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Great story to go with what looks like a fun game! Thanks for taking the time to share it.

@Yggdrasil: It's a great set of rules. I like the rule sets by Too Fat Lardies in general but none of theirs is as quick, simple and elegant as Chain of Command is. Brilliant stuff.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks for taking the time to read it! That's what I'm always looking for in a wargame - little stories unfolding naturally and with realistic and credible outcomes (or not, if the dice decide to go crazy, but chances on that are about as high as they are in real life to lead to surprising conclusions to situations).



Okay, I'm seriously starting to gnash my teeth at the Dystopian Wars ships. So many freaking rivets. Just getting to the conclusion again that I very much prefer painting things with faces, proper bodies and so on. These little fellas here require two things: A crapton of time and precision. I'd really like to see any of these "airbrush-edge-highlight"-monkeys do that stuff. Or anything detailled. Sorry for venting, but the stuff I see these days, especially on Facebook. And they get praise for it! It's mind-boggling. Anyway, I guess I'll go take pictures. Only tiny bit more DW stuff done, I'm sorry. General things going on, can't even get administrative, communications or any other stuff done, it's insane. I'll go take pictures. I put my photo setup in another room these days so I always have to take the stuff downstairs, take pictures, take the camera upstairs, hook up, edit, and so on. No more "i'll just end the day on posting a WIP picture" in quite a while simply because it got so much more elaborate. The cost of prettier looking pictures, I guess. Meh, don't mind me rambling, I guess I'm just running through one of those burnouty phases. It's been a while. I mean it's not like I'm getting a shitton of my own private little minis done in the meantime or anything. Just nothing.

Sooo, here's the pictures now after my USB connector tried to troll me for a while.

Torpedo boats:


Three squadrond, you can tell them apart by the differently coloured trims on the top.

And here's the carrier (wip of course) and first batch of WIP fliers:


With the little things with the bases (20mm on the planes, 25mm on the torpedo boats) keep in mind that those have no texture on the top what so ever. So I had to come up with something to get them to look watery. On the wings of the panes I painted a little pattern so they look less like they're one piece and instead like they're made of plywood or just canvas over some wooden internal structure.

So that's that. Happy weekend, guys!



P.S.: Just because I just noticed it - the authors of Chain of Command are just starting a new campaign of their own and we can keep track with it via their blog:
http://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1334 Have a look if you're interested! So far they're just offering some info on the situation and the characters involved.

I'd really like to see any of these "airbrush-edge-highlight"-monkeys do that stuff. Or anything detailled.

lol. That tickled me.
Vent away. I (and more importantly your customers) appreciate the effort you put in. I'll come back to this in a bit.

Like many things, when done well the effort put in is hidden. Like the bloke that runs the stage lighting at a rock concert; the band get all the praise for a good show, but if the lighting was wrong you know who would get the blame... (not the nice chaps on stage).

Often with the "airbrush-edge-highlight"-monkey's work, it's obvious that it's been airbrushed. If done well, airbrushing should be a subtle base that lets the details shine.

But coming back to your work, it's done so well that it looks like the model hasn't been painted at all. As if they are real, teeny-tiny, people that you've persuaded to stand on a base. And you do it with a normal brush. It's very inspirational.

I was only going to say "that water looks nice", but then I read that it's all painted and there's no texture! Smashing job.
Also, the deck of the carrier. I like how you've done the planks varying in tone. A very nice touch and not something the "monkeys" do.

The monkeys comment made me laugh as well.

You might hate painting the DW minis but they do look fantastic Sigur. I painted a small Dwarf Man O War fleet a while ago and felt the same way.

The decking on the carrier looks fantastic.

Boy... I really hope you enjoy the DTW game... or have gotten paint a LOT for the commission! Can't imagine the work you've put in to get those effects.

Thanks for the kind comments, guys. I hope I didn't insult anybody, I refer to myself as paintmonkey as well because even if we somehow manage to convince ourselves to be part of "the industry", we certainly are at the low end of the ladder. Along with the kickstarterers who sell stuff nobody needs.

@Dr.H: Few days ago somebody posted some Wraithguard on the 'Eavy Metal group on facebok and it was only airbrush. That's it. And people praised the job! I know, people will start to look through these quick and easy stuffs (at least I really hope so) but boy, is it ever a tough time right now.

@GiraffeX: Yeah, I mean I don't HATE it, it's just that I've been working on those for three months. Even if I could ask for what I think the job's worth it wouldn't be worth it. But then, it never is, isn't it.

@Gitsplitta: Cheers matey. Those aren't for myself, that's purely commission stuff. Somehow I'm not feeling fantasy-ish at all, mostly doing historicals these days. Actually, I've had a bunch more WW2 stuff on the way for two months now but Battlefront, the people who make Flames of War, don't stock their own models unless they're popular it seems.

Sorry for ranting around recently, guys. Somehow I seem to hate a LOT of developments in wargaming in recent years. I mean I'm meant to love that stuff and somehow it just gets me really, really upset. Kinda like in the olden days with GW and 40k and whatnot. Weird. I only have to blame myself and my clumsy use of Facebook. I'll have to reduce that, try to build up a thicker skin against brainless chatter and constant advertisements.

Any tips on painting the watery bits of the bases for the DW Tiny Flyer Tokens, Sigur?

@Dysartes: After doing three bases only by painting little dots and such I found that a mix of painting on lighter portions (ie doing rough colouring. Like around the ships I painted a few lighter tones and between them additional darker ones. Makes them stand out a little more. With the airplanes I did it the other way around and left the sea dark right underneath and a little around them which helps for them to stand out a little better. I've seen people paint the bases of planes stripey and blurry which I also considered but that of course would only work if they flew really low and I think that it works better with the regular reflection-y sea) around ships and such, along with some sponge-ing and then a lot of manual painting of dots works pretty well. If we're talking ships you'll also need to paint some bow waves in front of and around the ships too.

Sheesh, it's been ten days again. Seriously, it's not easy staying on top of things these days and I don't quite know why. It's just annoying bits piling up. Some of you may have noticed that you can't get to my site via www.battlebrushstudios.com any more. This is because ..something has happened. I have no idea what it is but it's majorly annoying. Site worked well with the URL for a month or so and then all of a sudden it wouldn't work. I'm working on fixing stuff, domain provider people say it's not their fault, it's probably not the site's fault, I'm darned sure it's not my settings' fault (because the thing worked for weeks and I didn't change anything).

I haven't updated my site in a while, in part because I wanted to fix the URL first, but if you want to get there, use the old battlebrushstudios.blogspot.co.at for now. I'll let you know when the regular url works again.

New pictures will be up later tonight I hope, just so I got at least an update in here. (Spoiler: It's got Space Marines) Thanks for your patience.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
WIP (but pretty far) Raven Guard Captain:


WIP (but rather far, depending on how much I play around with the black) Contemptor:


The regular Contemptor dread is a bit problematic without battle damage or anything. Espcially so in black. I think that the rather dull-ish, subdued Black works rather well for Raven Guard though. What do you guys think?

Yeah I like it Siggy, the flat black works and so does the gold torso section, I really like what you've done on both models so far, Korvydae looks like an advertising shot that's the quality! :-)

Really like the look of that contemptor Siggy.

@nerdfest09: Thanks mate. I think there's also a certain "coming at ya" quality about the guy's pose which helps "sell" the mini.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks! I really wasn't sure. The Contemptor is a weird beast to paint.

Sooooo, what happened over the past days? Well, stuff of course. All very uninteresting. I spent a LOT of time doing another step-by-step painting guide for Raven Guard Space Marines which will be published at the launch of http://www.warhammer-40k-campaigns.com/. A very interesting project and the guys have been showing off some really cool artwork they did. Some of which is based on models I painted for them in the past which of course is pretty cool to see.

Other than that I had to organize some things, painted some Raven Guard Space Marines and such. On Saturday I was at a friend's wedding for the whole day. First wedding I ever attended weirdly enough. Did a lot of photography and video'ing there. So I was sitting in the church, things were well and everybody was all made up to look good. Priests were doing their thang, I looked around a bit, right to my left.. "oh, nice Madonna statue there. Might it be gothic? Wait, what's that in the glass cabinet behind it?"



So that was fun. Very long day and night though, so I spent most of today regenerating and editing pictures of the wedding and the American Civil War game on Friday:


My boys' baptism of fire in a test game of Bull Run to Gettysburg.

Both me and the Unionist players didn't know the rules, so the host offered to not only serve drinks and provide the location, table and most of the terrain but also to umpire the whole affair.




It was basically just setting up our armies in a somewhat linear fashion and give it a go to learn if the rules are any good and to get a game going.



Early on the Union troops on their side of the table of course took the opportunity and got into an abandoned farm, I tried with my guys to charge it frontally, got shot up rather badly.



My Louisiana guys ...


...got some help from their friends of the South Carolina Zouaves and infantry and some artillery from North Carolina and Tennessee.






On the right flank I had my cannon and a unit of cavalry who dismounted and took position in a small forest.


However, that didn't really scare the two Unionist cavalry squadrons off and in one of the most horseless but still fierce cavalry battles the 2nd Louisiana cavalry was kicked out of their cover and were shoo'd off the table. Whilst racing (still on foot) the union cavalry broke through the Confederate lines. One of the units ran by my artillery, but the cannon crews were fast enough to at least catch the second unit with a hailstorm of shrapnel and they had to withdraw.




In the meantime the first unionists cavalry unit had shoo'd my cavalry off the table and reformed for charging up the hill and at my artillery battery.

For the most times of the game my artillery battered the enemy artillery but only to little effect. First one of the southern batteries had a horse killed. In return my artillery killed two of their crewmen and one of the limbers.





I really like that limber model by the way. Excellent minis on that one.

Towards the end the Louisiana Tigers also made it into range of the enemy lines and fired a salvo. I rolled really well too but trying to hit infantry sitting in a building at long range and counting as loose formation still was rather ambitious. I'm sure the enemy was impressed with the trousers still.



Yeah, so it went on up until I had to leave due to having to appear at a friend's wedding early the next day.


It was rather clear though that the day and the first Battle for Ramshackle's Barn was won by the Union.




Well, maybe next time...


More (and full) pictures can be found here:
http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/games/?nggpage=24



Next: final pictures of the Dystopian Wars fleet which should have been done almost a month ago. In fact I have to redo some ships, come up with a new colour scheme for the bombers and paint the buggers within ..well, tomorrow. Along with driving a friend around for some flowerpots. Crap.

I really like those battle shots,shows that the quality of what you do isn't confined to a good light box shot lol! everything is spectacular!

@nerdfest09: Thanks very much!

Right-o, I got permission to post a teaser of the upcoming article on 40k Campaigns. Here's the subject of the upcoming painting guide:

Wonderful battle report Sigur... those are so much fun to read. You really do an excellent job with them and the fine quality of the minis just makes it that much more enjoyable.

Very nice face.. much darker facial lines.

Looking forward to the tutorial

@Gitsplitta: Thanks very much. Very glad to hear that you enjoy the battle reports. I don't get many comments on those (mostly I guess because they're rather self-contained entities to which not all that much can be said) but it certainly is good to get some feedback.

@Solar_lion: Cheers. I made it a point to have the Raven Guard faces look rather 'poorly' and somewhat haggard.

Dystopian Wars Fleet - League of the Italian States:



The big ships - an aircraft (and torpedo boat) carrier, a battleship, three cruisers:







Size comparison shots:






Bombers:


Tiny Fliers:



In front of white background - Carrier:


Battleship and Cruisers:


Torpedo Boats squadron:


Escorts squadron:


Hope you like them!

Great work Sig'. All looking fantastic.

They are looking great Sigur.

Is the smoke effect in the ACW battle just aesthetic or does it have an actual rule effect?

Crazy good... wow.

@Dr H: Thanks very much!

@GiraffeX: Cheers.

@sing your life: Well, it does add a lot to the visual spectactle of course but in the Bull Run to Gettysburg rules set we used this time it does play a role in so far as that units who fired their muskets on three turns in a row will get a malus on their next turn of firing due to bad sight/smoke, the barrels starting to warp and such things.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks very much.


Hey, people. I managed to finish the first few Ashigaru for my warband:



Hope you like them. That colour scheme turned out WAY more clean-cut and uniform than I had imagined. I'll see what I can add until next week (which is the big wargaming weekend. ACW and warband-y samurai things). At least one Samurai would be nice to have.

Hope you're having a splendid weekend!

Sigur, the face on the Raven Guard is beautiful. Amazing work.

@Joyboozer: Thanks muchly.


Update - a few Necromunda dudes. Cool models, especially of course the Scum and the Ratskin.

Update! It's cool painting GW-style figures again. Especially these of course.



Hot times are beginning around here but so far I'm alright. :p

edit: I love painting these proper 2nd edition lasguns. Especially that colour. Takes me back.

And you are making them look even better with your paint job.

@Dr H: Thanks muchly! The Underhive Scum guy with the flamer pistol really makes me want to paint my Catachans all Catachan-like.


Ha, half five in the morning update. We didn't have one of those in a while, did we?



It's really nothing special but at least I basecoated two Samurai, one with Katana and one with Naginata. Going for individuality there.

Right, heat-caused coma during the day is survived, new WIP of the samurai:

They are really nicely done, they look really individual, even though you used the same colours on both to match them up.

Beautiful as always

Looking great Sigur. Ready to jump off the page!

Awsome work as always!