Grey Month!

Apparently it was UCM month! Although it is in theme with the weather this month...

I didn't intend to only paint UCM stuff but Matt and I have played a couple of Dropzone Commander games this month, he's bought some new stuff, and we're planning to play some of the Attacker/Defender scenarios that we've never played.

Saying all that, up first is some Dropfleet:

 

Toulon! The final 2 models of my UCM fleet! This means I am now up to date with my entire fleet. Until I can find someone selling a Battleship for a decent price... These 2 mean I now have 6 of this frigate type meaning I have flexibility with my fleet.

On to Dropzone:

 

 Broadsword and Flak infantry! The big tank can either be used as a famous commander and comes with 4 extra cards for the command deck, and can also be used on its own or with another as a heavy choice. Thats a big gun! The infantry are the last of the different UCM infantry available to me. I've already used these in a game and they added another option for shooting down gates or dropships.

 Seraphim and Falcon B! The start of my airborn reinforcements. The large ship is a Seraphim Retaliator, which although slow compared to other fastmovers comes with a good supply of rockets! The Falcon B are armed with a mixture of AA and ground attack weaponry. Fun times!

Eagle! Last but by no means least is this. This is a funny one as I never thought I'd like using this but got it cheap off ebay. However, having used it in a game I already love it! Great for demolishing buildings from afar!

So, there you go for this month. Hopefully will be a bit more colourful next month!

Return Of The Blog!

I know I know! Its been a while etc etc

I'm going to try and make a proper effort at blogging from now on. Even if no one reads it, it's a good record for myself of what I've done! Speaking of records, one of the main problems I found with this blog lark is remembering what I've painted...

So, I now keep a record of all the things I've just painted, then I can photograph them, and present them here for anyone that cares! I'm going to aim for a monthly update, depending on how much I manage to get painted. 

Anyway, here is the last months worth off the production line:

First up:

 

Spaceships! More of my UCM fleet. Recent games have shown me that I didn't have enough dropships, and the UCM have the worst of the fighter/bombers available. So, here are another 2 New Orleans strike carriers. This brings my total to 6 strike carriers, giving me more flexibility. The larger ship is my 2nd Seattle fleet carrier, giving me more launch capacity. Combined with my Atlantis battlecruiser, means I can now put out a launch capacity of 9, so they may be crap, but at least there will be a lot of them!

 

More spaceships! These are Santiago corvettes. I now have 7 of these, enabling me to get across the board quickly and hopefully take out some of the oppositions strike carriers or void gates before they are able to deploy any troops.

 

Space stations! This is a lovely kit that Hawk make enabling you to create a number of stations of varying sizes. I managed to get 1 large, 5 medium and 3 small out of it. I'm not putting a massive amount of effort into painting these as they aren't used in every mission. Even with a minimal paint job they look quite snazzy though!

 

Phoenix! My regular opponents have been moaning about my Dropzone command Kodiak for ages, so I bought this, the other command model available to me. I'm sure they'll start moaning about it at some point too...

 

Acoma! This is a separate project my nephew Mike and I have started. These are 6mm Baccus Samurai. The Acoma are from Raymond Feists Riftwar world, an excellent series of books we both read years ago. We wanted to do a 6mm project, decided on using the Kings of War Ancients lists, and here we are, the start of a force!

 

Gallic Infantry! These are for my Impetus Carthaginian army I started ages ago. I'm making an effort to get the army painted to the point where I have a legal force to play with. The above 2 units are expansions of 2 units I'd already painted which mean I can do 2 large units:

 

See! These Xyston models are a pleasure to paint. I have 2 units of Gallic cavalry to paint and then the basis of my force is done. Romans beware!

So there you have it, a smorgasbord of visual delights for you!

Ginger Nutjobs!

I've always loved Dwarf Slayers! The idea of them having some kind of trauma that caused them to dye their hair bright orange and charge at the enemy with reckless abandon always amused me...

So here are some now:

Berserker Brock Riders! Who doesn't love a ginger loony on a giant badger!?

I know the Old World didn't technically have these but I always felt that some form of cavalry was the one thing missing from the Dwarf army. 

Next up:

Dwarf miners! These are some of my favourite Evil Empire Dwarf models. As such I plan on having a horde of them! This will mean trawling ebay for a few more models but it'll be worth it.

And now for something completely different!

Not sci-fi!

Everyone will be beside themselves with joy to see my recent Kings of War rebasings! So here they are:

Rock Lobber! Or Jarrum Bombard as it's now called... 

Thunderers! Or Ironwatch Rifles as they're now called....

Told you! Who doesn't need more guns?!

I'm trying to get everything that's painted for my dwarves rebased. Once this is complete I can decide what I want to do with the rest of the spare models I have.

And now for something completely completely different:

Royal Navy Marine! I have 14 of these which will be used with Mike using the Cutlass rules. I've done this as a test run to see how I would paint them and if I could be bothered to paint the rest... And I think I can! This guy took a while but now I've got the process down, doing some more shouldn't take as long.

I hope...

Spaceships!

Dropfleet! Woo hoo!

After waiting what seemed like an eternity, it finally arrived! I have actually had some ships painted since about November but didn't have any bases to mount them on until my pledge arrived at the start of January...

So, first up are these:

 

Moscow and 2 New Orleans. The Moscow is a properly shooty ship, covered in guns! It can do some serious damage when it goes weapons free. The New Orleans are my strike carriers, which are essential in the game as they are one of the ships that can drop troops onto the planets surface. 

Next up:

 

Berlin and 2 Toulon. The Berlins main weapon is a big laser which is whats known as a Burnthrough gun which is capable of doing lots of damage. The Toulon are more or less your standard shooty frigates.

Finishing the starter fleet: 

 

Seattle. This is my fleet carrier. It has a couple of big guns on it but its other main function is its ability to launch fighters and bombers!

Expanding from the starter set are: 

 

A Rio and 2 Taipei. The Rio is your standard shooty cruiser whilst the Taipei are close action specialists. You have to get in cloose with them but they are able to deal out alot of damage for a little ship.

Further expansion: 

 

Avalon and 2 Lima. The Avalon is my kickstarter exclusive battlecruiser. If you haven't noticed, it has an even bigger version of the burnthrough laser on the Berlin. It also has 4 other big guns, so looking forward to using this bad boy! The 2 Lima are interesting ships that I think have an ability for the UCM which at the moment, no other fleet has. The ability to independently scan other ships, adding spikes and making them easier to see!

More big guns:

 

2 New Cairo and 2 Jakarta. The New Cairo have the big burnthrough laser of the Berlin, but no other guns. And you have to have a minimum of 2. They are however faster than the bigger cuisers, able to keep up with the figates of the fleet. The Jakarta are defensive frigates, kept within 4" of other friendly ships they add a bonus to point defence. Not sure these will see much use but we'll see as I play more games.

Rounding off:

 

Adding in another Toulon and a New Orleans. I have 4 frigates left to paint and have now decided how to assemble these. You may have noticed the coloured bead around the flight stands. I picked this up from the DFC facebook group as a quick and cheap way to signify your battlegroups. Some people have painted colours on the bases but I find the beads much easier and £1.50 for 100 beads i'm well covered!

Last off: 

 

I ordered these 2 Imperial Assault models in November but due to me not realising 1 was a pre-order, I didn't receive them until January...

So, on the left is my second Luke Skywalker. This version being the Jedi version from later in the original trilogy. The one on the right is the Inquisitor from the Rebels tv series. Both weren't that much fun to paint as they are mostly black but they were quick paint jobs!

Dirty Deeds, Beep Boop Beep!

Yeah, I win best title ever!

And below is the reason I had that in my head for days on end...

 

C3PO and R2-D2! C3PO was a 5 minute paint job, but R2, with all the white took a bit longer. Think he looks ok! Beep Boop Beep!

Continuing to power through the Imperial Assault stuff:

 

Han Solo and Davith Elso. I think I've managed to get Han as close to he looks in the films. Davith is one of 2 heroes that come in the Bespin Gambit expansion. Another dude with a light saber!

Continuing with the Bespin Gambit: 

 

Wing Guard! I'd never really noticed these in the film until I'd painted them and then watched it again, and there they are, loads of them! These were fun to paint, but I'm still undecided how to paint the other 3 that come in the set. I want to do them as elite but am unsure how to signify this. I may do a gold ring aroung the hats, or gold cuffs. I'm sure I'll decide as I paint them... 

Crikey! Up to date!

Well, that was a productive month! Almost entirely up to date now with my Imperial Assault stuff. Its only a slow trickle of stuff arriving through the post that is left to paint. This is probably for the best as Dropfleet is still looming and most of the group seem to think we're going to be painting this until the end of time....

So, here's the Imperials:

 

I've got over my dislike of painting white. Well, not really but I've got a system that works! Good job really, I thought I'd painted all the Storrmtroopers I'd ever have to do, and then Fantasy Flight announced the next expansion which contains more of them.... The orange shoulder pads are my Elite troops, led by Kayn Somos.

Up next: 

 

Scum! Some more Tusken Raiders and Boba Fett. Boba turned out to be a weird paint job. Red, blue, green and yellow all on 1 model! I'd never noticed how bonkers his outfit is until I'd googled it!

Finally: 

 

Rebels! Chewbacca, Rebel Sabateurs, Rebel Smuggler,  Echo Base Troopers and 2 more heroes, Saska Teft and Biv Bodhrik. I've really enjoyed painting all these models. Still on the paint table are Han Solo and a Bantha Rider. I accidently went on eBay this morning and found the Bespin Gambit for a price I couldn't turn down, so thats on its way!