Quick update - Hasslefree Rogue Drax

Howdy folks,

Just a quick update today...I recently finished up a great looking figure that I bought from Hasslefree quite some time ago. Easily usable in many settings/themes, the Rogue Drax was going to fit into my Zona Alfa game that I was going to run for CanGames this past May.

I have intentionally painted the basing on this one to match some of my previous Rogue Stars figures, so there will be some continuity there. Overall, my inspiration for this Drax was Officer K from BladeRunner 2049...

I hope I captured it well, and regardless am very happy with the results.

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020
Painted:

28mm          54 (+1, Rogue Drax)
15mm          43

Bought:       0

Progress:    +97

Star Wars Legion - Commandos

Happy August folks,

After a longer than expected pause, I'm working on getting my posting mojo back. I realized that there was 3 months between posts...so yeah, the painting has continued, but the posting has taken a back seat.

No worries though, I'm glad to show the latest batch of Rebels that I was able to get painted up. Now I have to admit, this group was probably the most difficult to get painted. There are some nice poses and they look good...but to be completely honest, they were probably the worst box that I've put together to date. The pieces did not fit easily together and I had to make some patches to the pieces to get the to fit. For the pieces that did fit together I had to repair numerous gaps, for the pieces that could not fit together, I had to do some surgery and cut away blockages, etc.

I think the assembly woes put me off on the painting and these figures took about a month to paint up and probably took another month to get pictures...all in all, not the best painting experience, but if that is the worst thing to happen to me in a given day, then that makes for a great f'ing day!!

The main goal with painting was to try out some new camouflage patterns, match the figures thematically with my Tatooine Wolverines, and to have a few nods to the Commandos as portrayed in the Return of the Jedi movie (and FFG Commandos box art).

Regardless, I'm happy to have them off the table and ready to go. Enjoy the pics.

The team... 

3 different camo patterns... 

Frontal views... 

The sniper is an excellent pose... 

 

My favourite of the schemes

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020

Painted:

28mm          53 (+7, commandos)
15mm          43

Bought:       0 (these were bought a while ago)

Progress:    +96



Thank God the guns...1 RCHA - Ubique

Howdy folks,

"Everywhere whither right and glory lead" 

I hope all is well on your side of the isolation. I'm happy to be able to show you my latest addition for my 4 CMBG Canucks, A battery, 1 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. Now as the picture below shows from deployment in Afghanistan, the RCHA of today are now equipped with the M777 howitzer.

However, during the Cold War, and certainly in the setting of Team Yankee, the weapon of 'choice' for the RCHA was the M109 self propelled howitzer. The Canadian Forces adopted the M109A1 in the early 1970s, this model is the one that Battlefront lists as the Canadian version in their 109 box. By the late 70s plans were afoot to field the 'upgunned' and upgraded to the M109A2 in the early 80s and by 1985, all regiments in the RCHA ou en francais, le RALC. If I recall correctly, the Canadians would continue upgrading their guns and by the time they were retired in the early 2000's, the RCHA was using the M109A4+.

I have certainly enjoyed my 4CMBG project, however my biggest pet-peeve is that Battlefront got their research wrong and gave the Canucks the wrong gun. When I was scaling this project, I jumped at the chance to buy a couple of US 109 boxes on sale...assuming the only difference would be the cards. When BF was able to get to the Free nations, I was somewhat horrified to see their Canadian version.

Horror aside, to I committed to the 'accurate' depiction and kept with the long guns. In addition, because i was exercising some OCD on this project, I also scratch built the panoramic telescope which I had never seen stowed before...all the pics I had seen from my brother and google shows the ballistic cover atop the turret. And like most of my 4CMBG vehicles to date...lots and lots of camo netting.

In my research, in numerous photos you can see that the gunners laid down tarps before laying the camouflage netting overtop; I tried to capture this with a few of the models. In addition, it was not uncommon to deploy the .50 caliber with the OPs for point defence when the battery was in position. With the finickyness of the metal guns on these models I constantly kept breaking the .50's off so it was fairly easy to model this habit. If you don't see a .50, that's ok...the OP has it.

I hope you enjoy the pics...take care.

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020

Painted:

28mm          46
15mm          43 (+8, 2 crew, 6 vehicles)

Bought:       0 (these were bought a few years ago)

Progress:    +89

Stormtrooper White Noise

Howdy folks,

I hope everyone is healthy and safe...if there can be any silver lining in our current situation, it has to be all the great posts I've been reading from folks getting extra time with the hobby and for those folks who are either returning or stepping into this hobby for the first time.

Whether it is in the painting or gaming aspects...welcome to and good luck in the hobby. The camaraderie aspect is in your future.

For anyone that has been keeping up with my sporadic posting schedule you will probably recall my lament from my previous post.  Like anyone who has stepped into any type of Star Wars themed painting, when it comes to painting stormtroopers, it can get rather tedious at some point.

Stormtroopers

I like to call this white noise.

Having painted 4 sections of troopers and having other expansions in my future, I was approaching this with some hesitation.  So, with a box of Scout Troopers and a box of Death Troopers this offered a chance for a different colour (i.e. the Death Troopers) and an opportunity to move away from the standard scheme (i.e. the Scouts).

The Death Troopers were fairly 'simple'...I had plenty of Rogue One screen shots to look at, and I always have my main painting guru, Sorastro, to refer to.  Painting a black based scheme was quite challenging but I really like how they turned out...using Vallejo colours, I based with 995 and then first coat was mix of black and gunmetal blue.  From there it was varying shades on that adding in some white.  The wash was a mix of citadel nuln oil and army painter blue (comes out quite nice and dark - somewhat similar to nightshade).  In my research, I had also seen folks paint up a lot of residual lighting effect from the various sensors and lights on the troopers...taking a quick watch of Rogue One and looking at the behind the scenes book, there really isn't much residual glow, however I do like the effect (thanks Sorastro) so I took a middle ground stance of some but not too much.

For the Scouts, I had to paint anything other than plain white! For this I googled scout troopers and found an interesting collection of painting shots, concept art, and images.  Because I was trying to keep with the 'tatooine' theme that I started with, I based my troops in vj 995 and then hit them with deck tan and then mixed in some ivory.  As well, I hit random spots on each figure with US Tan Earth painting 'blocks' or sections of tan to match in with my bases.  After that, I then hit them with mixed wash of citadel nuln oil and army painter strong and dark tones.  Once dry, I went back and hit some of the creases with more dark tone and some random highlights of glossy white and tan earth.

In the end, they came out very scout and fitted with what Reece troops really do...adapt their kit to mission at hand...and I'm really happy with the results.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the pics.

Hike up Lead Mountain 2020

Painted:

28mm          46 (+13, 7 x scouts, 6 x death troops)
15mm          35

Bought:       0 (these were bought last year)

Progress:    +81

Star Wars Legion - Stormtroopers and Chewie

Howdy everyone,

Another isolation fuelled update.  While I am thankful I can still work from home, the ongoing restrictions has kept me in at night and given me opportunity to keep up the painting.  I am now finished all of the Stormtroopers from the core box as well as the expansion box...although there are now some additional firepower troops available that I'll have to see about buying...thanks FFG.

If I haven't said it yet, I gotta say it now...painting rows of Stormtroopers does leave one seeing white noise after a while...kinda like M113 fatigue, Stormtrooper fatigue IS REAL!! With that in mind, I am happy with how they turned out, and am happy to be done...for now, lol.

I have Scout Troopers in my future, so I'll have to see how to change it up.

Now, one way to lessen the 'noise' I wanted to add some weathering and mudding to the troops to get away from all that white.  Anyway, here are 2 sections of troopers freshly painted.

Chewbacca was a great model to put together and was a bit of a challenge to paint up...for this, I turned to Sorastro to see how I could tackle this and get my 'wet blend' on...very happy with the results and really happy that his base matched nicely with Han's.

Enjoy the pics.

Red and Blue sections...ready to push-off...

Blue Section...

A great part of painting these guys up is trying to bring out any highlights that are possible...throwing on a couple of washes as part of the last steps certainly helped to bring them out.

Red Section...suitably weathered up for service on faraway outposts...

The formation so far...three sections of Stormtroopers, ready to go, based for Tatooine, Jedah, or any other desertlike setting.

Chewbacca, Rebel operative and longtime sidekick, colleague, and friend of Han Solo...the fur was a little challenging but more along the lines of getting the layout right.  Once I was happy with the general layout, the wet-brushing actually went really quick

Chewie standing tall with Han...

Hike up Lead Mountain, 2020

Painted:

28mm            33 (+15, 14 x Stormtroopers, 1 x Chewie)
15mm            35

Bought:         0 (these were bought last year)

Progress:     +68