Martian Assault Tripods

I stumbled across a 15mm tabletop game a year ago called All Quiet on the Martian Front, and whilst I'm not a collector of 1/100 scale models, I loved the style and concept of a follow up to the HG Wells novel.

Whilst the shift in focus away from the burning shires of England to the vast centre of America was a little corny, the alien invaders took to their immense war machines and the consequent plastic kits looked amazing. Even though they were in a smaller scale than I collected, the Assault Tripods still tower over a 1/72 infantryman and are more than a match for the average tank.

Initially I tried to paint the tripods in various colours as a homage to Daleks, but I have recently reverted to a more uniform GW Boltgun Metal, with shining red eyes courtesy of GW "Blood for the Blood God" paint.

The leader Tripod has normal claws and tentacles. It's two companions each wield a black smoke launcher and a Green Tesla cannon respectively (the latter of my own conversion). As for rules for these gangly giants, I am considering inventing a One Hour Wargames rule set, and for simplicity keeping their weaponry and close combat abilities the same across all models. Facing off against them at the moment would be my Early World War 2 BEF contingent. When I finally get a house of my own (with enough space) the humans will be bolstered by my Great War British forces as well!

Trialling a different painting technique - block painting on ECW Cavalry

Whilst I've still got plenty to do on my Team Yankee / modern forces, I'm also very eager to finish my English Civil War units so I can test out the One Hour Wargames rules. On paper this looks to be one of the more dynamic rulesets and will probably require the least tweaking... provided I can set up the battlefield properly!

To finish my English Civil War armies, I have to finish painting a few mounted units  and these can be a challenge if you're not in the right frame of mind. The horses aren't just two colours for the coat and the hair - you need to achieve some disciplined detailed work on the saddle  furniture and especially those blasted reins! Sorry cavalrymen, I love you really!

I thought I would try a new painting technique on a couple of units to see how it went. I chose my Parliamentarian general (a 1/72 attempt at Cromwell, accompanied by a standard bearer) and second unit of cavalry. To start with, I did an undercoat of GW Ushabti Bone which was then covered in a diluted soak of GW Seraphim Sepia. This provided a glimpse of the detailed areas requiring specific colours. I then tackled each colour for every figure one at a time, applying the paint only to the area that needed it. This meant there was no main coat followed by successive "layers" of detail. However, this technique soon lost its appeal as colours inevitably encroached on one another. Nonetheless I have managed to sort them out and get them ready for the tabletop. The lads are ready for basing as I write this, so photos of the finished units will follow in due course. Below are some photos of the technique in progress. I may well try the technique again with my larger and more detailed Zvezda figures and see if it creates a better result.