Army Showcase - Death Korps of Krieg 2017

As some of you may be aware, i parted with my long term army of Death Korps a few weeks ago. I started collecting these guys around 2009 so they have been with me for a long time (longer than any car i've owned!!) Needs must i'm afraid, but a good friend of mine took them off my hands, so i'm sure they have gone to a good home. It was admittedly very tough to part with my Kriegy Boys, they had a very special place in my collection. Bless them, they never won a single game! Not one...ever!! Dispite that they were still my favorite!

I did takes some photos for eBay, which are much better than the origional ones i took here. So i'll use them to showcase them for the final time! Wave lads!!

The GunGrave

Dropfleet - UCM Frigates

My first UCM battllegroup is complete! I've really enjoyed painting these models - they look great and it didnt really take much time at all. I'm sure i'll have a full blown fleet in no time. 

These are the Frigates and their component parts. I'll be bagging up the options for the Frigates so they're ready for games and easilly transportable.

The Jakarta Frigate:

The Lima Frigate:

The New Orleans Frigate:

The Taipei Frigate:

Finally, the Toulon Frigate:

Next up are the 3 Cruisers that come in the starter set. They appear to be equally interchangable, but as the parts are bigger, may require magnetising. I'm looking forward to it!

The GunGrave

Infinity - Aleph Myrmidon

Finishing this Myrmidon completes my first Steel Phalanx list! I do need an Agema with a Mk12 but the model isn't available and i'm not up for converting one yet. I'll proxy Atlanta in the meantime. 

I'll get a game in soon and let you know how it goes. Link teams, FINALLY!

The GunGrave

Dropfleet Commander!

The day had finally come! I missed the boat on the Kickstarter for Dropfleet so had been keeping my eye on it ever since. I was stoked to see it in Hawk Wargames online shop (again a bit late to that party i suspect) so ordered it straight away! I had it before the week was out.

I did want to do an 'unboxing'post, but i'm afraid my excitment got the better of  me and i went to work on the ships straight away! I started with the Frigates.

There were 4 Frigates in the box which contained the starter fleets for UCM and the Scourge. The quaity is excellent and included plenty of detail. There are 5 different configurations for the UCM frigates on the sprue, and i was keen to take advantage of them all.

A lot of the parts for the Frigates slot and click together so snugly that no glue is needed making the options interchangable. I'm not sure if this was intended, but either way it works well! Here you can see the spines of the Frigates which are also interchangeable depending on what variant you want to run.

(the hole in the side of the hull was drilled initially for magnets, which i found i didn't need)

The sides of the ship are the same, cllicking in nicely to the main hull.

Although there is tones of detail on the Frigates, they are quite small, especially when your used to painting 28mm figures! I would need a way to mount and paint them. Toothpicks are your friend here! I drilled some holes into some wod blocks and glued toothpicks into them.

I drilled a small hole into the rear of the frigates and mounted them on the toothpicks. The holes in the hulls would be covered by the spines when assembled, so they wouldn't be seen.

I did the same for the sides of the Frigates! This bit takes a bit of time to do, but you get it back when painting.

I painted up two of the hulls to get a feel for the scheme. I was going roughly for the box art scheme for the UCM.

I did have a change of heart afterwards though, and tried another scheme with a more bluey-grey basecoat. I went back to the origional scheme afterwards though! Sometimes you just need to scratch that itch.

Its great to be this excited about a game and the minis again! I havent even read the rules yet! ore on this very soon!

The GunGrave

Infinity - Aleph Machaon

The completion of Machaon brings my first incarnation of my Steel Phalanx force to a very close completion. I have to say, this has got to be in the top 3 models that i've enjoyed painting! I feel like i made a few 'painting leaps' when painting this model. I feel like i was able to push the contrast beyond my usual limit which has helped make the details and shades pop more. Let me know what you think!

The GunGrave

Coils of the Hydra - Autilon Skorr

The latest addition to the forces of the Hydra! I set about working on this guy quickly after the last WIP post. As Skorr was an event only model i've had him laying around for some time (Horus Herey Weekender 2015 i think...) Now i'm building the Alpha Legion force, i could finally bust him out and get him painted.

Like the Dreadnought, i tried to better shade the metalics on this model without killing the tone of the pearlescent Teal armour. I tried out oil washes on Skorr, something i've used extensively in the past on my vehicles. I used some Burnt Umber wash on the golds, and some Lamp black on the metalics. I also gave the teal armour a pass with ther lamp black to try and deepen the shadows. Did it work? I'll let you decide!

Skorr is also known as the Hydra's Headsman. While i was doing the base i thought i would hint at this by adding a few helmets to the base, some of Skorrs latest victims! I stopped short of adding blood splatter and gore - its not a World Eater model!!

The detailing on Skorr really makes him pop and stand out. Lots of imagry of death with snakes and hyrda's coiling around it, brilliant!

More soon!

The GunGrave