MiniatureBrushworks Stuff

After lots of time invested in this small starter army im finally done. Hard work payed out as they won gold in Armies on Parade last weekend.

I added a small fleet of ex confederste vessels who now serve under the SUSA flag (Socialist Union of South America). They got a sickly greengray paintjob with battle damage to contrast with their french counterparts.

The imperium fleet finished by adding aa frigates and zeppelin zestroyers.

The most complicated unit is done now. Bladeguard veterans with attached Lieutenant and Captain. next are Terminators and Sternguard which both have much less nmm.

The last 3 models with an extreme amount of nmm are now on the painting table.

These bladeguard veterans will aaccompany my captain and lieutenant.

With the Dystopian Wars project finished (just some group shots to do) I wanted to go back to practicing some of the more advanced painting techniques.

In this case non metallic metal, freehand, osl and marble. Instead of painting just some random miniatures I decided to paint a number of space marines to get a small legal army aswell as experience.

15 Space Marine veterans is the goal. 5 terminators, 5 sternguard veterans 3 bladeguard veterans the captain and lieutenant.

The captain and Lieutenant are already done and so the most detailed models are out of the way.

The latest addition to my collection is an Imperium starter box. The colours I used here were loosely based on ww2 german warships including the yellow turret tops.

I still have a cruiser left to build and propably build it as an escort cruiser to accompany the battleship.

The first model I finished is this Kaiser class battleship, a solid chioce and a robust centerpiece.

The cruisers I build from the starter are a support carrier and two bombardment ships with big guns. All of these got interchangeble loadouts to play them as different units should that be necessary.

The small plane taking of from the carrier was part of the sprue and should be glued under deck were its not visible so I decidet to do something else.

Following the Alliance fleet I started working on a Commonwealth one. Again starting point was a one player starter force which then got expanded by a Murmansk battlefleet.

Contrasting the clean and elegant look of the french I chose a dark and menacing and battle worn look with lots of chipping and rust.

Currently Im working on the last cruisers and frigates of the second fleet box as this faction will also be taken to 2000pts.

The second flagship is already done. A Tobolsk mobile stronghold.

I added a Couronne battlefleet to my existing alliance ships to bring them to 2000pts and now this fleet is finished.

The couronne is a really beautiful shif which captures the french elegance quiet nice and gives my fleet nice carrier support.

I used fleur de lis decals for the front and a hand painted napoleon symbol on the deck to break of the grey/wooden paintjob a bit more

I had an eye on Dystopian Wars for a really long time now. The designs and rules (wich can be found free on their website) catched me.

It took a wile but our small gaming group decided to start out and I will do the alliance.

I got my hands on the faction starter wich is great value for the price and contains dice, templates marker and a rulebook beside the lovely models.

The first ships I finished are the Richelieu and a couple of cruisers. I used VMC intermediate blue as a base for the grey and added AK ivory for an airbrush modulation. A controled wash (nuln oil + contrast medium) followed by edge highlights was an easy way to bring in some debth. The gold was achieved by painting on VMA aluminium as a base followed by a wash of  thinned zealot yellow (ap speedpaint) and a sepia one.

For the flagship I added some flags cut out of yoghurt lids glued to broom bristels.

Since the shogun tv show started I thought about building another Samurai warband for Daisho.

So here are the first few minis done. Daisho uses small groups of miniatures so in the end it will be a group of 9 wich is a nice project for in between.

I used the boxart for the samurai as an inspiration and just sculpted on the fur on the jinbaori to match a historical one.

Currently Im working on the final stages on the last 5 Samurai with teppo once they are done every mini get some basing material.

My latest addition to my growing blood red skies collection are these P-39 Airacobras.

The models are from Warlord games the decals from siebenschwabenspiele

I always liked the P-39 even if the performance for the USAAF was a bit underwelming but choosing US instead of soviet planes I got the chance to give them little pinups.

The only plane which really existed is Air A Cutie but overall the decals in combination with the white markings break up the single tone camo quiet good.

I finally managed to get some motivation and time to get some projects done.

In this case I painted up parts of a second Tobruk starter and added some Infantry and 47mm anti tank guns.

For the tanks the same techic and conversion was used as for the other ones. The infantry however was painted with contrast paints to save time.

The infantry and anti tank guns are from Peterpig. I really like the minis they make even if the faces may be a bit goofy sometimes. But at least they are available.

All in all this game me a nice 100pts Italien mid war list and considering that I printed the scouts and got the tanks and 8.8 from the dirt cheap Tobruk starter this was not as expensive as expected.

Now of to get some games going.

Today we played the leeward line scenario from warlord games which zoomes in onto the battle of trafalgar.

Turn 1: opened a bit disapointing for my franco spanish fleet. The brits opening up with their bow chasers while the franco spanish fleet didnt hit anything in return.

Turn 2: the thing started getting messy for my opponent and this was one reason we had to rewrite the victory conditions. We didnt really read or ignored the victory conditions here so my opponent turned most of his fleet southwards. Bahama and Algerisas both took heavy beating.
The Fougueux got a broadside from Royal Souvereign, her rudder got damaged and she steered right into the Santa Ana which did enough damage to let the Fougueux strike her colour.

Turn 3: The Pluton finally found a weak point in the british line following the Royal Souvereign while Tonnant, Mars and Belleisle firing into Bahama and Algesiras until both ships, now on fire, strike their colours.

Turn 4: The Bellerophon tried to sink Pluton but despite her damage she still managed to fire into the stern of the Royal Souvereign, taking out a mast and finally let Collingwood strike the colours. Santa Ana and Monarca meanwhile setting course to intercept Colossus and Bellerophon.

Turn: 5 The crew of the Pluton had to strike the colours because of a fire. 4 ships out of 9 out of service. Themis and Cornelie rammed each other because they are way to inexperienced to evade.

Turn 6: In the north Colossus and Belerophon got into a fight with Monarca and Santa Ana, Bellerophon now on fire. In the south Tonnant, Mars and Belleisle heading towards a mostly undamaged Indomptable.

Final Round. The Bellerophon sinks due to fires, together with all the other burning ships wich we forgot due to the fact that they stike the colours and did not participate in any role. The Franco Spanish fleet therefore gains the victory.

Over the new year we got into star wars legion and I started painting my first units.

For the start I tested out painting stormtroopers with speedpaints and contrast mainly which improves the paint speed.

Since I was a kid I loved the AT-ST so i got one aswell.

Next up are more troopers and Darth Vader.

I finished of the two 3rd rate ships Bahama und Monarca.

All of them together give me a nice little 1000pt fleet but our main goal is to go for some historical szenarios.

I started Bahama before I even start painting Santa Ana as a test ship hence the missing running rigging. Overall I think she came out ok but she lack the detail the other two vessels got.

For Monarca I used a painting of Nicholas Pocock as a reference for her colours.

Both are 74 gun ships of the line and both will be part of my franco spanish fleet in our upcoming Trafalgar game. Well at least a part of Trafalgar.

We will using the Leeward Line szenario from Warlord Games

Black Seas: The Battle of Trafalgar

This is basically just the part of the whole battle were Collingwoods line clashed into the franco spanish fleet.

I will borrow the french ships from my opponent as it will take to long for me complete the whole fleet.

So at the start of 2024 we will play this szenario and we will how well the horrible skilled spaniards will perform there.