Firestorm Armada: Sorylians

The Firestorm ships I painted two weeks ago whetted my appetite for some more of these fine models from Spartan Games. So I went out to the LGS and bought up most of the Sorylians they had in stock...I really like the look of these ships. Here's to painting for fun.

I started with this Sorylian Dreadnaught. Six (large) pieces of resin. The engine cap doesn't fit very well, but the model is sweet.

Started with black primer.

I tried a few different potential paint schemes on a smaller ship first, and then settled on metal and olive green. Getting metal to look right at this scale is pretty tough. The method I used was to start with a Vallejo Surface Primer metal. I then darkened it up with a spray of black and umber washes. Then, it was time for some light drybrushing with GW Boltgun and Chainmail.

Several time consuming steps followed. First, the olive areas were lightly brush painted with Model Air Camo Light Green. Next, Reaper Pale Olive was oversprayed in patches to create highlights and tonal variation. Then came a LOT of masking. This was for the white stripes, which were sprayed on with Model Air Aged White. Floor wax was the next overall covering. After that dried, the panel lines were then "pin washed" with a mix of black and green wash with flow improver and glaze medium added to make the wash flow as easily as possible. Finally, the nose was painted: first with Dark Sea Grey, and then with Black.

Details were painted in next, starting with the OSL white-blue. This consisted of a few bright blue sprays and a final brush paint of bluish-white. A few metal pieces were also painted with bronze for some variation. Finally, the base was painted black and some clouds and stars were added to finish it off. A few oversprays of Dullcoat was the final step.

Rinse and repeat...and eight ships later...here we are.

I'm a big fan of the Sorylian carrier model. There's something about aircraft carriers in space that I really like. The deck was painted with two tones of Panzer Aces Rubber.

And that was the project. Firestorm models...I'm a fan.

'Til next time.

Fighter Stands and Torpedo Counters

So, since I've started painting space ships again, I've been wondering what game system I should play them with. I took a look at Full Thrust, and it seems like a pretty tight set of generic space combat rules. 

Fighters are launched in "stands" from carriers in Full Thrust, so I thought I'd co-op some Battlefleet Gothic fighter models I've had in the bin for some years. And here they are...

While I was at it, I rooted through my old Battlefleet Gothic box and found some torpedo counters I remembered that I wanted to make a little more "3D." I did this by painting up some old Silent Death missiles and gluing them on the BFG torp counters. A quick, but satisfying, little project.

'Til next time.

Firestorm Armada: Aquan Fleet Painting Tutorial

Our annual local miniatures convention, MayDay, has come and gone. A successful event, and noteworthy because it always has a big silent auction. This year, I won a lot of Firestorm Armada ships (among some other cool stuff). Among the lot of ships, I found an Aquan fleet. Searching the internet for painting ideas, I found a very cool colour scheme at the workbenchwarriors blog. 

I'm not proud...I set about to copy it.

So, starting with the nice resin casts, the first step was to clean off mould lines and give the models a good wash.

Then prime black.

Next, I sprayed on a light coat of ultramarine base.

Then, a little overspray of a medium greenish-blue.

And then a light greenish-blue, just sticking close to the raised areas of the model.

Copying the scheme I found at workbenchwarrirors, I wanted to replicate their idea of a water-surface texture on the models. This meant getting an undulating and light-reflective look from a shallow body of blue water. Appropriate for "Aquans," I suppose. So I started with a wavy spray of light blue-grey.

Then went in and did some brush-work with the light greenish-blue.

Next, another brush pass with light blue-grey to build up the line work.

And a final highlighting pass with a mix of light blue-grey and white.

Next came the OLS pink lighting around the "windows" and engines. This was a progression of sprays with purples and pinks, and a final highlight of very light pink.

I also worked shadows into the panel lines with a blue-black wash. The model was then finished off with some base work. The base was sprayed black, and then some "space clouds" were then added in blue and red. Finally, small star specks in light blue, orange and white were painted on with a very, very tiny brush.

...and the fleet was done.

This was a very quick and fun project. It went fast because many of the stages could be rattled off with the airbrush.

Finally, as I mentioned, we just finished our annual miniatures convention, MayDay. This year, I ran the 3rd Annual MayDay Steamroller for Warmachine. We had 27 players come out for the tournament from Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer and Grand Prairie. A super-fun time, and lots of good games.

'Til next time.