A productive past two weeks!
The resin buildings weren’t too difficult to paint up, just a bit tedious due to the window frames in particular. I decided to mostly copy the paint schemes from the store models, but dirtier.
I wish I had a drill press with a large drill bit to easily bore out the interior of these to reduce their weight a bit. On the table I like that they have heft to them, but painting them was a constant worry they would be dropped and inevitably scrape paint and primer off due to their mass. It only happened once and was repaired without issue at least.
Along with the Braves, I picked up metal Firstborns. The currently available resin version looks very similar from what I can tell, so it’s not the huge jump in quality you see with the plastic vs metal basic infantry.
The only scout units I had for Resistance were Sappers, so to expand the options there my choice was these, the Columbus walker, or Scout ATVs. Not really feeling the ATVs, and I’m in a constant vacillation between “this model is horrendous” and “lovably goofy” for the Columbus, so AA technicals it was. Really should pick up a drill at some point for this army.
Now these I’ve had kicking around for a while, half finished. I think I may be a bit burnt out on doing the PHR scheme for Zone models thanks to the effort needed for painting clean panel lines/those small holes!
Both of these units seem like the sort of thing you want in a very tailored list, but we’ll just have to see how they pan out in practice.
The last Zone thing to finish was a second underground hangar, as well as touching up the first I had. When they announced the MDF version of these, I decided to pick up a second resin one I found for cheap. The linked hangar rules seem fun, and there was no way I was going to have one in resin paired with a smaller, less detailed MDF model.
The other two Striketeam models were next. Not too much to say except that I had a good time with these, and painting 32mm was a welcome change of pace. While I like the general ease of getting good looking models at 10mm, the extra detail and model character was fun to work on!
Painting said extra detail makes me reflect on those many banal posts I’ve come across of people showing off the twenty 40k boxes they just purchased. Ignoring the psychology of all that, the idea of tackling that much 28/32mm stuff at once makes me shudder.
For Striketeam itself, my current thoughts are that I’ll probably give the game a fair shake when released. The primary holdup for me is that the scale has never interested me that much in terms of table presentation, based mostly on the myriad 40k/AoS tables I’ve seen. Some Infinity tables do look a bit more appealing, so maybe there’s something there for me, but none really capture the feel a well done 6-15mm scale range setup puts out.
In any case, if it doesn’t turn out to hook me, I’ll likely end up just picking out whichever models I think are interesting as just a fun painting thing and to serve as basically mascot models for the Zone/Fleet collections.
Fleet next! Finishing up the Scourge and PHR collections for both Zone and Fleet with these (with the exception of no Tiamat for PHR, as I think it’s an ugly model and dislike slapping guns on a transport model to make a new combat unit), and expanding the Resistance fleet a bit.
I honestly have no idea how useful the small stations could be for Scourge. The PHR laser station does seem more effective than the CAW-based missile one I built first, but haven’t actually used yet. Now that the station rules have been updated to allow you to place your own station so there’s none of that opponent jams it into a corner nonsense, at least the CAW might actually get to fire at something in a game though.
How to build the destroyers was an easy decision. The Collins doesn’t seem like something you’d want more than one of in a list, and the Aldrin expands drop capability so is always desired. The Armstrong seems very strong as of the last balance pass, so the choices were 1 Aldrin/2 Armstrong or 2 Aldrin/1 Collins, and I value drop options more. My only complaint with these models is the gap between the engine and main hull is a bit large, and I couldn’t be arsed to try and clean it up with putty, so given the hulls already have panel lines in the design I settled on pretending it’s a particularly deep armor panel line.
The Gladiator was mostly just because I already have a Centurion, so now I’ve got both choices for that heavy cruiser slot. While I believe the original sculpt for the Centurion is far better, I think the new design is acceptable for the Gladiator, as having the vent cannon on top allows it to visually pop when viewed from above thanks to the contrast between the bright green and the dulled gray.
For building out the Resistance fleet more, there is a Triumvir on the way to provide a more comfortable seat for an admiral. In terms of other heavy ships, I’ve got zero interest in the dreadnought kit, but the battleship is a gorgeous design. I’ve felt how much the fleet needs a Galileo or two as well, so monitors and a battleship are likely next.