Paint My Present!

Hi folks,

With Christmas looming, it is time to take stock of the projects I am working on for my mates. Ideally, I want to get all of these done before Christmas Day, which is going to take some shenanigans. Thankfully, I am only two weeks away from school holidays, which should give me some free time.


1) Grey Knights

The Trooper has been on a real painting kick this year, getting heaps of models finished for his Blood Angels army. I gave him these Grey Knights a couple of years ago as a moving in present (to ward off lingering Daemons and all that...), and he decided to have a craic at them too. With all of the base colours and the most important washes done, these guys are ready for some detail work. Included in this lot is Grand Master Voldus, who I would like to spend some extra time on.

2) Haramaki Zensenbutai with Missile Launcher
 

This guy is a left over from last year's epic 300 pt Yu Jing speed paint-fest. After playing his Infinity army a couple of times proxying a missile launcher, The Trooper actually went out and bought one of the blighters. Having painted a couple of them last year, I am pretty confident I can knock over this job quickly. I am not looking forward to taking him on again on the tabletop; last game this model sniped from a rooftop and took out the majority of my Ariadna force single-handed.



3) Ghost Bear Mechs

These miniatures for Battletech are long overdue, but I have been making quite a bit of progress with them. I'm hoping to get the last three finished for KuriboGoomba by the start of next week. Just a dozen or so tiny lenses to go...


4) Guija Yu Jing TAG

Sgt Waz got up to this stage before running out of steam; all airbrushing and washes by the looks of it. To free him up to do some more pressing projects, I have agreed to finish this one off for KuriboGoomba as well. NMM is the standard for these figures, so I am going to go slightly crazy painting this one.


5) Sapphon, Dark Angels Master of Chaplains

Something for me! This guy is going to have a jump pack and bounce around with my newly reformed Assault Squad. I have been using this model on-and-off since I started playing the game; super excited to be finally painting it ;-)

See you across the table,

Marc

Infinity: XCOM Marauder TO-DONE!

"Won’t even know what hit ‘em."

Hi folks,

I snapped the drill bit of my pin vice this afternoon, so most of the work I was doing has been put on hold. Curses!

To make myself feel better, I completed a test miniature for the Marauder models in my XCOM themed USAriadna army. If you don't know what XCOM is, then I don't know if we can be friends anymore...

Seriously though, UFO: Enemy Unknown was my favourite game as a teenager and that is a BIG call. We were all playing Doom, TIE Fighter and Mechwarrior around the same time, but the unique combination of alien mythology, turn-based strategy, real-time strategy, character progression, economics, exploration, base construction and resource management made this game an absolute killer. It was one of those games that left you with stories to tell at school the next day. Thankfully, the recent reboot did the game justice, all the way down to the soldiers who can't hit the side of a barn with a fist full of grain.

When I was introduced to Infinity for the first time, I thought about XCOM straight away. It was probably all the reaction shots I was soaking up! When Sgt Waz deposited a big box of USAriadna on me, my fate was sealed. I'll be creating a special homage to my favourite game by painting my Infinity figures as members of XCOM. Here's a pic I found on the net that gives you a good (cute?) idea of the various components of the paint scheme:

The Marauders are in between Grunts and Minutemen in the Ariadna list, when it comes to infantry. It made sense to paint them as if they were in Personal Armour. I will be painting my Grunts as Rookies and my Minutemen as Power Suits. The last scheme (Flying Suits) will be reserved for special occasions. I also have a few Traktor MULs to represent the robotic tanks you used to get and a Devil Dog team, because nothing screams XCOM like dubious alliances with aliens ("X-rays").

 

"Check your position. Rocket off course."

Next job: buy a new drill bit for my pin vice! I have so many 40K projects rolling at the moment, that all involve conversion work. This, however, has been a fun interlude :-)

See you across the table,

M4cr0

Infinity: Yu Jing-le Bells

Hi folks,

This year I have been dipping my toes into Infinity. It is an attractive option for my gaming group due to the relatively low model count and the incredibly beautiful sculpts on offer. The rule set has its highs and lows, but all of the games we have played so far have been fun: the proof is in the pudding.

At our age, the main difficulty in starting a new gaming system is Hobby Inertia. That gravely voice in your gut that asks: "Do you really want to learn another rule-set? Do you really want to buy another two Core troop choices? Do you really want to paint another army?" and invariably "Do you really want to try and fit another game into your gaming sessions?"

To ease us through the Hobby Inertia, Sgt Waz has bought some starter armies for us during the past 12 months. For Christmas, Sgt Waz and I teamed up to paint a 300 pt army of Yu Jing (Japanese Sectorial Army) for The Trooper. The Trooper and I have traveled to Japan together twice, including a pilgrimage to many sites that Miyamoto Musashi is known to have visited, the highlight of which was Reigando Cave, where Musashi wrote The Book of Five Rings:

We kicked off the project with an epic construction session, putting everything together and laying down the undercoat and first glazes together. After that we parted ways for a week, Sgt Waz taking a special character to work on with his prodigious painting ability, leaving the bulk of the force to be speed-painted by myself.

Miyamoto Musashi

When it came to picking a special character to lead the army, Musashi was an obvious choice. I can only claim credit for the base, which I kept as simple as possible. At that stage I was wielding a brush in one hand and a hair dryer in the other! I used Astrogranite Debris textured paint that has been washed with Nuln Oil and highlighted with Dawnstone, followed by Seraphim Sepia wash on the flatter surfaces. Here is the finished model, painted by Sgt Waz:

Shikami

For a second character we chose a Shikami; very handy for completing objectives. The Shikami doesn't actually have a model yet, so we had to improvise! We used a Kempeitai model as a proxy, which I had been holding onto for an occasion such as this. The model was undercoated white, followed by a heavy Nuln Oil wash. "Hakama"/pants were painted in US Grey (Vallejo Model Air range). White details were picked out using several thin white coats. Grey areas were glazed with Eshin Grey, leaving the edges clear to provide a highlight. Red areas were painted Mephiston Red, then given a liberal Biel-Tan green wash. Mephiston Red and Blood Red were then added to provide depth.

After completing all of that at a blistering pace, I slowed down and blended the sword (Kabalite Green) and painted/highlighted the combi-rifle carefully, to give wandering eyes something to latch on to. There is a fine line between detailing a speed-painted miniature and painting lipstick on a dog; I think I have done alright here. Finally,  I am not great at painting eyes, having avoided them to a great extent during my 20 years of collecting Space Marines, Tyranids and Battlemechs. This was my first go at "manga eyes"; I still have a lot of practicing to do:

To bulk out the force we chose two groups of heavy infantry with a distinct samurai style: Haramaki Zensenbutai and Domaru Butai. Both were undercoated white and washed with a light grey to provide subtle shading. This was followed by a selective Nuln Oil Gloss wash to pick out the tubing, which is a major design feature of both infantry sculpts. Details were picked out using Mephiston Red and the procedure described above. The eyes were all painted Kabalite Green and highlighted with a lighter shade (1:3 Kabalite Green/White Scar White). 

Haramaki Zensenbutai

"Haramaki" is a type of armour that a Samurai (or retainer) would wear on their chest, which encloses their sides and back as well.

Haramaki armour

 "Zensen" is sometimes used to mean front-line. Butai is used as we would use the word "force". Roughly translated, Haramaki Zensenbutai are an "armoured front-line force". I liked the sound of that! The swords on these guys are all Kabalite Green wet blends. Hakama"/pants and blitzen were painted in US Grey (Vallejo Model Air range).

 Haramaki Zensenbutai with DA CCW

 

Haramaki Zensenbutai with Contender 

 

Haramaki Zensenbutai with Combi-rifle 

 

Haramaki Zensenbutai with DA CCW

 

 

Domaru Butai

"Domaru" is another type of chest armour worn by Samurai and their retainers in the 11th century.

Domaru Armour

I painted the "Haidate" (thigh armour) Tank Ochre (Vallejo Model Air range), followed by an Athonian Camoshade wash to add shading and a Biel-Tan green glaze to alter the colour slightly. The E/M swords were represented by Liche Purple/White Scar wet blends. The small exhaust ports/thrusters at the back were painted Kabalite Green, maintaining the limited pallet.

Domaru Butai with E/M CCW 

 

Domaru Butai with E/M CCW

 

Domaru Butai with Boarding Shotgun 

 

Domaru Butai with Spitfire

 

I would like to thank Sgt Waz for letting me be his wing-man on this project; we got a lot more done than I ever would have expected. I delivered the Christmas gift yesterday to a very happy Trooper, who will soon be unleashing them upon us on the table top!

Check out those ALDI Christmas trees :o)

See you across the table,

M4cr0

Infinity: USAriadna Army Pack Unboxing

...because I don't have enough things to paint LOL

Hi folks,

Last Tuesday, when I met up with the guys for a game of Aliens vs Predator, Sgt Waz surprised me with this pack of awesome sauce. He has recently been getting into Infinity and is doing a good job of easing the rest of us into it as well. The challenge with picking up a new game like this is making sure you have people to play against; Sgt Waz has that covered pretty well.

The pack contains 8 miniatures, which is enough to play a small game, a bunch of tokens, 3d20, quick start rules and a bunch of card buildings with a playing mat. That's a substantial kick-start!

If you aren't familiar with the game, Infinity miniatures are wonderfully detailed but a little smaller than what I am used to. So I'm feeling excitement mixed with a healthy dose of nervousness as I get ready to paint them. It doesn't help that the guys who paint for Corvus Belli are outrageously good.

The Ariadna faction encompasses a few different futuristic takes on some contemporary nationalities, including Scottish, French, Russian and American troops. The US contingent includes Rangers, Special Forces, Werewolf type things, some vaguely Chuck Norris guys and a bit of Clint Eastwood. Did I mention pretty girls on bikes?

I spent a bit of time yesterday putting the card buildings together, they were very easy and required no glue or cutting. Simple but effective.

So, I am adding these guys to the To-Do list under the "Paint My Present" category. I want to knock them over fairly quick so that I can start playing!

See you across the table,

M4cr0