It's ok to be Grey!

Given it's the current year and grown men play with miniature toys now more than ever, or write up cringy blogs nobody acutally follows. I figured I'd show off my gay little collection of minis I recently completed. So let's delve into what was achieved over the weekend...

Some time back myself and Greg devised some house-rules for a BF2 style tabletop game, which we have dabbled a little with using our Flames of War miniatures. Given the minis weren't quite right, we found we would often get a little confused with which base of minis represented what. We were also play-testing the rules and found they mostly ran very smoothly, offering a fairly fast-paced, smooth game with some minor issues we could iron out.

Surfing the internet, Greg discovered GHQ, a manufacturer that supplied miniatures in a 6mm scale, which is what we were looking for. Their catalogue is huge, with minis spanning many different themes and eras. We, however, were looking more at the Second Gulf War era, as they offered minis closest to the BF2 classes.

So each of us placed an order building our forces around the various classes and vehicles available to the USMC and MEC. I think Greg had to dig a little deeper to find what he needed and I don't quite have everything I need, but am not too far off..

Over the weekend I built, primed and painted all my aircraft, some being really infuriating and it nearly killed my drive - the A-10 especially.

This little model is supposed to be some kind of Drone, but I didn't bother with the attachments, instead it will play as the UAV. At some later point I plan to add stands to ALL the aircraft too.

    UAV Online.

The F-35 Raptor. We haven't quite ironed out the rules for planes yet. But it hasn't stopped me from painting them up. I am pretty sure that the colour is a little too light, but it's ok. I'm happy with the end result. For all of the aircraft I tried my hand at a bit of wet blending on the cockpit canopies. Not entirely necessary at this scale, but it was fun to try as it was my first go, and it helped break up the monotony of painting solely Grey. I do think it helps the model stand out a little more, so I'm happy with the overall effect. 

The dreaded A-10 Warthog. My favourite US plane to date, and an absolute fucking pain to fit together. You can see all the excessive superglue moulds as the teeny tiny parts would not hold. The weapons under the wings didn't attach properly and the tail piece was comprised of three individual parts. However, the tail wing didn't attach to the top of the body, rather, underneath it, which got glue all over my fingers and thumb, causing me to nearly destroy the bloody thing in a rage... The paint scheme is probably a little darker than usual, but I purposefully chose that to 1. use up the Field Grey I had out, and two, so I didn't have too many lighter coloured aircraft. 

Now for my personal favourite model of the lot. The AH-1Z Viper. A great vehicle to man in-game, and a great one to fit together and paint. I do recommend, Greg, if you take note of this, DON'T attach the rotor blades first, then prime and paint. They will continually snap off. Just keep them aside then glue them on later. The colour scheme here is a little lighter, which required a few extra coats. I also decided to give the weapons a little bit of colour, again, just for detail. 

And finally, the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters. Probably one of the most iconic US helicopters, and one of my favourites. These were built primarily as their intended role in the game, to transport teams forwards and to not attack. That role will be left to the attack helicopters solely.  So the weapon attachments are omitted. Again, painted a little darker this time round, going for a Black Grey colour, done purposefully to distinguish the different vehicles from one another. A simple-ish model to build and paint.

I will have more ground vehicles and squads to work on for future projects. We also need to figure out bases for the teams, something Greg had an idea for, and as afore mentioned, stands for the aircraft. I dunno if I need decals for the tiny models, the extra detail would be cool, but I dunno if I can be arsed forking money out for them. 

Hopefully more to come from myself in the near future, and on top of Greg's outstanding work on his hobby, hopefully a move forwards to also completing our BF2 tabletop minis and rules.