Blood Red Skies - ME109 Squadron

The Battle of Britain project nears fruition with the introduction of 6 ME109s to take on the Hurricanes I completed earlier this year.

These are Warlord models and done in a camouflage scheme common in late 1939 to late 1940. I do have another set of ME109s to complete and these will be done in a slightly different scheme.

All colours are from the Vallejo Luftwaffe airbrush set, initially these were airbrushed on and then the splinter pattern built up with multiple layers applied by brush.

Star Wars Legion: Rebel Fleet Troopers

Since I was seven and saw Star Wars in Blackpool whilst munching dolly mixture,I've always fantasised about having a unit of these to recreate the opening battle. Palitoy/Kenner the producers of the action figures didn't oblige until I was well into my teens and finding other matters taking priority.

But now in my second (third? fourth?) childhood Fantasy Flight Games have obliged by producing this set.

 It contains seven troops in all, a leader, four troopers and a couple of special weapons types. No idea what the special troopers do, to be honest I would have preferred just more standard troops but then Legion is one of those games I've owned for two years but never played!

These were painted using Contrast Paints except for the helmet which is painted white and the washed with a light grey contrast paint. The helmet was finished off with a gloss varnish to make it look more plastic.

Pretty pleased with these and they only took an afternoon

Empire - Swordsman Unit

As with the spearmen these are from an old battalion box I had lying around. The army is taking shape now and in a speedy fashion thanks to my new reliance on Contrast paints for everything except metallic and white highlighting. I don't know if I will use Contrast for historical figures as I'm not convinced that the colours look realistic enough but, as will be seen in this blog, they have become my go to paints for all things of a fantastical or science fiction bent.

The complete unit

Standard bearer

Officer

Hurricanes

These are Warlord Hurricanes from the Blood Red Skies range.

They were painted using the Vallejo RAF set for the Battle of Britain. Base colours top and bottom were airbrushed, I then used the colours with a brush to add the green camouflage This worked well though everything did require two coats due to the paint being designed for airbrushing.

The squadron markings are for 242 Squadron (Douglas Bader's during the Battle of Britain), once again from Warlord, but in my upcoming Battle of Britain campaign they will form a fictitious unit.

Star Wars - Rebel Commandos

Some brave revolutionaries to take on the might of the Imperial Army - mind you given the accuracy of the average Stormtrooper in Star Wars I would think they would be quite confident of bringing down the Emperor!

Squad 1



Squad 2

These are from the Star Wars Legion core set and painted entirely in Contrast Paints, primarily Militarium Green and Snakebite Leather. Speed was the aim when I started these and was able to polish off all fourteen in a weekend.

Another Dutch Ship

So definitely been bit by the late 17th Century naval bug and have put in a fleet to the League of Augsburg campaign. It consists of:

Reiger	2nd Rate
Dom van Utrecht	3rd Rate
Kampen	4th Rate
Harder	5th Rate
Asperen	5th Rate

Crews are variable and they all have light guns in keeping with the Dutch standard of the time.

First ship off the brush is the 5th rate Asperen.

Contrast paints again, Skeleton Horde for the sails and Snakebite Leather for the hull. The black and green parts are more traditional Vallejo acrylics. The ship is another from Tumbling Dice (I bought a Dutch starter fleet).

Still no rigging but I will try that on a bigger ship first and work my way down to the 5th rates. Flag is a paper one from Tumbling Dice

So one down and four to go, one of my shorter projects - I might actually finish!

Empire - Huntsmen Unit

These are the expert archers and skirmishers for the Empire. Once more a box I had lying around for nearly eight years before they got built and splattered. The reason for suddenly resurrecting these was a few games of Warlords of Erehwon which is a figure manufacturer agnostic fantasy skirmish game from Warlord.

There's a chance these guys will get used in anger at some point!