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Nice work on the Tie Fighters. These kind of kits were my first forays into model making, a Star Destroyer iirc, again it would have fitted nowhere near in scale terms with these but scale has never really been an issue for me. Great job on the weathering on these.

The diorama sounds great too.

Nice work! Looks like we'll have dueling zombie dios.

Cheers guys!

I actually have a Star Destroyer somewhere, it's always been just a little too big for me to comfortably tackle.

Liking your choice of Soontir Fel scheme on the interceptor!

Hah, as noted in my showcase thread that was a complete accident. I just picked the red stripes because they looked cooler than plain black and I didn't fancy repeating the white full-wing design.

Any resemblance to Imperial fighter aces, living or retconned-by-Disney, is entirely accidental!

Even if Disney retcons him, he will always live on in...X-Wing!

As others have said. Great work on the TIE ships. Did you find any different techniques required on something larger in scale than your normal offerings?

Seeing you do those Star Wars ships makes me kind of want to go back and do some of my small collection of non-wargaming models. I have a Polar Lights U.S.S. Enterprise (not the big nice one, but the smaller one), a set of Star Trek TNG adversary ships (featuring a Romulan D'deridex-class Warbird, a Klingon B'rel-class Bird-of-prey, and a Ferengi D'kora-class Marauder), an old Star Trek 3-ship set, an A-10 Warthog kit (by Revell, I think), a Cylon Raider from the old BSG series, and a couple of other things I can't think of at the moment. Unfortunately, as I've said elsewhere on Dakka, I've got too much of a backlog of 40k stuff to paint to give those models serious thought right now.

Back on topic, I love your TIE ships, especially the Interceptor with the 181st squadron markings.

Thank you chaps!

 Archer wrote:
As others have said. Great work on the TIE ships. Did you find any different techniques required on something larger in scale than your normal offerings?

Not really. The freehand was certainly easier to put together simply as I was working on a 6" square piece rather than a tiny shoulder pad or cloak, but at the same time did need doing twice to get decent coverage, the black lining round the edges to get it all sharp. Other than that it was mostly just standard layering/a bit of drybrushing. The thing to bear in mind is that the larger the model, the more it will form its own shadows, you you don't need to take the highlight colour anywhere near as bright as on a normal sized mini.

@ZergSmasher: if you already have the models then I definitely recommend doing some! They're a great change of pace from 40k stuff, and sometimes it can be relaxing to paint something completely different and without the pressure of needing it for a game. Besides, who doesn't want a TIE Fighter, Enterprise or A-10 looking awesome on the shelf!

Been away for few days, so not a great deal of progress, but my next commission came in; the Sefadu faction from Mercs. As before, I was asked to stay pretty close to the studio scheme, and this time to do some savannah-style basing (which is still WIP, any ideas welcome).

Here's the first mini:






Still not 100% done, but getting there! Pretty happy with the reaults, I was going for a pretty vibrant look compared to the stealthy KemVar, from a quick fluff readup these guys are all about speed, shock and awe tactics.

More soon! Let me know what you think!

He looks really good Para, not sure on the basing needs some long grass if its suppose to be savannah.

Cheers! Like I say, still trying to work out the base, got to find some old brushes or something for long grass, maybe some sponge for small shrubs.

The base looks fine to me, has it been painted or is it just bare grit/sand?

Just sand and a bit of flock, I think it just needs a bit more variety. I'll play with adding some more height and some different colours when I've got a couple more done.

Looks really good para.

Really like the depth you've got in your blacks. What's your. Recipe?

Black tends to be something I vary on a model-to model basis, depending on the tone, the overall scheme and the effect I want. Sometimes, like on Bane ovcer the page, there's three or four recipes on one mini.

They typically follow two routes, though, depending on whether I want deep, hued, smooth black or stark contrast.

For the former, something like a Batcape or the armour on my League ninjas, I start with black, then work through highlights by mixing in colour (blue, grey or white work well, and I plan to experiment with purple and green at some point) until there's enough highlight to add a definite tone, but keep the overall impression that it's something black catching the light rather than something grey or blue. There should definitely be some black still showing though in the recesses, and only the uppermost highlights should be neat colour rather than coloured black.

The other way is the reverse, starting with the mid tone and using black washes (sometimes one, sometimes several) to darken it to 'black'. This is better for giving the impression of something blue/grey/whatever in heavy shadow.

This link is exceptionally helpful in the theory behind painting black, and explains it far better than I have.
http://www.critskillpeople.com/2015/07/painting-black.html/

ahem.

Great work on the TIEs there, mate, and the Mercs figure looks cool as well.

This might be a helpful and relatively cheap way to be able to do tufts (now and for quite awhile)

http://www.firestormgames.co.uk/gamers-grass-beige-tufts

Two more Mercs done! These guys are taking a little longer per model than the last lot, as the bright reds are a little more labour intensive, but I'm happy with how they're coming out. Apologies for the dark pics, it's very overcast here today.

A shotgunner:




And a Heavy:






The bases are still in progress, I ordered some of those grass tufts above (and Arrow and a set of Bane thugs... To reach the 'free shipping' threshold, of course! ) which should hopefully add some height and variety.

More soon, and the start of the DZ dio. I'm debating whether that should be just Enforcers vs Zombies or whether I should go through whole hog and do a desperate alliance of Orx, Rebs and Enforcers facing down the horde. I guess it depends on how many Zs I get painted!

As ever, thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!

Sefadu are looking good. They've got neat designs and their shotgunner is probably one of the nicest looking figures in the line. I like the way you've done the colors. They don't seem as garish and bright as the studio scheme.

I look forward to see how many zombies you can get painted.

Yeah, I do like that shotgun guy, he's up there with the KemVar Sniper that I just love! As for the colours, I wanted to keep the red red, that was the big thing. I didn't want it to go pink or orange with the highlights, so even the brighter parts are still just red.

I know naff all about Mercs but I really like those miniatures, pretty neat paint scheme as well. Have you many more to paint up for the client?

As for the Deadzone diaroma I quite like the sound of a last minute three-way anti Zombie alliance.

Cheers! Honestly I've very little idea about Mercs myself, all I know is that it's a skirmish game/boardgame with a near-future setting where mega-corporations have basically taken the place of nations. The last lot I did were KemVar, the South American based Megacon, these guys are African. The minis are certainly very nice both as designs and casts, not quite on par with Corvus Belli or Knight but getting there.

Four of these guys to go.

Should be sniper, grenadier, assault/medic, and leader I believe. I'd like to grab some more one of these days. Sefadu has some of the coolest designs, but the worst posing though. I can't tell what the assault guy is doing, the sniper is brandishing a knife, and the leader has got to be one of the most nerve-wracking figures I own. I'm afraid I'll wind up bending something every timei pick him up, and I swear his leg is slowly being bent under his own weight.

And another! I'm guessing this guy is the 'Assault' model.







And one for myself, a Deadzone Peacekeeper Captain. He's converted from the starter Captain, with an Anvil gun, Deathstroke's spare head and a SM power sword.








Not sure whether I like him or loathe him at the moment. On one hand, he's one of my best painted Enforcers and I think the conversion work is fine, on the other I'm not sure whether the scheme actually works on this model. I was looking through the Giraldez book and saw his Sun Tze, thought 'hmm, I'd like to try orange like that' and grabbed the nearest mini at hand. Does it work? That's your call!


As ever, thanks for reading, more Mercs and DZ coming soon! Let me know what you think!

That's the Sefadu Grenadier, actually. Nice work on him, too.

I think the orange looks good on the Enforcer. It looks like you've kept the brightness of the orange toned down, which keeps him from looking goofy. Yeah, I think it works.

Is that head from the Arrow styled Deathstroke?

Huh, must have missed the actual grenades! So is the Assault the guy with two arm blades?

That head is from the Origins Deathstroke, which is pretty similar to the Arrow design. There isn't an actual Arrow one yet. I have the TV Green Arrow coming in my next order, though.

Looks good to me. If you're gonna give them a face, you picked a good one for the boss.

I thought that Deathstroke was based on his TV design.

The Sefadu Grenadier has a grenade launcher on his rifle. Blade guy is classed as a Berserker. The Assault guy looks like he's landing from a jump.

The enforcer captain is pretty sweet. My favorite part of the model is his base. You did a great job. Plus it would match on the mat that comes with the game!

Cheers guys!

No progress today, but hopefully I can get something done tomorrow!