New Build, Red Horrizons

I love my yellow Shaltari. They were the first 10mm models I ever painted, as well as the first Dropzone models my brush had laid it's sweet bristles upon. These striking Hogs romped wildly about the DzC tourney scene for a while, blinding all in their way, and even made it into a copy of Tabletop Insider!

That yellow though. Oh boy, the yellow. I can't- I just can't. Even thinking about painting it again gives me the shakes! You see, I painted these a long time before I had my airbrush, and any of you out there who have painted yellow by hand can surely feel my pain. Starting with a red coat I built up to the yellow, which required a few coats because of the stupid, weak yellow pigment.

I've been wanting to expand my Shaltari for a while now, but a couple of aspects had been putting me off. The first was the way they leaned on the meta and pretty much owned it for a while, which sucked the joy out of the army for me. Although I enjoy winning games as much as the next narcissist, I need to have fun with the list I'm using too (which is when the Scourge, the most fun parasites to catch in the whole of the cosmos, came into play). That's all fixed now (at least, I think is is), which brings back the allure of playing the critters. The second issue was the yellow.

As the escalation campaign rekindled my interest in Sonic & Co, I have been trying to think of ways to replicate the sun-bright finish without sinking in more hours than I now have available in my life, but there just aren't any. Well, unless I happened to find Bernard's Watch, and then in which case I would have all the time in the world! Would I use my watch for good, or for evil though? How did Bernard lose it in the first place? How old is Bernard these days? Maybe he's still a child, stuck in a timeless land, alone and unable to end his suffering. Hmmm. Anyway, my airbrush won't give the same finish as brushwork, and I just can't bring myself to paint all my new toys in that old school manner.

Both glorious and a pain in the arse in equal measure

So what does this mean? A reboot, Daredevil style rather than Transformers style (M Bay, Stunt-Plot
extraordinaire, will have no meddling in my painting. Zack Synder is very visual though, I'd let him direct my hobby work)! I've decided to go for a completely new scheme, using the original colours of yellow and purple but reversed; hulls and turrets in a deep purple, vane edges and other bits in a bright yellow, and the vane inners and metals in a rich bronze / gold.

This will also allow me to re-theme the army too, as I've never really been happy with my first go at basing. Looking for inspiration and a nice contrast to the purple, Techboy threw up the idea of a rusty oxide desert, which ticked all the boxes in my head.

The plan is to style my bases on an abandoned mining complex. I will be basing all my Skimmers and aircraft (and perhaps walkers, undecided on this) with a dusty, orange desert to catch the eye, including long forgotten roads and rusted old mining vehicles. The Infantry will be a mixture of warehouses full of crates and barrels (Pungari) and sci-fi walkways (Braves and Firstborns). Need help imagining this? Go watch Total Recall (Arnie's flick, as there is no other), enjoy yourself immensely (this is just a side effect of watching the movie), and then open your mind and you'll be able to share my vision.

This is all a twinkle in my eye at the moment of course, and I will leave you with some WIP piccies of my Pungari horde (not my hoard), which I also plan to post a 'how to' guide for if you are in need of a little help with scenic basing.

Also, if anyone has any good suggestions of how to get the 'orange and barren Mars' look, please comment!