To Cleanse with Holy Fire

Covenant forces came roaring into the Fourth Sector in unstoppable numbers in the late 2520's, slowing their advance only when it became apparent more-populated human colonies lay along a different line of advance. After the battle of Jericho VII, large-scale Covenant activity in the Fourth Sector slowed to a trickle as Fleets were shifted to the push on the Inner Colonies.

 
By 2547, the main Covenant formations were typically smaller raider groups. Most of these answer to the Ministry of Tranquility now that the Covenant's main forces have moved on, and that body grants it's forces substantial leeway in fulfilling the Ministry's mandates. These forces answer to a loose command structure headed by an unusually avaricious Sangheili Shipmaster known as Vata 'Gajatee, effectively a Fleetmaster in all but name.

ONI Section One recon image of the Elite believed to lead the Covenant's raider groups within the UNSC's Fourth Sector. Note unique armor set, believed to denote status

'Gajatee is a reaver, gifted with the ability to sense the tide of battle and know where and when to fight and when to withdraw. These skills have won the Ministry of Tranquility many treasures, and the Minister himself ensures 'Gajatee is well-rewarded with each success. This has given the Shipmaster access to some of the finest resources available to Tranquility.

These forces mostly make use of SDV Heavy Corvettes with a number of older RCS Armored Cruisers, however Vata 'Gajatee has the Minister of Tranquility's ear in many things, granting access to a few larger and more modern vessels.

Though CCS Battlecruisers are rare sights in the Sector, RCS Cruisers and SDV Corvettes are much less so

The Ministry of Tranquility has comparatively few ships larger than a cruiser. The presence of an ORS Heavy Cruiser demonstrates the esteem Vata 'Gajatee is held-in by the Minister of Tranquility

To add to humanity's woes, the Ministry of Fervent Intercession has dispatched their Fleet of Vigilant Abstraction into the region to track down a lead discovered on a Forerunner relic known as the Deep Pinnacle. Fleetmaster Lodor 'Vektramee has reason to believe that their prize lies somewhere near or within the space still controlled by the humans.

The fleet keeps it's nanolaminate plating in a lustrous silver to honor their Forerunner lords

Though unknown in nature, this relic has been associated with the emblems of the Forerunner Builder caste, the Forerunner military, and a symbol of unknown meaning that has appeared elsewhere in texts, thus far vexing the Stewards assigned to decipher such enigmas. Vigilant Abstraction has splintered into several battlegroups to follow-up a series of leads on the Deep Pinnacle, running through a lengthy list of stellar coordinates that were provided by an ancient Luminary, now installed on the Fleet flagship.

Vigilant Abstraction maintains several larger warships, finding them better able to demonstrate the Covenant's piety when tested by still-active Forerunner defenses

Supported ORS Heavy Cruiser

The Fleet of Vigilant Abstraction has entered into a region of space where human forces are known to remain, and thus is well-prepared for combat. What's more, they come with ancient writs of authority in-hand to effectively dragoon other Covenant forces in the region to assist the Fervent Intercession ships in their goals, though these have proven slow to respond.

SDV Corvettes, escorts and surveyors

A Golden Path battlegroup to coordinate fleet activities- invaluable when the fleet disperses to search-out Forerunner relics

Wary of any sign of the dreaded Flood, an order of Zealots is attached to the fleet to provide an effective first-response

As much sanctuary and temple as slipspace-capable warship, the Searing Radiance earned her golden nanoplating after years of campaigns against flare-ups of the parasite

Arise, Serpentor, Arise!

Hello my friends. Long time no see, right? I offer the usual excuses of busy work schedules and hectic home life keeping me from my humble blog.

As ever, my hobby interests have shifted around a fair bit since I last posted. However, for the past few weeks Halo: Fleet Battles has come back to the fore in a big way. I've been trying to perfect a way to paint the sizable numbers of Covenant vessels I have from the Reach boxset, the Core and Large Upgrade boxes, and recently the RCS, ADP, and Flight Token boxes. In addition, having taken another look at the Swords of Sanghelios ships from earlier on this blog, I was unhappy with their final look and have since stripped them with a Super Clean bath. I am pleased with how inspirational they seemed to be in their time, with a few images of other player's minis and even a Youtube painting tutorial that present as influenced by the color placements of mine.

For the basic Covenant metallic purple, I've been having some mixed results. Starting with a spray prime of Army Painter Alien Purple, I've given a light drybrush of Warcolours Metallic Violet. After a wash of GW Druchii Purple, I give an even lighter drybrush of a bright silver, and finish with another, lighter wash of Druchii. Some ships, particularly the resin ones with all their fine detail, look great with just that. Others, like the original boxset plastics, not so much thanks to the abundance of smooth, rounded curves and flat surfaces. Drybrushing may not be the way to go with these, but after having some excellent results with the technique on the UNSC (and still not owning an airbrush!), this is my first choice to avoid prodigious amounts of panelling and simplifying highlighting.

I know. With God as my witness, I will invest in a respectable lighting set-up for my next major effort. They won't be the prettiest Covenant ships on the Internet, but they look pretty good at arm's length and have just the right subdued metallic sheen to them. Obviously, some light-sourcing still needs doing. It's quick enough, produces reasonably consistent results, and looks acceptable to my particular eye, so there we go.

To try and break-up some of that purple, I wanted to add a contrasting color or two.

Too much Halo 5 Warzone and staring too long at glorious "Temple" variant Ghosts, Banshees, and Wraiths inspired this piece.

Fluff-wise, this ship is meant to portray a venerable RCS cruiser, mothership of an order of Sangheili Zealots that have been called upon to fight the Flood numerous times over the history of the Covenant ("What if the Infection defiles the relic?"). Still a WiP, though, as some lighting still needs to be added.

On a completely different note, some Halo Wars 2 campaign has given me the strangest appreciation for the colors red, grey, and steel. :-D

While I took some liberties with this scheme, it was done to better represent (stereotypical, even) the Banished faction vs. the Enduring Conviction, which I feel we never got a good enough look at in-game to discern her details beyond a vaguely steely hull and substantial red-orange lighting. Just consider this CCS one of the older ships in the fleet, with plenty of time for a repaint while being refitted. In game-play terms, I'm thinking of a modest battlegroup of Banished entering play late in the game using the reserves rule to represent some opportunistic raiding by Atriox and his boys and targeting everybody at random. Finer points of this to be hammered out in the near future. The current plan is for only a few hundred points of Banished ships vs a full-sized fleet, but that can always change.

I promise you here and now more regular updates to be had, especially when I do something about my shameful lighting/camera set-up.

H:FB Swords of Sanghelios

I mentioned last post my desire to use a few extra Covenant ships as Swords of Sanghelios vessels. Anyone who has played Halo 5 has seen that all of the ground vehicles and aircraft up to the Lich use the same crimson that the ground troops use on their armor. Best as I can tell, the Swords' major warships use the same purple that the Covenant use. At least, I don't see any differences between Swords and Covenant ships at Sunaion, and there is a cool scene where you see a large group of Swords ships coming in over the ocean.

Borrring!

I wanted to go with the same colors that the rest of the Swords use, so with a few extra Covenant ships I went with that scheme, both because I like it and to serve as a trial run on what technique to use to paint the rest of my Covenant ships. Only one capital and one small element make this a bare-bones battlegroup, but it should be easy to fit into a mixed UNSC/Covenant fleet that I'm betting Spartan will eventually put rules out for. 

These ships were spray-primed Army Painter Pure Red, darkened down with a wash of GW Baal Red ink, the color was brought back up with some more Pure Red, and a light dry-brushing with P3 Molten Bronze to add that metallic slightly-bronze quality you can see in the game. Though the bronze really added pre-glosscoat, it got completely overpowered by the sealant.

Instead of trying metallics, I used a gloss finish to replicate the shiny, wet-looking metal Covenant ships have. I'm not convinced this is the way forward, but it beats buying and learning the ways of the airbrush at this point.

Some appropriately Sangheili-looking (I hope) markings for the heavy corvettes. SDVs have those broad flat noses that practically beg for special markings or some higher level blending of color. I'm not really able to do blending that well, but I can certainly paint simple markings.

Going forward, I'm undecided if this is how I want to handle the rest of my Covenant minis. They'll be the classic Covenant purple, and I'm deciding if a glossy-flat purple is preferable to a metallic purple. I don't have great faith in spraycan metallics so far, based on some poor past experiences. But, I'm looking at some alternate brands, and I could always try my hand at an airbrush...

Until next time.