Operation Cowboy Part 3

My current project has been converting the USAriadna motorbike troops into proper cavalry units and I'm pleased to say that I'm now finished!

It's been a bit of a slog getting here, but I'm really happy with the end result. My thanks go out once again to Philip Hynes for the sculpting, Hysterical Games for the casting and everyone else who gave me the courage to think that this wasn't a completely stupid idea!

Below are WIP as well as finished pics of all the models, as well as a little bonus surprise at the end.

Operation Cowboy Part 2

My horses have been sculpted and their being cast up as we speak so I'll hopefully have them in my grubby mitts within a couple of weeks!

Needless to say I'm pretty damned excited about them, so to tide me over whilst I wait for them to arrive I asked the sculptor to send me some more pics!

Operation Cowboy

I find the motorbikes in USAriadna deeply disappointing. Not physically, but conceptually so.

They might be great miniatures and the bikes definitely fit the anime asthetic but they just don't gel with the riders for me. When I think American wilderness and frontier towns I don't think of bikers, I think of cowboys. Do cowboys ride bikes? Not a chance. Bikes run of petrol (or gas, in USAriadna), can't easily traverse difficult terrain and can break down. What you want is a horse.

I man come on, just look at the concept art. Sure, fluff-wise the Ariadnans probably wouldn't initially have had horses, but I'll be damned if that will stop me. Plus given all the other 'American' tropes they've tried to fit into I can bet they'd have imported some as soon as they had a chance!

Wide brimmed hat, poncho, holstered pistol. Check, check and check.

USARF Recruitment Office - Part 4

The latest additions to my USAriadna force are a pair of Traktor Muls.

These versatile remotes are a mainstay in many Ariadna armies and so it was inevitable that I'd end up wanting to use them eventually. I was somewhat dreading the assembly though as there were a couple of criteria I wanted to meet.

1. Those large, metal missile launcher pods had to be attached to the central 'head' securely by a fairly small surface area.
2. I should be able to field any combination of a Katyusha, Uragan or two Minesweepers using only these two remotes. This would allow me to field any reasonable combination of their profiles.

USARF Recruitment Office - Part 3

My painting table is still awash with tiny, patriotic Americans. 

I finally got round to finishing off my second Devil Dog team as well as another Foxtrot and the King of USAriadna himself - Van Zant!

USARF Recruitment Office - Part 2

More USAriadna? More USAriadna!

The army is coming along nicely and this next batch adds a lot of variety for my infantry. I'm still loving painting these guys and am looking forward to picking up the Maverick box soon too!

Hardcase, 112, Grunt with LGL, Dozer and Airborne Ranger

USARF Recruitment Office - Part 1

I've kind of fallen behind with uploading pictures of my USAriadna army and I've been working on them at quite a pace recently!

I'm still really enjoying painting the colour scheme and look forward to playing the faction a lot once the Interplanetary is over. I'm hoping to give them their tournament debut at the Exeter team tournament towards the end of the year.

Anyway, here's the first of the batches that were completed recently.

Making USAriadna Great Again

Having finished my first USAriadna box set I did what any self respecting player would do and immediately bought a second one - all for the princely sum of £35 (thanks Simple Miniature Games!)

I just couldn't resist given that it's currently the only source of many USAriadna units although this does mean that my painting queue has become rather full once again...

The new recruits

USA! USA! USA!

Despite having purchased the box set almost a year ago, I've only recently started getting to work on my USAriadna force for Infinity. The motivation for me this time is getting a 5th demo faction ready in time for Salute on the 16th where a group of us will be running games throughout the day.

Apart from sheer laziness the main reason that I hadn't made progress on this army was that I couldn't decide on a scheme. After initially testing a couple of green/brown/khaki combinations I realised that I hated painting those colours and I was really bad at it. My test models quickly got dunked in Fairy Power Spray whilst I contemplated my failings.

Fortunately sometimes all you need is a single colour to act as your inspiration and for me this came in the form of P3's Trollblood Base. This is a wonderful teal colour and it applied well, had excellent saturation, was easy to highlight and looked just on the right side of military. I was sold on it and began painting in earnest.

My USAriadna Ranger Force so far.