Sunday, August 2, 2015

Robotech RPG Tactics


So I decided to finally start painting some of the Robotech RPG Tactics miniatures from the Battle Cry pledge I backed during the Kickstarter campaign. I am not too big of a fan of Robotech because I prefer the true anime Macross instead of the cut and paste job that is Robotech. If you've never seen Macross Frontier or Macross Zero, check them out for an awesome prequel story and sequel to the true Macross storyline. I won't go into too much detail over the disappointment many backers are having over the handling of this project but I am somewhere in between "These miniatures are a pain to assemble." and "These miniatures look pretty cool." and "Where is Wave 2?". First off these miniatures are small! I never realized how small the final product was going to be but they are darn small even for 1/285 scale. Compare it to a F-14 model from GHQ and you'll know what I am talking about. There is also many freaking little bits for one model! But if and when you get past that and actually get them assembled, they are kinda fun to paint.

I am still baffled how something this small can be almost 20 pieces unassembled.
I decided to start with my favorite pilot Max Jenius. I went with his classic VF-1A colors. I really want to paint the VF-1J version but I am still holding out(and hoping Palladium can deliver) on eventually getting the Wave 2 extra copies of the exclusive Rick Hunter model I ordered to paint them in those colors.
Two colors I try to avoid using most of the time is true white and true black. I usually go with light grey and dark grey for my whites and blacks. For this I primed with Vallejo Surface Primer Grey through my airbrush and then basecoated with Reaper Weathered Stone. I then took a 5/0 brush and lined the crevices with Warpaints Dark shade. I then highlighted with Reaper Leather White(My favorite White color) I left a little of the Weathered Stone showing just to get a nice highlighted effect. In the deepest areas I shaded with Reaper Stone Grey. For the blue I basecoated with Warpaints Crystal Blue and highlighted with Vallejo Andrea Blue. The deepest areas were shaded with Warpaints Blue Tone.
The canopy was painted with Warpaints Electric Blue(A new favorite color) and highlighted with P3 Frostbite.
The sky base was basecoated with Warpaints Electric Blue and the clouds were painted with a mixture of whites and greys mixed in with the base color.
This was a fun miniature to paint and I am already pumped up to tackle the Guardian Mode and Battloid Mode next. Hopefully I'll have enough miniatures assembled and painted so I can at least try the game once. Hopefully I'll get my Wave 2 stuff before this game loses popularity and gets discontinued or Palladium Books goes broke. We'll see how this play's out. Till then keep on painting!