Empire of the Blazing Sun - Fleet Pictures

Finally, Finally, FINALLY finished up my Empire of the Blazing Sun 800 point fleet for Dystopian Wars.  In fact, the varnish was applied about 21 hours before we leave for the tournament (wow, flashbacks to university!)  I originally planned in this post to explain a bit about what each squadron did and what my tactics would be with them, but, to be honest, I'm sick of the sight of them!!!

The Flagship - Hachiman Class Dreadnought

Although they were only painted to a "tabletop" standard, they took a hell of a lot of work, being covered in lots of tiny details and textures.  If you're unfamiliar with any of the Spartan Games resin models, I'd heartily recommend you check them out, the level of crisp detail on them is really impressive.

Tsukuyomi Class War Gyro

From this distance, about three feet, I'm quite happy with them and I think the look is cohesive over all the ships.  If you get any closer however, you'll see a couple problems and some of the details I've missed.  The War Gyro in particular just wouldn't hold the drybrushed paint, so it got a thicker coat than the other ships.

Tanuki Class Gunships

Still, its not good manners to post pictures on your blog and then criticise them yourself (that is the readers job.)  So I'll just say again that I'm happy with how they've turned out.  Hopefully they will continue to perform well on the tabletop now that they're finished...

Yurgi Class Destroyers and Uwatsu Class Frigates

Tiny Flyers - Torpedo Bombers

My own personal Agincourt - Dystopian Wars

Or, perhaps, not their finest hour.

We had the last warm up game of Dystopian Wars last week, in preparation for this weekends tournament.  I used my Empire of the Blazing Sun list I talked about here, while Gaz's British fleet consisted of a battleship with escorts, a carrier, two submarines, two bombers, three frigates, three destroyers, three squadrons of dive bombers and one spotter plane. 

The British had the advantage of more squadrons to activate, but I won the deployment role to balance things out a little.  I put my Dreadnought and War Gyro opposite the British Carrier, while the Gunships and Destroyers faced the battleship and bombers.  The British Subs, my Frigates and lots of aircraft kept to the centre.

The battle, just after the first few shots.

I took the initiative on the first turn, so made the British move first.  Gaz moved his Submarines up and one fired at my destroyers, missing.  The Submarine then attempted to dive under the waves to safety, but failed the test to do so.  Things didn't get any better for the Brits.

The British left flank, things looking ok so far.

On my right, the Dreadnought and War Gyro took two turns to destroy the Brit carrier, frigate squadron and all but one destroyer.  The Gyro took a lot of damage from the dive bomber squadrons, but was still functioning.  My Destroyers put some damage on the Sub opposite them and a dented one of the bombers to their left.

Gunships & Destroyers, just before a flurry of rockets!

The Gunships on my right took a little damage each from the battleship, but managed to destroy one bomber, capture the other and started putting damage on the battleship.

Halfway through turn 3, everything heads toward the battleship.

At the end of turn two, Gaz only had his damaged Battleship, one Sub, one damaged Destroyer and some aircraft (without any bombs) left.  To his credit, he carried on for a few more activations, but facing with three big threats closing in, we called the game half way through turn three.  In case anyone didn't notice, total casualties for the Empire of the Blazing Sun: zero.  Not even a single tiny flyer token.  Nice.

The Kingdom of Britannia derelict area.  Heh, heh, heh.   

So a great warm up game for me, not so much for Gaz.  Still, it was a good reminder that who you're playing is often far more important than what you're playing. 

First outdoor pint of the year!

   
This is getting ridiculous.  21°C at the end of March in Aberdeen is just crazy.

I had some free time this afternoon, but instead of getting some time in with the paint brush, I was compelled to head out for a pint in the sun (medicinal reasons obviously, dodgy back still.)

   

This is the Ferryhill Tavern (although they've changed the name to something else apparantly) and, although not that busy today, on sunny days is usually packed with folk.

Another Sunday in the Sun

Roasting hot, but still not Spring yet - notice the distinct lack of any green
   

Some record temperatures in our neck of the woods yesterday, 22°C inland, but about 18°C in Aberdeen.  We went for another trek, inland this week, along the river Dee.  The Mrs, who isn't a tech head at all, wanted to try out a new app that tracks the distance and route you walk.  It seems to work fine, the distance seems about right  (12.76 miles) and the statistics available are really interesting (average walking speed of 3.16 mph with 19 minutes where we were stationary.)

The view from where we had lunch, not a soul in sight!
   

Sunday was a marked improvement on previous days.  I treked down to Glasgow for a job interview, only to have them announce that the position has been filled internally and that they're interviewing "with a view for future expansion."  Tossers.  Then, to increase the joy, I've pulled my back again so am in constant discomfort (I'd like to say constant agonising pain, but it's not that bad.  Just extremely annoying!)

However, earlier in the week, we had our final warm up game of Dystopian Wars (it deserves it's own post, soon) which was great fun AND my fleet is almost finished, with just some details to paint and then seal everything.

I defy anyone to see a llama and not smile
   

Hopefully I'll get the painting finished tomorrow and can then decide what to work on next. . . I haven't bought any new models in about six weeks!

Empire of the Blazing Sun - WIP

   

Managed to get a few hours painting in today, mainly trying to get the last of my Dystopian Wars fleet finished.  These three Tanuki Class Gunships are almost done.  The white hull, decking and metallics are all finished, with only the windows, red detailing and lower hull needing work.

   

The Tsukuyomi War Gyro has proven a bit of a problem.  After the first coat of paint, I couldn't decide whether or not to cut out the gaps between each individual turbine.  If I'd left them in there would be plain flat panels that wouldn't (in my opinion) look right painted or left black.  On the other hand, the way the model is cast, you can't cut out all the flat panels (some are too close the main structure, others are just too small,) which might still not look right.

I've still to cut out the two leftmost panels
   

I couldn't find a painted example anywhere in a quick search online, so just decided to hack away at it.  Although it took a while to make any progress (the resin was deceptively thick) I'm happy with how it turned out.  It won't stand up to close scrutiny, but for the quick paint job I'm doing, I think it will look fine.

I just don't know how you would paint the panels and have it look good.
    

After these guys, it's just ten tiny flyer tokens and the fleet is finished.  

15mm German Pioneer Platoon

   

I finally got round to finishing the German Pioneer Platoon I've been working on.  They're all Battlefront miniatures, painted to my "B" standard i.e. they look fine on the table, but don't bear too much scrutiny close up.

  

My aim with these guys was to worry less about each individual detail and focus more on the contrast on and between each figure.  I think it has worked out well enough.

   

I also used some new basing materials, namely the Gale Force 9 blend range and some Army Painter tufts.  Although the balance isn't quite right (the bases are a bit too green) I'm still fairly happy with them.

   

I've started work on another SS Platoon and a British Mortar platoon, I want to try painting skin differently and practise camouflage at 15mm.  If these both work out I'll make a concerted start on my Fallschirmjager force.

A laaazzzy Sunday

Aberdeen beach on a warm March day, well warm for Aberdeen in March. . .
  

I awoke this morning with every of settling down and finishing my fleet Blazing Sun for Dystopian Wars.  However 10°, little wind and direct sunshine is shirt off weather in Aberdeen.  Well it would have been shirt off if not for the ten or eleven pounds of winter "girth" I'm carrying.

  

Although, these guys were still well wrapped up.
   

So after a few hours out walking and then cooking a hefty Sunday dinner, I really wasn't up to doing anything productive.  In fact, I consider staying awake to be an achievement today. Instead, I watched a bit of sport, read for a bit and played Mass Effect 3 on the XboX.  In other words, a great way to spend a Sunday.
   

It took him a long time to do this properly, but he looked pretty cool!