Of Spaceships and Challenges

I've had a grotty old cold all week so there wasn't much to post until now. Whilst I might not have done any painting until this weekend, I wasn't doing nothing. The nelliephants have been stripped and reassembled - I'll be painting them with the howdahs off this time, then gluing those in place later (before the Klear/ink and matt spray).

As well as stripping the nellies, I also stripped the FSE intro fleet which I'd painted about this time last year (but hated the paint scheme). After a bit of fannying about, I repainted them over the weekend.

How they were:

Hmmm, I guess I never took pics of them in the finished state.I had picked out weapons and some panels & pods in white, red and yellow.

And how they are now:

Some close ups:

Frigates

Destroyers

Light Cruisers

Heavy Cruiser

Battle Cruiser

These were quite quick to paint up:
Sprayed with grey primer
Basecoat of slightly thinned dark-grey
Wet-brush of ultra-marine/dark grey-blue
Heavy dry-brush of dark blue-grey/dark grey-blue
Light dry-brush of dark blue-grey/light grey-blue
Panels picked out with flat red
Weapons and engine grilles picked out with natural steel
Weapon ends picked out with fluo orange
Exhaust: deep sky blue, sky blue/white, white, washed with fluo blue
Spray with satin varnish

These ended up somewhat darker than I originally envisaged, but I'm pleased with the result. I was also reminded of the problem with my photography set up. For some reason the matt black boards and my lighting combine to white-out the ships in my photos, so I ended up going with the glossy white boards.


As well as this, I've done a bit more prep - the NAC intro fleet I won in Seb's prize draw and some grav tanks and grav APCs from Critical Mass Games. The tanks have been washed and assembled (apart from the gun barrels - I'm still trying to work out whether to fix the barrels or go for magnetisation so that I can swap them out). The APCs are currently soaking in soapy water to remove any release agents from the resin.


Planning for the Challenge

I'm still trying to work out a running order for what I'm going to paint this year. Curt's introduction of fortnightly specials has thrown a bit of a spanner into my intentions from before the call went out. I can't see myself entering for all of the specials, but I should be able to do something for the non-combatant, vehicles and casualties.

I'll also need to find something for my entry fee. I had thought of doing a certain iconic vehicle from a certain iconic film developed from a certain song but haven't had any joy finding a model in less than 1:12 scale! This means I'll just have to find a 28mm figure that would fit the requirements (inspired by a Peckinpah movie).

So, I guess you all want to know what I'll be painting for this year's Challenge.

Camp scene for use with my Swiss army (and as my entry for the non-combatant special)
"Arrrrrrr! There do be pirates on the horizon Cap'n!" Yup, my 15mm buccaneer army will be hitting the painting table. Lots and lots of bloodthirsty, cutlass-wielding, grog-drinking ne'er-do-wells.
6mm ACW - it's been just over 2 years since I bought the base armies so it's about time I painted them.
15mm Korean arquebusiers - so I can use my Koreans for FoG:R as well as FoG:AM
15mm SciFi, as Curt is allowing non-historical minis this year. I haven't decided which ones to do yet (so many to choose from!). I will probably try to tie this in with the Vehicles special and do a reinforced platoon sized force.
28mm Coureurs de Bois - the FIW figures for the Bloggers For Charity game (if I haven't painted them before the Challenge).
15mm 30YW - I've got 6 limber teams, 32 casualties (24 men, 8 horses) and 10 battalion guns to complete my army. Guess which special I'll try to tie these in with!
28mm Vikings - 4 berserkers,  a warlord and 2 wolves

If I manage to get through all those, I do have some more things waiting in the wings, but I haven't prepped any of these.