Wargaming Girl

My second submission to the Challenge last week was a Mega Fleet from GZG. I've previously painted up small fleets for the FSE, NAC and NSL. OK, you've caught me in a little white lie. The NSL fleet was a touch bigger than a small fleet, let's call it a middling sized fleet. OK, OK - enough already. the NSL fleet is massive (and I have more ships for it in the lead pile!).

Anyway, it was time to paint up a fleet for the forth major faction in the Tuffleyverse - the Eurasian Solar Union (ESU).


Apart from priming (which I'd done a while ago by hand) the initial steps of painting these were done by airbrush. That definitely sped things up considerably and allowed me to try out a roughly striped camo pattern. The detailing was done by hand.

I'd decided that as this was a raiding fleet (in my mind anyway) that they would be done in an overall darker scheme. I know, I know - given the distances and high-tech sensors involved in space combat colours make no difference to detectability, but it looks good, so there!

Zheng He Class Scouts

Poryshkin Class Corvettes

Kunitsa Class Frigates

Ural Class Destroyers

Kiang Class Light Cruisers

Oriskansky Class Escort Cruisers

Xinglong Class Heavy Cruisers


Pobyeda Class Battlecruiser



Khalinov Clas Battleship


Morov Class Battle Dreadnought


Zhukov Class Super Dreadnought

Just look at that green engine glow effect!

This little flotilla scored 130 points, taking my tally to 2157 pints and catapulting my into 5th place.


In case you were wondering, I do indeed have a lot more ESU ships waiting in the lead pile - carriers (1 each of light, heavy and escort classes), an orbital assault ship, 2 heavy destroyers and 2 standard destroyers. Before anyone asks, I will be adding to that at some point - mostly cruisers and probably a few more destroyers, although the idea of a fleet based around a strikeboat swarm does have a certain appeal.

Well, a busy afternoon and early evening at any rate.

NSL Reinforcements

The static grass was drybrushed with flesh paint, the figures and models were photographed and the post written and submitted.

And they've been up on the Challenge Blog for a couple of hours. These have boosted my tally to 2027 points, which means that I've already beaten my totals of the previous two Challenges with just under three weeks remaining. Now, that's impressive, even if I do say so myself.


ESU Spaceships

These got a spray coat of matt varnish early afternoon. I didn't like the look of that so I resprayed them with satin varnish. Much better. Then I glued flight peg toppers onto the undersides, waited a while for the superglue to dry and took a bunch of photos. The post has been drafted and submitted, but not posted on the blog yet.

Update - they have been posted!


Since then, I've added magnetic discs to the underside of the hex bases of the NSL power armour and support weapons. All the vehicles and figures have now been stowed away.

Plenty of space for more figures and vehicles...

Armoured vehicles and drones

Power armour troops

MAWPs and Panzer Grenadier specialists

Panzer Grenadier squads

The ESU spaceships have also been stowed away in a pluck foam tray. The great thing about the ESU ships is that they are so flat, which means that I've been able to double-up in the slots for the non-capital ships.

Lots of space for more ships - just as well, as I've got more ships to add at some point

I've got the whole week off work, so that will give me lots of time for painting. I'm still trying to decide what to paint next. I've pulled out the pike and shot figures I prepped and primed a few weeks ago - I haven't done any Thirty Years War stuff so far this Challenge.

I've also got the Mongols I prepped, and there are more 6mm ACW figures ready to go. Or maybe I could assemble some more Wars of the Roses figures. I'll think on it overnight.

Two evenings of busyness have seen me very nearly finishing the ESU spaceships and the NSL reinforcements. Well, tonight was busy, last night less so.

Last night all that got done on the NSL was the sealing coat of ink/PVA on the basing texture. The ESU ships were sprayed with satin varnish then washed with Vallejo black wash (diluted with 10% flow aid - it was a bit thick and difficult to apply straight from the bottle).

This evening was definitely busier. The ESU have had the glow effect painted on weapons and engines. They look pretty good in my opinion.

Very faint green engine glow in the dark

All that's left for these is to give them a quick spray of matt varnish, then dab satin/gloss on the weapon glow. And add flight peg toppers.


The NSL reinforcements were what really kept me busy though. The basing texture has been drybrushed  and flock added. The flock will be drybrushed with dark flesh paint tomorrow, then they are done. I've also glued the hover drones onto their clear pegs.

Deliberately bad pic so as not to be a spoiler for the Challenge blog post

So, a little bit of work tomorrow, followed by a lot of photography and editing, plus writing the entry posts.

I did take the hover vehicles to work yesterday and sprayed them with matt varnish. Later on I dotted gloss varnish onto various lights.

In the evening I added texture mix to the bases of all the NSL reinforcements. Tonight I'll be sealing that with a mix of brown ink in 50% PVA. Drybrushing and flocking will be done on Friday night.




Once that was done, I made a start on detailing the ESU spaceships. Firstly, the black stripes were drybrushed with German Grey. The the weapons and engines were painted German Grey. Lastly I picked out some panels on all of the ships. Where there is only one ship of the class, they got a mix of Dark Prussian Blue and Black Green panels; where there were two, one got Dark Prussian Blue and the other got Black Green; where there were three, one got Dark Prussian Blue, one got Black Green and the third got Black Red.




Tonight I'll be doing something I don't really want to do - opening the bathroom window and spraying them with satin varnish. Once that has dried, they'll get a wash of heavily thinned black paint to bring out the details. Then it will be engine and weapon glow and the hangar opening on the Super dreadnought. That will be followed by a final spray coat of matt varnish. If I have time, I'll glue flight peg toppers to the undersides.

This afternoon saw me playing with the airbrush again. This time it was laying down the basic colour scheme on my ESU spaceships.

I forgot to take pics after the first two stages, but did remember after the third and fourth.

Step 1 - Basecoat of Hull Red
Step 2 - First highlight of equal parts Hull Red and Scarlet
Step 3 - Second highlight of Scarlet




Step 4 - Black striping




From this point on I'll be doing the rest with normal brushes. The black stripes will be highlighted with dark grey, then it's time to pick out some panels in a contrast colour (dark green or dark blue - I haven't made my mind up yet), weapons, engine glow. My plan is to do all that toward the end of the week.


After packing away the spray booth and washing out the cleaning jar, I set about cutting up an A4 magnetic sheet to stick onto the MDF bases the hover vehicles are mounted on. It was after sticking them on that I discovered that the sheet I'd cut up was actually flex-o-metal and not magnetic.

Drat!

Rip the bits of flex-o-metal off the bases, cut up another sheet (checking it is magnetic this time), stick to bases.

There is a good reason for having done this. Apart from the fact that eventually I'd be doing it anyway for storage and transport purposes. You see, I decided that it would be much better to do the vehicles at work in my lunch breaks than the smaller bits. I'll be starting on the APCs.

With all that sorted out, it was time to crack on with some painting. I started with the power armour troops and have taken them to being ready for the Strong Tone wash (I'll do that after posting). As I still had some of the Luftwaffe Uniform left, I did the bits on the MAWPs and hover drones that are that colour.







With a bit of luck, and a fair wind to fill my sails, I should be able to get the painting on these bits finished tomorrow night, leaving the varnishing for Tuesday evening. I'll do the basing once the vehicles are all finished.

I actually finished painting these merchant ships a few days ago, but have only just got round to doing the photos of them. I'll blame last minute preparations for the Challenge for not doing them sooner.

Princess Class Passenger Starliner

Errmm, yes. The right hand thruster is a bit skewed

Olympus Class Short Haul Passenger Transport





Starchaser Class Longhaul Freighter





Merino Class Livestock Transporter

On it's way to planet Clintus IV Major, carrying a cargo of camels...






Shinies!

On my way back from the shops, I went to the local Royal Mail sorting office to pick up 2 parcels which they'd left a card yesterday saying they'd tried to deliver. I knew they would be my GZG order. When I got home, there was a padded envelope from Timecast - the Old Glory 15s Korenas that had been on back order.

Koreans:



1 pack each of Ming light cavalry and Levy archers.

GZG:



Lots of lovely shiny goodness in bags (plus a discount voucher for the New Year and a Salute flyer)



The freebie bag contents - a Fort Grange class Q-Ship Tender for the NAC; an Aleksandr Tortsev class Orbital Assault Transport (LSO) for the ESU; an Ariadni class Q-Ship Tender for the FSE; a pack of NSL troopers with anti-armour weapons; and a pack of NSL power armour troopers.


15mm NSL - a bunch of riflemen, SAWs and support weapons; a pack of power armour troopers with support weapons and a couple of sprues of spare arms for the PA troops (I'd managed to lose one arm when prepping a bunch the other week and Mr Tuffley kindly agreed to send me a sprue).

Now, I had worked out the TOE for my NSL, but now I've got the extra freebie packs I'll have to revise it. Not that that's a problem of course.


Light and Heavy Carriers for FSE, ESU and NAC.


Some more civvy ships in the top row - a Pinder class tanker; a Stobart class Can-Hauler; and a Crenshaw class Penal Colony Transport.

In the bottom row are some extra ESU ships - a pair of Ural class destroyers; a Nanjing class escort carrier; and a pair of Kunlun class heavy destroyers.


My word, what a lot of shiny goodness to receive on one day!

I suppose that I'd better crack on with the Russian cavalry now before the shininess overcomes me.