Project: Dystopian Wars - Federated States of America Fleet - Complete

        Men and Women of the Federated States of America, today is a day we shall no longer allow our selves to be bullied, to day we shall no longer take the words of the foreign dignitaries who tell us it is not our place to want to help others. Who tell us that we would not stand a chance if we choose to do what is right. Today, we fight for both our freedom and the freedom of others.  Today we have a chance to strike back at those who work to oppress us from looking past our own physical boards. Today we launch the finest fleet of the 19th century and we will show our enemies what american mettle is made of.

That what I would think a speech would sound like in this fictional world.  I could be right, could be completely wrong, who knows.  All I do know is the fleet IS ready to launch.

I finished it this last week.  Mostly I needed to complete the optional generators.

The Missile Launchers are a pretty obvious one. Originally i was going to paint them black with a red tip, I realized that the last thing I want the enemies of our grate nation to see is our glorious colors shining in the sky.   So I had to go with the old Red, White and Blue.

Next is the Shield Generators, Pretty simple honestly I wanted to give it a glowing aura so I went a little crazy with the dry brushing of the light blue over the dark blue base coat.

Finally the Kinetic Generators, in the game they actually provide faster movement which in a game of strategic placement can always be a plus. I went with a red hew. This image doesn't give it justice  as in person is really pops out.

Simple as that. Suddenly in my first week of having a blog about trying to actually get projects finished... i finish one.

Here are some nice "water" shots. Please let me know what you think in the comment field down below.

Next on the docket:  Battle Report!  Vampire Counts vs. Wood Elves 1250 points.  We will be having a battle on Saturday morning, a typical "Breakfast and Blood" as Tim and I enjoy calling it.  I hope to remember to take pictures.  Battle reports tend to be a little stale when they don't have anything to show.

Is this thing sinking already?

So I think its just that I'm excited about doing this which is why I'm already posting again. That will fade with life and children so I might as well pump out a few good posts right away to lure you in so that you want sit and wait for a post that will never come.  Then like 5 weeks later when you are sitting at your computer, reeking of cheap booze and loneliness I will post again, but only to tell you that I will post soon.

Sounds like fun, lets get started.


After work I ended up going for a walk with the wife and minion and once we put the little one to sleep, I crept down to the painting dungeon and got to work.  iPad playing Pandora with random Steven Lynch and Daniel Tosh comedy I kept myself focused on getting my job done.

The fleet is coming along nicely so far. I managed to get both the deck and hulls of all of the ships painted. That includes the trim (which i agree is hard to see here) and the paddles as well.

I originally did the deck with a light brown, but found it seemed to just kind of "blah" there and did nothing to impress me.  I wanted it to scream "WE ARE PLANKS OF WOOD, MADE FOR WAR!"  not.  "I'm pretty sure before I was cut down a dog pee'ed on me."    So I gave it a solid coat of a rich dark brown and it really brought out the feel.

 The fleets obligatory self-shot angled Facebook picture.

A nice formation to send them out on their maiden voyage.  Or you know, just to leave on the work bench...

My only battleship, I have yet to prime and paint the special weapons for it ( they are modular so i can swap as the games change ). I'm thinking making the missiles red, white and blue.  Just seems fitting.  :P

Slowly but surely.  I'm sure tomorrow I will go over the turrets with some boltgun grey, and start the log process of highlighting the raised green with a snotling green (almost lime greenish ) to bring out the detail.

I'm going to put some more detail on the bombers as well, I'm thinking some kind of blue to reflect the windows.  

I was thinking of actually painting the bottom of the plans like a sky blue.  I need to research if that was actually done in WWII to help disguise the plains.  I want to believe they did.

I wonder how many of you actually read all this crap and didn't just skim over the pictures.  :)  

and so it begins...

This will be the first in what I hope is a long line of updates about my journey into painting.
I will start with this, I hate to paint.

Can't stand it, to me its not something you can just pick up and put down.  Its something you need to plan to do.  While I can grab a bunch of sprues and cut and glue things together while watching Netflix or listen to Pandora, Painting actually requires my undivided attention and time.   Of which my rattled brain tends to stop and panic when I demand such things of it.

I'm going to start by posting some images of models that I already have done.  You will see that while I'm not horrible at it, I'm not great either.

The other day I decided that I would start painting my Dystopian Wars  Federated States of America fleet.

I really liked the kind of aqua blue/green that showed on the box, but when it come to 'murica, and war.  My mind immediately shifts to the beautiful World War 2 Olive Drab green.

Progress!

As you can see I do have one of the small frigits done, and and have a slight highlighting of light green to show detail.  

Slowly but surely...

I like where this is going, and i believe it will stand out much better when they are on a blue water "table".

Let me know what you think.