Well it's been a month since the last post, and although I intended it to be the final segment of the System Wars review with the Commanders, I've had a few developments since that time. Work has been pretty unpleasant and stressful too, so instead I've been investing what little free time I have into actually doing some painting. This is relaxing, especially whilst catching up with recent or historical podcasts, and exactly what I've needed.
Of course, this is a good thing on many fronts, as it also reduces the wall of unpainted resin and plastic, and enhances our gaming experiences, so it's all good...the true win-win!
First up in this review of what I've been doing are the Covenant ships for Halo Fleet Battles. These are truly lovely ships, and I've waited a little while before painting them as I wanted to think about the effect I wanted before committing. Anyway, I saw a painting Youtube on the SG Community, and decided to steal/adapt their technique. This essentially involves priming silver and then covering with transparent paint to achieve a metallic under-sheen that looks very Covenant-like. I used an auto-spray can for Alloy wheels, and then used Purple and Blue Shades from Army Painter to finish. I put in a fair amount of variation, which I find gives quite a pleasing effect on the tabletop.
Now this is only stage 1, of course, with detail and engine glows etc still to add, but I think I've achieved more-or-less the effect I wanted. Unfortunately half-way through this my faithful Badger 150 broke, the nozzle shearing off somehow, so I bought a complete Medium conversion kit for it (it's the most cost-effective way of repairing it), and as I was away on business it arrived before I could spray again anyway, giving the old faithful a new lease of life, plus my old needle and parts as spares.
Next up were the Works Raptor Destroyers and Battlecruisers. These I gently shaded from black to lighter grey on several surfaces to give some tonal variation, then added weapons and power core/engine glows to fit with my other WR ships.
Note I've left off the PITA metal shields, which I'll paint separately and attach after I'm done detailing the main battlecruiser hulls. This inspired me to press on with my Ba'kash as well, since I've only played with them once as primed models and they did well, so they deserve to have a proper finish. For this I've chosen a Bronze basecoat, again Army painter which I've sprayed over a matt grey primer. This produces a very shiny and slightly glittery effect overall.
Cruiser and Destroyer, which I've used as a heavy cruiser and standard cruiser respectively. This is mainly because I'm not a huge fan of the Heavy Cruiser parts for the model, and I much prefer the old destroyer models, which I have a pair of...
And here's one of them with a frigate. Now this glittery effect is not one I particularly want, but I wasn't too worried since this is just a basecoat, and after a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone...
It looks much nicer. You can see the pipe areas where I haven't washed (as I'll be painting these a different colour) are much brighter - the washed areas look much more "lived in" and realistic.
Here's the Frigate similarly washed. A drybrush with the bronze and edge highlights in silver, with some oxidation wash here and then should look good before doing the engine glow on these.
Now actually it's been a fair while since I posted anything paintwise, so I've quite some catch-up to do as well on updating the blog. Before I had my airbrush failure, I'd sprayed my Directorate Invasion ships, and before that I'd sprayed the Dindrenzi landers took. As these are atmospheric entry craft, I painted the Dindrenzi in my planetfall colours, whilst I tried some of Anarchy Models' paint masks on my Directorate, carrying on with my new adapted paint scheme for them. Here they both are.
Here's my Directorate RotO ships sporting the newer camo. Although I liked the effect, the Anarchy Models masks are definitely better than the "kids fishing net" mask I used for the RotO ships.
Now it's not just spaceships that have been receiving the attention of the brush...I know I'm jumping the gun a little since I've not yet posted unboxing blogs of them yet, but here are a couple of the new aerial Helixes. The first, the Dindrenzi...
As I was an ardent modeller prior to entering the gaming arena proper, and the rest of my dindrenzi are in late WWII German camo colours, I thought aerial late WWII colours of RLM 81/82 over 76 was appropriate.
The sahrk-like heavy looks especially menacing with the dapple on the fuselage.
Next up are the Dindrenzi's sworn enemies, the Terrans. Their "just in the future" look means they benefit from a US-style modern two-tone aerial combat scheme, both on the interceptors and the heavy.
Finally, the last of the aerial Helixes I've photographed (though I have sprayed the Aquan and Sorylian) is the Directorate.
This was another use of the Anarchy models Hex camo masks, but with a reversed colour contrast.
The Drones I've just gone for a simple dark grey top with light grey undersides, similar to the plain grey of the ground forces.
Next up are some of the larger zombies from the very fun Zombicide - here we have the original season 1 Abomination with a Fatty...still need to finish the camera. but almost there...
These are great models to paint, a lot of fun and painting them really makes a difference...can't wait to play with them!
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