M41 Air Combat

This weekend I got in a game of Aeronautica Imperialis and got all but the details done on the pair of Thunderbolts I own.

Orks Flight trying to salvage the fight

 The game of Aeronautica was the core box 3 Dakkajets, 2 Fighta-Bombas vs a pair of Thunderbolts, Marauder Bomber, and Marauder Destroyer.  Almost any time either of us shot, damage was imparted.  The Imperials managed to deny the Orks as many shooting opportunities, but the Green skins did manage to kill both Marauders.

I also have continued painting my own initial Imperial Navy aircraft.  I have gone with a deep dark blue.  The nose is supposed to evoke ancient (read 20th century) Terran shark mouths nose art.   The wing is a void-based, taking special training for operating in low-gravity and atmospheric environments like moons.  For larger planetary operations, they much prefer to operate as night fighters.

In work Thunderbolts

Underwing: Skystrikes & bombs

Ragnir Gunnstein

Steady Front shot

Ragnir Gunnstein is the second Squat for Necromunda.  He is an Ammo-Jack and can fill in as a grunt in a gang. 

Both paint schemes for my Necromunda squats use colors similar to my Kharadron.  He was fun to paint.  I used a mix of Contrast and regular paints.  I really like using contrast for hair colors, the effects are always solid.  The yellow shoulder pad is another great example of the Contrast paints.  His green pants and the metal is not a Contrast paint.

Using non-Contrast after contrast, lets me hide areas where the contast flowed into other areas, which makes the mini look better overall.

I have always liked the stout-folks.  Both Necromunda squats are now in my collection, ready to make some Credits.

Rotating GIF

Eyros Slagmyst

Eyros Slagmyst is a Bounty Hunter for Necromunda.  He is wearing a piece of archeo-tech that gives him increased strength and life, but makes him incredibly thirsty.  In the underhive, the best source of water is other lifeforms.

This model was a great chance to see how Contrast paints performed on cloth.  I also eschewed the use of metal paints on the model (the base as it), going with the dust brown and dark grey as the metal colors on the mini.  The only traditional paints other than some touch ups, I used on the green tubes and weapon.

Fun model to paint, most of the model was painted just Sunday afternoon.  The skin and base having been painted with some other minis.

Back

Left Side

Right Side

Titanicus Templates

Traitor Templates

Due to a printing error in the Titanicus rule book, I also got two sets of templates for the game.  Because of this, I decided to paint up the templates to match the Traitor and Loyalist dice sets.

When I started to play with the contrast paints, I recognized that they should give a bit more color in the backdrops of the templates and make them standout a bit more as if they were displays for the Titans.

It has been nice to focus on painting some relatively simple objects this weekend.  It meant that I have not dove into more complicated minis, like the Thunderbolts or Marauders for Aeronautica.  It also is nice to be focusing on some of my backlog, while expanding a little.  I am a fan of the 40k universe, but the core game is not appealing to me due to the way it plays.  Diving into fun smaller games set in the universe is nice.

Loyalist Templates

Painting the AI Bases

First one Colored

Finished up the Ork Dakkajets this week and then started working on bases for the AI units.  Fairly simple base coloring.

I used blue-tack to fill in the counter holes and taped up the dials for priming and painting.  I then primed them Grey Seer.

I painted the arcs with the Contrast Talassar Blue.  I am slowly painting the rest of base components in Leadbelcher, which I will then highlight a little bit.

The throttle and altitude markers are going to be red and green respectively.

Before Priming

Contrast Applied

Aeronautica Orks

Dakkajet Flight

Last weekend, I picked up the new Aeronautica Imperialis starter set, Wings of Vengeance.  The minis in it are great and it seems like a great game to play with my son as well fairly quickly in store.

I have slowly been working through the Orks.  I talked through the colors for the Orks with my son and he wanted to do something a bit different and mentioned orange and cyan.  After a few days thought, I remembered a glorious orange and turquoises Gobbo army by the guys at Le Blog De Kouzes.  This led to picking up Contrast Aethermatic Blue and Gryph-Hound Orange., and the color scheme at the right.

I also spent some time on a plane this past week and wrote up a sketch of a campaign league rules and hope to setup the necessary Google Forms and Spreadsheets to track everything.  Images of the assembled Wings of Vengeance box after the break.

A Pair of Mercs

Despite business travel in the middle of the week, I managed to get two of the Hired Guns painted up (as well as flesh on most of the rest).  These are a mix of contrast and regular paint.  The contrast continues to help with speeding up things like flesh and cloth.  I have avoided using it on flatter, more matte objects that I want to look like hard plastic or painted metal.

Mad Dog Mono

Grub "Lumpy Nox" Targeson

Both of these guys have to different primary colors, which I think will help them standout on the table top and hopefully stand apart from the gangs they assist.  They have been fun to paint, each being an individual small project.

Also this weekend, I dove into Aeronautica Imperialis and picked up the starter box and the items that will probably only get the single printing.

Underhive Mercs to Paint

Six unpainted Hire Guns

Six Hired Guns to paint up to support a tentatively planned 1-day (maybe 2-day) Necromunda campaign, this fall.   Each of these characters gets to be painted up differently, which is a nice break from generally patch painting.  The color ranges on them will be varied.  I will need to avoid to much neutral tones on them.  They will be fun to paint.

On the  playing-more-games front, I am currently involved in a deep dive into the Blackstone Fortress.  The game is fun to play, but the owner has yet to paint the minis. I should setup a game of Blood Red Skies, Bolt Action, or K'47.

Side Project - MiG Alley

Over the past week, I dove into the quick side project of painting and applying transfers for the Blood Red Skies: MiG Alley box.  These were super easy to paint and a good break from some of the more in depth effort needed for painting the Escher gang.

Base Coat (for silver planes) 

Aluminium and Canopy 

Transfers to mark them as USAF F-86s and PRK MiG-15s

Assorted Side Projects

Having finished up the Escher gang and trying to generally play more games with the miniatures I have, I am also focusing on building out the components and tools for the games I have.

US Paratroopers and ECI Bersaglieri combat excerise

Over the past two weeks, I have happily played 4 games of Konflikt '47.  My Co-belligerent Italian (Allies) Bersaglieri reinforced platoon  have faced off against US Paratroopers, Soviet Werebears, the Desert Fox with walkers, and veteran Desert Rats*.  All of these games were fun and seemed close.  My knowledge of the rules is of course improving and the games are getting better and faster.
*No K'47 unique units in the army.

ECI Rounded Out

This previous weekend I was out of town and definitely didn't get any miniature work done.  However, I got lots painting done the previous weekend, to include rounding out my forces for Konflikt '47 Co-belligerent Kingdom of Italy (ECI) company.

Big items added were a Stuart-T with a Tesla Cannon, an MMG team, and an Anti-Tank Team.  It gives my reinforced company some much needed firepower against vehicles like medium walkers, light/medium tanks, etc.  I am probably still lacking in firepower against medium tanks and heavy walkers, but that will be more interesting games, working around them.

A big goal going forward for me this fall is to play more of games of the armies I have collected. I have tons of painted minis to put on the tabletop.

Useful Additions

Gift of a Gang

The Core Gang

 I finished up the core gang of ladies this weekend.  I am happy with the result.  It was great to paint them up and I am excited to give one of my best friends the gang as a gift.  The mix of Contrast paints and normal layer paints worked well and the result is bright and colorful gang.  I am looking forward to eventually having a long-weekend campaign against them.

My wife still needs to finish up Kria the Huntress.

In their foam, spare spot for the fancy Huntress

On-Going Escher Effort

Last week I did not have an update as I went on travel for work Monday.  Over the past two weeks I have steadily getting paint on the Escher ladies.  They have been fun and different to paint, with lots of bright colors throughout and experimenting with contrast paints.

6 no-primer showing

I decided to do two things as I worked on them this weekend.  The first was to spend time on individual models; bouncing around on a model and fixing white areas and getting each gal worked on up to what would be traditionally called "based."  This let me focus on hunting down areas and feeling more "complete" with each model worked on.