XV107: @#$ew holding the line!... Eat Plasma!

The XV107 R'Varna with missile shield drones.

I figured since the XV9 I painted a year ago had nice shields I needed a suit that was giving a beating rather than taking it, and the XV107 seemed like the perfect canvas.  One of its pulse cannons is fully charged on the verge of firing and the other just fired.  The model is aimed up a bit as it is just at the base of a hill it is retaking.  The corpses of some tau and marines can be seen in the murky tar pit below as well as a dead drone and the shield of a battlesuit.  Lighting is achieved by choosing the absolute whitest paint, and then a careful combination of flourescent paints and UV lighting.

This picture is too low res to see but the entire armor is textured with hexagons as the largest textures and others on a smaller scale.  You can see a hint of them in the reflective tau emblem on the chest, but nearly every gradient seen is actually a graded pattern.  It looks quite nice up close but it washes out a foot or so away.   The Missiles are just green stuff and cotton as usual.  The plasma is acrylic and water effects.  The cannons were modified so that the muzzle looks different for a fully charged vs a firing state. I almost added OSL from the cannons but felt the model was getting too busy. 

ClearHorizon Raven Complete

Presenting the Black Dragon, Raven class gunship.

 I just finished this 15mm scale Raven assault gunship from ClearHorizon miniatures.  It was a nice smooth little model and so I decided to do a paint job that was part camo, and part subtle sci-fi.   You have to look closely to see the textures on the green, the mottling for the camo.  And even closer to see the composite fibrous material of the darker "carbon fiber" like grey sections. There is an attempt at reflections of the trees on the horizon of the canopy as this ship is flying just above the treeline.    The nose art on the right shows the dragon head and 5 stars for 5 aircraft kills.  Tanks aren't worth noting as they barely stand a chance.   This is

I took two sets of pictures because I couldn't decide which background looked better.  Second set coming soon.

 Edit:  Second set finished

Muzzle flasshes in this one are photoshoped, everything else is genuine.   99% airbrushed.  I didnt both airbrushing the highlights on the hellfire missiles.

Covenant Heavy Plasma Pistol: NERF Diatron

And another one for the armory =)
A nerf diatron seemed styled after the covenant weaponry, so the paint job seemed fitting.

Edit: can anyone tell me why google/blogger adjusts the saturation of random pictures?  Some I can upload directly and others I have to send to photobucket so it wont adjust the saturation and make the image absurdly bright and washed out...

Stealth suits from Pierre

Pierre at http://15mmspaceopera.blogspot.fr/ sent me a couple stealth suits to try out.  I was tempted to paint them with the cliche half stealth half suit paintjob.  But the more I painted these guys the more I liked their sleek suits so I kept them looking high tech.  They are on a couple of my bases as these seemed appropriate and simple.

Sniping with a bit of style.

I nearly always go for the sniper rifle if I cant use tech, biotics, or some other indirect means of taking out enemies so when I saw this rifle..... 

A Mass effect/District 9/sci fi inspired Nerf Centurion sniper rifle.  Just a bunch of texturing and weathering after setting the basic bland color scheme. 

Now back to little things... or some are little,  at least one more nerf in the lineup (covenant inspired).   The rifle is a fun toy with some decent power to it.  Don't aim at heads, and you should probably wear safety goggles anyway.  =)  

RAH 66 Complete

Ive loved the design of the Comanche since I was a kid and so bought it a couple months ago after watching ebay for about 1.5 years to get a decent price. This was painted to look like an anime or infinity styled sci-fi  chopper that sees action in the city.  And I often avoid painting the inside of a cockpit since I think it just distracts for the part of the model I care about.  Thus I painted the canopy to look like a fully immerse display where the pilot reads streams of data on the inner panels which tell him much more about his surroundings than his eye could... after years of interpretive training.   Sight carries a lot of information, but the human mind is highly adaptable and excellent.  Of course these "pilots" dont have great social lives outside of the nets.

This is a 48th scale chopper The rotor blades have a UAGDP or plasma sheath to reduce friction .  The Stinger missile is a close approximation scratched by me along with the fire.  The tail side stabs were also modifications based on some prototype RAH66 pics on the net.

Dust Tactics Mech On The Hunt

Finished the mech.   Mainly focused on a bit of sacrificial weathering  and a few bullet holes and dirt/burns. Simple and dirty.   There are very subtle highlights on the camo but given the contrast of the weathering the texturing is lost unless you look really close.  Still I like the effect and it was fairly quick and easy for a relaxing painting session.  Bullet holes are admittedly a bit sloppy.