I'd like to share some photos of a slightly different hobby project that I've completed recently. Miniature spaceships for a tabletop wargame called Dropfleet Commander. Firstly, here's a shot of all the different faction's fleets together:
That's 28 ships in total over 4 different factions, including light frigate sized ships and bigger cruiser hulls. I'm pleased with how the colour schemes I chose for the different factions came together and make it clear which ship belongs to each faction as well as make it apparent what the different armaments are.
As an aside the kickstarter that launched Dropfleet Commander as a game (page viewable here) in my opinion is the most successful kickstarter with the most benefits from additional milestones ever seen. They blew past their initial goal of £40,000 in less than a day and reached a staggering £629,000 raised from 3900 backers in total. Their success was such that they were able to bundle in additional ships for each an every backer. I only backed at the lowest level to receive one fleets worth of ships; the PHR (the ships in orange above) giving me 4 frigates and 3 cruisers. But because of the addons I received an extra frigate sprue as well as a cruiser sprue for each of the four factions, meaning I have a small force for each! :D
The kickstarter funding period ran for a month over November 2015. I actually received the package containing the rules, extra backer rewards and unassembled miniatures still on the spruces around November 2016. While it didn't take me too long to assemble the models and play a few games with them I didn't get them painted until last month. They have spent rather a long time being packed away in a box under my bed but that is a not too uncommon fate for such miniatures I find :P
Anyway, here are some photos of the individual faction fleets:
First the UCM (United Colonies of Mankind), the main human faction. After the Scourge invaded and occupied the core worlds, including earth, the UCM was formed to take back the worlds lost. I gave the ships a very utilitarian colour scheme based on a plain white undercoat with a black inkwash over the model to pick out the seams of the armour plating. I took the time to pick out some of the plating on the tops of the models in grey and white to denote different ship types. Other details to note are the railguns with a light blue inkwash over a metallic colour, missile pods picked out in red and engine pods metal with a yellow inkwash and bright yellow thrust.
One part I was particularly pleased with how it came out were the hangar bays on the cruiser. Painted in white and then given a light blue inkwash to give the impression of light streaming out of the opening. Here's another closer view:
Next are the Scourge themselves:
Very organic looking ships that reflect the fact that Scourge pilot their vessels by merging with their machines. Their playstyle revolves round being sneaky with stealth systems or hiding in atmosphere to get close to their targets before unleashing devastating weaponry at close range. I'm really happy with how the combination of a light blue basecoat combined with a purple inkwash looks. The models have all this cool, organic detail that an inkwash works really well on. The Scourge main armaments are oculus beam weapons which I've done as reflective red eyes by using a transparent red paint over a metallic base colour.
Another alien fleet are the Shaltari:
Aloof and mysterious their ships look and act very differently to the other factions. They get lots of special rules such as shields and most importantly utilize teleportation technology for the gameplay of getting their troops to the planet's surface. This is done through Void Gates, the little circular ship in the top left. Being such an advanced race their ships have a really alien look to them and it's difficult to work out what parts are ornamental or functional. I experimented with different base hull colours on the small frigates at the front but if I were to paint more of this faction I would probably use the colours on the large cruiser at the back; a earthy yellow with a brown inkwash. I went for a wooden look to these ships with browns and greens. The little lights were fun to do being just white dots with a wash of a ghostly green contrast paint.
Lastly but by no means least are the PHR:
The PHR (Post Human Republic) are a different set of humans who got involved with a mysterious alien artifact and are big on robotics and self-modification. Their ships look absolutely great, highly advanced, sleek hulls with manoeuvring fins and loads of guns in a broadside configuration. The official colour scheme is quite subdued with a bleached bone look to the hulls so I decided to go for something a little more exciting; bright orange with stripes. They already look quite fishlike so why not go the whole way and have a fleet of tropical fish in space? :D
Like the UCM I gave the launch bays an inkwash to depict light sources, green in the case of the PHR which can be seen on the ships in the top right. The PHR ships have lots of detail along the sides and the rear which were easy to pick out with a bright metallic base layer with a black inkwash. I love inkwashes, they work so well on highly detailed miniatures like these :) For the orange hulls I used masking tape to block off where the stripes would be and then painted the rest in the brightest orange I could find. As a finishing touch I put a layer of varnish over the hull to give it a reflective quality which I'm rather pleased with.
Well that's what's being keeping me occupied over the last month or so :) I've also been playing a few games of Dropfleet with family and being enjoying that too. Perhaps in future I'll find some people locally who are interested, fortunately I already have painted fleets which we can play with. There are loads of new models which have been released since the success of the kickstarter, including a whole new fifth faction so I'm likely to pick some of them up to paint sometime. Thanks for reading!
