Konflikt 47 Whalestorm’s First Foray

The Vogelspinne is finally complete. I lost some faith in my original plan to sponge on a gradient and opted for a (messy) edge highlighted effect instead. As a lesson learned at the start of this entry rather than in the summary, I’ll leave the legs off if I attempt something like this again. Some of those areas are hard to reach while taking care not to get tangled.

So what was the plan?

I wanted something a little spooky and weird. The stories in the Rulebook and on Warlord Community made me think of the Vogelspinne as a shadowy stalker, striking from the smoke and dust before fading away again. It would be distinct from my Infantry, it may be on their side but its a very different beast.

I planned on having a darker colour below and a brighter, complementary colour for the upper half. Taking some inspiration from a Knight that I had painted as a spectral warrior, I chose a dark purple and a teal.

In its final form, I ultimately gave the upper half some lightning inspired lines to emphasise the rift-tech nature of this unit and make it look like it was a side effect rather than a painted camo/pattern.

The lower sections used Naggaroth Night and Xereus Purple, while the upper sections went from Incubi Darkness (which was sponged on) through Kabalite Green, Sybarite Green and finally Gauss Blaster Green in some sections of lightning and on a few corners.

The conventional weapons used Leadbelcher and some Black Templar around the muzzles and ports. I also washed them with Coelia Greenshade to tie them into the “upper section is green” theme.

For the Maschinen Schwere (fancy gravity gun), I used Baharroth Blue drybrushed over Corax White>White Scar.

I’m quite happy with the result. It may be a bit bright to stay hidden, but when the dust kicks up and it starts clattering around the battlefield, I think it would be the last thing its enemies would want to see emerge ahead of (or behind) them. I do imagine that the colours are more muted while idling, maybe a future opportunity for painting a second one.

I sorted out a platoon/company commander (though might want to add some more shade to the face). I opted for a purple cloak/cape and left the yellow off him so he would stand out… by not standing out.

I also added some grass and tufts to the bases. I might give these a wash of Agrax to mute the greens but quite like how bright they are for now.

For the Axis force, I am in a similar mind that I don’t want to go for a camouflage scheme for the troops, at least not for these Stahltruppen.

After reading the lore sections of the rulebook, I ended up down a rabbit hole learning about August(us II) the Strong, Dresden and the Electorate of Saxony.

I have been wanting to paint something yellow for a while, and fully prepared for the struggle, I settled on Black and Yellow for the scheme.

The black armour was a simple drybrush job, starting with black spray, Eshin Grey and then Dawnstone to finish.

The Yellow caused some trial and error.

I started with an Emperors Children pink layer (or 3) to lay down a medium/dark pinky magenta. This was followed by Fulgrim Pink to the higher areas, in the hopes of giving some pre-highlights because…

The final Yellow was achieved with a coating of Imperial Fist contrast paint (I bet you saw this coming).

The first attempt (left, below) resulted in a bit too much orange for my liking, and my clumsy sponge work with Thondia Brown for chipping doesn’t come across as well as I had hoped. I left much less of the darker pink showing on the second two (middle & right, below) and added a little Corax White edge and dot highlighting prior to the Contrast Paint to lighten things up a bit more.

I decided that each truppen would have their own patterns, partly as a way of almost giving them their own heraldry, but also so I don’t get bored of the design.

As a lesson for the future, I will probably base the pink>yellow areas with a good covering grey. This should limit the number of pink layers as I can see a few brush strokes (I can also work on how I’m thinning the pink, hopefully just need more practice).

To end, I have a WIP of my next challenge, the Vogelspinne. Will be interesting to see if my planned effect comes off.

My original thinking was that for camouflage, I wanted them to be “hidden” while airborne. Once they’ve landed, it would not matter as they would be going “pew pew” and then jumping away again. As I mentioned previously, this is why I knew that Blue was going to be a main colour across my US force.

Then things turned weird. I saw the masked head that didn’t have a helmet and I saw a robotic arm on a Stargrave sprue and I saw a round shield, with concentric rings on a Wargames Atlantic Skelebob sprue. Uh-oh, I’m about to do something stupid.

By my calculations, if  the first rift was in 1944, then it stands to reason that in 1940 a popular comic probably went to print. It featured a big blue man punching the leader of the Axis in the chops. After having a proper gander at that, I was ready to start painting my fireflies.

In our world, the 107th Infantry Regiment (US) were a regiment of National Guard from New York, reorganised in 1946-47. Perfect.

1947 (post-rift) – The 107th Airborne are a Firefly division from New York. Their special purpose, to test a new propaganda/morale effort while also acting as an active Firefly regiment.

Wearing the colours of a popular comic character from recent publication, they would boost morale and strike fear into whichever enemies of the US can still feel fear.

Presenting… NCO Roger Stevens and Private Barney Buckley

After a black prime,

• I based the clothing in Kantor Blue – this was highlighted with Altdorf
• The firefly pack, harness buckle, masks in The Fang – highlighted with Fenrisian grey
• Gloves, boots and lower jacket pockets in Mephiston red:Thondia Brown 1:1 – highlighted with pure Mephi and then Evil Sunz
• The engines, other part of the pocket and any other white parts were based in Grey seer – highlight of white scar
• The gun with Leadbelcher
• Faces with Bugman’s Glow – highlighted Kislev and washed with Reikland
• Belts etc with Steel Legion Drab – highlighted with Karak Stone

I still need to touch up and finish some of this but was a bit excited to get a concept onto here.

Looking at my reference images, I realised that the skelebob shield was one moulded circle short if the red-white-red-blue was going to work. I had thought about just using a flag transfer for the new US flag in the centre, but something caught my eye on the vehicle transfer sheet. A. Big. Star! I need it.

After careful consideration, I realised that temporary pain would be worth the eternal glory of having that blue section so I started the process of painting, free-hand, a nice circle. This was made all the more difficult as I had already prepped the area with gloss varnish, so I was just staring at a shiny reflection of my lamp most of the time. I tried to first use a piece of sponge, pushed all the way into a brush cover to almost stamp the circle on, but it didn’t cover fully. I was going to have to resort to my shaky brushwork.

After some back-and-forth, followed by more back-and-forth, I was mostly happy with my blue circle so I varnished up again and applied a glorious white star to the centre of the shield. So far really happy with these Warlord transfers (sample size: one, but I like it a lot)

So there we have it, a good start to the US group, a questionable series of decisions and a reassurance from me that I won’t be painting all of my Konflikt armies like characters from pop culture. Though an Iron Man Stahltruppen is tempting.

No, I have a more serious plan for them. I will share some of that next time and leave you with this little WIP preview…

Where do I begin? That was the first question. After looking at all of the sprues in the starter box, I had a few ideas rolling around up there, but I needed to start putting glue (and paint) to plastic.

First up had to be the Linebacker.

I took some of the ruin pieces and gave it a fun pose, the feet being in a few parts really helped to give a bit of character. A little twist of the torso to give some more motion and I was happy.

But what colours should I use?

I knew that I didn’t want my Americans to be wearing the typical greens and browns that you would expect. This is Konflikt 47, I had to go a little weird. But with all the ideas I had already planned for the other units, why did I start with the one I was least sure of.

I took to the internet, its a scary place, but hidden behind a few search terms were the beginnings of a plan.

I knew that Blue was going to be a theme for these Americans (more on that later on in this project). The fireflies come from the skies to cause “mischief”, and the Linebacker was going to support them. Whether launching from a carrier, or from an airfield in “Roosevelt knows where”, there is a definite Fighter Jet feel to this walker.

So, looking for Blue, Sea and Camo I found some images of combat aircraft and started to sketch out a pattern or two (is that a clue?).

I started with a black prime and slapped on (thinly and twice) The Fang for the main colour.

Added in the silver metals and brass for the ammunition on show. Gave the weird Tesla weapon a Mechanicus Standard casing to have it stand out from the conventional arms and painted in some Thunderhawk blue as a second camo colour.

After a few tans and browns on the base (Thondia/Mephiston for brick, Karak Stone, Zandri dust for plaster, thondia and steel legion drybrush for the mud), it was time to weather a little, but not too much… hopefully.

• Agrax on the mud
• Agrax with Coelia Greenshade for the walls
• a bit of ‘Ard Coat for muddy pools and,
• a mix of Reikland/Agrax/Medium to cover everything except the Tesla.

Some Nuln deliciousness was added to the metals and running down from any vents, and I did some silver chipping, just a touch, where the canopy meets the… hull(?) and on some of the leg panels.

I drybrushed the Tesla coils(?) with Gauss Blaster Green and ran some white into the recesses, gun is hot!

I finished up with a thin black speed paint for the ends of the barrels of the conventional weapons.

The result… it was never going to be as vibrant as a fighter aircraft, soaring majestically through my imagination. I am happy overall, its the first vehicle I have painted in a decade, but I can’t help but feel that my all-over wash was not thin enough for the flat panels.

The Thunderhawk blue doesn’t stand out as much as I planned as a not-quite-contrasting camo colour. Also, I might have to be bold next time and paint the head-lamps as if they are switched on, as I am not too impressed with my effort there.

The good – I like my base, I made the metals look a bit grimy and I learned a lot for future vehicular painting.

Finally, another clue as to my painting plans for the fireflies (to go alongside my header image).

Finally finally, thank you OnTableTop and Warlord Games for the Starter box. I may have commented on every Youtube vid but I still never dreamed of winning the Konflikt week comp.