Have a new camera so I thought I'd test it out and make my first youtube video. It is a review in full HD 1080p more so about the models and what they're made of than the PHR themselves. Check it out if you like!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nURU49VukEg&feature=youtu.be
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Menchit Is Complete!
I have finished my test scheme and first 10mm model. After I completed all of the details I attempted two things I am not very good at. Final detail highlight and hand painted varnish. I mixed a bit of red with yellow until I got a nice light orange. I thinned it down a great deal and slowly built up the highlights where I wanted them. This was time consuming but I feel it gave me more control over how bright the orange was and where it was. Next I'd never used brush on varnish before so I spent an hour practicing on some throw away models. I learned that you have to work quickly and carefully with varnish. It is sort of like a brush on candy shell. If you brush too fast bubbles will appear and whe the varnish hardens you'll have hardened bubbles. If you brush too slow brush streaks will be permanently visible. So I tried both straight out of the bottle and thinned versions. I decided that straight out of the bottle was the way to go but you need to paint each specific area very quickly with a single brush stroke. I found that too much varnish seemed better than not enough.
So after giving all of the metal a matte varnish and all of the armor a gloss varnish I now have my first completed PHR model. Hope you think it looks ok.
Back to building the other models. My next college term starts today so I'll have less time for DZC and posts unfortunately.
So after giving all of the metal a matte varnish and all of the armor a gloss varnish I now have my first completed PHR model. Hope you think it looks ok.
Back to building the other models. My next college term starts today so I'll have less time for DZC and posts unfortunately.
Test Scheme WIP
Thought I'd take a short break from building my stuff today and get my Menchit battle walker painted up. I wasn't sure how I wanted it painted but as a former Blood Angels player I figured I couldn't go wrong with my beloved red.
First I primed the model khaki. In retrospect this was a very bad idea. The way I painted this model utilized some techniques I've never tried before, namely a two stage antique. Basically I used to paint red by either priming a model black and then drybrushing about 10 coats of red onto it giving a lush and brilliant coat or I would base coat in red, give the model a brown ink, and then drybrush or wetbrush red which gave just about the same effect. I didn't want to dick around with too many inks this time so I was going to paint the model very dark red, paint a little less a medium red, and then paint a little less a bright red to achieve depth. Basically, the dark red would have painted just fine onto a black primer. Had I primed in black instead of khaki, I could have skipped an entire step where I painted all of the metal black. Anyway, here's the Menchit in flat khaki Rust-oleum spray paint.
Next I painted all of the parts that are metal with Vallejo 950 Black.
The metal got proper here with a coat of Vallejo 053 Chainmail Silver.
Next came the foundation for the armor color. The rest of the model was coated in Vallejo 985 Hull Red. Notice how the coat has good coverage but is a little bit chunky looking? I've never painted at such a small scale, havn't painted in many years, and am still getting the hang of thinning down my paints without turning them into a wash. I think I used a 1/1 mix of paint/water for everything. Also in this pic you can see that I have given the metal a black wash and then drybrushed it with the Chainmail Silver.
Stage two armor coat is Vallejo 982 Cavalry Brown. I painted this over all of the Hull Red except for holes, vents, and those sexy wavy lines in the armor. This gives the model a brighter appearance and some nice hard lines which makes the detail pop out.
Finally I painted the top coat of Vallejo 957 Flat Red over all of the armor taking great care to leave a bit of the Cavalry Brown exposed. Maybe about as much Cavalry Brown as Hull Red. This gave the model a desireable blending effect or gradient shading without actually blending a thing.
She's still not done yet. All I've got left to do are minor details like optics and those little raised line things on the hull. I will probably give a final hilight of Vallejo 053 Silver to brighten it up just a bit. Everyone seems to do optics in red, blue, or green so I am thinking about doing mine in purple. When all of the detail is done she's getting a flat clear coat and, if I can figure out how to do it right, I will paint all of the red armor with a high gloss coat giving that high tech synthetic look.
While not a super fantastic or original paint job, I'm not too displeased with my first 10mm model. There is a lot I could have done better but this is a nice start I think.
Pictures of her completed will arrive obviously when she's done.
First I primed the model khaki. In retrospect this was a very bad idea. The way I painted this model utilized some techniques I've never tried before, namely a two stage antique. Basically I used to paint red by either priming a model black and then drybrushing about 10 coats of red onto it giving a lush and brilliant coat or I would base coat in red, give the model a brown ink, and then drybrush or wetbrush red which gave just about the same effect. I didn't want to dick around with too many inks this time so I was going to paint the model very dark red, paint a little less a medium red, and then paint a little less a bright red to achieve depth. Basically, the dark red would have painted just fine onto a black primer. Had I primed in black instead of khaki, I could have skipped an entire step where I painted all of the metal black. Anyway, here's the Menchit in flat khaki Rust-oleum spray paint.
Next I painted all of the parts that are metal with Vallejo 950 Black.
The metal got proper here with a coat of Vallejo 053 Chainmail Silver.
Next came the foundation for the armor color. The rest of the model was coated in Vallejo 985 Hull Red. Notice how the coat has good coverage but is a little bit chunky looking? I've never painted at such a small scale, havn't painted in many years, and am still getting the hang of thinning down my paints without turning them into a wash. I think I used a 1/1 mix of paint/water for everything. Also in this pic you can see that I have given the metal a black wash and then drybrushed it with the Chainmail Silver.
Stage two armor coat is Vallejo 982 Cavalry Brown. I painted this over all of the Hull Red except for holes, vents, and those sexy wavy lines in the armor. This gives the model a brighter appearance and some nice hard lines which makes the detail pop out.
Finally I painted the top coat of Vallejo 957 Flat Red over all of the armor taking great care to leave a bit of the Cavalry Brown exposed. Maybe about as much Cavalry Brown as Hull Red. This gave the model a desireable blending effect or gradient shading without actually blending a thing.
She's still not done yet. All I've got left to do are minor details like optics and those little raised line things on the hull. I will probably give a final hilight of Vallejo 053 Silver to brighten it up just a bit. Everyone seems to do optics in red, blue, or green so I am thinking about doing mine in purple. When all of the detail is done she's getting a flat clear coat and, if I can figure out how to do it right, I will paint all of the red armor with a high gloss coat giving that high tech synthetic look.
While not a super fantastic or original paint job, I'm not too displeased with my first 10mm model. There is a lot I could have done better but this is a nice start I think.
Pictures of her completed will arrive obviously when she's done.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Magnetizing Your Army. Is It Worth It?
The TLDR version would be it is sort of worth it.
I've seen YouTube videos where someone is going crazy magnetizing each and every single thing you would normally glue onto your model. That is not what I am doing. Arms and legs will be glued in and the only parts that will be magnetized are turrets, torsos, and dropship connections. I am however wondering about the dropship connections now, at least with tracked PHR vehicles. When placing two Juno IFVs into a Neptune there is no room to place the flight stand. This is just a bit disappointing for me since I wanted my entire army to be carryable. I'm going to have to find a solution for this but havn't got the foggiest clue what to do at this point.
I'm starting a pilot paint scheme with the Menchit I have constructed. Primed in Khaki for a nice neutral not too light but not too dark base. I think I want my guys to be red but I'm not sure on that either. I'll be taking pics as I paint him up.
On that note make sure you check your models over and over and over again. I'm usng white light to model by and with the white resin it can be difficult to see imperfections in your model. As you can see on the right side (its left side) of this Menchit there are quite a few imperfections that I missed when filing/sanding.
My only other beef so far is that sticky tack will not hold to this resin. To spray the primer on I had to don a latex glove and hold the model. Can't just leave the parts sitting there because the spray paint will blow them away. I am thinking about getting some needles with those balls on the end. Stab the needle into the foot and that will give me a nice amount of material to hold onto during priming.
I've seen YouTube videos where someone is going crazy magnetizing each and every single thing you would normally glue onto your model. That is not what I am doing. Arms and legs will be glued in and the only parts that will be magnetized are turrets, torsos, and dropship connections. I am however wondering about the dropship connections now, at least with tracked PHR vehicles. When placing two Juno IFVs into a Neptune there is no room to place the flight stand. This is just a bit disappointing for me since I wanted my entire army to be carryable. I'm going to have to find a solution for this but havn't got the foggiest clue what to do at this point.
I'm starting a pilot paint scheme with the Menchit I have constructed. Primed in Khaki for a nice neutral not too light but not too dark base. I think I want my guys to be red but I'm not sure on that either. I'll be taking pics as I paint him up.
On that note make sure you check your models over and over and over again. I'm usng white light to model by and with the white resin it can be difficult to see imperfections in your model. As you can see on the right side (its left side) of this Menchit there are quite a few imperfections that I missed when filing/sanding.
My only other beef so far is that sticky tack will not hold to this resin. To spray the primer on I had to don a latex glove and hold the model. Can't just leave the parts sitting there because the spray paint will blow them away. I am thinking about getting some needles with those balls on the end. Stab the needle into the foot and that will give me a nice amount of material to hold onto during priming.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
First DZC Conversion I've Seen So Far
And it's made by me. I was magnetizing stuff when I got distracted and started eyeballing my walkers to see how I wanted to make my four-legged artillery walker conversion. I ended up popping open my Zeus blister pack and started building the model in my mind. Ended up cutting it to pieces and made this fella.
PHR Acheron Assault Walker
The name and model are works of progress and subject to change. The weapons are bluetac'd on since I don't know what weapons it is getting. It will for sure be getting a big ass gun but may only get shields in the arm sockets. My book is coming today so once I know weapon costs and all that I can design it so that it is formiddable but not over powered.
Model is made of two Zeus.
It of course needs some Green Stuff love but I have that on order.
Peace.
PHR Acheron Assault Walker
The name and model are works of progress and subject to change. The weapons are bluetac'd on since I don't know what weapons it is getting. It will for sure be getting a big ass gun but may only get shields in the arm sockets. My book is coming today so once I know weapon costs and all that I can design it so that it is formiddable but not over powered.
Model is made of two Zeus.
It of course needs some Green Stuff love but I have that on order.
Peace.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
First Arrivals
Box from lotusvault arrived today and when I opened it I was nearly blinded by the joyousness barely contained inside!
After the blinding light of joy dissipated I looked inside and removed the packing material, leaving only the super awesomeness to be had.
I really like the blister packs themselves. I was worried that they were those crazy ones that people cut themselves on and die from every christmas while trying to open but I noticed a sort of hinge on the bottom. The back of the blister slides right out giving you access to it from the rear (er...). I prefer to cut the hinge though as doing so gives you a nice tab to pull on. Very simple yet nice presentation of the models in my opinion.
Unfortunately it wasn't all good. The models have more flash on them than I was lead to believe and because I want them to look super awesome I've spent nearly as much time cleaning them as I would a Flames of War miniature. However I must say that the resin material is FREAKING AWESOME. It doesn't stink of bigfoot's ass like normal resin, it cuts and shaves as easily as plastic but is about the same weight or lighter, and it doesn't chip and snap like resin but instead bends a little bit which GW plastics cannot do. Again there is a downside to this. As others have hinted at there are quite a few bubbles. If you hold a model near a light you can easily see through the material and see where these bubbles are. As long as the surface isn't affected that is fine. Unfortunately I have found bubbles on my Menchit walker feet which look very bad and my first of two Poseidons is damaged from bubbles as well.
I will have more pictures later but for now you can see my first Poseidon. On the missile racks on top you can see that bubbles have ruined the sweet look of the wearheads. I have no ideas on how to fix this. On the bottom you can see that the optics are suffering from the same thing. The optics I think I can fill with a tiny bit of plaster and because I'm working with a round shape I think I can make it look right. The warheads...well I'm at a loss. I think I am finally going to have to invest in some Green Stuff for the first time and learn how to sculpt like everyone else.
More to follow!
After the blinding light of joy dissipated I looked inside and removed the packing material, leaving only the super awesomeness to be had.
I really like the blister packs themselves. I was worried that they were those crazy ones that people cut themselves on and die from every christmas while trying to open but I noticed a sort of hinge on the bottom. The back of the blister slides right out giving you access to it from the rear (er...). I prefer to cut the hinge though as doing so gives you a nice tab to pull on. Very simple yet nice presentation of the models in my opinion.
Unfortunately it wasn't all good. The models have more flash on them than I was lead to believe and because I want them to look super awesome I've spent nearly as much time cleaning them as I would a Flames of War miniature. However I must say that the resin material is FREAKING AWESOME. It doesn't stink of bigfoot's ass like normal resin, it cuts and shaves as easily as plastic but is about the same weight or lighter, and it doesn't chip and snap like resin but instead bends a little bit which GW plastics cannot do. Again there is a downside to this. As others have hinted at there are quite a few bubbles. If you hold a model near a light you can easily see through the material and see where these bubbles are. As long as the surface isn't affected that is fine. Unfortunately I have found bubbles on my Menchit walker feet which look very bad and my first of two Poseidons is damaged from bubbles as well.
I will have more pictures later but for now you can see my first Poseidon. On the missile racks on top you can see that bubbles have ruined the sweet look of the wearheads. I have no ideas on how to fix this. On the bottom you can see that the optics are suffering from the same thing. The optics I think I can fill with a tiny bit of plaster and because I'm working with a round shape I think I can make it look right. The warheads...well I'm at a loss. I think I am finally going to have to invest in some Green Stuff for the first time and learn how to sculpt like everyone else.
More to follow!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Mission Statement
Last purchases were made today to trolltrader on Ebay. Those models will be coming from the UK but I'll have plenty of models coming in the next day or two to keep me busy so I won't mind the wait. Here is what I've got on its way at the moment.
Dropships
2x Poseidon Heavy Dropships
8x Neptune Medium Dropships
2x Triton A1 Strike Dropships
2x Triton A2 Strike Drpships
Armor
2x Zeus Command Walkers
2x Enyo Siege Walkers
4x Odin Heavy Walkers
4x Hyperion Heavy Walkers
4x Ares Battle Walkers
4x Phobos Battle Walkers
4x Menchit Battle Walkers
4x Janus Scout Walkers
4x Juno A1 APCs
2x Juno A2 APCs
4x Taranis MLRS Batteries
Infantry
8x Immortals Infantry
4x Sirens Infantry
Fleet
2x Athena Air Superiority Fighters
Literature
1x Rulebook
2x PHR Command Card Packs
And I didn't have to pre-order a thing.
All that aside, since I don't have anything interesting to post just yet I figured I'd give my mission statement about what this blog will be about.
First the blog itself will continue to evolve looks-wise until I am happy with it which may be never. Once I get my models I plan on first giving my personal review of them and the rules.
I plan on doing posts about painting although I have not selected a color scheme yet. I'm leaning heavily towards bright red armor with white metals. The models, regardless of the scheme I pick, will be given a flat or matte protective finish and then I will hand paint all of the armor to be extremely high gloss for that high-tech synthetic look.
Modeling will also be a key focus as I magnetize my forces and create buildings and other terrain for the game. Since I spent a decade with GW products, I am very keen on conversions as well and even though I have never used Green Stuff I would say I am decent at it. Since it seems like most people are [naturally] gravitating towards PHR forces, this makes personalization that much more important to stand out from the crowd. I have alluded to a four-legged artillery walker I am planning to do but I will not spill the beans on any other projects of this nature until they are at the very least built.
Finally I will be doing battle reports if I manage to find a game any time soon. I am kind of in a shitty part of Florida (yes I know that ALL of Florida is shitty but this area is shittier than that) so it remains to be seen if I will be able to find opponents. I tend to avoid large population centers like the plague.
Keep stopping by as the next few weeks should be interesting!
Dropships
2x Poseidon Heavy Dropships
8x Neptune Medium Dropships
2x Triton A1 Strike Dropships
2x Triton A2 Strike Drpships
Armor
2x Zeus Command Walkers
2x Enyo Siege Walkers
4x Odin Heavy Walkers
4x Hyperion Heavy Walkers
4x Ares Battle Walkers
4x Phobos Battle Walkers
4x Menchit Battle Walkers
4x Janus Scout Walkers
4x Juno A1 APCs
2x Juno A2 APCs
4x Taranis MLRS Batteries
Infantry
8x Immortals Infantry
4x Sirens Infantry
Fleet
2x Athena Air Superiority Fighters
Literature
1x Rulebook
2x PHR Command Card Packs
And I didn't have to pre-order a thing.
All that aside, since I don't have anything interesting to post just yet I figured I'd give my mission statement about what this blog will be about.
First the blog itself will continue to evolve looks-wise until I am happy with it which may be never. Once I get my models I plan on first giving my personal review of them and the rules.
I plan on doing posts about painting although I have not selected a color scheme yet. I'm leaning heavily towards bright red armor with white metals. The models, regardless of the scheme I pick, will be given a flat or matte protective finish and then I will hand paint all of the armor to be extremely high gloss for that high-tech synthetic look.
Modeling will also be a key focus as I magnetize my forces and create buildings and other terrain for the game. Since I spent a decade with GW products, I am very keen on conversions as well and even though I have never used Green Stuff I would say I am decent at it. Since it seems like most people are [naturally] gravitating towards PHR forces, this makes personalization that much more important to stand out from the crowd. I have alluded to a four-legged artillery walker I am planning to do but I will not spill the beans on any other projects of this nature until they are at the very least built.
Finally I will be doing battle reports if I manage to find a game any time soon. I am kind of in a shitty part of Florida (yes I know that ALL of Florida is shitty but this area is shittier than that) so it remains to be seen if I will be able to find opponents. I tend to avoid large population centers like the plague.
Keep stopping by as the next few weeks should be interesting!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Ok so we're gonna put his on Ebay...AND IT'S GONE!
Just a quick followup on my first post. Someone else on Ebay put up two of each small starter army so I quickly scooped up the two PHR armies. I now have everything you get in the mega army on the way except I have additional units such as 2 extra Neptune, 2 extra A1 IFV, 2 extra Ares, and 2 extra Taranis. I am very stoked. Just need those 2 Athenas and I am set for a while!
Stay tuned! More on the way when all of my stuff comes in a few days!
Stay tuned! More on the way when all of my stuff comes in a few days!
Dropships Inbound!
I just found out about Dropzone Commander about a week ago and have spent that time deciding on whether to get into it or Firestorm Armada. Both had some excellent models and some very good pros going for them so it was an extremely tough choice for me. With FSA I could get more ships for a Rense System Navy fleet than I would ever need at HALF the price of a 1500pt-ish DZC army and terrain would cost 1/10th the cost of a DZC battlefield. Despite the price disparity between the two, I have chosen DZC for what I would consider far more important than cost, gameplay. Having watched many FSA battle reports on youtube, I deduced that there is very little value in terms of tactical gameplay. Each fleet starts on either side of the battlefield and just sort of slug it out in the middle. Whoever rolls the most 6s wins the game. With DZC it seems very different despite there being no video battle reports out yet. Everyone starts off the field and takes turns zooming dropships into a vibrant city that you create, slugging it out violently in the streets for land. I am totally sold on the idea of rapid deployment and re-deployment as well as lightning fast tactical retreats. DZC just seems to offer more replay value despite a much higher price tag and lack of model availablity at the moment.
With all of that said, the only person in America selling DZC products online appears to be Lotusvault on Ebay. He's got a little bit of everything up for sale so I went ahead and bought the DZC rulebook and every single PHR item he had. Unfortunately I purchased too late and missed out on the Athena he had for sale but that is fine since I now have plenty of models coming hopefully by Wednesday or Thursday. All that is left for me to buy now (at least to equal what comes in the mega army box) are 2 Athena, 8 Immortals, 2 Juno A1 IFVs, 4 Neptune dropships, 2 Ares walkers, and 4 Phobos walkers. What I think I'm going to do is just purchase 2 of the small PHR starter armies and 2 Athena. That will give me everything else that I need except I'll have 4 Ares instead of 2 and I'll have 6 Neptunes instead of 4. I also purchased a Menchit pack from Lotusvault which appears to be a last minute addition to the PHR army. It is not included in any of the starter armies which is a shame because it has flamethrowers. Who doesn't love flamethrowers? Anyway here is the mega army pictured from Hawk's website. Anything that I have ordered that will be here in a few days is marked with an X. I'll have to pre-order the rest and wait like the rest of you.
Thanks for checking out Dropzone 50 and I hope to do many more posts about my entry into this game including terrain making, painting, and conversions. I already have plans to splice together 2 type 1 walkers into a 4-legged artillery walker. Stay tuned!
With all of that said, the only person in America selling DZC products online appears to be Lotusvault on Ebay. He's got a little bit of everything up for sale so I went ahead and bought the DZC rulebook and every single PHR item he had. Unfortunately I purchased too late and missed out on the Athena he had for sale but that is fine since I now have plenty of models coming hopefully by Wednesday or Thursday. All that is left for me to buy now (at least to equal what comes in the mega army box) are 2 Athena, 8 Immortals, 2 Juno A1 IFVs, 4 Neptune dropships, 2 Ares walkers, and 4 Phobos walkers. What I think I'm going to do is just purchase 2 of the small PHR starter armies and 2 Athena. That will give me everything else that I need except I'll have 4 Ares instead of 2 and I'll have 6 Neptunes instead of 4. I also purchased a Menchit pack from Lotusvault which appears to be a last minute addition to the PHR army. It is not included in any of the starter armies which is a shame because it has flamethrowers. Who doesn't love flamethrowers? Anyway here is the mega army pictured from Hawk's website. Anything that I have ordered that will be here in a few days is marked with an X. I'll have to pre-order the rest and wait like the rest of you.
Thanks for checking out Dropzone 50 and I hope to do many more posts about my entry into this game including terrain making, painting, and conversions. I already have plans to splice together 2 type 1 walkers into a 4-legged artillery walker. Stay tuned!
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