The Afara Strider 15mm mecha kit parts laid out

It was pointed out to me...my fault...my error...my apologies...that during the release of the mighty IAF128 Afara Strider three kits there was no image displayed of the parts which make up the mecha in their raw form.  This has now been remedied upon the website and here in this short article.  The image is laid on a centimetre grid.  Enjoy!

It is a very easy to assemble light mecha which once built stands 55mm tall.  Articulated at the foot, hip and shoulder it has several pose options and takes about five minutes to put together (even by me...I am well known for being awful at kit building).  Below is an image showing two build Afara's with a 15mm Retained Knight for scale.  You can learn all about the Afara on our blog HERE.

There are no more releases in August and we will shortly be running a weekend offer in conjunction with our two sister brands Alternative Armies and 15mm.co.uk.  It has begun now though...free postage on all orders over 10.00GBP product value plus your normal Reward Points and Free miniature currrently IMP36.

Thanks for Reading,

GBS

IAF100 Taranis Tracked Main Battle Tank variants and parts

Welcome to the variants and parts article for the IAF100 Taranis Tracked Main Battle Tank. While another article will tell you about the mighty Taranis in the universe of The Ion Age this time around we are all about the physical 15mm scale models themselves.  All of the pieces with scale and then all of the pieces together that show what you get with each variant when you receive a Taranis kit.  A super cool vehicle designed by Bob Naismith and now in the finest resin!

There are five different variants (A,B,C,D and E) of IAF100 Taranis Tracked Main Battle Tank so please read on for each of them:

IAF100A Taranis Tracked MBT Cannon Turret

This is the core type of tracked Taranis the main battle tank with projectile turret.  It is composed of seven resin and white metal pieces which are the upper hull, the lower hull, right and left tracks sections, projectile cannon turret as well as the main gun and the sponson gun.  You can see them here with a scale of 1cm squares under laying the pieces.  It is easy to assemble and is designed to be used for wargaming and thus it is durable.  Assembled this vehicle is just over 90mm long and 60mm wide.

IAF100B Taranis Tracked MBT Command Turret

This is the platoon command type of tracked Taranis with projectile turret with additional rotary weapon and comms suite.  It is composed of seven resin and white metal pieces which are the upper hull, the lower hull, right and left tracks sections, projectile cannon command turret as well as the main gun and the sponson gun.  You can see them here with a scale of 1cm squares under laying the pieces.  It is easy to assemble and is designed to be used for wargaming and thus it is durable.  Assembled this vehicle is just over 90mm long and 60mm wide.

IAF100C Taranis Tracked MBT Energy Turret

This is a Taranis main battle tank with an energy weapon turret featuring a small cabin for a crewman.  It is composed of six resin and white metal pieces which are the upper hull, the lower hull, right and left tracks sections, energy weapon turret as well as the sponson gun.  You can see them here with a scale of 1cm squares under laying the pieces.  It is easy to assemble and is designed to be used for wargaming and thus it is durable.  Assembled this vehicle is just over 90mm long and 60mm wide.

IAF100D Taranis Tracked MBT Siege Turret

This is a Taranis main battle tank with a double weapon turret for close in destruction.  It is composed of six resin and white metal pieces which are the upper hull, the lower hull, right and left tracks sections, siege double turret as well as the sponson gun.  You can see them here with a scale of 1cm squares under laying the pieces.  It is easy to assemble and is designed to be used for wargaming and thus it is durable.  Assembled this vehicle is just over 90mm long and 60mm wide.

IAF100E Taranis Tracked APC

This is a Taranis tank with a re-purposed function as a super heavy Armoured Personnel Carrier capable of carrying a squad or more into battle. It is composed of five resin and white metal pieces which are the lower hull, the APC upper hull, left and right track sections and the sponson gun. You can see them here with a scale of 1cm squares under laying the pieces.  It is easy to assemble and is designed to be used for wargaming and thus it is durable.  Assembled this vehicle is just over 90mm long and 60mm wide.

Here are pictures of all the IAF100 parts  as single items with under laying scale in 1cm squares for you to look at.  

Taranis lower hull

Taranis Upper Hull for Turrets

Taranis upper hull APC

Taranis track pieces left and right

Taranis Siege Turret and Sponson Gun

Taranis Projectile Turret and Sponson Gun

Taranis Energy Weapon Turret

Taranis Command Turret and Sponson Gun

In our next update on Taranis models we will show you not only the assembled variants of the tracked Taranis but then when ready the first photos of a painted tank and details of the forthcoming Early Supporter Offer. Getting near now!

Thanks for Reading.

GBS

IMP18 Female Youxia free miniature for February 2015

“Youxia. These are a special kind of Xin warriors. Ever wandering in search of adventure, Youxia serve no specific master, but instead follow a philosophy and code of honour not that different from the Code Galant. Their prime mission wherever they go is to put right what is wrong. Most of these adventurers are highly experienced, and have mastered unique fighting skills. Aside from wearing personalized Xin powered armour they tend to choose the more exotic of energy blades; sabers, spears and hook swords amongst the most commonly seen. They will often offer their skills and services to Xin Trade Fleet expeditions so as to travel along to unknown worlds where more adventure awaits."

Academy Auto-Trainer Series 60, New Glastonbury, 4335IC

The IMP18 Female Youxia is February 2015's free miniature for the month which is automatically put into every order at the rate of one per order regardless of order value until March 1st.  It can also be bought in any amount on the Monthly IMP Page of the website.  A female wandering warrior that travels across the stars with Xin forces putting right the wrongs of both Human and Alien societies.  In a dynamic pose in Xin powered armour and holding twin energy swords she is a great character miniature for any 15mm science fiction setting and a great lead into what we are doing later this season in The Ion Age. It stands 16mm tall and is in one piece white metal. 

Here are some views of the miniature from different angles:

Of course you earn reward points on all orders too through your account.  We realise that some of you may wish to purchase the currently free miniature to get multiples of it without placing a lot of orders so you can do just that.  Visit this page on the website for the miniature at a fair price for a special miniature.  There is a growing page on the Ion Age website where the current and all former IMP series free miniatures are shown so that you can see what came before.  Enjoy and go HERE. 

As it is our second year we look back at this time last year and see what the free miniature was at that time.  In February 2015 the free miniature was IMP06 Xin Envoy. It was our sixth miniature to be given out free.  You can find this miniature in the Year One Collection if you are lacking it.

This is our second Xin miniature and there will be many more in the future.  But now in February 2015 we are looking to this releases for this month and they will take the form of infantry squads, command set, vehicles and more for the last part of our 28mm into 15mm Ion Age integration.  That's right its now the time for the Planetary Militia to come into the wargaming world!  So look for this beginning with an information blog post soon followed by the first releases this month.

Thanks for reading.

GBS

'Get your Ass to Mars' Sam Croes paints up the SEORC Geo-Shelters

Setting up your lab on Mars!

The Ion Age lead designer Sam Croes has painted up a second set of the brand new SEORC Geo Shelters to go along with the ones shown on our website.  While we normally go with an assumption that every planet in the Prydian Precinct is rather earth like and has clouds, green grass and sunlight like our own world that is not always the case.  We are working on a 'Red Planet' terrain board which will feature in future posts here but we could not resist putting together some terrain to put on the board and that terrain was the Geo Shelters.

A fairly straight forward paint scheme using the natural surface of the Geo Shelters to aid in the painting. After cleaning off the resin castings (all one piece except for the IAF064D Defender with the turret) they were undercoated with a spray grey primer and allowed to dry.  We used only our own Pebeo Studio Acrylics for the work.  A base coat of Cadmium Orange followed by choosing which of the flat panels and hatch details where going to be painted white.  These areas were left as they were while the orange of the rest of the structure was built up with a second application.  Titanium White was carefully applied to the selected for white areas.  All of the parts of the structures which were to be industrial metal were given a coat of Paines Grey and the port holes were put in with a light blue.  With the basic coats done the weathering followed with a wash of Raw Sienna Ink before highlights were placed onto the glass and lights.  Once dry Sam Croes applied some transfers from our collection to make each Geo Shelter distinctive.  All in all there were a couple of hours work involved and it would be easy to do more structures at the same time.    

Here are pictures of the five different structures on the chilly and vacuous surface of our 'Mars' though this planet is still to have a name for us: 

IAF063A Habitation Geo Shelter in Martian Red

IAF064B Storage Geo Shelter in Martian Red

IAF064C Laboratory Geo Shelter in Martian Red

IAF064D Defender Geo Shelter in Martian Red

IAF064E Smashed Geo Shelter in Martian Red

Here are front and back pictures of the set of five red planet colour schemes on a plain backdrop at a larger size for you to look at in detail: 

Front View of IAF064 codes in Martian Red

Rear View

We hope that you have enjoyed these pictures and remember you can see the standard colour scheme on the links below.

There are only a few days left on the current Early Supporter Offers on The Ion Age.  The SEORC Geo Shelters will be on general release from Thursday 21st August 2014.  Until then go HERE to see the offers and if you want more details then go HERE for our blog post on these structures.  You can save 10% to 25% and get one free depending on what you choose.  As its our birthday month you will also get IMP12 Starvaulter Instructor (worth 0.60GBP) free in every order and freebies too selected by us to about ten percent of your order value before postage.

Thanks for Reading.

GBS

November 2013 for The Ion Age!

This is the image that stays with me this month!

Its time for a round up of the month on this blog.  I have done this twice before and viewers seem to like it as a bookend for a time period.  What did we do during October 2013 and how The Ion Age is continuing to grow as we approach the end of the current year.

So picking up where I left off in October 2013 we announced a new free miniature and then went on to make the following releases:

IMP03 Knight of the Dead.  The monthly free in all orders miniature. 
IAF018 Legionary 3rd Tesseran, 8 Shia Khan Legionaries, Maia Mpi.
IAF024 Fabricator Spire, 1 Resin Structure.
IAF023 Fallen Havelock, 1 Resin Terrain Piece.
IAF020A Havelock Type57A 'Anti-Infantry'.  1 Battlesuit.
IAF020B Havelock Type57B 'Pride Taker'.  1 Battlesuit.
IAF020C Havelock Type57C 'Indirect Fire Support'.  1 Battlesuit.
IAF020D Havelock Type57D ' Anti-Vehicle'.  1 Battlesuit.
IAF020E Havelock Type57E 'Knightmare'. 1 Battlesuit.
Pebeo Artists Acrylic Paint Range.
Pebeo Artists Inks Range.
Pebeo Paint Brushes.

Releases weekly during November focused on the first small vehicle kit release for The Ion Age; the Type 57 Havelock.  This code in all its variants was supported by a prone version in resin and a small structure all part of its very successful early supporter offer during the month.  Along with this a new pack of infantry for the 15mm Shia Khan Empire (got to love those vicious looking Maia 9.6mm Mpi's!) taking the Khanate to more than thirty poses and growing.  Lastly we brought a high quality range of paints, inks and brushes to the market ideal for miniatures and indeed the ones our painters use.  Have a look to read and see a lot more on all of the above.

During the month we had other things going on alongside our weekly releases which we detailed on the blog. The most salient points in the month were as follows:

Patrol Angis Playtesting Ended.  The excellent group of playtesters who had gone through six weeks of increasingly complex games of Patrol Angis finished up in November and I would like to thank them all for their efforts.  It was a blast and the game will be out in 2014.

Havelock Battlesuit Early Supporter Offer.  We had our second early supporter offer (eso) lasting two weeks in November offering two bundles.  A 15% discount and a 25% discount on three or five battlesuits with fallen and fabricator spire thrown in.  The response to this was even bigger than the Hab Dome offer in October, thank you all, and we blogged about it as well.  We are not doing an ESO in December but it will return with a bang in the New Year...just wait and see.

Pebeo Studio Paint Range and Croes Nest.  I love this one.  We have a full range of paints, inks and brushes.  Top quality and great for miniatures and wargames terrain too.  Have a look at them.  Also Sam Croes wrote the first in a series of articles on this style of painting.  He paints ALL of the miniatures on the Ion Age website.

Noble Knight Games official North American Distributor.  I was delighted to announce that NKG was now our distributor in North America.  Great company, great service and you can get all of our products from them in the USA and Canada.

TMP, WN&T, Mentions.  We expanded our horizons in November with paid for advertising on The Miniatures Page and also on Wargame News and Terrain blog.  Plus we got pictures of our miniatures in a new book by experienced wargames author Robert Avery.

Free Miniature for Sale.  The Knight of the Dead free miniature caused a fuss and though we sent out more of them than any previous month's IMP miniature it was not enough.  Two dozen people emailed and asked to buy the free miniature.  So  I checked it out with customers on our mailing list and they said it was ok to sell it as long as it went OOP end of the month.  So as of November you can buy the free miniature and you will get it free in your package too.  It will be on the front page of the website in the Latest Ion Age Releases list for the month.

All in all a very different month to October but just as manic for Sam Croes and I.  December is going to be festive and its going to see a special event unlike Novembers and some great releases and sneak peeks too. Jingle the Bells, grab the presents and make sure your armour is properly maintained as per the Code Gallant!

GBS

PLEASE READ THIS
May 2019 and The Ion Age has been taken back into Alternative Armies.  It continues with new releases into the future!  Go to Alternative Armies for Ion Age pages of the 15mm Range the 15mm Terrain Range the 28mm Range the Publications range and the Free Downloads collection too for the latest.  All links to the ion age site are now defunct sorry!  If you wish to see something or ask a question email me on sales@alternative-armies.com.  GBS

Painting Prydian Army Retained Assaulters - Croes Nest

PAINTING PRYDIAN KNIGHT ASSAULTERS

Be it armour, cloth, skin or whichever, White has always been considered a troublesome colour when it comes to miniature painting. The lighter the colour, the less forgiving the paint job is, and white obviously tops them all. But as you will learn from this tutorial, it is not difficult at all, using the right materials and the proper techniques.

The key to this is the use of glazes. A glaze is generally a diluted paint, which -if prepared in the right way- dries to a beautiful milky finish. A vital element in this is Acrylic Medium. This is really just the transparent binder of acrylic paint, and is available in bottles just for this purpose. When added to a diluted paint, it will help retain the cohesion between the pigment particles, which is necessary for a smooth finish. Not adding Acrylic Medium invariably leads to an ugly “coffee-stain” effect in both glazes and washes, so it is highly recommended to use it.

All paints used here are of the artist's colour type. This allows anyone to walk into an arts and craft store and get the these colours from any manufacturer, such as the excellent Pebeo paints we use here at the Alternative Armies painting studio.  We would like you to use the paints we are selling but being artist colours which are standardised by name you are free to choose.

We started with the primed and based miniatures. We always use white primer, as this is far more convenient to paint on. Remember it is always easier to paint a dark colour on a lighter one than doing it the other way around. This is especially true for Yellows and Oranges, which are notably weaker pigments no matter which brand of paint you use.

Directly onto the white primer undercoat a wash of a medium grey (NeutralGrey + Mars Black and Acrylic Matt Medium) was slopped on. Pooling into the recesses as well as “staining” the flat areas , this created an effective pre-shading for the white Alwite armour.

After drying, using a fine brush, a wash of diluted Black Ink and Acrylic Matt Medium was carefully applied to the joints and deep recesses in the armour, around the power cables, etc..., to further enhance the contrast.

Now onto the glaze! Mixing Titanium White and Acrylic Matt Medium plus a drop of water to keep it relatively fluid, a nice semi-transparent white glaze was made, which was then applied to the large flat surfaces of the armour.

Smaller detail as well as the edges where necessary were painted with a fine detail brush using pure Titanium White.

Any other detail that was to become black or metal, was given a coat of Mars Black

The ribbed rubber “manifolds” -such as on the knee and foot joints- were first given a highlight of a medium grey (Neutral Grey+Mars Black) and then a speck of Neutral Grey was added in the centre of these highlights to suggest the shiny nature of the material. Any other black area also received a grey highlight.

A steel colour was mixed from Iridescent Silver + Mars Black, and applied to all areas that were to be metal.

These areas were then given a local wash of diluted Black Ink and Acrylic Matt Medium, taking care not to spill onto the white of the armour.

Metal highlighting was done with pure Iridescent Silver, using a fine detail brush to pick out individual rivets, edges and power cable segments.

The Pauldrons were first given a coat or two (two thin coats of paint has a far better coverage than a single thick coat!) of Naphtol Carmine red.

After drying, they were shaded with a wash of diluted Sanguine Ink and Acrylic Matt Medium.

The inner area and rim were then “lightened up” again with Naphtol Carmine, followed by a highlight of Cadmium Orange for the edges.

The energy blade of the Roaz Axe was first given a white undercoat, this as mentioned above, because orange is a notably weak pigment, and it would take many, many coats of this colour to cover a darker colour. Cadmium Orange was used for the base tone of the blade.

A glaze of Light Azo Yellow, Acrylic Matt Medium and a little water was used in two or three layers to build up a smooth looking gradient towards the edge.

Finally, the edges were accentuated with a fine detail brush and some pure Titanium White.

The base was first given a coat of Burnt Umber. This was followed by a dry brush of Raw Sienna, and finished off with a highlighting drybrush of Buff Titanium.

The edge of the base was painted Mars Black, and a few clumps of brown static grass were applied to liven up the base's appearance. The whole was given a coat of Matt Acrylic Varnish for protection and an overall homogeneously flat finish.

So there we have it, a finished Prydian Retained Knight, in either scale. As you can see, the technique behind it is actually quite simple. With some practice, it's not unreasonable to do batches of five to ten knights at once, keeping the quality at this high level.

Until next time in the Croes Nest happy painting!

Sam Croes

PLEASE READ THIS
May 2019 and The Ion Age has been taken back into Alternative Armies.  It continues with new releases into the future!  Go to Alternative Armies for Ion Age pages of the 15mm Range the 15mm Terrain Range the 28mm Range the Publications range and the Free Downloads collection too for the latest.  All links to the ion age site are now defunct sorry!  If you wish to see something or ask a question email me on sales@alternative-armies.com.  GBS