Dusting Things Off...

Wow has it been some time since I've done anything with this.

It still saddens me to consider how great Spartan's Halo games were and what they could have been, had that company not gone under. But, life and certainly hobbies still move on, and so we continue after a considerable pause.

I've always had a fascination with the story and setting of the Warhammer 40K universe. It never developed into playing that game proper thanks to the shifting rules and expense of the components (though the minis were/are beautiful and worth collecting), you don't need a few hundred bucks to field a playable "army" for 40K's squad-based spin-off, Kill Team. I've recently become enamored with this game, and to my delight have a found a very local club that plays on a weekly basis.

For my first Kill Team, I've gone with GW's most-excellent new Primaris Marines for an Adeptus Astartes Kill Team, from the very obscure Golden Halos Chapter, who had a color scheme and a Chapter motto I liked very much: Ex Ungue Leonem, "judge the lion by his claws." For my first and thus far only outing to date, I rolled with a six-man team: Leader, Comms, Sniper, Demo, Intercessor, Reiver Sergeant.

My first two Specialists, a Comms and a Sniper, Brothers Valroth and Folcolyn

A Reiver Sergeant (Nerreith) is one of the most legit melee threats the Astartes get, and can be even more fearsome if made a Combat Specialist. Brother Korwin, in contrast, is a humble vanilla Intercessor.

Two basic Reivers to be swapped in if added melee and movement shenanigans are called for. Brothers Maerson and Gallus from the push-fit Reivers kit.

My Demo and my Leader: Brother Boldric and Sergeant Demetrius, who boasts a kitbashed arm with powersword to serve as a melee Leader. Boldric has the Aux Grenade Launcher and a few bits from older kits to try and make him look beefier.

The whole team together. Too many points to all be on the table, but I do have some flexibility, which is nice.

Sitting on the workbench are Tactical Marine with Plasma to serve as a harder-hitting sniper (something I wish I had against the Thousand Sons I played against), and four Scout Marines to serve as filler and objective holders from an old kit I recently located in my closet, though sadly these weren't the camo-cloaked snipers that really do good work in Kill Team, from what I've read.

Painting-wise, these were easy-enough to start; black primer did most of my work for me, and there are many guides to painting a decent gold out there. It was all the edge highlighting of the black that made me start to hear voices, though, especially as I had overdone the first attempt and had to go back and redo the entire team before I was satisfied/said screw it.

For the future, raiding my old 40K kits I caould do Kill Teams of Heretic Astartes, Orks, and Tau. Next to my Golden Halos additions on the work bench are a unit of Death Guard that have been basecoated. I recently obtained some Poxwalkers to help stretch the Death Guard's limited numbers a bit and serve as meatshields, too. I'll present these (and more) in a future post!

Thanks for reading!

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

Brave Defenders of Humanity

Rear Admiral Augustine Terrell, head of SECCOM for all UNSC forces in his AO, is responsible for the defense of the remaining worlds of his sector.

Rear Admiral of the UNSC Navy and commander of the Fourth Sector

UNSC forces in the sector fit into two categories: the organic defense groups assigned to individual systems and regions, and expeditionary units assigned to the sector from the UNSC's main forces. Defense ships are easily recognized by the green markings on their hulls, where as expeditionary ships lack these. In addition, the United Nations Colonial Star Guard (UNCSG) maintains numerous smaller vessels and stations in the region, in addition to several frigates and patrol craft to assist the Navy.
The fleet is mostly concentrated around strategic assets and systems, like New Constantinople, Port Zanzibar, and along the Draco Spur. Systems closest to what is considered "Covenant space," former human systems gradually lost over the war, host small squadrons of ships for defense. Many systems can also boast defense stations and numerous planet-based fighter and bomber squadrons for organic defense.
Most of the fleet is of lighter tonnage, with the Paris-class heavy frigate being by far the most common class. The Paris, as the most-powerful of the frigate classes, is employed almost exclusively to leverage against the small numbers of larger vessels available.

UNSC heavy frigates in "Fleet Grey" are a common sight in the region, often in lieu of larger vessels

Destroyers also appear in some numbers, typically around important task forces and locations.

Cruiser hulls are exclusively Marathons, with all lighter cruisers lost to the Covenant in the dark, early years of the war and not replaced. These are the flagships and backbones of the sector's task groups.

The heavy-hitters of the UNSC Navy, Marathons are the Navy's best defense against high-tonnage Covenant vessels that appear in the Sector

Two carriers are currently directly assigned to SECCOM, an Epoch-class heavy carrier and a Cyclops-class light carrier, a rare subclass of the Marathon cruiser hull. Both of these ships, and their escorts, function as fire-brigades of sorts, responding to the most dire threats against the Sector.

The only heavy carrier in the region, she is also the largest ship Reach is currently willing to assign to the area

Sacrificing much of her missile throw-weight and cargo space, the Cyclops sub-class boasts greatly increased hangar capacity and more robust communications and flight control

One of the first deployments of the UNSC's energy field technology, greatly furthered by captured Covenant material. This vessel has energy fields as opposed to bay doors for her fighter recovery decks. An armored bay door still protects the launch tube at fore due to lingering fears of gaussing from the nearby MACs

Additional forces beyond the Navy defend Fourth Sector's space, ranging from special forces to second-line status.

Unbeknownst to the UNSC proper, ONI maintains several highly modified frigates for missions beyond the capabilities of the Prowler Corps

Though currently assisting in the survey of the artifact-rich Zeta Prime system, there is little doubt the CINCONI would deploy these frigates if it served ONI's purposes; even if it meant operating in the open with UNSC forces

As mentioned, the United Nations Colonial Star Guard (UNCSG) is also present in defense of the region. The organization is a holdover of the CMA absorbed by the UNSC during the Insurrection, and is notable for having a dedicated law-enforcement mandate as well as military capability. Several patrol groups of frigates, assigned to the area since before the war began, are engaged in escorting convoys to frontline systems, standing vigil over important orbital and deep space installations, managing Insurrection flare-ups, and protecting against Covenant raiders. This in addition to assisting UEG authorities with refugee management, customs duties, and disaster relief.

Hard to mistake with Navy vessels, UNCSG frigates used to running-down smugglers and Insurrectionists now dodge plasma fire while assisting the UNSC Navy. They are the heaviest assets available to the organization

Of note, FLEETCOM on Reach has begun to view the large facilities available on Port Zanzibar favorably as a base for long-range raiding fleets, the kind typically centered around Orion-class carriers and their support groups. These are unlikely to be on-hand for sector fleet operations, but could still represent powerful reinforcements if the high command decides to proceed...

On a real-world note, very sad news today in that Spartan Games, the producer of my favorite Halo-themed starship combat game, as well as Dystopian Wars and Firestorm Armada, has closed down today very suddenly. Prayers to the owner of the company, who is not in good health according to the Facebook community. Hopefully, another company picks up where Spartan leaves off...

Path of Radiance

I did it. I finally got myself a lightbox with which to take pictures! No longer must I feel shame towards my abysmal photo-fu skills! It can only get better from here! Let destiny submit itself to my ambition!

Well, maybe not. The product in question is a purchase from Amazon, a completely self-contained offering from a company called LimoStudio. For less than $44 USD, I consider this a fine purchase. What's more, my wife does her own jewelry-making as a side business of hers, so I got to score some bonus points with showing her how to set it up for her own jewelry pictures. Score! Link here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005CX9S8A/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I wanted to try my new purchase with a few different subjects to test things out. Some Covenant ships to start from Halo: Fleet Battles, in a bright silver color which I hope is evocative of the nanolaminate plating on the CAS Assault Carrier.

Metallics require a bit of finagling. This is with fairly direct diffused lighting...

And this is more subdued lighting. Definitely darker, but doesn't wash out as much detail.

Next, a piece that was shown on my last post. A RCS-class Armored Cruiser, again from Halo, this time in gold.

Any Shipmaster would be proud to captain this cruiser now!

Next, from Star Wars Armada, a few Dramatis Personae of the Rebellion. I wished to see how this set-up could do with smaller objects and multiple colors.

My homeboys Dash Rendar and Han Solo flying with my homegirl Hera Syndulla. I nearly went insane painting these, the Ghost particularly.

Next, a darker piece. From Knight Models Batman Miniatures Game, Batman himself in his animated series incarnation.

Success! Modified the chest emblem. None of that "Red Sky Season" stuff here, please and thank you. 

Lastly, though you couldn't prove it by this blog (so far), I am a massive BattleTech fan, ever since I saw the cartoon as a kid 20 years ago. This piece is from the newest of the Clans, the Stone Lions.

The Mist Lynx B, a fine Light OmniMech designed by the long-gone Smoke Jaguars

Holy damn am I pleased with this product. I feel it is a massive upgrade over anything else I was using before, and for a good price too. Now that I have a feel for how the lighting affects the subject depending on it's positioning, I feel confident to post more pictures moving forward. I have a fair number of Halo ships to show as I gear up for a narrative campaign, so expect those to appear next.

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.

Update for Imperial Assault

I've been all over the place with my hobby interests lately. I started this blog mainly to present with efforts in Halo:Fleet Battles, but I haven't really been active with that game in some months now. FFG and their Imperial Assault has been a lot more prevalent, as has MegaCon Games and their MERCS Recon game. Nothing from MERCS really in any state to show, but I do have a few WiPs for IA.

Imperial ISB Infiltrators

 One of the newest packs to come from FFG for the Bespin expansion are the ISB's Infiltrators. On their own, they are nicely detailed and quite cool-looking models. However, the fluff for Fantasy Flight's own article on them makes it clear that they are meant to actually, you know, INFILTRATE Rebel cells and destroy them from the inside. I have trouble seeing them being able to do that in obviously Imperial-style armor. So I modified my two to appear more irregular and thus Rebel-y.

  

For my first agent, I got aggressive and cut down the head and used greenstuff to make a Rebel commando-style helmet, some leather boots out of the armor greaves, and a scarf and satchel. Also the strap for the E-11.

The 2nd agent is a bit more tame, with greenstuff added to make an armored overcoat using the figures molded armored arms.

 And below is an update to my Pre Vizsla figure for IA. The most trouble I've had with it to date is the blue-grey of the jumpsuit. In the source pictures, it is a fantastically nebulous color with grey, blue, and green hues depending on the pics. I went with a black-washed Stegadon Scale Green for the base color, and building up the highest folds of the cloth with the Stegadon hasn't really produced the contrast I want, even when mixed with a bit of Incubi Darkness. Further experimentation needed.

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.