Void 1.1: Viridian Shock Marines

Viridia does not look kindly on rowdy separatist upstarts. For this reason, Viridia maintains a number of quick reaction task forces on full alert with a brief to respond quickly to separatist threats.

Considering the fun I've been having painting separatist forces, I thought it prudent to build a task force to fight them. Luckily, I have a reasonable collection of unpainted 'power armoured' marines from the 'Shock' and 'Assault' variety as well as a character and some support platforms.

I have begun with a small unit of shock marines. I wanted the paint scheme for all power armoured figures to reflect the original artwork of a Shock Marine that featured on the front of the purple rule book. As you can see this is a clean white with bluish tones. This gave me the idea to search for tutorials on painting White Scars Space Marines to give me guidance.

They were paint stripped first using acetone based nail varnish remover and based with Airfix bright white spray paint. I then followed this very handy guide by Juan Hidalgo using a combination of contrast paints and Vallejo game colours. I chose to use Iyanden yellow contrast paint for the vibro scythes, which I highlighted up with pale yellow and white.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the colour scheme and I am impressed with the contrast paint effects. I shall continue to adapt my painting style to accommodate more contrast paint techniques, but for now I'm happy to paint a few more power armour units in this scheme. 

Void 1.1: Lt Mick Krainer

Initially, this marine isolation project was mainly an excuse to dust off some ancient models and get them up to scratch. However, I must admit that as I have now completed all of the marine units I own, I found myself enjoying the project so much that I wanted to continue. So, I treated myself to this Kurt Kwinsky miniature from Scotia Grendel to act as a Lieutenant character for the separatist forces.

I painted him up in exactly the same way as the other marines and I think he fits into character of the force very well. Game-wise, I shall be altering his stats slightly to give him a bit more impact on the table. I'll mainly be giving him a few more wounds and allowing him to join marines units rather than commando units. To reflect his new profile I've named him Lt Mick Krainer. I'm sure he'll lead the men admirably.

To keep up my momentum, I'm hoping to pick up another marine unit and another mounted chain gun team to round off the force. 

Void 1.1 Behemoth Fire Support

My wife an I got married last summer and my dad very generously gave me an airbrush as a gift. It was exactly what I had wanted for years, an Iwata Revolution CR. Unfortunately, I've been so busy with the house and life generally that I had not had time to sit down and devote a day to research, practise and tuition. In isolation, however, no such excuses exist so I sat down and spent a morning researching the use and clean-up procedure of airbrush painting. Later, I practised on an old Viridian Behemoth Fire Support dinosaur that I was considering including in my separatist marine forces.

The airbrush itself is great. I based it a goblin green colour then added streaks in a dark olive colour. I used the streaks as an opportunity to to practise making wider lines thin and getting used
to the trigger action and pressure. Airbrushing is difficult but I can see a lot of potential in it and I really like how the dinosaur's skin tone came out. The rest of the model was painted in the same way as the previous marines with particular reference to the mounted chain gun team. I opted for a WW2 US tank inspired scheme for the howdah but refrained from adding all the dust and rust that I would normally add to a vehicle. I wanted to keep it similar to the clean, sharp highlighting style of the original.

Regarding the Behemoth itself, I'm pleased overall with the results. The problem for me is the silliness of the unit. I just can't get over the obvious limitations to using dinosaurs instead of vehicles. Regardless, it is certainly different and makes a nice centre piece for my marine separatist forces. I suppose they defected from Viridia and continued to maintain their stocks of Behemoth dinosaurs.

I have the troop transport version too but that really is daft! I may or may not use it. We'll see.

Void 1.1 Marines

Unfortunately, my wife and I both came down with Corona virus 2 weeks ago and boy oh boy was is terrible. Luckily, we're both ok now which means that I've had a lot of time to catch up on a few painting products that I've been thinking about for a while now.

First up are some marine models for the defunct game Void 1.1. I've been thinking about stripping my original colour scheme (circa 2000!) and bringing them right up to date. The models themselves are great and have a really nice generic 'space marine corps' feel that fits really nicely with settings like Aliens or Starship Troopers. In regards to Void, I've had the idea of painting up a small force of 'marine' units to act as colonial separatists fighting for independence from Viridia. To counter the separatists, I have a few units of power armoured marines that could act as a task force sent by Viridia to bring them back into line. So to that end, I have 2 small projects to finish. 

So I set about paint stripping a squad of 6 marines, 2x mortar teams and a mounted chain gun team. I wanted to keep the paint scheme clean and crisp like the original catalogue models back in 2000 but update the uniform to be more realistic. Therefore, I painted them in WW2 marine green fatigues but kept the classic white t-shirts and black rifles. I used a few contrast paints for the base colours of these miniatures. I'm only really beginning to learn how to use them properly.

So far I have completed the squad of marines, 1 mortar team and the chain gun team. That leaves a second mortar team left to paint. I hope to round this force off with a second squad of marines and perhaps vehicle. We shall see.

Zone Mortalis Terrain for Necromunda: Doors

To add more utility to my Zone Mortalis terrain from Art of War Studios, I decided to purchase some of their single and double doors. My friend and I have been playing plenty of games recently and we've found opening and closing doors, particularly the double doors from GW, quite difficult. These doors seemed like a good answer, since you simply slide the door out from the top once opened. No fuss. 

I added rivet detail to them in exactly the same way as I did the walls and painted them to match. With the doors, I didn't like the laser etched pattern so opted to paint a simple chevron pattern over the flat surface sides instead. I think it gives it a more 'sliding shutter' look. I also added some graffiti decals from Warlord game's Dredd range. I think they were free in a copy of Wargames Illustrated. They fit the bill anyway.

Overall I really recommend the Hive Terrain products from Art of War Studios. It's a little pricier than TTcombat and others, but I honestly prefer the aesthetic and they are a joy to put together.