"War Is Always A Terrible Business."

"But it needn’t be a concerning exercise in cruelty or a brutal, merciless grind."

These two 15mm scale Black Adder Combat Lifters are sold by “Alternative Armies” and can be purchased as Pack Code IAF036C from the company’s "The Ion Age" range. Supplied as a multi-piece metal and resin vehicle, they are "armed with a Fretan Rail Gun in a turret mount", and are approximately 60mm long, 30mm wide and 25mm tall.

Each model was super-glued on to a large-sized plastic "Flames Of War" stand by “Battlefront Miniatures”, and was primed in "Vallejo" Heavy Red in order to be added to my ongoing (not) Blood Angels army. "Used for a variety of purposes and in many variants", the automobiles were then enthusiastically drowned in “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson, before receiving a heavy dry-brush of (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Red using a soft-bristled make-up brush.

"The Lord Of The Rings" WIPs - This Black Númenórean just needs his robe finishing

I next applied some "Citadel" Abaddon Black to the Combat Lifters' flexible skirts, side panels/windows, rear vents, front headlamp frames and giant guns. Some of these areas were subsequently 'picked out' using a combination of "Vallejo" Gunmetal and "Citadel" Nuln Oil. In addition, I used a dollop of "Two Thin Coats" White Star and a wash of "Vallejo" Pale Grey on each hover-tank's trio of lights, and lastly applied some old(ish) "Games Workshop" Blood Angels decals to mark the vehicles out as belonging to the IX Legion; including a single white Veterans emblem to help distinguish one vehicle from the other.

Having cleared a little space on my hobby desk - albeit I've since discovered a few more 15mm vehicles from "The Ion Age" range lurking in the shadows, I have continued working on the first six Black Númenóreans for "The Lord Of The Rings" I quite recently bought from "eBay". Despite initially planning on batch painting these 3D printed evil warriors I've subsequently split the half-dozen figures into identical pairings, and resultantly managed to whittle them down to my last two miniatures.

"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" WIPs - This Ruthless Lieutenant is almost completed

To slightly mix things up, I've also begun to progress the "Flash Gordon" project I pencilled in for later this year, using numerous models taken from "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" Rick Rhodes science-fiction range. First up will be the Lincolnshire-based company's Ruthless Lieutenant, which appears in their Galactic Villains pack, and is evidently inspired by the treacherous General Kala seen in Mike Hodges' classic 1980 movie "Flash Gordon".

Like my Black Númenóreans, the quite diminutive figure is hopefully destined for the Fourteenth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC). But, will also be another experiment into how I can better pigment a truly bright, striking gold using a light dry-brush of "Vallejo" Silver as a second highlight over a wash of "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade and "Vallejo" Gold...