday. Glued the fighters to the wires on Wednesday, re-glued those that fell off on Thursday, and undercoated in black, and painted the main hull colour (Aero Master 1015 RLM 24 Blue) on Friday. Aero Master 1015 RLM 24 Blue is the hull colour I have used for all my UNSC ships to date. I decided that the UN would also use the some colour for their fighters, with the different flights having different coloured trim to set them off. Started the trim (Games Workshop Skull White) for the first flight of Dauntless fighters today (Saturday). Also began (finally!) to do the trim on the UN Constellation class Heavy Carrier (FT1114) that’s been sitting, half finished, on my desk for some six months. The Full Thrust battle I had with Antony, a week or so back, has inspired me to get all my UNSC ships done, and order at least another five. To make Antony’s OOB for the Stellar Conquest Full Thrust Campaign I’m running, I need to get an SDN, two Escort Carriers, and two Battlecruisers. Have also been working on 6mm stuff for Dirtside 2 (from GZG)/Command Horizon (from Baccus). Have finished off another two sprues of Renegade Legion tanks/Grav Infantry Combat Vehicles for my Eurasian Solar Union (ESU) unit. I did these sprues to get the two heavy tanks I needed, and then decided to convert one of the GICVs to an ECM vehicle, and after that, it made sense to keep on going and finish the other vehicles off as well. Have also almost finished four Ares Attack VTOLs (DF V06), again from GZG. I was rather disappointed with these models as they look like helicopters. I added extra tubes to the roofs of two of them (2mm plastic rod, partially drilled) as either rocket tubes or jets. They have painted up quite well, though, and, again, I have mounted them on Games Workshop flight bases, again painting and flocking the bases of the bases. I have also been working on an urban area/factory area to boost my scenics. I have found a good casting medium called Amaco Sculptamold, which is lighter, yet tougher, than plaster of paris. Using a variety of plastic packaging as molds, I have come up with a number of useful shapes for buildings. I’m mounting them on 60mm x 60mm 3mm MDF bases (60 x 60mm is the unit base size in Command Horizon and it appears from their website, that the Baccus guys mount their terrain on similar sized bases. Items still to do:
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