Bonus Round Entry 2: Mount and Riders

 

It took me quite some time to figure out what I wanted to do with this one. I trolled through my lead pile but came up with a disappointing selection of cavalry models. None of which sparked much interest in me. As much fun as the diversion of the first round was I wanted to get back to my main projects as well.

Union Land Ironclads are marked by both a production number and bear the Union shield.

Inspiration struck while going through my 15mm stuff as I had socked away a few models to form the core of my steampunk Union army. So I ended up working on a unit of dismounting Horseless Cavalry.

 

C Troop of the 9th Cavalry dismount on the edge of the poisoned zone.

The vehicle is actually a steam-tankette for 28mm from RAFM. When I first saw it I though it would scale much better as 15mm vehicle. I ended up extending the under chassis with some plasticard as it looked a little sliced off and awkward. I also added some extra bits to it including a new hatch on top and some towing attachments to the rear. Thus was born the Adams class stern-wheeler land ironclad.

As a frontier unit the 9th still hasn't received its full supply of new Prussian Green uniforms. Some still wear the older Calvary Blues.

I'm guessing that this is an older 3D printer model. It has some heavy layers from print layers on them. I kinda wished I filled them in a little better as the contrast between it and the flat plasticard on the bottom is rather stark. I did put some Mr. Surfacer on it in an attempt to blend it together but I guess I needed a couple more coats.

 

In progress shot to better see the extended chassis. I thought it gave it a bit more bulk for the scale. Would of liked to put all of those little rivets on it though ...

The Adams class Land Ironclad has become the workhorse of the plains fleet and central to the development of horseless cavalry units. This unarmed version is usually referred to the John Adams while the turreted one is the Sam Adams.

For the riders I'm using some of the US armored infantry from All Quiet on the Martian front. I figured these guys wouldn't want to walk around in all that heavy armor and might want to ride in on a vehicle like the Russian tankodesantniki from WW2.

The newly issued "Stevenson's Iron Lung" breathing equipment is vital for operation in the poisoned air of the Disputed Territories.

I converted a couple of the models so they could still be riding on top and one hanging on to the side as he is dismounting. Most were painted up in the Union's new Prussian Green uniform* but I also painted a few up in the older blues of the army.

* I just made that one up, but since my version of the Union is hostile to the British Empire I figured closer ties to Prussia might occur and the adoption of British styled khaki would be frowned upon. Plus I want my Confederates in khaki if I ever get to doing some.

Current Army doctrine is for Horseless Cavalry to dismount from towed carriages and advance into battle on foot, in practice most troopers have taken to riding directly on the ironclads.   

Don't forget to check out all of the great entries for the second round over at the Painting Challenge Blog.



Will the troopers discover the reason this homestead was abandoned?

Deepones

 

I was kind of sent scrambling this past week looking for things to paint. Nothing that I had ready to go was really grabbing me and I spent a bit of time working on my second theme round. I finally decided I needed to get going on something so grabbed some of my random 15mm stuff to paint up.

 

The only things I managed to get complete were the three fishmen I already had primed. These are from Khurasan miniatures and as usual were a pleasure to paint. I didn't really try anything fancy on them keeping to a simple green scheme with purple fins. I still have 7 or so more to do as well and hopefully will get them done later in the challenge.

I also prepped a few more 15mm guys to hopefully get to this week as well. I'll have to see how it goes as the day off for Christmas might give me more time to work or it might just suck up all of my free time. It's always hard to tell with family holidays.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas this year!

Bonus Round Entry 1: Ambush in Novograd

The theme for the first Fortnight round was cold, this immediately inspired me to think of the Retreat from Moscow and the Battle of Stalingrad. Pondering a little further I remembered some Copplestone Neo Soviets that were purchased for a never completed WW3 project many a year ago. While looking for them I also cam across my old set of AT-43 and decided that one of the Therians would make a good opponent for them. And so at least for this vignette I get to complete my long ago abandoned project with a pair of embattled NeoSovs ambushing a lone Cyber-Reich Soldat in the ruins of Novograd.

The base was built up pretty quickly out of an old CD, some foamboard, insulation foam, and plastic card. I cut out some holes for the miniatures to slot into as well.

The whole thing got a coat of thinned down wood filler and was primed with black gesso. After that it was painted pretty simply. I tried a different technique with the building to simulate concrete. I just stippled it repeatedly with different layers of tones. I think it turned out pretty well. I also did some simple weathering on it as well.

 

I wanted to try out something new on this by adding some posters to the building. I found some likely culprits and printed them out shrunken down to the right size. These were soaked in watered down matte medium and slapped onto the walls. I then poked at them some to distress them and once dried rubbed some weathering powder on to blend them into the building a bit more. 



 

Meanwhile I was painting the figures. The partisan figure I wanted to look like he was using whatever gear he could find. So I tried to make him look like he had a civilian parka thrown on over the classic Russian blue camo pattern pants. His compatriot I aimed for a more regular army look and patterned his camo coat after one of the many Russian army snow patterns. Then did the rest of the gear in classic Russian green. I'm not really sure how Russian logistics work but from looking through various pictures it seems like they have a very wide and eclectic selection of camouflage patterns. In fact pretty much anything you can make up they seem to have in service and freely mix and match them. It certainly make painting easier.

 

 

The Soldat got repainted pretty much as he originally was but I leaned more towards Panzer grey for base armor and a sorta organic red for the under parts. I kept the bone color for the skull as its just too striking to pass up.

 

 Once everything was painted up I went to work on the snow effects. After some reading online I decided to go with the classic baking soda option. I mixed up some with Matte Medium until it was the consistency of yogurt. This got spread around trying to heap it up wherever I though snow would drift. This also went on the miniatures bases. While still wet I sprinkled more baking soda on top.

 

Once that dried I came back through and dabbed some thinned matte medium on places that looked like it needed more snow. The back of the sign, poster edges, boots, etc. Then I sprinkled more baking soda on. I was presently surprised how well the snow effects came out considering this was my first try at it.

 

 

  

Photographing the whole thing turned into a major endeavor however. The contrast between the dark figures and the white snow made it really hard to get nice pictures. Luckily my Lovely Photographer came to my assistance and gave me some tips for some nicer pictures. Otherwise all you'd be seeing is blinding white snow.

 

With my first entry out of the way I'm looking forward to working on the next one Mount and Riders and be sure to check out all of the incredible entries for the First Bonus Theme Round as well!

 

 

 

 

 

Novak Belt Nomads

First off I want to make some belated welcomes to new followers. While I wasn't paying much attention it looks like 4 new people joined up.

Joakim Strom from The Miniatures Man: Joakim has recently hit a well deserved 100k views and has been painting up some really cool Brimstone miniatures ( a game I regret not being able to pledge for. )

Bacon Fat from Baconfat Log: Always a fun read and apparently an owner of a mischievous cat as well.

Joe B.: I couldn't find any blog under your name but let me know if you have one.

TheKillingCold: One of the authors of Between the Bolter and Me which has some great and really well thought out conversion work of Horus Heresy miniatures amongst other interesting projects.

Although their own name is unpronounceable the closest translation is the Novak Belt Nomads.

Second Dreadball team completed and this one was also my first official entry into the Painting Challenge as well ( I submitted an entry for the Cold round but this really should of been done first. Honestly I felt kinda out of stride when the Challenge began as so many people were submitting great and plentiful entries. Meanwhile I was struggling to get these guys finished and my Cold entry. But hopefully now I'll settle in to a regular flow.) I wasn't really sure how I wanted to paint them but last minute inspiration on how to paint my Dwarf team (still to be actually painted) and seeing some unrelated but wonderfully painted blue armored wolf guys on Dwartists blog made my mind up for me.



The center one is the original, the flankers were both reposed. The left one is my favorite out of the group.

I did some reposing on all of them to give some variation, although some of the poses aren't totally convincing. As has now become my norm I also lost one of the goblins heads and had to make a copy. It actually went rather well as I'm not even sure which one it is anymore. I wanted them to look like their gear was very well used and more chipped up then painted. So they were painted up a worn metal color and then I stippled two layers of blue over that. It sort of looked a little sloppy so I also tried putting on some worn white stripes on them as well. I'm still not completely convinced with the effect but I guess it is good enough.

Right is out of box, left is conversion.

I tried to avoid the typical orc green skin an opted for a nice dull yellow. Other than that it was just painting up some leather straps and the whitish cloth and they were all done.

Center on is stock. Mantic really didn't do any favors with the poses since all of the goblins are pointing with one hand.

Thanksgiving Terrain Board Spectacular Day 4+5: Cyber Monday

I decided to combine yesterday and today into a single post for two reasons. One I really didn't get all that much done either day so this way there is a bit more progress. Secondly, I couldn't find any official term for the Sunday after Thanksgiving. ( Although I refer to it as Sad Sunday as I know the next day is back to the workaday grind.)

More road work

Close up of the individual sections after they dried. The clay tends to contract as it dries causing the gaps. 

So what did I get done? Mostly laying more roads onto the boards. I also finalized some carving on the rock faces. Finally, I put a coat of thinned wood filler mixed with glue onto the surfaces. This works to both seal and harden the foam and give it a bit of texture. Once I get the crossroads section up to the same place I'll be onto painting. Hopefully the next post will be with them finished and ready for gaming.

Seal coat is still wet.

Rock faces all done and coated.