Browsing Tag

strike squad

Antares – Another Strike Squad and some more varied reinforcements

Posted on May 25, 2016

This latest Strike Squad is coming along much better than the rest. I started with white primer, then painted Ulthuan over the entire model, as I’ve done before.

The difference with this batch, is that instead of doing a wash layer then highlighting up, I painted the Drakenhof shade very carefully into the recesses. This allowed the white layer to be easier, since it was mostly just painting over the first Ulthuan, rather than needing a restorative layer of Ulthuan to bring it back.

I think they’ll need some Ulthuan to clean up the wash edges a bit more, and then I’ll do another thing of white at the top highlights again. But first, I’ll go into the deep recesses with Nuln Oil to deepen them a bit. When playing with the other squads, I found the ones with the darker edges looked better and wanted to go back on the lighter ones with more black.

I did an order from Warlord games and it arrived in less than 10 business days which was awesome! I picked up a NuHu to lead my troops, and an X-Launcher squad to get some more tactical flexibility when shooting those awful Ghar.

I also bought 2 packs of assorted drones, since I need a bunch of batter, shield, gun and medi drones around the army to get things done.

The Warlord metals have this awful thick “plate” of metal attached to their feet. I tried to hide it as best I could with assorted rocks and Vallejo texture paint, but I think I haven’t done as good a job as could be done. The NuHu is pretty good, but the Support team is iffy in places. Not certain what to do with them.

Featured Images

Antares – Concord Strike Squads, last for 500 points!

Posted on May 7, 2016

This was…

Ulthuan Grey all over
Drakenhof Nightshade in recesses
Ulthuan Grey highlight up (looks awful)
Nuln oil in recesses
Ulthuan, with much less water. This is the start of the clean-up pass.
White, in 2 layers.

Still don’t like it as much.

I think I’m better served by being more careful at the washing phase. Just the one Ulthuan Gray layer, then careful application of blue, then black and then cleanup then white.

But that’s 500 points of Concord painted for Beyond the Gates of Antares!

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Antares – Strike Squad Final

Posted on April 27, 2016

This unit reminds me of why “we” don’t highlight up anymore. Hard chalky edges, and patchy solid colours.

I need some time to reflect, but I think I’m into it. There’s a couple problems preventing me from coming at this with a more painterly mindset.

(1) This is a “massed battle” game, where my first 1000 points will have about 30 models in it. So if each individual model looks less awesome, but the army looks great, that’s a win. This is how my Night Goblins got so much attention back in the day — bright purple lines make make come to you. In this case, starkly contrasting white/orange is my game plan.

(2) White. I’m not certain at all how to paint white, like white white, in a manner of “highlight up, wash down”, because wash down by necessity turns the white into a grey. I’m sure it’s something like “highlight up, wash down, then go back with white”, but I’m pretty certain that I would not get what I wanted out of that, which is big panels of all white. And besides, that’s almost what I did with these guys since they started at primer white.

I think for the next squad, my starting steps should be a lot lighter. I did these guys with a mix of Nuln Oil and Asurmen Blue, which started them out really dark, but after my highlighting I still needed to hit the recesses with a dark wash because I wasn’t as precise with the highlighting as was necessary. I think that if I just did the Asurmen Blue, then started the highlighting, then went back with the Nuln to increase recessed contrast, that my highlighting could end up a lot more smooth. As it was, I needed a mid-layer of Ulthuan+Asurmen between the base and the Ulthuan to prevent it from being super chalky.

I also ended up drybrushing Blazing Orange at the tips of the rocks. My game plan is white/orange contrast, so anything I can do to pop those rocks even more is a good plan!

Work-in-progress

Good Morning Follow-up: Beyond the Gates of Antares – Concord Strike Squad

Posted on April 23, 2016

After my terrific night/early morning, I got up early enough to do a little more and take a photo and write this.

The base was indeed Seraphim Sepia, then drybrush up Snakebite and Zamesi.

I also took a stab at the energy portion of the gun. Ice Blue in the recesses, then White Scar on the edges.

Work-in-progress

Beyond the Gates of Antares – Concord Strike Squad

Posted on April 23, 2016

Because I definitely need a new game right now, I bought some excellently priced Concord troops for a brand new game from Warlord Games. I looked into Bolt Action a while ago, but couldn’t stand by the WWII theme. But space ships and laser guns!? Sign me up!

I found this blogger that I wanted to use as a template to work from. His painting was clean, simple and looked relatively quick.

These are the only paints that I think I’m going to need for this army. Some of them may not even be used.

First I did a wash of this ancient Asurmen Blue. I mixed it a bit with water because I didn’t trust that it wasn’t going to be really really dark. This ended up really patchy and annoying instead.

The next coat I mised Nuln Oil with the Asurmen Blue and it worked out a lot better. I may just try the Drakenhof Nightshade instead next time.

I went to bed at this point. But since tomorrow is a busy day and potentially stressful day, and since I seem to have acquired the habit of being unable to sleep the night before anything stressful (which really helps the stress, let me tell you), I got up to do some more painting. Unfortunately, my only camera devices are in the bedroom and I don’t want to go back in there unless I’m sleeping. So I’ll say what I did, and uhh…maybe you’ll get a photo in the morning. Sunday morning, I mean.

I bought a new pot of Ulthuan Grey for this project, which I thought would be a nice mid-step. But after the dark Nuln Blue combo, it was really patchy as well. I mixed it a bit with the Asurmen Blue (thus ensuring that this out-of-print colour was thoroughly ensconced in my process) and it was a lot better. Then a layer of the Ulthuan, then White Scar. I went back with the Nuln Oil to catch some recesses that didn’t have enough contrast on them.

A quick dump of Snakebite Leather over the base to get started. I’ll probably put the Seraphim Sepia onto that (it should’ve been in the above photo…I use that paint everywhere…) and then dry brush with the Snakebite and Zamesi Desert.

I did a quick wash of Nuln Oil over his gun. I’m thinking I’ll do a blue in the “energy” parts, but haven’t had that much success with such things recently.

And if I can stop myself, I’ll call that done. He looks pretty good. Good enough to paint an army in these colours, I think.