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Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: Major_Gilbear on December 19, 2015, 11:36:50 AM

Title: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Major_Gilbear on December 19, 2015, 11:36:50 AM
So after recently acquiring the boxed set Xilos Horizon for Antares, along with some additional Concord forces an Algoryn starter force, I really felt I ought to put some paint on the models and (gasp) try the game out!  lol

Now, I'm pretty rubbish at both painting logs and at getting stuff finished. This time however, I'm just aiming to get things to a table-worthy standad, and I'm hoping the time off work will let me make good headway.

I will therefore be using this thread to document my progress over the Christmas period, and (rarely for me) I'll be posting up some WIPs as I go. There's not much daylight here right now, and I am using my phone as a camera - so I warn you now that pix may not be all that great...

Anyway, I hope folks will follow along with me, and I appreciate all comments/support/rotten tomatoes.   8)

_________________________________________________________________________


I started by cleaning all the plastic Concord forces from Xilos, and by assembling them into sub-assemblies. Then I primed them this morning:

(http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Beyond%20the%20Gates%20of%20Antares/Concord%20Troops%20-%20Primed_zpsqwwufxel.jpg~original)

Next, I cleaned up the bases, glued some lead weights on and smoothed them with putty, added some nice rocky textures, and finally primed them too:

(http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Beyond%20the%20Gates%20of%20Antares/Concord%20Bases%20amp%20Jungle%20Trees_zpscfci5ay7.jpg~original)

As you can see, I've also got the Xilos starter box hero primed and ready too, and I've also got a big pile of jungle trees ready to paint as well!

The plan is to stick to a fairly "Studio Scheme", but with white rather than ivory. I also want to use a little red as an accent colour to mark out command models - as future space communists, I think white/olive green/red colours should work quite well.
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Ray Earle on December 19, 2015, 12:53:22 PM
My god! How many scissors have you got? It makes my usual 'put the figures on a bit of board and give them spray' look fairly unprofessional.

I'm going to follow your progress closely, mainly because I'm at exactly the same point.  :D
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: The_Beast on December 19, 2015, 01:43:50 PM
Actually, those are hemostats, which blows my mind WAY more!  :o

No comment about the post, though. I'm just plain rubbish.  ;)

Doug

Edit: Went looking, and I guess they aren't as expensive for hobbists as I recalled.
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: tomcat51 on December 19, 2015, 01:48:59 PM
The first picture looks kind of like something a world weary police detective would find in a serial killers house. What a hobby we all have.
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: The_Beast on December 19, 2015, 01:51:41 PM
Or, what minds WE have?  lol

Doug
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Ray Earle on December 19, 2015, 04:46:19 PM
Actually, another question; are those jungle trees home made?

Thanks Doug. I had no idea what they were actually called.  ::)
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: von Lucky on December 19, 2015, 08:30:00 PM
The hemostats AND THE CLING WRAP have also forced me to comment. Weirdest unindential picture by a wargamer this year.

A nice start, looking forward to it developing.

EDIT - I see it was taken on the cook top, guess you were venting the fumes. Or eating them.
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Gibby on December 19, 2015, 08:44:05 PM
Looking forward to seeing how you get on. I have this starter set for Christmas, so I will need inspiration! :D
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Major_Gilbear on December 20, 2015, 01:10:01 AM
Heh, thanks for all the comments guys.  8)

I have about forty hemostatic clamps... I picked these up over the last seven or so years, and I put all of my models on pins for priming/painting/fixing to bases. It lets me get to the models easily, and I can prime them all over properly too. Examples here (http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Dark%20Angels%20Plog/DarkAngelFirstMarineGroup1_zps57d31163.jpg) and here (http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Epic/03WIP.jpg). Generally I look for non-sterile medical-grade stainless steel clamps about 5.5" long with curved serrated noses. I think I usually pay around £2 per clamp including shipping, but I tend to buy them online in sets of 5-10 at a time rather than individually. :)

The cling film on the hob? Well, I sprayed outside, and the nearest surface indoors from the door that leads to the back garden is the hob! As the clamps and models have been sprayed with automotive primer, the cling film protects the surface while they dry (at least for a few hours until I can move them to my work area).

Since I sprayed them this morning (and thank goodness I did; the weather has been terrible for priming virtually all day), they will not be worked upon until tomorrow (Sunday). I find that even if you leave them somewhere warm, the spray takes at least 24 hours to cure enough so that it doesn't rub off or affect your paint. Better safe than sorry I say.

Anyway, I spent a long time dabbing, daubing, drybrushing, washing, and overbrushing this afternoon and evening. I have finished painting all 32 trees! I have also finished the coloured parts of all the plastic Xilos box Concord bases (also 32 bases). The Concord bases just need the rims painting black, but it's late and I don't want to arse them up. Quick progress pic:

(http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Beyond%20the%20Gates%20of%20Antares/Jungle%20Trees%20amp%20Bases%20Update%201_zpssgmee40t.jpg~original)

These just need varnishing, velour bottoms (so they don't move on the gaming table), and the exotic foliage I have for them sticking into the tops. I should get these finished whilst I wait for the basecoats and glazes to dry on the Concord. :)

@ Ray Earle:

They are resin tree trunks that I bought from Critical Mass Games at Salute about 3 years ago. They were about £7.50 for 16, and I got two packs. I beleive that the originals were made with a hot glue gun from drinking draws before being cast in resin. There's a good progress log here (http://www.criticalmassgames.com/criticalmassgamesforum/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=628) on their forums for a jungle table they made, and I was lucky enough to speak to its maker at the show. My trees are basically these, although I used slightly bigger 40mm bases and added stainless steel washers and small rocks for weight.

@ Gibby:

Thanks - I will update this plog over the next two weeks whenever I have any progress to show, so it should be fairly regular. I'll keep it going after that too, but it will be slower as I will be back at work then. I was going to do a more original Concord colour scheme, but it turns out that blue+white are very popular colours from what I've seen around the internet, and so the Studio scheme may in fact be rarer that I would have guessed!  lol
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Major_Gilbear on December 20, 2015, 12:32:38 PM
Well, against all predictions, it was nice and sunny this morning. So I took advantage and got a few trees done, then I snapped some pix for you.

Fist up a few completed trees...

(http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Beyond%20the%20Gates%20of%20Antares/Jungle%20Trees_zpsw4cm3joj.jpg~original)
Next, I added some bushes that I made a few years ago, to enhance the effect:

(http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Beyond%20the%20Gates%20of%20Antares/Jungle%20Trees%20amp%20Plants_zpswpw5ovqa.jpg~original)

Then a couple more shots, this time with some models for scale:

(http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Infinity/Moira%20in%20Jungle_zpsbcyj1pa4.jpg~original)

(http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Dark%20Angels%20Plog/Dark%20Angels%20in%20Jungle_zpsfc54jioo.jpg~original)

Since Xilos is meant to be a jungle world, and I want to actually have something suitable to test-drive the game on, getting these old terrain projects done alongside the models is a good excuse to get other lingering projects completed too. When I have the Xilos Concord done, I'd like to set up the table in full with the models for some more pix. :)
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Malebolgia on December 20, 2015, 01:35:44 PM
Really nice!  Also gives me a Mass Effect vibe, which is always good. Can't wait to see the paintjobs on the miniatures
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Major_Gilbear on December 20, 2015, 01:51:51 PM
Thanks man! :)

Also gives me a Mass Effect vibe, which is always good.

Yeah, me too. There's definately lots of nods to the ME series, not least in the first iteration of the Hansa model which had carbon-copy of one of the ME3 weapons before they re-modelled it.

It's also why I'd originally planned to do the Concorde in Alliance blue, the Algoryn in Turian red/black, and was even considering Boromites as Krogan briefly... :P
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Gibby on December 20, 2015, 04:21:09 PM
That'll be why the Algoryn remind me of the Taurians then! Which is no bad thing I will add!
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Ray Earle on December 20, 2015, 05:32:58 PM
Love the crazy looking jungle, going to have to see if I can pick some of them up.  ;)

Thanks for the tip.
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: The_Beast on December 20, 2015, 08:44:48 PM
Definitely 'not of this earth.'  ;D

More more more!

Doug
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: hubbabubba on December 20, 2015, 09:38:23 PM
Nice looking terrain, but what really caught my eye is the pjs on the figs you've shown for scale, lovely work. :-I
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Momotaro on December 21, 2015, 02:15:25 PM
Indeed - you should show us more of your work major, lovely stuff there!
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Rhoderic on December 21, 2015, 03:25:01 PM
Looking good! Very reminiscent of the vegetation in the rulebook, but in a constructive way where you're striking off from what they did and are building on it, expanding and helping codify the "Antares visual".

I really like the way BtGoA is "coining" a new aesthetic of a sci-fi universe. I wonder if 30 years from now anyone will chance upon pictures of your terrain and think of it as "that cool, iconic, old-school Antares style" much like the way we think of the Rogue Trader visual today :)
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Major_Gilbear on December 21, 2015, 06:49:57 PM
Thanks for the comments guys. :)

Just to note though - those models I posed with the terrain were handy in my case, and each one represents hours of painting! The plan here is to try and get the Concorde done in less time than ~20 hours each or whatever, and so it is unlikely that they will look quite as refined. However, I aim to get a nice sharp look with good contrasts and strong colours so that they look strking on the tabletop. I will also try and avoid metallic paints if I can, but we'll see.

Right now, I'm working up the white slowly (not enough to see any difference yet in photos however - my photgraphy skills are good enough to pick out "slighly different white" areas from "white" on all-white models!). The primer didn't go on as smoothly on all the models as I would have liked either, and a few mouldlines along the edges of armour panels (which I left as they didn't seem obtrusive) are more obvious now I've applied a shading wash. So I'm having to go back and fix those a bit too, which is irritating but necessary. Once the whites are done, I'll add some other colours and post some more progress pix.

@ Rhoderic:

Xilos is a jungle world (well, the relevant land-based bits are) that has not been settled for a looong time. I wanted to try and capture that Pandora look from Avatar a bit, and to contrast sharply against the planned schemes for the troops.

I have more crystal desert/wasteland terrain planned too, and some quick "stacking-boxes" buildings terrian is coming further down the line to represent various lab facilities and military outposts.

I do want to keep the stuff fun-looking and flexible, as well as gaming and storage friendly.
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Malebolgia on December 21, 2015, 06:59:33 PM
Familiar with this tutorial?
http://fromthewarp.blogspot.nl/2011/12/white-scars-and-how-to-paint-white.html

Might be handy for those dudes in white armoured :)
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Rhoderic on December 21, 2015, 07:40:39 PM
@ Rhoderic:

Xilos is a jungle world (well, the relevant land-based bits are) that has not been settled for a looong time. I wanted to try and capture that Pandora look from Avatar a bit, and to contrast sharply against the planned schemes for the troops.

I have more crystal desert/wasteland terrain planned too, and some quick "stacking-boxes" buildings terrian is coming further down the line to represent various lab facilities and military outposts.

I do want to keep the stuff fun-looking and flexible, as well as gaming and storage friendly.

Ah, I see. Those plants just struck me as being strongly inspired by the photos in the rulebook, but of course there are countless other sources the inspiration could have come from, like Avatar.
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Major_Gilbear on December 21, 2015, 08:48:58 PM
@ Malebolgia:

I am, but thank you for reminding me of it! It's pretty much how I mostly paint all my colours anyway (i.e., start with a light basecoat, glaze down until I get the right base tone, then selectively glaze futher to get the shade - finally, add the small highlights in near-white). :)


@ Rhoderic:

Not at all; you weren't wrong!

That stuff in the rulebook did strongly remind me of Avatar though, so I felt that using those inspirations of brightly-coloured jungles was a good way of making something seem familiar yet very alien as well. Also, the rulebook pointed me in the direction of some other scenics (the green logs with the flowers), and I have since managed to find out where they came from. So, the rulebook has served as a starting point for me; now, I want to set the same tone, but give it my own twist too - an homage if you will. I feel that's the "Rogue Trader" thing to do afterall!  ;)
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Major_Gilbear on December 23, 2015, 02:10:46 AM
Very small update:

(http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp154/MajorGilbear/Beyond%20the%20Gates%20of%20Antares/Concord%20Troop%20Progress%201_zpseofmfvmx.jpg~original)

Frustratingly, the washes I used weren't dark enough, so there wasn't enough contrast when I started adding the highlights. After getting three models done, I went back with a mid-grey and forced them a bit more. At the moment it looks a bit stark in the photo due to poor light, but I have managed some soft blends without making the main white colour too dark. Final pure white highlights are still to be applied, and then I'll be moving onto the other colours on the models.
Title: Re: Beyond the Gates of Antares... It Begins!
Post by: Ray Earle on December 24, 2015, 04:42:40 PM
I really like that. I look forward to seeing it with the final highlights added.  :)