Category Archives: Scale aircraft

Team Yankee: A-10s

The opportunity for a playable A-10 is possibly what pulled me into Team Yankee. I talked myself into focusing on other units first, but finally got to actually do it.

A-10
A-10

The Battlefront kit is resin, made up of two big chunks and a couple of detail bits. Several of the detail bits were warped, including one of the vertical stabilizers. I fixed them as best I could, but it’s not as good as I’d like.

A-10 group
A-10 group

The one game I’ve played with them was pretty underwhelming. I only ended up getting one round of shooting from them, between reserves and the strike aircraft roll. Still, I can’t help myself. Now that I have the unit card, I might go with some other company’s 1/144 aircraft kit if I decide to fill out the unit.

2014 Hobby Year in Review

It’s almost the new year, so I think I’m contractually obligated to write up some kind of retrospective.  I started tracking my backlog (and therefore all hobbying) in January, and blogging in May, so I actually have a pretty good record.  In the last few weeks I’ve caught up with all the projects I completed in 2014 but hadn’t yet written up.

Overall stats

I started the year pretty deep in hobby debt, with a significant backlog from a store closing sale, and went deeper after buying a Space Marines Strikeforce for some Inquisition War projects.  I dug myself out, though, and worked all the way through the backlog.

Hobby Progress Burndown (Nov 2014)

  • 60 projects completed
  • 131 individual models
  • 94 infantry models (including 55 40k dudes, 6 40k characters, 17 Malifaux models and 16 Reaper Bones models)
  • 18 vehicles (14 40k, 4 non-game airplanes)
  • 19 markers, tokens, and the like
  • 6.7% of the Bones Kickstarter models completed
  • New workspace, with much more functional desk, shelves, and paint racks
  • Exclusively used painted models in every game

Warhammer 40,000

Revenant Header

The Warzone Harat three-part campaign finished up in January.  The finale was an apoc-style event, which got me to buy and paint up a Revenant Titan, my first experience with Forge World.  The other big ongoing event was the Inquisition War campaign at Endgame, which gave me the excuse to paint up old Necromunda models as the Inquisitor and retinue, and finally do the Deathwatch Kill Team I’ve been considering for ages.

In addition, I had a pretty large backlog to work through, which meant quite a bit of Ultramarines, Dark Eldar, and Eldar got hobbied.

Malifaux

terrortot_headerI’d been contemplating adding a second miniatures game into the mix, but had never pulled the trigger.  Early in the year I got a demo of Malifaux.  Then, Wyrd’s summer painting contest convinced me to pick up and paint a box.  Once that was done, I had no choice but to play.

Since then, I’ve built up a decent selection of models.  I still don’t really know what I’m doing, but I get more confident with every game.

Reaper Bones

I participated in the first Reaper Bones Kickstarter back in 2012, which was delivered in 2013, and I finally started painting in 2014.  For a while I was trying to do one per Thursday (Random Rursday), but that stopped being fun, so I stopped.  I’m still painting them when the urge hits me, and keep a couple primed on standby.

Scale Aircraft

Scale models header

I got back into miniature wargaming a few year ago through scale models.  The nice thing about wargaming is that it has a built-in excuse to show off your work.  I only found a little time for it this year, but like the results.

Looking to 2015

Malifaux is occupying most of my miniatures brain these days.  I’ve got a pretty decent backlog already which will probably take me through February or so.

I’m going to Adepticon in March.  I’m signed up for a mix of 40k, Malifaux, and hobby seminars.  I haven’t decided what, if any, hobby goals I have ahead of the con.  If I want to do anything special (build out my Deathwatch for Combat Patrol, maybe?), I need to get serious about it soon.

Beyond that, it’s hard to say.  I have a hard time imagining myself starting a new 40k army at this point, but I can see myself building my existing ones out.  I have an desire to complete the Neverborn faction in Malifaux (well, the plastics, anyways).  I get to play few enough games that I worry I won’t understand all the rules, much less actually play with them.  Or maybe I should collect masters instead of factions.

I’ve also got my eye on both Dropzone Commander and Firestorm Armada, but I’m pretty sure I already have too many games…

WWII Egg Planes

Just before my first kid was born a few years ago, I decided to make a mobile out of some egg planes made by Hasegawa.  I figured I should do the same for the second, born earlier this month.

The first set was modern-era fighter planes (F-14, F-15, F-16, and F/A-18).  For the second set, I focused on WWII-era planes instead.

As with the first set, I wanted to skip any of the dangly bits which might break off and become a choking hazard.  This means landing gear, missles, etc.  I filled in the holes with putty and sanded them smooth.

These were all pretty quick builds, since the kits are just a few pieces.  I experimented a bit with airbrushed camo, hand-painted some details, and applied decals as directed, although I did end up skipping the swastikas.

Fw-190A
Fw-190A
P-47 Thunderbolt
P-47 Thunderbolt
P-51 Mustang
P-51 Mustang
F4U Corsair
F-4U Corsair

I’m pretty happy with the results.  I ended up hand-painting the struts on the canopies, which means they don’t quite match the rest of the plane.  I should have masked it off and painted it with the rest, but that’s a lot more work.