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.

Firestorm armada: Rense System Navy WIP 5

So finally some progress on this project. I finally found a pen that would not bleed over the watercolour that I really really shouldn't have used.

Armed with this fine instrument, I completed the lining on the frigates and escorts. Being the wargamer that I am, I also decided to magnetise six bases and both these 12 spaceships and 6 Icarus medium flyers for Dystopian Wars. I took copious photos of the process, which I'll share in another post.

So, after abortive attempts to make the destroyers balance (I'd say impossible, as the centre of balance is thrown off by the metal engines and bridge), I glued them to their bases.

The destroyers and the dreadnought have also seen the white pen, and now await super detailing. My project edges closer to completion, but I won't be dashing out to buy more RSN until we actually play Firestorm Armada.

Firestorm Armada: Rense System Navy WIP3 - Pens for friends

It’s been a rather busy time for me recently, so not much chance to paint. Even less when I’m away for the weekend – however – I had taken my RSN with me, and my POSCA and other markers.

The portability and quick-drying results made these the ideal choice for fitting some painting in on a busy schedule.

Work in progress on the Bulwarks.
Fin insgnia just started

And the other three

I’ve been concentrating mainly on the Bulwarks. The interference purple is complemented by the basil green on the underside and highlighted to white with a white stripe down the side. I’ve marked some black detail on the line and picked out the undersides and the natural lines on the purple.

Fin markings complete. I used POSCA 0.7mm extra fine markers.

Each frigate has a fin marking unique to that ship. These guys are the elite – they’re proud of their ships. I’ll be continuing this practice throughout the fleet.

Siren Escorts

The Siren escorts have had some minor work done on them, as have the other ships.

The lovely Macross-inspired Banshee Dreadnought, like the other ships, has acquired a metallic violet stripe, and now has its lovely pale green underside too.

Fingers crossed I’ll get more time to work on these this week.

Orange will be highlighted with fluoro orange for energy

Phoenix destroyers in various stages of progress

The banshee and other ships of the fleet

Pale violet stripe

Overhead view of the Banshee

Firestorm Armada: Rense System Navy WIP 2

Onward, ever onward. The base coats are up in this installment. I've chosen a nice dark indigo with interference violet for the upper hulls and basil green for the undersides. Engines and the like will be a bluish metal. I'll be using both black and white for detail and some fluoro orange to represent energy tubes.

Liquitex interference violet

Folk-Art Basil Green

Winsor & Newton Slate Blue

The interference violet was the first thing to be applied to the upper surfaces. As I've mentioned before, this paint is unusual in that it shows only at certain angles when viewing. The paint itself doesn't show very well on an undercoated miniature - it needs to be 'activated' by painting over it with a wash or inks. I've chosen a Winsor and Newton brilliant watercolour 'Slate Blue' for this. I'm fairly sure these aren't made any more, but it's basically an indigo colour.

On the underside I've used folk-art 'basil green' which is a pale shade. I'll probably highlight almost to white with that.

More on this project soon.

A siren class gets its basic coat

six of each of the escorts and frigates

The sleek Phoenix class destroyers

First coat on the banshee

Overhead view

Comparison of a RSN Destroyer and a Tarakian Cruiser

Overhead of a destroyer, sans green

Escort and frigate comparison

Firestorm Armada: Rense System Navy WIP 1

I thought I had collected all of the RSN ships until this week's announcement of new ships by Spartan.

No matter, their time will come - on with the task in hand.

Nothing too exciting on this post, assembly and undercoating.

Side view of the Phoenix class destroyer

Bulwark class frigate

The Banshee class dreadnought. I put the conning tower on the wrong way round at first too.

Banshee Front/top

Here you can see how I start my models. Grey undercoat (from Halfords), then a white drybrush, which I've half done in this shot to show you the difference it makes.

Siren class escorts plus a destroyer, with white drybrush

Some more of the destroyers

I've started experimenting with two different purples on these frigates - one metallic, one interference paint.

My painting table, with drybrushed fleet

And here's the dreadnought again - I managed to reattach the conning tower correctly.

Firestorm Armada: Tarakian flotilla

The Tarakian ships are finally finished. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

I painted the engines using Fluorescent blue paint, highlighted with white, then turquoise ink

Close up of the Battleship bridge

Front bridge and weapon array detail

Here it comes

I should perhaps touch up the bronze colour here. It does sort of give a lighting effect though.

Another front view. The prongs were drybrushed with pearlescent green.

Battleship approaching.

Top detail.

Ganak class battleship

Engines. I used white POSCA marker, dotted to simulate aenergy

And there it is, your classic side view.

Here's the underside

Here's one of the Sulan cruisers. The white lines were POSCA again. The fluo orange design at the front was white POSCA on brown, overpainted with the semi-translucent fluorescent orange.

More detail of the same ship

And a view from the other side

The main weapon array. After drybrushing pearlescent green, I used a metallic green POSCA to touch things up, then a Staedtler pigment liner to detail.

I deliberately made the cruisers look as though they'd been fighting/travelling for some time.

There are subtle differences on each cruiser - panels, patterns

From the other side, facing away

And another of that ship

Classic pose.

Here's the third example

Some lovely detail on these ships.

Markings clearly visible on the forward fins

Outgoing!

Incoming!

I used the Staedtler pigment marker to add markings. Simple boxes and dots.

I added markings to the front of the orange side stripe and behind the bridge on the battleship

The flotilla approaches

Overhead view

Add caption

That was my first foray into Firestorm Armada, but I have some RSN ships to work on, and a small Marauder force. They will probably be coming after I've done some work on my Covenant of Antarctica forces for Dystopian Wars, though.