Fleet Parade

It is a happy thing to reach a milestone when involved in a large painting project. Today I feel as if I've reached a decent milestone.

I now have enough versatility in my painted PHR fleet that I can field a variety of options, including more frigates and different configurations of troop landing ships.

I do feel a bit short on Medeas though, really I do need two more to round out the fleet number to a healthy eight.

1500pt PHR Dropfleet Armada!

I managed to get 2 Calypsos done in 2 days during the work week, so I'm pretty happy with being able to have that progress. With the Scipio that I completed last week, I'm now able to field a 1500pt fleet for the gaming session that I was invited to on Thursday. VERY much looking forward to being able to play!

I'm horrified at the thought of how many damned gravity nullifier panels I have painted in this fleet.

I'm also thinking on whether or not I want to get a pack of the normal Echo corvettes. I am not in love

Close up of the Calypso

with the aesthetic of them, kind of preferring my weird Alien-esque scratch built ones but I'll admit, they are a horrific pain to build and the thought of building another 2 to 8 of them just exhausts me.

What do you guys think? Do you like the weird Echoes or should I be a conformist?

The Scipio is a nice centre piece model, which I'll admit, I feel like I was lacking a little bit in my Adepticon list last Spring.

What are you guys interested in seeing me paint next? I have the following on my plate:

• Finish the PHR fleet.
• Start the Shaltari fleet.
• Start the Shaltari ground forces.
• Start the Warhammer 40k Tau.

I'd love to hear your comments.

Echoes

Test Echo supported by double Bellerophons in the back.

I got a lot done this evening.

First off I've gotten it down that I can complete a heavy cruiser inside of 3 nights of light painting. About 2 hours to black the models and do touch ups to the cream on the hulls. Another 2 to silver and do broad details and a final 2 to touch up details and do some shading.

Which meant I was able to finish another Bellerophon tonight! So I've got 2 painted in my fleet. With 4 cruisers done and 5 frigates, I decided to give myself a bit of a reward and paint up my Echoes.

The normal PHR corvette is a problem for me; it looks for all the world like a derpy dolphin. While it does convey speed and maintain some design principals of the overall PHR theme of sleek lines, gravity nullifiers and a sub-light engine, the execution of it is something that I'll just never field in my fleet.

I wanted something that paid a bit of homage to the kind of Alien-esque design of the PHR fleet.

The fleet grows!

Something that almost looked drone-like, or animal, in a technological kind of way. So I opted for a kitbash for the 4 Echoes I plan on fielding.

It's pretty simple with just 7 parts. First I take the hood of the Andromeda frigate and turn it upside down on top of a Calypso underslung ECM systems. I make sure to turn them backwards however and align them so that they are more or less perpendicular with the hull.

I then knocked off the sensor array on the prow of the Calypso underbelly to create a flat bonding surface where I glue a cruiser prow mass driver to represent the Echo's Medium Calibre Turrets.

On the back end I flatten off the round part of a frigate fin, turn it upside down and nestle it in the natural pocket that forms between the Andromeda canopy and a light cruiser's underpaneling that has been cut in half. That will form the aft of the ship.

They look pretty good, I think!