Imperial Armour

The Occupier tank is now finished. (Or at least the vehicle anyway; the basing still needs to be done.)

This is my first time applying MERDC camo to a vehicle in 28mm scale. I think it came out looking not too bad, but could be improved. Reading up, I have the ratio of colour areas wrong - the mid-gray and light-gray should each cover around 45% of the vehicle. Still, the end result I'm not too unhappy with.

The Power of the Dark Side

Progress has been made on my Imperials for Star Wars: Legion.

Obviously the color scheme is pretty much set before you start. I've seen some people do paint up their stormtroopers with some extra markings, but I'm just going to go with the classic all-white.

One unit I did feel I could safely be a bit creative with is the Occupier tank. I decided to give it a camo scheme, and have gone with what I'm calling "Graystone MERDC". For those who don't know, MERDC is a camo scheme developed by the US Army. It's not overly complicated, and doesn't require an airbrush or special painting technique to blur the borders between colors. My version is not a real-world army MERDC, but will use the same pattern. The light gray and medium gray main colors are done. Next I'll add some tan/sand edging around parts of the light gray, and finally a few bits of black. Hopefully should look fairly striking when it's done.

Other main progress is completing a stormtrooper model as a prototype. I'd heard white can be difficult to shade and highlight, but I didn't find it too bad. This guy isn't going to win any painting competitions, but he came out plenty good enough to put on the table.

So, now it's just painting a dozen or so more like him. For the moment Vader will be the force commander, but that's really just by default. I wouldn't include him by choice, but he comes with the starting box, and none of the other command units released so far interest me. Ideally I'd like it if Fantasy Flight would release a generic "Stormtrooper Captain" or something, rather than being required to include a named character from the movies. 

Multiple Projects on the Go

Progress on Sixmillopolis has slowed lately. I could use the excuse that some additional 6mm buildings I ordered haven't arrived. Which would be true, but there are still plenty of details I could have been finishing off. Really I just felt like a change of pace. So I've pulled out a bunch of old armies and models, and started jumping between them. I'll do a bit of painting on one force, get bored and move to the next. Admittedly not a great way to get any one army finished, but it means steady progress is being made on many.

On my painting table right now there are roughly five projects being chipped away at.

First, Sixmillopolis. As enthusiasm hits I am still doing detailing work on things like windows and storefronts. And once the new buildings do arrive that will probably kick off another wave of progress.

Second project is the Robotech: Tactics armies that will be fighting over Sixmillopolis. Right now the focus is on the UEDF. The conventional vehicles and Tomahawk destroids are done. Still to finish are the two VF-1 veritech fighters, and a company's worth of infantry stands that will disembark from the APCs.

Third project is a complete change of gear - a Soviet force for Team Yankee. While the ANZACs are the army I'd prefer to use, they are a bit of a niche list. For many themed games/events it can be hard to explain why they would be involved, plus without heavy tanks/artillery it's difficult to bring them up to 100 points. So, the Soviets will be my force that can easily slot-in to "standard" TY games and events, with the ANZACs set aside for friendly games or scenarios where they fit in.

Fourth project is another change-up - Star Wars: Legion. The Imperials are on the painting table right now, with my force at the moment being Vader + 2 squads that came with the core box, plus an Occupier tank.

(As an aside, the film crew for Rogue One made the Occupier by modifying an Alvis Stormer armoured vehicle. So if somebody could find 28mm models of any Stormer or CVR(T) variant, it would probably be pretty easy to fit the parts to the Occupier model and make a new Imperial tank design. Just saying.)

Last project is a one-off mini-army - a Kaiju to attack Sixmillopolis. The model is a Tyranid Hierophant bio-titan from an early edition of Epic. Already painted, but damaged in transit and needs some fix up work.