Triad Boss WIP

In a final push to clean out the closet this year, I've decided to finish my Triad Boss. There's a bit of time left in the year, so I reckon I can do it, but here's a WIP in the meantime. I tried to freehand some cherry blossoms on his kimono, that didn't work, and will be painted over. Otherwise it just feels good to be getting on with this guy.

One of the antlers on his helmet broke, and I had to green stuff him a new one. I'm not particularly happy with the result, but with the paint on him, if you don't look too closely, it's not too bad. A couple of hours this evening should see him done, and based to match the rest of his troops. Then to stat them up for Rogue Stars.

Sneak Peak

What am I working on now? Hint...

Now that's what I call Old Skool!

Khador Caster Challenge, Irusk update

This is not a full post for the Khador Caster Challenge, but just a quick update with a final version of Irusk. I was initially unsure what to do with his base, however, I found some trench bases I had made way back for Strakov and his Assault Kommandos, and appropriated one for Irusk. The thing with Irusk, however, is once he plants his feet somehere, he's all but inpossible to displace. He was so well stuck onto the base he was on, I had to hack the base to bits with my wirecutters to get him off. Fortunately, any damage to his feet during that process, and the subsequent pinning, were completely hidden by the trenchworks.

Initially I had a yellow leaf stuck to the trench mud as well as the red one, picking out colours from his scheme, but the yellow one seems to have fallen off along the way.

Speaking of Strakov, here's a quick WIP of him, as I started him for the June entry in my challenge. The eyes seemed a little cartoonish, but my fix seems more like my brush slipped. I'm  going to have to go back over his face.

Dystiopan Legions: French Legionaires WIP

I am getting through building the pile of minis that comes in the Iron Scorpion boxed set, there are a lot to get through, many of which went together really easily. many, but not all.

I have not quite given up on building the Antarticans, but the automata are in 6-7 pieces each, and are a pain in the ass to build, so that's going slowly, and the Warmaster limited figure needs a whole bunch of cleaning up, due to flash at his feet, which really must be removed to put him on his special base. With these points in mind, it was much easier to start with the Frenchies.

I've put together all of the French models that came in the boxed set, and have moved on to painting them, finally. The first WIPs can be seen here. The scheme is pretty much the studio scheme, as I've stuck with the historical background for my KoB army and figured I'd do the same with these. The Covenant figures, being completely fictional, can obviously be done as I please.

More painting hopefully this evening.

Colore ton Monde: Alten Ashley I

Some WIPs for this month's Colore ton Monde challenge mini. I went with the monster hunter angle, rather than the monster itself, which is of course covered by the always flexible monthly theme (go here to see October's theme). So here are the first shots of Alten Ashley.

Alten is very much close to being done. These are only WIPs for two reasons. First off, I started painting his sword that sticks onto his back at the same time I started painting him, but by the time I got round to finishing him, I had misplaced the sword. This is very annoying, and I hope it turns up, however, if Alten is ever using his sword in a game, that game is not going well for him!

The second reason is that, as always, I was very happy with the way he was looking, till I saw the pictures. My eyes are just not what they used to be. So, I'll be going back over the mini, mainly to sort out his hair and face.

The plants on his base are some chopped up plastic aquarium plants that I recently re-purposed (all the fish have finally passed on in our tank, so I had to doe something with all the bits). They work rather well I feel. I went with thistles, as they are purple and cream, which fits in with my other mercs, without me having to give him a garish purple coat, thereby breaking his camouflage. There is also a little purple on his boot-knife, just to keep him on theme.

Here's a close up of the face. I was trying a couple of new things here. First off, the stubble, and secondly, giving a tint to the bottom lip. Both f these to give more character to the paint job. However, I'm not sure either works with my normal way of doing eyes, i.e. ignoring them and letting the inks do the job of suggesting the presence of eyes.

It was this picture that convinced me I'll have to go back and get out the little paintbrushes before I'm happy with this guy.

Kingdom of Britannia: Light Dragoons WIP

Back to the Dystopian legions for a bit with the Light Dragoons. The lull in their release schedule means I can get well on my way to having a fully painted collection for my Kingdom of Britannia force.  After these guys are done, I'll only have the tank, the Black Watch to finish, and the Russian Mercs to do.

These guys have been looking at me from my shelf for a few months, but I decided, with this month's Colore ton Monde out of the way early, the path was clear.

It says something about the level of interest of this game, when I do a Google search for painted versions of these for some inspiration, and th most hits are links to my own blog! That may be the effect of my Google bubble, but I fear it's also indicative of the state of Dystopian Legions, in that there are not many others out there painting these.

Still, by painting these at the Oldies last night, at least they got some local interest, so another match may be on the horizon soon!

I now have two full units assembled, as pictured here. A bit of overkill, I'm sure, but there's at least 1 scenario that calls for that, plus the lack of units available for the game means I can use two for a bit of variety. I have distinguished between them in their bases. One unit having tiles on the bases, ad the other having remnants of fences they've just trodden over.

Colore ton Monde: December II

As I mentioned in my last post for this month's challenge, finding minis to paint in a winter theme is not an issue, anfterall I have two warmahordes armies that fit the bill. So here we have some pics of my painted Blackfrost Shard figure. Well, one of the three brothers to start.

The cape came out much better than I expected. I was left wondering how to complete the runes round the cloak edge, but a simple dab or two of Mithril Silver over the runes, then a dark blue wash and they look fine.

The other two members of the unit better jump up to the front of the paint queue before I forget how I did this guy!

Going to have to go back and finish the face, it's looking really crude and unfinished there.

Terrier Ironclad WIP

I started painting the Terrier Ironclad the other night. I went with the same blue scheme as I used for the Bassets. I am finding it more of an issue to paint such a large vehicle. I undercoated with gesso, and there was my first issue. In my rush to get the model assembled, I took it right out of the box and put it together, without giving it a wash before hand. As I had previously noted with my Bassets, if you do this to such large pieces of resin, you have an issue with left over release agent. This led to some parts of the model rejecting the undercoat. Worse, once I started with the base coat of a thin wash of blue and black, I noticed some of the undercoat peeling off, and other larger areas hidden between the tracks and the main body of the Ironclad where I had missed completely with the undercoat. My laziness/eagerness at the start of the project is going to cost me time in reparations before I continue, still, at least she won't be plain resin for her first outing on the table next week.

Yesterday evening I filled in some gaps and gave the blue a wash with Nuln Oil, giving her the first of many layers that will be required to get her table ready.

Royal Scots Cap Badge

Going with my current trend of basing my DL sections on real units, I decided my ironclads would be driven by members of the 2nd Dragoons,  Royal Scots Greys Regiment, who were in real life given tanks after their invention. This means I am currently tracking down some flags to stick on this beauty, to make it more of a centrepiece. It also gives me options for various insignia which I can use to liven things up.

Anyone out there who knows where to get good flags, please let me know, as I've never bought any pre-made before

The name of this tank will have to be H.M.I. Ewart. (H.M.I. standing for Her Majesties Ironclad, and Ewart after the famous Royal Scots Grey Ensign, Charles Ewart).

I'm now off on the hunt for flags and cavalry pennants to use for this, and to put on my Bassets too.

DIY Tank Crew

I have been playing mini games for many a long year by now, and yet I can count on 1 hand the number of vehicles I have bought and played with. I think this is mainly due to my predisposition to 28mm, fantasy/historical gaming. Now, I have many big robots, mostly for Warmachine, as well as a couple for Void/Urban War (I still have a soft spot for my VASA mechs), but I have never been into tank battles as such (no Flames of War for me). In fact, I think the only previous tank I bought was a VASA TAV MkIII, with optional turrets, however, I never played a game with one, never mind painted it.

For Dystopian legions of course, I have already bought into the vehicles, albeit with the smaller one-man Bassett tankettes, but they don't really count in my mind as proper tanks. The Terrier Ironclad however, certainly does.

To my mind, paying out a chunk of money for a substantial amount of resin, means this model deserves to be a centrepiece model for my army, so I am currently looking for ways to convert and personalise it.

The easiest thing to do in this regard is to open the hatch doors and stick a crewman on top. The hatch doors are in fact built for just such a purpose (as is the case for the Bassetts).

After a long time searching for a suitable mini to act as a crewman, I decided just to make one to fit. He is constructed of the following pieces:Victoria miniatures pith helmet head; GW Imperial Guard body and left arm; the right arm I found in my bits box and I couldn't swear to its origin; the right hand is a green stuff copy of the Black Watch Sergeant's hand and pistol; cross-belt, cuff and epaulets are all greenstuff. He'll be held in place by a magnet, and will therefore be removable from the tank.

He will be painted to look like the image at the top of the post. I decided to not go for the gas mask, as even though I have the bits, the pack at the front of the mini, which I assume is part of the mask, was a bit clunky with his positioning in the hatch, and made him a bit front heavy.

WIP

Final stages

And then, in-situ.

I think I'll have to put a flag on the tank too. Maybe even two. One Britannian flag, as on all the Spartan logos, and the other for the Scot's Greys, who I have decided that this guy and maybe even the Bassets belong to.  My freehand drawing skills leave much to be desired, so I haven't decided how I'm going to proceed with the flags yet. More on that once I do.

Black Watch Conversions

I love that all the sculpts in a box of Spartan minis are different. I love a little less that I require 2 boxes to run a full unit. I trid to lessen this by doing a couple of conversions to the minis. The first was to make the piper mini. The second came as a follow on from this, as I had the 2 arms of the piper that I was now not using. This, mixed with one of the guns being a mis-cast, meant I did a little light chopping to the gun-less mini to give him new arms.

I am not a huge fan of the knife weilding look of one of the sculpts, but I figured this was a simple way to have a completed unit before waiting for a new gun part to be sent.  The only thing missing then from this figure, was a gun. The other knife weilding maniac has his slung across his back.  Again, luckily, there is another figure in the set who comes with a separate gun, with only a hand to be removed to make it a feasible conversion piece. Step in trust Insta-Mold, and new green-stuff gun, here we come. What's more, this mold will be useful for converting other non-Spartan minis into KoB troops, or even just as scenery for bases.

Stick it on the back of the converted mini, and hey-presto, he's ready to join the ranks.

Dystopian Legions: Kingdom of Britannia, Armstrong Gun

I fielded the Armstrong 14lb cannon in my Kingdom of Britannia army for the first time this week, and I must say, I was suitably impressed. The rules make it not only good anti armour, but also very good against infantry, especially the multi-wound kind.  It was definitely the Man of the Match as far as I'm concerned, so, I think it's rather safe to say it'll be making a return to the field soon. Which of course means I better finish off the paint job!

The crew have been painted for a while, but the gun was waiting till I had made a nice little scenic base for it till it got a coat of paint, as I do like the nice bases these guns come on. The scenery has been built now, and the gun is ready to be painted. Hopefully in time for my next game.

The crew:

 

The loader has been magnetised so he can be removed from the base for transport. I may have to do the same for the gunner, but so far it seems to be fine as his hat doesn't go much higher than the gun.
I went for a rather traditional British Army Artillery scheme here.

The Cannon:

The barbed wire is from Army Painter, the sandbags and bricks are Secret Weapon. I forgot to place the box of ammunition that comes with the mini on the base. I'll do that before painting.