1 Year On

Well it’s been one year today…St Georges Day since my little blog was created……Thank you again Mike!

In that time I’ve had over 15, 400 views from 78 different countries around the world, which to me, is simply amazing.

Thank you all for stopping by, and I hope you find something on here that interests you.

So as I enter my second year of blogging what are my plans?

Well it would be nice to finish something!…so many projects on the go at once, a large metal and plastic mountain of 28mm Ancients, still have some beautiful resin ships to finish from grand manner too.

“Attack on Andersonville”/Dalek Army both figures and vehicles to finish

Blake 7 game in 28mm..figures to finish painting!

My epic space game in fleet scale….it’s coming along.

Space crusade commissions….another one on way!

For all you guys in Malta…..I have an on going project with some of my mates “The Great Siege of Malta 1565 in 28mm….pictures soon.

Need to finish painting all mine, my brothers and my daughters fantasy figures, not too many of those left now!

A new projected started last saturday at Salute 2013…. 1920/30’s Gangsters in 28mm

Thinking about Steampunk a lot….and really, really want an army from “Planet of the Apes” in 28mm including cavalry!…..but i think this is going to have to wait.

For the next 10 weeks I’m running an after school Painting club for year 3-4’s we are painting Romans….that is fun.

Right then stay tuned for more pictures……

Spectrum Patrol Vehicle (SPV)

Just a stunning looking vehicle and had to be part of my Spectrum Forces as their main combat vehicle. An ultra rare Imai kit.

I decided upon two of these monsters luckily managed to get my hands on them for resonable prices…..but once i started the kits i realised only half the wheels had rubber tyres..the inner wheel had a plastic one that wasn’t even the same diameter as the rubber wheel!!!

There was no way to get round the problem i needed some more tyres…it isn’t easy finding anything in this diameter, in the end i gave up and purchased two more SPV’s just so i could use the rubber tyres! It was starting to get expensive.

I was then left with 2 kits with all plastic wheels……to good to waste so I decided to make them into Knocked out versions of the other SPV’s.

I’d been driven to this by seeing a very nicely painted Sherman tank with loads of rust by one of my friends from Canada, Grant. I decide i was going to try out the rock salt method for my rust. This will clearly take some practise to get completely right but i’m happy enough with the results and once i have added damaged decals and smoke and flames (on cotton wool balls) I think they will look pretty much as if they were hit by a particle beam weapon.

All Hulls are far from finished, stil waiting on…….you’ve guessed it decals…..but hopefully they will be finished soon.

Spectrum Maximum Security Vehicle (MSV)

Bought just after Christmas to fill out my Growing Spectrum force.

Again another very rare Imai model.

It needs some weathering and decals to finish…nearly there!

Spectrum Patrol Car

I stripped my dinky SPC of all it’s chipped paint in a bowl of dettol over a few days.

Then when weather allowed sprayed it correct colour and detailed it..needs an ariel but it looks so much better.

S.H.A.D.O. mobiles armed and body shell base coated

Work on my mobiles progresses slowly, I’m waiting on some decal sheets.

This is as far as I have got, I have added the resin weapons to the roof which move round. Body shells primed and sprayed in silver blue paint…I need to weather it a bit. Models By Imai now long out of production.

Resin weapons by puppetsofwar  and Forge planet  

Muzzle flashes by Armourcast

Klingon additions

One thing my Klingon Fleet lacked in terms of ships was the iconic D7, I picked up a couple of these from Bergstrom late last year….i painted them in Fleet colour so they fit in with rest of fleet….although i’m not happy with my attempt at windows so will do that again!

 

Additional Fleet Scale Terran Federation

My Terran Federation fleet is quite limited, lack of suitable models is one of the main reasons…when they go head to head with other races like say Romulans or Klingons I don’t really think they have the technology or power to take them on with anything like equal footing……it’s a problem i need to look at!

However Their Fleet has had a bit of a boost with the addition of a full fighter wing (from Brigade) of 24 fighters (This was the number agreed upon as a minimum fighter force for all races….most have 24 some have more…but all have fighters now!)

It wasn’t just fighters that have been added…..I ws able to convert another E4m plastic ship, and Scouls502 produces a lovely little ship called the “Starburst” which is quite a good proxy for a Pursuit ship, beautifully detailed for something so small…slightly smaller than my Shapeways version…so it slots in as some other class yet to be decided upon!…but I have 4….and may get more!

Terran fighters ( from Brigade)

Starburst

Pursuit ship Right
Starburst Left

More Fleet Scale Romulans

To boost the rather small Romulan Fleet i purchased sometime back some early Birds of Prey type vessels from Bergstrom.

I also picked up a couple of additional scout vessels from

Scouls502 at

http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/index.php which has incredible detail as well as his little Romulan Drone based on the “Enterprise” story line….so added these to the fleet.

I have 24 fighters which i will add when painted.

Fleet Scale Starbug

Having purchased the “Red Dwarf” some time ago for use as a mining ship in my game I was pretty disappointed that I couldn’t get my hands on anything i could use as a “Starbug” of suitable size.

Luckily for me  Scouls502 over at http://www.star-ranger.com/forum/index.php

was able to sculpt a likeness for me…with seperate landing gear parts! I ordered 4 of the shuttles.  Here they are painted.

 

Fleet Scale Ships/Starship Combat News

Late last year I joined an excellent forum called Starship Combat News

Lots of very interesting stuff for anyone who likes Sci fi ships. ….there is also a trading post/orbital shipyards section where you can get in touch with people who make their own ships to sell, one such person is Scouls502 you’ll need to join the forum to speak to him and all the other guys who make stuff.

I was able to pick up quite a few ships to fill the holes in my space fleets, Scouls502 also very kindly made me a little proxy for Starbug……pictures will follow!

Amazing detail on all his ships, and a nice guy to boot….highly recommended!