Dystopian wars: 1:1200 Covenant of Antarctica fleet additions WIP01

Just a quick shot of something that's been on my table for a while, and a welcome break from painting hundreds of 15mm SF.

New additions:
~ long-unfinished Prometheus, going for the final push on this. Still need to insert turret magnets and superdetailing. White on funnels
~ Annonax assault sub. There are so many propulsion units I'm going to have to work on them to make them stand out. Superdetailing.
~ Fresnels. The amplification will need some work. White on funnels. The turrets need magnetising. Superdetailing.
~ Thales'. Superdetailing.
~ Galens. White on funnels, superdetailing.
~ Plutarchs. Superdetailing.

After that, decals for all. Varnishing. More photos.

The Plato at the back and the Diogenes at the front are previously finished miniatures I keep handy to ensure consistency of style.

See you next time.

Dystopian Wars: Covenant of Antarctica - More vessels painted

First up, my Callimachus Orb. The 'lighting' was done with successive dry brushes of white and either the fluoro green or blue. The highlights on the waves are done with a white POSCA marker. I use a 0.05 or 0.03 liner for recess darkness.

Waterlined Callimachus orb

This is my activated Orb. Slice of Perspex rod does the trick...

Activated orb

Also finished is my Drone Carrier. Here it is.

Drone carrier starboard

Drone carrier port

To celebrate its completion, I finally undertook the semi-tedious job of making my tiny flyer drones look half-way decent. Roundels from Dom's Decals, as now displayed on all vessels.

Tiny flyers

A few shots of my older stuff I took at the same time.

Cruisers

Battleship

Frigates

Further additions to the fleet...

Dystopian Wars: 1:1200 Antarctic Base WIP 1

I wanted a spectacular table piece to bring Armour to our naval battles in Dystopian Wars, so I decided to make a base for my covenant forces. As I had the basis of some mountains in the form of some packaging, I collected together various snow powders, ice blue paint, and a bag of mod-roc. Here we go...

I started with a big bottle of PVA and the aforementioned packaging, plus a nice 2' x 2' (roughly) piece of blue foam to base it all on. Let gluing commence!

Once the first layer was down, the more mountainous areas.

I picked away at the edges with a scalpel to try to make it look more natural.

Cardboard box full of cat litter holding down the top layer to ensure a firm bond.

Aforementioned cat litter sprinkled on liberally applied PVA (with a bit of water for covering power. My reasoning was twofold - a) the litter would make the flat tops more uneven, and b) as the mod-roc is soaked in water to activate it and it's being applied to cardboard, I thought it might alleviate some sogginess.

I chucked any other uneven bits on there too

So here's the first layer of mod-roc being applied. This is the same stuff as a nurse would use to plaster your arm. Dip in water, and then lay on.

That's the whole thing mod-rocked. Fags for scale.

Spare cat litter used for rockfalls.

The hangar entrance. Gives it a nice 'Captain Nemo' feel, I think.

Main entrance. I smoothed down the area in front as it would be used extensively.

First dark spray - this is spray on stone (yes, it's real, you can buy it in B&Q).

I kept layering it until I was happy

Spray on stone detail. 

I  popped some covenant buildings on for scale. I'm going to be using these and some firestorm armada bits to make a city. 

Some more work with spray blues and greys, white spray highlights, then various snow powders and pigments added for detail. It's looking ok, but it needs a companion board (so that it covers 1/3 of a 6x4 table, a harbour and docks in the middle, and a city built around it. Quite a lot more to do on it, I'll add pictures as it jostles with the umpteen other projects I have going.

Six months later...

Er, yes, a bit of a hiatus, then.
Well, I've still been busy, and here are a few things that I have completed (bar final cleaning on the bases)

Citadel Aslan from the Traveller range

15mm SF

Rebasing on the Aslan, and new paint jobs on three very old laserburn figures.

Laserburn characters

25mm Citadel Spacefarers.

Spacefarer stormtroopers

Rebasing on all but the dodgy looking red masked dude, who got a new lick of paint. He's not the best detailed miniature.

Spacefarer characters

The painting on the other stuff is from waaay back.

Assorted fantasy miniatures.

A tribal chap, with his pet Pygmy, a Citadel middle earth Half Orc, a Grenadier female wizard. The Gnoll is one of reaper's 'bones' series, bendable plastic. I think the fidelity of the lovely Tre Manor sculpt has reproduced well. A couple of old Citadel Tom Meier trolls. One has a weapon fix and the other was beyond repair so I'm afraid he turned to stone. The oriental dragon is an early Ral Partha miniature sans its wings, which were dodgy in the extreme. The Ogre Mage is from Black Hat, base by Warbases.co.uk. The two Jack-o-bears are from Citadel's Runequest monsters box.

A motley crew

'Bones' Gnoll

Gnoll, side view

Gnoll, rear view

Put it away!

Stoned again.

Oriental dragon

Black Hat Ogre Mage

With fancy pants

Jack-o-bears

Herder rear

40k Orks.

Squig Herder

I have a lot of 40k stuff (who doesn't?), but I've lost the love in recent years. These two green skins were 90% complete, and this blog has motivated me to complete a lot of semi-painted miniatures. So, we have a Squig-herder wearing odd colours for an ork, and a BigNob.

Big Nob rear

Big Nob

Some Tau, in a box, earlier

Battle fleet Gothic Tau.

Another bunch of semi-complete ships got added to the throng. More on this fleet later - there will probably be more on most of these, actually.

fleeeeeeet

Dystopian Wars.

 There it is. Most of the Covenant fleet still in a semi-painted state, and these pieces are actually getting used. On my 'you really really should finish these' list.

See how I got on...

Firestorm Armada.

Will this small project ever end?

 The RSN fleet saw further completion of the destroyers. I'm so close to finishing the Dreadnought that I'll hold off on a final post about them until that's done.

There are a bunch of other things I have finished that aren't to hand, but I've left this far too long anyway, so I thought I'd better get something posted :).

Bits and bobs

It's been tricky getting things done, first myself ill for over a week, then my daughter. So nothing's been finished since my last update.

Here's what's on the table, though:

Here are the Amera islands set, partially undercoated. I'll be doing a step-by-step when I can find a spare hour or so...

My 'activated' Callimachus orbs, still a Work in Progress

This is more WIP on my CoA dreadnought

These are some of the lovely Langton 1:1200 napoleonic buildings. Splendid detail



and   here's a shot showing them against the Covenant Battleship for scale

Work continues on the Imperium sky fortress

A souvenir of London? Perfect for a 1:1200 church/cathedral.

The material they're made from is tenacious though, you can see how little a circular saw has done to this beastie.



Finally, I thought I'd show you this. It's not my own work (I wish it was). It's a display game of dystopian wars from a show called Tactica in Hamburg. A team of dedicated German modellers took two months to build this beast, Very impressive.The blog's in German, but you can follow the progress of how they built it at http://www.hamburger-tactica.de/newsblog/?p=813

In other news, this blog now has over 2000 views, so I'll be making some small changes to it.

More about the Covenant of Antarctica fleet...