Dust: Tactics of Invasion

A Battle report for my third game of Dust Tactics (and first one since the revised system).


''Shitty Russian weather!'' swore the Grenadier next to Emil, the 203 Panzerabteilung had only benefited from a too short respite away from the Eastern Front, the time necessary to reform squads, bring new weapons and repair old walkers before sending them all back into the fray.

This small detachment had split from the main 203's forces to investigate scout reports of a Russian submarine base in-between Estonia and Leningrad.
Despite Emil's platoon being ordered to attack if the reports were true, they had been travelling in a small train and as such had been unable to bring some of the 203's heavier support.

Dust: Sigrid, Sexy Blond Psychopath

Just a couple of pictures from 1947's Germany sexiest and deadliest woman.

The miniature is from the Dust Tactics range (check out: Paolo's Dust)
She is wearing the Panzer Abteilung 203's latest camo in early 1947.

Dust: Training Day

OKH Battle report.

Classified information, for OKH members only.

As you might be aware or not, the Panzerabteilung 203 has been removed from the Zverograd because it had suffered too many casualties.
The 203 was brought back in an area thought secure: Alsace Lorraine (in occupied France).
We were proven wrong when Allied paratroopers took control of a small village nearby the 203's garrison.
If you read this report, you know that the 203 was outmatched by the new heavy armor the paratroopers were equiped with.

Thankfully two other divisions were on their way to liberate the small village, but once again the 203, or what remained of it since it saw action in the Zverograd campaign was at minimal manpower and had to be relocated.

DUST: FP2P, ''203'' Sturmpionere

FP2P: From Plastic to Painted.

Today, I am going to show how I painted one of my Sturmpionere.
The inspiration will be from my favorite RTS of all time: Company of Heroes, more precisely the Panzer Elite.

A Panzer Elite's Tankbuster Grenadier.

DUST: 203 Reformed!

Despite the horrendous losses suffered in the urban warfare of Zverograd, the Panzerabteilung 203's previous accomplishments were too great and symbolic for the High Kommand to simply disband the battalion.

Instead, they brought to Zverograd a man able to bring back the 203 from the abyss...

It is 'herr' Major for you.

Arena Rex Aquila - Unboxing and painting

Hello my little turtles, I am Sensei François and since this is my first post here a little introduction is in order.
First of all, I am more a painter than a gamer, although I like to play at least once in 2 weeks. I have been painting minis since 1996, when I started using minis for AD&D. Thankfully, there are no pictures of these minis around to be shown. I've done a few commission works, but I mostly paint my own stuff, as I tend to play a lot of different games (Dust Warfare, Dark Age, Super Dungeon Explore,  Anima Tactics, Malifaux, Warmachine; and add to that Relic Knights, Kingdom Death and Arena Rex when they ship). But Enough gum-flapping about myself, on with the show!

So this article was made possible because I got really lucky and won this Aquila guy on a draw Red Republic Games did on their Facebook page a few weeks ago. There was 2 on Facebook, 2 on Twitter and 2 from their newsletter. So again, pretty lucky. Oh, and they're having a Kickstarter right now! So about 2 weeks later I get from my postman and eagerly I open it, and get at the same time the idea of this post (which might be too long if I don't get to the point soon!)

So here's the little box, with the game's name on it, simple and elegant.

Here are the pieces, unboxed and with the "sprue" removed. Weirdly I forgot to put the right leg in the picture but it's not too dramatic. So here's my impressions of the raw product: this is a piece of art, the anatomic precision is impressive! The sculptor, Sebastian Archer, did an amazing job on this piece and I am eager to see the others he will make for this game. There was only one little bubble under the left foot, but since I was to put a pin right there anyway, it's not a problem. The round piece with the Phi symbol is a token for the gameplay which will cover the exhaustion status of the warrior (if I read it right), and I will not show any further. The die is etched, which increase its lifespan.

So here he is, assembled and primed (using a black primer then a thin white at an angle).

At this point, the flesh is mostly done, starting from a dark brown flesh and working to lighter tones, and no wash here. This gives him a darker and more red hue to the flesh, as I expect his work will give him a tan!

For the base, I kept it simple, since he's in a gladiator's pit. So I mixed sand with Acrylic gel (my secret weapon for many things!) Once dry, I again used both black and white primers.

So here he is on his base, pinned solidly. The sand was colored with a mix of inks and washes, with a quick dry brush to finish the whole. This was done before pinning him there, of course. You will have noticed that most of the legs are finalized, or at least almost done, as adding the base will give me a firmer grip on the model as I work, but it also reduces my working angles.

So here he is almost done. I had this weird idea of doing NMM, I usually don't use this technique so I guess it'snot perfect, but it'll do, I'm not going for a Crystal Brush here.

For the cloak I went for a wolf pelt (I found this one too small to be a lion and the wolf is an important animal for Rome). First step was too look for a reference on Google with an interesting pattern. I am pretty happy with the result here, as it was quick and efficient. With such a texture, I had no choice but to use a bit of dry-brushing, which I usually keep only for sand.

 And here we have the final result. I did some fancy "marble-like" base as this game will have no front/back arcs. All in all, this was not too long too paint (a few hours over the course of a week) and was very pleasing. I heartily recommend getting on the kickstarter, as the game seems to be fast-paced and dynamic. Of course it might seem pricey, but this is a resin piece of art, and if the whole range is as good, it might well go in my top games, along with Kingdom Death (I guess look is my main concern for miniatures games), as they are both in the same quality range.

So once again, the Kickstarter is on until April 21 and it worth a good look!

For now, that's all for me, but stay tuned for more reviews like this. This was not a tutorial but if you have technical questions, you are welcomed to ask them in the comment section and I shall oblige!

A Minion Ways to Lose ep.1 ''The Color Blue Wasn't Used''

Bubble faith was the pilot episode to a larger picture: I got roughly a month and 12 days to paint enough for two steamroller lists.

Another painting/showoff article!

Well, to tell the truth, I didn't mention how many points this 'Steamroller' was going to be and I well know that the two lists I'll show you will be missing around 15pts. Let's not forget that into that same month and twelve days, I'll have two university finals as well as to finish two teamworks.

Let's continue with today's story: