Miniatures & Painting: Dropzone Commander - Shaltari:Yari

Sorry for the absence of a post last, this was because I was on holiday. Since being back I have given my blog a little organisation and have added pages for easier access to posts., I hope you find it useful. I know I have.

So in addition to my spirit gates I have some Yari to expand my 1k escalation force; I felt that the scout option was the right way to go.

As these are tiny models I will combine the miniature review with painting them.

The Packaging

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

The models:

The model consists of 3 parts; vehicle body, turret and weapon. You get the choice of both Microwave gun and AA, but you can only build one type per model (unless you can work some wonder with tiny magnets).

The detail on these models is typical Hawk quality, which was a nice relief following the disappointment with my spirit gates.

Building/Painting the models:
This section/post type has been combined as I didn't want to finish building the model until they were fully painted so not to obscure any part  of them and to get an all over paint job.

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

You'll notice that these pictures are different to the normal format, this is due to being on a business trip when painting them. I hope it doesn't distract too much from the progress pictures.

The Yari were under-coated white using Halford white primer, then liberally washed with Army Painted Strong tone (I know I must have shares in the stuff). Now this stage was an absolute arse; due to the numerous holes, and indentations. I had to apply coat after coat of strong tone directly into those areas.

This time I definitely didn't paint over the wash with bonewhite and went straight to drybrushing with Dead White (72.001), which as you can see created a dirty white, so this stage shouldn't be skipped (especially when lots of strong tone has been used)

Here I painted the fins with Electric Blue (72.023)

Next I painted the weapons 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 White including the microwave gun silver area but avoiding the AA guns silver areas.

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 only applied to the black canopies.

There we have it, four complete Yari: 2 with microwave guns, 2 AA. These are fiddly little models that go together nicely and although painting them meant painting most of my fingertips (and using lots of strong tone in the initial stages). I have learnt not to skip stages if I want a cleaner looking white...but maybe a dirty white works for scout units.