Dust Tactics: Pegasus Models 1/48th V2 Rocket

Ever since I started playing Dust Tactics I had an idea about having a V2 rocket on the table. For me, rockets exemplify the Weird War II style and I wanted something that could be used as both terrain (blocking terrain) and as an objective marker.

Pegasus Models 1/48th V-2 Rocket is a superb E-Z Snap kit that got rave reviews all over the interwebs. 1/48th is the official scale of Dust Tactics, despite most foot troops being on the large side.

Sadly, it was out of stock the first time I wanted to buy one, and the next, and the next. I tried a number times over the course of about a year and when I finally found one for sale I snapped it up immediately.

In an attempt to recreate the simplicity seen with the Dust Tactics Premium range, and the keep the model very light, I used a light grey base coat , masked of the camouflage pattern and simply used white spray over the undercoat. I touched up the spray by hand, added some light sponging for weathering and applied decals, some from the original kit and some from the official Dust Tactics Decals sets.

Pegasus Models 1/48th V2 Rocket

Pegasus Models 1/48th V2 Rocket - Detailing

Pegasus Models 1/48th V2 Rocket - In Situ

It took about 20 minutes to build and just over an hour to paint (excluding drying time). The masking for the camouflage was the longest task.

I'm delighted with it and I'm now on the look-up for a few V1 rockets to add to the table.

Pegasus Models 1/48th V2 Rocket

Dust Tactics: Custom Terrain - Ruin

This custom terrain piece represents a collapsed structure for use in Dust Tactics.

The in-game rules are exactly the same as for the two small rubble pieces. Infantry can enter, and count the rubble as cover, however walkers and other vehicles are unable to occupy any of the spaces.

As this terrain piece occupies 4 squares on the board I wanted to make it look even more like a collapsed building so I separated each of the four quarters so that each looks a little different from the last.

Once again the terrain piece is on a 6mm MDF base with camfered edges on two corners, with the other corners modelled to look like the remnants of collapsed walls. I added a wooden floor to one section and the a tiled floor to another.

Dust Tactics: Ruin

 I used a combination of foam-core off-cuts, lollipop sticks, grit and gravel and a variety of things from my bitz box, including an old 40K barrel and a Mordheim window to finish it off.

Simple paint-job with a spray undercoat, light dusting coat, stippling, ink washes and dry-brushing. The final paint finish was completed at the same time as my Rubble bases to ensure they looked at least a little similar.

Dust Tactics: Ruin, Alternate View

Dust Tactics: Custom Terrain - Rubble

In comparison to many other tabletop games ther ares relatively small amounts of terrain required to play Dust Tactics.

There are a few scenarios that feature 'Rubble' spaces. These are spaces that represent collapsed structures or destroyed 'blocking terrain' (Enormous Tank Traps, represented by card counters in the basic set).

A Rubble space does not block line of sight. It can be occupied by infantry but not by walkers or other vehicles. I wanted them to be a sound representation of collapsed structure and still allow up to 6 miniatures (a unit of 5 figures plus a hero if need be) to be placed on them.

This terrain was made using a base of 6mm cambered MDF square with an assortment of foam-core off-cuts, lollypop sticks and sand/gravel scatter PVA'd into place.

Dust Tactics: Rubble Marker 1

Dust Tactics: Rubble Marker 2

Both pieces were painted using a combination of spray undercoat and a light spray 'dusting', ink-washes, stipple and dry-brushing.

They were pretty quick and simple to make in between other projects whilst waiting for other pieces to dry etc.

Dust Tactics Rubble Markers

Dust Tactics: Johnny One Eye

Johnny One Eye is part of the Dust Tactics Allies Hero set.

He's a badass, with a big-ass machine gun, smoking a stogie, so what's not to like?

He is not the first badass in the Dust Tactics universe, but he's the first hero with the 'Badass' skill. In game, it means he doesn't run out of ammunition and any squad he joins gain unlimited uses of their limited ammunition weapons (Grenade launchers and demo charges come to mind). Which can be handy in a fight against the big scary Axis walkers.

I very pretty pleased with the finish. The weathering and chipping on the pauldrons is all brush-work, but it is a small enough area to allow me to create an 'effect' rather than having to spend too much time on it.

It has been a challenge trying to work with lighter colours whilst still maintaining a 'grubby' or 'lived-in' look, but good fun all the same.

Dust Tactics: Red Devils, 3rd Para Brigade

The Red Devils are a heavy infantry choice for the Allies in Dust Tactics.

"Axis soldiers had pinned down Captain Joseph Brown where they had bunkered in a Scapa Flow alley. As he and his men watched bullets trace the air over their heads, the thundering footsteps of a combat walker began to approach. Before he even saw the walker, he heard its massive cannon blast, and a nearby wall exploded, sending rubble flying. "Where are those reinforcements?" the Captain shouted. He didn't hear his sergeant's response, but saw, instead, the sun glinting off three heavily armored paratroopers."

I enjoyed the contrast of the olive power armour and the red berets on these models and the 60W phaser armament is great for use against other ground troops, including enemy walkers.

Once again, a little darker than desired (when will I learn?) but overall I'm pleased with them and they still 'pop' enough to make them stand out on the tabletop.

Dust Tactics: Action Jackson

There's quite a lot of good ole' American home-grown action heroes in Dust Tactics. Cigar smokin' Phaser totin' Action Jackson is one such hero. He clearly eats danger for breakfast and is well suited to lead the Red Devils into combat.

Dust Tactics: Action Jackson

I picked up Action Jackson as part of the Dust Tactics Allied Hero Pack, in which he comes with Johnny One Eye and The Priest.

I enjoyed painitng this model, it's quite a dynamic pose and the twin Phasers are definitely on the cool side. I'm just not quite sure how easy it might be to smoke a cigar with your hands secured in those giant phasers. Perhaps he lights them with the phasers? Still, style over substance eh!?

To get a lighter finish I'm going to have to experient with a variety of olive colours to find a base colour that works best. A nice excuse to pick up some new colours to play with.

Dust Tactics: Printable Blocking Terrain from TopoSolitario

I have an idea for some custom blocking terrain for Dust Tactics.It is still going to take some time (and effort) so rather than simply use cardboard counters in our games we wanted to use as many 3D elements as possible. I'd made up a few old GW buildings and we had quite a few additional terrain elements such as crates (both Dust Tactics crates, Tank Traps and other plastic/resin elements but we needed more.

Dr Google was our friend and we found these lovely printable elements from TopoSolitario

They are nice and easy to make models, I simply printed them directly onto some card that was thin enough to use in the printer, ran a sharpie along any 'exposed' edges and glued them with Heavy Duty Pritt Stick.

TopoSolitaro Printable Dust Tactics 3D blocking terrain in use.

There are plenty of awesome downloads including loads of Sci-Fi and near-future suitable items

Check the rest of the paper models out here at TopoSolitario

Zombtober 2014 - Week 1

Okay, so apparently I missed one of the rules of Zombtober...

You know, that rule about posting updates on a Sunday? Yeah, I missed that part, so I claim ignorane, which is bliss in this instance as I've simply been working away oblivious and enjoying every minute of it, and anyway, rules are there to be broken right?

So far I've re-based both of the Zombicide miniatures on 25mm round bases and added some milliput detailing and everything is now undercoated and ready to paint (George was already undercoated and painting had already begun).

It'll be nice to get back to painting on a white undercoat. I switched to white when I started painting my Studio Miniatures zombies for my All Things Zombies games, it was clear the miniatures on thier website were not painted on a black base-coat. However, recently, due to the darker base colours I've used with the majority of my Dust Tactics miniatures, I've steered clear of white in many instances and to be honest, I've missed it.

Time to get some paint on these guys!

Dust Tactics: Captain America

Despite it's flaws and rather weak reception, I actually really rather enjoyed 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger.

Good ole' wholesome American boy takes on the Nazis before a deisel-punk backdrop... with weapons and technology straight out of Dust Tactics... what's not to like? As a plus, Alan Silvestri's soundtrack to Captain America: The First Avenger isn't half bad, so the score went straight onto my Weird World War 2 gaming playlist too.

I'd seen other gamers using Captain America in various games so after a quick seach on Ebay I secured a suitable Clix model for just a few pounds.

This wasn't a complete re-paint. I simply re-coloured where necessary and adjusted the lines to match a little more closely to the movie version of the costume.

The model was carefully cut off at the feet and re-based on a 30mm DS Profile Fenris Incursion resin base. I'm a big fan of these bases and I'd ideally like to re-base the rest of the the models in the 3D play-set to match.

I used Captain Rogers as a proxy for Bazooka Joe, a Heros already available in the game, so there's nothing 'broken' about using him in game and I think he's a rather fun proxy that for me fits perfectly into the Dust Tactics universe.

Dust Tactics: 13 Foxtrot, Allied Special Ops Rangers Artillery Observers

To make use of the Artillery in Dust Tactics the Allied M2 Medium Combat Walker (Steel Rain Variant) Foxtrot 13, the Allies artillery observer team is a necessary addition to an allied army.

These two figures come in the Dust Tactics: Allied Rangers Observer Squad and Sniper Squad. As a separate squad to the Crack Shots Sniper Team the two figures are fielded as a single unit and can be used to fire artillery pieces that otherwise do not have direct line of sight to a target. A very useful addition to the Allied forces.

Once again working with a lighter palette I was able to keep the end result in the realms of what I was after; grubby just not too dark and they we pretty fun and quick to paint.

Dust Tactics: 3D Gaming Board - Frozen Water Boards WIP

The Victory Bridge campaign that comes with the Dust Tactics: Revised Core Set is focussed on a series of encounters in and around a key crossing; Victory Bridge.

Although I actually played through this campaign when I first starting playig this game using the map tiles the water features the maps depict and the bridges do feature in other campaign seenarios. So to go wiht my Dust Tactics 3D Game Board I wanted to make sure I had all the resources to play those other scenarios too.

I looked through the scenario maps from all of the campaign expansions I have (I'm missing just a few of the newest ones) there appeared to only ever be two water boards shown in any of the scenarios.

Dust Tactics is primarily winter themed so I wanted something to reflect that, so a quick few google images seraches and I quickly decided that ice floes fit the bill.

For simplicity's sake I used the same methods I had already been using. Having played around with cork tiles quite a bit recently I thought I might as well make use of the materials to hand. I'd already made up two standard battened 6mm MDF boards to match the others in preparation, so all I had to do was get a smooth (ish) finish and then start sticking 'random' irregular pieces of cork onto the board.

Ice Floe Board. WIP

The plan is to paint the whole thing white, with some pastel aquatic water shades washed/blended into the ice itself, and to use blues and green (gloss varnished) on the actual water.

Dust Tactics: Crack Shots, Sniper Team

Ever since the introduction of the Allied M2 Medium Combat Walker and Axis Medium Panzer Walker we've had the option to use artillery in our Dust Tactics games. To facilitate the use of artillery the introduction of small unit of observers came into play. Alongside those observer units, came the sniper team.

These two figures are fielded together as a two man unit and come with the Dust Tactics: Ranger Observer and Sniper Squad

As is typical with many game mechanics, a sniper can choose it's targets, making it highly effective for disabling critical squad weapons such as heavy machine guns, flame-throwers or panzerfausts.

I was happy working with a lighter palette for these models and as I managed to keep them that way for the most part I'm pretty happy with the end result.

Dust Tactics: OZZ 117- Real Name Erased from File - ASCOM

The fluff in Dust Tactics is full of mysterious individuals with suspiciously shady pasts. OZZ is one such character. After returning from a stint of work with Special Operations Command, his background was carefully erased. Nobdy knows his real name and although he speaks several languages... fluently, there's no trace of an accent to give away his natural origin.

OZZ 117 comes with the Dust Tactics: Operation Seelowe Campaign Expansion. He's cold and calcluating. An unsympathetic leader who commands by directness and battlefield prowess rather than charisma or charm.

He wears XM series aerial asualt armour and mounts an under fist flamethrower, which is great for assulting fortified positions or driving enemy troops out of buildings.

I was pretty pleased with how OZZ 117 turned out. He looks a little shiner than he actually is, due to the sun coming out as I took the shot, but altogether I think he works okay.

Dust Tactics: Tank Busters, Heavy Ranger Tank Hunter Squad

This Dust Tactics:Tank Busters Squad is an example of the simplicity of Dust Tactics. Squad sizes are typically three or five figures. A lightly armoured squad size is normally five and heavier troops comprise of three miniatures.

The Tank Busters wear XM-18-22 aerial asualt armour which allows them to literally 'jump' into combat allowing for considerable combat manueverability. They are also equipped with M10 bazookas, with enough firepower to worry even the heaviest Axis walkers. They're a pretty effective unit and a pretty decent additon to the allied forces you get in the Dust Tactics Core Set.

Simple and quick to paint. These definitely ended up too dark for me. I'm still pleased with the overal gritty look but I was aiming for something quite a bit lighter. A silly mistake on my part due to undercoat colour selection and a little too much heavy washing. Tansk Busters... only more grimy.

Dust Tactics: The Chef - Guglielmo Zanicotti - SOE

There are quite a few interesting characters in Dust Tactics. All of which present some intersting and individual painting opportunities. One of the quirkiest has to be 'The Chef'' Guglielmo Zanicotti. The Chef is one of the Alies chief spies and Rosie and Captain Joe Brown reply heavily on his insider information for the effective execution of many operations. He is currently thought to be deep in Berlin, obtaining information on the Axis Blutkruez Korps and VK expreiments.

The Chef comes with the Dust Tactics: Operation Cerberus Campaign Expansion.

My long term gaming buddy and Dust Tactics opponent James really doesn't like this dual wielding flame-thrower nutter, which is why it is nice to sneak him into a unit, get in close and use him to toast the Wehrmacht's finest.

Whislt vulnerable on his own he is an asset to any clsoe comabt unit he joins and is very effective against vehicles.

I used a pretty standard technique of base-coat, wash, touch-up, highlight and detail on this model. It was nice to be able to use some X-27 Tamiya Clear Red - TCR once again on the blood. Overall happy with result.

Dust Tactics: Medium Combat Walker M2 - Steel Rain and Hot Dog Variants

As a following on from my previous post, here's two of the other Dust Tactics Allied Medium Combat Walker variants.

Dust Tactics Steel Rain M2-F Artillery Support Walker

You get one chassis and two turrets. The Steel Rain M2-F variant is the second turret and the other three share the same base, just using a different main gun.

Dust Tactics Hot Dog M2-B with Napalm Thrower

The Hot Dog M2-B uses the same turret as the Pounder M2-C (17 pounder swapped for flame-thrower) as does the third Mickey M2-A just without the long barrel gun, so hardly worth a picture.

The two turrets had the same paint treatment and I painted them alongside each other to make sure there wasn't any significant colour difference.

Dust Tactics: Pounder - Medium Combat Walker M2-C

One of the appeals of Dust Tactics universe is the 'Walkers'. Not zombies but walking tanks.

The M2 Combat Walker is the most successful of all the allied combat walkers. It first went into production in 1945 and the Pounder fields the heaviest gun they could mount on the chassis.

The Pounder Medium Combat Walker M2-C fields a turret mounted 17 pounder, a pintel mounted 50 cal Victory MG and forward facing .30 Cal Victory MG.

The model can be fielded with four variants, the Pounder as shown, a howitzer bearing 'Mickey', an artillery version equipped with a Petard Mortar and 4.2" rockets 'Steel Rain' and the anti-infantry napalm spitting 'Hot Dog'. All 4 variants can be fielded with the bits in the box and the parts are interchangeable, even when painted.

This model was painted using the hairspray method, however I have to admit a mistake, one that is worth sharing.

I was in a bit of a rush when I painted this and didn't take enough time to prep when I airbrushed it. As a consequence, the paint was too thin and didn't quite cover the well enough, so I topped it up with some matt white from a spray can. Big mistake. Where I'd used the spray can to cover up the parts with poor coverage, I was unable to remove the pain with warm water and a brush. Dr Google soon explained - paint thickness and microns... lesson, don't try the hairspray method with a spray can, only an airbrush.

The rest of the weathering was a combination of sponging, washes, dry-brushing and pencil. I'm pleased with the overall look, although I had intended for the model to have move of the original 'under the whitewash' colour showing.

Incursion: 3D Playset - Fenris Generator Control Panel Objective Markers

My Incursion 3D Play Set project is slowly smoldering away in the background and seeing as many of the components can be used for Dust Tactics too it seemed quite reasonable to me (that's my excuse anyway) to get some more of those elements done too.

Fenris Incursion Generator Control Panel Objective Markers

These Generator Control Panels are used for Scenario 6  from the Incursion rule book 'AC/DC' in which the Allies are engaged in an all-out drive for the Axis Command Centre and the Doosday Device.

The objective markers are available from Fenris Games who obtained permission to sculpt and market them as an 'official' Incursion product. They cost just £6.50 for all 5.

They were a simple grey spray undercoat, base coat of olive drab and citadel wash. The dials were hand painted with a black wash base and a simple two colour highlight before adding the black dial.

Fenris Incursion Generator Control Panel.

They make nifty objective markers for Icursion and fit perfectly with the aesthetic of the  Dust Tactics universe, so they'll see plenty of use.

Dust Tactics: Oberleutenant Manfred Kruezer - Wehrmacht

Heroes are pretty useful additions to any standard squad in Dust Tactics and Oberleutenant Manfred Kruezer is the second character figure that comes with the Dust Tactics: Operation Cyclone Campaign Expansion.

Manfred is a campaign veteran equipped with an StG 47 Machine Gun, Knife and a Panzerfaust. He has the 'Assault' special ability which means one per game he can double his movement value (and the movement value of any squad he joins) for one turn.

Oberleutnant Manfred Kreuzer - Wehrmacht.

I tried some simple camouflage (as per his standard look) and am pretty pleased with the outcome. The decal on his pauldron is not part of his standard look, but I felt it helped him stand out from any other miniatures in a squad he joins.

Dust Tactics: Master Sergeant Rosie Donovan - ASCOM

The Dust Tactics universe has quite a few strong female characters. And by strong female characters I mean ladies with lovely figures who wear tight fitting clothing, tote heavy weaponry as if it were the latest fashion and kick ass.

Master Sergeant Rosie Donvoan comes with the Dust Tactics: Operation Cyclone Campaign Expansion. Her Bazooka adds anti-armour firepower to any Allied squad she joins and her 'Tank Head' ability allows her to repair damaged vehicles in the field.

Master Sergeant Rosie Donovan - ASCOM

Rosie was a fun miniature to paint, simple, quick and definitely stands out from the olive clad units she typically joins.