The Cure for Burnout - Funky Old Aliens on Dinosaurs!

Planning ahead just isn't my style.

I was on a major roll in January and February.  Painted tons and tons of figures, played a couple of really fun solo games/mini campaigns... figured this would be a great year for me!  So I tried to take it a step further in March... not only would I keep to my goal of "one painted combat unit per week," but I tried to plan which units I'd paint and buy this month.  Yeah, didn't work... I lost interest in those forces.  

So, after some fairly uneventful evenings (seriously... two Micropanzer gun drones are a pitiful tally for three nights' painting), I decided to throw out the schedule.  In fact, I ignored every army in my force and every bit of universe development in my notes.  When in doubt - do something completely different.  So, digging through the lead pile, here's what I found:

These are Orts from the old Asgard range (now sold by 15mm.Co.Uk).  Whenever I order from 15mm.Co.Uk, I make it a point to grab something completely random and different along with my "planned" figures.  No plans for them, no idea how to game with them... just paint them and see what happens.  But it brought my mojo back!  Two short evenings painting yielded a complete skirmish force.

As with most old ranges - they're great poses and castings, but are a bit lacking in variety . So... what to do with these weird little guys?  The large (and protected) craniums and robes seem to imply an advanced, possibly psychic, race with limited numbers.  It's a fun contrast with the dinosaur mounts.  I'm thinking they would work as the command teams for a horde of primitives.  

After poking around a few 15mm fantasy ranges, I found these Eureka Man-Orcs with Crossbows.  

The helmet has the same general shape, and now they kinda remind me of the Mouth Of Sauron from Peter Jackson's Return Of The King.  And the crossbows could easily be modified into some type of arquebus or musket, or even a simple blaster rifle.  

Now it's time to develop their story.  I wonder if these can be worked into an existing storyline, or if I'll just come up with something new for them?  

Cheers,

Chris

February Wrap-Up and Looking Ahead

Another successful month at the Bunker!  My stated goal for the year has been "one combat unit painted every week."  I exceeded the goal in January, and had no problem meeting it in February.  And I managed to finish a few new terrain projects, just to help move things along.

The completed list for February 2012:

• Two more of my resin modular buildings painted to match my Rebel Minis Droptroopers.  

• A junk-built communications transceiver for those buildings.
• 72" of 3" wide hardboard road sections (6" and 12" lengths)
• Two more Rebel Minis Titan HAMR suits.
• Another unit of four Rebel Minis Droptroopers and a Wild CAT 'bot for my Christmas War campaign.
• Three GZG Cyclops Battlesuits - repainted to match my Eureka Ventaurans.
• Two Rebel VIPER Walkers.  A third was stripped and needs to be repainted.
• A paint test figure of RAFM Planetary Militia.  
• Six Critical Mass Games Kaamados Dominion Vivipara infantry.
• One Critical Mass Games Kaamados Dominion Draco Aganath Imperator battlesuit.
• And finally, three more Rebel Minis Earthforce HAMR suits.  My first mecha army is ready for some test games!

Here's my tentative painting agenda for March:

• Proxie Models buildings.  I have about a dozen ready to be assembled, based, and drybrushed.  That will give me the ruined urban battlefield desired for my mecha games.
• Paint two light walkers and one heavy walker for my GZG Crusties.
• Paint another Ravenstar Silverback mech.
• Start work on my next mecha-based army:
• A unit of Micropanzer Russian Walkers
• RAFM "Buckethead" Infantry with Micropanzer Remote Gun Drones
• Brigade Models South African Wheeled MBT
• Matchbox Armored Transports as APCs
• Repaint my other three GZG Cyclops Battlesuits to match my Eureka Ventaurans.

And the high priority items on my shopping and wish list:

• GZG Colonial Militia to support Blue Moon Orion Republic troopers for my Dominion Invasion game setting.
• More Critical Mass Kaamados Vivipara and Draco Agonath suits (for the same setting)
• ArtCrime Productions Assault Valkyries and Nationalist Infantry.  The Assault Valkyries will be for the Dominion Invasion setting, and the Nationalist Infantry are going to be multi-based to support the above Rebel HAMRs and Ravenstar Thunderfoot.
• More Rebel Minis VIPER walkers and Drop Trooper Heavy Weapons (when released).

Cheers,

Chris

January wrap-up & projects for February

My goal for the year was to paint at least one combat unit (infantry squad or vehicle) per week.  If I can keep January's pace going, I should exceed my goal.  

Completed in January:

• Rebel Minis Earthforce HAMR (1)
• GZG Islamic Federation Infantry (16)
• GZG Crusties Power Armor (6)
• Ravenstar Studios Stalker Walker Tank (1)
• Ravenstar Studios Coyote Jeep (2; 1 for Law Officers, 1 generic civilian)

• Ravenstar Studios Silverback (1)
• Ravenstar Studios Thunderfoot Mark 3 (1)
• Laserburn Imperial Scout Bikes (2)
• Laserburn Imperial Scouts (8)
• Khurasan Space Demon Assault Warriors (12)
• Khurasan Space Demon Nymphs (8)
• Khurasan Space Demon Colossus (1)

I plan to focus most of my February painting (and gaming, hopefully) on mecha-centric battles.  I have four more mecha basecoated now - two each Rebel Minis Earthforce and Titan HAMR suits.  Those should be finished early next week.  I have an order of Rebel Minis VIPR suits on the way, and I plan to take advantage of the Ravenstar Studios 25% Off Sale and pick up a couple more Land Core Silverbacks.

The urban battlefield I mentioned before is also on the February project list.  I ordered an assortment of nine buildings from Proxie Models last night, and I cut 6' worth of hardboard road sections to set up the battlefield.  I just need to come up with some urban terrain pieces that aren't buildings (maybe a power plant?) to complete my mecha battlefield.  

Cheers,

Chris

Rebel Minis HAMR - converted and painted

My 15mm Mecha Battles project is starting to come together.  

After it sat on my shelf for months, I finally completed this Rebel Minis Earthforce HAMR Support Suit:  

  

This one had just the slightest bit of conversion work before I painted.  I ended up cutting the barrels off the included gatling guns... they worked well on the Earthforce aircraft, but I wanted something a little heavier on this mech.  I looked at a few Combat Wombat brass barrels, but ended up using the barrels from some spare Rebel Titan HAMR support guns.

I think this mech works really well alongside my Ravenstar Studios Thunderfoot (and Rebel Titan Marines and Kremlin MANITOU suits).  The HAMR is going to be the support option in a three-mecha platoon.  Work has begun on the other two - they are going to use the more conventional arms and rifles off the Earthforce Recon HAMR sprue.  That will give me two core combat units for my first mecha army: the platoon of HAMR suits, and the Thunderfoot - which is a mecha platoon in itself.

Cheers,
Chris

Gonna need more cocktail sauce...

Thanks to my big Ground Zero Games Christmas order, I now have some much-needed reinforcements for my Crusties army.  I grabbed one of the heavy walker, a two-pack of the light walkers, and a pack of the new armored infantry.

I went back and forth a few times about how to paint them.  I used P3 Cryx Bane Highlight as the main weapon color for my previous Crusties, with the occasional Vallejo Heavy Red detail.  

Since the armored Crusties didn't seem to have any skin (shell?) exposed, the gray and dark red seemed like the obvious color choices.  But then I was afraid they'd be too close of a match for a recently-painted Ravenstar Silverback mecha, which are Vallejo Gory Red with a few P3 Cryx Bane Highlight details.  I second guessed my colors even more after I saw (and fell in love with) the bright orange scheme featured on Gunner's Wargaming.  But ultimately I decided to go with the Cryx Bane as a base color and limit the Heavy Red to the weapons and backpacks.  It wasn't bad, but needed another color.  I ended up using Vallejo Goblin Green on the weapon "fins," some small details on the backpacks, and on the helmet lenses.  A quick touch of black Wonder Wash and some base texture completed the figures.

I'm not convinced the green details are bright enough. I might get something brighter (Vallejo Fluorescent Green maybe) and touch them up later.  But they are ready for the game table, and match pretty well with my earlier Crusty infantry.

More importantly, this palette should work fine on the Crusty walkers.  But I swear... Next time I make a new army -  I really need to make sure I stop using the same few base colors. :)

Cheers,

Chris

2012 Painting Log - mid-January update

As a way to keep focused on my "one finished combat unit per week" goal for 2012, I'm going to try to update my painting progress a couple times per month.  Since the first of the year, I've finished:

• Khurasan Space Demons - a pack of Warriors, a pack of Nymphs, and a Colossus.
• Laserburn Scouts - two Bikes and eight Scout figures
• Assorted Ravenstar Land-Core goodies - a Thunderfoot and a Silverback mecha (painted for the review article on Dropship Horizon), a Coyote jeep, and a Stalker walker tank.  Here's a teaser pic of the mecha:

Not a bad start to the year - I'm ahead of my goal.  But I did have some time off work around the holidays, so a head start isn't going to hurt anything.  Looking ahead... my Christmas order from Ground Zero Games arrived on Friday.  Here's what's on the table from that shipment:

• A pack of Hammer's Slammers infantry.  I'm going to ignore the buzzbomb-launcher figure for now and focus on the other sculpts.  I intend to use these as bailed-out vehicle crews for my Aurora Group corporate security forces.
• Two packs of Islamic Federation infantry.  My plan is to use these as the core of a new army - one based upon my Shadow Worlder Blasters & Bulkheads skirmish force.  The skirmish unit (made of Laserburn Redemptionists) will be the elite inner circle of Shadow World armies - these Islamic Federation troopers will be the rank and file.  I'll use Ravenstar Studios' quad-walkers as the vehicles in this new army.
• A pack of Armored Crusties.  For my Crusties, obviously. :)
• Four packs of New Israeli infantry.  No fancy plans here - I'm just going to turn them into red Spartans to rival for my green Rebel Droptroopers.

I'll splash in a few terrain projects along the way, just to keep things interesting.  And the odd civilian and mercenary figure to flesh out my small skirmish games.  

Cheers,

Chris

Painting Tutorial - Khurasan Space Demons using Metallic Sprays

One of this year's stocking stuffers from my wife was a small order from Khurasan Minis.  There were a few new items inside (including some Control Battalion that I'm dying to paint), but mostly it was reinforcements for my Space Demon army.  I already had two packs of Assault Warriors, one pack of Hammerheads, and a Queen.  This order gave me a pack of the second-pose Assault Warriors, a pack of Nymphs, and for my larger games, my first Colossus.

Since we're having a very warm winter here in Iowa, I broke out the Testors Metallic sprays and got my new bugs onto the battlefield.  Just like my previous Space Demons, I'm using the ultra-quick paint scheme pioneered by Cacique Caribe over on TMP.  Here's a breakdown of the process.

Step One - File, Assemble, and Base

As usual, Khurasan's minis require very little cleanup.  The Nymphs just needed a bit of filing on the bottom, and the Colossus went together quickly.  I spent a bit more time on the Assault Warriors.  One of the poses has a cast base which is larger than my 3/4" fender washers, so it needed a bit of trimming.  I also took a little time to make sure the heads went on at a few different angles, and I reposed the soft tails to add some variety.

Step Two - Undercoat

Honestly, this step is optional.  But I've found that it does help to get an even coat out of the metallic sprays, so I used my white Armory Primer on the figures.  It also helps me to find any small bits of flash or mold lines that I missed the first time around (in this case, there was just a little bit of flash in the armpits of a few Assault Warriors). It also helped to seal the Colossus together - my superglue was old, and the legs kept falling off when I first assembled it.

Step Three - Metallics

The fun part - giving some life and distinction to the Space Demons without any real effort.  When I painted my last batch, I used Testors Arctic Blue for the Hammerheads, Burgundy Red for the Queen, and Turquoise for the Assault Warriors.  I wanted the Nymphs to be "extensions" of the Queen herself, so they received the burgundy paint. The Colossus has some little recesses in the shoulder that could be some type of acid spray, so I tied it together with the Hammerheads.  

A note on the metallics: I learned that they have a much longer drying time than other Testors or Tamiya sprays.

Step Four - Wash

Once the sprays were dry, I set the figures out on some Universal Painting Trays (those mockup credit cards that keep showing up in my  mailbox) and, working in groups of six, brushed an undiluted wash over the entire figure.  I used GW Badab Black on my earlier models, but this time I used Secret Weapon Heavy Body Black.  The Secret Weapon washes are very good for this sort of work, as long as you remember to keep shaking them.  The Heavy Black is also a bit stronger than the GW wash - it only took a single coat to finish the Nymphs and Assault Warriors.  The Colossus took a few coats to get all the recesses on the belly, so I worked on the Nymph and Warrior bases while the larger model was drying.  

Step Five - Base and Seal

Nothing fancy on the bases - painted Model Master Euro Gray onto the bases, flocked them with dark gray gravel, sealed with thinned Elmer's glue, and drybrushed with Vallejo Heavy Bluegray.  The figures themselves were sealed with Wonder Wash Black, which gave them a nice and glossy finish.  

That's it - a quick, painless, and fairly inexpensive way to make a Space Demon army.  There are plenty of colored metallics on the Model Master brush-on range, if you don't want to spent the extra cash on spray paints.  And the army would work just fine with a single color - I just like seeing the difference between an Assault Warrior and a Hammerhead from tabletop distance. 

Play a game already!

I've played a couple quick FUBAR games with the Nymphs and Assault Warriors since painting these.  But I still haven't used the Colossus in a game.  I plan to run a scenario where a Colossus is hiding underground and ambushes a passing convoy.  When the convoy is stopped, other Space Demons will converge on the damaged vehicles, and the convoy personnel must hold out for extraction.

So what's next for my Space Demons?  Well, I really like the Nymphs - perfect little swarming bugs.  I thought about mounting three per 1.25" base, but singles on 3/4" washers will work better on my Space Base tiles.  I might try to add one to my Queen's base, just for decoration. 

The Colossus is a terrific mini.  A second one would make my Space Demons into a pretty formidable opponent, even against tanks and mecha.  

An "instant" Special Forces patrol

I have a simple hobby goal for 2012: paint one unit per week.

Okay... Obviously  I have more goals than that.  But we all have to start somewhere.  Especially when the lead pile is already  taller than I'd like, and I still have three Christmas orders that haven't arrived.  Hopefully this goal will help me get through the pile just a little bit quicker.

My lead pile featuers tons of small potential forces (1-2 squads at the most), mostly because I like buying a pack or two at a time to see how much I like the sculpts.  In one corner of my storage container, I noticed some of the old Laserburn Imperial Scouts from 15mm.Co.Uk.  They are pretty detailed, but I went with the ol' "wash over bare metal" approach.

Works for me!  Now that they are painted, I see these are really great old minis.  Too bad there aren't more poses available.  But this still works for just a couple odd fire teams, or would be fine if they were based 2-3 per stand for Alien Squad Leader or Valkyrie.  The recipe for painting them was pretty straightforward:

1. Two coats of Secret Weapon Blue Wash
2. Vallejo Heavy Bluegrey on the weapons and backpacks
3. Vallejo Bronze over the visors
4. Model Master Euro Gray base with two colors of railroad ballast

When I bought these minis, I ended up with four of the standard Scout (which, I believe, is armed with what Laserburn calls a Heavy Laser Rifle?), two with Launchers, and two with Conversion Beamers.  The visual difference between the launcher and rifle is pretty limited, so I painted them the same color.  I may not even give them different stats in a larger game.  I ended up repainting the Conversion Beamers with Vallejo Heavy Brown to make them stand out a bit.  I could easily do the same with the launchers, if I end up wanting them to have different stats in the majority of my games.

I also picked up two of the Scout Bikers with the order.  I really like these - and they would also be ideal as Light Vehicles in Alien Squad Leader, or as an alternative to the Bulldog Jetbikes in Valkyrie.  I also noticed that these are clearly what inspired the old plastic Epic Imperial bikes.  15mm.Co.Uk does offer a version of the bike without the rider.  It would be pretty cool to have eight complete Bikes, and eight riderless ones to go with my eight dismounted Scouts.  I'll definitely add more bikes to my next order.

The bikes are basecoated with the same Model Master Euro Gray as the bases.  I may go back over the bikes with solid black, then lightly drybrush with the gray and repaint the lighter details.  Or I may try a brownish wash (something like Secret Weapon Sewer Water) over the base to see if that adds some contrast.

Either way, a few hours' work provided some nice upper-tech troops.  These could be used on their own in a small skirmish game, or be added to a lower tech force as special operators.  I deliberately painted them in colors that will match my Rebel Minis Homeguard and HAMR suits, just to add a bit of flexibility.

Cheers,
Chris

"You are two UGLY mother..."

I had all kinds of plans to start working on my Critical Mass Games Kaamados Dominion figures this week.  But, of course, I was one paint color short.  In the meantime, I decided it was a good time to paint my Khurasan Miniatures Vacation Aliens.   

"If it bleeds, we can kill it.

It only took a few hours to do both.  They definitely look better in the flesh... I tried a dozen camera settings and this was the best that came out.  The paint scheme:

1. Vallejo Heavy Khaki on the exposed skin
2. Secret Weapon Green-Black Wash over the Heavy Khaki
3. P3 Cryx Bane Base over boots, straps, armor bits, weapons, and helmets.
4. Vallejo Gunmetal drybrushed over most of the Cryx Bane.  I was only going to use this on the armor and helmet, but it ended up working okay on all of the straps and pouches.  I remember the medical kit in the first movie had some pretty crude elements to it.  I figured using metal strapping instead of fabric webs would be equally crude.
5. Vallejo Blood Red on the eyes, and the targeting lens on the left mini.  
6. Secret Weapon Armor Wash over the shoulder weapons (just to give them a slightly different tone).
7. Wonder Wash Black over the entire mini.

Now I need to figure out exactly how to use these in my own settings.  I've never been a fan of replaying scenarios from movies or shows.  Instead, I think these will be some type of bounty hunting team, or possibly master-race enslavers for something like GZG Crusties.  

Cheers,

Chris

Not a bad week...

In terms of painting my minis, this has been one of the most productive weeks I can remember!

Over the weekend I painted a 5-man squad of Mad Robot's excellent TMC Jump Troopers.  I started with a single mini, just to get the paint scheme figured out.  I used that test mini to take some comparison shots, as well as post the review for the whole pack on Dropship Horizon.  I was pleased with the paint scheme, but I also realized it was going to take longer than usual to finish entire units of the jump troopers.  After I got the basecoat on the remaining four "ground" poses, I needed a break from infantry.

Looking at my shelf, I noticed some nice resin desert buildings from The Scene, still stacked up and unpainted.  So I grabbed a small building and tried an experimental, complex, and resource-intensive paint scheme.  Here's all of the many steps:

• Step 1.  Paint the mini with Rustoleum Textured Spray.

That's it.  No primer, no details, no sealing.  And guess what?  It looks fine on my desert table.

That was enough for Saturday's painting.  On Sunday I painted four more The Scene buildings and finished my Mad Robot Jump Troopers.  

I then laid out my desert table for a skirmish game (see the earlier pic).  But no brilliant scenarios came to mind.  I flipped through my old Rogue Trader rulebook for ideas, and then decided to solicit some from the TMP 15mm crowd.  Here's that thread... some great ideas from the group!  

The scenario ideas led me to take a look at my collection of 15mm civilians and other small forces.  Some of those scenarios would benefit from having tons of civilians on the game table.  So I painted a Ground Zero Games hovertruck that had been sitting on my shelf... then I went on to complete an Oddzial Osmy journalism team.  

But what about some raiders?  The best candidates were the 15mm.Co.Uk HOF Post-Apocalyptic Warriors that I painted earlier this year.  I added another four warriors to the collection, painted a HOF Trator as the gang leader, and converted a Khurasan Rockjumper by lopping the head off a GZG gunner, adding a HOF Trator head, and mounting a spare Laserburn heavy weapon onto a bit of styrene tube.  I now have a leader, eight warriors with SMG-type weapons, and a "technical" truck to support them.  Not a bad skirmish force at all...  

By now I was bored with painting humans.  So I decided to paint a bunch of my spare Oddzial Osmy Spaceworms... these will be used as some kind of living weapon/invasion drones.    

That gives me some mindless creatures for invader scenarios.  But what about smart aliens coming to my desert colony in order to reclaim lost artifacts?  My Rebel Minis Scourge, the first 15mm army I ever finished, seemed like a good candidate for that type of game.  Just for fun I decided to add a new mini to that army... one of my Heavy Battle Robots from The Scene.

When I was looking through my storage bin this week to find  those HOF Post-Apoc Warriors and Trators, I also noticed a pack of HOF Robed Cultists.  I thought about these last month when I painted my Kremlin Miniatures Comander Vortan, but moved on to other projects.  So I finished the week by painting three Cultists to support my Vortan.  

So there it is... a pretty good variety of skirmish minis, now ready for the battlefield.  Not a bad week of painting!

Cheers,
Chris 

Paint Test and Army Design - Micropanzer Aliens

Like most gamers, I have a pretty large pile of unpainted minis. A good chunk of that pile consists of Micropanzer Krystrial aliens. I had been waiting to figure out a paint scheme that would let me get them painted quickly, but still look good on the battlefield. Here's my first attempt:

Paint steps for the Raivaui Handler:

1. White Armory Spray undercoat
2. P3 Underbelly Blue basecoat
3. Vallejo Heavy Grey details (weapon, back plate)
4. Vallejo Gunmetal whips
5. Wonder Wash Deep Sea over the Underbelly Blue
6. Wonder Wash Dirty Dark Brown over the entire mini
7. P3 Bloodstone on the base, flock with my Red Planet blend, seal with white glue + water

Paint steps for the Vaethaka Hounds:

1. Model Master Guards Red undercoat
2. Vallejo Heavy Grey armor plates
3. P3 Menoth White Base horns and teeth
4. Wonder Wash Dirty Dark Brown over the entire mini
5. P3 Bloodstone on the base, flock with my Red Planet blend, seal with white glue + water

It only took me a couple of hours to do the test minis. A playable army should be doable in a couple of evenings. Then I just need to spend a little time on the Overlord and get them onto the table! Here's my thought for a force organization:

• One Command Unit - 1 Krystrial Overlord, 1 Raivaui with Banner, 1 Raivaui Handler, 2 Vaethaka Hounds
• Three Battle Units - 1 Raivaui Leader with Halberd, 4 Raivaui with swords and blasters
• Three Hound Units - 1 Raivaui Handler, Four Vaethaka Hounds

This should give me another good "horde" army for my 2' x 2' battlefields.

Cheers,

Chris