Element 270 Painting Challenge - A Dismal Failure!

THE DEADLINE HAS PASSED... AND THE RUSSIAN FLEET IS NOT FINISHED

I have failed the Element270 Painting Challenge, and the Russian Coalition fleet sits base-coated and washed, but in no way finished. A damn shame, no doubt! I would love to have seen my work competing with the talent Australia and the rest of the world has to offer. Ultimately, the summer was just too busy, and I was kept from the painting table too long to get them done.

I work full time as a hotel manager, and Summer tends to be the busiest time of the year (save Christmas). This year was no different, with a series of six-day working weeks and unrelenting brilliant sunshine leading to some very busy, very haphazard schedules. Losing a number of key staff to the usual business turnover and a ten-day holiday in August where no painting was done was also a spanner in the works.

The Russians will be completed... but not today, and not in time for the Challenge. Thanks to those who were following what little progress I made, and I hope you enjoyed all of the other posts I have made in lieu of painting Russian ships. In the mean time, here are some pictures of what was completed...

The Cruiser and Corvette, the only finished models of the fleet

The rest of the Cruiser squadron, with their basecoats and wash layer

The five-strong Corvette squadron

Destroyers, with their massive hull-mounted cannon

The Azov-class Battlecruiser, a model almost as detailed as the larger Battleships

The Battleship features a Generator mounted around the funnels

Heavy layers of Ablative Armour are always fun to paint

The Dudinka-class Assault Carrier, with massive Fore Guns and Heavy Mortars

I am yet to come up with a good colour scheme for the tiny flyers

DISTRACTIONS AND EXCUSES

Holidays and work played the greatest role in keeping me from completing the Russian fleet, but several other projects also conspired to keep me away from them, not least of all a whole other game system - Infinity. While I was kept busy throughout July with the Infinity project, several other fleets also needed a couple of models here and there, which took up valuable time in August. Below, you can see some of the finished works.

Painted at the start of July, the Prussian Empire provided a distraction, especially the Elbe-class Fleet Carrier which took several sittings to complete. I wanted to get these guys done rather than the Challenge fleet as the Prussians are my main fleet for gaming

Shamefully, I cannot even count these as my entrant to the competition as I have not painted the other squadrons included in the box, only the "new" ships

The Federated States of America also took up space on the painting table during August, as several of the new generation of vessels were commissioned for a Battle Report

Again, they cannot make an appearance in the Challenge as several ships were painted before the beginning of the competition and the other ships, such as the Frigates and SAWs, have not been painted

These Mine Tokens were a recent addition, painted relatively quickly. Useful for a number of fleets, I have painted them in a neutral scheme. I look forward to finishing the other five tokens soon and using them with the Kingdom of Denmark and Prussian Empire

I originally planned to finish a fleet for the Republique of France for the Challenge, and though the test model (pictured here) has received many compliments, I was not happy with it and moved on to the Russian Coalition. The French will return when I have mastered a good white for the lighter sections of armour

The Infinity team - Jurisdictional Command of Corregidor. This force was painted for a tournament in the middle of July and took up the first two weeks of that month

Infinity is a game that has become a powerful distraction from Dystopian Wars, and with the coming release of their Third Edition, I do not see this changing. Hopefully I will be able to regulate so both games get the adequate amount of attention and coverage on the blog

So there we are! A productive summer, perhaps not as productive as I had hoped, and certainly not in the manner hoped for, but good nonetheless. In the coming weeks I will be cracking on with some more Infinity models, as well as commission work for a Prussian fleet and some more FSA vessels. The Russian Coalition will have their time, and hopefully sooner rather than later.

Thanks for reading,

George