Aka-Oni Irregulars: Enforcer, Stalker, Zeus, Trebuchet; Also, a Union Dropship!

The Aka-Oni Irregulars have salvaged four more mechs to add to their forces. This lance consists of an Enforcer with a balanced loadout of an AC/10 and a large laser, a Trebuchet geared toward raining long-range missiles upon its foes, a Zeus with another balanced loadout, and a Stalker with a vast array including just about every kind of weapon.

• Enforcer (50 tons, BV 1,032)
• Trebuchet (50 tons, BV 1,191) 
• Zeus (80 tons, BV 1,374)
• Stalker (85 tons, BV 1,559)

Total mechs: 34
Total tons: 1,965
Total battle value: 38,640

In addition to the mechs is a 3D printed, map-scale Union-class Dropship. This was a design by UnrestedGuy on Thingiverse that I modified to streamline it and make it printable without supports in FDM instead of resin. I originally just printed the egg-shaped dropship itself, but the landing feet proved prone to snapping, so I printed out a base to mount it on, appropriately scaled to fill the same number of hexes that the dropship occupies on the map.

I used generic grey colors with blue highlights and a bonewhite drybrush, not to represent any particular faction, but just to be usable by any faction. The Union class can transport and deploy twelve mechs (so I would technically need to print five more to transport all of my painted mechs), but this isn't really meant for frequent use on the tabletop. It's more that I thought it would be really cool to make. So I made it!

Superhero: Batman

The Batman.

I found a steep, steep discount on the DCeased: Gotham City Outbreak box, a Zombicide game with a few superhero/supervillain miniatures. The scale is a little bigger than I normally do, but it was a good way to get a cheap Batman figure to join my superhero collection.

I went with the blue and grey look, as opposed to the all-black or black and grey suits, and I think it turned out looking very nice.

As you can see from the comparison on the right, Bats absolutely towers over some of the other characters, but that's fine. He's larger than life. 

The Skeleton Horde 8: Heavy Cavalrymen and Friend

Four more Skeleton Heavy Cavalry units join the other one I finished recently, completing the unit of five. They're painted in the same way as the first one. This batch includes (from left to right) another regular swordskeleton, the captain, the musician, and the banner-carrier.

With them, however, is a lone infantry skeleton. He's more dangerous than that would imply, however, because he's armed with an RPG-7 rocket launcher! Look out! When asked why such a creation exists, the only answer given was: "The rules state that the summoned skeleton can be equipped with any hand-held weapon." 

Zombies 2: Better Zombies

I previously posted about painting zombies back in 2023, but some higher-quality zombies have recently shambled their way across my painting area. These are from one of the Zombicide expansions, the "Walk of the Dead 2" box of zombies. These miniatures are better than the Zpocalypse models in practically every way: size, material, poses, detail, etc.

The skin is Vallejo Extra Opaque "Heavy Warmgrey" with a wash of Vallejo Flesh Wash (or, since it's labeled as "Carne," Vallejo Meat Wash). After that, a little bit of brown wash in the eyes and mouths (and scattered around the rest of the model), followed by two tiny dots of white for the eyes. The rest of the clothes are whatever colors I thought would look nice, but generally muted colors except for the red on the angry punk zombie. The base is painted with Vallejo "Luftwaffe Unif. WWII", with the rim done in my traditional Vallejo Black (70.950).

One last note: The zombie in the blue suit is the same figure that I used when I painted up the supervillain Fiasco. Twins! 

Twinhammer Part 2: Exterior Paint Part 1: Base Layers

The Twinhammer, last seen in July 2023, has finally gotten a start on its exterior paint. I had a few evenings this week without the kids around, and I used it to work on the messy, space-consuming process of priming and sponging this two-foot-long ship.

The paintjob isn't finished by any means, but she looks a lot better than the unassembled, unpainted white/grey/black PLA that's been sitting in pieces on my shelf. Here are the colors that I used:

• Primer: Liquitex Basics Acrylic Fluid "Mars Black"
• Base layer: Craftsmart "Dark Grey"
• Layer: Craftsmart "Grey"
• Dark layer: Craftsmart "Deep Grey" 
• Accent: DecoArt Americana "Deep Burgundy" (DA128)

The Liquitex primer isn't something I use on miniature figures, but it's great for terrain and ships like this. It's opaque, matte, strong, and dries quickly. Also, the coverage is fantastic, so it usually only needs one pass.

While this ship will hopefully get more love before 2027, it's currently in a place where I can display it on my shelf without feeling bad about its state of disrepair.