Is hard to have access to miniatures that are produced across the Ocean, for example it is complicated to get miniatures in USA from Europe and viceversa. Sometimes you are lucky enough that a retailer in your part of the world stocks miniatures from a company from the other part of the world. When this happens you are lucky. This time, I found miniatures from Darkest Star Games and here it is my experience with painting them.
How
First, the usual stuff: the lead miniatures, quite heavy so the lead composition must be high, also reminiscent of casting procedure from a couple of decades ago, were cleaned (not much work to do here and this is a good thing) were assembled, glued, washed with liquid soap and primed black with Vallejo. Then paint was added. Because I have applied only a small amount of black primer, I decided to go for yellow. This is a colour notorious for not sticking to miniatures and not showing its true... colour, without many battles. So I have applied layer after layer of thin paint of many yellow shades and some of them close to yellow (MRP Deep Yellow F005+Vallejo Flat Yellow 953+Vallejo Sand Yellow 916 and other times a MRP Light Skin F066+Vallejo Flat Flesh 955+Vallejo Buff 976 were added), but at other times a little bit too thick, well, because I was not that careful (I got bored/exasperated, although I knew in what I was getting into). Then I have applied schemes of painting, one for Federation and another for Venturians, which are two of the three factions (the other is Khiff) from Dark Star range of miniatures from Darkest Star Games.
A wash was then applied to the Federation miniatures - purple, self-made, using Vallejo Purple 959 along with Vallejo Violet Red 812. For the Venturians, Vallejo Flat Red 957 was applied and at other steps also Vallejo Flat Flesh 955, Vallejo Flat Red 957, all mixed also into self-made wash. For the turrets, a green colour was used, if I remember correctly something like Vallejo Russian Uniform 924+Vallejo Deep Green 970. I was not to satisfied when I looked at just the yellow vehicles, that is why I have added some painting schemes and washes. I added another wash with Vallejo Game Ink 094, quite diluted. I do not think I master sufficiently the art of applying wash or ink, but no matter, the miniatures look how they look now and it is ok. Also, they do not seem to be a good "terrain" for washes, since they do not have crevasses or other details which react good to the wash, improving the overall aspect of the miniature.
The miniatures are big for 6mm, but this is sci-fi.., being big means it
is a little bit harder to paint with good quality. Also the miniatures
are detailed, but they also have many large flat surfaces so you have to
figure something for the miniature to actually look good, but these may
only be my tastes.
Another highlight mainly with Vallejo Flat Yellow 953 was added here and there. I am satisfied now, hope you like it too.
Results
After all the mentioned steps and problems shared, I liked how these miniatures look now. There are 11 types of miniatures with many pictures if you follow the links.
Review
The miniatures line is composed of infantry, vehicles and walkers divided among three factions (Federation, Venturian and Khiff). I have got only some vehicles, grav vehicles and walkers, all the miniatures being from the first two factions mentioned. The miniatures are big, designs look sci-fi, there are some good details, but more could have been added, and in a way, the designs of the minis I bought look a little bit old, old but sci-fi ?! (true!). FD3 Tiger LODAV GMBT's front looks like a shoe, but you can trick this a little with painting schemes like for FD1 Puma LODAV GIFV. There are in all, 11 types of miniatures painted, 8 from Federation, 3 from Venturians, mostly grav vehicles, but also 2 walkers. I am not that excited about these miniatures, but I have enjoyed the experience of painting them, because I have tried some techniques, although the results need more work to be good, I am aware of this. I especially liked FD10 Valkyrie Battle Walker, it stands good on the battlefield. Although I liked also VT2 S'orhan LODAV GIFV, I do not understand why this miniature and other from the range, have such a small turret and an equally small gun mounted. I looks a little out of shape, but I can definitely see some modifications with weapons mounted from other miniatures out there, something with a premise to do a spectacular miniature (I think I write for many of us, when I write that everyone has a box with bits and pieces from miniatures - look not only on 6mm, 10mm and even 15mm can be good to convert the miniatures). On the Darkest Star Games'site, I have seen other new and improved designs, but until I can get them, I am grateful for what I have. So let's some miniatures!
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