HMS King John, Ruler Class Battleship

I gave the HMS King John, Ruler Class Battleship for Dystopian Wars a basecoat of Citadel Base: Mechanicus Standard Grey.

What I have been finding is that my painting is not covering the model and I am not sure if it is my painting (in other words my eyesight) or whether it’s the paint shrinking. Looking over the model I think it might need a bit of a second coat.

King John – Ruler Class Battleship

I finished painting King Richard III and used it in a few games. The first of my reinforcements for my Kingdom of Britannia naval forces is another Ruler Class Battleship, called King John. Having constructed the model I gave it a white undercoat.

Unlike my other Battleship, this one only has three turrets, but does have a shield generator.

As I have said in previous posts I am not a huge fan of the Kingdom of Britannia ship designs, say compared to the FSA or the Prussian Empire. I just imagined them to be sleeker and more menacing. The Prussians certainly have that kind of look.

Kingdom of Britannia Terrier Ironclad

Kingdom of Britannia Terrier Ironclad

Striking a balance between speed, durability and firepower, the Terrier Ironclad is the perfect expansion to a Kingdom of Britannia force. Able to engage any opponent whilst weathering all but the heaviest attacks, the Terrier provides a steadfast iron anchor for the Britannian gun line. Any foe foolish enough to approach the Terrier head on will be blasted by its relentless 122-Pdr Gun, whilst the sponson mounted AT Rifles deter any attempted flanking assaults. As well as this devastating array of firepower, the Terrier holds a powerful shield generator within its hull – a sparking energy field to disrupt incoming fire.

I quite like this new model from Spartan Games for their Dystopian Legions game. It appears from the CAD diagram to have a lot of detail. Though Dystopian Legions uses extra large 28mm figures, this would appear to be not too scale specific so would fit in with 25mm figures quite easily.

King John – Ruler Class Battleship

I have been painting the Kingdom of Britannia Naval Battle Group for Dystopian Wars.

Having finished painting King Richard III and used it in a few games, I realised that I may need some reinforcements. The first of these ships is another Ruler Class Battleship, this one will be called King John.

Unlike King Richard III, this only has three turrets, but does have a shield generator.

Next stage will be a white undercoat.

Flying Ships

Having undercoated the Britannian Flyers the next stage was to paint the base coat. I have been thinking about the colour scheme for my two large Dystopian Wars Kingdom of Britannia airborne models, the Illustrious Class Sky Fortress and the Eagle Class War Rotor.

I thought very early on that I didn’t want to follow the same colour scheme I had used for the naval vessels. They had a dark grey basecoat, followed by a dark brown wash and then successive light grey drybrushed onto the models. I was quite pleased with the end result.

The Illustrious and the Eagle though flew in the air, they did not sail in the sea. Even though the “fluff” from Dystopian Wars talks about a combined armed forces for the Kingdom of Britannia, I still liked the idea of a slightly separate naval air corps. I was inspired by a conversation I had with Simon about the current US Navy where the East Coast Atlantic Navy think the West Coast Pacific Navy are beach boys who can’t handle cold weather and are too relaxed, whilst the Pacific Navy think the Atlantic Navy need to loosen up and chill a bit! In a similar vein many in the British armed forces in 1914 thought that the Royal Flying Corps was full of crackpots and madmen.

I have this idea that though there are combined forces in the Kingdom of Britannia, there are still issues and there are those who command the naval ships thinking that those who fly about in the air are a little “weird” and not quite right in the head!

On the Spartan Community forums there are a fair few pictures of painted models, which have given me a few ideas.

Initially I did think about a camouflage scheme as used by the RAF in World War Two, light egg blue for the under surfaces and khaki and dark green two tone camouflage on the top surfaces. I then did consider using the RAF night camouflage, so with black under surfaces. However upon reflection I did wonder if this was too “modern” for Dystopian Wars and so went back to thinking.

I then remembered I really enjoyed reading The Ministry of Space comic, which describes an alternate reality in which the United Kingdom won the space race.

The Ministry of Space

It is written and drawn in the style of Dan Dare and the Eagle Comics.

The Ministry of Space

As a result I am now thinking bright shiny aluminium with aircraft markings. So for the basecoat I used Citadel Boltgun Metal.

Painting the Britannian Flyers

Painting the Britannian Flyers




Britannian Reinforcements

Having finished painting my Kingdom of Britannia Naval Battle Group I started to think about reinforcements. I already have on the workbench quite a few flyers, but what I decided I needed more naval vessels, well maybe one more naval vessel.

I initially considered getting some more Tribal Cruisers, but in the end went with a second Ruler Class Battleship.

I am in the process of naming my Dystopian Wars ships. My original Ruler Class Battleship was named King Richard III and in a similar spirit of choosing a King with a slighted or disreuptable reputation I have considered two names, King George III and King John. In the end I think I may go with King John, just because George III and Richard III are both “thirds”.

Undercoating the Flyers

After constructing the Kingdom of Britannia Eagle Class War Rotor and the Illustrious Class Sky Fortress I gave the models a white undercoat using a Citadel White Skull spray can.

Kingdom of Britannia Eagle Class War Rotor
Illustrious Class Sky Fortress

I also gave the two Doncaster bombers from the Naval Battle Group an undercoat too.

Doncaster Class Bombers

Eagle Class War Rotor Workbench

Illustrious Class Sky Fortress Workbench

Naval Battle Group Workbench

 

 

Putting the Eagle Class War Rotor together

Having cleaned the resin and metal parts I put the Eagle Class War Rotor I have for Dystopian Wars together.

Though the model did go together easily, there was quite a large gap in one of the wing roots, so I filled the gap with Green Stuff.

The next stage will be a white undercoat.