Damiano Tier 4 Project: Part 11...Riflemen

The 50-point tier army project is nearing its end. The Steelhead Riflemen unit came off the painting table today.

So...close...to...the...end.

Also finished off Damiano today. Not thrilled with this model...there's a lot of metal on the sculpt, so it's not that interesting to paint.

Now all that's left for this tier list is one more unit of cavalry...hopefully, I can knock them off this week.

'Til next time.

Damiano Tier 4 Project: Part 10...'Jacks Away!

When I started this project, my Tier 4 list had Rocinante and 2 Mules. When I built the 'jacks, I decided to add in a Nomad as well, in order to provide a little bit of flexibility in list builds. Well now, some time later, all four 'jacks are finally off the painting table.

Picking up where I'd left them last time, I shaded in the panel lines and recesses with a dark brown wash.

I then applied an overall drybrush of off-white in order to pick up the panel edges and create a slightly dusty finish.

Next came the paint chip pass. I sponged on a mix of dark copper and dark brown, then went in with a brush and picked out silvered edge highlights.

As a final pass on each model, I added some accessories (two extra powder barrels and costume jewelry chain on this Mule, for example). I then applied some final dark washed to the cannon barrels and picked out the final highlights with more silver.

And that's it. Finished models.

Oh, added some grass to the base as well.

Final Rocinante.

Great 'jack with the Guard Dog ability to keep his 'caster safe.

Final Nomad.

And the last Mule.

Well, the end of the project is in sight. Just have to finish off the Riflemen, the last unit of cavalry, and, of course, Damiano.

'Til next time.

Damiano Tier 4 Project: Part 9

The first big unit comes off the table for the Damiano project.

This is a max unit of Steelhead Halberdiers. As I mentioned earlier in this series...stupid to assemble, but in the end, worth the effort, I think.

May do the Riflemen next...or finish a 'jack. We'll see.

'Til next time.

A Quick Terrain Project

So I'm playing in the local Machinations league, season 4. One of the ways to score league points is through building and painting for the hobby. I asked my LGS guy, Roy, if there was a terrain project I could do for him. He gave me a pre-cut wooden building kit that he got from a kickstarter and said I could paint it for him. No problem! Quick terrain project...let's go.

Here's everything I needed for the project. The wooden building kit. A cork base. Ballast and flock, some commercial hedge material...and plenty of white glue.

The building went together very quickly. Nice kit. Sorry...don't know the manufacturer. I glued the floor down to the cork tile.

With the walls up, I started into the scenic base. I spread around some white glue to take the ballast I was going to use as ground covering.

And smeared it around with some water.

Woodland Scenics fine ballast was next. Scattered it on and let the glue set.

After all the sand was down, I took the building downstairs to the airbrush station and just put a few basic colors down. Grey for the stone. Blue for the roof. Brown for the sand and doors. Here, you can see the model back upstairs and a line of glue put down for the first hedge.

All the hedge lengths went on...and when they were dry, I spread around some more glue and got some flock down for a patchy grass covering.

Finally, I painted a little detail around the doors and drybrushed the path to the main door. ...and done!

A quick little terrain project that I'll be dropping off at the LGS for use on Warmachine and Warhammer game tables.

'Til next time.

Damiano Tier 4 Project: Part 8...Finally Finishing Models!

Two months into this project, and the first models are finally leaving the table. First one finished is Stannis Brocker, the Steelhead cav solo. 

I really like the pose of this figure, and he was pretty easy to assemble as well. In game, he is key to making all the Steelhead figures work in the army, since with him, they can shoot and move past one another without getting in each other's way.

Next, we have the first Steelhead Cavalry unit. I've identified this unit with red shields...I think the second unit will probably have green or blue shields when it comes time to finish them. These guys are less well animated, but I'm happy with the final figures nonetheless.

As I was working on the figures, I thought that there might be too much metal on the sculpts to allow them to be distinguishable and/or interesting to look at on the game table. However, once all the details got painted in, I was less worried by this prospect.

So, now onto finishing the Halberdiers, I think.

'Til next time.

Damiano Tier 4 Project: Part 7

The weeks do drag on...don't they. Well, I have a feeling this project is about to speed up.

This past week was all about getting the metal finished on the pieces of Damiano's Free Company list.

Silver metal got done on the 'jacks as well. Here are their accessory pieces just about ready to go.

I'm going to do a gold metal pass, and then on to final color blocking...and then details.

'Til next time.

Damiano Tier 4 Project: Part 6

Over the past several weeks as I've been working through the Damiano project, I've been thinking that the sticking point will be the Halberdiers. As I noted in an earlier post, they are composed of way too many bits, and they're a pain to put together.

Well, the other night I flipped on some Dexter and decided to bear down and assemble the rest of the Halberdiers unit. And a couple of episodes later...presto.

Now I had all of the infantry for the 50 point tier 4 list assembled and based. It was time to prime these guys.

To prime units, I attach all the members to a stick, take them outside and prime all at once. Here is the Steelhead Rifleman unit.

And here are the newly assembled Steelhead Halberdiers.

Now primed...along with Damiano at the head of the bunch.

First stage as usual is to apply a dark wash. And now everyone is ready to go.

I'll be finishing off the bases first, then on to metal, then the padded armor, skin and so on. That will be next week.

'Til next time.