Progress on 15mm project: CMG phaseshifters and RAL infantry + others on the way

Here's the 15mm Sci-Fi update I meant to do a few days ago but never did, I was too busy to take the pictures in daylight. As you can see, natural light seems the way to go.

I painted the customary test figure (one of the CMG RAL infantry) and after only one repaint was pretty happy with the look I was getting and had a crack at 6 of the CMG 'Phaseshifters'.

The painting techniques were pretty standard - I'm aiming for a decent tabletop quality for 'arms-length' viewing so some of these pictures are a little cruel.


Conversions
I didn't do a lot to these figures - they had little flash apart from the shoulder pieces and were in great condition, well done CMG!
All I did was add a short length of wire to the right-hand gauntlet to represent some kind of inbuilt smg type weapon. These robots are meant for close assault but I still thought some kind of limited ranged capability would make sense.

Bases
These were the not-FOW bases from warbases.co.uk and I can't say anything bad about them. Well priced, quickly delivered, smoothly cut and generally all you could want from a base! I plan to do these unit's bases in a dusty, arid style with scattered tufts.

Paints/Techniques
For those who are interested I used a GW snakebite leather base-coat drybrushed with vallejo green ochre mixed with snakebite leather 50:50 and then a lighter drybrush of pure green ochre. This was then washed with Snakebite leather to 'brown' the tone and prevent it looking too yellow. A final highlight of green ochre was applied. The claws were basecoated GW boltgun metal and then highlighted with GW mithril silver. Some of the darker recesses of the armour like the back of the head and some of the joints were painted German Grey and highlighted with German Grey andwhite 50:50 for contrast. The whole thing was then dipped (well, brushed with) Army Painter Strong Tone in a thin coat. Further highlights were added with Green ochre. The lenses were painted using Vallejo Crimson, vermilion and white. The shoulder 'gems' (these were added as a point of interest, I have no real reason for them being painted such...) were done using GW regal blue with progressive increments of white added.

The lenses vary in quality. The left ones pretty good, the right... not so much. I'll touch them up sometime. 

Robot on the left gives some suppressive fire with his in-built plasma smg.

I'm not sure what these backpacks were in the original CMG rules but i play to use them as either teleporters or jumpacks. 

I'm very happy with the shoulder 'gems'. 

Here's some photos of the test figure I did, he was painted in the same fashion as the phaseshifters.

A comparison picture just to give you an idea of scale. I plan to use the phaseshifters as power armoured infantry and I think this holds true when you put them side-by-side with a grunt who has roughly human proportions. 

Work in Progress

I was inspired by Spaceman Spiff's awesome 'special effects' on his mechs and plan to do something similar on some of my units. I decided to make my own (rather than use armorcast's) as it really didn't look hard, just a few minutes with some green stuff and some short lengths of pin. The results not too bad, altho I'm gonna need to practice Object Source Lighting painting techniques to get these to look any good. 

Here's the next unit on the way - two spider drones. I've added a small missile launcher made from plasticard to the side of the turrets on these and plan to stat them up as power armour/light armour snipers with guided missiles for taking down tougher opposition.

Drone units are also on the way although I haven't decided whether to add additional weapons or stick with what could be interpreted as multiple rocket pods on small stub wings. Perhaps I'll use them as micro-missile launchers?

I'm really pleased with all the models I picked up from GZG and CMG, they all came without too much flash and very cleanly cast on the whole. I can't wait to start getting them all painted and based up!

As you can see this project is starting to move along, although I have a work intense period coming up in the next few weeks so progress will probably stall big-time around then.