Dystopian Wars - Russian Coalition: Commission

I've done a couple of the Russian Coalition models before but this time around it was great to get a whole desk full of them, which you can see in the photo to the right.

Here they are in their first prep phase - drying under the lamps after being cleaned with a bit of warm water with a small touch of washing up liquid. This gets rid of any greasy residue from the residue - mind Spartan Games models are pretty clean anyway, but it's not worth the risk to avoid this step.

Getting them dry is a little bit more effort, but I just use a combination of blowing off the water droplets, carefully patting the models with some absorbent kitchen paper and air drying them under daylight lamps.


I've spoken before about the quality of Dystopian Wars and these are no exception: great casts, a whole lot of detail and a lot of model for your money - and I envy anyone getting a huge force like this to the gaming table.




I've recently switched from the over-priced and unreliable GW Citadel Chaos Black to Army Painter Matt Black for undercoating and so far the results have been far superior - a smooth effortless coat with no second pass or touch up required. After this experience I have no intention to using GW sprays ever again. If you're thinking of switching check out this blog post comparing the two: GW Chaos Black vs AP Matt Black.





For this commission, my client wanted me to use the painting palette I had used previously and here's a quick rundown of what I used:

Foundry Paints:
Arctic Grey Palette  __________  __________  __________
Forest Green Palette  __________  __________  __________
Sky Blue Palette  __________  __________  __________

P3 Metallics:
Pig Iron  __________
Cold Steel  __________
Molten Bronze  __________
Gun Corp Brown  __________

Army Painter:
Strong Tone ink (ink wash)    __________


Forgot to mention, all the guns are magnetised too - I really do love magnetising stuff!

Now onto the photos - Enjoy :)

Dystopian Wars - Russian Colaition Kostroma Class Battle Carrier

Okay it has been a while, there is plenty going on in the studio I will endeavour to share more of it here!

I have a few individual Dystopian Wars models in the pipeline because I wanted to get a look at some of the larger pieces and have some fun with them. I was immediately excited and daunted upon opening the parcel containing the first of these. These 'massive' category vessels are... massive! For a sensible price point you get a serious chunk of finely cast resin. The Russian carrier, which I started with, was in fact a blister pack full of goodies with flyer tokens, Icebergs and cards.

Two massive carriers begging for paint. Big thanks to the Prussian Battleship and Forest Green Light for standing in as comparison.

With the inspiration of the Russians and the White army of the Dystopian Wars Universe my mind wandered to the icy waters of the Arctic. I am always a huge sucker for themes, whether through; colour schemes, conversions, or basing. Together with the idea I wanted to try for a sturdier magnetized base my course ahead was set.

I traced the outline of the vessel and created a two layered plasti-card base. Aside from a sturdy structural integrity this provided the depth for 2mm magnets to be slotted into the top layer, it also gave some possible depth to the waves to be sculpted around the hull. The ice bergs are roughly cut plasti-card mostly stacked up in two layers. I was careful to attach these with the inclusion of some green stuff to give them some movement in the waves.

Green stuff was built up in stages, simply adding height to previous spots or filling in and blending gaps. As I built these stages up I was mindful of the following; the waves rolling off the side of the hull, the large bow wave, and the choppy engine wake at the stern,

The base was finishing lastly with a thin self adhesive cork bottom, which is rather luxurious for gaming.

The primary colour is the Arctic Grey palette from foundry, I envisaged an off white hull with some grubbier colouration and weathering with dark decking and even darker industrial structures. I was initially going to paint the obvious Coalition bear logo on the carrier deck, but after goggling some Russian inspiration I settled  on the bear and eagle of Russian Standard Vodka (Itallics require a thick Russian accent), this seemed fitting for a coalition aircraft carrier and is a classy logo. Perhaps not a piece for the purists out there. The flyers I kept purposely clean and simple, because their form can easily be lost on the table. Enjoy!

PS: The next piece is to be a Britannia Eagle Class War Rotor. I am dying to apply the colour scheme I have in mind but I am awaiting delivery of some vital and awesome "Omni-Stand" flying bases from Corsec Engineering.