Battlestar Galactica project update

So here's a couple of up to date photos of the Galactica model. I've got Administarium Grey on all raised surfaces, ribs and armour plates, and after cleaning up the darker areas, I soaked the majority of the model in an undiluted Nuln Oil black ink wash to create that dirty, lived in look. It also shows up all of the lines dividing the armour plating. I also added the only real splash of colour on the ship, using a matt red on the landing pod entrances, the distinctive "nose" and the underside. I'm much happier using GWs Evil Sunz Scarlet for the red detailing rather than risk an error or two with the Revell decals provided.

My next job is to break up the plating and surfaces with Dawnstone, and start assembling and attaching the four engines. Gotta make sure the FTL drive is operational!

Battlestar Galactica project so far

So these are a few photos of my model of Battlestar Galactica so far. This one is available from Revell, but was originally from Moebius Models. It was an awesome Christmas gift from my girlfriend, and although it's taking a while, I am really enjoying the painting and assembly so far. 

My girlfriend recommended the 2004 remake of the classic 70s/80s sci-fi to me last year, and now I'm hooked, and around half way through season 3. I think the main attraction is the early noughties CGI and retro-futurist technology, as they are so reminiscent of that epic TV show Firefly. The main cast are a host of amazing characters; complicated, flawed and trying to do what they consider right in a chaotic universe where the remnants of humanity are being chased down by the Cylons, a race of artificially intelligent machines. In this constant game of cat and mouse, decisions are made continually harder as characters find that there are many moral, ethical, political and existential grey areas when it comes to surviving as a species.

Talking about grey areas, the eponymous space ship Battlestar Galactica is overwhelmingly grey. It's a combination of spaceship, aircraft carrier, castle and battleship. To bring out the main detailing, I am using three different greys. The undercoat and darker areas are in Tamiya Acrylic XF-24 Dark Grey, raised areas are being drybrushed with GW's Dawnstone medium grey, and the armour plating, engines and "ribs" are then to be drybrushed further with GW's lighter Administarium Grey.

Still got quite a while till this Battlestar takes position on my chest of drawers, but it'll be worth the wait... If I don't get sick of the colour grey!

ECW cavalry for One Hour Wargames

I sorted out a few sets of Revell Thirty Years War Swedish Cavalry that I got off eBay a while ago into the units I wanted for my English Civil War armies. The armies will be organised along the lines of the Pike and Shot rules of Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames book. I may tweak the rules a little more, but the major change is to replace the unit "Swordsmen" with Artillery. This represents the fact that artillery was becoming more common during the 1600s, and ECW forces rarely employed men armed exclusively with sword and shield; close combat was conducted by push of pike, small swords called tucks, and the butt of a heavy Musket, used like a club.

The photos posted below show the respective cavalry units I intend to create. They, like all of my cavalry units, are being fielded in groups of 5 figures on a 10cm by 5cm base for uniformity purposes.

The sword wielding men are standard cavalry, lacking ranged attacks, but getting good bonuses for charging in and hacking down their opponents. The cavalry armed with pistols, or those dismounted using carbines form the second unit type, Reiters. These were slower, more disciplined horsemen who used multiple pistol volleys to damage enemy infantry, and then charge home in a controlled manner.

 One of these Reiters will be represented by dismounted Dragoons, a type of mounted infantryman that became more important as the Civil War progressed. Their carbine fire could severely disrupt a cavalry charge, especially if they fired from behind hedgerows or other forms of cover.

Colour scheme wise, I am going to use red, brown and white for Royalist horse, and green and yellow for Parliamentarian cavalry. Red and yellow/orange sashes, and different helmets/hats will further distinguish the two sides.

The other units will be mounted on circular bases depicting Commanders; Prince Rupert and Oliver Cromwell respectively. These will form nice display pieces, but may be used in wargaming if I put a leadership / morale feature in the One Hour Wargames rules. All of the figures used are Revell. Prince Rupert's dogs, whilst not an accurate reflection of the breed he had, are purely representative, and are found in the Revell Conquistadors set.

Once these are all finished, I can see many bitterly contested cavalry actions on a tabletop in the near future! Huzzah!

A9 Cruiser tank (Desert, 1940)

This is my third and final A9 Cruiser from the PSC box set. As the other two were painted up for the disastrous Battle of France, I opted for a desert colour scheme, to try out a few painting techniques and begin an early war British army in the desert. I stuck with the classic 2 pounder gun in the main turret but heavily customised the tank with some furniture but also two fuel tanks that came with the set, but I couldn't find any online photos of where exactly they go. So I opted for positioning somewhere between a T34 and a photo of an A10 Cruiser.

With regard to the paint scheme, I initially tried the slightly strange blue and grey green classic British desert colours but used a completely wrong shade of blue! In the end I deleted it and kept to a standard sand colour, in this case Games Workshop's excellent Karak Stone. Highlights were done with Ushabti Bone again, and I kept the tracks grey. For the weathering / subtle camouflage I used GW's Typhus Corrosion. When I finally got on with the painting I was pleased with the end result.

StuG III Ausf B (early war assault gun)

This is a slightly modified PSC StuG from the StuG III box. The basic kit was customised with a bit of snipping, sanding and slight addition of Games Workshops Liquid Green Stuff. The short 75mm gun came from a spare from the late war PSC Panzer III box. Sadly I forgot to work on removing the commander's cupola which, as seen on the black and white photo, was not a feature of early StuGs. The main paint colour used was Dawnstone, highlighted nicely using Ushabti Bone. A good addition to my early war Germans, in the one hour wargaming rules it could be employed as an artillery or antitank unit, though in reality the low velocity of the main gun would have limited effectiveness, especially against the heavier armour of French Chars, British Matildas and Soviet KV tanks. The tank's furniture, as always, is a mixture from the PSC German tank accessories box.