Friday, December 30, 2022

Games Day!

Enjoyed another Games Day with the Prince Rupert gaming club. The battles consisted of an epic Oathmark, Lord of the Rings game and a game of Doctor Who from Warlord Games.
The forces of good took the day, the heavy Rohan cavalry sweeping away many orc formations.






 A UNIT patrol engages a Cyberman scouting force 

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Hello There!

well, with the release of Xenos Rampant I thought I could finally fulfill a passion of mine. I have always been a big Star Wars fan and painting up these 212th clones was a dream come true.
I started by spraying the figures white then giving them a wash of black ink  The black body glove was then painted in using black contrast paint. I then touched up the white with GW White scar paint.

The best bit was adding the legion colour scheme to the armour. The 212th Attack Battalion has orange markings, for these I used the Foundry triad orange 'B' and used 'C' to highlight it.

I used a pencil to create scratches and carbon marks on the armour, this was great fun. However, the cherry on the cake was using a weathering kit to add carbon scoring on the armour. This is a tip I got after watching someone on YouTube painting a much larger model of a 212th trooper. I am pleased to report the technique works just as well on these smaller 35mm figures too.

Weathering kit...makeup.

These phase 1 clones have quite limited markings compared to their later brethren. Just the helmet and arms. For this officer I gave him more helmet patterns to show his individualism and character.

Clones liked to customize their equipment and this officer shows he has been around longer than most.

 


I also tried some of the weathering dust to add some dirt to his lower legs, subtle but effective.
Lastly I gave them a lick of Kleer floor varnish to give them that Blastoid armour look. I will try one in a satin finish and see which one I prefer. They certainly do pop on the battlefield now in their shiny armour though.





As Star Wars is immensely popular, reference material is easy to come by on the internet. I managed to find markings for the entire Legion and all its different trooper variants, very useful indeed 
Blam Blam Blam!
These are the first two test models in the squad just to get my head around the process.

 Of course another great source of reference are toys, these are very handy for getting 360 turnarounds of colour schemes and insignia.

My little boy watches the Clone wars on loop, you never know, seeing these might catch his interest. Well, you can but try...





Saturday, December 10, 2022

Xenos Rampant

My little boy sat with me while I was watching a Xenos Rampant demo on YouTube, he then told me he'd love to try a game. The only problem was I hadn't really read the rules and had to rely on my ancient memory of Dragon Rampant for the basic rules. 

It didn't take long for him to say it was too complicated and he wanted to stop. Slightly crushed, I accepted it might be a bit too old for him at the moment. My lack of rule knowledge didn't really help either, but it was nice to get my figures out with the scenery.

You have to take any optunity these days, especially if your son shows an interest. 







I will have to sit down and crunch through the rule book.
Insurgents take on Colonial Marines in a near future setting.



 

Wednesday, December 07, 2022

Coastal basing

I found this Coastal basing grit on eBay and thought it would be perfect for the Fomorian bases. The tiny white pieces are meant to be shells.

Over this grit layer I applied some green flock, this stuff looks great as dry seaweed.


I also added a slightly larger grit to create a bit more detail. This was added in tiny patches around the base.





A little starfish clings to the rocks.

I also added some resin skulls to the base to give it a mystical feel. 





I found the bigger bold sculpts worked best on the base, lots of holes and tubes. Something to remember for future bases.