Basing Victory at Sea with Realistic Waves

A short while ago, a friend of mine and I decided to start painting up Pacific fleets for the then-digital-only game Victory at Sea (now Warlord Games has released a ruleset. I haven't tried that ruleset so I can't judge it comparatively!)

We grabbed a bunch of miniatures from GHQ, with him taking the Japanese fleet, and I exploring the US fleet. I ordered a selection of destroyers and cruisers that would fit any engagement to start, but of course, being a magpie and rivet counter, that has since expanded to a wide selection including three battleships, three carriers, and a variety of cruisers, destroyers, PT boats, and subs!

Tackling bases was the interesting challenge I wanted to share with everyone today.

I wanted to ensure that I got the translucency effect of water on my bases, had ones that would allow me to grab and move the minis without grabbing the delicate 1:2400 ships, and look good in any photos. I was lucky some time back to pick up a product that offers acrylic paints with texture, and the two specific to this are an ultramarine blue and a pale teal (not photographed):

It goes on a creepy opaque, but dries a shiny translucent blue, and while it was theoretically purchased for pirate models I'll hopefully eventually get to, it worked handily for this!

Step 1 was basing them on clear 1.5mm acrylic I laser cut. I stippled some white on the underside of the base, in a scattered shape that would hopefully look like the churn of a bunch of high-powered screws of a war vessel!

In Step 2 I airbrushed a cone of teal from the aft section of each ship, spreading out and hazing as it went, covering the areas with white painted before.

Step 3 saw the beginning of application of the Blue Deep. The first application was to add a bow wave, and the borders of the aft chop. This was in the darker blue. I used a medium thickness brush that had started to go, so I didn't mind if anything gunked up on it. The consistency is similar to liquid greenstuff, so a rolling shape allowed me to goop it on, and then tease it into shape later with a wet brush.

Step 4 saw the addition of normal wave patterns. I avoided anything too large and distinctive, because I didn't want it to look like the ships were going through intense storm-waves!

Step 5: You can see here the look of the chop when it dries. At this stage, I added the teal liquid in the aft chop. In thinner coats, it doesn't hold a lot of colour, but does add some refraction to light passing through, helping add depth to the chop underneath.

Step 6: To fade the colours, I applied a very watered down layer of the darker blue to the edges of chop, and add more depth to the under-teal paint so it would look like water disturbed and filled with billions of bubbles.

Step 7 (not shown) is to add stipples and trailings of white acrylic to the top of select waves, and to the bow wake, to represent the chop and foam.

As you can see, the liquid paint wasn't applied so as to be opaque. We'll be playing on water mats anyway, and I'd rather have some of that visible through, so it really makes the ships look like they're cutting through the ocean that's already there!

And finally, a teaser pic of the finished fleet! More pics to come shortly, but as you can see, even on black it really feels like water and waves with ships cutting through!

Dropzone Commander PHR Force

Good Lord how has it been nearly two years...

I have been painting in all this time, just not photographing or uploading, as you can see!

with isolation upon us, modellers are finally tackling back catalogues. In my case, that includes this previously half-finished starter army for the PHR in Dropzone Commander:

 

Three Neptune Medium Dropships, an Athena air superiority fighter, four medium walkers, two command walkers, two Junos, and a pair of Taranis rocket launchers.

Everything except the command walkers is magnetized, so arms can be swapped between various walker roles, and the flyers are on their removable pegs to reduce the possibility of damage. Since I re-posed some of the legs, and to support them in battle, I laser cut some bases for the walkers to steady on.

Here you can see the close-up on their camouflage. I am not a fan of the default-bone colour of the official scheme, but was caught by an urban dazzle camouflage in the rulebook. I adapted the colour scheme (blue-grey, with pale-grey and deeper-blue accents) and applied it to mine. The hexes were airbrushed on with laser-etched painters tape providing the mask. Hitting it in different patches like this makes it look like the camo sweeps across the model in reaction to movement or surroundings.

The effect on larger, flatter surfaces like the Athena or the Neptunes (Below) really enhances the organic curves of the PHR and their advanced-tech feel.

It also allows for Neptunes to be individualized, without illogical big numbers or stripes.

The Taranis launchers are not glued in, so they can appear with weapons exposed, or sealed up in full scuttling beetle mode.

Infantry will join the vehicles shortly, but I am clear-basing them as well, and it'll take a bit of extra work fishing them off their bases, painting them, and gluing them down.

Now I just can't wait for the quarantining to end so I can throw these on a battlefield!