Sunday 22 December 2013

Castling

Back home and I've started work again on the Rook, a very nice 1/35 garage kit from Industria Mechanika. I started it briefly during the summer and finished most of the leg assembly. Now I've moved on to the main hull as the rest of the parts which need to be attached to the legs will be attached separately to make painting easier.
My first time working with brass etch and shaping wire, but it's going reasonably well, although the minigun nearly drove me crazy, partially due to not seeing some parts provided which made it easier. My own clumsiness and impatience are causing lots of little breakages unfortunately, but nothing major.
I also made a new crew figure to go in the hatch from spares as the figures provided in the kit are seated.
Hopefully construction at least will be completed by early January, when I go back to Aber, though I intend to start painting before then if all goes well.

Sunday 15 December 2013

Updating Illustriously

So this semester is over and I'm hanging around in Aber waiting to be a witness at a Magistrate's trial because of reasons before heading back home for Christmas. Sounds like the perfect time to get on with some painting! Which I have done.


See, look, painted and stuff! The Illustrious Sky Fortress, probably my favourite sky fortress in DW. I decided just plain brown decking was boring and tried some markings, which turned out reasonably well so long as you don't look too close. I also had to paint tiny flyers, which is something I've been putting off since I started playing DW...

In other news, the Su-100 is progressing slowly; all I need to do now is do streaking and apply some pigments and it's done. I'm also painting a friends Chimera as I felt the need to do some larger armour, I'll put some shots of that up at some point.

As well as painting I've been using my spare time to watch more anime than usual. Kill la Kill is insane and brilliant. I'm not too fond of OTT stuff when it tries to be serious, but Kill la Kill is similar to Redline in that it's self-aware enough to throw all pretense out the window and just becomes ludicrously good fun.
Yes that is a giant recorder missile being lifted by a girl whose clothes double up as a jet engine. Your point?

A more serious series I've caught up with is the Ghost in the Shell: Arise OVAs. Definitely on par with Stand Alone Complex, like SAC it also has a fantastic OST. But the next one's being released June 2014 I believe, which is an embugerence.

Thursday 17 October 2013

Back from the dead!

Hello folks! Rumors of my death were much exaggerated etc. Just life was a little busy over the summer what with teaching NYC kids about nature and only having internet access 1 day a week etc. But I have no excuse for the absence after the 21st of August :P
I got back to Aber mid-September time and have been busy since. But I have done some modelling things! Not many though admittedly...
I got around to finishing painting some of my Dystopian Wars Russian Coalition stuff in the week before Freshers. Frigates, Gunships and a Repair Cruiser!
As a result of Student Loan I splurged on yet more DW stuff, which it will be way too long before I complete! The Australian Fleet Box and the Britannian & Russian expansion boxes. Having played with all them I love them all. Spartan sure can pump out some crazy designs- a giant underwater submarine chainsaw  (Britannian Vengeance) and a battleship with a drill like what they used for the Channel Tunnel as its prow (Russian Khatanga)? Yes Please! Aussies are less wacky but probably my favourite looking fleet, and they play incredibly solid too- I actually won a game with them; me winning a game being something of an oddity!
KoB Dominion Class Support Cruiser

KoB Vengeance Class Submarine
RC Khatanga Class Ice Breaker

RC Tiksi Class Support Cruiser

Nikel Class Heavy Frigate
Aussies, Brits & Ruskies assemble!

I also got a pretty damn rare Ma.K kit- a Zionel Westen 1/76 Sand Stalker.
Not the best quality I've ever seen if I'm frank; I had bits from a Revell M48 & a UniModel SU-100 lying around so I decided to do some mods.
The big gun is from the SU-100 kit which has some T-34 bits mixed in on the sprues so I nabbed that, along with a ventilation thingy & periscope.
The block on the rear (some miscellany from the M48 kit) was originally in my thinking for the bigger guns recoil, as in the Sherman Firefly, but now I'm thinking just move the radio into there to clear out the turret. The insets in the indents on either side are the rear radiator from the M48 cut down the middle.
I did a burst of activity before Uni started requiring actual attention and I think this will be my main project when I do hobby stuff. 



Some other stuff I've been doing is the actual SU-100 were some of the Sand Stalker bits came from- a pretty mundane project but a nice kit which shouldn't take too much effort to finish off- and some Dystopian Legions stuff which isn't by best work and not really worth putting up. Maybe after I've based them.
UniModel 1/76 SU-100. A nice little kit, which is a little further along than this pic, having been covered in a uniform green mix.

More updates hopefully soon!

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Second round- finished!

So, second year of uni done. Blink and you miss it. It's been a great year for Kaotica (Aber uni's wargaming club)- tonnes of great new members, and of course I got elected president so it's only uphill from there ;)
Anyways, I was planning on cycling back home after my exams with my sister, but alas she went and got a job interview instead. Shameful behaviour. So instead of cycling I made the General Conveyor, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. It isn't quite as drowned in mud as the Tankettes...


I've also been making reviews on Youtube, so check them out here.
I will hopefully be in the US between mid-June & late August helping out at a summer camp, but I've got a tonne of stuff to be getting on with modelling wise this summer- so if it's in a couple of weeks time or nearly September, hopefully the next couple of updates will be full of interesting stuff.

Monday 15 April 2013

Tankettes and EW Nutrocker

So yeah, that plan to update more frequently didn't go so well. I have got a reasonable amount of painting done though.
First, Tankettes! Very easy to put together, standard Spartan resin issues taking paint in areas where the undercoating didn't quite reach, but I'm happy with the results. Mud's a bit OTT though.

Next, that EW Nutrocker is nearly finished- all I need to do is add some crew on the turret. Not quite sure on the weathering on the edges, I might go redo that.

Quick post this time as it's nearly 4 in the morning. I'm off to bed!

Thursday 31 January 2013

Lots of Dystopian

Since my last post I've made pretty reasonable progress on my Russians for Dystopian Wars, as well as getting & painting some Battlecruisers for my Britannians. So without further ado, I present to you the results...
Another shot of a Suvorov Cruiser, which have all been painted in this scheme now.
 The Tunguska Class Large Skyship; a magnificent addition to my Russian Fleet, it's essentially a flying battleship. Not shown in this shot is a very detailed & sizable underside.
 The Borodino Class Battleship, all painted up.
One of the Britannian Lord Hood Class Battlecruisers. The annoying thing about taking photos of miniatures is all the little faults which you hadn't noticed show up in a very unpleasant way :P

I also just today received a Britannian starter box for Dystopian Legions, along with some Tankettes.
The full contents of the box- along with the models it includes the rulebook, a faction stat sheet, game cards, dice & a measuring stick. All in all some nice additions. The rulebook, despite being a booklet, seems pretty high quality.
From left to right: Sergeant, Flame Specialist, Lieutenant, Captain Smethington II
 Line Infantry. I really like the posing on these guys.
Sky Hussars. These guys also come with resin steam plumes to attach to their jetpacks, which is pretty cool.

Looking at the price of the box (£42) I thought it was pretty pricey. However, that works out at £3 a model, without figuring in the rulebook etc which is pretty reasonable. The models themselves are pretty good- significantly bigger than 40K stuff, more 30mm than 28mm. The detailing isn't up to the same standard as Dystopian Wars stuff and some of the models have a lot of flash. All in all though they're nice, uncluttered and as I've said the posing is full of character. I'm going to have fun with these guys- next time I should have finished one of the Tankettes to show off.

Before I go, I want to show off a toy I got. 3A make some very nice, bit very pricey, designer toys. I already had a World War Robot portable figure- a Bertie Mk. 3- and with Christmas money I couldn't resist getting another. This time I got a Caesar, which I love because of the arm shield and the assault rifle he has. If you have some money to waste, WWR stuff is the best.


With my Bertie.

One last thing- I got some 1/35 Gustavs for Ma.K, so expect some word on them in the next update, along with Legions stuff (probably a Tankette).

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Happy New Year!

It's been too  long since my last post, and there's not a great deal to show for it I have to admit. I got a 1/76 Chi-Ha (perhaps my favourite WW2 tank designs) which has been languishing almost finished and trackless for about 2 months now. I got it to experiment with several weathering techniques- drybrushing black enamel on appropriate areas to recreate paint chipping, and using oil paints brushed off with turpentine to recreate rain marks.
I went on to use those techniques on my first proper (1/20 scale) Ma.K suit- an AFS Polar Bear. A fun build, although I made several errors to learn from on my next suit (first & foremost to not glue the head in before painting it). The chipping came out not so well with the enamel, so I just did them in a silver acrylic.



At the moment I'm working on another 1/76 Nutrocker; this time a manned command variant (something I've wanted to do for a while, although initially the idea was for a long-barelled tank-killer similar to the PaK Krote) using the turret from a 1/72 M48. Not much progress has been made of late, but pics will follow soon. For now, here's the first ideas I played around with, comparing the  ideas I had for AT & command variants.

I also got a new fleet for Dystopian Wars- the Russian Coalition. After a game, I can tell with their close up charge way of playing they'll be a fun change from the medium distance maneuvering of the Britannian fleet. There models are growing on me, but the Borodino battleship I loved instantly- it's a big sexy chunk of resin, as big as the Britannian Dreadnought! Here's the main hull up against the Britannian battleship for comparison.

I've finished painting the Cruisers, after playing around with the scheme a bit, hence the two different schemes.

Anyways, that's all for now. I would tell you it's my New Years Resolution to update more frequently, but I'd be lying. I will hopefully update soon however!