'Flight' from Millsy: Castasus Captain on Pegasus

My submission for the Flight Bonus Round is an addition to my Warhammer Fantasy Empire army. As you can see it's a hero mounted on a pegasus, oft times referred to as a "captasus" by the Warhammer community, an odd mash-up of "pegasus" and "captain". Like all the models in my army its a metal Citadel miniature from the early 90s, carefully stripped and reassembled after he was given to me by EvanH, having spent a number or years in his garage.

It would be fair to say I have a love / hate relationship with this model. I knew in advance it would be a trial to paint and it didn't disappoint. I had to paint in three parts as I knew it would be impossible to paint when assembled as it is quite top-heavy and a lot of the detail would be have been obscured or difficult to access.

The pegasus itself was a fun paint. I decided not to paint a grey / white one as you see a lot of these going around and I opted instead for a brown. That gave me the opportunity to use a warm palette for the feathers, starting with the body colour and fading out through a sandy brown to a buff at the win tips.

The seat / saddle is an extravagant piece and I couldn't resist going for a baroque look given the ornate nature and padded seat. It was quite difficult to paint as there's no easy way to hold or mount it so I ended up flipping in back an forth, painting it laying down on a clean plastic lid. The detail required a lot of very fine brushwork to bring out the relief and I'm quite happy with the end result even if it will be obscured by the rider.

When it came to the rider I used the same method for painting it on a plastic lid. He's painted in the colours of the city-state of Carroburg, home of the (in)famous Greatswords I've just finished painting. The banner is from the interwebs, repainted to tie the colours more closely to the rider. The original imagery from Games Workshop never portrayed him with a shield and I'm still tossing up whether to add one.

Assembling the model is where it really started to drive me nuts. The saddle would not sit straight and the super glue leaked out and ran down the sides of the mount, leaving a frosted white effect I had to repaint. It took three efforts to get the saddle safely in place and the rider is still not fixed because I wanted to photograph the seat (and I'd also had enough of super glue disasters for one day!)

In the end I'm happy enough with him and he'll be a constant thorn in the side of my opponent's, flapping about and roughing up opposing heroes, wizards and artillery like a good captasus should do.

Cheers,

Millsy

'Flight' from AaronH: Air Cavalry

This bonus round entry is six flying carpet riders. These are 28mm models from Black Tree Design. I have many historical armies, but I've always loved Fantasy as well. This year I'm adding fantasy elements to several of my historical armies. Ironically in this case, this is the first unit done for my arabs.

Top view to see the carpets.

These were easy models to assemble and paint. There are vague designs in the carpets, and I gave up on trying to pull them out with actual paint. My eyesight was just not up to it. Instead I basecoated them, hit them with a wash then dry brushed over them. It gives more of the impression of a pattern than an actual pattern, but it's good enough for the table top.

All six.

There are more than two poses of the archers, so I have no idea why I only ordered these two, and four of one of them. I have more of these somewhere in the lead pile, which is mostly inaccessible at the moment as it's packed up while I finish the basement.

'Flight' from AdamC: Odin with Hugiin and Muninn

I had something in mind for this round but it hasn't really come out the way I liked it so I'm calling an audible and using another miniature that might fit the theme.

This is Odin form Footsore Miniatures a bonus mini they threw in with all orders over a certain amount in December (extended to January if you like him).

Odin himself can fly with the help of an 8 legged horse but that's obviously not here. His Ravens "Hugiin and Muninn" are and they are  my connection to the theme.  These Ravens (or all Ravens) were said to fly over the earth bring back tidings of what passes in the mortal realm to Odin.

I went with a reddish coat in part because I saw this article about Santa and Odin being the same guy so the color seemed seasonally appropriate but still with in the reach of period dyes (and I like the color) I gave him a purple hood since to indicate this is a someone special (if the eye patch and two pet ravens don't give it away).  I'll probably use this figure as a War Band leader for a Viking force though he would make a great Frostgrave wizard too.

'Flight' from AnthonyO: Wolfspear Drop Pod

For the first bonus round I have thrown my hat in with a drop pod from Games Workshop for 40k. A drop pod is designed to be launched from orbit and plummet to a surface of a planet to deposit combat troops. Technically it does not fly as such but as it moves through the air and this is enough for me to draw my long bow and take a shot!

I have painted it in the colour of the Space Wolves but with a slight twist, in the book 'Dark Imperium' there is a minor mention of a successor chapter to the Space Wolves made up only of Primaris Marines called the Wolfspear. There is almost nothing written on this chapter so I thought I would give it a go.

As per my normal thing I used a blister pack sponge to create any variation on colour and topped it off with some battle damage incurred on the way down. The Primaris Marines are just there for scale and show, no points for them.

'Flight' from Barks: An Unkindness of Ravens

Dark wings, dark words.

They look great en masse.

These ravens are from Zombicide: A Murder of Crowz, but I thought they'd be great for Game of Thrones, or flocks of crebain for Lord of the Rings, or fatigue markers for SAGA etc. Dark grey undercoat, blue-grey drybrush, black wash, and black details. I based them to match Challenge VII's revenants, but I got the PVA to bicarb ratio off so the snow is a little thin and translucent.

I've had my eyes on these ravens for a little while- the Bonus Round was just what I needed to persuade me to get them.

15x 28mm figures

'Flight' from BenF: 1/300 Battle of Britain Aircraft

Bag the Hun 2 has been becoming vary popular at the local club, and so my choice for this bonus round was a no brainer. I'd painted up a section of Spitfires and Hurricane, along with a schwarm each of Me110s and 109s, but in order to get some decent games in I needed some larger forces. We're also looking at doing a campaign based around the battle of Britain, so I just had to paint up a few more spits and hurris, along with some dastardly hun bombers to shoot down.

These are all Scotia Grendel 1/300 scale, and paint up rather well. Decals are a mix of the lovely but sadly now all-but-unobtainable Dom's Decals, along with equally excellent I-94 offerings. 

First off, a flight of six Spitfire Mk.Is. The Spitfire needs no introduction, but it really is a beautiful aircraft, with its racing pedigree clearly seen in the sleek lines. I've painted one section with the sky stripe and prop spinner seen on Mk.I Spits from November '40. This will enable me to play some of the 'flying circus' sweep missions across the channel in '41. These Spits are marked up with the 'PR' of No.609 (West Riding) Squadron, where fighter ace John Dundas served and was shot down and killed whilst in battle with Helmut Wick of Jagdegeschwader 2. During this air battle, which took place over the Isle of Wight, Wick was also shot down and killed. My German component is painted up as from JG2.

Next, a flight of six Hurricane Mk.Is. More workmanlike than it's thoroughbred cousin, the Hurricane actually bagged far more Huns during the battle of Britain, and more squadrons were equipped with the Hurricane. These are marked up for No.87 Squadron, which served in France during the Phoney War and the Battle of France as well as the Battle of Britain. The lads without the RAF sky stripe and spinner can serve alongside my small French Armée de l'Air force for Phoney War battles as well as in Battle of Britain games.

Finally for the RAF, here is a section of Boulton-Paul Defiants. Armed with an automatic turret, these were originally designed as a 'bomber destroyer'. There combat performance left much to be desired, however some pilots were successful despite the shortcomings of the aircraft, and the Defiant had some success as a nightfighter. These are from No.264 Squadron. 

Now, onto the Luftwaffe. First off, a kette of three Dornier Do.17-Zs from Kampfgeschwader 77. The Dornier was known as the flying pencil because of it's slim design. Like all of the Luftwaffe's bombers in 1940 it was a twin engined medium design, and it was not designed for sustained strategic or operational bombing campaigns, and suffered heavily at the hands of the RAF. That said, the many variants of the Dornier Do.17 soldiered on througout the war serving in many different roles. For these, i've tried to paint an approximation of the KG shield emblem on the side of the fuselage.

Next up, a kette of Junkers Ju-88A1s. These medium bombers were perhaps the most successful of those used by the Luftwaffe in 1940. With a good top speed and decent defensive armament, they served in many roles throughout the war, and I'm particularly taken with some of the nightfighter configurations, which featured the schrage musik upwards firing 20mm cannons. These, however, are simply bog standard A1 bombers from Kampfgeschwader 51. Again, I tried to paint an approximation of the KG emblem. 

Finally, a kette of four Junkers Ju-87D Stukas. The Stuka is perhaps the most recognisable Luftwaffe aircraft from the '39-40 period, with its gull winged design and terrifying siren. One thing I particularly thought Nolan's recent Dunkirk film got right was the noise and fear that these aircraft caused. Nonetheless, they were easy meat for the RAF fighters, and many Stukas were lost during the early 'Kanalkampf' stages of the Battle of Britain. These are from Stukageschwader 2 'Immelmann', and as with the other bombers, i've tried to paint the 'griffin rampant' unit symbol on the fuselage.

A group shot to finish up this entry, so that is a grand total of twenty five aircraft ready to battle it out over the skies of Britain and France in the summer and autumn of 1940. There will be more 1/300 aircraft coming over the course of the challenge, as besides the ubiquitous Heinkel He-111 and a rew more Messerschmitt Me-109Es I've got some FAA and Coastal Command goodies, including a ginormous Sunderland flying boat. 

'Flight' from BrendonW: Winged Demon

For this monster challenge I submit this big Games Workshop Demon with wings and no BBQ sauce.

He will be a 'Counts as' option for my 'Varanger', Kings of War army. He is made for 28mm scale games but including the base he is around 4inches tall. He stands on a 50mm square base. Dark colours are tricky to photo but he is black primed, German Gray then Luftwaffe Uniform and London Grey (Vallejo colors) with some Dark Tone washes (then re-highlight). I added some white to the London Grey for some final highlights. After painting almost always 28mm infantry or cavalry it feels really strange to paint a beast this size. I kept it simple which made the process faster.

Cheers from BrendonW.

'Flight' from ByronM: Dropfleet Commander UCM Beijing Battleship

For the first theme round this year I had a plethora of choices of projects to pick from.  I had several models that I need painted for various games, including a dragon, a phoenix, some planes and helicopters, some jet pack troops, a drop pod, and more.  In the end I did the completely bass-ackwards thing and chose a model that is not even usable in a game...  but one I have wanted to paint since I got it but kept delaying as I was not sure I could do it justice until I had some more practice with my super fine Harder & Steenbeck airbrush.

 

Well, I've had some practice the last few months with the airbrush so, may I present my take on the Dropfleet Commander UCM Beijing Battleship.  Now, it's not the normal version, this is the kickstarter exclusive all resin 2-up version.  Meaning it is not playable in game, and is bloody huge, measuring a whopping 11"+ long, 5" across, and 4"+ tall!

I wanted to get use a very muted pallet for this model that closely followed the official UCM paint scheme of multiple shaded of grey with some accent white panels.  I started with a black base and then highlighted the top half of the model with a medium grey and the bottom half with a dark almost black grey.  I wanted to keep the bottom substructure almost black but still have visible details.

Once the base colours were setup, I went in with a 0.15mm H&S airbrush and worked each upper hull panel up to a lighter grey in the center, careful to leave the edge of each panel dark.  This took a while as I put the lighter colour on as a glaze of probably 1 part paint 4 parts glaze medium and then thinned down and applied with very low pressure.  I did it this way to ensure that I could not build up to a light colour too quickly, and more importantly so that when I inevitably screwed up and went to close to and edge that it didn't show up to badly unless I did it 3-4 times in the same area.  Once all the panels were highlighted, I masked off the ones to be white and gave them a few coats of flat white.

With the airbrush work all done, I went to the bottom of the hull and used a brush to glaze highlights onto each little bump and part.  I didn't want a chalky drybrush look so had to do it this way which was time consuming but simple.  I then clear coated the model for handling and the next step.

With that done I used thinned down black oil paint to create a pin wash.  I did it this way for two reasons.  Firstly, a thinned oil paint wash wicks through the cracks and details 100x better than any wash I have ever used.  Secondly, Greg showed me a great product that is essentially a hardened q-tip used by Japanese mecha modelers, that you dip into thinner after the wash is done and then wipe it over the model.  It cleans up anything that comes out of the details instantly and completely (assuming you clear coated first).  This has made doing models like this far less stressful than using a normal wash.

After the wash I clear coated again so that the oil paint was sealed away and then went to more detail work.  I added some sparse metal work areas (mainly pipes and pistons) and then painted a few hundred (at least is seems like it) blue lights all over the model.  These were done with a simplified gem pattern of only 4 colours (dark blue, med blue, light blue, white) due to being so damn small.  Of course that hardly shows in the images, so it was not really worth the effort, but oh well.

 

So there you go, a huge spaceship that is not even usable in a game, all done just for fun.  That said, I bloody LOVE the scale and wished they had done more than just the UCM and a PHR ship in this scale.  Surely it isn't just me that thinks that it would be amazing to do a fleet battle on a gym floor with ships like this!

Oh, and just for comparison, the small ship in the last picture is a normal DFC ship that is 4" long on a 50mm base.

'Flight' from DaveX: North Africa Stuka

This is my first ever entry into the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  I decided to finally put some paint on my Blitzkrieg Miniatures 1/56 Resin Stuka.

The two crew in the last picture are only added for effect and have been previously painted and do not contribute to my score.

The canopy comes clear however the quality of it wasn't the best and I was undecided if I wanted to model crew in it.  Without crew I can model it both in flight and on the ground.  I decided to paint the windows of the canopy to keep it more "Wargame" like.

This should give me 15 Points for a 28mm Vehicle and a bonus 50 for the themed round.

'Flight' from DebD: Scale 75 Jessica Thunderhawk

I thought perhaps this miniature could be used in the Wolsung Steampunk Skirmish Game, which I have not played yet, but... one should be prepared just in case, right?

Scale: 35mm
Mfg: Scale75
Product: Jessica Thunderhawk
Material: Metal

1 x 35mm from Scale75

Thanks!
Deb

'Flight' from EvanH: Da Rite Stuf

I made it!

I actually got an entry submitted in time for this year's first Bonus Theme Round! 

Nothing special for those of you who have some basic level of organisation, but for me, it's kind of a big deal, especially in view of the number of deadlines that whizzed past me unanswered during the last Challenge...

So here they are, the first pictures from the Goblin Space Program. 

It's the Goblin Doom Diver from Games Workshop, from the days before they started making Sigmarines and 'Aelfs' (and yes, I'm bitter). While I couldn't get this wonderful model in metal (can't have everything), I'm glad it's still available for online order.

Here's Launch Coordinator Kranzig, awaiting the countdown before he smashes the chocks away to send the pilot skyward. As the trolls are doing the countdown, this may take a while; "Erm... ten... seven...nine... lots... erm... round thingy... pointy one..."

These two stalwarts are Zigbat and Gitstuf, Kranzig's faithful technicians, who ready the booster for the mission. They've checked the elastic squig gut mechanism and have vouched for its safety - for a given value of 'safe', at least. And if anything goes wrong, well, Kranzig's mallet doubles as a 'dissaplin' device...

And here's Greezspot, the bravest gobbo of them all, or possibly the stupidest; when volunteers for the program were asked to step forward, he was the only one not to step back.

Greezspot grits his teeth and takes a deep breath. All is in readiness; the ramp is greased with rendered squig fat, the elastic has been pulled back to its fullest extent, and Kranzig's ears prick up at hearing the trolls finally call out "Erm... ZERO?". Chocks away! Lift off!

"To slip da surly bondz of urf..."

Well, the rest, as they say, is history...

IN MEMORIAM - GREEZSPOT

"He died as he lived - screaming and crapping his pants."

So a crewed artillery piece in 28mm is 10 points, but the five crew members themselves are very small, only 15mm tall, so they'll be worth only 2 points each.

That's all for now - stay tuned!

Ev