Triumphal Return and some Modern Soldiers

 I have had a terrible time of getting models finished, and even worse at getting them photographed! Either stuff only gets half done, or it's nothing to write a blog post about.

More frustratingly; recently, I have tried three times so far to photograph the things I HAVE gotten done and am proud of. Each time they're either blurry, too badly colour-imbalanced, or some combination of problems.

At long last, I have a set I don't hate the colours of!

As a pre-amble, I am hoping to create a skirmish game that is near-apocalyptic. Too many games or universes that are post-apocalyptic describe an apocalypse decades or centuries ago, which does allow for mutations and sci-fi weaponry, sure, but also glosses over a huge and fascinating period of any apocalypse: What happens when everything first starts to break down? Debatably the Walking Dead has elements of this, but there was a show named Jericho that I think aligns better.

What happens when resources are just getting scarce enough that you start eyeing your neighbours... Are they hoarding more soup than they need as you go hungry? Perhaps you should grab a bat and go find out...

Enough intro, on to the pretty pics! I am finally happy to say I have finished some models from Hasslefree Miniatures, which is great because I love their stuff, and want to trumpet them as much as possible. My game will eventually feature 8 models, so here's the first team: A group of veteran soldiers, bereft of the military structure they've depended on all these years, using their favourite weapons and trying to cling to a sense of honour and order in an increasingly insane world.

First up, the leader:

"Deano", a model with a great Sci-Fi inspiration, wielding a P90. The colour scheme for all these is "generic 80s camo", with a more modern combat boot vibe. It was a lot of fun lightly contrasting the pouches, belts, and combat vests from the fatigues. The bases are, as is my usual, clear acrylic, 1.5mm by 20mm in this case.

Next up is "Harlequin". Equipped with a combat rifle and full tactical gear. Lots of drybrushing went into making their uniforms look dusty, well used, and in need of replacing!

Lugging the marksman rifle is "Demon". Sure he's got no scope but if he's on the table, is he really using a scope with any heavy magnification? These are all using a simplified, table-ready version of my typical skin paintscheme; Vallejo medium flesh tone, washed with light rust, highlighted back up through to "pale flesh". The light rust colour is rouge enough to give a feeling of living, pinkish skin.

Next up is the second P90 wielder (with a scope AND a suppressor! Someone's fancy...) Titled "Joker" by Hasslefree, he will fit the role of backup for either my supplies runner, or with his heavy gear, perhaps support for the squad assault weapon soldier.

Speaking of the runner, this is Pilot Vic; Geared down to just a pistol (and barely a jacket for whatever reason), she is intended to be able to get in, grab supplies, and get out before anyone can tie her into a firefight. I should have converted her with a backpack or satchel bag, but the creases on the fabric of her coat were too cool to paint to risk covering them up!

Ensuring no one gets too curious, and to make sure his team returns safe, the Squad Assault Weapon is wielded by "Badger". Geared up for a heavy firefight, it's likely he'll only be able to pack out a box of matches or a roll of toilet paper in the way of supplies, but he'll make sure Vic and the rest have time to get the quilted, not just some basic 2-ply!

Our last "main" soldier is the combat-rifle-wielding "Bergil". He's also bringing some severe heat with a backpack-slung RPG, but I haven't decided yet whether that will be in-game legal or just "he has a what?!" visually interesting item. I tried to imitate what I assume is the "arid colour" scheme for the gun, also to bring more of the weapons away from a boring, hard-to-see-detail black of most of them. You can see other examples up the line. Considering what weapon a model is wielding usually matters a bunch in game, there is some merit to the old GW-style super bright and distinctive gun colours, as impractical as they may be.

Last up, but first into any breach is "Woody", equipped with every Half Life player's favourite trusty combat shotgun. I always find painting darker skin to be a difficult balance between making it look natural, but also not 'under-highlighted'. I think I did a decent job on him, for all that everything but his arms are entirely covered!

Not that I'm brave enough to do a tutorial of it yet (there are far better people for that out there), I find imitating the above steps, but starting with light rust, and washing with Model Air Mahogany gives a lovely rich dark skin tone that doesn't feel like you've painted wood or forgotten a few steps of highlights. I intend to keep experimenting, and once I get confident enough that I can execute each time I'll put up a tutorial!

That said, here's my Veteran Squad all ready to go for the as-yet-unnamed skirmish game I totally intend on writing after I finish the rulebook, illustrations, and playtesting for Diesel and Dust...

When Poor Design Decisions Compound

I am a history nerd, and am a magpie when it comes to historical miniature games. Of course I had to get some Blood Red Skies miniatures. I grew up playing games like Hellcats Over the Pacific, and the Aces games, so I may or may not somehow have a bunch of Spitfires, a P-47, an F4F, and a Corsair. I want to address something strange I've noticed as I started to acquire miniatures for this game, and discuss subtle reasons why design (and design iteration) is so important.

In Blood Red Skies, it is very important whether or not your plane is in an "advantaged" or "disadvantaged" position. The way the game tracks this is by tilting planes nose-up or nose-down to indicate this. A plane with its nose up (climbing) is considered to be "Advantaged", whereas nose down (diving) is "Disadvantaged". Level flight is of course neither. This is the first design oddity; If you're a fan of air combat, especially in WW2, being higher up and able to dive gives a wealth of benefits such as increased speed, reduced effects of bullet drop, etc. Why then is the plane that's at the advantage depicted climbing?

Left: advantaged. Middle: Neutral. Right: Disadvantaged.

Now, that aside, there is of course the issue of it also looking slightly absurd if an advantaged plane fights a disadvantaged plane at close range:

Missed Me!

But there's a bigger problem. A waaay bigger problem. Some of the planes are not plastic. Some, are metal. Let's take a look at that?

Looks fine right? Should be fine if we just tilt this thing into "Advantage" position right?

Whups! Drunk Corsair time. That's not viable for gameplay at all! So already we have a huge design flaw which either forces the company to only produce plastic miniatures, or have this big flaw in your metal ones. There's a few solutions, but let's see what they went with:

If you guessed "Giant additional plastic thing" then congrats! Yep, every metal miniature comes with a larger, clear-plastic 'foot' to keep the plane off the deck. This requires a lot of extra work designing, producing, ensuring packaging fits it properly, and still leaves you with another design problem:

(Shown here with plastic minis for ease)

I don't yet know how common something like this could be in-game, but what if two planes fly close to one another? If the original flight stand counts as the "area" of a plane rules-wise, does the increased foot count? God Forbid two such hoofed beasts come near one another...

But surely there's no other solution right? how to integrate tilting planes in a flying game?
Well, for a rare moment allow me to celebrate GW's solution to this problem:

Aeronautica Imperialis uses this fascinating flight peg with a ball top. We can debate if desired whether a base with a bunch of info is logical or not, but that little ball there is fantastic.

Behold how this simple solution slots into a spot under the plane, allowing it to both climb and dive, as well as bank left or right without great cost to overall centre of mass, balance, or model adjacency.

Also, speaking on production's side, it requires far less of it. The click-base of Blood Red Skies is at least a two part production, pre-assembled at the manufacturer, sent to the user, for further assembly. Also, because the flight stand is pre-assembled it neither ships nor stores flat, but always has that A-frame bend. Lastly, should I break a flight stand for Aeronautica, I can use a spare rod and keep flying with base and plane intact, whereas Blood Red Skies risks a breakage requiring me to buy more (or repair it, since I'm not certain if they're sold separately.)

It is a cautionary tale that I am sure has cost loads more money in production and planning than a bit more design iteration time and a cleaner solution would have resulted in.

Thus ends the public broadcast, hopefully I'll be back with more cool models and conversions soon!