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.