Blood Red Skies - Test JU88

This is from the Warlord box of 3 that is in fact a re-box of a Zvezda model kit. Wasn't particularly impressed with the model, didn't have the panel definition found on the in-house Warlord ones which meant my technique of a diluted black wash to highlight panels didn't work.

Still, it'll do a turn until I get some He111s. Next up is to finish off some Hurricanes and then my day by day Battle of Britain campaign can start.

Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command

I've been collecting and playing this game for a while. With lockdown now in full swing I suspect I'll be playing it a little more. Cunningly the game is actually co-operative in nature and designed to be played against a card drawn/dice driven AI. Only when you have 5 players does one of them actually play the baddy. Because of this it can be played solo with no change to the rules.


It also has a campaign system and provides envelopes to put your characters into 'suspended animation' whilst you pack the game away.


Interestingly, GW have furnished Blackstone Fortress with a collection of villains which have been part of the meta but not supplied with miniatures. There are now Traitor Guardsman, Ogryns, Commissars, Beastmen and Psykers prowling the corridors and all come with WH40K stats.


As well as the base set there are also several add-ons and the troops below come from Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command. Everything except the metallic are done with Contrast paints.

The Commissar and Ogryn from the Traitor Command set

Imperial Stormtroopers

I'm getting to use a lot of white at the moment with the Oldhammer Empire Army coming along and doing a sideline of Imperial Stormtroopers for Star Wars Legion.

In fact these are the figures I used to experiment in Citadel Contrast White. Initially I started off using Grey Seer as an undercoat and then the Apothecary White Contrast paint on top - effectively following the basic instructions on the GW site for Contrast.

Unfortunately, Apothecary White is a misnomer and it's actually a medium to light grey. Disappointingly the 'one thick coat' method didn't result in the sparkly PVC white of the troopers of the movies but the more drudgery sort of grey seen in the skies at the height of a Scottish summer.

I rescued the two troopers I had experimented with by carefully giving them a coat of White Scar the purest white available from GW; the one that clumps to your brush and dries unevenly. Trying to keep a modicum of shading in the recesses proved laborious and I found a figure took more than an hour (especially after adding the black bits) which was more than I was expecting to invest. What I wanted was that instant awe inspiring "looks not bad from two feet in a dimly lit hall" masterpiece I was expecting could be achieved from twenty minutes of lackadaisical Contrast work (I had swallowed the hype).

I changed tack, still going with an undercoat of Grey Seer I then gave the figures to watered down coats of White Scar; not quite clump free but nearly, and followed that up with the liberal application of the Apothecary White. This worked well and the Contrast paint stuck to the recesses giving some definition but leaving most of the model with a defined white coat (if squinted at whilst on a table).

This method was then transferred to the Empire Army (the Oldhammer one not the Imperial Star Wars one - this could get confusing!)

Empire - Hand Gunner Unit

Probably one of the factors that killed off interest in the old rank and file version of Warhammer was the sheer number of figures required to get a decent sized battle going. Age of Sigmar clearly addresses this with its skirmish format but I wonder if Contrast paints had been available in the Old World would they have made a difference?

The first completed unit of my Empire army is a group of hand gunners. The first of these was completed back in October 2012 but the remainder have occupied various positions on the painting desk since.

The completed unit

Officer

Standard Bearer

This one has waited a long time to appear in a Finished Unit post

Blood Red Skies - Test ME110

The BRS project continues this time with a test ME110. Once again I used the Vallejo Pre-War to 1941 paint set.

The model itself is from the Warlord range.

Empire Cannon

Was Karl Franz compensating with the scale of his ordinance?

Once again contrast paints proved a great boon for this model.

Only metallic parts have been painted utilising traditional acrylics.

 Everything else is an undercoat and a single coat of contrast.

Blood Red Skies - Test Spitfires

Hot on the tail of the ME109 comes two Spitfires from 74th Squadron.

As with the ME109 these were painted using Vallejo paints this time from their RAF Battle of Britain set. Again these were airbrush paints and unusually for me I did the base coats of blue on the under side and brown using my airbrush.

It wasn't a fear conquered, however, as I applied the green with a brush.

The two were finished off post transfers with a 50/50 GW Nuln Oil and water mix to highlight up the panels.

Models and transfers are Warlord.