Sunday 10 March 2024

From DallasE: Lunar Astronaut, Cosmonaut, Shuttle Pod, Terrain and Squats! (59 Points)

OK so I've got a little bit of painting done this week - mostly on the new hotness here which is Black Site Studio's Lunar. Today I've got my last two models (astronaut and cosmonaut) plus some craters, and a vehicle from an unexpected source!

Here are the two spacefarers. They're from the "Heroes and Icons Vol.1" pack from Black Site, but each has been converted... the cosmonaut (left) originally carried two geology hammers, and the astronaut (right) had two pistols... that didn't make much sense to me, so I did a bit of converting to give 'em a pistol and hammer each. I also had to replace the shafts on the geology hammers as they were twisted resin that manfully resisted all attempts at straightening. Worked out well I think.

I used the last small CCCP decal from the sheet on this model, I like the look of the tan suits with white helmets and boots. I used GW Rakarth Flesh as a basecoat, highlighted with Pallid Wych Flesh, washed with Agrax Earthshade. The helmet is Corax White with Vallejo pure white on top.  

The NASA astronaut is painted just the same as his colleagues too - basecoat Celestra Grey, highlighted Corax White and Vallejo pure white. 

The stars-and-stripes flags on the sleeves are done by hand. It's easy - paint a few long parallel stripes in Mephiston Red and then the canton over top in dark blue. Even in this larger scale, I call that done.

Recognize this? It's the Escape Pod from the Star Wars: Legion "Crashed Escape Pod" Battlefield Expansion. I couldn't imagine when I'd be using this in a Star Wars game but the style and scale seemed perfect for Lunar, so that's how it got painted!

The model was basecoated Celestra Grey then Corax White...

...then the Vallejo pure white over top. The Soviet flags are Mephiston Red highlighted Evil Sunz Scarlet.

The decals are from the Lunar decal sheet and really finish off the model well. I reckon this space pod looks a bit cobbled-together and janky so that means Soviet to me. I did some sponge chipping with German Camo Black-Brown, despite some misgivings... if this pod is going straight from the Earth to the Moon, how does it get weathered in a vacuum? I suppose there will be some bits of space dust to chip away at the paint, but I imagine that the Soviets with their sense of economy may get these things back down to Earth and reuse them.
 
Here are all the models I've painted for the game so far. You can see on the Soviets that I've repainted to give white helmets and added the CCCP decals, I think they look much better with that contrast.

I've also painted some craters this week. These are all vacuum-formed plastic items that have been kicking around for years, but they did take a bit of work. The vac-formed plastic is pretty thin and tends to warp at the edges - remember that these were all originally cut from a sheet, there was no 3D printing back then! So I cut some plasticard to shape and superglued the craters down to it before painting them. I reckon that's half a cube, the ruler is 6" long.

Lastly here's a couple of models that have been around awhile - they're Squats in Exo-Armour, metal models from the old days of 40K.

I wanted to get these dudes painted to round out a squad of five - I had already painted three "Termineggs" from Wereweevil for my Squat army and these guys fit that bunch to perfection. They'd been sitting primed on the painting desk for ages so it is good to get them up in the cabinet.

Now for the scoring:

2x 40mm Astronauts/Cosmonauts        14 points
1x 40mm space pod vehicle                  25 points
2x 28mm Squats in Exo-Armour          10 points
0.5 terrain cube                                     10 points

Total                                                       59 points

See you next week! 

Nice to see this growing, and expanding across the moon there! Those decals really hit the mark on the helmet. 
Easy 59 pts for you there
Kyle

12 comments:

  1. Great work on the Astronaut and Cosmonaut, Dallas. I especially admire your efforts with the weapon swaps and the repurposed capsule - well done. The old school Squat ExoArmour is terrific as well - they look like demented Kinder Eggs with swords and bolters.

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  2. Nice work on the capsule. The squats are fantastic old miniatures.

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  3. Absolutely brilliant entry, the minis look great

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  4. Great work. I like the hammer for pistol swaps

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  5. Love the Lunar stuff and the squats are ace!
    Best Iain

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  6. Great work on this Dallas. I love the colour palette for the Lunar stuff (and also appreciate that you are smart enough to write this down for future reference). I'll be copying some of that for my upcoming Solar Auxilia...

    The EXO armour! Amazing! Total Rogue Trader flashback! I love that.

    In terms of points, I think you are short? By the standards of some of the naval painting in the Challenge, I think that landing pod alone is worth like 100 points? :)

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    1. :-D yeah and it's too bad I claimed the Fantasy and Maritime sections already eh

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  7. That crashed space pod is such a cool piece- it fits right in!

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