Dust Warfare: Red Thunder

A couple of months ago I finally decided to paint some of my Soviet infantry.  The first thing I had to do was look at some historical references.  A few google image searches gave me an idea of what I was looking for and I went out and expanded my collection of Vallejo paints.  

This unit mostly focuses on its two rocket launchers in game and you can use them to engage light to medium vehicles rather well.  That's not to say they can't handle infantry.  The guys with the machine guns all have underslung grenade launchers adding a few extra dice to that punch.  As with my Germans I added stocks to the guns.  I just feel it makes them seem a bit more realistic.  Something to note with these models is that they come with equipment on their belts and backs.  This was a nice change from the earlier Axis and Allied models who did not have anything on them.  I had to add it to my Axis troops.

I changed up the basing from my Germans a bit and went for more of the patchy style that was featured on the Ta-152 model's stand.

Let's hear some love for the Dust universe.  It's got a pretty cool storyline and a killer aesthetic which really drew me in.  The folks in my usual game group don't play the game but I recently found some people in my area who do play.  I even went with them to a small tournament in Toronto where my distinct lack of play experience really showed.  Oh well. 

EDIT:  I've got posts ready to get through May of this year.  So be ready for an actual update schedule.  *GASP* I know.  Expect the first and third Wednesdays of every month.  Perhaps more If I post what I am actually working on in real time.  Though I may just keep tacking the posts onto the end of the queue.

BFG: Imperial Navy Reinforcements

So, the first post of the new year.  Happy 2015, even if I am a bit late on that.  As usual it's been far too long since my last post.  Though, I assure you, I have been busy on the hobby front.  I've been painting models from the whole spectrum of my collections.  I spent a good few hours taking photographs and editing them this week to try and pick up the blog slack.  I've got photos for about 11 posts all up and edited on flickr.  So I will probably write a few posts and then set them to auto publish some time in the future.  This will grant the illusion that I am actively updating this blog.  

Now the reason anyone is here, for pictures.  Well one picture.  These are a pair of Imperial Cruisers I painted up several months ago now.  They are both magnetized to be any of the cruiser variants.  For these two ships I tried a new technique in painting these ships.  Instead of picking out different details with different shades I decided to go with a drybrush and wash method.  I am pretty happy with how this worked.  It seems to look better than how I used to paint them.  Some other changes made are the addition of some markings, namely the stripe on the lower fin of one and on the weapons batteries of the other.  I've named these two cruisers Jovian Spear (left) and Infinity (right).

Hope you enjoy the new look of the ships, just trying to keep this game alive for as long as possible.  I still have plenty of these ships to build and paint since I stocked up right at the end, so don't worry about not having any more BFG to see from me.

Scale: Focke-Wulf Ta 152 H1

Here is the kit I have been working on for the last 2-3 weeks.  It is a Dragon Models 1/48 Focke-Wulf Ta 152 H1 from I think 1988-89, making it as old or older than I am.  I've been trying to get back into Dust and have been playing my fair share of War Thunder on my computer.  So, I decided to get some actual Luftwaffe aircraft to add to my Axis army.  I stopped into Section 8 Hobbies here in Buffalo and picked up this Ta as well as a Me 262.  This kit was used, and so some of the parts were clipped from the sprue, other than that it was like new.  The only problem I had was some really old masking tape on the fuselage which was quite hard to remove.  The camo scheme and colors are not fully based on any historical squadron but rather what I thought would look nice on the model.

It was interesting to get back into scale modelling as opposed to wargames models.  Building this kit was much more of a challenge than I have faced recently, everything is much more precise.  That's not a bad thing, just a different experience.  With so many more subtle details cleanup is more demanding and so is the painting.  This model took a lot more time than any of those for my Imperial Guard or Dust forces, though it may be just a bit more rewarding too.

  The base represents the new styling I will use for my future Dust units,  I felt the total grass was less visually interesting that it could be and so made it a bit patchy with dirt beneath.  I haven't worked out what the rules for this model, but there are some similar weapons for other units.  Let me know what you think!  More after the break.