Hi everyone,
Today I start a new article on my Dystopian Wars COA army; the Ptolemy bombers. This is my second flying unit, the first being the Daedalus large flyer.
At first, I wanted my COA fleet to have a coordinated theme and pattern. Since then I have changed my views and have opted for a more eclectic approach. The only common element in the whole fleet will be the white base and the brass elements. The camouflage patterns will differ from unit to unit.
I have also decided to keep a similar pattern with the flyers, but instead of a white base I went for a grey one. So like the Daedalus, the Ptolemy and the Icarus flyers will be grey based o the hull, but white on the top structures - if they have any.
The first step is always the preparation part. We all know what this includes, cleaning, filing filling etc. Since I had four bombers, two from the old box set and two from a blister pack, I did them all in one session. But I went a step further with these fliers.
As you can see from the picture above I bought some
flight widgets from
Hawk Games of
Dropzone Commander fame. This idea was given to me by a friend at my gaming club and they work like a charm. They do not wobble or fall off and offer a tight grip but the models can be easily removed for storage and transport. The best of two worlds - kudos to you Kevin.
There are two problems though. The first is that the flight stand rods are somewhat thicker than the widget, but nothing a light filing cannot fix. The Second is that work well with medium and small fliers, but I had problems with the Daedalus. This is because of the curve of the surface of the hull which makes the widgets ill-fitting.
Also, I recommend buying them from online retailers like
Wayland Games - they end up costing a whole in the pocket from
Hawk Games due to fixed postage rates. I glued the the widgets on with
Araldite - a five minute apoxy resin glue - and I masked the stand and the widget in preparation for airbrushing.
The first steps to airbrushing is the primer stage. As always, and in concert with my other Dystopian War models, I gave it a coat of black Vallejo primer.
For a base coat, I went with the painting philosophy outlined above and mixed up a light shade of grey-blue. At this point I let the whole thing dry properly and started to prepare for the masking part of the process, but this is for the next post!
Well, I will be back next week with the second and final part of this post, until then;
Farewell and good health,
NR
