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Thanks guys!

@Theo: I think I remember seeing those guys, unfortunate acronym and all! Good stuff!

@Thraxas: Like most of what I paint, it was kind of the 'make it up as I go along' method, However, if I recall, it was Vallejo Dark Earth mixed with Iyanden Darksun (think that's now Averland Sunset or something like that) for the first few layers, a little more yellow in each time, then an Agrax wash, then yellow again with some ivory/sand mixed in. The last few layers (actually, everything after the wash) were actually just very lightly drybrushed on, gradually building up the highlights. Hardly any paint on the brush and nice light and quick strokes, that's what gives it the smooth transition despite drybrushing typically giving a rougher result.

No painting in the last couple of days, been hobbying away on something that I'm keeping under wraps for now, should be able to reveal it soon though in one form or another... To whet your appetite... It involves rules! It involves spaceships and robots and robot spaceships! It involves some really, really, really tiny minis... SPOILERS!

Got a game of X-wing scheduled for tomorrow night, should be a blast as it'll be the first time I've played properly with someone I'm not teaching the rules to. I'll let you know how that goes.

So yeah. more minis, Marines and otherwise, coming soon!

I'm intrigued... When will we get the full reveal?

Good luck with the Xwing game. Remember, be unpredictable. I always loved the look on my opponent's face when I do an obvious and 'terrible' move and because they expect something else it usually works out for the best.

Basically when it's done! Can't be more specific than that, though I hope to have the various elements workable some time this weekend. It's something very different to anything I've done before really, but should be very cool! Been working on the project with a fellow Dakkanought for a while now, although we're only just reaching the point where we have something solid to show for it. Don't expect anything groundbreaking, but it's certainly a little different!

Probably be a Marine or two before then, though!

I'll likely end up just winging it tomorrow, like I say it'll be my first proper game. Still, I've played a few games against various AI programs and taught a couple of people, so I have the rules down well enough, hopefully!

Those space marines all look fantastic, but I really like the Carachadon, and the minotaur.

The Minotaur is one of my favorites as well

Another Marine added to the collection today, an Executioners Chapter Tactical Sergeant:


Pretty pleased with him, the face isn't actually as good as it was at one point in the process so I might replace that, but other than that I think he's come out all right.

And now for something completely different, the aforementioned Top Secret project. Which I guess as of now isn't that top secret!

For some time now, Dakka user Wolf and I have been working on an unofficial ruleset for Battlestar Galatica fleet combat, and as we near completion of the first draft (should be up some time weekend for perusal and critique) he was kind enough to send me some ships over to get playtesting. So first up is a Colonial Battlestar, not the titular Galactica but the Battlestar Perseus. Which it turns out isn't technically a Mercury Class like the pic says as I glued the wrong Flight Pods on, but oh well!



And next, a Viper Squadron. One Original Series Viper and one new series Viper II here, in game they represent a squadron of 20-odd ships:


Obviously to anyone who's seen the show, these aren't to scale with the Battlestar itself, but to meet that requirement they'd have to be about 0.5mm long! I ain't painting that! To give you an idea of the size of these (they're tiny!) here's a scale shot with the Perseus and the Space Marine.


So massive thanks to Wolf for the minis, and for allowing me to take part in the project! I'm a relative newcomer to BSG, I only started watching a few weeks ago (just about to finish series 2, no spoilers, people! ) but am already a big fan, and hopefully the game we've put together can live up to that! Got a few more Battlestars and fighter squadrons to do up, and I'll be ordering a few Cylon ships in the not-too-distant future.


That's all for now, thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!

Very cool stuff there para! I still need to actually watch BSG one of these days.

Also that pose on the marine looks oddly familiar

Haha, yeah, he might have been slightly inspired by your awesome RG dude!

You should definitely find the time to watch it, it's fantastic, probably up there with Firefly as the benchmark for awesome TV sci-fi.

Cool minis as usual Para, always looking awesome. How long does a Marine on average take you? You seem to krank 'em out pretty fast.

That executioner marine is awesome. Really dramatic stuff. More great stuff Para

BSG...... Yeah . Where do I sign up?

It's all happened before....

Huh cool. Nice marine and nice little ships

Great build and paint on the marine. I see you're becoming more of a confident storyteller with your assembly and posing.

Frack. Yeah.

Hey it's my absolute pleasure Para !

You've done a superb job on the paintjobs, and I aim to get my squadrons looking like yours. Nice and weathered to perfection

Look forward to getting the game out there for you lovely folk to test !

Only just into season ( series damn it!) two of BSG? No spoilers but you had better start listening to some Bob Dylan...

 Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
Only just into season ( series damn it!) two of BSG? No spoilers but you had better start listening to some Bob Dylan...

Haha Good advice

 Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
Only just into season ( series damn it!) two of BSG? No spoilers but you had better start listening to some Bob Dylan...

Such a good TV series

Ta chaps!

WarbossDakka wrote:Cool minis as usual Para, always looking awesome. How long does a Marine on average take you? You seem to krank 'em out pretty fast.

It varies a lot, depending on the build, the textures I need to paint, that sort of thing. For models in primarily dark armour and metallics, I can get most of the work done with drybrushes, washes and wet blends and they tend to take 90 minutes tops (the Minotaur, Astral Claw, Executioner and Carachadon all took that long or a bit less), brighter ones like the Star Phantom and Lamenter take a bit longer as the colours need to be built up with more layers. So probably closer to 2 hours for them. 28mm minis rarely take me more than that, larger ones obviously take a bit longer.

Azazelx wrote:Great build and paint on the marine. I see you're becoming more of a confident storyteller with your assembly and posing.

Thanks. That's definitely something I'm putting more thought into now, good to know it's starting to pay off!

Excellent on every count! Executioner is brilliant. BSG ships gritty like the show. You're watching BSG - about time!

Can't wait to see more.

I've watched a few videos of people doing specific techniques on minis on youtube videos, but I'd actually love to watch you paint a mini from start to finish. If it is a 90 minute process, I think I could just sit there all the way through and watch the thing emerge! Models like that would take me AGES.

The Executioner is ace. I have a load of the technical paint myself, ready to go on my Astral Claws corpse taker and his dissection servitors. Is it easy to use?

Once you complete the set of Badab Marines, what do you plan to do with them? Will they go on display somewhere? I can imagine that even Forgeworld itself would love to have them on display next to the Forgeworld Books at Warhammer World, and that most FLGS owners would bite off their own right arm to put them on display.

BSG is one of my favourite ever shows, behind only The Wire and level with Spartacus and Friday Night Lights. I've watched it all the way through about five or six times! This won't make sense if you are only on season 2, but All Along the Watchtower has become one of my favourite songs. I've had no urge at all to play Star Wars but BSG would tempt me.

Thanks guys!

@Fifty: I think a painting video would undermine any credibility I have! You'd get to see all the shortcuts and cut corners that go on that aren't noticeable in the final product! That said, I could probably look into doing some video tutorials, on specific colours or techniques, I'll have to see what the video recorder on my camera is like.

The Blood tech paint is dead easy to use. I've applied it in two ways here, just painted on quite thick over the axe and the Power Fist as blood gushes out from the severed head (what a lovely thought first thing in the morning! ), then took an old, stiff brush, thinned it a little and flicked it on with my finger from the angle of impact (so following the direction the axe would be used in), that's how you get the splatter effect you can see on the shoulder pad and arm.

They are probably destined for the shelf, to be honest! I don't actually have a gaming store locally either at home or at uni that I'm familiar enough with to have them displayed at.... Might see about sending some of the better ones into the White Dwarf team, can't hurt!

Stay tuned for more later, I aim to get another Battlestar, some squadrons and a Marine painted up today.

I'm quite interested in your Galactica ruleset. Your models for it look great. Are the vipers hand sculpted?

I assume this is the first Cylon war? They look like the MkII Vipers?

Productive day today!

First off the paint desk is another Marine (I'll get bored of them eventually, just not yet! ), a Mantis Warrior.


Got off to a shaky start as I couldn't get the green right, but I think I've pulled it back to something decent. One or two areas definitely show that they're old parts that haven't been fully stripped, but there's not a lot I can do about that to be honest. I do like the sense of motion I've achieved in the pose, he's definitely stalking a target, I think.

And that gives me representatives of each of the Chapters that sided with Huron at Badab, so without further ado, TRAITORS!

And on the BSG front, another Battlestar and two more squadrons (one Viper, one Raptor) added to the fleet. Need to go back and get some proper pics of the Battlestar, I'll get around to that later.


@Warboss: Nah, these are from Fox Miniatures, I believe. I did try my hand at some scratch-built Vipers and while they looked all right from a distance, compared to these they're pretty pathetic! These are actually pretty nicely detailed for the size (the metal ones moreso than the resins, which I think are from a different manufacturer). Should have a working draft of the rules up tomorrow, just need to finalise some bits and bobs.

@AoV: They are indeed MkIIs, most are actual TOS designs as well as that's what I was given. But aesthetically, I'd take a MkII over a MkVII any day, they're just so much cooler! The rules will cover either war, IIs and VIIs will have different rules.


That's all for now, thanks for looking! Let me know what you think!

Man look at you go. Nice work!

Traitors

Mantis Warrior look great , Battlestars look good as well, cant wait to see the whole line up.

Ta chaps!

Appalling spelling in the combined pic corrected...

The full lineup of Battlestars at the moment is one more Mercury Class, another custom one and then another 2 Viper Squadrons and 2 more Raptor Squadrons. Then I need to get some funds together and order some Toasters! And Galactica... And Pegasus...

Mantis looks tops Para. Not sure which of the traitors you've done is my fav now.....
You using phtoscape to make the collage like for the Mantis marine....few big and a few smaller detail shots stitched together?

Yep, I'm using the Page function, just sets up boxes to drag and drop the pics into. I don't tend to take actual detail shots, I just take one from each angle and zoom in for stuff like the shoulder pad pics and such.