Another 2 weeks of Painting updates...

Hello again readers, 
It's been another slow 2 weeks of painting due to other commitments, but here is the progress, which is minor in some cases, and quite decent in others.
So we start with some work on the UH-1 Black Hawk helicopter I'm building to go with a 28mm Force on Force Vietnam collection, as might be obvious, the helicopter is for the US, and more specifically, the US Army.
I've got the main body glued together, along with the main rotor assembly and the tail rotor:

Main body as of last weekend

Tail and rear rotor

The main rotor blades and the assembly for them

The cockpit has also been glued into position, but the chassis barely fits in around the cockpit and interior:

There is a seating bench that fits on the pipe and box shaped part of the rear of the interior. I just need to find where I put it on the painting table.....

The poor fitting bottom of the helicopter

Now we come to this weekend on this project, and I've started doing some painting, I've undercoated the main rotors, the engine for the same rotors, and I've painted the sliding doors that fit on the side of the helicopter's body, and additionally, I've part-painted the front nose of the copter. Finally, I've started attaching the clear plastic that represents the glass parts of the body.

Under-coated rotor blades

Painted nose, shown dry-fitted to the main body of the helicopter

Under-coated engine

Side-view of the helicopter so far

Other projects of the last two weeks, I've actually assembled and started to paint another Armoured Suit for the squad of them I have for my Secrets of the Third Reich British force:

Main coat is done, now for the flag on the left shoulder, and the weapons and metal areas of the suit before attaching the head and varnishing the model. Next to the WIP model is a previously completed suit for comparison.

This coming Friday I have a Warhammer 40k game against a fellow Dice and Decks gaming club member, using Forgeworlds Space Marine Legion army list from the Horus Heresy boo, and I have a surprise involving some alterations on the force organisation chart....
Anyhoo, I've started to add some more yellow to the old Rogue Trader Land Raider, and a Veteran I started a while ago, but some problems have developed with the yellow paint being too low in pigment for an effective coat of paint, but I have some work in progress pictures anyway:

Old Rogue Trader Land Raider being souped up

One veteran, which by chance shows the size when compared to an Empress Miniatures 28mm SAS trooper

I have also done a bit towards my Dystopian Wars Land force, with work on the Landship and a base of small tanks being worked on:

The Landship so far

Very small tanks, which are very big in the fluff, and Dystopian Legions, where a concept render is available to view on Spartan Games, being equivalent to a Warhammer 40k Baneblade in size

Finally, as a end to the update, I have also begun work on one of three Cruisers for my Firestorm Armada Directorate fleet:

Just started on the basecoat

And that's another two weeks of progress, bar some work for Dice and Decks Christmas Miniatures swap, which I'm still unable to share any progress on as of yet, a few more weeks and I hope to show the finished progress once the person it's being painted for receives it.
I shall attempt to update this blog once a week as it used to be on a more regular basis again.
Until next week....

2 weeks worth of Painting updates.

Hello for the second time in as many days...

Painting, what have I been doing over the last 2 weeks?
I've done some work on my Early Imperial Romans, including a Legate on horseback, Aquilifier, and the Praetorian's Centurion - all from Warlord Games range of models:

Legate

The Legate again.

The Aquilifier as of last week.

The Centurion of the Praetorian cohort.

From two weeks ago on my painting table.

Progress on the Aquilifer from this weekend

 And I've assembled another second rank Praetorian:

In 54mm Napoleonic news, I've at long last completely finished the Rifleman I converted from one of my Victrix Peninsular Infantry set:

I'm quite pleased with this one.

Slightly different angle.

And that, rather unfortunately concludes this painting update, until next weekend after I've done some more painting.

Dystopian Legions colour scheme ideas

Hello folks, ahead of tomorrows painting updates and a visit from Dice and Decks regular visitors at Square Orange Games, I'm going to present my ideas for colour schemes for when I finally get my hands on some of the new 28mm Dystopian Legions Kingdom of Britannia miniatures from Spartan Games (All rights to their owners for the pictures used below).
Idea 1
This is taking the original colour scheme ( a take on the Zulu-war british army uniform with metal breastplates and shoulder plates), and altering the tunic and armour colour to a more Sudan-war colour scheme, see here:

Idea 2
This takes the previous idea suggested above, and takes it further by adding the tunic beige/sand colour to the trousers as well. This colour will also be used for the Pith Helmet, as in Sudan and Boer War illustrations. Anyway, here we have the diagram for this:

This blends with my background for my force and the force being collected by another potential player we discussed on Friday.
I am planning on using Vajello Model Colour; Iraqi Sand for the tunic, trousers and pith helmet, with white ammo belts and equipment pouches. Both of these ideas will change the metal armour from plain metal to a brown or tin armour colour, I'm leaning towards a light brown, rather than using Tin Bitz from Citadel/Games Workshop, as I feel this will stand out a little too much compared with the generaly light colours on the rest of the model.
A few weeks and then we'll find out which scheme I finally decide upon.
Until tomorrow's painting update then folks......

Article - Justifying your own background

Right then, here goes nothing. I'm going to try and explain a recent brainwave I've had, and to some it's not going to sound special, and to others it will, and the rest will just get confused by quite likely third option; "I won't succeed in wording it and so it'll confuse you". Anyhoo, here goes:

Background is key to this little hobby of ours, for some it's far more important that it is for others. This is a slightly over the top example.
For example; Person A states his Ultramarines represent the 3rd company of the Chapter, and they are in such and such a sector on such and such a planet on such and such a date fighting this enemy, whilst Person B then reads it and states "No! That's impossible, they are already in such and such an area fighting a different enemy on this date in the background, it's in the codex on page ....".
Well, this is going to be a complete no-brainer I expect, but here's my rather long-winded explanation for how both can be justified in terms of fluff:
You split, and create strains of the in-game world, I'm using 40k in this example as it's quickest to explain and is most likely to be well known, although I had this brainwave when I was writing some fiction for the Kingdom of Britannia force for the upcoming Dystopian Legions game (shameless advertisement there I know). E.g. the in-game world as it stands in it's original form we'll call strain 1, if you stick to it as far as novels and official codices go , it carries on being strain 1. In Person A's background his force is also the same as a force from the official background, sticking with the original example of 3rd Company Ultramarines, well, if in Strain 1 they are in a different planet to where Person A wants, then he can justify this by making Strain 2, it uses all the same places and forces as the official background, but the force isn't in the same place or potentially made up of the same characters or units as the "official" background, this creates a new Strain of background, Strain 2. This can carry on, with more and more strains, and here's a diagram showing the same principle (hopefully in an easier to comprehend way - trying to explain this went into some grey floaty universe on Friday night when I was trying to explain this to some of my friends at a local club):

So, we have a completely seperate in-background universe per person that seperates to fit their own interpretation of the in-game universe and how things work, what's in it and so forth.
This isn't saying steal a companies in-game universe for your own ends, it is merely allowing you to add to it whilst avoiding fluff-lawyers from attacking your ideas.
Hope this has made sense.
Till next time readers, when a picture-full update of this week gone and this week coming's painting progress will be posted (I've gone back to painting Romans for a little bit, as they look a bit sad clogging up the painting desk).....