Don't sink my battleship!

Well, we're still in Dropfleet Commander territory. A weird side effect of our group all backing the Kickstarter campaign is that it's allowed for a painting arms race, as we all have a lot of ships to put together at the same time.

However, I have something of an ace up my sleeve... in that it was my birthday in January. My parents, kind souls that they are, went through the list I gave them, and followed the carefully prepared instructions. Then, due to circumstances beyond their control, they were forced to give me an IOU on my birthday, as the item they'd ordered hadn't arrived yet.

But then, after a decent interlude... one of these arrived.

Awwwww yeah.

It's a Diamond Battleship. This is the largest class of ship currently available in the game. More importantly, I'm the first of our group to acquire and paint one of these.

Or, at least, that's what I currently believe, as I write this in late February. However, due to his previous stirling efforts in this field, I have to consider the possibility, even the likelihood, that Pete also has a battleship and is biding his time in order to get a game in with it but not seem too eager.

So now I have to bide my own time, but not leave it too long or Pete really will get one (if he hasn't already) and I'll lose the advantage. Man, this is complicated.

As a bonus, the model comes with two "turret" sections, which you can swap without the need to glue them. This means that I also have the option to use this as a Platinum Supercarrier, with the ability to launch large numbers of fighters and bombers as well as blasting things with massive weapons.

Launchy launchy, shooty shooty

To make this work, the hull part includes a flight deck, which sits under the turret and is partly visible when the model is in "supercarrier" mode. It's pretty well detailed for something you can't really see, so because I'm some sort of idiot, I've painted it too.

Teeny weeny planey things!

So, there you go. I'm pretty sure I'll be fielding this against another ship of the same size, and also that it will be shot down almost immediately, but maybe it will at least draw enough fire to keep the rest of my fleet in the air, or something.

Anyway, it's painted. So that's something...


Painted: 93
Acquired: 92 (increased by one as I finally admit to owning this...)

Can't come up with more ship-based titles

I mean, there are only so many puns available.

Still, let's get on. I've continued work on my Shaltari fleet for Dropfleet Commander. For one thing, I decided to suck it up and paint the rest of the voidgates, despite them being fairly boring.

Yeah, these.

Then, I went for a cruiser, specifically a Basalt fleet carrier. This is because I'm fed up of being the only one that can't launch bombers at enemy ships, so I can do that now...

Launchy launchy.

Finally, I painted an Adamant battlecruiser.

Something about Prince Charming 

Battlecruisers are the largest class of ship to feature in our games so far, so having mine painted means I'm not left behind in the arms race, at least as things currently stand. Also, it's a nice model! 

It's not all progress though. I went to the first Chillcon in Sheffield recently, which was pretty good! Unfortunately, because it was pretty good, I ended up buying stuff. And, due to unnecessary generosity, I got free stuff too. 13 new models in total, which means I have to add 13 onto my "acquired" total. 

The microwave wasn't one of them, in case you're wondering

With that in mind, let's see the scores!

Painted: 92
Acquired: 91

Nearly blew it there! Fortunately there's more on the painting table now...

Ships of all kinds!

Well, two kinds anyway.

I've been painting again, and again have some things to show you. This will allow you all to heap upon me the praise which I so richly and obviously deserve. In many ways, this blog could be considered a public service.

Anyway, enough modesty. Let's look at some pictures!

First off, another Shaltari Voidgate for Dropfleet Commander. You may be getting fed up of pictures of these by now, but let me tell you, it's nothing compared to the tedium of painting the things.

This is a new photo, although there's no real way to tell.

Voidgates are an absolute requirement for the Shaltari fleet (they're the only way for the blue hedgehog fellas to land troops, which is the whole point of almost every mission in the game), so you have to have several. However, they're also the most involved model to paint, at least in the colour scheme I'm using.

All of which is to say, sadly, I'm stuck painting several more of these, and you'll have to look at them. Sorry.

All is not lost, however, as I've also painted something new...

...and photographed it badly!

Those are Azurite light cruisers. They have the "Vectored" rule which allows them to make turns at any point during their move, not just the start. Normally, that would only be possible using a course change order and would add a spike to each ship, making it easier to target. So I'm hoping these can be like a stiletto blade slipped neatly between the ribs of the enemy fleet (ooh, that was evocative, wasn't it?). To be honest, if they're useless I'll be somewhat irritated as they've cost me two cruiser sprues (they have to come groups of at least two) that could have been used for something more obviously powerful. Time will tell.

And finally, one last thing to show you...

Ships again, but of a subtly different type

A couple of American Civil War armoured gunboats. I got these the last time we had some interest in Black Powder, which was long enough ago that I can't remember where I got them. However, we've just had a bit of a resurgence of interest, and Pete's acquired a fort. We need a fort and these for the next scenario in the Black Powder ACW book, so it seemed like time for them to make an appearance. Reading the rules, ships in Black Powder seem to be extremely situational (which I suppose makes sense as otherwise they'd be far, far too powerful for the game) so they may never achieve anything, but it makes life a bit more interesting I suppose.

So there you go. Now, onto my scores!

Painted: 86
Acquired: 78

Still seems like I should find something to paint a lot of quickly - we're quite close to me going back into negative painting equity...

Salute the Cavalry!

For once a couple of things have happened that are worth blogging about. Try not to be too shocked.

First of all, I've painted more things!

Not big things, admittedly, but still, here they are...

Some dismounted Union cavalry! These match to the mounted versions I already have painted, so now, should I ever keep my cavalry around long enough to allow them to dismount, I'll be able to represent that clearly. So that's nice.

Next, I went to Salute! We seem to instituted a weird system where someone chaperones Kieron on his birthday trip down to London, and this year it was my turn. We arrived after only a short delay due to an accident on the M1, and a shorter one as we drove somewhat randomly around residential streets to find the parking space I'd booked. 

It was worth the wait though! I picked up several things:

Stuff!

I got the Salute free mini (a Russian standard bearer that might work for VBCW at some point), a free Wild West Exodus thing (might work as a wizard for Kings of War), two free Mantic zombies (which will presumably work as zombies), a painting guide for multicam from Spectre (useful if I ever get around to painting my US army), a free die (for rolling things), and a free sweet (for eating).

I also spent some money, and got a pack of seven defensive cloches that I'll use for Bolt Action, an MDF fountain, some small scale flexible roads, and the pre-release Shaltari command cards for Dropfleet Commander.

So, more work for myself there. Still, I was more restrained than I might have been, so, just barely, I avoided increasing the lead pile more than my painting had reduced it - I painted 12 tiny models but acquired 11 of various sizes on the day.

So watch out for something happening with all of this stuff! And now, numbers.

Painted: 81

Acquired: 78

On the right track

I've been painting again! There's absolutely no way that anyone could find this to be less than entirely thrilling.

Admittedly, I haven't done a lot of painting. But I do at least have something to show for it, which is this...

Choo choo!

Train tracks! I got these a while ago when the trend in our group was for 6mm American Civil War, and we needed terrain. And, you know, "terrain" = "train", maybe, or something.

Wow, that was terrible. I feel bad for you having read it.

Anyway... last weekend, our ACW campaign led to the battle of Vicksburg. The campaign rules generated a battlefield based on the map, and that had a railway line running into it. Kieron casually mentioned a couple of days before the game that we could ignore the railroad, which for some reason made me incredibly determined to paint one before the game.

So, you know, I did that.

The best part, of course, is that the track comes as two dozen separate pieces. Therefore, I'm counting it as 24 models towards my tally of painting for the year. This might be a bit of a stretch, but the key thing is that it'll bother Pete, which is an excellent reason to do more or less anything.

Here's the tally, increased by 24 on the "painted" side...


Painted: 69

Aquired: 67

This puts me over the top! Choo choo!

Small Guns Go For It

I've been quiet here for a while, but in an unusual move I've actually painted more than one or two models - although admittedly they are all pretty small. Let's have a look at my tiny achievements...

First off, some ACW artillery.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! 

We need these for the first battle in a campaign that we started a couple of weeks ago. These are actually Parrott rifles, so would normally qualify for extra range in Black Powder. I suspect they won't have that ability in the campaign game, but it's nice to have these available in any case, since it increases my options for future games.

Next, some casualty markers!

Captions about dead horses. Errr.... something about glue?

These have been sat amongst my painting stuff for months, but needed finishing off, so I finally did that as I was in an ACW mood. My experience of Black Powder is that most of my units take damage (and then I lose) so it's worth having more of these ready.

Speaking of things that needed finishing off...

Legs are overrated!

It's a terminator crawler. This was sat on my desk in need of a base, so adding one lets me finish it and add to my painted tally...


Painted: 45

Aquired: 67

See? 

Another Spaceship

The title says it all really.

Yes, I've added another ship to my Shaltari fleet for Dropfleet Commander.

To make it even less interesting, it's a repeat of a model I've already done!

Here it is. I can only apologise.

It's an emerald mothership. The Shaltari need these to land troops, which is basically the whole point of DfC. That means that you can almost certainly look forward to further posts about these babies in future.

Still, it's not all bad, at least these numbers will change! Here we go...


Painted: 20

Aquired: 67

Admittedly they haven't changed much. I'll try harder next time.