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!