10mm Sci-Fi from Hawk Miniatures

I ordered some of the very fine 10mm vehicles from Hawk Games for Dropzone Commander. Love the detail in the models. Nice designs too.

The camo was very straightforward to apply (if just a little time consuming). First, I sprayed down a few tones of the base color.

Then, I applied a liberal amount of putty and sprayed a few green tones.

Remove putty, and presto!

After that, I gloss-coated, applied a weathering wash, dull-coated, drybrushed on some dust and brush-painted in the final details. Textured and painted the bases, and that was that.

Six new 10mm vehicles, which include some pretty sweet mobile missile launchers.

'Til next time.

Some 10mm Sci-Fi

I'm back on the 1/144 scale sci-fi bandwagon. So, I ordered a few packs of Reaper CAV vehicles to paint up.

The models are nice, and painting was very straightforward. Masks were done with putty.

Here are the finished vehicles. Looking forward to doing some more of these.

'Til next time.

The Forgotten Men of Middle-earth

A few weeks ago, I got the urge to paint some more Middle-earth figures. GW's old metal minis are really nice. Great sculpts, nice animation, good proportions...on and on. Looking through the shelves of inventory, I decided to do some free men. 

And when you think of men in Middle-earth, Gondor and Rohan immediately come to mind. I have some Rohirrim ready to go...but I didn't feel like painting horses. So I dug into some of the more obscure models.

These are an assortment of models from the fiefdoms of Lamedon and Lossarnach, the Kingdom of Arnor, and men from Dunland.

After basing, priming and the first ink pass, skin and metal were the first things to paint.

Then, cloth. GW painted their clansmen from Lamedon with tartan kilts. Looked good. I tried it on mine as well.

Next up I worked on the leather items. There was a significant amount on the Dunland models...it's always a challenge to vary up the shades of leather.

Then it was time for cloaks. King Arvedui has the fanciest.

Finally, it was time to finish off details. The remainder of the wood bits, eyes, hair, and everything else missed in the previous steps. Bases were painted and flocked...and then, all done.

Clansmen of Lamedon.

Axemen of Lossarnach.

Men of Dunland.

And finally, an assortment of characters from Arnor.

This week I was also able to base the 10/12mm sci-fi vehicles I've built recently. First there's this flight stand for the 1/144 scale stealth fighter.

And then a mix of other vehicles and artillery pieces. I like how they mix with the Heavy Gear models.

Well, that's all for this week. Next up, I have a number of Warmachine models ready to be logged in.

'Til next time.

Step-by-Step: Painting Sci-Fi Stealth Camouflage

On the continuing journey to build up a couple of 10-12mm sci-fi armies, the time has come to add some air power. I have some Dropzone Commander aircraft on order, but while I'm waiting for them to come in, I went out and bought a 1/144 scale Chinese stealth jet, the J-20. This stealth fighter is due to enter service at the end of this decade. So, seeing as it's not in service yet, it looks high tech, and is generally unrecognizable to North American eyes, I figured this model makes a good sci-fi jet.

Not a complex model...particularly since I was going to paint over the canopy and build it with the landing gear retracted.

Here the model is built and is ready to take it's primer coat.

The base color was black. Over top of that I sprayed dark grey to give it that matte look. Next I started planning out a muted camouflage pattern. The Chinese jet, like some of the American stealth aircraft, is a matte black. However, as a sci-fi piece, I have the luxury of just making something up. So. I decided to do a patchy black/dark brown/dark green camo pattern.

So, the first order of business was to mask off the black patches. I used some tacky putty.

Next, I over-sprayed a dark brown and then highlighted that with a medium brown.

I peeled off the putty, which left a very cool looking dark camo scheme. To add the green, I marked off the patches with more tacky putty...

...and then filled in the spaces between the patches with tape.

After spraying with a dark green and highlighting with a pale green, I removed all the masking material. I was super happy with the result. The scheme feels familiar, but has a good military sci-fi aesthetic. Familiar and not at the same time.

All that was left to do was hand-paint the engine nacelles, canopy and running lights. The model got an over-spray of floor wax and a few decals were applied. The final dullcoat spray sealed everything up, and the model was done.

I'll mount it on a flight stand later.

Hopefully, I'll get those next Dropzone Commander models in this week and have them on the table for next weekend.

'Til next time.

Dropzone Commander APCs, Howitzers and Buggies

Recently I've completed some 12mm mechs and infantry stands from the Heavy Gear franchise. They got me interested in building up a couple of sci-fi armies. I started looking around for other models to round out a combined arms force. The vehicle models from Dream Pod 9 (Heavy Gear's manufacturer) are just way too expensive to consider...and really, there weren't good quality cheap alternatives. However, I was intrigued by the aesthetic of Hawk Wargames' Dropzone Commander UCM vehicles. Although these models are 10mm scale, they are a close match for the Heavy Gear stuff. And they look good. I ordered some.

Here are some Bear APCs. I was suspect of the lateral mould break...there were going to be some nasty gaps to fill.

Also got some Longbow Howitzers. These artillery pieces are real beauties.

This is the Kodiak command vehicle. A variant of the Bear...so same mould gap issue.

Wolverine buggies. These fast attack cars can be built with chain gun or rocket pod armaments.

Here is an assembled Bear. As I suspected, the gap right through the middle of the vehicle is a real problem.

The Howitzers went together like a dream. Really like these models.

And the buggies are very cool.

The Kodiak, with its trailer. This is going to look really good once the radar dish is mounted.

Putty for all the APC chassis. Nasty. Had to apply and scrape down several times.

On to painting. I acquired these Dropzone models for my Heavy Gear Southern force...so they got the same blue-grey color treatment. I felt that the APCs needed a camo pattern, so I applied a tape mask...

...and sprayed brown.

Once the tape was removed, I was left with a pretty interesting looking camo pattern.

To finish the models off, they got a blue-black wash and details like windscreens, guns, tires and lights painted in. They were then sprayed with floor wax and decals were applied. A final spray of Dullcoat flattened out the finish.

And these are the buggies and howitzers.

And here's how the models mix in with the Heavy Gear mechs and infantry stands.

I've ordered some stands to mount these new models on...when they arrive I'll do the bases.

Anyway, I think this mix of models (along with some aircraft and tanks to come) will make a nice 10-12mm sci-fi army.

'Til next time.

Heavy Gear Southern Infantry Stands

Having finished off a platoon of infantry for the Heavy Gear Northern faction last week, I couldn't resist doing the same for the Southern faction as soon as I could get around to them.

Each platoon pack contains 40 miniatures and 12 stands. There aren't a lot of different poses, but the figures are so incredibly small, pose diversity isn't very important...everything looks the same from table-distance!

Anyway, I painted these guys up to mix with the Heavy Gears I'd painted for the Southern Faction last month...I think they make a pretty good match. Here are the infantry stands along with some Southern Gears.

OK, time to get back to some Warmachine stuff, I think...so...

'Til next time.

Heavy Gear Northern Infantry Stands

I enjoyed painted those Heavy Gear mechs a few weeks back, so I decided to get a couple of packs of infantry to go along with them. I bought a platoon of Northern and Southern infantry.

I started with the Northern platoon.

Now, these are 12mm models, so they are quite small. While the sculpts are quite good, it's hard to see the detail. Given that, I did not concentrate on picking out all the belts, boots, gizmos and so on. I just highlighted the helmet and picked out the shoulder pads with the Northern green accent color.

Here are the infantry stands with a few of the mech models to show relative size. A good project for the week that Titanfall was released!

I may do the Southern infantry next, or may go back to some Warmachine...we'll see.

'Til next time!