Wait. Wut? Models that were released this year? Models that were released only weeks ago? What happened to this blog? Oh wait, it’s okay. They’re super simple. Yes folks, this is the Imperial half of the Ground assets box that was released recently fort Aeronautica Imperialis. A game that has extremely fond memories for many people in it’s previous incanation as a Forge World product that was recently re-released by GW-Proper. Now, I’ve been pretty good at holding to my 28-32mm only policy, with the only exceptions being Flames of War that I bought into many years ago, and Gaslands, which only requires a visit to the Hot Wheels/Matchbox aisle in the local department store. Oh, and X-Wing, though those are pre-paints, so they don’t count.

Still, I was determined to skip this one, as I did Adeptus Titanicus last year – since I don’t need a new scale with models that don’t cross over into anything else. It was Altsain, of the blog A Tabletop Wargamer’s Diary who convinced me indirectly, as he managed to paint up the aircraft super easily, and talked about how well the game is suited and set up for scenario and campaign play, with a relatively few models, as opposed to an endlessly huge points-based bring-and-battle. So with that, I ordered a bunch of stuff online, and as fate would have it, my Ground Assets arrived before the core set, and so I started working on them.

Once again I took inspiration from Altsain, by pretty much ripping off his paint scheme for the Imperial Forces. I did fine that his method of washing with Athonian Camoshade didn’t work so well for me, possibly because of my spray undercoats, and so I instead took the opportunity to bust out the Contrast Paints again. I found that an all-over of Militarium Green gave a nice effect, and then followed up with some Vallejo Model Air Metallic “Rust” (really a brown, dark copper shade of metal) for the trimmings where hje had used a brighter copper, a bit of iron primer, some washes and then a final drybrush of Vallejo Bonewhite. Then some translucent yellow as well as gemstone red and blue for lights across the models. It has shown me how well the Contrast Paints can work on smaller scale models, how much easier this colour was to use over the usual premade wash solution, and it can also be seen that they give quite a stark look to the shading and highlighting, especially following a lighter drybrush to further pick out the details. With a light green rather than a bone colour, they’d have remained much richer and a little warmer.

Mine do look a lot more “dry” and muted compared to Altsain’s – who has ended up with much richer colours that are more akin to my usual, but I’m still happy with how mine ended up, especially as an evening-and-following-afternoon paint project. Oh, and some might wonder how these bloody things count as Orc-Slayers? Well, the Rynn’s World Campaigh that the game is based around is entirely Imperium vs Orks, so these models have literally been designed and produced specifically to battle nothing but Orks for at least several months before Another Challenger Appears. So ….yeah.

Also, forgive any typos. I’ve corrected seemingly dozens of them so far, but I’m sure some slipped through. My computer finally gave up the ghost a few days ago, and now I’m getting used to a new keyboard as I do the new-machine-new-install-everything-dance-thing taking up most of my time for the next few days on the replacement. So not as much painting as I’d hoped this weekend…