Laserburn project WIP12 - Prefab subcontractor telecoms station and more toys

Some more toys. Kinder Hot Wheels surprise toys? In Aldi? At 49p, you say?

'Hmm, they can't be as big as normal hot wheels can they?'

No, they're not - that makes them perfect for 15mm, eh? Street scene? Car chase? - I'll have 12!

Ah good, one of each and three for conversions. Win.

The cars come in two bits and snap together. Stickers optional.

I'm not sure at this stage if they will be undercoated and painted, or if any of my washes will work on that surface. 

The Warbases HQ building is started.

It's had a white drybrush and some brown staining. The roof is WIP, but has so far been done with black wash, then black, white and two tones of grey POSCA markers. 

There are several panels on this. They're done in GOLDEN green gold high pigment ink. The idea of this odd colour is that is branding for the comms tower's corporation. I'll be putting branding on those.

The brick wall is the start of a pile of sacks or goods.

I intend to dirty up the precise lines on the roof, and put more prefab panel lines on the grey/white walls.

More soon.

Laserburn project WIP11 - finished buildings, started buildings.

These astoundingly cheap Amera buildings have been a joy to paint.

In this post, I'll run you through how I did them, start to finish:

1: Purchase buildings. These are vac-formed, £1.50 for the small ones, £1.75 for the larger.

2: Raid your bitz boxes for suitable add-ons. Halford's grey primer.

3: Drybrush white all over, then follow that with a yellow ochre wash (Americana yellow ochre, thinned)

4: Brown ink wash. (Vallejo Game Color Smokey ink). Black inks pin washed into the windows and painted into shadowy areas (Chromacryl Black).

5: Highlight/drybrush with a mix of yellow ochre and unbleached titanium (Liquitex Heavy Body unbleached titanium)

6: More brown washing with smokey ink. Further highlighting with unbleached titanium

Paints I used in this process so far

7: Yet more inking

8: And here's the selection of paint markers I used to finish off the detail. I also scoured my decal envelope and added a selection of further details. Most of the decals are from old 1:100 Macross kits, the numerals by each door are from an original land raider.

Here's Building 1. The doorway effect is black and two brown tones. The paving slabs are all done with markers. The water effects is clear granular gel with an ink wash. The aircon (?) unit is from an old USS Grissom miniature

Building 3. I wanted the buildings 'the same but different'. Turning into a bit of a motto for me, that.

This building sports an alternative roof protrusion, and an odd solar panel thing with branding in an alien script. The alien decals are from Macross Zentraedi models.

Building 5 has something industrial going on at the top of their steps. The 'No step' decal is from some aircraft kit.

Building 7 is fairly bog-standard apart from that massive unit strapped on the side. It's an old Klingon d18 that got cannibalised at some point. The rear stairs feature a raised fin for some reason.

A view of the home improvements

Compare the stairs, the hilarious new game show.

Side walls

That's the finished buildings, now for the one I've started, you saw it flat packed in the second photo.

Phase one, make it, and stick more bits on.

Not sure about the green cap. I haven't stuck it yet, and I may mount something else there.

Phase 2: grey undercoat, ready for a similar treatment to the others.

Whilst we're on a Laserburn tip, some of the decals I got to complete my vehicles

So, four things off the painting table, which is looking a bit crowded at the moment.

More soon, lilliputian aficionados.

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...

Firestorm Armada: Rense System Navy WIP 4 - Surmountable problems

This project has proved more tricky than others recently.

My choice of colours/materials has led to unforeseen problems, and the sheer number of models in this project has proved daunting (6 frigates, 6 escorts, 4 destroyers, 1 Dreadnought = 17 models – the last project was 5!)

The Escorts. Not sure about the orange energy thing now.

Virtually finished Bulwarks

The beginnings of a freehand snake

The Slate blue brilliant watercolour a) soaked straight in to grey undercoat – it worked fine over interference purple and b) ‘sours’ any white that I try to paint onto it, leaving a dull pale blue. Not so good when I was planning lots of white lines.

As a result I’ve gone over the white lines with liquitex fluorescent purple – but even that isn’t as bright as I’d have liked. It’s almost been a case of ‘back to the drawing board’

Overhead view of a Bulwark frigate.
They're quite slim from that angle.

Anyway, even with those setbacks, I’ve been soldiering on. I corrected the grey undercoat/slate blue problem by switching it for Citadel Asurmen Blue wash (which I daresay I won’t be able to get any more of – might as well use it up.

This gave the effect I was looking for on the engines – a nice slate grey. I highlighted afterwards with a 0.7mm POSCA Metallic blue pen.

Another frigate with black/green/white motif

It was also useful for achieving the dull glow on the top of the gun nacelles on the Bulwark Frigates.

I decided the pale green looked a bit bland, so I have added a little bit of design to the undersides – at first with a Liquitex Green Gold – an olive green colour that, if applied lightly, becomes a dark greeny yellow – but the difference between that and the original Basil Green was negligible, so I over painted with Secret weapon washes’ ‘Baby Poop’ – another olive green (and not at all like the colour they show on their webpage).

I’m really hoping to have some finished models to show you all next time – so fingers crossed!

Fin detail on the frigates

The phoenix destroyers with a test 'rense' logo on the upper example

I continued the same lower body pattern across all four Phoenix destroyers

The power cascades light up on the dreadnought

Rear view. I still have to work on the engines.

Close up of power cascades. I need to brighten these - they've suffered from the watercolour basecoat and darkened.

The main bridge. I've had to bite the bullet and opt for
multiple coats of white on the bridge window areas.

Front fork and main weapon detail

Three-quarter side view of the dreadnought

View from the front

The engines are starting to get there

I'm saving all the fancy bits on this 'til last -
I'd like this one to be right

Overhead Phoenix - a classic crucifix.

The flight of the... [gets coat]