Rolling Thunder

Here's the first set of group shots showing all the French tanks which have been painted thus far.

It's quite the range of heavy, medium and light tanks!  From Char Bis to Soumas to tiny AMR's.

I think it might take every single one of them to deal with a King Tiger.  Quite and interesting size comparison!

I would not be surprised at all to find out that the turret of the Tiger is heavier than one third of the light French tanks.

Still, those were not around at this time, and only 80 of them were ever made.  I will certainly be curious to see what these can do in an actual Flames of War game.  Some of these vehicles can be more than a match for early war Panzers.

At this stage, I don't know what else I would be adding to this group, aside from a few more biggies.  Of course, I would not mind a few more of the medium and light tanks to paint up in a desert camo scheme for the Levant and West Africa scenarios which I'd like to do.

I did try to vary some of the colors and patterns where possible.  My guess is that the majority of the early learning games with be France '40.  These should be quite appropriate for that!

I'm getting more excited about this, as the artillery stands are well under way, and even many of the infantry teams are being based.

Stay tuned, because there is a whole lot more coming!  Not just the aforementioned artillery and infantry, but lots of terrain articles as well!  

Feel the Pain

Here are some new pictures of the old Chronos Pain Engine.  It was a major testing ground for new materials and techniques.

Blood effects, combining the fluorescent paints with realistic water and the freehand pattern were all on the menu with this guy!

I really had no idea what to expect when I did that combination.  Ultimately I was very happy with the results.  There is no type of color that does this high chroma look except for the fluorescents!

These views show off the freehand carapice pattern as well as the mosaic on the base.

I only wish that he would have done as well in the games as he did with all the experiments!

Dark Whispers

New from the Unfinished Business kickstarter, we have the new female Dark Council figure.  She will be offering some very sweet suggestions to many factions, I think. :-)

Of course, I could not resist putting the same kind of spacescape on the robe as I did with the previous Dark Council figures!

I stuck with the same skin colors and glowing red eyes as well.

This puts me at three Dark Council members.  It would be a very different kind of faction to have that many all at once, especially since they have to be activated first, before any non Dark Council.

However, it can get a little tiresome to be out influenced on a regular basis, given the way the initiative roll works now.

So, much more to come... be sure to stay tuned!

Call to War

I enjoyed this Red Box Games miniature, with some fun elements such as the shape of the weapon and the face.  I could do some interesting things with the NMM, and put plenty of color variation on the face as well!

As usual, I tried to incorporate as much green, tan, red tones, etc., as I could on the cloak.

The view from above shows a little more of the sword blade and the face.  With part of the scalp shaved, I thought it could be neat to get more greenish grey tones in that area.

Ready for battle!

Twisted Fashions

Meet Nancy, one of my favorites from the new Twisted Game line of miniatures!

She is the ultimate in high Victorian fashion, sporting a little augmentation here and there.

The Reaper clear paints were quite valuable once again, as they can be thinned down with either water or flow improver to turn them into amazing glaze colors!  Very important when you want some subtle color changes without having to mix a lot of opaque colors and layer them together.

The last day has arrived for the campaign, so be sure to check it out here!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1884748152/twisted-a-steampunk-miniatures-game/description

Samurai Jack

The Honor of the Samurai return again with a Reaper BONES troll which has been converted for a Samurai Orc Blood Bowl team!

These are always fun conversions, sculpting the hair and his little diaper!  This team will have a slightly different color scheme than the old Hong Kong Phooey Orc team which I did years ago.

I stuck with a more standard set of colors for the troll itself.  However, I did try to mix in as many different subtle shades of purple, teal and even flesh tones.

Where possible, I put in some brighter yellows and light greens, since some of the armor plates of the actual Samurai style players will have that as an accent color.

He's just the first of an entire team coming in over the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

Orcs are my pin cushions

The Galadhrim archer figures had a more 'open' stance than most of the spear and swordsmen, so it presented an opportunity to have more fun with the leafy armor design.

While a lot of greenish hues would be needed on the golds, I did want to reflect some of the reds and oranges as well.

The open cloaks meant that I could show enough of that orange color to justify such reflections.

As I say over and over again, it is the reflections and reflected light that are essential to have NMM look the least bit realistic.

The sculpting and casting of the Lord of the Rings figures was not always the greatest, particularly in the early days.  Nevertheless, it was still very enjoyable to paint up the whole army, and get to use it many times!