Merry Christmas! (2019)

Merry Christmas everyone.  And Goodbye 2019, it feels like we hardly knew you.

I've generally stayed away from rambles and personal stuff over the past year; instead this has become a sporadic dumping ground for whatever projects I was wrapping up that were worthy of sharing.  But let's wrap up the year with a retrospective.

Hot of the Desk: Kingdom Death Gigalion

Harsh Kitty. Mean kitty. Little ball of teeth. Angry kitty. Hungry kitty. Kill. Kill. Kill.

I'm following a set of self-imposed color rules for my KDM set. If this is your first post in the series (see summary page), here's the part that I copy/paste:

-----
Color Choices:  For my KDM set, I'm using an airbrush to provide shadows in a pseudo-statue, almost monochrome paint scheme.  I want a lot of high contrast from light to dark, with near-black in the shadows and near-whites in the light.  I'm using warm colors (creamy grays, buttery whites, and a bright mustard yellow) for the SURVIVORS and cool colors (blue-grays and a neon blue) for the MONSTERS.
-----

I actually bought 2 of these kits at Gencon - one to assemble FAST and get on the table, and a second for a future competition piece.  This is the FAST version; as such I decided to use my old Kingdom Death recipes for colors and application.

It's pretty interesting to go back and try to replicate an old paint scheme.  It's been quite awhile since I'd painted this scheme, and I was teaching myself to airbrush when I set out with the 1.5 Core Box.  Since then, I've done dozens of other pieces and this fairly simple theme was kind of refreshing.

KDM Thanksgiving Showdown

Quick post, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

This year, instead of family traditions, we accepted an invitation to go hang out with friends.  This is a group from across the country that manages to assemble a few times a year for shenanigans. 

This invitation involved a several state road trip, so we set out mid-morning on Wednesday and arrived Wednesday night.  Since we rarely take ANY additional vacation at Thanksgiving (and normally work Black Friday) we were off our usual routine straight out of the gate.  (I could post separately on the evolution and end of family traditions, but won't right now).

Hot off the Desk: Miniature Monthly Masters 2019

Yes, I'm still here.

No, the blog's not dead.  The blog doesn't want to go in the cart.  It's feeling much better.  It feels happy, It feels happy.

Here's a quick post with my entry for the Miniature Monthly 2019 Masters.  I really hadn't planned on entering anything - before a few days ago I hadn't lifted a detail brush since Reapercon.  But then I found this Reaper Winged Cat in our Reapercon Loot bag and decided to play more with the GS World Color Shift Paints (Darth Blue).

Results are "okay."  Good enough that I entered it - just to enter something (someone has to round out the field!).  Total time investment was maybe 3 hours, including prep and priming.  Actual painting was 2 session, maybe an hour each.  I was going for a high contrast, sketch style and wanted to practice texture.  He's a very small mini to really paint "fur" on but I tried anyway.

I'm happy with the result for what it is, even if it's nearly impossible to take decent pictures of the color shift paint!

Reapercon 2019

It's been almost 3 weeks, I guess I should post a ReaperCon Report!

First, let's rewind the clock even more.

Hot off the Desk: DGS Games Kuzaarik Stoneclaw Savage

Dwarven calvary! Rawr!

You've already seen the finished product in the prior post.  We're headed to Reapercon this weekend so I'll set this to robo-post while I'm away.

Display Bases 101

Ready for Reapercon. Kuzaarik Stoneclaw Savage.

One of the best things about this hobby is that it can bleed over into other parts of your hobby/interests. Whether I'm stealing techniques from my Radio Control Car and Boat past, or I'm using household materials to get something to work, it's fun for me to step outside of the accepted norms of the Miniature / Boardgame / Wargame world and bring something else to the table.

I was fortunate to have a father that was trained in carpentry.  He's had a woodshop since the early 70s, and as a kid growing up without the internet, the shop was a place to play and doodle and build things.  I don't maintain all of my father's skills, but just a little bit of it was passed on, and today I have a small glimmer of his woodshop here in my garage.  And that lets me do some fun things.

The task this weekend was to make a display base for my Reapercon entry - the Freeblades Kuzaarik Stoneclaw Savage from DGS Games..  

Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Darkstone Scorpions

Angry scorpions!

In my first post-GenCon update, I think I'll do a picture dump of my Dark Stone Scorpions for Shadows of Brimstone.

This project started as a quick and dirty test of Greenstuff World's Color Shift Paint.  I originally intended just to hit the models with a basecoat, maybe highlight the eyes, and get them on the table quickly.

Gencon 2019

I loved this banner, hidden on the back side of the KDM booth.  I asked people to move so I could take a clean shot.

Sometimes when I write the after-action for an event, I do it immediately (often before we've even left the event's zipcode).  Sometimes I need to let the event's memories settle a little bit so I can digest what's happened.

GenCon 2019 was the latter.

Broken Token Dead Kingdom Insert

Fighting entropy, one laser cut sheet at a time.

Ok, confession time.  My copy of Kingdom Death has been pretty dusty.  What little gaming time we've committed has been Shadows of Brimstone while KDM sat unused.  Meanwhile, I've been painting more and distracted by "real life" and [insert cliche'd excuses here....].

Anyway, with other distractions, it's been months since I've had KDM out.  But, with Gencon close and a barrage of comments from Poots on the kickstarter, I've had the KDM itch again.  Last night, while rearranging some things in our gaming nook, I came across the Broken Token Dead Kingdom storage tray that I bought at PAX Unplugged 2018 but never assembled.  On a whim, I got the glue out and started assembly.

(Never ignore the fit of inspiration when it happens....).

Pictures and notes with bullet points after the break.  Bullet points are cool.

Blitz

This is what the pre-Gencon Blitz feels like.  A little less than 2 weeks from now, we'll be downtown Indy.  Plans are starting to morph from vague notions and solidify into something more coherent.  As excitement builds with other friends, we bounce ideas around with increasing momentum and refine some expectations.  We had lunch with Pevil this week and talked about events and after-hours shenanigans. Lunch was too short, I could have stayed all day.

I'm looking forward to all of it, but there's just a little bit of panic in the air.

Gencon always feels very far away, right until the point where it's borderline too late.  It's like- February? It's COLD! Gencon is sooooo far away.  March? It's RAINY! Gencon is soo far away.  June? Summer just started!  Gencon is far away.  July?  OhcrapOhCRAPI'msobehind.

I'm not in a bad place overall, but not quite where I maybe should be.

New Dropfleet ships are painted, but I need to figure out carriage/storage in my foam box, and I should probably finalize my army list for the DFC event I'm in.  I already have one Brimstone painting contest entry complete and ready, and just left the bench from working on the second.  I only have a vague notion of where the 2nd project is going, but initial results are good - I just need to hurry the F up and get it done.

Meanwhile the hype train is starting online. New games announced, Kickstarters ramping up, and an informal Q&A from Poots on the KDM Kickstarter comments.

I'm looking forward to a few days off, the time with friends, some good wholesome gaming.  But the next week is probably going to stress me out just a bit as I wrap things up and get ready.

Shut up and Paint

This is a post that I've been fussing with for awhile, which is sort of ironic given the title.  I guess I should just Shut up and Post.

Something interesting happened at a class at Adepticon.  Something unfortunate.  And being honest, in one 10 second exchange, solidified a feeling that I've been chasing but hadn't gotten my arms around.

This isn't a rant, but it might start off sounding like one.

WoW Classic Countdown II

The public stress test for WoW Classic went on this week.  I caught wind of it kinda late, but did enjoy poking my head back into the Orc and Dwarf starter zones.  It felt like home.

I started by rolling an Orc Warrior named Zoxe (I'm nothing if predictable), and ran him around until I realized that I was going to be extra-tempted to run him up to the Old Orgrimmar.  There are a few things in Classic that I really want to savor - stepping foot into the original Org map is one of them.  I decided that I really wanted to do that at Launch, and do it when the quest lines actually sent me there, so I can soak in the whole thing.  So to avoid temptation, I hopped out and decided to see what was up on the Alliance side.  (I'm a Horde player but the wintery Dwarf starter zone was always my favorite).

The Dwarf zone was also crowded, but mobs could be found and I got to level 5 as a Gnome Warlock, was sent to Khanaros and decided to log out in Ironforge (which I have fewer misgivings about seeing because my attachment is lower and it hasn't changed that much).

Overall it felt really good, but I had fewer "oh wow" moments compared to the Blizzcon Demo.  I think this was because the Demo was focused on higher level content (Barrens and Westfall) where we spent more of our time.  The starter zones were always fun, but you'd spend at most a couple hours in them per character.  We "lived" in Crossroads.

Anyway, a good way to spend a rainy evening.

Before I go, though, let me summarize my expectations for WoW Classic.

WoW Classic Countdown

Death Knights. I kinda miss you.

For the past few weeks, I've had a bit of nostalgia.  That itch in the back of your head.  The urge to go replay some long forgotten content of an old title.  And that title is World of Warcraft.

But not today's WoW.  I'm truly looking forward to WoW Classic.  There are parts of the game that I really want to replay that haven't been available since Cata hit, and I want the ability to start fresh on a new server without the modern trappings and niceties attached to my account.  I really want to just kind of wipe the workbench clean and start fresh.

It struck me that so much time has passed that WoW launched in a very different era.  So let's start by telling a few of the good ol' days stories.

Unboxing: Dropfleet Commander UCM Dreadnaught

I've been mostly away from the bench the past couple of weeks, and managed to finish up a contest entry yesterday.  I kind of scratched my head at what I should work on next - there's PLENTY to do, but what should come next? 

I started working on another contest entry, and paused, as the sculpt isn't as clean as I expected (but that's the topic for another post).  I don't know if I want to putz with it for an actual entry.  So it's backburner for now.

Next on my list was the DFC Dreadnought.  I really planned to get away from little plastic spaceships for awhile (I've been painting DFC stuff since ... January?).  However, I'm contemplating magnetizing the hull so I can run either hull variant (Gunboat or Supercarrier).  I'll be new to the magnetizing thing, I figure I'll get the big pieces together and then have some time to deal with any surprises.

I haven't done a lot of unboxing posts, but the Dread is enough of an investment to celebrate a little more than typical.  Here are a few pictures of the grand unveiling.

Box front with some concept art.  Overall packaging gets a thumbs up.  Semi-matte, high quality sleeve over a nice cardboard box.

Rest of the pictures after the break!

Eras

This is the end of an era. 

I'm typing this from my desktop PC, a pretty dusty Win7 box that I think I clucked down next to my desk sometime in 2012. As I type, I'm transferring pictures and files off of it, which is the first step in the process to clean it up and send it to the recycler. 

The space that my PC desk sits in will soon become my permanent hobby area.  We don't have a basement, and I've been living in a "temp" space on the dining room table.  I put quotes around "temp" because the mess has been there pretty consistently over the past few years.  Technically it all collapses into some rubbermaid bins and Amazon boxes, but realistically it's a daily presence and a nuisance. 

Times change. Interests change. For the past couple decades, I've been a pretty avid PC gamer and MMO player.  I'm not sure when that stopped being true, but it has.  Slowly, I drifted away - driven by my own physical frailty (a shoulder that is trying to freeze and hates long hours on the PC).  I also found a desire to be more visible and "do more" with the time that I have here on the planet.  (I'm not sure how painting tiny army men qualifies for that, but let me have this moment). 

Anyway, the past couple of years, this gaming rig has stopped being the place where I spent my downtime, and instead become the place where I do my taxes, or listen to music when I'm working from home.  And yet I clung to it and avoided the idea that I needed to reclaim the space.

We've been at this address just about 10 years now.  The place where my PC is now is where my PC was when we moved in.  I've never not called it "the computer room."  As I'm sifting through things here, I can't help but feel a little nostalgic.  Games the way they used to be; screenshots of guild greatness in WoW, shenanigans in EVE, heck the desktop background is still set to my EVE Corp (guild) logo that I adapted from a real world logo in 2004 (modernized a few times, but ... originating 15 years ago).

But it's time.  Time to move on, time to evolve, time to accept what has already been true for awhile.  I have some work to do before the machine is turned off for the final time, but this might be the last meaningful thing that I type from it. 

Let's do this.

Hot off the Desk: Dropfleet Commander Princess Liner

Quick post for a quick project.

In between other Dropfleet shenanigans, I grabbed the Princess Liner from her package and threw her into primer.  I worked on her here and there, while other things were curing or I felt like doing something different.  Looked at her yesterday and realized I was pretty close and glued her to her peg this morning.

The Bubblegum Princess Liner

I decided to go with a "Bubblegum Princess" as sort of an inside joke.  I rattled around in my paint collection and came out with this cotton candy scheme:

• Scale75 Cobalt Alchemy (blue)
• Scale75 Tourmaline Alchemy (pink)
• Scale75 Heavy Metal (silver)

These are colors I probably wouldn't otherwise use, which made it fun.

I did just a little work by hand with the Heavy Metal to better define the engines, put some AP Necromancer Cloak into a recess or two, and then it was time to ink and weather.

AP Purple Ink on the windscreens and AP Dark Tone ink on the underbelly and engines. I shot a little FW Payne's Gray ink into the engine intake using the Sotar to give it some more contour.  I dry brushed a little AP Chainmail metal on the silver after the Dark Tone cured.  Teal engine exhaust is Reaper Surf Aqua, and the engine soot is Liquitex Burnt Sienna (a little more orange than the Burnt Umber I use on my military DFC).

I like her as-is though I may go back and darken the windscreens some more.

Elapsed time is several weeks, but total time investment might be 2 hours.  Not intended for any awards, but was fun.

More pictures after the jump.

Zoxe 101: Airbrushing Stripes

Not these stripes!  No offense to Bill and the gang.

No, were are not talking about Stripes, although I do love a good Bill Murray movie.

We're talking about STRIPES, which can be squadron/unit markings (sci-fi), or other bits of regalia for fantasy, and of course historical (WW2 / Gulf War Chevrons).

When I've showed people my Dropfleet army, the comment I usually get is "Wow, that looks great ... how'd you do the stripes? Did you do that by hand?"  Here are the answer to those questions.

THESE kind of stripes.

Stripes are deceptively easy.  It takes some planning, the right materials, and maybe a little bit of nuance, but overall they're really simple and very effective.

Hot off the Desk: Dropfleet Commander UCM Lima and New Orleans Frigates

This is a quick post, mostly pictures.

I needed to add a few more frigates to my list, so I built out the remaining two sprues (each frigate sprue builds 2 ships).  I decided on two Limas and two New Orleans.

The challenge was to match a color scheme that I'd used for the rest of my Dropfleet list - and initiated painting almost a year ago.  I got pretty close, and managed to shave some time off my efforts along the way.

Intending these results to be tabletop+, not a contest entry.  Speed and #donenotperfect.

Hot off the Desk: Dropfleet Commander Remnant Centurion

Remnant Centurion - Battle worn, battle tested, battle ready.

The Remnant Centurion is (was?) a Dropfleet Commander ship available only at conventions and special web sales. It was most recently offered during the Adepticon (U.S.) and Salute (U.K.) 2019 shows, with the note that it would be retired thereafter. During Salute 2019, the Resistance faction was announced for Dropfleet, so I presume we'll see it - or something like it - resurface.

"Once these ships are guided to the Colonies, they are assessed for their space-worthiness. Many are barely intact rust buckets, fit only to sadly limp their way to Niccolum’s breakers yards under their own fading power. Others are surprisingly well maintained and are refitted with more modern scanner and ECM suites to join the UCMF. ... Those that have been pressed into combat duty due to the demands of the Reconquest have generally performed well and often exceptionally, especially those still captained by the same grizzled survivalists that brought them into the fold."  -- TTCombat, "The Remnant"

In the current experimental rules, the ship can fly with PHR or UCM factions.  The stats sheet lists it as a "Grand Cruiser" but in the narrative they say that this means "Heavy Cruiser" by "modern" standards.  Gameplay wise, the class has a good amount of hit points (14), good armor (saves on a 2+), and guns. Lots of guns.  This is offset by having a slower speed (7" thrust), higher signature (6"), and lower scan radius (6).

It's going to take awhile to get all the firepower where you want it, but the results should be worth the effort.

Zoxe 101: Holding Figures

Figure holders were an odd mystery when I first got started.  My earliest Brimstone figures were painted with some of the sprue left attached to the feet so I had a handle.  I thought this was really clever, until I realized it worked really terribly - simple handling snapped the gate (sprue attachment point) and I was left with nothing to hold onto.

Here are three methods that I use today.  All of them are cheap. 

Projects and Planning

More Dropfleet on the horizon - and a striping tutorial.

Yes, I've attempted to increase my posting frequency.  This is working hand-in-hand with my time at the bench to increase the velocity of my painting.  Coming out of a winter slump, the past several weeks were very productive.  I'm feeling good about where I'm at.  (It's a fleeting feeling; I'll enjoy it while it lasts, hah).

Adepticon was a milestone of sorts - coming home from the event I started framing up "what's next" for the bench. I have some really cool stuff waiting that I've been thinking about since last Gencon (in some cases) but there's been some hesitancy to actually kick it off. I learn more 'stuff' each project; I hesitate to start something not due until August because between now and then I'm going to learn and improve.

But now it's spring, the birds are singing and the flowers are blooming.  It's time.

And then Bones 4 Delivered....

I've started to feel a little better about my painting backlog.  Inspired by Adepticon (before and after), the past few weeks have seen some pretty reasonable progress at the bench.  As I type, I have one Gencon contest entry nearly done, and 3 different batches of Dropfleet ships getting ready for a tourney in May, the Brimstone Lava Giant assembled and awaiting primer once the Dropfleet stuff finishes.  Progress is slow, but steady, and I'll wrap up some of the Dropfleet today.

I have my summer projects queued up in a spreadsheet, and am looking forward to having items to display both at Gencon and at Reapercon, all while getting more fun things on our table for Brimstone, plus more Dropfleet, and plus a foray into Freeblades. 

All of that means fewer sprues on the shelf awaiting assembly, which makes me feel good; it's the first time I can say my backlog is actually reduced in quite some time.

And then Bones 4 delivered.  Behold its glory.

No way around it, that's a lot of Reaper Bones.  Hard to show scale; the Core Set box is about the size of a large shoe (boot) box.

It seems like a long time ago that we pledged this on KS, and it's a little surreal to have in our living room.  We did not go all in, but this is still a pretty hefty box.  There are 150 (!!) individual figures in the core box alone, plus 40 more in the expansion box.  That's before you get to the individual poly bags.

I'll admit that I was so afraid to open the box that it sat conspicuously in our foyer for a couple of days.  But, I knew we needed to at least check inventory, so out it came.

I am pretty excited about checking out the 4 new boxes of paint (small brown boxes on the right), and there are a few figures that I might pull ahead in the queue - a couple of large Dragonkin, for example - but yeeeeeeeesh.  This did not help the backlog at all.

Zoxe 101: Standard Colors III - Fun Colors

Spicy Colors

As time goes on, the tools and methods we use continue to evolve.  Sometimes it's a desire to try some new trick you read or saw, or sometimes it's a desire to try a different product to see what the fuss is about.

With every project, however, there seems to be a set of colors that you just can't get away from.  In Zoxe 101, I'm talking about tools/items/colors that find their way into virtually every project.

This time let's talk about some colors that I use in many of my models to add some spice.  In this case, let's do it with some pictures.

Reaper Rusty Red.  One of my top 5 colors.  It's not red, not orange, and not brown, and has a very organic look to it.  It goes down smoothly, and accents cool tones well.  I am incredibly sad that this line is now discontinued, but it looks like Reaper Carnage Red is a close approximation.

Here's some examples from the past year:

Suggested Reading

I started reading as a kid (in the 4th grade, I read Arthur C. Clarke's 2010) and have continued to read in spurts all my life.  In high school, I got into the original Tom Clancy novels

I am not a high volume reader.  In fact, I tend to go back and reread older books.  Certain stories or characters resonated with me, and over the years I've reread the work and gained different understanding.

Wildly crude example:  Reading Red Storm Rising as a high school freshman, I thought the planes and guns were supercool.  Reading the same book a couple of decades later, and I'm picking up the historical nuances of a Cold War Europe. 

Anyway, the books below changed my life, in some way or another.  No particular order.  I'll use bullet points.  Bullet points are cool.

• Leviathan Wakes, James S.A. Corey
• Red Storm Rising, Tom Clancy
• CW2, Layne Heathe
• One Second After, William R. Forstchen
• Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk
• The Stand, Stephen King
• Band of Brothers and Citizen Soldier, Stephen Ambrose

There's a lot of war and post-apocalypse on here, which maybe tell you something about me (hah).  

Zoxe 101: Standard Colors II - Shades of Gray

As time goes on, the tools and methods we use continue to evolve.  Sometimes it's a desire to try some new trick you read or saw, or sometimes it's a desire to try a different product to see what the fuss is about.

With every project, however, there seems to be a set of colors that you just can't get away from.  In Zoxe 101, I'm talking about tools/items/colors that find their way into virtually every project.

This time, we're talking again about paint.  Let's get some 'boring' content out of the way with some grays.

Shades of gray.  Or Grey.

I'm not going to bulletize and break down each color like I did in the first post.  I bought this progression of neutral grays from Reaper while getting ready for my Dropfleet army, and began swapping these colors and retiring other options I had on the rack.

I don't use the full progression of all 5 colors on every model.  Instead, I grab the specific shade that I'm after.  For a airbrushed gradient (graydient, bwhahaha, ... er, ahem), I'm probably going to start with AP Necromancer Cloak (see first post) and then work up through Cloudy and Rainy.  Misty becomes my higlight color, and Stormy (which is just a little brighter than Necromancer Cloak) can be a shadow or a touch-up/blend color.

I like Reaper's consistency straight from the bottle; it's pretty thin and doesn't require a lot of fussing/adjustment before you can start painting.  Generally I put it straight on my wet palette, wet my brush, and begin w/o additional thinning.  If I need it just a little thinner, I spread it out on the palette so it pulls more water through the parchment paper (greater surface area, physics is cool).  If that doesn't work, then I dip my brush in water and pull in a few drops.

I will say that while most of my airbrushing experiences with Reaper have gone well, the Rainy Gray seemed to splatter more than other brands when making an airbrush gradient.  Could just be me or my setup, but there it is.  There are ways to mitigate this (using less of a dramatic step up in gradient, adjusting air pressure, using a detail airbrush, glazing/washing afterwards etc.) but wanted to caution you; for my project the end result was just fine despite some initial swearing.

Some would say this many bottles of gray is overkill; you can of course mix your own incremental shades.  For single figures this is probably faster (and cheaper).  For me, having these bottles front and center makes life simpler, and allowed me to add units to my Dropfleet army (for example) months later much more consistently.

White:  There are of course a ton of whites on the market.  Not all are created equal.  Recently I've started using Reaper's Pure White over another options on my rack, and can say that I've had good results using it for layered details and highlights. I will say that for the airbrush, I'd actually favor Liquitex Titanium White Ink, but that's the topic of a future post.

Adepticon 2019

The main hall at Adepticon. 40K and random game area here, vendor area behind, and Fantasy Flight gaming area way, way behind at the far end.  There was another large area for gaming upstairs.

Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF):
Our first trip to Adepticon.  We found this event to be welcoming and well organized, and all things considering, it's probably the goldilocks size ("just right").  The Swag bags are huge.  Lukewarm showers are disappointing.

>> Who should attend:  Wargamers, painters, fans of Fantasy Flight organized play

>> Who might be disappointed:  RPG/DnD, MTG players, boardgamers/eurogamers, shoppers

Zoxe 101: Standard Colors

Hi!  I am getting ready for Adepticon.  I'll set this to robo-post.

As time goes on, the tools and methods we use continue to evolve.  Sometimes it's a desire to try some new trick you read or saw, or sometimes it's a desire to try a different product to see what the fuss is about.

With every project, however, there seems to be a set of colors that you just can't get away from.  Here's a quick post about 3 of them.  I'll do a few more down the road.

Standard Colors, Round 1 - Reaper Black Wash (yes, this counts as a color), AP Necromancer Cloak, and AP Gun Metal (aka Pistol Metal in the Brimstone kit)

• Reaper Black Wash - This wash has found its way onto nearly every model that I've worked on in the past 14 months.  I count it as a 'color' because it's that distinctive.  Despite the name, the "Black" wash actually has a lot of BLUE in it, so don't mistake it for a clone of other products.  It makes blues and grays pop like nothing else.  It is quite dense; if I'm actually using it as a wash I tend to thin it at least 1:1 with distilled water or else it will overpower all your hard work.  Where the product really shines, though, is as a shader for nooks and crannies of your model.  If you have a place that needs to be dark but would look odd if it were pure black, grab the Black Wash and add a layer or two.  Sometimes I use the product both ways on the same model - for the KDM Watcher, I washed the entire model with thinned Black Wash and then I went back and put shadows in the folds of his cloak with unthinned.  The only complaint I have is that it really doesn't like 2 brush blending.  Apply it, but don't touch it again, don't try to move it or 'erase' it with a wet brush.  If you do, it will ball up and get gritty, and/or leave ponding marks.
• AP Gun Metal - AP products have their haters online, but I really love their washes and their metallics.  For this silver, the metallic solids are fairly fine (can be airbrushed reasonably well). It's pretty thin coming out of the bottle, but can be thinned further and still cover well.  Unlike some other metallics, it doesn't cure too quickly and get goopy on the palette. In terms of the color, it's a neutral, fairly dark, and chewy silver.  It has a fair amount of black in it, perfect for worn metal or something that has seen some weather.  It is not going to look right on a larger surface (an entire robot, or something) but is the perfect complement to most color schemes and looks great applied as a basecoat with a colored ink over it.  (Bonus points: I typically use AP Chainmail Metal as a highlight color; which 'feels' the same but is brighter and less black). When finishing the DFC Fleet, I used Gun Metal as a dry brush over the entire model; it dry brushes exceedingly well and gave the ships a very worn, lived-in look.  I have tried other silvers (Reaper, Scale75) and always come back to my trusty friend.
• AP Necromancer Cloak - I've written about this color before.  It is used on every (every!) one of my models somewhere, if only as a shadow color.  This is a charcoal gray that's very close to black - but isn't - so you can have it stand in for black when you need it to (black boots, black robes) and still have some room to provide shadows.  When I am basecoating with an airbrush, I almost always use this as the first color in the stack, and spray from below to provide shadows.  For KDM, this is the base layer of shadows for both heroes and monsters.  For Brimstone, it's the 'black' in cloaks and the Nun-with-a-Gun's habit.  For Dropfleet, it's the base layer, some panel lines, and some accent panels.  

Hot off the Desk: Dropfleet Commander Notes and Pics

This is the wrap-up post for my Dropfleet Fleet.  I am scheduling to robo-post on THURSDAY, which is the day of the big narrative battle at Adepticon.  Because there was well over a year from start to finish, my techniques (and my ability) improved as I went.  I started taking notes early (as a draft post here) to fill in the holes in my flawed memory.

This project took far (far) longer than I expected it ever would.  This gives me just under 2000 points of ships that I can put on the table, but sadly after last years' GenCon acquisitions and other leftovers, I probably have another 1000 points (maybe more) that I could assemble and paint. 

On one hand this sounds hideous - I'm glad to be done - but on the other hand I am excited to see how some of this stuff plays at Adepticon and may return fully stoked for more time in the Zoxe Shipyards.  (I think if I carved it off in 2 or 4 ships at a time, I wouldn't feel so overwhelmed....)

If you're just here for pics, scroll down.

• ASSEMBLY:  Assembly was pretty straightforward overall.  
• The plastic models went together well with few gaps and only minor trimming (I don't think I filled ANY of the plastic models). The only complication was making sure I was building the right configuration (all the class types/names are confusing) but I contributed to this by wanting to field a list with a lot of variety.
• Some of the resin is pretty fragile, and I broke a few antenna as I worked. On the plus side, I had no issues with paint adhesion.
• PRIMER:  Vallejo Surface Primer, Black, applied w/ Badger 105 and thinned with Vallejo Airbrush Thinner.  Touch up primer by hand where required (Carrier bays in particular).
• -- BASE COLORS --
• Airbrush (105):  Necromancer Cloak, from front at 30 to 45 deg
• Airbrush (105):  Reaper Stormy Gray - Sides and Top
• Airbrush (Sotar):  Reaper Misty Gray  - Nose and nacelles
• Airbrush (Sotar):  Blue Ink aft nacelles and chin
• Airbrush (Sotar):  AP Dark Tone - center aft
• PANEL LINES:  Reaper Black Ink and AP Necromancer Cloak.  The bane of my existence. For the frigates, I skipped this step.  For the cruisers I did this by hand, line by line, and it really sucked.  For the capital ships, I skipped this step and instead did a coat of Reaper Black Wash, thinned 1:1.
• ACCENT PANELS:  Reaper Misty Gray and Reaper Rusty Red (which is sadly discontinued now). The Misty Gray likes to get chalky, I tried various mitigations but ultimately lived with some surface roughness
• SQUADRON STRIPE MASK - Tamiya 10mm gap, 2mm accent, then use the Sotar to shoot the stripe in Reaper Misty Gray
• ENGINES:  The frigates used Reaper Smoky Silver / Gunmetal Blue wet blend.  On Cruisers and larger, I basecoated all in AP Pistol Metal.
• -- DETAILING --  
• GUN BARRELS:  Reaper Adamantium Black
• Dry Brush (entire ship): AP Pistol Metal, then AP Plate Mail Metal on Launchers and vents and other silver things.
• Liquitex Burnt Umber Ink (Sotar): Vents, blast marks, soot, and engines.  The New York got a little bit of Burnt Sienna as well
• ENGINE EXHAUST: Reaper Mithril Silver >> AP Crystal Blue >> Mithril Silver center dot, do this fast and wet blend it (for later ships, I skipped the initial coat of Mithril Silver and it worked fine).
• For the hanger bays on the New York, I used Liquitex Titanium White ink to light the bay, then used AP Phoenix Flames for the yellow/orange light in the same area.  (Yellow is too transparent to hold up well w/o an undercoat of white).  Then touch up dry brush w/ AP Pistol Metal.
• The doodads on the top of the New York were dry brushed with Scale75 Necro Gold. I also used Necro Gold on the Johannesburg's nose. 

A very early shot of the cruisers. This looks like I've done the Necromancer Cloak and Stormy Gray. I found the Stormy Gray to splatter a bit with the airbrush; would try AP Uniform Gray next time 

Early shot of the New York.  Note the scale compared to paint bottles.

Early shot of the Johannesburg.

Starting to do panel lines on the Frigates. Early on, I was only going to use Misty Gray (simulating white) and added the Rusty Red on a whim.

Trying the Rusty Red.

Months elapsed between the previous picture and this one.  Here, I had just basecoated the engines in silver.

Cruisers, finished and off their corks. A few minutes later they were glued to their clear adapter peg.

Beijing class battleship, freshly striped, engines basecoated, and ready for final detailing.  I used AP Blue Tone Ink to shade the engine nacelles to give more 'pop' to the stripes.

New York and Beijing, fresh from stripes and engines basecoated.  The accent panels on these two ships are similar, but intentionally different (big ships could be built years apart and customized by their crew).

Finally, the entire Fleet - assembled together for the first time.  Front to back:  Corvettes, Frigates, Light Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, then in the back are the two Battleships (upper left) and the Battlecruiser (upper right).

Frigates. DFC has an interesting rule in that in some scenarios not all the ships are on the board at the beginning, and are placed in later turns based on tonnage.  I have a few squads of scrappy frigates and light cruisers to jump on the board in those opening rounds.  

The Johannesburg-class battlecruiser, decent profile shot of him (though his guns are facing the other way, gah).  Directly behind him is a Moscow-class heavy cruiser.  Both of these ships are gunships, but the big J adds more missile launchers, and more HP. 

Moscow and another cruiser directly behind.  One concern I have is that the list I built is kind of a kitchen-sink build. I have a LOT of different classes of ships (so much that I'm having trouble remembering the names).  Using all of them to their full potential will probably take more skill than I have.

Various cruisers.  Upper left is my blue-striped carrier.  The cargo pod on the one in the center is used to drop ships to the surface (hence the name Dropfleet). My other ships will attempt to draw fire and die gloriously to protect this one.  In order to win, players score points by dropping armies into cities and holding them.  My list is admittedly light on Drop and will attempt to win by BSU (blowing [stuff] up). 

New York class Battleship.  Not a lot of guns but launches waves of missiles and also serves as a carrier.  I experimented with adding ambient light to random carrier bays (I lit different bays on the reverse side).  I hit her with a little more weathering; big hulls like this will have been around awhile.

The Beijing-class Battleship.  An unapologetic gunship; direct descendant of WWII heavy iron.  The two battleships will roam as a pack next Thursday, hunting for other capital ships. 

Top view.  Each battleship had a launcher that was broken when I received it.  If you look closely you can see where I attempted to simulate battle damage (hint, the New York's damage is on the passenger side nacelle, just under the vent/grate that's shaded brown, the Beijing's is on the driver side nacelle, top row of launchers).

Another shot of cruisers.

More cruisers; Moscow looking for trouble.

Comparison shot of the squadron stripes after they've been weathered and beaten up a bit.

 

Aft view. I tried to get a picture of the blue engine glows, which I'm happy with, but the lighting wouldn't cooperate.

Profile shot of the Beijing. Tried to soot up the after hull behind the engines with Liquitex Burnt Umber ink.  The underbelly of all the ships is mostly AP Necromancer Cloak simply dry brushed with AP Gun Metal.  Fast and effective. 

 

New York:  3/4 view showing the hanger bays.  The ships are so long it's impossible to get the entire thing in focus on my camera.

As with all things, there are always MORE things you can do.  I'm looking at these pictures now seeing additional details I could pump in.

Maybe I'll get the gumption to unbox the London-class Dreadnought (it's bigger than the New York).

Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Derelict Ship Broken Grates

There's probably a better name for these.

Flying Frog sells a pack of 4 resin tiles that replace cardboard tokens on the Derelict Ship expansion.

Similar to the Corpse Piles a few weeks ago, I decided to hit these quickly and see what I could do with a limited time budget.

Methods were pretty simple:

• I'm now washing resin pieces in 70% isopropl alcohol (not soap), scrubbing lightly with a toothbrush, rinsing with water, and letting air dry overnight.
• Primer:  Stynlez, black. Applied with airbrush.  I'm a recent convert to Stynlrez, mostly because it doesn't require thinning before airbrushing.
• Base coat:  
• Metal decking:  AP Gun metal (airbrushed for speed)
• Wash:  AP Dark Tone Ink
• Pipes: AP Dark Stone wet blended to Scale 75 Necro Gold.  This is such a great combo; super easy to blend.  Once dry, I came back with a S75 Dwarven Gold highlight and touched up some of the ribs/recesses with AP Necromancer Cloak.  The Necro gold has green/brown undertones, the Dwarven gold is brighter with some red in it; the colors aren't that far apart but the highlight pops naturally thanks to the contrasting tones.  This combo (Stone/Necro/Dwarven) has been my go-to for hoses and doodads on a few Brimstone projects now.
• Dirt / dark areas: AP Dark Stone.
• For a burnt look, I airbrush shaded areas with AP Purple Tone Ink, then went back over partially with Liquitex Burnt Umber.  This makes the silver look like it got hot (purple) and then got sooty.
• AP Chainmail Metal for edge highlights on the torn metal.
• AP Blue Tone Ink (airbrushed) for some color
• AP Matt Black around the edges of the tile

Sprayed with AP Gun Metal Silver and then given a wash in AP Dark Tone Ink.  Here I'm basecoating pipes with a blend of AP Dark Stone and S75 Necro Gold.

First pair painted and shaded, ready for a little more edge highlighting.

Second pair.  Basecoated in AP Pistol Metal, then a quick coat of AP Dark Tone Ink.  I dry brushed the hex metal again with Pistol Metal to brighten.  Here I'm filling in the Dark Tone in the center (which is still wet!).

Shading the metal w/ Burnt Umber before basecoating the pipes/hoses.

Finished product. Total time investment is maybe 2 hrs (rounding up).  Keep it simple and on to the next.