Painting: Dropzone Commander - Shaltari: Spirit Gates

While I was away on business I also painted my spirit gates but I have only just got around to writing up the process.

Much like the Yari I apologise for the change in photos and again I hope it doesn't distract from the painting process too much.

As ever paints described will be from the vallejo game colour range unless otherwise stated.

The spirit gates were under-coated white using Halford white primer, then liberally washed with Army Painted Strong tone.

Much like the Yari I definitely didn't paint over the wash with bonewhite and went straight to drybrushing with Dead White (72.001).

Next I painted the fins and transport crystal with Electric Blue (72.023)

Then I painted the transport nodes with Chainmail Silver (72.053), then carefully coated with GW Nuln Oil. Once the Nuln Oil dried I lightly painted with Silver (72.052).

Then tidied up the white areas where blue and silver had accidentally come into contact with it, after which I drybrushed GW Ceramite. Which really made the models pop however when drybrushing the fins it highlighted the imperfections.

Next I painted the canopies Black (72.051). Once dry I did a little tidying around the canopies and coated all over with Matt Varnish (70.520), followed by Gloss Varnish (70.510) which was applied to the black canopies and transport crystal.

Although I am generally pleased with the result I am a little disappointed as I feel the paint didn't cover the imperfections of the model as much as I had hoped.

Miniatures: Dropzone Commander - Shaltari: Spirit Gates

With April approaching it meant that my DZC escalation league was moving to 1k games and as a result I needed to expand my force; so to start I purchased some spirit gates.

Here is my personal review of these fast small gates.

The Packaging

As per previous posts these models come in a blister, which contains the models, firm foam and a card inlay


The model

The model consists of 3 parts: main body and two fins.

It is with a heavy heart that I make the following comments: the detail on these is....mediocre at best. It appears that I got a bad set; the detail is blurred and bumpy with a slightly rough feel. There was a flimsy film like flash, which, although easily removed (by rubbing my fingers over it), was all over the model. If this hadn't come in Hawk packaging and from a know distributor I'd say this was a knock off.....bad day in quality control. Hopefully when painted it won't be noticeable.

Building the model

With only 3 pieces in total these didn't take long to build.

The fins don't fit as snug as they do on the plastic Eden gates but it didn't take long too glue into place either.

So in no time these were built, shame about the quality but I expect a lick of paint will cover the issue.

*forgot to add that the flight sticks wouldn't fit in the base without slipping through so I glued some flight pegs (bought previously) to prevent that