Crazy times! Helldorado hobby articles.

My apologies for a lack of recent updates, things have been quite busy for me at work and with the family (both obviously good things), and that has left me little time to wrap up my Dracosans (I'm about 80% through the next one, I promise).

Anyway, I thought I'd show you a couple of photos of things I did last year : )

One of the cool things I worked on was a series of 18 Hell Dorado hobby articles for the guys at Cipher Studios. These articles covered all manner of things, from an overview of the game and the factions, to step-by-step painting and interviews with Thomas David, to building terrain for the game.

The first three articles have been posted, with the rest to be spread out over the next few months (being posted on Thursdays, I think). You can find them here:

• What is Hell Dorado?
• Who are the Factions of Hell Dorado?
• Painting Westerners for Hell Dorado

The whole idea of the game is very cool, and the miniature range is fantastic! I've shown you the Westerners and Demons here in the post, I'll put up the Lost and the Saracens in the next.

Cheers

Dave

Solar Auxilia - First Dracosan complete!

In the evenings, after my daughters are safely tucked away in bed, I've been working towards the completion of the Solar Auxilia vehicles. The first one has finally rolled off the painting table - The Dracosan for the 186th Lasrifle Section. These tanks are deceptively large, that is they are larger and more involved than they first appear. It meant that in order to keep my sanity (and the production line rolling), I had to cut a few corners. Should it really bug me too much later, I can always go back and touch up a few things.

But anyway, here she is!

And here she is with her Lasrifle Section, ready to roll. Now that Ive settled on the weathering powder for the bases, I was good to go applying it to the Dracosan (after sponging on some chipping here and there).

Cheers
Dave

Solar Auxilia - Thudd Gun Battery

It has been a busy week. Lots of models assembled, quite a few painted, and even more photographed, but that's all been for work (some hobby articles for Ninja Division and Warlord Games). I did get a chance to finally wrap up my Solar Auxilia Thudd Gun battery!

These are an Elite choice for the Solar Auxilia list, the Rapier battery upgraded to Quad Mortars. The Frag shells are pretty good (Heavy 4, Barrage, and 3" template), but the Shatter wheels are nice too (no template, but Strength 8 and re-roll armor penetration).

I've loved the models since they were released for the Death Korps of Krieg, and I was happy to find them in my basement stash : )

More to come soon.

Cheers
Dave

Working on a warehouse for "Welcome to The Big Smoke".

I've been working on a few different things recently (well, four or five different projects - I'm obviously a hobby butterfly). While the washes dry on my Dracosans, and I wait for my bases to arrive for my thudd guns, I've been working on tarting up a great 4Ground Victorian Warehouse.

I got this beast from my friend Nigel while I was visiting the Oldhammer weekend last October, and at the event Rusty challenged me to make it "not look like it's laser-cut MDF". I've been thinking about how to do that, and after finishing up the Sarissa/Warlord La Haye Sainte just before Christmas I felt it was time to get started. I've been working on it over the last week and am now writing up an article for Wargames Illustrated (with photos) describing the things that I feel can be done to enhance an already spectacular building.

But more on that later...

Here's a quick WIP for my first Infamy "kingpin" - The Toad! I hope you like him.

Cheers
Dave

Solar Auxilia - The Dracosan Transports, plus some Bombards and a dilemma.

Although these three Dracosan Transports for my Solar Auxilia did not arrive before Christmas (despite my wife ordering before the FW deadline), I was very happy to receive them the day after Christmas! That weekend they were scrubbed clean, and assembled last week. In a conversation with friends about what armaments to give them, I was reminded of the joy of rare earth magnets.

So, all three transports can be equipped with either the twin-linked lascannons or the demolisher cannons. I can also pop the hatches and slip in some pintle-mounted multi-laser gunners if I want. These are a pretty decent choice, particularly for a demolisher-equipped tank, as it not only adds firepower, but also reduces the chances of losing your demolisher on a Weapon Destroyed result.

These are now on the priming bench and will hopefully meet with my airbrush this weekend.

I have also assembled two Bombards to go with my Solar Auxilia. I bought these back when I was building my Blood Pact and had originally thought to include them there. My Blood Pact haven't done much recently, so I felt it was alright to drag them back to the Imperial fold. Note: the foreshortening of my camera makes those big guns look HUGE!

And now to the dilemma. After seeing a few other evolving Solar Auxilia forces using the lovely Forgeworld Mars pattern Leman Russes, I'm seriously thinking about not using my Ragnaroks (above), but repainting my converted Mars pattern tanks from my Genswick force (below). Ultimately it would give me more flexibility, and while they might seem a bit more "stock", the trench rails I scratch built would match well with the Dracosans (at the top). A bonus is that as my Genswick force is green and grey, switching the tanks from green to grey wouldn't be too big an issue for their on-table support.

Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments below : )

Cheers
Dave

Quick announcement - Mengel Miniatures Painting Competition

Just a quick announcement today to point everyone in the direction of Mengel Miniatures first ever Painting Competition. Tyler Mengel has long been interested in creating (and finding) excellent examples of painted miniatures, and now he has decided to run a fun painting competition on his blog/forum.

If you haven't been over there to check it out, I suggest you do so now by clicking HERE.

Entries are being accepted between now and February 2nd, in two categories: Single Miniature, and Unit/Large Model. Best of luck to all! : )

Cheers
Dave

Solar Auxilia - Lasrifle Sections

Here's the first of three Lasrifle Sections. I won't really show you the other two, as they're essentially the same. These are an amalgamation of three standard Vostroyan IG squads, as my standard squads included special and heavy weapons.

I decided to cobble together four Vexilia Bearers for my Lasrifle Sections, so I now have one ready for when I decide to build a fourth Section (it's looking pretty likely). I used some old shields as the icon backgrounds, and showed the exposed wood to the front to give a strong visual link to the lasrifles. I'm yet to paint battle honors onto the metal plates

On the back of the shields I added some identifiers for each Lasrifle Section.

I hope the New Year is being good to you. I'm ready to get into a LOT more Solar Auxilia very soon : )

Cheers
Dave

Solar Auxilia - Tarantulas and Veletaris Storm Section

Happy New Year to everyone! My apologies for not getting this post up on December 31st, but I was hit by a nasty stomach bug that knocked me out. But I wanted to let you know I managed to sneak in these models before the end of the year. I finished up the two lascannon teams above (the one on the left and the one on the right).

Added to the teams you see here, I now have two units of counts-as Tarantulas for my Solar Auxilia army!

And today I got the chance to do a bit of repainting on my Vostroyan plasma gunners, creating my first volkite-armed Veletaris Storm Section.

Next up, the Vexilia for my Lasrifle Section.

Cheers
Dave