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Dragon Rampant – Finished Army

So, I’m back from a couple of weeks of holiday.  My lasting memory is of a lovely set of sunburned knees. Nice…

When I left the shed I had failed to get the remaining small snails and small worms done for the Dragon Rampant Facebook Painting Challenge.

So, first things first, Small Snails – DONE

These are nice figures to paint with good clear details and little that isn’t well defined and easily picked out.

Next up, Small Worms – DONE

Four of these six were spray painted Reaper Bones…  They remained sticky all through my holiday and were likely never to set.  The remaining two I chose to base coat by hand.  Once painted over they all appear the same but I will see in a couple of weeks if that remains the same.

Simple to paint and with the white on the mandibles they stand out nicely when mixed in with the other small worms I have used.

  • Mother Of Worms – Greater Warbeast – Burrowing – Reduced unit – 8pts
  • Large Worms – Heavy Riders – Burrowing – Reduced unit – 6pts
  • Large Snails – Heavy Riders – Reduced unit – 4pts
  • Small Snails – Heavy Foot – Offensive – Full unit – 6pts
  • Plague Zombies – Elite Foot – Full Unit – 6pts
  • Small Worms – Bellicose Foot – Burrowing – Full unit – 6pts
  • TOTAL – 36pts

Dragon Rampant- Painting Challenge Week Three

So, the week started badly, but as I am British I decided to carry on regardless.  The plan was to just paint over the soft basecoat.  Not what everyone would choose to do I suspect, but my decision was based on the outcome of the Reaper Bones Worms that I had done the week before.

They were base coated in the same way, but I had not noticed the uncured paint as they were smaller.  Painting over that softer basecoat was ok and appears to still give a stable paint job.  I am unsure what varnishing will do, so may leave that off these models.  So, painting started this week and has been completed in time for the start of week three.

I followed the normal process for thispiece, as I had for the other units in the army.  A simple paint job, basecoats and washes.  Colours picked out and teeth whitened.

The model is a burrowing worm so lots of rocks and loose earth are to be found on its back.  I kept things simple as I was unsure of the stability of the undercoat.  The more layers I applied the less sticky it got.  I do think it will suffer if handled too much in the future though…

A heavy application of paint used to cover the weak undercoat and it looks ok.  I didn’t spend as much time on it as it deserved, as every time I picked it up it complained, and I was worried that paint was rubbing off or shifting.  After drying it appears to be ok so I guess in time I will find out if it was the right decision.

It matches the army theme, so it will do for now.  Sadly I had hopes that this would be a good centre piece for the army.  That hasn’t happened quite as planned but a basic paint job will suffice for now.

Only some small Reaper Bones Worms (Chthon) and some Scibor Evil Snails are left but I doubt, with all the trouble I have had lately, that I will get them done before I go away.  I shall try though.  So much for getting the army finished by the end of the month…

Dragon Rampant – Painting Challenge Week Two – Day Two

So, making a start on the big lady herself.  Under coated on day one and day two starts with me picking her up to find she is very sticky…

You can see from these photos that she remains VERY shiny.  When I hold her the primer feels soft and I am leaving fingerprints on her.  It would seem that my base coat of Army painter spray has not cured and dried.

I’ve never had this happen before.  The other bones miniatures that I have undercoated this way are all slightly sticky too.  However, as they are smaller and not coated so widely this is not an obvious issue.  This larger model however is causing me to feel nervous.

Off I trot to the Reaper website to see if this is a known issue.  It would seem I should have visited here first.  The bones material is a softer polymer and gives off a chemical that can cause some paints (sprays especially) to fail to cure.  Although, the website states that the Army painter range does NOT have this problem…

Oh Yes It Does!

I don’t think leaving this lady longer to dry is going to change anything, so I have to find a way of correcting this. Stripping her back and starting again is not an option I look forward to trying.

Dragon Rampant – Painting Challenge Week Two – Day One

So the end of week one shows I didn’t get much done.  Three large Scibor snails are now done and based.  Simple paint jobs but in line with the other units in the army.  All my snails and worms are base coated with a desert yellow then coloured by an Army Painter rotting flesh paint with a number of washes to warm the tone from green to brown.  GW’s Reikland Fleshshade finishes the job then teeth and details are picked out.

Bases are in GW’s Martian Ironearth with cork pieces and some yellow static grass.  Like I say, simple paint jobs, so they shouldn’t be taking me this long.

The Reaper Bones great worms were almost finished earlier in the week and only needed bases doing to complete them.  Again no real excuse other than ‘real life got in the way’ for these taking to the end of the week to finish off.

I need to get this army finished, if I can, as I am off on holiday soon and would like to see it done before then.  Not likely to happen if this slow pace keeps up.

Steam Wars – Navy Backlog And More

So, as I take a brief pause in Steam Wars painting, its time to look at what is left to be done.

Pretty much everything is undercoated, 2 Ironclad transports are the largest land based vehicles, a bit of artillery and some gun/ targeting drones should be quite quick to finish.  The second Gyrocopter wont be to hard either.

The Ironclad Submarine will likely be last on the list but also easy to finish.  More deck gunners are lurking at the back and a Gatling gun might be soon to be done.

HMLS Gladstone was purchased as the first item for the force and at this rate might be last painted as I just find it less appealing than a lot of other bits.  Only a couple of units of infantry are left with just a few heroes to add in as well.

Then I can get properly started on the Martians…  Six tripods await.

Along with a horde of low tech infantry and assorted cephalopod troopers and armoured suits.

Steam Wars – Big Navy Air Corps vs Scrunt Zeppelins Game

We got our, flyer heavy, game of Steam Wars in just over two weeks ago.  Shows how behind this blog really is…

Steam launch skimmer transport with deck gun; Balloon artillery spotter with bombs; Biplane with HMG and Bombs; Gyrocopter artillery spotter with bombs; Pride Of America Flying Steamship with deck gun and twin ack ack gun.

Plenty of Naval Ratings were fielded, supported by some rocket artillery and both the Octo-Divers and the Rocketeers.

Fighting this time across Coronasan’s ever expanding Harbour/ Industrial/ Air Landing Station.

Surprisingly most of our air units were not fast fliers.  My Gyro and Ship were slow and steady.  The Scrunt’s Air Ships were also moving less than 9 inches a turn.

After a couple of turns of manoeuvring things started to come into range…

Then as things heated up I forgot to take any more photos…

Needless to say Coronasan and I had a great time.  The rules for flying units have been tweaked again as very little was shot down by the end of the game.  Changes to make our flyers less resilient will be used next time, and we shall see if they are then too fragile.  If we ever manage to stop tweaking the rules Coronasan may even release it on his Steam Wars page for all to see.

 

Dragon Rampant Painting Challenge – Week One

For a bit of a rest from painting Naval Units, and because Coronasan has been showing off his finished Rackham Dwarves for Dragon Rampant over on the Loft Full Of Lead, I have made the effort to finish off my own Dragon Rampant army.  I have also joined the Dragon Rampant Facebook Group Painting Challenge in hopes that this forces me to get them done.

After so long painting a mainly White and Grey army it is nice to get back to a more earthy scheme.  Started back in 2016 a number of these guys have been played in a few games but the remainder were never fully finished.  One reason was the need to complete some purchases (I cant ever find Reaper Bones Chthon Worms on ebay at sensible prices).  I have thrown caution, and my wallet, to the wind and stumped up for the remaining figures from a nice seller on ebay. So no excuse to finishing them now.

The other reason for the delay is not knowing how to paint the Mother Of All Worms…

She’s a huge Reaper Bones Monster called Mashaaf.

And I have no idea what to paint her like.

I guess I will just have to wing it though…

Her base alone is larger than most unit footprints in the army.  I have had to mount it on a couple of old CDs for strength and stability as the original bones base material is so soft it bends under the weight of the figure itself.

Slow progress in week one due to a few games being planned and a bit of work distraction.  Base colours on the large worms with wash to create shadows.  Then painting 300 spots or boils (or whatever they are) in a number of brighter colours.  Makes me think they have rolled in a tube of Smarties (or M and Ms if you are outside the UK).

Just base coats and quick wash done for the larger Scibor Snails though.

Next week should see these finished, I hope…

Steam Wars – Uparmed Options For My Biplane

With the Biplane finally painted and my efforts to up-arm the little gyrocopter from Ironclad Miniatures done, I thought I might take the time to add an up-armed option to this flyer.

Magnets this time, fitted into the HMG ammo hoppers on the sides of the nose, allow magnets to hold bombs that can be dropped by the pilot.

Four bombs are ready for use in two variants (shock bombs to incapacitate infantry and tanks, as well as your more common BOOM type).

I must take this moment too, to mention the kind gesture that John at Ironclad has made while this project has been running.  I enquired by email about buying a new pilot for my second Gyro as I had stolen the original for my biplane.  John replied and asked for my address.  In about 3 days time a package on my doormat was found to contain the required pilot free of charge.  If I haven’t said before I will say it here.  Some of the smaller manufacturers are more thoughtful and generous than any of the larger companies. John at Ironclad is a great example of this trend and I would like to thank him for this kind gesture. Please look Ironclad up if you get the chance. You wont be disappointed.

Steam Wars – Balloon Or Ships Crew

Just a quick post today.  These three chaps were added as a last minute addendum to my most recent army list.  We managed to plan a larger game so that we could get all our currently completed fliers out on a table.  All those craft needed crew.

Made by Pulp Figures and some truly excellent sculpts as usual.  Some figures are made so well that they are always much easier and more enjoyable to paint than so many others.

As they will not be profiled in the game and so that they are not confused with any of the real units I have based them on very small round MDF discs (these are for flavour only and wont be on the table for anything but visual effect).  This also allows them to be placed on parts of the vehicles where other figures cannot fit in.

One will be used as hot air balloon crew, another will get to drive my small hover launch. The last will become captain of the Pride of America, the new Navy flagship.

It may have been planned as a playtest game for the expanded flyer rules but was always just going to be a flying fest for us to indulge in.

Pictures of that game will follow soon…

Steam Wars – Finishing Touches To The Navy’s Grand Flagship

A couple of posts ago I talked about the flight stand that started my push to get my Navy Air Corps started.

I made this ‘flying base’ for the steam ship I use with the Navy quite some time ago but didn’t know what would be needed to finish it until this time last week.  Blue Tac was holding the engines on and I had only got as far as a basecoat in Skeleton Bone.

Now though the base is done and I am ready to launch the steam ship skywards to lead the Navy Air Corps.

Large flat surfaces again left me wondering how to weather the base (far too clean with that base coat).  The solution, black and white spray applied haphazardly and from afar, and tidied up with original base colour where needed.  A simple earth shade wash over the now slightly textured surface finished my efforts.

Engines glued in place and decals applied.

Boat 268 is ready for her first mission.

Also known as ‘Pride of America’ she will have the Transport and Inspiring traits and afford the Navy a reroll when she is in view (until I realise how broken that would actually be when using Coronasan’s Steam Wars rules)