Antares: So That's What They Are!

After some more internet digging I was able to figure out which line my Traahiri mercenaries came from; Reptoloid marines from the Galactic Wars line made by Ahketon.

Traahiri mercenary front

These miniatures are pretty basic but I think that they will work nicely for my purpose.  I haven't had time to get a lot done with them, but the first squad is about half done.

Traahiri mercenary back

In addition to the three squads of regular troops I found, there were also five Reptoloids in power armor which I'm going to use for a command squad.  This means I'll be able to field at least a 500 point scouting force (using the Freeborn Adventurers list) and I might even be able to stretch them out to 750 depending on the support options that I throw in there.

Painting Notebook: Algoryn AI Trooper and Spotter Drone

Algoryn AI Trooper from Yadrolla

My AI troops were all primed with Vallejo black surface primer (#73.602).  Once this dried they were dry brushed with P3 Gnarls Green (PIP 93034), followed by a mix of Gnarls Green and P3 Iosan Green (PIP 93035), and finally a layer of just Iosan Green.

AI Trooper front view

For the markings, I painted a base of P3 Morrow White (PIP 93073) onto the helmet and shoulders.  Once this had dried, I painted over this with P3 Khador Red Base (PIP 93021) and Citadel Yriel Yellow, and then cleaned up the lines with some Iosan Green.

AI Trooper back view

Their weapons and the tubing on their chest plates were painted with P3 Bastion Grey (PIP 93068) and then washed with a coat of Citadel Nuln Oil.  The visor slits were painted with a very thinned down Citadel Scorpion Green, using Iosan Green for any touch-ups needed.

 Algoryn Spotter Drone from Yadrolla

My AI spotter drones were done using the same paints and methods as the troopers.

AI Spotter Drone front

The three lenses on the front of the drone were painted with Citadel Scorpion Green and then I tried to put a dot of P3 Morrow White but its pretty fiddly so I don't know how well it worked.

AI Spotter Drone back

The end caps of the six suspensor/propulsion units on the back were painted with P3 Bastion Grey.

Basing

For my AI force, I decided to use my regular basing technique; a coat of either P3 Bloodtracker Brown (PIP 93030) or P3 Bootstrap Leather (PIP 93031), followed by a layer of Gale Force 9 fine basing grit (GFS019) glued down with Elmer's Glue-All.  Once this has dried, I add some spots of Glue-All to the layer of grit, spread it in patches with a toothpick, and then cover this with Gale Force 9 Green Static Grass (GFS001).  As a final touch, I paint the rim of the base with black paint to give it a clean look.

Workbench: My Digital Painting Notebook

One of the things that I've seen several people do but never done myself is keep a painting notebook.  What paints and colors you used, techniques that were done, things like that so you can recreate it in the future if you want or even just use as a reference.

I love the idea of doing this but I've always held off on doing this because I know my luck; I'll get a notebook, write a few things, and then loose the notebook.  Always the way it works, right?  So instead I've decided to use the blog for the same purpose.  No idea why it took me so long to come up with it as it should be pretty obvious but sometimes it easy to miss the nose on your face.  Plus I figure it should be pretty hard to misplace the internet, right?

Seems like a good theory anyway so there should be some more quick posts coming soon.  Heck, I might even cobble together a light box so I can do it right!  Just a whole bunch of craziness!

As a real life side note, I am currently cross training at work so I don't have access to a computer during my workday.  I usually type during my lunch break so things might slow down for a little bit over the next few months but I'm going to do everything I can to keep up my rate of at least one post a week.

Antares: Creature Feature and Reinforcements!

THE WILD KINGDOM OF YADROLLA

I remember back ages ago reading an article in White Dwarf about the Ambull.  For those that don't remember this beastie, the Ambull was a subterranean creature that you could throw into scenarios to mix things up.  The Ambulls could burst out of the ground to attack the troops or you could have the whole battle set inside of a warren of Ambull tunnels.  Of course this was back in the Rogue Trader book for Warhammer 40k so it was more than 30 years ago.  Since the closest real gaming store that I knew of was two states away, I was never able to get the Ambull mini but I love the concept.

Moving back to the present, it kind of feels like Antares is doing something similar with the fauna from Xilos and the new plants from the Dronescrouge supplement and I think its awesome!  It has also inspired me to look in my own collection to see what critters I can scrounge up to inhabit Yadrolla.  Since its a swamp/rainforest, I want to stay away from the myriad of bugs that I have except maybe the ripplers.  That's right, giant mosquitos for the win!

"Anyone bring a can of Raid?!?"

These I don't have a lot of these as they were released towards the end of the Starship Troopers mini game, but I should have more than enough for random encounters.  I've also been thinking about painting up some of these to use for Mars Attacks (namely the giant bugs random encounter card) so this will let me kill two birds with one stone!  It did wind up being a bit larger than I remembered once I had it assembled but I suppose they could just be giant space wasps.

I also have some of the old Tyranid ravagers which will fit the bill.

"Snakes... why did it have to be snakes..."

With their serpentine bodies and their giant scything claws I can see these being some kind of a snake-like predator, perfect for the swampy terrain.  I'll need to grab some more of the smaller arms for these but I think they will work.

And last but not least, I have some Growlers from when I was dabbling with Vor from FASA.

Here's a stock image of the Growlers since I still have to assemble mine.

I had picked up two of the starter sets so that gives me a good number of Razorbacks to throw into the mix.  I'm thinking of them as xeno-gorillas on some serious steroids.

Of course I still need to put together some stats for these but since they are just for fun it should be easy to do.  I'm not trying to make balanced units for an army, just something to add a twist to the game.

REINFORCEMENTS HAVE ARRIVED!

Besides adding to the menagerie of Yadrolla, I've also got more troops to throw into the fray!  Nothing major but I wanted to get a support option to round out their ranks so I picked up the X-launcher team for my Algoryn.  Add this team and the targeter shard to the troops from Strike on K'Ara Nine gives me a good 500 point block to start with.  It's taken longer than I'd hoped but life happens sometimes.

And the AI aren't the only ones getting more love.  I also picked up an X-launcher team for my Concord troops.  It seems like people consider this one of the mainstay support options so it made it an easy choice for both armies.  This also rounds out the core of my Concord army though I've still have a good number of sprues left thanks to the Summer sprue sale.  Maybe I'll paint up a strike squad as a special guard unit for my NuHu Mandarin...  Not a bad idea but it'll have to wait until I get my core troops painted.

Random Updates: Where Did The Weekend Go?

So I had plans to get my Algoryns painted up, start working on some of the alien lizards for Bastion, and maybe even start my NuHu Mandarin.  And then Starbound happened.

Title screen to Starbound.  Exciting, isn't it?

For those of you that haven't heard of it, Starbound is an open universe exploration/combat/crafting game.  Kind of like a side scrolling version of Minecraft with a sci-fi flavor.  My daughter introduced me to this game before but I haven't touched it for a while... until this weekend.  On a positive note, I did get the real life responsibilities taken care of, but by the time I sat down to paint, the lightning was against me.  I desperately need to get myself a desk lamp for my workspace because this isn't the first time that I've had this problem.  Which I did!

I finally have a dedicated workspace again!  With light even!

As can be seen, I've got a few things that I've been trying to get to which has been getting harder as the days are getting shorter so hopefully this will help with my productivity.  Then I just need to work on actually getting a game in!  Well, other than my weekly Dungeons and Dragons game that is, so its not all bad.  It'll be nice to get some minis back on the table though so I'm looking forward to squeezing in some painting time in this weekend.  Baby steps but at least things are still moving forward.