Monday 20 April 2020

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. 

Saturday 11 April 2020

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.