3rd ANZAC Battle Group Finished!

So you know those Australians I got last October? I've got them all painted in just over 3 weeks, and I'm really pleased with the way they came out. Even won a game with them against Russians today! Though had we carried on with no time restrictions my opponents undamaged Borodinosaurus battleship would have devoured my crippled fleet... 

(Ignore the one Crocodile submarine facing the wrong way...)

For paints I used a mix of Tamiya (XF-9, Hull Red, for the hulls & XF-52 Flat Earth for the decking) and Citadel (Boltgun Metal for pipes and such, Skull White for the funnels & guns, Chaos Black for the funnels and Fortress Grey for the hulls of the submersibles). As a wash I used a 50/50 (more or less) mix of burnt umber & black oil paints thinned with turpentine. The decals were all from various Maschinen Kreiger kits (specifically the Hagesawa 1/35 Gustav/Melusine kit, the Nitto 1/76 Nutrocker & the 1/20 Wave Polar Bear). I got hold of some Humbrol decal fix for them and it works really nicely, definitely a worthwhile investment. Props to my friend Joe who suggested the adding black to what were originally all white funnels!

And without further ado, lots of photos!

1st Frigate Division

Black Squadron

1st Frigate Division

White Squadron

1st Gunship Division

1st Gunship Division

1st Squadron- HMAS Cavalier (2) & HMAS Wildcat (3)

1st Gunship Division

2nd Squadron- HMAS Quadrant (4) & HMAS Boar (5)

 1st Submarine Division

 1st Submarine Division

Tender Squadron- HMAS Penguin (9) & HMAS Bear (10)

The Pocket Battleships HMAS Muldjewangk (89) & HMAS Digger (70).

The Muldjewangk is an Aboriginee water monster type thing, and 'digger' is slang for an ANZAC soldier.

With Convertible Generators open.

The HMAS Muldjewangk

On a completely unrelated note, last night I got seriously in the zone with Hotline Miami. It's a fantastic 2d, face-down "fuck-'em up". Great soundtrack, rock solid difficulty and completely brutal combat. Thoroughly recommended.

Blood, blood, lord look at all that blood...

After my last uni exam ever(!) I'll be going to the States again, but before then I should have plenty of time to paint the Maghariba Guard I have on the way for Infinity. Hopefully all the Urban War I ordered from Wayland Games should turn up as well. And I have the Rook to finish up when I get back home too. So plenty of stuff for me to be getting on with!

Painting drive, engage!

After essay season ended on Thursday, there's been a flurry of painting activity! The first cause of this was the arrival of many new Infinity models; those sculpts are so cool I can't keep myself away! So now I have an additional Sekban (armed with a Heavy Rocket Launcher no less), an Azra'Il, a Djanbazan sniper and a Fiday to my name as well as the Sekban box set.

The full Sekban team. The new HRL guy (second from the right) is the mini which made me get into Haqqislam.

Been a while since I painted eyes, but I think these turned out OK...

 Seriously cool pose on this guy.

The Fiday. She'll be used as an Odalisque or an Al'Hawwa depending on the list. Needed a female mini and the single Odalisque looks silly, so I got this one instead.

The second cause of the mass painting is the imminence of the UK Student Nationals, which I shall be attending, along with my Britannian fleet. The rules say every mini has to be fully painted, which has forced me to paint tiny flyers after 3 years of procrastination. It also means I've got around to painting some of the stuff from the sub flotilla box I picked up in October.

16 bloody TFTs. Not as annoying to paint as I thought they'd be. Just very boring...

Dominion Support Cruiser

TFTs

Valiant Attack Subs

On all these I've started using the Tamiya acrylics I picked up, and using either an oil wash, or, on the DW stuff and the bodysuit for the Fiday, a gloss enamel wash. After being told great things about Tamiya, then being informed by the internet that they were "AIDS for brush painting", I've found them reasonable to use. They don't need thinning really, but in between each layer you definitely have to allow the proper time for drying, otherwise you can end up wiping all the paint off. The colours are nice- the dark green on the Infinity stuff is the Olive Drab (JGSDF) XF-74 and the blue-grey on the DW stuff is the Medium Blue XF-18.

I'm really liking mixing my own washes. Mixed right, the flow control is great and the glossiness of the enamel really lends itself to DW stuff.

Hopefully this amount of painting shall continue, but with my diss to be worked on I doubt it...

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.

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!

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).