Callimachus Class Time Dilation Orb

Time for the Covenant of Antarctica to get a huge miniature.

This is one of my favourite CoA models, perhaps my favourite of all the Dystopian Wars minis.  Very sci-fi for a steam punk game, the orb reminds me of the Martians from HG Wells "War of the Worlds".  A closer looks shows many steampunk essentials, gears, pipes, grills, etc, that tie the mini back to the Victorian era.

The model went together easily.  I packed the leg sockets with milliput and did not pin them as they had a big tag; let's hope the super glue holds.  The top engine is magnetised, but it could be glued in place.  It is kind of large and was tricky to hold for painting ... perhaps that explains how I dropped it, broke a leg, bent the others and chipped the paint.  It repaired well enough.

Although the model has a lot of fine detail, it's also covered in tool marks and seams.  The rivets make it really hard to clean up - it would have been easier to sand off the rivets than the tooling.  I tried layering the paint (first time) rather than dry brushing, but the tooling is still very clear in the photos.  It looks better in real-life.

This truly is a huge war engine.  Only the Covenant of Antarctica have the technology to build the Orb. Only they can produce the malachite steel in their stirginium blast furnaces to create legs strong enough to support the massive body.  Only they have the Stirginium Rotary Wankel Engine that powers the unique Leonidas time distortion field.  This is the very pinnacle of Victorian engineering.

Side view, showing the malachite steel legs:

Top view, showing the Rotary Wankel Engine:

And the (soon to be mighty) Covenant of Antarctica fleet:

Cool Mini?

Or Not?

I've been lurking on Cool Mini Or Not for a while now.  The site is a showcase for gamers' work, and features images of 174,536 minis! But it's not just a photo collection: anyone, member or not, can rate the images. 

The quality of painting, scratch-built figures and dioramas on this site is just amazing. To be honest, it was a little intimidating and delayed me getting started with my Dystopian Wars fleets.

I have a few new miniatures painted now and I've created a new picture gallery.  Spartan Games and Dystopian Wars is underrepresented on Cool Mini or Not, so I'm glad I put some pictures up there.  You can vote on each of my miniatures from this gallery.

Artists are also rated.  I'm in last place.  No, I'm being too hard on myself.  I am actually in joint last place ... with all the other artists that do not have enough votes to be ranked.  You need 5 pictures, each with 50 votes before you are rated.  Some of my images have been up for less that 24 hours so I'm surprised I have any votes at all.  It would be good to get off the bottom, though.

So now we'll know if my miniatures are cool or not.  Get out there and vote!

CoA: Thales Class Corvettes

My CoA Fleet just expanded to 9 miniatures.  I have six Thales Class Corvettes, so I painted them all together.  It took two weeks, but I am still painting a squad per week.  Just.

I tried a lighter blue as my base, which worked well.  I am still having trouble with the metallics.  I tried mixing the green ink into the metallics: fail, no colour on the figure.  I tried starting with a darker metal paint lower on the model: fail, too dark.  I tried mixing the ink with some medium, so it would coat better: not much difference.  But in the end, I like the effect, which I am calling malachite steel.  I need to work on my layering; dry brushing really brings out the tool marks on the miniatures.

My CoA industrialists have access to pure sturginium, hence the yellow neon engines.  They sell unrefined sturginium to the rest of the world, see what the KoB has to use here and here.

So here are my Thales Class Corvettes, in Blue Ice with Malachite Steel Plating:

And a looming close-up:

My Time Dilation Orb is primed and ready to go.  It's time to add a huge miniature to this fleet!