From the secret files of CINCONI...

 Paris N-class Frigate
    Also known as the Paris Zero and the Noir-class among ONI personnel, all designations refer to SinoViet heavy frigates modified for service with the Office of Naval Intelligence's Alpha Zero unit, part of Section One. One of several naval units at ONI's disposal, Alpha Zero division handles direct military operations outside the purview of the Prowler Corps and when inappropriate to involve UNSC naval elements. The unit operates at the sole discretion of the CINCONI.

     Of all the UNSC's light warships, the Paris-class was selected for it's marriage of heavy armament to a manueverable and speedy hull. Taking delivery of basic hulls directly from SinoViet, ONI engineers replace the standard fusion drives with larger, higher-quality versions to produce roughly 20% more total thrust compared to the baseline Paris. Most hulls are believed to come from the array of shipyard facilities over Reach, though rumors abound that frigate hulls from New Constantinople in Sector 4 are quietly appropriated as well. A weakness of the new engines is that they do not well tolerate the stresses of hard-burn maneuvers, to say nothing of the sensitive electronic components aboard, and as such ship AIs are directed to permit no more than 2/3 the standard hard-burn thrust. The fuel bunker has been reinforced and expanded at the expense of the ship's ventral cargo elevator for improved operational duration, a sacrifice easy to make as Paris Noirs are not intended to deploy ground forces.



     Paris N frigates also boast greatly upgraded communications, sensory, and EW suites compared to standard, allowing each ship to serve in intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance roles. The hulls proved poorly-adapted to the stealth coatings used on the Prowlers, with a cross-section and more flat surfaces than any stealth-coating could mitigate. Externally, aside from a slightly more streamlined appearance and the larger engines, there is little to distinguish a Paris N from a standard Paris-class.

    Her armaments are largely unchanged from the already well-armed standard Paris hull, being maintained at a light MAC, 11 point defense guns, and a battery of 50 Archer pods. The Noir loses her rear dorsal point defense emplacement secondary to major calibration difficulties with it's proximity to the upgraded engine pods. The magnetic coils of the MAC are typically of a higher quality than the UNSC's standard, permitting an on-target kinetic discharge roughly 25-33% greater than average.

    Operational history and disposition of this class are, unsurprisingly, suppressed from public consumption and well-classified within ONI and the UNSC Navy. Ships of this type notably raided the Covenant supply station Wayward Provider, shut down the Insurrectionist arms smuggling operation in the Gallonigher colonies, secured the Forerunner sites on Delta Prime from a Kig-Yar raider group, and interdicted the Covenant stealth ships attempting to shadow the evacuation of Merrick's Star. ONI maintains several squadrons of the Paris N, and while none are currently in active combat operations, Sunspot and Blizzard squadrons in the Delta Prime system are considered in a high-risk area. The on-going operations there, however, are too valuable for ONI to abandon...

     These little guys are an experiment with what can be done with all the extra Paris frigates I have from both the Fall of Reach starter box and the contents of the UNSC Core Battlegroup box. I first saw this idea on the Spartan Games forums, where a poster named Landlubber gave some of his extra frigates an ONI paint scheme. I really liked his idea, and now shamelessly copy it. :D I trimmed a little off the underside of the hulls, added some squared styrene strip to the engines to represent faster ships, and gave them a black paint job to represent the shadowy forces of ONI, the Office of Naval Intelligence and primary intelligence apparatus of the UNSC. I'm thinking an improved base speed of 2', a decrease in her hard-burn distance, and an extra MAC die regardless of formation for a yet-to-be-determined cost increase. Next in the Halo: Fleet Battles pipeline will be some Insurrectionist ships and a little bit of backstory for them, too. Until then, my friends.

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. 

More H:FB Campaign Background

My wife got me Halo 5 for Christmas, and hot damn what a ride! Great fun to play, but from an over-arching meta perspective it showed us the civil war the Elites have been fighting for almost as long as the Covenant has been gone- the Blooding Years, as they call it. With a surplus of Covenant vessels from Halo: Fleet Battles that are begging for that cool blood red color the Swords of Sangheilios use, and seemingly recent confirmation that the "new" Sangheili ships from Halo 5 will be realized in miniature form in the (hopefully near) future, I wanted to get a head start on a little background for the timeframe these ships appear in. Additionally, my earlier post describing the UNSC's rump Fourth Sector for campaign background purposes has consistently been the most popular post on this blog, so it seems there is an appetite for such content among readers here. It's my earnest hope that means I'm inspiring some of my fellow gamers out there.

Ero'deolos
    The primary Sangheili colony in the Csolek system, Ero'deolos was one of the outermost worlds of the original Sangheili domain until the War of Beginnings. A San'Shyuum attack in the war's early years decimated the planet's defenses and forced the population to evacuate back to Sanghelios. For a time, the Forerunner Dreadnought used the Csolek system and it's many moons and planetoids as a hiding place, baiting two seperate Sangheili warfleets to overextend themselves and be defeated while searching the vessel out.
    After the Writ of Union was confirmed, Sangheili colonists returned to Ero'deolos to find a small San'Shyuum enclave had been placed in the main keep on the planet. Though allowing the Sangheili to return to their original settlements, the San'Shyuum maintained their enclave in the heart of the Sangheili colony, a rarity in the Covenant. This arrangement lasted throughout the Covenant, having an impact on both races.
    Elites from Ero'deolos are noted for their increased tolerance for other species, an attitude forced by the close proximity of the San'Shyuum. Many Elites from elsewhere in the Sangheili sphere deride this tolerance as a predisposition for grovelling- a belief that was not helped by the San'Shyuum preference to elevate the more easily-influenced Ero'deolos Elites over their peers. Many Sangheili conscripted from here found their way into the Ministry of Preservation, dedicated to preserving the Covenant against internal strife. 
    For their part, San'Shyuum from the planet were notable for their more belligerent attitudes and stubborness, and were known to advocate for the Elites in interspecies disputes with inappropriate vigor. As a result, they rarely rose to positions of higher authority throughout their history. Indeed, at the dawn of the Great Schism, most Prophets from Ero'deolos were imprisoned or worse for their suspected pro-Elite attitudes.
    Ero'deolos itself was in time developed into a regional powerbase for the Covenant, being at the edge of Sangheili and Covenant space at the time, and helping expand the empire's influence deep into the Shining Marches. To facilitate this, the Prophets directed a modest shipyard be built in orbit to service exploratory and colonization fleets in addition to contributing warships to the military. Though few Forerunner sites or artifacts of any importance were found in the region, the Shining Marches were home to several lesser species that at least paid homage to the Covenant, if they were not a part of it's Fringe.
    During the Great Schism, the Ministry of Preservation forces based on Ero'deolos experienced their own internal implosion when the fleets stationed over the world began fighting each other. The Jiralhanae-led and heavily reinforced Fleet of Truculent Compassion initially made great headway against the Sangheili-led Fleet of Relentless Zeal before the Fleet of Considered Reprisal arrived to reinforce the Sangheili and drive off the Brutes. Though victorious, the Sangheili forces were badly damaged, prompting Thel 'Vadam's nascent Swords of Sangheilios to send reinforcements to the world, though these were not warmly received. The Swords themselves were guilty of making insinuations that Ero'deolos was collaborating with the Prophets, a popular belief at the time. The resulting animosity saw Ero'deolos largely on it's own against nearby Brute forces, and soured several native keeps against the Arbiter, later driving them into Jul 'Mdama's camp.
    'Mdama's Covenant has largely kept Ero'deolos' forces in place, both to protect the still-operational shipyard over planet and to prosecute war against the few keeps on-world that have professed loyalty to the Arbiter. Spies loyal to the Arbiter have suggested that not all of the Covenant's supporters here are truly invested in the movement, and may in fact be hiring their forces out to parties able to pay for them. It is unknown if Jul 'Mdama is aware of these mercenary operations, or if he would even be overly concerned.
    For his part, the Arbiter has dispatched a taskforce from his Swords to support the loyalist keeps and tie up Covenant forces in the region. This taskforce, Bladesworn, contains many of the Swords of Sangheilios' remaining Covenant-produced warships, being the more capable multi-role vessels to prosecute the campaign, and best able to engage the warships of the Ero'deolos Covenant fleet.

Welcome to Death Watch!

My new poison (I warned you this blog would be all over the place) is Fantasy Flight Games Imperial Assault, and to a lesser extent, Armada. I'm a child of the 80's, so while I missed out on the initial phenomena of Star Wars when it first came out, I was pretty well positioned to enjoy the series right after. It thrills me to have little Star Wars figures to paint and play with after so long (Micro Machines being the last I had my hand on).

I've got mixed feelings on the Prequels, but I did enjoy quite a bit of the Clone Wars. Of the original characters introduced by that series, the two that really stand out to me are the badass bounty hunter Cad Bane, and Pre Vizsla of the clan Vizsla of the Mandalorian Death Watch. When he began his alliance with Darth Maul in the series, you knew it couldn't end well for him, but damn me if the fights against the Hutt Council's bounty hunters and the Maul/Vizsla duel weren't some of the best in the series. At present, there are no figures in Imperial Assault that would represent a good Cad Bane, but Boba Fett in all his Mandalorian glory was recently(-ish) released. With a little trimming and work, I present to you not Boba Fett, but Pre Vizsla!

 I used one of my wife's hairdryers to warm the plastic and make it slice like warm butter. I trimmed down the sides of the helmet, the half-cape, and the braided Wookie scalps. I have to confess, I legitimately felt bad for carving up Boba. :-D The two antenna "earmuffs" are actually the head lasers from a Robotech Tactics VF-1S trimmed to size. Greenstuff was used to add caps to the jetpack and armor to the thighs and shins in accordance with source images from the show.

I sliced the jetpack and the arms off at the shoulders so I could swap weapons on the figure. Instead of Boba's characteristic EE-3 carbine, I scratched the Unidentified Death Watch Carbine as shown on Wookiepedia with some styrene plastic strips. I used a few small styrene bits to present the sheathed Darksaber on the jetpack. I'm both very proud and slightly ashamed of how this turned out (cause I chopped up Boba.)

The inspirational source

I've also been working on some of the starter set's figures. Most have a good number of mold lines to trim down, including the ones you never see till you put paint onto them, but are otherwise very good figures.

 This is my Jyn Odan figure. Instead of a vaguely Oriental-featured Human female I went with one of the myriad near-Human species in Star Wars, the Pantorans. You definitely want to make sure you use a blue-grey to avoid immediate comparisons to the Chiss. Since I wanted the skin and hair to be the bright colors on the figure, I went with a much more subdued outfit compared to the Jyn presented on the card and box. I freely confess that miniature figures' eyes give me fits, and while the eyes look somewhat less derpy in person, it isn't by much.

 This was the first figure I completed. An Imperial Officer done up as an officer of the Imperal Security Bureau (Imperial secret police.)

 Couple of Royal Guards done in the style of the great Sorestro, as seen by his videos on Youtube. Still debating if additional glazes are needed to darken and unify the reds used, but over I'm happy with how they turned out.

Instead of a grey base, I used a black for my probe droids, drybrushed a dark silver, and added minute details before sealing. 'Ardcoat for brightening the main lenses on the droids.

Start of the UNSC

Back again. Losing a pet is tough, much tougher after having him around for more than half my life, but life goes on.

As post one of two today, an update to my UNSC fleet for Halo: Fleet Battles. The bulk of my fleet is actually going to be in this shade of grey but with green accents; it looks very militaristic in a utilitarian way, perfect for the UNSC. These ships are both proof-of-concept and are intended to represent remnants of another UNSC fleet in my main fleet, as the budding campaign concept has the UNSC forces not on the front-lines, but on a secondary front and thus more patchwork...

UNSC Collossus

UNSC Valiant Heart, UNSC Tiger by the Tail, UNSC Makassar

These are just primed with Army Painter Uniform Grey, washed with GW Nuln Oil, the colors were brought back up with P3 Ironhull Grey, with Cryx Bane Highlight for added definition. The blue is Cygnar Blue Highlight with GW Lothern Blue. Viewport lights with Morrow White.

My Dog Went to Sleep Today...

After a full and excellent life, my loyal dog Shadow was put to sleep today, after having been there for me for 17 of his 18 years. He was getting pronounced polyp-type growths on his body, and he was eating very little while keeping even less down. Walking had become a challenge, and he could no longer rise without assistance. He was a better dog than anyone could ever hope or ask for. I miss him very much already.

Godspeed old friend. I look forward to the day I can see you again. I find myself much less enthused for life without you around in it.

I just want the world to know that Shadow existed, and he was a very good boy.

Cyclops/Marathon Heavy Cruiser

One of the more interesting Specialist Battlegroups you can get for the UNSC in Halo: Fleet Battles is the Cyclops Battlegroup, three frigate Tridents and one Supported Marathon. That Marathon is modified to function as a light carrier, losing it's Missile Barrage ability to gain Hangar 5- a big increase from it's normal Hangar 2. The Hangar rating represents how many Flights of fighters and/or bombers an element carries, and these Flights are grouped up into Wings of at least 2 Flights but can contain as many as 5. Each side has limitations on size for each Wing; for example, the UNSC can place 5 Bomber Flights into a Wing while the Covenant can only place 4, but the UNSC can only have up to 4 Fighters in a Wing vs. the Covenant's 5. Halo Fleet Battles lets anything with a Carrier ability effectively regenerate their fighter complements so long as the enemy keeps killing your fighters and bombers, making the Carrier Action the Cyclops also gets very useful indeed. Most opponents you play know to expect a steady stream of Fighters and Bombers coming from an Epoch Fleet Carrier, but a Marathon? Not so much.

Yes, that's all well and interesting, but how about some content? I liked the idea of the Cyclops Light Carrier so much I modified one of my Marathons to represent a converted carrier on the tabletop.

I plasti-welded the dark grey armor panels with the slits in them (that came on a sprue from Kotobukiya- courtesy of HLJ) on the sides of the ship to represent hangar doors for recovering her complement, while I used some strip styrene to bulk up her dorsal hull and add a communications mast to better-coordinate her increased fighter group.

I also used styrene rod, U-channel, and assorted other bits to create a launch tube on the underside of the vessel to really help it stand out from it's standard Marathon sisters. The only modification to the OoB Marathon mini that I made was to snip off the two "prongs" from the piece glued on the underside, everything else was simply added on. The rectangular styrene rod was able to fit into the cavity already present in the design with no issues.

To shift gears for a minute, I confess I've fallen off the H:FB wagon a bit to work on one of my newest poisons: Robotech RPG Tactics. Yes, the company responsible for the game has bungled things at several steps along the way, but I don't feel they're out to screw us all over like many other voices on the Internet would have you believe. The models are, well, a pain in the ass to be charitable. I build Gundam models from time to time for fun, so I have some experience with clipping small parts from sprues, cleaning said parts of mold-lines and pressure points, and using plastic cement and files to make two pieces appear to be one. If you can say the same, you shouldn't be daunted by trying the game out, but believe me, you'll need those acquired skills to put the minis together. Using greenstuff or liquid greenstuff to fill gaps is also useful, but not as critical.

I went into the Kickstarter back when it was on, and while I feel I fretted less than most over getting the final product in-hand as late as we did, I was dismayed by the sheer number of parts that make up each figure. I put off building anything from the Kickstarter until very recently. This, I think, is the greatest failing of the game: the sheer complexity of the models and the amount of work you need to put in to just build a few figures from what is meant to be an introductory starter boxset. I shudder to think of how much potential sales have been missed by people being turned off by the above. It's too bad, as the rules and the game itself seem easy-enough to pick up and learn, but the minis are a weak point, at least until you put them together.

Stepping off the soap box, I wanted to show some progress on my Zentraedi forces. I almost have all the Zent minis from the Intro box done, missing just 3 Regults which are on queue. Not pictured but completed is the Quel-Gulnau recovery pod, an important component in letting Officer Pods recycle their fallen minions after every turn by way of the Zentraedi Armada rule. I used model railroad ballast and bits of cork boarding with some cut-up sprue pieces to represent a wasteland type base, as I'm thinking more of a Robotech: Battlecry theme of remnant Zentraedi and the Malcontent Uprisings, but also allows me leeway to paint blasted urban rubble if I choose to go with a Macross City theme. Haven't quite decided.

Hope you enjoy!