Dystopian Wars: Republique of France

[Landlubber]

One of my goals in 2015 is to no longer be That Guy with All Those Unpainted Models.

To that end, I have finished a couple projects that were half done and started (and finished) a few more. I would like to dedicate this thread to my RoF fleet, and will post pictures here as I finish ships.

I'm trying to make my French look battle-worn and weary...like they've been at sea way too long and are overdue for rest and refit. The undercoat, under the camouflage, is GW Chaos Black.

So, to start things off, here is something large--and something small.

I present the Magenta MkI skimmer battleship, which I haven't thought of a good name for yet:







And my squadron of Chevalier-class destroyers, which are also as-yet unnamed:





Feedback and constructive criticism is always welcome. Will post more pictures as more ships/squadrons are finished. Thanks for looking!

[Last Rites]

Wow! Wonderful work. How did you get the camo bands to blend so nicely? Airbrush?

[Landlubber]

Thanks! No, no airbrushing here--I painted it all by hand. I've actually never used an airbrush on any of my gaming models; because they're so small, I prefer to paint them by hand, even the priming. It takes a little longer, to be sure, but I also feel that it gives me a better read on the model. When I'm applying the primer coat, I'm looking at the model for several minutes up close from many different angles, and I often discover little bits of detail or casting damage that I didn't know was there. I find that this process helps me formulate a paint scheme and a plan of action for painting the model.

Plus, living in Colorado, there's a good chunk of the year when airbrushing can be difficult to do. If I'm painting by hand, I know I can tackle my models no matter how much snow is on the ground outside. 

[Last Rites]

You paint on you're primer? Interesting. I may have to try that out sometime, as when spraying there is always a spot ya miss.

Brilliant job on these and looking forward to seeing more!

[markymark1970]

They really look great Greg.  You're well on your way to leaving me with the title of "Unpainted Models Guy 2015".

[Ruckdog]

Nice work! It's good to see you turning your attention back to your languishing French .

[Landlubber]

Nice work! It's good to see you turning your attention back to your languishing French .

Pssssh. ALL my gaming minis could be considered "languishing".

[Landlubber]

You paint on you're primer? Interesting. I may have to try that out sometime, as when spraying there is always a spot ya miss.

Brilliant job on these and looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks man. Yeah, well, there's more to the story than that...I'm also not very confident at all with the airbrush. Plus, I kinda don't even have a spot to airbrush in right now--I have a spray booth in my garage, but it's impossible right now to actually set it up and use it--partly because of the weather, and partly because I just don't have any place to set it up. I'm going to try to solve the latter problem this summer, because I have a ton of plastic models (Stephan has seen my stacks of unbuilt models, aka the Closet of Shame) that I would like to get done in addition to a ton of gaming mins.

[Landlubber]

Toulon-class armored cruisers:

[captainrockman]

I'm digging the hot metal effects on those cruisers!

[Ruckdog]

Indeed! The heat lances look awesome! I think you have mastered that technique quite well .

[Landlubber]

Thank you all for the kinds words. For those who would like to replicate the effect, I highly recommend Ruckdog's tutorial on how he painted the Heat Lances on his own RoF fleet--that's the tutorial I followed. It can be found here:

http://manbattlestations.com/forum/index.php?topic=140.0

[Danaussie]

The camouflage pattern on these ships is sublime. Just incredible artistry. I also really like the overall parity of the fleet.

Fantastic!!!!

Dan

[Landlubber]

OK. Got distracted with some other painting projects last year, and while I was painting my RoF ships, I neglected to update this thread. Plus, I found some really cool decals for them at Genghis Con last year, so I was waiting to post pics until I had those decals on.

So, here is the fleet so far:







I'll post some more pics of individual squadrons later in the week.

As always, thanks for looking!

[Ruckdog]

Awesome looking fleet! I love the rampant lion decals, they work well. The three-tone dazzle scheme is very impressive when looking at it across the whole fleet.