Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels Planes - To DONE

 

Greetings and welcome back.  Today, I'm sharing the completion of the 11 planes from the Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels box set.  There are six Asuryani aircraft (red) and five Adeptus Astartes aircraft (green/black) in the set.  These models are great fun to paint, although the build detail causes some gamers to pause.  For game pieces, these offer a hobby challenge that can't be avoided prior to the game.

So, another big ol' stamp of DONE for this project.  I'm psyched to have completed all three Aeronautica Imperialis box sets. Regular visitors will know that I stray about from game-to-game, faction-to-faction, project-to-project within the 40k universe and rarely complete and entire collection of anything.  Instead I steadily build on my collections over time without much regard to specific completions unless there is cause.  In this case, I have a group of friend interested in the game, so I was motivated to kick out some planes in short order - fortunately they are comparatively easy to paint vs some other project I take on (like tiny titans...).

I shared completed pics of the Asuryani aircraft already, so here are the completed Adeptus Astartes aircraft from the set. They are from the Dark Angels chapter and represent Storm Eagles from the 5th Company and Xiphon interceptors from the 2nd Company (Ravenwing).

With the Storm Eagles, the company badge is on the left nose section and the aircraft number is on the right.  It would be fun to get more detailed with squadron numbers et. al.  However, I chose to keep things simple for these game pieces.  The Dark Angels chapter symbol is proudly displayed on the side doors.

Here's a couple front and rear shots for the details.  Click through the smaller images above to get to the full size pics.

The Ravenwing Xiphon Interceptors bear the company badge on the wings and the chapter symbol on the left side of the tail to coincide with the same placement of that badge on the marines' left shoulder pads.  The right side of the tail bears the vehicle number similar to the Storm Eagles.

More front and rear shots for those who like to get a look at all the details.  And of course, everything sits safe and snug in the box using Battle Foam's excellent custom trays. Since I choose to glue in my flight stems to the base for stability and ease of game play, I buy the foam trays that accommodate that.  I can't say enough good things about the Battle Foam insert trays.  It's great to repurpose the game boxes while keeping the painted miniatures from getting wrecked.

That's all I have to show for this project; completed on time so that I may now move into Squaduary where I'll work on a....squad!  I'm really torn between sticking with Aeronautica Imperials, so I can paint another SQUADron, or returning to the Age of Darkness to paint a SQUAD of first legion Dark Angels.  Either way, there is plenty to paint.  I've probably begun boring my followers to tears with tiny planes, so I'm leaning towards more marines.  Leave a comment if you have a preference!

As always, best of luck with your own projects.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels WIP - part 3

 

Greetings and welcome back.  I have some progress to share on the Imperial half of the Aeronautic Imperialis Wrath of Angels box set. After a primer coat of Vallejo Surface Primer black (air brushed on in an ~ 60:40 mix of paint to flow improver), I painted the Storm Eagles with Proacryl Black Green and the Xiphons with Proacryl Coal Black. My idea was to have 2nd Company (Ravenwing) fighters escorting the gunships of another company (probably the 5th to match my 28mm collection).

The paintwork here is pretty straight forward.  The Storm Eagles were drybrushed with Proacryl Bright Yellow Green, then washed with a 70:30 mix of GW Agrax Earthshade and custom glaze medium. Then the engines and a few other bits were painted in with Proacryl Dark Silver and shaded with GW Nuln Oil.

 The Xiphon Interceptors were heavily dry brushed with Proacryl Bright Neutral Gray and shaded with a 60:40 mix of GW Nuln Oil and custom glaze medium. There engines were batch painted along with the Storm Eagles.

Next I made a choice to depart from the light blue, sky reflecting cockpits I have used on the other planes.  I like the red I've seen in GW art and elsewhere from other hobbyists. So I embarked on a mission to paint something similar.  I used a rough 70:30 mix of Proacryl Bold Pyrrole Red and custom glaze medium.  This was painted on in several coats, allowing each to dry fully before the next was applied. 

After tidying things up, the cockpits look suitably Astartes ominous to me. They are especially striking on the Interceptors.Some additional edge highlighting was added after the cleanup since I couldn't dry brush over the repairs without messing up the cockpit glass I just painted.

I managed some time to start on the transfers next.  Here, I have added Dark Angels chapter badges to the side doors, and 5th company badge to the left front nose section. I'm planning to put an aircraft or squadron number on the right side opposite.  But I'm also considering putting number son the wing instead.  Still thinking that through.

The Xiphon Interceptors got Ravenwing (2nd company) badges on the wings and a Dark Angels chapter badge on the left side of the tail fins. I saw this similar to marines wearing the chapter badge on the left shoulder pad of their armor. I'll put aircraft/squadron numbers on the right side of the tail. I'm a big fan of how the Xiphons are coming out. I need to spice up the Storm Eagles with additional detail or something, however.

But for now, that's where the project sits.  I have some vacation travel, but should still manage to finish these planes by the end of January.  Then it's back to the Horus Heresy most likely for some Squaduary painting. Though I'm so into the tiny plane grove right now that Squadronary is sounding good too! Heh. We'll see.

Best wishes for your own hobby projects.  I enjoy making the rounds from day to day to see what others have on the table, so keep on postin'.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!!

Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels Asuryani Planes - TO DONE

 

The Asuryani planes from the Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels box set have been completed. They were a lot of fun to paint in the end, even if they did cause me a bit of pause at the beginning.  I believe these are the first Eldar/Aeldari/Asuryani models I have painted from the 40K universe in some 29 years in the hobby.

I did lots of online research into the icons of the Asuryani; hopefully I have not put something entirely out of place on the planes. I chose to paint these in the general colors of the Saim-Hann Craftworld. I left off the various black lines striping Saim-Hann aircraft for this squadron and just we with some extra black on the flight leader.  I like how the planes came out, and I won't miss the lines even if they would have been more accurate.

The Nightwing Fighters look quite similar.  On all six planes, I put a single black teardrop on the right rear fuselage.  Otherwise the planes have the Saim-Hann icon and the flight leaders bear an infinity loop icon.

Here, I chose some fun alternate Saim-Hann iconography for the the wings of the flight leader in this squadron.  Again, I left off the black lines. The transfer sheet came with symbols for Nightwing fighters, so I put those on the right rear wings, with the craft world icon on the left rear.

So, six planes down and five to go.  I had a great time painting these Asuryani aircraft in the end and will look forward to painting the others in my collection in the future. These were painted mostly in Proacryl paints and I *will* have paint recipes up at some point.  I've been noting all the details as I've gone through the various aircraft; I just have to get them up on the blog.  

Later in the week, I'll post progress on the Astartes aircraft.  As predicted, they have been quick to paint since I knew in advance exactly what I planned to do with them. Not to mention the many, many years of painting other Dark Angels space marine stuff I have under my belt. Check back later int he week if your interested in how they come out.

That's it for now.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels WIP - part 2

 

Hello!  Today I bring progress on the Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels box set. The bases are complete (see below) and I've started in on the planes. By the end of this month, I hope to have this last box set completed as a bonus on the hobby season, before I go back to painting space marines and tiny titans.

The bases came out well, once again.  The painting recipe is working and I'm getting the consistency I want even with gaps between painting projects. This is a good thing, as I still have plenty of bases to paint in the collection.

The Asuryani planes got a solid air brushing with Vallejo Surface Primer Black and then Proacryl Burnt Red.  After that dried, I tried dry brushing Proacryl Bold Pyrrole Red over everything, with some focus on the edges.  This presented a nice highlight and some variation across the surface of the planes.  Next, I applied a shade over everything using a roughly 50:50 mix of GW Agrax Earthshade and custom medium (GW Lahmiam Medium would work).  This had two effects - warming things up a bit with a richer hue and shading all the recesses to add some definition. 

Asuryani Nightwing Fighters

The photos pretty much wash that effect out, unfortunately, but it did make a difference! Now I'm working on the details slowly.  The smooth surfaces and subtle, rounded textures make the detail painting a bit more fussy.  I painted in the spirit stones (yellow/green bubbles) , weapons, air intakes and engines so far.  I don't paint Xenos, so I may be doing these planes a serious disservice.  But in my defense, I've done a bunch or research through the books I have and online to get a sense of the Asuryani (Eldar, Aeldari, etc.) aesthetic.  In the end, I decided to go with the box art. 😂 In the end, I am only aiming for attractive playing pieces for the game board; not some new statement on finery of the Asuryani air crews.

Since I'm batch painting these planes, they are coming out in a satisfactorily uniform manner. I liked the black panels for the bomber flight leader.  I have six more Nightwings to paint, so I'm waiting to pick out a fighter flight leader/ace when I take on those planes. I think I'll be looking at transfers and the cockpit glass next for these planes.  They are otherwise coming along nicely.

 

The Astartes planes have been primed with a base coat laid down over top. I decided to stay with the 40K time period to match all the other planes and not paint these using colors from the Age of Darkness (Horus Heresy).  Since storm eagles land troops, they will be painted in the dark green of the Dark Angels, while the Xiphon Interceptors will be painted in the black of the 2nd company (Ravenwing). Those colors will lend me some variety on the painting table and hopefully won't be too confusing on the gaming table.  I expect that the chapter iconography will tie things together, so we'll see. I like the idea of the Ravenwing providing air cover for the other companies of the chapter as they launch their assaults.

And that's were I'm at, roughly halfway through the month.  The Asuryani have given me pause while I sorted out how I wanted to paint them, but the Dark Angels planes should go much more quickly.  I've painted loads of Astartes stuff and know exactly how I'm going to tackle their planes.  I'm pushing to complete this project in time to start "Squaduary" next month, so we'll see. That's it for now.

Best of luck with your projects.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!

 

Aeronautica Imperialis Wrath of Angels WIP - part 1

 

Greetings and Happy New Year!! I was able to get a couple games of Aeronautica Imperials in over the holiday break and that really jump started my mojo for painting tiny planes.  So the first project in 2023 will be to complete the third and final (so far) box set, Wrath of Angels.  The 11 planes in the set can be seen above, six Aeldari planes and five space marine planes. As I typically do, I started off the project by painting the bases.

The first step is separating the bases for air brushing. The bottom halves with the dials are shown above.  The bottoms snap into the tops in three places and can be a bit tough to separate, but carefully wedging a small screw driver or similar above the dials can pry them apart.

Here's where I got the tops to so far. Next up will be to paint in the metal accents that call out the firing arcs and add a bit of detail to the bases. They are pretty far along otherwise, and so I'll be soon on to the planes. I'm debating whether to paint the planes in 40K or 30K Dark Angels colors.  I'm leaning on 30K colors since they did release a Horus Heresy book for Aeronautica Imperialis. No one I play with is going to care either way. :)

For fun, here's a couple shots from the big 2 on 2 game I took part in over the holidays.  Imperial Navy/Astra Militarum vs. Orks and Tau.  we went with 300 points a side with each player getting 150 pts to build a force. I supplied all the gaming materials and so it was great fun to have a good portion of my collection on the table at last for a game!

Turn 1 following deployment

I used two sets of thick cardboard boards from expansions to AI...they are much better to play on than the flimsy folding boards that come with the box sets.

Turn 2: three casualties already!

After turn 1, planes start to get stuck in, especially up top where fighting was the thickest.

Turn 3: a Vendetta bites the dust

I forgot to take pictures at the start of turn four, and we ended at turn five with the game called on account of time. By then, the imperial forces had turned the tide and it was going to end in a rout regardless. On the imperial side, we got lucky with maneuvers (a BIG part of the game) and secured more targets than our opponents, followed by a good run of dice rolling.  Though I will say the dice were hot and cold on both sides, which does make the game far less predictable.  For example, a vendetta has three twin linked lascannon which each fire two shots at medium range...so six dice in total can be rolled.  One turn I rolled no hits, next turn I rolled five hits and brought down the Ork Eavy Bommer. I could easily have rolled less (or no) hits and allowed the bommer to wreak more havoc.

Anyway, much fun was had by all.  A memorable moment came after the first pair of 1-on-1 games where the players realized after hearing the tales of the other game that they had not been rolling to damage, just to hit.  So every hit scored automatic wounds in their game. We all had wondered why they had finished their game so quickly when the other took a fair bit longer. 😂  That was necrons vs. imperium and the necron weight of fire at close range decimated the imperial planes, particularity with the Jink special rule and not having to roll to damage.  LOL.

Anyway, this final gaming experience of the year prompted me to continue painting planes this month. Then I'll go back to Horus Heresy for Squaduary and Adeptus Titanicus for Monster March.

Hope your holidays went well.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!