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Cool stuff. Nice work on the Chaos dudes, the mech stuff is very nice too.

EDC

They look really good. Are those the 15mm or the 6mm versions? I've been wanting to get a Goshawk myself, but I haven't been able to pull the trigger on one yet.

 Barzam wrote:
They look really good. Are those the 15mm or the 6mm versions? I've been wanting to get a Goshawk myself, but I haven't been able to pull the trigger on one yet.

These are 6mm. I have a few of the 15mm versions, and they are nice (and easier to work with), but these itty-bitty ones have been mocking me for too long, so they get done first.

Those walkers look pretty cool. You could always keep an eye out for different/unique decals. Hasslefree do things like greek letters and Warlord do a variety of symbols. Battlefront have various ones for their 15mm models based on various nations' iconography.

That's not a bad idea. These are 6mm-scale, though, so any transfers would have to be pretty tiny-- something like Company B makes for 28mm infantry. Once I finish the next batch, I might just try re-scaling and printing them on inkjet transfer paper. It's not like I don't have more than I can ever use.

Wow, has it been two years for those. I have one of the 15mm walkers that he did before the KS. I didn't have funds for the KS, were the rules good or rubbishy

I honestly have no idea, I only backed for the models. The beta rules should still be available on the Mecha Front site, though.

And now for the last part of my Painting Challenge for March:


These are Nor-Am Raptors ((L-R: Beta, Gamma, Alpha) from Paulson Games. I went with a blue-grey on these, to distinguish them from the tan I did on the last batch, and also because I'm sick of army green. After all the trouble I had magnetizing the Goshawks from the last update, I decided to just glue the weapons on. They were much easier to work with.



These two are Nor-Am Lynxes. I was going to do one with missile pods, but when I opened the package, there were two left pods and no right. Of course, I noticed this after I glued on the secondary guns. Not wanting to knock everything apart, I added the dual machine guns, giving me an upgunned Beta to go with the Gamma. As with everything from Paulson Games, these models are crisp and nearly devoid of mold lines. I kind of which I had the full set I backed for in the Kickstarter. After two years of delays, I don't have much hope that I will ever get them. Ah, well, it's not like I don't have enough to paint. Here's a group shot of everything I painted for the March Challenge:


As always, I did a lot of washes on these 'bots, so I had a lot of drying time to kill. I did these guys while waiting:












These are, of course, Chaos Thugs from 1986 or so. They all predate Slaves to Darkness. Back when I first started collecting, pretty much every model that Citadel made was a unique sculpt, and it was possible to build an army with almost no repeated models. They started producing more uniform regiments pretty quickly, and I rather prefer those for things like Elves, but for Chaos these guys are still the ideal for me.

Finally, something that has been mocking me for years:



This is the Flaming Scimitar, from the much-reviled Dreadfleet. I ordered a copy of the game from The Warstore back when the Yen was really, really strong (also, I may have been a little drunk at the time), and even now I don't regret it. The little ships are fun to build and paint, and everything is so different from the models I normally work on. This particular ship has been sitting in my painting station for a long, long time. Along the way, the elementals broke off, and I managed to spill brush cleaner or something all over the ship itself, requiring a strip-down and repaint. Once I got started, it only took about three days to finish. As of now, I have three more ships and then all the limited edition skull rocks to finish.

I have a few odds and ends in the painting queue that need to be finished before I start on my April challenge. At this point, I'm not sure what I want to do next: Samurai, Lovecraftian monsters and investigators, Orc/Goblins, or Ogres. I suppose Dungeon Saga should be in there as well. Deadzone needs some loving, but after a month of robots I want to do something besides SF for a while. What should I choose? Take the poll and help me decide!

The Dreadfleet ship looks great, but you know I really love what you've done with those thugs. Sadly I never got more than a handful of them at best (much more limited funds in those days) and I concentrated on the champions and some of the warriors. Damn I'm jealous of those guys, and you've applied a classic paintjob to them as well.

Thanks. These thugs were pretty easy to paint, as they are essentially half-naked bodybuilders with some fetish gear. I have some other, weirder ones waiting for repainting, but they will have to wait for downtime during my April challenge.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Samurai are clearly in the lead for April. I have started prepping some ashigaru to finish off a couple of under-strength units. In the meantime, here are a couple of things that have been sitting in the queue for a while:






This is Reaper's Jabberwock, which I picked up in the Bones I Kickstarter. For what I paid for it, it was a good deal, but the material is so soft and the limbs so spindly that I can't get it to stand up straight. Also, I opted not to bother cleaning mold lines. I had planned to use it as a Winged Slasher for either KoW Orc or Goblins, but when I finally assembled it, it was too sinuous to take a mount. I may add a handler model sometime in the future. It can also work as a monster in a Varangur/Chaos army, so it will probably see some use.




And this is the Shadewraith from Dreadfleet. I had clipped this one off the frame and then left it in the box. After finishing the Flaming Scimitar earlier in the week, I remembered that I had this one waiting and cranked it out over a couple of mornings. It's a pretty basic base-wash-drybrush job, but it works well enough, I think. Only two more ships left, then all the terrain. I may actually have a playable game by summertime.

Nice work on those Dreadfleet ships. My local store has the box on discount, and I always pause when I walk past it. You're not helping!

The Jabberwock is a lovely shade of green that really fits with the weird and contorted body it's got going on. Like a mutant basilisk!

I have no real idea how Dreadfleet plays, but the tiny ships are fun to paint, and the seascape cloth is pretty nice. It was something of an impulse purchase, but I don't really regret it.

The green on the Jabberwock just sort of came together. I had a hard time deciding what colors to use, and the internet wasn't particularly helpful in that regard.

Dreadfleet looked neat....too bad we got hyped up that it was "Man-O-War" revised and then the scale was off.....and the price. My local store still has one on the shelf, they didn't send it back when they could because they thought it might one day be a collectors item

Edit: Voted, I also want to see more Samurai.

 Theophony wrote:
Dreadfleet looked neat....too bad we got hyped up that it was "Man-O-War" revised and then the scale was off.....and the price. My local store still has one on the shelf, they didn't send it back when they could because they thought it might one day be a collectors item

Edit: Voted, I also want to see more Samurai.

I probably wouldn't have bought the game if the yen hadn't been so strong at the time. There are still a couple of boxes floating around the shops I order from, and I suspect that there will be for some time.

I have a dozen ashigaru (eight spearmen and 4 arquebusiers) based and primed. I hope to be able to show them mid-week. Thanks to everyone who voted.

Much like the Republican majority in the Senate, I feel that the voters should have a say in how this pblog is run. Unlike said Senators, I will actually do my job. April will be dedicated to samurai, specifically the models I got in the first and second Kickstarter projects from Steel Fist Miniatures. This first batch are ashigaru:




These are, of course, spearmen. Technically, they aren't finished because I haven't added static grass or sheet magnet to their bases. The static grass is not entirely necessary, but the magnet is, as all of these guys are both top-heavy and leaning forward far enough that they fall over if I even look at them funny. I plan to combine them with eight spearmen from Kingsford and turn them into a legal regiment for KoW. I have another four very old, very ugly ashigaru from Dixon to fill out the back rank until I can get around to the remaining for Kingsfor guys whose spears don't really fit.


I also picked up a pack of arquebisiers (sp?) to fill out a couple of incomplete troops for Kings of War. Two of these guys have slots to insert sashimono, but there weren't any in the set. I have a whole bunch lying around, but none that match the ones the Kingsford guys are wearing, so I may just leave them off. I'm still short four models, so I want to find a couple of leader-types and a couple of ammo bearers to fill out the units.

The paint jobs on these guys are pretty rough, although they don't look as bad in person as they do in these photos. The models themselves are nice enough, but knowing that they will be stuck inside blocks of 10 and/or 20, I felt disinclined to lavish much attention on them. The next batch are much more interesting, though, so I'll spend more time on them.

Speaking of which, I suddenly have a lot less time for painting/modelling. My son started elementary school this month, and my wife (bless her heart) is getting up 30 minutes earlier to make his lunch while I focus on getting him ready. I find myself with about 30 minutes in the morning on school days (less if I decide to check forums or whatnot), which isn't leaving much time to find my groove every day. I still hope to average 1 model a day for the year, but it will be tight.

1 model a day eh? An ambitious target! Good luck!

Nice work on the spearmen and rifle dudes btw.

EDC

 evildrcheese wrote:
1 model a day eh? An ambitious target! Good luck!

Nice work on the spearmen and rifle dudes btw.

EDC

One a day= 365+ in a year. I pulled that off more than 400 last year with some marathon painting over summer break.

I'm not 100% satisfied with them, but they'll work well enough ranked up, I think.

They are excellent and you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. Plus 365+ is huge, I need to crank out some more to get back to that goal.

Thanks for the kind words. I'm still less than pleased with the spearmen, but they will disappear into a block of similar troops, so I won't lose too much sleep over them. I'm putting a lot more effort into this week's models, though.

In retrospect, one-a-day wasn't that difficult, if only because sixty of them were Mantic zombies done with Quickshade. That still counts, though.

When I finally paint these Mulfins they will each count as one too, so yes padding the numbers is a time honored tradition

After finishing those (rather disappointing) spearmen last week, I have a reasonable number of troops for a KoW army. That said, I am still lacking in heroes. This weeks painting aims to address this issue:





This is an ashigaru battle standard bearer, one of two which came with Ii Naomasa. Like most support units, standard bearers were chosen from the ranks of ashigaru, leaving the higher-ranked samurai free to gain glory in battle. Nonetheless, carrying one of the lord's banners was a prestigious job, and I made this guy a little more colorful to reflect this fact. I didn't paint his eyes because he doesn't have any, just little slits. He is, however, rocking a killer sideburns-and-moustache combination. I'm honestly not sure what the standard topper is supposed to be, so I painted it grey.





This is the other standard bearer from the set. He's wearing a sort of scale mail, rather then the more typical lamellar armor. The standard he carries is a little easier to figure out than the other one. Here they are together:


The standards are brass wire and resin. The models are top-heavy and forward leaning, so they fall over all the time-- a problem I've had with every army standard I've ever painted. I have two more standard bearers waiting for me to finish their flags, and then four high-rank cavalry heroes. I was hoping to get more done this month, but them's the breaks.

He's showing off the trophy banner that they took from that Lorax fellow


Your Samurai army looks fabulous, I am just a silly Gaijen, but I love watching hollywood samurai movies and I get a real feel for these guys.

Cool banners. Although at first I thought the guy with the epic sideburns had a weird balloon.

EDC

 evildrcheese wrote:
Cool banners. Although at first I thought the guy with the epic sideburns had a weird balloon.

EDC

That's as good a guess as any.

Theo: Samurai are one of the most aesthetically interesting armies to build. They look like something from some fantasy setting, but were in fact real, so you can find tons of real-life examples for painting and organization. I love working on these models, despite all my complaining.

And now, without further ado, are two more banner bearers:





I finished the guys at the same time as the other two I posted previously, but I had to wait for a clear day to finish the transfers I made of the Nanbu family crest. The banners themselves are etched brass, and they were more difficult to work with than I thought. I think I need to get a smaller pair of pliers. Also, I can't decide if the tall one is too plain or not. I found images of a real Nanbu banner, and that's what I painted it as, but there is so much white left. I wonder if I shouldn't add an inscription.

Anyway, now I have four battle standards for KoW, with at least another four that came with the Toyotomi Hideyoshi I got from Steel Fist a couple months ago. But first, I need to finish a few cavalry models.

Your samurai - and especially the banners are looking great. I'm looking forward to the group shot for this month!

Awesome stuff! Those banners are quite impressive.

Great job on those. What Banner is the most recent?

Thanks, everyone. Despite my reservations, I think these will look nifty on the tabletop. Assuming I ever actually play...

carlos13th: The guys were painted at the same time, but the flags with the mon were finished about a week after the other two.

Sorry what I mean is who's mon is being displayed on the flags?