A little bit goes a long way

Or as the Swedish proverb goes: 'Many small streams makes a great river'.

Not really made any major progress on one thing, but I've gotten several projects started:

• Finished my first four Drop markers for Planetfall.
• Unpacked my Armada Return of the Overseers starter box; I'm really loving the new Oannes Heavy Carrier model. 
• Gotten about halfway with my Khitari infantry. I'll probably revisit my painting process for next time, though... Staining did not really work as intended on these small models, there are a lot of details that need to be touched up.
• Started washing and assembling my Aquan Heavy Helix for Planetfall, including the really nice Locatu tank destroyer models, I'll most definitely get another heavy helix just to get some more of these to paint. 
• Started working on my Blotz stuff (arrived yesterday): a lot of 10mm building goodness! So far only a small radar dish has seen the light of day, but more will come before the end of the month, including a review of the kits. 

That leaves me with a lot of newly acquired models, almost filling my self-imposed 'Sliding Painting Window', which means no more purchases for a while, at least until I've made a dent in the buffer...


Paint tracker status update V

Models:

Aquired:
FSA: 9 (Return of the Overseers box, so 4 frigates, 4 mediums and a large)
FSP: 10 (Heavy Helix, with two bonus Stingrays!)

Completed:
FSP:18
FSA: 0

Removed:
FSA: 6 


I also need to do some kind of inventory of my backlog box, with Legions, Armada and Planetfall it is starting to overflow....
 

Rumors and starters

So, I've been a bit non productive lately, that's what happens with two sick kids..

However, Spartan has instead ramped up, and revealed a Kickstarter for modular terrain, and started hinting about a big reveal...
Seeing as their new banner is something closely resembling a Halo Spartan helmet, I'm going to assume that it heralds some kind of forage into that universe..
To make matters more interesting, this is not the first I hear about such a thing, a few months back I heard something about Spartan acquiring a Halo licence, but not much more.

I'm really looking forward to the big reveal this week...

Almost, but not quite...

Yep, got my Votari crystals finished this morning (I get most of my painting done while the rest of the family still sleeps...), just too late to be considered ready in January.
I'm not really happy with the paint job, this will have to do for now, I've already burnt a lot of energy discovering a lot of ways to paint them that I don't like...

I'll get a better scheme for the next batch (and who knows, I might test how well varnish withstands T-Röd, the designated paint removal chemical around here...)

Also made some decent progress on my first batch of Infantry, all bases are painted, just a final grey drybrysh of the sand to be done before adding flock (o yes, I need to paint the actual infantrymen at some point too...)

I've also made some headway (the famous 'Almost done' step) on 4 drop markers, with a scheme tying them to my Aquan force (as the Terquai technically are part of the Sebrutan, I see no issues with having the same scheme for their drop markers...)
Any limitations* will be marked using different coloured dice.

So, where does that leave me, progress-wise?

Progress so far in 2015:

Models:

Aquired:
FSA: 2

Completed:
FSP:16
FSA: 0

Removed:
FSA: 6


Not too bad, so far....


In other news: Some time back (two weeks almost!), I played my first turns of the new Planetfall! Unfortunately the game was cut short due to my opponent getting dragged into a game club board meeting (fitting, as he plays Directorate...), but at least I got to play the first two turns:

Last image I snapped of the game

Still, even a short game is better than none, and it really whet my appetite for more, so much in fact that I've already ordered some MDF buildings from Blotz.co.uk, to start replacing the Hawk paper buildings (works as filler, but will probably not survive for too long... )
My opponent managed to score the only TV of the game, when he wiped out a squadron of my light recon tanks who'd dared move near the tertiary objective in the middle of the table, so nominally he managed to push the Kurak forces out of the area...

Still, a rematch is in order, and scheduled for later this month.
Until then I need to get some more painting done!




*In Planetfall, drop markers are used as pre-designated spots for dropping troops or artillery strikes on, Certain markers can only be used for specific troop types (and arty tokens can only be used for artillery strikes...)

Painting tracker 2015-01-29

Paint table snapshot: 

Khitari, Votari crystals and drop tokens.

I've also added some FSA SRS tokens, I'm tired of not having enough completed when I play.

Progress so far in 2015:

Models:

Aquired:
FSA: 2

Completed:
FSP:12
FSA: 0

Removed:
FSA: 6


So, I just sold off a blister of corvettes and some SRS, and completed my stingrays...
Not sure how to count Tokens, though. I'm leaning towards counting them as 0.5 models for painting purposes, and not count them at all for selling purposes.

I've also been working on 6 infantry stands, starting with the bases, here in three different stages:

Stage 1: Cavalry brown basecoat.
Stage 2: Parasite brown on top, flat areas (in this case the 'paving').
Stage 3: Khaki drybrush
Stage 4: Dark Tone Wash


After this it is going to be business as usual, another Khaki drybrush and two tones of flock.

So, now to try to find some more painting time...

Paint tracker update 15-01-23

Finished my four Stingray platforms today, that means that I've completed twelve models so far this year... 20 before the end of the month actually sounds feasible!

Painting tracker update 2015-01-20

Just a quick start for my paint tracker this year:

2015:

Models:

Aquired:
FSA: 2

Completed:
FSP: 8
FSA: 0

Removed: 0



The Definition of Done (or rather Completed) is that it should be varnished, and preferably put in the display at the game club.

Current WIP snapshot of my paintdesk:

Further Aquan reinforcements

Believe it or not, but another squad finished before my game tomorrow:

The full squadron (tentatively named Ocean Squall) :

Close up of a Lamana:

Close up of the Sirsir (specialist designator skimmer):

It'll be interesting to see how they perform, I'm not sure if I want the Sirsir in a medium squadron, or in a heavy squadron, but as the mediums probably will be closest to the enemy, the increased close range fighting abilities of the Sirsir will probably be of better use there.


Here is a WIP shot of the basing I'm using:

Regular Spartan base with added sand (very fine).
Vallejo Model Colour Cavalry Brown base, drybrushed with Vallejo Game Colour khaki and then washed with diluted Army Painter dark tone.

After this I usually drybrush with khaki again (very lightly), drybrush the sand with grey, wash the sand again, and drybrush with light grey (to get a spot colour for the different texture)