Filling the skies of Mars

The Martian VSF has been quiet of late but is still happening.

The next tranche of Aeronef are ready to take to the skies with their cargoes of plucky explorers.

First off is the second of the flyers that will be used for the Empire of the Blazing Sun.

It's a nifty little version of the bigger one with an oversized rocket engine for that additional turn of speed.

Urn has got a force for The Covenant of Antarctica so they need some aeronef as well. I went for a flying wing design as it felt a bit more progressive in keeping with their heavy leaning towards innovation and technology.

And a smaller one to run the troops around.

Just the Prussian ones to go now and they are well under-way. oh...and I really should paint some of the figures!

TTFN

Deadline: XMAS!

I’ve made more progress on my Chain of Command US Army force over the last few days. Batch painting this many will take a while but will be the most efficient way to get them done. I hope to get them done to use over the Xmas period. Bit of a tall order but I’ll try!

I’ve also started the Oriental Nef that I picked up from Blotz at the Warfare Gaming Show. I’m pretty pleased with how it’s come out. Hopefully with a bit of paint I’ll be able to make the side sails look slightly less flat.

I really must take stock in the New Year as I've got sooo many things started. A list! I must make a list of things to finish in 2019!

TTFN

As summer comes to a close....

I've been a busy boy lately but I need to be as I've got so many projects on the go at the moment that it is hard to know what to try and finish. Especially difficult as I want to do it all!

I have made some efforts to try and get small jobs done and put away as I have soooo many bits and bobs hanging around in the man cave prepped and undercoated.

The VSF project is still bubbling away quietly. I’m waiting on a few more Aeronefs from Blotz but thought I’d get some crew painted whilst I wait for them. I find little sets of figures like this refreshing to paint as they tend to be pretty different to the massed batch painting that comes with wargaming forces.

Also started some deck guns for the VSF which shouldn’t take long to do.

Also finished were some much needed additions to my Iron Warriors force. Sadly their first outing was less than stellar as they got absolutely smashed by a leviathan with a grav-bombard!

Bit of scenery done as well. Started them ages ago and had stalled on the painting the beige. Got a second coat on finally and then added some weathering. Lovely models!

Been building more stuff despite having lots on the go already. Couldn’t resist putting together the Dunecrawler from a cheap purchase starter box purchase from Ebay. Very cool figure and I’m looking forward to painting a bundle of stuff for the Mechanicum soon.

Priority does seem to have shifted to the Star Wars Legions stuff in the last few days as I picked up all but the last kit for the crashed star ship range that I designed with Blotz earlier in the year. Whilst I’m getting the scenery sorted I’ve started getting my Imperial forces done. They were a cheap double set that Junt spotted for Tea Urn and I. We snapped it up! They were badly put together and poorly undercoated but with a bit of TLC they’ve come out okay. I did a test one to see how much of a pain the black and white scheme was to paint but it wasn’t too much of an issue so I’m looking forward to painting these now!

The dreads and the servo crane set have taken me up to 204 items painted this year which I’m okay with. I’ve lost count of how much I’ve purchase this year which is far from my intention of only buying a minimal amount.

;-)

TTFN

Areonef Marking part Deux

Adding the extra little detail markings to the US Nefs has spurred me onto doing the Brit ones as well. I'd always thought they were lacking but had struggled to be inspired with ideas for what I could add. Whilst searching for the US ones I saw World War One aircraft markings and that is where I drew the inspiration for the tail details for theirs.

So I started in the same place for the Brit ones and wasn't disappointed. So using the tracing paper approach I ended up putting roundels and identity letters onto all three British Nefs. The tail colours have ended up being quite 'tricolour' but hey it still looks a load better than the plain colours in my opinion.

I also added the funnel colours which make a big difference.

This is another three finished this year so:

Purchased: +20
Painted: -20

Net: 0

Thankfully I'm not anticipating buying much else other than the next two Nef when they are finished so getting some more done should put me well into a net negative number. It would be nice to get to -365 but this might be a tall order depending on the occasional bouts of weakness that result in naughty internet purchases.

We shall see.

TTFN

Aeronef Markings

I've been a bit stuck on how to approach the marking for the Aeronefs I've finished so far. The Brit ones are still needing something adding but I think I know what however the US ones are done.

I've not done a lot just enough to add to the model but not look to silly.

I'm not going to worry about the basing until they are all done then I can have a big basing session to get them all finished.

TTFN

Termies and Nefs

This week I've managed to make some progress on both sets of terminators.

The Iron Hands have received their coats of red and this leaves them ready for detailing, decals and weathering. Plenty to do still but progressing well.

The Iron Warriors will take a bit more work. I've added both the black and white to their pads in a random fashion as I did with the MKiiis. I don't want the hazard striping to be too uniform. Once the white has two coats I then carefully add the stripes. This took a while but I like the effect once finished. These will need a little tidying up but after that they can have their yellow wash to complete the hazard panels.

Once that is dry the whole figure will have black wash to dull down the metallic grey and to make the yellow a little less glaring. Then they'll be at the same place as the Iron Hands and I can batch paint all twenty eight to finish the details off. It'll be nice to finish off a whole tray that has been sat untouched for over two years.

Also finished are the two US Aeronefs for the Martian VSF. I keep referring to it as Dystopian Legion but it really has evolved past that so VSF it is from now on. I'm thinking of adding decals to both these and the Britiannian ones but I want to have a good snoop around to choose the right sort of decals. I'm thinking of white WWII style stars for the Yankie ones but I'm not sure if that will modernise them to much?

Hopefully Blotz will have the next two ready soon.

Two things finished. Puts me at +3 YTD.

TTFN

Edit for a requested picture.

Another 'Nef

I've finished construction on the third Aeronef kit that I commissioned from Blotz.

It has turned out really well and is a really easy kit to pop together. I'm pleased with how much deck space this one has although it will lose some of that once the monitor style gun goes on. The lack of railings at the front will also look less silly once the armament is on. The Roanoke class tug should be ready soonish hopefully and I'll get myself a deck gun when I order that.

I'm going to go with an un-historically early US green as a colour scheme. I think it'll work well with the decking being a mix of browns. Question is: White Stars? I'm not sure when the US started using them but they are quite distinctive so I may well do some.

I found some of the Pulp Figure range last weekend at the Warfare show in Reading. I'm really looking forward to painting them up as crew for the 'Nef. The quandary here is whether or not to paint the uniforms blue with white trim or white with blue trim. I'm leaning towards the latter as I'm imagining my VSF Mars as being a temperate place more suited for the white uniforms.

Rules wise this project is looking decidedly like its not going to be Dystopian Legions but VSF under a completely different rules set. Urn suggested the konflict '49 rules and Junta has kindly donated a rule book with this in mind. It looks, on face value, as a rule set that should be easy enough to tweak to my needs.

Work has also continued on painting Massive Darkness figures. the first tranche are nearly ready and these coupled with some hero figures will take me over my target of 365 for the year. Huzzah!

TTFN

3 More!

Totals up to 341!

This also means that the VSF project now involves paint as these are the first items for the game to be painted. I need to have a snoop around for some embellishments like decals but they are basically finished now apart from the bases.

Oxford Class Skyship.

Aether launches

Perhaps a little drab but that will change when the Scarlet Jackets of the Queens finest are on board!!

I tried, when designing them, to allow for as much deck space as possible. I've got a romantic notion of boarding actions and such nonsense when we finally get round to playing.

Looking over the figures for this, most are prepped but a handful still need filing and sticking together. I will confess to not being hugely excited about the prospect as going back to metal figures after sooo many plastic and resin ones is somewhat onerous. They're a real pain to prep!

TTFN

A riveting evening

You guessed it!

An evening spent adding rivets to my new VSF stuff.

Utilising my trusty Rivet Maker (a greetings card makers hole punch)....

...I set about adding rivets to the under hull of my new VSF flyers. The punch makes it a quick job to make them and then it is a fairly quick process to dab a blob of glue and shove a rivet on. I tend to give them a watered down PVA wash afterwards to seal them.

Also did the Tesla Guns so I can get all these sprayed soon.

TTFN

Letting myself get distracted.

With only a few weeks to go for the painting deadline I should have my nose to the grind stone getting the last figures painted for myself impose challenge. 60 still to do so what do I do?

Something else completely different of course!

Being so close to the finish line my mind has wandered off into 2018 with a view to setting some goals for next year. Yes yes I know I haven’t finished this year but it’s just how my mind works!

Sat around my study over the last few years has been the collection of Dystopian Legions (DL) stuff that I purchased ooooh sooo long ago. I’ve always been interested in the Victorian Sci-Fi but never really got to have a crack at it gaming wise. I even had a copy of Space 1889 but never played. That desire is what lead to all the purchases of DL and also the 6mm Dystopian Wars (DW) stuff. It had been niggling at me that nothing had come of these so I became resolved to do something about it. Well that was over a year ago and still nothing happened. Well apart from Junt and I conning Urn to buy loads of stuff for it as well. 

We had come to a consensus that it would be fun to take DL to Mars. I suspect that this may have been driven by me but I will deny it if so accused. However that notion stuck, germinated and started to grow. First it stemmed into the idea of a couple of funky Aeronef flyers to supplement the land forces we already had and then, like so many of the notions in my head, it got out of hand.

Long story short …..Aeronef started getting designed. Then I balked at scratch-building all these ideas. Then it occurred to me that they might be good in MDF. Looking around there are a few people making Aeronef but they weren’t what I was looking for or were too big. So I resolved to contact a manufacturer to see if some could be made. I had to good fortune to choose Blotz as my first port of call and I am very pleased that I did. Since the early contact the idea was well received and handled in a stress-less manner. So in just a short time the first two designs from the project have gone from concept sketches to scale drawings and onto being finished things. I have to say it has been fun! Slightly surreal getting your own design through the post as a kit to put together but fun none the less!

The first two were the Kingdom of Britainnia ones primarily because they were the simplest designs on which I could get some idea of how to proceed with the drawings that Blotz would need. I will admit to being quite pleased with how they have turned out.

A Patrol boat for HM’s forces…..

…..and a light launch to ferry troops around.

As this had come from the DL perspective I’d intended the large ones to be ‘sky tanks’ and the smaller ones to be ‘Sky APCs’. I suspect however that the DL rules will be thrown out of the window, due to them being poorly received, and a new rule set will be found which will give the Aeronef a life of their own.

Given that we have five DL factions between the three of us that have DL, then ten designs are required in total. The first two are finished, the next is now with Blotz and the fourth will be pinged over shortly. I’ve been scribbling away on new design ideas trying to make each new one markedly different from the others which is a fun challenge.

I keep having to rein myself in with the practical limitations of size. I doubt the Long Haired General at home really wants a house full of massive sky ships. Shame. I’d love it. ;-)

If you like them then head over to Blotz where they are available to buy or keep an eye out for the new ones in future.

TTFN