Tuesday 31 January 2012

Power Armour



I've known for some time that my armies have been lacking in that most important of SF staples, Power Armour.  The figures have been sitting in my "to be painted" box for some time but all I managed to get partially finished were a few Critical Mass Games Kaamados Vivipara and Agaamids (of which more on another occasion...)


A dig through the collection of little polybags in the box provided me with a few human power armour figures who were purchased to help remedy this omission.  Various figures are part way through painting (with several test pieces complete), but these 6 are the first complete set I've finished.  They are Ground Zero Games' SG15-N03 Neu Swabian League Power Armour.  In the bag are a commander with sensor pack, 2 missileers with shoulder-mounted missile pods, a SAW gunner with under-arm gun mounting (reminds me of a GW Terminator assault cannon) and 2 standard troopers.  As often seems to be the case with the older GZG power armour figures, the guns seem a bit small and ill-defined, but apart from that I really like these figures (even if they have super-slim waists that a fashion model woudl die for!)


Base colour is Humbrol 93 acrylic matt Desert Yellow.  Camouflage stripes of 50/50 mixed base colour and Vallejo Reflective Green (it's an olive drab colour, not sure where the "reflective" bit comes in?) were added, I didn't want the green to be too sharp a contrast.  Edges of the green stripes had a smaller dab of Vallejo Cold Grey here and there.  Base was painted with Inscribe Acrylic Sand Yellow.  I was going to paint the back of the knee joints in a darker colour, but I rather liked how they've come out with the shading, so left them as they are.


Vallejo sepia ink over the whole figure including the base.  Humbrol desert yellow drybrush across the entire figure followed by Vallejo bone white.  Weapons are picked out with Vallejo Cold Grey and washed with Vallejo black ink.  Visors are GW red gore with appropriate highlights/shadows and finished with GW red ink.  The commander has received a matt black sensor dome over his left shoulder and the stalk on the right shoulder has a red lense which received the same treatment as the visors.


I'm pleased with the camo, it gives a rather subtle effect, exactly what I was after.  I admit that at normal viewing distances on the 15mm battlefield it'll just look a uniform dull greeny-yellow-brown colour, but as I spend far longer painting figures than actually playing with them, I don't mind!  Click on the pictures for a larger view, showing all the detail which will never be noticed during the games...

5 comments:

  1. These figs were also my power armor of choice in 15mm, though I never noticed the wasp-waists until you mentioned it.

    You've done a great job here, they look fantastic. The camo looks great and those visors really pop.

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  2. Great painting!

    I am working on those powerarmors and have one question: are You airbrushing Humbrol 93 acrylic matt Desert Yellow or putting it by brush?

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  3. I'm using a bristly brush rather than an airbrush. I've used an airbrush for one or two larger vehicles in the past but these days pretty much everything is done with a normal brush. I just use spraycan undercoat.

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  4. Thanks!

    And what kind of undercoat You use BTW? Black/grey/white GW/Valleyo/other?

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  5. Poundland super-smelly grey car primer, "Autoquest" or something like that. Burns out your nostrils and stinks for over a day. I spray my stuff in batches in the garage; take a deep breath, run in, spray until my lungs are going to burst then run outside again and take a big breath of fresh air!
    I've also used Humbrol matt white spray, though paint doesn't seem to stick to it quite as well as the proper undercoat spray. The smelly one comes in black & white too, I haven't tried the black yet as I hadn't seen it before this Monday.

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