Veydreth Unboxing

Well this is long overdue, but with work, moving, putting together the Podcast and general gaming, I have neglected these somewhat. I'll try to address this over the next couple of weeks.

So the first of these will be the Veydreth, and we'll start with the Patrol fleet

No surprises here - the usual sleeved box with full colour photography plus schematics and fluff

Inside we get the usual Spartan bubble bags protecting the resin, counters, bases and TACs

The most obvious ship in the box is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Predator battleship - mostly because the thing is mammoth! It's a huge slab of resin that could almost be used as a physical weapon to beat someone with! That doesn't stop it from carrying the usual level of detail that Spartan consistently put into their models.

The model does require some minimal assembly as the engines are separate pieces, plus it requires the flight stand peg adaptor fitting into the base.

The other capital ships in the Patrol fleet box are a bit of a break from the norm, but similar to the Ba'kash box, in that they are the Destroyers. These are probably the biggest departure from their first metal iterations, and have a much larger, beefed up but also slightly generic look to them - they could easily be Terran ships. Now, fluff-wise, the Veydreth have been getting tech from Hawker Industries for a while, but I'd still have preferred to see something a little different here.

Last in the box are the Corvettes, which are both really nice stat-wise, and really nice models - being sufficiently unique and interesting to really set them apart. The downside is that they sort of highlight the blandness of the Destroyers somewhat.

Next up is the Cruiser box

As always, we have the overhead view, fluff and contents on the reverse of the glossy sleeve

Whilst not as full as the Patrol Fleet box, the one thing that stands out when you open the box here are the number of components you are getting!

The cruisers each have 9 parts - a central hull, flight peg adaptor, nose, three engine and three "spikes". Four of these pieces per cruiser have alternatives - the three engine and nose pieces. This allows you to build both regular and assault versions of the ships.

Here's the common hull section, showing the detail and triangular cross-section geometry.

The last of the Veydreth boxes today are the Gunships

Each ship has almost as many components as the cruisers - eight in all this time, but there are no options and the hull section is dominant - the add-ons being very much just that.

The hull is a great casting, complex and detailed but still holding a general design feel very similar to that of the original hybrid resin and metal castings (which looked like one of these after a starvation diet!)

While I said there was no option in the gunships, as the engine drop-ons are hexagonal in outline you can actually put these on in different orientations, which gives a nod back to the V1 designs where the engines could be put in different positions as though they were vectoring in flight.

Overall the Veydreth releases are really good - in particular the Battleship and Cruisers stand out, and the little Corvettes are gorgeous. They are a brutal force to face, and they look appropriately imposing when on the table.

Painting update - Works Raptor, Terquai & Dystopian Legions

A couple of weeks ago I finally got around to giving my faithful Badger 150 airbrush a proper strip-down and clean, using cellulose thinners to burn off the built-up paint on many of the internals! It's now flowing like a dream, and encouraged me to break out my Tamiya & Testors paints and get on with some proper airbrushing. As such, I thought it would be a good time to have a quick update on my painting activities of late.

My last venture into airbrushing of any note was my Works Raptor ships, and although washed and drybrushed since, they've not been finished for want of a clean airbrush to use! Since the clean, however, that's no longer the case - the power cores, drives and weapons could get their proper attention. First up were the Interdictors;

This is just a misting of green over and around the power core. The more "internal" elements then get a couple of successively lighter coats like so;

The same goes for the weapons port;

Final internal highlights will be completed by handbrushing. Next up is the Attrition;

And last the Tyrannies;

I'm quite happy with how they've turned out. Next up for the airbrush were a bunch of Terrans, but I just basecoated them, so won't put any pics of them. I also broke out a set of Terquai Arual and Makalu cruisers and got into them. These a basecoated in Tamiya light blue, followed by stripes of darker blue and green. Here's one that got the treatment;

Now this looks a little rough (out of practice with the old Badger!), but don't worry...here they are again after a wash with Asurmen Blue and drybrush with Space Wolves Grey;

I'm quite pleased with how they're coming out - the effect I wanted was that shifting light pattern you get through water. Just detail painting and then engine glow a la Works Raptor above to go!

As I've had the opportunity to get into Dystopian Legions recently, I'll also give you a quick preview of what I'm doing on that front, as I've not painted any actual figures for some time. These are a couple of Tuetonic Knights from the Prussian Empire, great minis and they've been fun to paint so far.

The top halves have been sprayed light blue, washed and drybrushed, and the legs are just in the process of being painted dark grey before a black wash - this is basically the same colour as Prussian mounted rifles from the late 19th century - my Prussians are going to be very traditional! This also explains the red shoulder guards - the "Cuffs" on the arm armour will also be red (in fact as we speak they already are!).

OK, that's about all I have so far, I'll cover the other DL stuff in the separate (and future) post(s) on them, the Knights were just a bit of a teaser!

Until next time, happy modelling/painting/gaming - may your airbrush always be clean :-)

Ryushi Support Fleet Unboxing

Following hot on the heels of the unboxing of the Ryushi Battlecarrier, here is the Alliance Fleet. Once more the Carrier and other ships are contained within the sturdy cardboard box wrapped in a glossy card sleeve, showing Spartan's studio fleet painted up very nicely. They look great.

On the back is a plan view of the three ship types, and a bit of fluff/spiel about the Ryushi.

Inside you might think you've been short-changed, as the contents don't seem all that much in the bags;

Get into the bags, however, and this impression quickly disappears as you realise one of the bag contains four cruisers alone! The initial thoughts of "is something missing?" go away when you realise that it's because the Ryushi ships are so elegant (and in the case of the frigate, small!), they pack very well....in stark contrast to the Kedorians.

The Onnisha is much simpler than the Battle Carrier, consisting of just two resin pieces - a hull and an engine block. Nevertheless, she's still a fair size, about as long as a Manta (the engine block being identical to that on the Shautrai).

Unlike the BattleCarrier, the Onnisha hull is a solid affair, with some great detail. As I mentioned in the other Ryushi unboxing, the cruisers are single-piece resin castings, and are elegant looking ships. Here they are - the same shot I showed previously;

The Akkarai corvettes are single-piece metal castings, and are diddy! 

Taking a closer look at the Carrier, the ship has some lovely detail, and marries with the large engine block in the same way as the Shautrai, covering both pouring vents.

I won't go over the cruisers again (have a look at the blog before last if you missed them), but move straight on to the corvettes;

Nice little ships, trailing long streamers...none of these presents a particular problem, and are easily snipped off and tidied up. They're an interesting design and carry through the theme of the fleet very well.

The Alliance box set is a set of really lovely ships, and although I was initially slightly worried about having 6 cruisers in total with this and the Shautrai box, having them as accompaniments to the carriers allieviates any fears I migh have had of potentially not fielding them. All I can say is, good job Spartan!