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.