Friday, 23 October 2020

Quarantine update 5 - in space, nobody can hear you paint

 Update time! Not that much to show off since last time. A few more ships have been painted up (Emperor, a Sword, more Cobras) and a bunch of bases have been painted. 

One of the things I'm pretty pleased with are the space bases. When I'd painted BFG years ago most of the bases were left black after being undercoated. Some had a ship name label on them, and very few of them had the a star field on them (with the old toothbrush and paint trick). While space probably isn't as busy as the bases make it look, they're a lot more noticeable now / add some colour and variety. The nebulae were done by a couple of sponge applications of paints; building up from a dark to a brighter colour. I've added some facings for ease of reference. 



Cruisers, now with their bases. 


Emperor Battleship, showing its good side. Somewhere, somehow I've lost the left hand side engine covering; so it'll just have to go without / pretend its battle damage. 


Comparison with a Battleship, Cruiser and Escorts (Frigate and Destroyer). 


Revised group shot of what is painted.


Also on the painting table are some launch bay assets; fighters and bombers. I think when these were bought originally they came on the old 30x5mm epic bases. Those have long since been lost or damaged, and I had to scrounge up some 20x20mm bases instead. No WIPs of the bombers, just some shots of them and a comparison to the Emperor Battleship. Red and Gold squadron standing by!




Here are the fighters (and some space stations!) after a nice acetone soak, ready to be based. 


All based, and ready for some priming! They'll be photos of them being painted in the next update. 


All that's left to go are the space stations, two Dauntless light cruisers and a Mars Battlecruiser. I also plan to go back and add some engine effects to the cruisers, and some lighting for the Battlecruiser lances / batteries. Then the painting project is done!

Wednesday, 7 October 2020

Quarantine Update 4 - In Space!

Well, somehow another month has passed since the last painting update, and I'm going to be better than having a ~6-7 month hiatus of not posting. While I had a bunch of plans to paint up some Necrons in my last update, I got the urge to play some Battlefleet Gothic Armada (1), and that made me want to get out and re-paint my Imperial Battlefleet Gothic. The long wait for a new Necron codex hasn't exactly inspired me to paint more 40k either. 

These are some minis I've had for quite a while, getting them BFG was still as thing GW sold, sometime in the mid-2000s. I wasn't exactly a good painter then, which shows, nor was I that great at caring for my miniatures. The artwork and setting inspired me, and the rules were different and exciting enough from 40k as well. There were a couple of other people who had small fleets back then that I'd play against, though BFG was never exactly a big gaming system at the local gaming club I went to. 

The minis have languished in storage for the last 10+ years, and they made a different enough change from what I've been painting recently as well. This has also given the opportunity to get some practice at magnetising things, and trying some new painting techniques with sponges which I'm pretty happy about. I'm also trying some OSL for the engine lights, to varying effects. Enjoy!


Early 2000's painting, and years of bad storage





Stripped and undercoated!



Let the painting commence!












Overall, I'm pretty happy with how its all turning out. The green and white is the classic BFG look, and its nice to paint a few other coloured ships as well; they can be ships from other Battlefleets that have broken through the Chaos blockades of the sector. I'm also happy with how the bases are turning out. 

There's about seven more cruisers, five more escorts and then a Battleship to paint, so plenty more should be in the next update!

New year, new post (2022 edition)

Well, somehow its 2022. No idea where the time has gone, I'm still mentally stuck in March 2020. Painting has been slow recently, but I ...