Aeronautica Imperialis Necron Aircraft - To DONE

Greetings and welcome to what is likely to be my last post for the year. After completing the Skies of Fire box set for Aeronautica Imperialis, I wasn't quite done painting tiny airplanes.  So I broke out the Necrons and had a great time putting paint on them over a couple sessions.

 This is what they looked like prior to drybrushing highlights.  I used all Proacryl paints for the Necrons. I thinned the light green to a heavy shade consistency with a custom matte medium mix and used a brush with a good point to run the green into the recesses of the hull designs. A quick wipe of the finger here and there cleaned up anything that got out of the lines.

I was short one painted base for these fliers, but I'll get to that before too long.  The next time I paint planes (likely to get some Aedari painted), I'll batch paint another lot and cover this one too.

I went with a simple metal look for the Necrons.  I'm not a Xenos painter in general, and for game pieces I wasn't interested in going into too much depth here.  I wanted something that looked decent and definitely read as Necron. My lighting washes out the green in the recesses, but it should show up in the larger pics if you choose to click through.

If I'm honest, my inspiration was probably more Cylon than Necron. 

The bombers came out well and certainly have a presence on the table.

I had fun with the bombs under the belly, keeping with the metallic theme while adding a surprise pop of color if one looks underneath.

And that brings me to a bonus ten planes completed from my collection of Aeronautica Imperialis models, plus another completed faction to play with.  The plan was to keep completing box sets before moving on to the other planes, but I knew these Necron aircraft would be quick to finish so it just felt right to plow through.  The Wrath of Angels box will be the next on the table when I return to little planes.  

 Heading into the new year, I'll likely go back to Adeptus Titanicus and the Horus Heresy Dark Angels.  There is Squaduary 2023 and #MonsterMarch to plan for.  January is a bit up in the air though.  I'll see where inspiration takes me over the holiday break as the year wraps up. I'm not expecting to post again before 2023.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Aeronautica Imperialis Skies of Fire Planes - To DONE

 

Hello and welcome back.  The Aeronautica Imperialis Skies of Fire box set project is now complete with the finished T'au Air Caste planes on display.  This faction was a lot of fun to paint; even though I traditionally do not paint much Xenos stuff.  I painted up the Orks from the Wings of Vengeance box, and now these T'Au planes have come out well too.  It has been fun to do something so different.  Wait until I show off the surprise Necron flyer project I kicked off as a year end thing to celebrate finishing the Skies of Fire box. But for now, let's give this project a big stamp o'DONE.

Now here's a look at the completed T'au Aire Caste planes.

The Tiger Sharks are BIG with lots of detail.

 

 

They are big, but mighty thin...

 

Here's a look at the undersides of the planes.

Here are a couple close ups of the Tiger Sharks from the top.  Click through to see the full size close ups.

The Barracuda fighters look pretty cool.  I decided to give the squadron leader a white nose cone.

These planes are also pretty thin...

Here are close ups of the planes from the top, starting with the squadron leader.

Then the first wing man...

And the second...

All-in-all, a successful completion of the Skies of Fire box set, bringing me to two of three available sets completed.  The final set to paint will be the Wrath of Angels boxed set with Space Marine and Aeldari plans.  I might have to push that into the queue for this season, just to see all three sets complete. I'll get painting recipes up soon, too, for anyone interested.

I'll have one more post this week before the holidays swing into full gear for my family.  Not sure I'll get in much else before the new year, but we'll see.  I'll have some hobby time over the break so there should be something to show for it.  For now, look forward to some Necron planes on display later this week.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Aeronautica Imperialis Skies of Fire Imperial Planes - To DONE

 

Greetings!  Today I have some completed Imperial planes from the Skies of Fire Aeronautica Imperialis boxed set to share.  I'm very happy with how these gaming pieces have turned out. There is so much detail on these models for the scale.  They are great fun to paint.

The Vendetta Assault Carriers definitely look the part and I especially like how the Ace/Lead plane markings came out.

I look forward to adding Valkyries and Vultures in the same scheme.

The Imperial Navy Lightning fighters came out well too.

I finally got all the missiles painted up - surprisingly without spoiling the paintwork already in place.

I like the scheme here.  However I'm thinking that if I add more Lightning fighters to the collection, then I'll probably match the Imperial Navy scheme I chose for the Wings of Vengeance boxed set, boring as it may be.

Still happy with how these close ground support fighters turned out.

So that's half of the set done.  The T'au planes are getting finished up and I very much hope to have a final TO DONE post up next week to wrap the project.  It feels great to be so close to another boxed set fully painted.  

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

On the Workbench [December] - Adeptus Titanicus Warlord Titan

 

Gladius Noctis following the Rites of Assembly

Hello and welcome back! On the workbench today, I have a Warlord Titan for the Adeptus Titanicus game.  This engine will walk with Legio Ignatum as Gladius Noctis. I'm not sure when it will see paint, but I'm aiming for January.  I'm having a super fun time painting tiny planes, though, so we'll see.

Some what cliche at this point, but I do like a striding pose that is stepping up onto something.  I haven't built the base yet, so for now there is a piece of cork serving as a prop for the final pose.  Perhaps this mighty engine is squashing something flat, or perhaps it is simply striding across the uneven surface of it's home planet of Mars.

I managed a more "hips forward" striding pose this time around.  My early attempts had the hips rocked back a bit which looks awkward. I believe this attempt looks to have a more believable center of gravity.

With the carapace attached, the engine feels more balanced and less like it might stumble backwards. 😆

To match the rest of my tiny engines, all weapon mounts will be magnetized. I am gluing the legs to the bodies for stability while handling.  There are already enough issues with weapon arms getting knocked off occasionally while handling.  I don't need the whole upper torso toppling off.  To some degree this can be fixed with stronger magnets, of course, but I still find the whole thing too fiddly.  I learned this with knight titans for 40K.  It seems cool to torso twist, or come apart for storage.  In practice, the upper half seems to end up too spinney and the whole assembly seems fragile. But that's just my opinion.

More tiny planes later in the week.  The Imperial planes I have been working on are complete and waiting for their final lacquer coat before I take the final light box pics for the project.  Then its on to the T'au planes, which are basically half or two thirds done already.

I hope this holiday season treat you well, however you choose to celebrate it.

Cheers ad Happy Gaming!

Aeronautica Imperialis Skies of Fire Planes WIP - part 3

 

Greetings!  This week I've made more progress on the Imperial planes from the Aeronautica Imperialis Skies of Fire boxed set. I started with cleaning up the cockpits from the glass painting last week.  Then I got to work on the metals.

I have a bit more metal detail on the Vendettas, primarily on the noses. Then I'll add some highlights and  other colors like brass and bronze to a few bits to break things up and add some interest. I took a break from painting to apply decals to so that any final shading or weathering will include those surfaces.  I chose one of the planes to be the squadron leader (or ace?) and added black wings and teeth (see below). The wings total disrupt the camo, but it's rule of cool all the way in my shop. 😎

Each plane got a unit number as well, just behind the side doors. I kept with the GW artwork and added white stripes to the tails for squadron identification. Some GW Agrax Earthshade was applied over the stripes to dull them down a bit to match the rest of the paintwork. I;ll do the same with the lighter decals once I get a coat of matte varnish over them.

The Navy planes got the same cleanup and metallic paintwork.  GW Nuln Oil was used to shade all the metals.  For the navy squadron, I went with some red squadron markings with a red strip on the nose of the squadron leader. Additional Navis Imperialis transfers were added to the wings along with unit numbers in the tails (see below).

I very happy with how the Lightning fighters are coming out.  I might like them better than the Thunderbolts now, my prior favorites. As with the Vendettas, the metals here require highlights and some additional details here and there.

I decided on a laurel encircling an eagle's head for the underside of the wings.  I have no idea what this indicates, and someday I'll likely regret the choice.  But it looks cool.  Not much source material for the icons available on the transfer sheets. The underside details are painted and shaded like the rest of the metals. Highlights and details needed here as well.

And that's where this group of planes sits at the moment.  I hope to be able to update Friday with more progress - maybe even completion for these planes?  I'd like to get back to the T'au planes soon so I can wrap up before the XMas holidays.  

Best of luck with your projects.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Aeronautica Imperialis Skies of Fire Planes WIP - part 2

Greetings!  Today I'm sharing progress on the imperial planes from the Wings of Fire Aeronautica Imperialis boxed set.  After some thought on what camouflage scheme I wanted for these planes, I settled on simple dark green stripes.

The green camouflage was applied using a dry brushing technique with a large(ish) dry brush. I mean...not a terrain sized dry brush, but not a small one either.....ok...a medium sized dry brush :) After the stripes were applied, the planes were shaded all over using a roughly 50:50 mix of GW Agrax Earthshade and Matte Medium.

Once that dried (I left them over night), I dry brushed the base color over the whole model, moving front to back mostly to lend the impression of these planes suffering extreme erosion flying through sand storms and what-not.

The canopy glass was painted white using Proacryl Bold Titanium White and then shaded with a roughly 60:40 mix of a blue wash (Secret Weapon Miniatures) and matte medium.  The pics make things look more white than they really are.  It's a poor man's approach and doesn't give any of the realism that other folks out there achieve.  However, it's quick and simple and reads cockpit glass enough on the table top for my needs.

These pictures were taken shortly after the wash was applied.  I'll go back in with a detail brush and tidy up where white and shading got on the canopy frames.  That will tone things down a bit too.  It looks a little like bad OSL in these pics. 

I don't think I mentioned this earlier; I'm using stunt stands for the painting so I don't have to worry about the gaming flight stands I just completed.  By mounting extra flight stems in standard 40mm bases (and anyone who collects these planes will have lots of extra flight stems...), you get a reasonably stable means of holding the model while painting.  They do occasionally pop off during vigorous dry brushing, so be warned. :)

So that's the Imperial side of the boxed set so far. These planes are ready for details and transfers now.  The T'au planes are similarly ready to move into the detailing phase.  Next week I'll hopefully have some more interesting photos of the set...very close to completion now with all the base colors done on the bodies.

Best of luck with your own projects.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!