Draconis does…. Mars Attacks!

1st July 2024

Half the year gone already……

So, onto the test model for the Martian grunts. Since there are twenty of them I was looking for something that would be easy to repeat across so many, but still look reasonably striking from play distance.

I started out with a Crystal blue spray (Army painter) as shown in an earlier post.

This was followed up with an airbrush overspray of Hydra Turquoise (Army Painter air).

Next up was a blue wash. I only have an older wash (should have ordered a new one when I got my turquoise paints…) called Asurmen Blue. I put this as a 1:1 mix with Contrast Medium to thin it a little.

The boots and gloves were painted with Warpstone Glow, followed by a Biel Tan Wash. A few small highlights with the Warpstone again.

Armour was Vallejo Gunmetal air paint, with a Nuln oil wash.

Tanks on the back are Mephiston Red, nuln oil wash, then highlighted back up with Mephiston followed by Mephiston and a touch of orange.

For the head I started out with an ivory colour. Then I added a greenish wash onto the face and skeleton horde onto the brain. The brain then had Magos purple and Carroburg Crimson washes. Then I added skeleton horde and a few spots of Magos purple to the face as well.

The big eyes were picked out with red pupils. Accidentally made it look sideways on the first eye, but liked it, so did the same with the other eye.

Finally added the plastic dome (with some pva glue – have to see how that holds) and the test piece was done.

I think it works for the Martians.  The head and face really add to the effect.

There are 19 (!) more to do, so I think it will take a while. But hopefully the process will be manageable.

Then it will be time for bases, and maybe some of the kickstarter civilians…

30th June 2024

Having carried out the test camo scheme on one soldier It was then a case of rolling it out onto the rest of the squad.

Seems to take a lot longer when doing it across nine models rather than one 😊

I did each stage across all the models to start with, then towards the end I worked on groups of three. For those with glasses on I picked those out in blue contrast over silver.

I still need to work on the bases, but plan to do these and the martians all at the same time. Not sure how much I will add – probably not as much as I have done on my Walking Dead minis recently.

And then adding in the test model, here is the whole squad.

25th June 2024

While waiting for my turquoise paint to arrive I thought I would try out a camo scheme on one of the human soldiers, as a test piece. I wasn’t happy with the zenithal spray, as I realised that it wasn’t suited to how I wanted to paint them. So I gave them all a touch up spray with the skeleton bone.

I had researched some camo schemes, and went for one that had brown splotches with black spots that had white overlaid.

Once the basics were done I added a brown body vest and pouches, black straps and belts, grey gloves, brown boots etc.

An Agrax Earthshade wash helped tie things together and give definition to the pouches etc.

Then finished it off by painting some skin on the face (not going to try to do the eyes currently…. Don’t think its needed), painting the gun, goggles and putting some grey on the base. The base will get more treatment when I do them all together.

Duplicate due to system crashing – please ignore

24th June 2024

Like always, I am starting out by cleaning and prepping the minis. These are older Mantic minis, and although they do have some reasonable detail they are not up to the current quality. In places the details can be a little vague, and there are quite a few prominent mould lines.

I will remove what I can in a reasonable amount of time – but I know I will not get close to getting them all.

I also added magnets at the start….

Also, as I usually do, I dithered around colour. The images in the rulebook have the Martians in blue and the soldiers in desert camo. However, all the art and the film have the Martians in more of a teal or turquoise colour (and they come in a turquoise plastic to start). So, I checked around for what colours I had, and found a lack of turquoise.

Ordered some up, and currently waiting on delivery. I did however have a blue spray, so I decided to prime the Martians with that first.

Sadly, I had an issue with this army painter spray clogging up after just about 20 seconds….. luckily, having had issues with Army Painter before, I did have some spare larger nozzles. I quickly swapped it over and was able to finish priming the Martian grunts.

Next was the US soldiers. I debated going for an urban camo scheme. After discussions with a friend though I have decided to go for a basic desert camo. In his paradoxical words ‘go for the camo that stands out on the table more’ 😊 But, it does make sense in a way.

So, I am now at the point of cleaning up the US soldier minis and will then prime them black followed by a beige that I own (skeleton bone from Army painter – I have a spare nozzle at the ready too…)