PAINTING: Thunderbolts ready for action

After some umming and ahhing I've decided to call my AI planes done and move on to painting the rest.

I've been in this position before with other models and usually I push on, adding more paint then wishing I hadn't. Why add more when I'm happy with the way they are?

As you can see in the photograph I have added some identification markings to the tail fins. They come from an old Imperial Guard decal sheet I had, dating back to 1994. I'm not totally familiar with how Imperial Navy wings are organised but for my purposes the Thunderbolts are led by plane C and then are numbered 1, 2, 3, etc.

I will use more decals later, once the planes have seen some action.

So, I have now added the nine points to my painting point total for the year, bringing it up to seventy points. I have two Fightas, three Fighta-bommers, a Bommer, two Grot bombs two Lightnings, and two Marauder bombers left to paint. I'm going to count the Bomber and Marauders as two models each because of their size so the remaining models will add fourteen points to my total. That will bring me up to eighty four points for the year.

Will I get the other sixteen points painted to take me up to the magic hundred I'm aiming for? It looks unlikely at the moment, but watch this space.

PAINTING: Take two squadrons into the air? I just wash and go!

I did this painting a few days ago but I have only just got round to photographing the results.

I washed the metallic parts of the Thunderbolts with Badab Black and then slapped some Devlan Mud on the red tails and darker camo stripes.

I'm dithering over the highlight stage now. My normal process after the basecoats and washes would be a highlight layer but I actually quite like the muted, matte finish on the planes at the moment. I'm considering just adding some identification markings and calling them done.

I also washed my Ork planes heavily with Badab Black. This went over the whole model, red and metallics. Again, I think it's given the models a more subdued, gritty look which I'm digging, but I feel guilty for not completing the process.

When do you know how to stop painting a model anyway?

Comments and criticism are welcome!

PAINTING: Dogfight!

I had a day off work today so I knuckled down and got some significant painting done on my Aeronautica Imperialis models.

This is bad news for my Warseer Tale of 40k painting pledge. I promised to paint 1500 points of Orks in a year but I skipped the first two months while I put the army together. If I miss another month I'll be thrown off the tale. The deadline is in two days time, so today I should have done the minimum I could get away with and slapped some paint on a Deff Dread.

Instead I painted my AI models. This is taking longer than I expected because the models are quite detailed and I want to do a decent job on them. When I finish both my Navy and Ork squadrons I will still have my Planetstrike terrain to start.

My current plan is now to drop the Warseer pledge but still paint the Orks, albeit after my other projects, probably after Christmas. That gives me about eight weeks to paint my AI squadrons, and build and paint my Planetstrike terrain.

Anyway, onto the aircraft!

I began with my Thunderbolts, adding some Calthan Brown camo stripes over the basecoat. I mixed in some Bleached Bone for the second coat. I also painted the tails Mechrite Red, then added Blood Red on the top.

After I took this photo I washed both the camo and tails with Devlan Brown wash. I also washed the metallic bits with Badab Black.

While the Thunderbolts dried I moved onto my Orks. I drybrushed the lot with Boltgun Metal and then went over the top with Mechrite Red, followed by Blood Red. You can see the basecoats in the photo below.

And the photo below this is with the Blood Red coat.

Once I'd painted all of the planes red I moved on to the markings. I used dags, checks and flames in different locations on each plane to individualise them. I used thinned down Dheneb Stone which gave good coverage over the red.

The checks were the hardest to do but because the pattern is on an Ork plane I figured I could leave it a little rough.

I painted the cockpits Gretchin Green. It had to be green really, given that they're Orks.

Since taking that photo I've washed all of the planes liberally with Badab Black wash.

So that pretty much completes my first two batches of aircraft and once the wash is dry I can start to actually play out some dogfights.

ARMY BUILDING: AI initial squadron lists

I started painting my four Imperial Navy Thunderbolts first as I imagined them to be the core planes of my Navy wing. I had originally planned to paint my whole IN wing together but then I realised it would be better to paint up a handful of Ork planes next, and then when they were done I could try the models out in some small games while I got the rest of the planes finished.

So I drew up some basic squadron lists from Tactica Imperialis for my IN and Ork air Waaagh.

Imperial Navy
Thunderbolt, additional weapons load
Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt
84 points

Ork air Waaagh
Fighta, additional weapons load
Fighta, additional weapons load
Fighta
Fighta
Fighta-Bommer, additional weapons load
82 points

The Ork aircraft are cheaper than the Imperial aircraft so have five planes to four, have more additional weapon loads and come in two points cheaper overall.

I have no idea how effective any of the wings will be until I get them on the tabletop.

Righto, back to the painting...

PAINTING: Thunderbolt assembly line

I spent a couple of hours painting my AI Navy squadron last night.

As soon as I began I realised that this was going to be a big job, not the twenty hour blast I had previously assumed. The problem is that the kits are heavily detailed despite their small size and I couldn't bring myself to just slap the paint on and call them done. I want to do the best paint job on these models as I can.

I started with the four Thunderbolts. I am painting them in a desert theme to match the desert terrain I will probably play most of my games on. I thinned down some Iyanden Darksun foundation paint to use as the initial base layer, going on over the black undercoat. Next I mixed in some Bleached Bone and went over the planes again, this time concentrating on the raised areas. The Thunderbolt front left is at this stage while the others are one stage behind.

Once I'd added the Bleached Bone/Iyanden Darksun mix to all the Thunderbolts I washed them all with good old Devlan Wash. It did exactly what I wanted it to do, turning the parchment yellow basecoat into a deeper, warmer yellow-brown. It has also picked out all of the lines between the plating.

I had originally thought I'd go back over the planes again to tidy up the edges but I'm loathe to start mucking about with wash as I really like the finish it has given. I might start working on the other colours first while I'm pondering my options.

MODELLING: Take to the skies!

As any of you who follow my Twitter feed already know, I decided to put together my Aeronautica Imperialis models rather than my Planetstrike terrain. I'm hoping to build and paint both my Imperial Navy and Ork wings within one week.

The first models I put together were my Navy Lightnings. This was because they had the least number of parts and I thought they would be a 'quick win.'

Wrong!

The models were very poorly cast and took an age to complete. I had similar problems with the Marauder Destroyer which looked like the mould hadn't filled with resin fully and thus had jagged mismatched lines a good millimetre or so proud around the fuselage.

And bloody hell are those under wing missiles/bombs difficult to attach!

I eventually glued eight to the Marauder and then had two spare which I stuck on a Thunderbolt. They will count as Skystrikes,Hellstrikes or bombs depending on my mood.

Here is a photo of my Navy wing assembled:


I reckon I have about twenty hours spare this week to dedicate to this project and so far I have spent six hours constructing my IN wing. I hope the Ork planes will go together a bit quicker, now that I've had some practice playing with resin, and I can then spend the remaining time painting the models.