Decade Challenge: 2009 vs 2019

With the new decade upon us (depending on where you fall in that debate), I thought it would be cool and appropriate to take part in the 2009 vs 2019 challenge that's been going on. I'm featuring two figures from very different games, and with very different sets of painting skills. 

Lt. Gyles Durfee was painted back in 2009 and was part of my old 32nd Praetorian Regiment from back in the day. He represents the Praetorian Mounted Police and was an old "Fingers" figure from the out of print Schaeffer's Last Chancers set.

Captain William Bradford was painted up only a few months ago, and is a Zulu War British officer from the 56th Foot. Nicknamed the "Pompadour," he serves on detached service in Zululand with a number of different regiments. He was actually my Zulu War test figure and came from the Warlord British Line Infantry set. 

Sometimes I don't think I've made much improvement in my painting skills (especially since I didn't even pick up a brush from 2017 to late 2018). When I see comparison photos like these, however, I'm pretty surprised. Thinning my paints has helped a lot, as has using washes. I'm much happier with my faces too. Of course, there's always room for improvement and I intend to continue on with that into the new decade. 

My biggest goals for 2020 are to finish up the vast array of projects that I've had sitting around my basement half-finished for the last few years and tidy up my basement War Room as well (especially since I've found out there are a number of wargamers in my neighborhood and am beginning to connect with them).

Blood Red Skies on a Christmas Morning

I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday! This  post is a bit later than I wanted it to be, but I suppose going back to work the day after Christmas will throw a wrench in the works. But I digress.

My mom gave me some planes for Warlord's Blood Red Skies...and not just any planes! I've now got a squadron of F4U Corsairs, along with "Pappy" Boyington himself. Looks like I'm making the historical Black Sheep as well! 

The planes are also about the same scale as the X-Wing Miniatures Game, which means that I should be able to use the same techniques and methods as my T-65 X-Wing Black Sheep and Green Angel squadrons. I think I may take them to the next level, though, and get some 1/200 scale decals from Miscellaneous Miniatures (which I only discovered after I finished my X-Wing squadrons). It looks like they have a pretty cool Black Sheep decal set that I think will work splendidly!

I also want to take a moment to praise Warlord’s customer service. When I opened the “Pappy” Ace set I noticed that the Ace Pilot card was missing. What a bummer!

Well deserved! Photo courtesy of Warlord Games.

I emailed Warlord Games explaining the situation and they said they’d send me a replacement card free of charge. I can see why they won “Best Customer Service” from Wargames Illustrated!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!

Original idea by @starwars_wargamer on Instagram.

May you have a happy and safe holiday season! 

Poor Little Lambs: Black Sheep X-Wing Squadron

"Alright you meat heads, listen up!"

Hot on the heels of the new Green Angels are the Black Sheep! In fact, both squadrons were finished on the same evening but I didn't want to do two posts on the same day. As previously mentioned in another post, I based these guys on the "meat heads" from the 1970s Baa Baa Black Sheep TV show. 

These ships were also magnetized like the Green Angels, but given red flight stands as befitting their USMC origins. "Pappy" is designated by the white arrow on the starboard wing.

With that, another project is finished! This time it only took me about a week from start to finish; I think it helped that I've been off work on a staycation since December 16. But the Black Sheep and the Green Angels have got me wanting to do more X-Wings based on F4U Corsairs. I'm really thinking of making up one or two for the upcoming Campaign Against Cancer as prize support.

The Green Angels: Redux

"Green Angels standing by."

After more than a month of on-again/off-again work, the Green Angels are finally finished! They're based off my Grandpa's old F4U Corsair squadron and the color scheme is inspired by the planes flown out of NAS Los Alamitos in the 1950s. 

 You can read about my process on these guys in previous posts (here, here, here, and here). After finishing with the decals, the X-Wings were weathered with a stipling of silver and streaks of Games Workshop Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil. I wanted to capture the "beat up" look of the F4U Corsair pictured above. I have a coworker who's a former USMC aviation mechanic and when I showed him this photo he seemed surprised at how rough this plane looked. 

I opted to magnetize the ships, which is something I've been meaning to try out for some time now. I ordered the wrong size disc magnets and didn't discover that until about a week ago. Thankfully, though, K&J Magnetics ships their orders out super quick and I got the new magnets about two days later.

This was the first time I've repainted X-Wing miniatures since 2016 when I created the first iteration of the Green Angels. I'm honestly surprised and happy to see just how much I've improved in three years. I also got the numbers and the insignia facing the right way on the wings this time!

It's also nice to actually finish a project! Unfortunately I tend to drift in and out of projects and, as a result, have five or six that I've started over the last few years but haven't finished. The fact that it took me just over a month to finish these guys is a huge personal triumph for me.

The Green Angels, past and present. 

Thus concludes a highly personal project for me. I fully intend to fly these guys at the 2020 Campaign Against Cancer event, which is slated for May 2, 2020. I need to brush off my X-Wing templates and take them out to Curio Cavern for their weekly mini-tournament; I'd like to finish at something other than last place for a change. 

I may also create a custom pilot card to give out at tournaments. I love seeing what people come up with and it's one of the things I really love about the X-Wing community. If I end up doing it, it'll of course be Grandpa as Green Angel Leader. His call sign/nickname? "Quiet Giant" just as it was when he was in the Navy.

Mr. Ranger & Ms. Selectively Retro

Late last night I was introduced to Hero Forge Custom Miniatures. They’re a miniatures company that have a custom character builder where you can design your own figures and have them professionally made for $20-$30 depending on your choice of plastic.

So I did what any other husband with a miniature hobby and insomnia would do.

That’s right, I designed figures based on my wife (known as @selectivlyretro on Instagram) and I. I showed her the above image and she nearly fell over laughing. If only I had known about this a year ago I think these would have some awesome wedding cake toppers!

Hero Forge has hundreds of different options to choose from, so if you're looking for something extra special and unique for the tabletop I'd definitely recommend checking them out! I saw that someone gave Santa Claus a Thompson sub-machine gun for a game of Bolt Action they were planning. The options are limitless!

On the Workbench: Baa Baa Black Sheep

Work progresses on my other projects, but as is pretty typical I get new ideas in the middle of working on them. In this case, I was inspired while working on the Green Angels to start on Black Sheep Squadron!

This time, however, instead of going with a historically accurate paint job I opted to paint the X-Wings up as the "meat heads" from the 1970s TV show Baa Baa Black Sheep (also known as Black Sheep SquadronI after syndication). I spent many, many hours watching this show on the History Channel while I was growing up; it's also perhaps unsurprising that Grandpa was a fan of the show as well. 

The show presents a very fictionalized version of VMF-214. The real squadron was formed in late 1943 by USMC Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington with aviators who were unattached to any other squadrons in the South Pacific. They flew the iconic F4U Corsair and did quite well for themselves: in 84 days the Black Sheep destroyed or damaged 203 Japanese aircraft and became the stuff of legend. Major Boyington himself would end the war with 28 kills (but not before he was shot down and captured). "Pappy" was awarded the Medal of Honor and eventually released at war's end. 

The ships are pretty much done barring a few more details. "Pappy" is represented with an arrow on his starboard wing, which was appropriated from a 40k Space Marine decal sheet. The rest of the squadron only bear the US insignia. To differentiate the Black Sheep from the Green Angels, I placed the hull insignia back a little bit more. The nose cap was also painted with Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue and given a dark grey wash. I feel it breaks up the paint job a bit and can also be seen on some of the aircraft used in the show. 

Another really awesome aspect of Baa Baa Black Sheep was the fact that they used actual Corsairs in the show! Nowadays it would probably all be CGI, wouldn't it?

The rest of the painting pretty much follows what I did for the Green Angels: gloss black primer, coat of Tamiya Navy Blue spray paint, gloss coat, dark grey wash, then decal application. Then that's followed with another gloss coat, weathering, then a matte varnish.

I again used Mark I 1/144 scale decals for the insignia. This time, however, it was the version used by US aircraft between 1943-1947. They again went on extremely well (for the most part).

As what of the good old Green Angels? They're 98% done! They would've been done a few nights ago, however, until I realized that the disc magnets I got for the bases don't fit. I'll put up a post once they're completely finished though. Shouldn't be much longer now!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Not really related to miniatures, but my wife and I just got back from seeing Episode IX. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I found myself smiling and cheering all throughout the film (especially when Lando and Wedge showed up). It felt like a really nice way to wrap up the Skywalker Saga. 

And of course I had to represent the Campaign Against Cancer while I was there! 

Gaslands: Yellow Submarine

The last time I was in California, my friend Ben from Weasel Miniatures introduced to Gaslands. For those unfamiliar, it's a game of "post-apocalyptic vehicular combat" by Osprey that is surprsingly better than it sounds!

I stockpiled Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, but it wasn't until I was at Target the other day that a particular vehicle caught my eye: the iconic Beatles' Yellow Submarine!

I knew what I had to do.

The model was given a quick spray of Testors Dullcote because I wanted to knock down the shine a bit and give the washes something to adhere to. Once dry, the sub was generously washed with Games Workshop's Agrax Earthshade and Fuegan Orange. Once dry, I applied Games Workshop's Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust to really accent the fact that the sub has seen better, happier days. But I still wanted enough of the original character to shine through. 

Its deck gun came from my bits box and was an old Leman Russ heavy machine gun. After several attempts of trying to glue it in place with super glue and then modeling cement, I decided that pinning it in would likely be better. Turns out it was the right choice. 

In terms of how I'm going to run this in Gaslands, I have a few ideas. My first thought was to run it as a Helicopter, which would reflect its incredible abilities in the iconic film. But then I was rereading the rules and realized I could also run it as an Ice Cream Truck. This is a cheap option in the game, but its "Irritating Jingle" special rule made me think of the many people out there (I'm most definitely not one of them) who have expressed disdain for the song "Yellow Submarine."

All in all, this was a quick and easy model to knock together. What I love about Gaslands is that there's really no such thing as over-weathering your vehicles. 

Now, let's go after some Blue Meanies! 

Black Seas: US Navy Starter Set

Ahoy there!

Last week I picked up the starter set for the new Black Seas game by Warlord Games. While there, the shop owner told me that the Americans were being released the next week and I got very excited. I just picked them up (with the help of a $25 store credit). Since not too many photos of the set itself has been released yet as I can tell, I wanted to venture into the world of “unboxing” and let you know what the set includes.

Pretty standard stuff to start with: flags, sails, cards, and a bobbin of thread for the rigging. Such items are found with just about every Black Seas starter set.

Also included are sprues for 6 brigs and 3 frigates. Again, pretty standard for these sets. But I'm constantly struck by how detailed these models are.

The real gems of this set are found in the bubble wrap, however!

Gunboats are significantly smaller and have less firepower than other ships in the game, but are nimble and are supposedly quite hard to hit. The hulls of three boats are cast in resin with metal sails to be installed later.

For the three frigates on the sprue, there are metal components with nameplates and figureheads to create three of the US Navy's "Original Six" ships: USS Chesapeake, USS Congress, and USS Constellation. The game's designer admitted that Constellation's nameplate is based on the second, slightly smaller sloop-of-war from 1854 (and currently a museum ship in Baltimore, Maryland). This was done to create a bit of variety. 

Then there are two resin "super frigates" in the set to make two more of the "Original Six" ships: USS United States and USS President! What really impressed me with these is that the hulls appear to be two different sculpts to represent the uniqueness of each ship.

USS President includes a figurehead of George Washington (I think) and is superbly detailed!

USS United States is similarly detailed.

This set exceeds all of my expectations and I can't wait to get started! The USS Constitution comes as its own set, so once that's acquired one can sail the Americans with pride on the tabletop!