Vader!

This is one of the two 'Vader' figures I have from the Martian metals line.  I have several other versions of Vader that will be posted on this blog and better photos when I have proper lighting for shooting this model properly.

Front-right

Front

Blast walls

After about four hours of work on the proxie models 28mm scale street barricades, I have managed to complete 18 of these beauties for use in both 30mm and 15mm scale games.

I had cut 2mm styrene sheets into 0.5" x 2.5" strips. These styrene strips form the bases for the blast curtains (I consider them the blast curtains that you might find at the periphery of a star port launch/landing field). These devices would be common in order to avoid small particles from damaging equipment or other vehicles from thrust born vehicles.

In hindsight I would have liked to have cut the corners of the strips at 45 degree angles so that it would be easier to match the pieces up at 90 degree angles.

Each of the barricades were then welded to the styrene strips using tenax-7 plastic welder which works fantastically well on styrene and PVC type plastics. Once the barricades were welded, I then proceeded to add super glue to the strips and spread it around using a kabob skewer point and then allowed the sand mix, that I use for basing, to flow over the glued surfaces.

A liberal coat of testers flat euro-1 Grey was then sprayed into the barricades en-mass. A light dry brushing of Vallejo game color ghost grey was applied with a large soft house painting brush. Next came a black ink wash to collect in the crevices and nooks of the model followed by another ghost grey dry brushing.

The sand mix base then had a wash of Vallejo skin wash ink then a Vallejo model color dry brushing of Iraqi sand.

My daughters had wanted to try their hands at doing some 'tagging' as space jacker had done with his excellent versions of these models.

Barricades after initial dry brushing with Ghost Grey.  The tags were simple to perform on these models since they already had a lighter background color, the letter outlines were simply painted on in black then the interior spaces were then painted in with standard color combinations.  A final white highlight was added to a few in order to give them a bit of a gleam.  Seeing as that these were the first attempt to paint such things, my kids had done a fantastic job!

Tagged blast walls.  Models by GZG, Khurisan, 15mm.co.uk.  The Weyland-Yutani logo for good effect.

Drybrushed wall example

Traveller imperial sun burst

My daughter wanted to make one with a portion of our dog's name.

Two nobles behind the cover of the baffling blast walls.  'Dumb' had a deliberate misspelling.

Magistrate and his droid companion

Shuttle blast wall examples.

Weathering cargo containers

I had found these pre-fab HO scale cargo containers at my FLGS/hobby town store. They are made from a sturdy plastic and are pre-painted with company logos and container numbers applied as well. Unfortunately the containers look out of place right out of the bag/box.

I had simply applied a bit of thinned Vallejo wood grain in streaks where I thought water or other corrosives would pool or drip down the container's corrugated surfaces. It never hurt to look at train cars as they passed by either...

100 Ton Scout-Courier

This is another ship design that I really like as it provides several corrections to the original Type-S scout courier design.  The Type-S had issues with the deck plans because there was not enough volume near the 'point' of the triangle to house the bridge and the other components.

You can see another fantastic rendition of this star ship in the blog banner above as well as the conceptualized art work for the T5 rulebook.  This is a wonderful ship design that only suffers from one flaw on the deck plans - that is both an overhead/dorsal exterior hatch.  I would assume that ships of this size and shape would need a way to dock/connect with an umbilicus to other ships easily and this plan is missing that very thing.

Never the less, this is a wonderful ship layout and it can provide a bit more interesting layout for those 'interesting' boarding actions in Snapshot.

Image by Brian Gibson - 2002.

Landing craft for gunners

I had used the pack of Khurasan Miniatures partisan pack (ttc-1401) for the door gunners.

Step 1: Remove pintel mount for the miniature figures.

Step 1a

Step 1b

Step 2: Use a pin-vise a hole in the base of the gun mount. I had used a .032 bit with a .031 brass wire. Glue long brass wire into gun mount on the miniature(s).

Step 2

Step 3: remove the original beam ball turret and cut the armature from the ball turret hinge.

Step 3a

Step 3b

Step 4: pin vise the armature to allow the door gunner's weapon to fit within. Slip the door gunner's brass rod through the armature and snip off the remainder from bottom of armature.

 Step 5: file the cut end of he brass wire to allow it to pass through the armature without too much effort.

Step 5

Step 6: Glue pins into miniatures

Step 6

Step 7: Paint and enjoy

Grav tanks

I had fallen in love with this tank the first time that I had seen the box cover artwork that was produced by Martian Metals "back in the day".  All of the larger models were sold in this box and identified with a typed label.

This grav tank had been the only vision I had had in my head until the The Spinward Marches Campaign supplement was made available and it including a bit more traditional rounded 'Trepida' design for Imperial Armor and power armor within the illustrations.

I have been in luck with finding these grav tanks being sold by RAFM miniatures.  They also produce some of the old Citidel figures as well, which are fantastic even for their age.

'Trepida' Pattern Imperial Grav Tank

Here are two platoons of the RAFM grav tanks.  I had patterned their camouflage and their markings as if they were a German unit fighting along the Solomani rim and had been in the field for a long period of time.  Each of the tanks have a shield pattern applied to the side of the turret to easily identify the 'name' of the vehicle.  Unfortunately some of the hull numbers had come off of the forward hull, so I had given to the idea that the tanks had suffered some damage or re-painting when entering the theater and had not yet had their hull numbers applied.

These models are now available through RAFM miniatures.

Unicorn

Macharius

Wolf

Galacta

Eisernes Kreuz

Platoons four and five

Command Group

Morning Star

Centaur - Base example

Raging Bull

Raging Bull - Left

Centaur