The Aerial Battle Group for the Black Wolf Mercenaries have hit the shelves and the painting table, and over the weekend I have managed to get the first of these ships ready - a Chimera-class Medium Airship. Initially happy with the colour scheme and the finished product, niggling doubts have begun to eat into my consciousness, and I doubt this model will survive the night in its current iteration.
I had hoped the red panel at the stern and the red rocket battery would have been enough to enhance the fairly dull black and grey scheme of the Black Wolf Mercenaries, but this vessel does not feel complete yet - more work needs to be done!
Here are some pictures of the work so far, and my thoughts on the future of the scheme.
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| The Chimera-class Airship alongside the Manticore-class Support Skimmer and two Reaper-class Attack Submarines In this shot we see the deep grey of the hull plating is slightly lighter than that of the Manticore-class Support Skimmer, and will need an extra wash over the top to bring the colour down |
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| The second thing that worries me is the colour of the gas-bag - this brown/grey looks messy and will need tidying or replacing with an entirely new colour - I am thinking red Previous experiments with red airships have been mixed - a Prussian zeppelin was a success, but there is a worry that it can look like something out of a cartoon rather than a semi-realistic warship |
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| The exposed machinery on the side of the superstructure may benefit from being painted a rich bronze (like the engine cowling near the red panel) rather than the duller faded brass |
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| I am largely happy with the red panel at the stern of the vessel, the wooden panelling and the superstructure |
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| Seen alongside the rest of the fleet, we can see it looks good but needs something more to make it "pop" and really fit in with the other vessels Darkening the hull plating, changing some of the exposed engines and generators from brass to a richer bronze and changing the skin of the gas-bag to a deep red will all help in this regard, but may also be too much and make the model too colourful or just plain ridiculous. I must be cautious! |
So there we are! Not quite as complete as I had hoped. Nonetheless, this model took a fraction of the time the Russian Coalition ships have been taking, and I hope that once I have the colour scheme pinned down the rest of the Aerial Battle Group will be painted extremely quickly, ready for a showcase or Battle Report in the coming weeks.
Thanks for reading,
George
Hi !
ReplyDeleteI pretty much like it like that. Seem quite balanced to me. :)
That very sober scheme fits them well and seem similar on that one than on the old naval ones. The one that would look a bit ridiculous to me would rather be the big red submarine, that look less fierce. ^^
Yet do whatever seems better to you.
You could do the first plate of the bottom aileron in red. Or whynot a wolf-head symbol on the fore (that can also turn cheesy depending on the way it's done ^^)