My friend Grant and I decided to give WW1 Naval action a go. I've never painted up something like that before, so it was a bit of a challenge. I think my ships turned out ok:
We tried out the Victory at Sea: Age of Dreadnaughts rules and they were quite good! The bigger ships can sure take a pounding. Torpedo boats are fragile, but deadly if they score a hit - I quickly learned that they do not fire from the front! ;-)
Puppy pic!
On September 5 2014, I had a modern microarmour game using the Fields of Fire rules, and later the "A Fate of a Nation" set from Flames of War. Fields of Fire was not too bad, but Flames of War was horrible. We're still looking for a decent ruleset...
The desert-style terrain was Grant's, and I brought some terrain that I recently purchased from Gunbird/Wayswatcher on LAF. I have a ton of Leven buildings to paint too, just need some decent bases.
I had previously tried to purchase these rotors from Hurlbat, but they didn't have them. Imagine how happy I was when I checked on a whim and there they were!
Above is a pic of a Mil-24 Hind and Mil-8 Hip from GHQ, escorting some 2S9 SO-120s from CinC. I recently received an order from CinC and was pleasantly surprised at the quality! I've had these helicopters painted for a long time, but was waiting for the rotors to become available again. They are very nicely made rotors - I picked up a bunch for future use. Now to find that Mil-2 Hoplite I need to finish...
Here's a peek at what is on my miniature desk:
These are some of the miniatures I've had scuplted for years, but just didn't have the funds to get them released. I'm working on painting up some for a kickstarter I'll be having in the near future. You can see a ton of Dust miniatures and others in the background. ;-)
Oh boy, it's been a long time since I updated the blog. After finishing working for two weeks, I had a busy four days with my wife. I didn't really have any time to paint until recently. Here's the result:
A few more T-64s.
Four more BMP-1s, these re-sculpted ones by GHQ are fantastic!
Ugh! I didn't realize drybrushing the metal onto the MG turret left little flecks on the surface.
These pictures are of the same two trucks. I tried out some decals on the doors - damn are they tiny! Decals by Dom's Decals.
I also have three helicopters painted up but am looking to have some rotors done in acrylic by Litko or some other place. No luck yet...
Lastly, three of my own miniatures, painted sadly by myself. These are "those miniatures" that I worked on for a bit, then put them aside when my attention was captivated by something else, worked on for a bit, etc. I think I started them at the beginning of the year! Due to this, I don't think they turned out all that well - but good enough for the tabletop!
All of them are Kali cultists from the Sinbad range on my site. I tried a darker looking skin tone on these and am happy with the results - I used Vallejo Panzer Aces 341 Flesh Base.
And a little treat for my blog friends - pictures of painted upcoming releases, painted by Stone Cold Lead (Simon Bradley). Awesome painting as usual! I love that guy! :-)
I wanted to get some tanks done for my Russkies, so I put some T-64s on the painting block.
I went with the same green camo scheme as the previous vehicles, with a bit of tan on the spotlight thingy to tie them in with my front-line units.
And a whole bunch more BMP-1s, a PT-76, MT-LB and three bases of infantry.
I've finished painting two helicopters, but am trying to do something fancy with the rotors which hasn't worked out so far. It will have to wait until two weeks from now when I return from my next "hitch" of work. Sorry guys!
I wanted to take a break from the front-line Soviet units and started work on some second-line Warpact vehicles.
These BMP-1s from GHQ are fantastic! Full of detail, they were great to paint. I tried a different, non-complex camouflage scheme for the Warpact vehicles. However, the tan colour I used for the ATGW missiles link it in with the front-line units. Just trying to tie them together.
Looking back, I should have painted the ATGW launcher on the BMP-2 tan as well. Oh well. I think it still looks good, and the MT-LBs are one of my favourite Soviet vehicles. :-)
Above are different pictures of the same two new infantry units.
All in all I am very happy with the new camo scheme! I've already started on a few more vehicles, infantry and some helicopters!
I finished up some vehicles for my infantry to be supported by:
I don't think I did enough of a highlight on them - especially on the ACRV in the center. It's the only non-GHQ model - I think it's CinC. Not super detailed and I think I got it from en eBay buy a long time ago.
I'm pretty happy with how the BMP-2s came out. Gotta have a ride for my infantry! :-)
And another two units of infantry. I have another two units almost done.
For my next batch of vehicles, I'll try working up another layer of highlights and see how it turns out.
Here's the latest batch of infantry I finished up yesterday. I really enjoyed painting these, and using the same basing techniques as before.
Above is three squads of infantry - I tried to throw in some RPGs and LAWs to spice things up.
These three are ATGW units - I think they are AT-14 Kornet.
You can't really see them too well, but above are AGS-17 automatic grenade launchers.
I did these last two spur of the moment, after reading about anti-aircraft units. I'm not sure what sort of launchers they should be in order to shoot down aircraft.
All in all, these were very fun to paint - I finished them in an afternoon. What took the longest was the basing, as I'd have to wait for the putty or glue to dry before moving on to the next step.
I have always been fond of the fictional Cold War gone hot genre. I started painting up some tanks and AFVs quite a while ago, but was always hesitant to paint up some infantry elements. I haven't really painted anything in that scale before and didn't know how to base them. I had a go yesterday and I am very pleased with how they turned out.
On the left is a regular infantry squad, while on the right is a BRDM-2U? command vehicle -
which will probably be used as a FAO in my games.
All three of these are heavy mortars, providing some heavy hitting support for my forces.
On the left and right are bipod-mounted heavy machine guns, with a sniper and spotter in the center.
I really took my time to work on the basing to make them look good. They are all mounted on Litko plywood 1.5mm thick. The first picture has 25mm bases, while the others are 20mm.
I added some very fine sand and bigger "rocks". Then I painted the base brown, green and tan for the rocks. I added multi-coloured flock in areas and bits of foam as "bushes".
All of the miniatures are from GHQ. I really enjoyed painting these and already have another batch of infantry done. :-)
Okay, I took a break from prepping miniatures and took some photos of the last batch of miniatures I polished off before I left for work.
First up are some more Russian Partizans from Black Tree Designs. I really love the character in this miniature range. All were easy to paint and I have a few more to finish off before I'm done all I purchased last time.
Just in time for Halloween are the remaining two monsters from Brigade Games.
I had a lot of fun painting these! I tried something a little different with the bases on these - trying to make it look a bit more swampy. I used this brown and red flock (which you can see a little bit in the pics) for a different effect, and to make it look dark and spooky.
I really like how they turned out and I think the eyes really pop.
I took this picture for my gaming pal and wasn't going to post it here, but why not!
Microarmour!!! :-) I painted these a while ago, and as I will be gaming Cold War gone Hot I've been prepping up some more miniatures. I haven't really done infantry at this scale before, so it's been trial and error.
