Chaos Wars: Skellingtons

Another random project for a client- Skeletons!

These are for use for Chaos Wars and Saga: Age of Magic. The models themselves come from Mantic’s Empire of Dust line.

First up is a unit of Skeleton Archers. The army colors are silver, red, and black. It serves as a nice ‘evil’ look, contrasted with the bone. The Mantic sculpts are ok I suppose, but they do lack deep details, so some parts of the models are shallow or sort of lacking in personality. I added a few shots from various angles, including one where the second rank can be seen better.

Next are the mounted elements. The Skeleton Horsemen and Chariots thunder toward the enemy. These have enclosed death mask helmets, which is pretty nice. I’m not a fan of the spears though…why aren’t they straight? The front member with the gold symbol on his shield serves as a unit champion.

Last are some Chariots. Each has a single steed pulling, crewed by a spearman and archer. These use the same models as the infantry, though I did mix in parts from the cavalry to reflect their higher status.

The last pics are not skeletons at all, but monsters I painted up a while back and never posted.

These are a Displacer Beast and a Gryphon, both from Reaper Bones. The models are nicely detailed. Being Reaper’s softer plastic, some details are a but loose, and cleaning them was annoying. Still, they painted up well. The Displacer Beats has a nice rich blue-black hide, blending to violet on the tentacles The Gryphon is a simple Golden Eagle color, with a subdued realistic lion color for the rear portion.

Dropzone Commander: The Resistance, redux

 

I’m almost finished with the Resistance force for Dropzone Commander. Only a few more tanks to go to complete the army.

Here are a pair of heavy vehicles. First is a Barrel Bomber, based off the Lifthawk chassis as seen before. I matched it more or less to the transports, but allowed for some differences to account for the ad hoc nature.

Next is a huge hovercraft transport, the NT-4 Leviathan. This beast could carry half an army itself. I added a detail of some light vehicles next to it to show some scale. The grey camo colors are scraped off at various places, especially around the skirt and on the deployment ramps.

 

Next is a squadron of some of those light vehicles, some scout ATV’s. I kept the colors simple and matched them to the Infantry.

Last is a pair of AH-16 Typhoons, some rocket attack choppers. They look pretty nice, and the color scheme (with those huge canopies) really serves them. Fun note- the blades are cast metal, so sharp as hell when you cut them from the sprue.

Next up will be some heavy tanks and commanders. And then on to space!

Dropzone: Transport Pool

 

I’ve finished more of the Resistance army for Dropzone Commander. The smaller vehicles out of the way, it’s on the the transports and heavies.

First up are a pair of Lifthawk transports. These are the aerial carriers for the army. They of course have the same color scheme as the rest of the force, with additional red markings on the engine fans. The have a little variety between them (both to keep them interesting but also to make it easier to differentiate on the table). Their canopies are deep reds to continue the theme. One of them gets a tiger mouth on its forward canopy.

The heavy tank is a Salakahn command tank. It’s about 1/2 again the size of the Hannibal tanks. I does present a pretty intimidating profile on the table. It also got two ‘V’ marks to show its importance.

 

 

Next up are the army’s Resistance Fighters, the important infantry for grabbing objectives. In keeping with the idea of the army as the scrappy ad-hoc underdogs, I made their clothes a mix of grey, brown, and tan. No uniformity for them. These are the first 10mm infantry models I’ve done in a long while, so it was pretty interesting. I added a Jackson transport truck to show some scale.

Another transport option is the Model 109 Breaching Drill. This one is pretty big (I put it next to an infantry stand for scale). While it has the army’s grey color scheme, the colors are muted by virtue of being dirty and scraped from underground movement. The ubiquitous ‘V’ shows up on the side and the central deployment door, but both are quite faded and scraped away.

Last is the army’s all-terrain transport, an NT-1 Kraken hovercraft.  It’s pretty simple as far as models go, being a moving box on a pontoon. I did like the sculpted detail of the rescue lifesavers along the back wall of the cargo bay. It’s a nice humanizing element, plus allows for some other colors on the model.

Almost done, more to come.

Dropzone Commander: The Resistance

I’ve started on a Dropzone Commander army for a client. The army is the Resistance faction, the plucky human fighters facing off the horrors of alien menaces. Their vehicles are often ad-hoc, sometimes converted from civilian vehicles. The client wanted a deep grey color for the whole army. I contrasted this grey with bare metal, washed to look corroded and a bit decrepit.

The army’s symbol is a ‘V’, a design straight from the 1983 V series. The bright red really stands out from the dark grey. The red shows up across the models in target lenses, lights, and weapon markings.

The units so far are a group of M9 Hannibal tanks, a unit of MT-90 Jackson half-track transports, and two units of Technicals. The Technicals are the best example of the jury-rigged nature of the faction’s vehicles. Civilian vehicles have been converted to carry either anti-aircraft cannons or missile racks. I included a shot from above to show off the exposed truck beds and the ‘V’ symbol. The placement of the ‘V’ on each vehicle throughout the army is unique .

I’ve done Dropzone Commander models before, but it’s been a while since I’ve done 10mm miniatures. I do like how much detail the sculptors were able to include. More to come.

Death Korps: Bring the Boom

 

The Death Korps of Krieg force continues…

I’ve finished a Leman Russ tank squadron for the army. The first Russ was posted earlier. This tank is a Alpha Pattern Leman Russ Vanquisher, sporting a turret with a ridiculously long cannon. This will be the squadron’s heavy hitter.

The tank got a ‘dozer blade for cleaning battlefield debris (and blocking enemy fire I assume). Like the other vehicles in the squadron, it carries the white/red/white striping and vehicle numbers, along with a few kill markings (and it being the Imperium, skulls always work for decoration). The tracks, underside, and dozer blade are spattered with mud and crud. The blade was left black (scarred as it is) to make it visually distinct from the tank itself.

Alongside the Russ comes yet another Infantry Squad of Krieg. These are Squad 4 of Diamond Platoon. So far I’ve finished Squads 4, 5, 6, and 7. This pic is eight of the members; the final two will most likely carry the squad’s heavy weapon.

The Krieg Guardsmen kits come in two attitudes- active combat, advancing or shooting, and at attention, standing straight up or weapon held relaxed. These poses are mixed in the units to allow for as much variety as possible.

Death Korps: Behemoth

The Death Korps deployment continues…

I’ve added a couple more Infantry Squads, but as a break from English Uniform, I’ve painted up a Death Korps Leman Russ battle tank. This Forgeworld kit is a Mars Alpha Pattern Leman Russ, with a modified Ryza Pattern Turret. That’s a lot of words to say a tank with lots of extra detail and a different gun. The commander popping his head out the cupola is Krieg as well.

The kit actually has a good amount of detail, and the proportions make a little more sense than the standard Leman Russ design. Owing to the nature of the Krieg battle front, the tank has an atmosphere filter/processor and trench rails on its rear.

The color scheme for the tank follows the same idea as the Infantry. They wear WWI-era uniforms and gear. With that in mind, the tank is based off WWI-era British tanks. I used GW Baneblade Brown as a solid color over the whole tank. The surface is scarred by battle, with mud collected on the lower portions and tracks. More mud is caked on the trench rails and the front plating. This was created with GW’s Stirland Mud texture paint, the same I used on the bases for the Infantry. The ‘mud’ was then painted a dark brown and highlighted. The tank has obviously seen action on the front.

The tank bares unit markings in the form of a ‘3’ for the tank itself, and a white/red/white squadron stripe on the side panels and a single patch on a side sponson, visible from above. This was also based off WWI British markings. This marking convention will continue on further vehicles for the army.

There are a few more tanks on the painting table, as well as even more Infantry and support weapons.

Honneur et patrie

My French army for Bolt Action grows, slowly. I’ve finished more infantrymen, completing a pair of 7-man Sections. Despite being metal, they have a lot of variety in posing and details.

The army gets some armored support in the form of a Renault R35, a light little tank. For early war, the Renault was well-armored and relatively well-armed, but was already feeling outdated versus anything rolling out of Germany. As I plan on playing the army versus early-war forces (like my own German force) that won’t be too much of a problem. The lack of variety from Warlord means the Renault will stand in for other tanks as well, including the R39, R40 and Char D-1.

The Renault got a nice tricolor camouflage pattern, based off photo sources. The base color was Vallejo German Dark Green, with a black wash and Dark Green/Cruiser Tank Green highlight. The brown splotches were Vallejo Flat Brown, with a highlight of Flat Brown/German Camo Brown. The yellow splotches were GW Balor Brown, with Vallejo Dark Sand highlights. I added transfers of a red club to designate the tank as from 3rd Company, 1st Platoon. An additional roundel of the French colors finishes the tank off.

The tank commander has popped himself out of the turret. I like the uniform, which makes him almost look like a cavalryman or pilot.

More to come- Avant!

In Death I Serve

 

 

I’ve gotten back to work on the Black Templars Space Marines. The next arrival is the Venerable Dreadnought.

He is nicely decorated, with plenty of skulls and campaign honors, as well as the ubiquitous litany text and purity seals on some armor panels. I opted for the exposed pilot helmet over the sarcophagus to make him visually separate from the army’s other (regular) Dreadnoughts.

The Dreadnought has alternate weapon swaps; either an assault cannon, lascannon, or plasma cannon. The assault cannon has its own arm, while the other weapons clip into the same arm. The left arm is a power fist. I used the ‘hand-like’ version of the first, again to distinguish him from the other Dreads.

More Templars coming soon!

Zeal and Honor

I return to the the Black Templar Space Marines after a brief hiatus…

The Marshal is one of the old metal Captains, with a plasma pistol swap and extra Templar purity seals. I like the no-nonsense style of the sculpt, compared to more recent ones. I kept the decoration to a minimum as well. He got an axe campaign symbol on one knee, a basic Templar cross banner, and the Chapter-standard cross on the left shoulder.

Accompanying him is a Dreadnought. It has swappable arms for every occasion (via rare earth magnets), either a twin-linked lascannon or an assault cannon. The left arm with the power fist is also loose, to allow some posability. The Dread gets plenty of decoration to honor his years of service. Like the army’s other vehicles, he gets some battle scarring, but I avoided too much (too much looks messy). I haven’t written anything on the scrollwork on his sarcophagus yet, waiting for a name from the client.

Panzer!

 

The Panzer is here! The Panzerkampfwagen IV (Pz.Kpfw. IV) Ausf. D rumbles on to the table alongside the Heer infantry for my Bolt Action army. In the few games I’ve gotten in, it’s helped catch enemy targets in the open, with a combination of speed and long range firepower. It’s not tough enough to go toe-to-toe with other big tanks, but it will threaten light tanks and infantry nicely.

I painted it in early/mid-war colors. It got the same German Grey (from Vallejo) as the Hanomag, with the addition of some simple camouflage. Splotches of GW Rhinox Hide, stippled with a Vallejo Flat Brown/GW Rakarth Flesh mix give it a nice look. I added a few crosses on key points. References for the color and placement of the crosses was contradictory (as usual) so I went with what looked good. Here I used the ‘open’ cross from France and Russia. The Hanomag uses the filled-in cross instead.The tracks and wheels got some dusting to make them stand out, and the engine got plenty of exhaust staining, but I kept the tank overall pretty clean.

I might purchase a Panzer III for variety at some point. The lighter tank is cheaper points-wise, which will give me opportunities to play with other toys in the army, while still having some firepower.