Traders Galaxy 2024 Painting Challenge &#8211; Botwar, Beat Em Up and Rise of the Democracy miniatures

Skill 3

Idea 3

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I spent my lunchtime tinkering rather than eating. And I think I have my diorama as complete as I can get it. Lesson learned… don’t do a diorama in a painting challenge. I’ll talk though the diorama a little later but for now just take a look.

So what is the diorama about? Cue story mode….

“Stop me, little girl? You and who’s army?”

It has been dark times for the Democracy. It took only weeks for the Atlanticans to surge forth from the depths and overrun almost all resistance. Morale within The Democracy is at its lowest.

There have been mutterings amongst the people of The Democracy as to whether the Atlanticans have supernatural powers and truly are masters of the oceans. Rumours circulate that they are able to control sea creatures and some even say that they can control the ocean itself. If that were to be true, how can The Democracy possibly fight that?

Not all people think that way, many know that the Atlanticans are flesh and blood. They know that if the Atlanticans can bleed, they can be killed! Throughout The Democracy there have been people who have resisted, holding on to a tiny scrap of freedom.

The Eagle has been gathering his ‘Merry Men’ just like Robin Hood in the tales of old. Calling on people scattered across the war-torn Democracy to stand up and fight. Many have answered the call and have already been fighting as pockets of resistance. But now it is time for the resistance to join and become a rebellion. This rebellion is not a toothless beast it comes with many sharpened instruments of destruction, and most importantly, it has hope. Hope that truth, justice and freedom will win the day.

For the Rebellion’s first action against the Antlantican oppressor, they decided to go big and make a bold statement. A plot was hatched to lure the mighty Leviathon, avatar of the Atlantican’s elemental god.

The Eagle himself wished to be the bait for this dangerous trap, but he was deemed too important to The Democracy, so he stands close by, ready to co-ordinate and inspire his apprehensive troops.

It was Scarlet Rosen, “Red” to those who know her, who stepped forward to bravely challenge Leviathon. Now, on this stormy night, her steel will is pitched against Leviathon’s punishing might.

The seemingly one-sided duel makes Leviathon overly confident, he forgets the ancient proverbs that he himself used to teach many moons ago, “Even a single grain of sand can topple the highest cliffs”.

Red stands alone, staring down Leviathon, like a wolf with its prey. But she is not alone, for one of humanity’s greatest powers is found in teamwork. Together we can achieve the impossible.

Red raises her pistol and aims at the imposing form of Leviathon. Lightning forks across the sky and with an idle flick of his trident, Leviathon dissipates the immense energy bolt into his ancient weapon. The giant green crystal on the tip of the trident glows for a brief second, then darkens. She squeezes the trigger of her pistol lightly and a small red targeting laser creates a red dot in the middle of Leviathon’s heavily armoured breastplate. Red knows her 9mm projectile won’t even scratch where she is aiming, but she doesn’t care. Red knows that the targeting laser is no ordinary device, it is part of the latest tech from a friend with contacts in Starr Enterprises.

The laser designator works over LoRa, so can communicate up to 100km even when all satellite and terrestrial communication networks are down. No storm or invading force will stop this device. A handful of Democracy vehicles have been fitted with similar units. Those units include the 2 Destroyers sat patiently in amongst the ruins, just meters behind the castle wall, their coils humming with primed energy ready to be unleashed. A Defiance loaded with the latest Armour Piercing, Fin Stabilised, Discarding Sabot, Fusion round sits camouflaged amongst the trees. The trees around it have been hastily tethered down to hide the hulk of a tank. Some 20km away, a pair of Hatchets hover close to the ground ready to pop-up and unleash their 64 AGM-214 Stellarfire, AI guided missiles. Even further back at 60km, a lone Strikeforce, piloted by Jace McStorm, circles impatiently, flying at his maximum operating ceiling, with a full loadout.

Yes, Red knows that when you fight for the Democracy, you are never alone.

‘One shall stand, one shall fall’. Who is your money on?

I personally… always bet on Red!

….And in addition to the main story, a couple of side stories to satisfy my own craziness!

Side story 1

In this reality, Jaws 4 The Revenge was a huge hit and as a result they went on to film Jaws 5. The ending to the film involved a Buzzard flying through the air and strafing the shark. In what is thought to be the precursor to The Fast And The Furious movies, the shark then jumps out of the water, somersaults over the Buzzard and snatches the pilot out of the plane. Only then, as the shark bites down on the unfortunate pilot does he realise that the pilot is still attached to his ejection seat which promptly ignites, launching the shark several hundred metres into the air before it falls impaling itself on a particularly sharp rock. Come on, it’s still a better ending than Jaws 4!

Side story 2

With the success of National Lampoons European Vacation, a sequel was hastily written. It was during the filming of this, National Lampoons Seaside Vacation that the Griswalds met their untimely end. No-one really knows what happened, but legend has it that as they drove the Family Truckster along the coast road, where they were snatched by a mysterious sea monster. No wreckage was found, and some say that even now on a cold wintery evening, if you look out to sea, you’ll see a Family Truckster cruising the waves! Of course many also say that the cast realised that the film was going to be a steaming pile of horse manure and so to escape out of their contract, they faked their own deaths! You decide…

Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 29 Part 1

Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 28

Mar 6 2024

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The penultimate day and we are still steaming ahead… there’ll be no wind down for me.

More 10mm infantry to go on the diorama. This time I’ve got some more grunts but also from left to right Flint, Duke, red SnakeEyes, Doc, Roadblock, Mainframe, Lowlight (with his big gun!), Stalker and Laser. Whew!

Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 28

Boston Jones as I am now calling him got a sword and I started on his base, I think I can get him finished tomorrow.

Swordana is close as all her effects are ready, just need to try to fit it all together and hope.

My last Destroyer got a laser beam and will be based as this one is not bound for the diorama.

And finally Dactylous got a little more paint, but I doubt he will be finished by tomorrow.

Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 27

Mar 6 2024

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Messy time! I had to poor the epoxy resin for my ocean today, so things got a little sticky.

Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 27

More infantry reinforcements are needed so another bunch got primed and I should be able to finish them before month end.

Swordana and some of the effects got more paint. Swordana got some metallics and some colourshift to make the white shimmer.

I kind of gave up on my Adventurer early on in February, but I’m going to try and finish him if I can as I think he would make a great Beat Em Up custom hero.

Finally there is classic Dactylous, whom I don’t think I will get to finish in the challenge as I think he will need to many coats of yellow to get a good finish, but I will finish him soon thereafter.

Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 26

Mar 6 2024

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Panic Stations! 3 days to go. On the up side though, I have cleared a little bit of space on the painting table!

Let’s start with my version of Beat Em Up’s Tokan – “Terry Silver” I finished the thug of by adding a little Green Stuff UV resin putty to his front to show where “Terry has kicked him and to the skeleton to make it look like the magic is flowing through him. I also used a little more of the resin to finish off “Terry’s magic flaming kick. The great thing about the UV putty is you can set it instantly and it is clear, so great for doing flames and magic effects! So that miniature is finished, mounted on it’s Cobra Kai stand.

I’ve added a couple of pictures of me using the UV resin.

I’ve also added a video that I have put on Youtube.

Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 26

Next up, of course I need to progress the diorama. So I applied some homemade transfers to the 2 Destroyer light tanks and the Defiance, so that they were ready to be positioned. I’m not showing the diorama as it has scaffolding around it at the moment, well not quite, but there is a lot going on and some of it should be a surprise!

While doing that I also put some of my transfers onto the Mongoose. Now with ROTD vehicles I’m not sure if they are supposed to be mounted on bases. So I haven’t done one so far. The wrong answer is yes as that means I need to quickly do a base!

[EDIT: Can you guess what the answer was?]

Again Swordana got a little more paint on her and so did her effects.

And because I’m a numpty, I decided to go for it and see if I can complete my 4th classic Beastlord by Thursday.

Traders Galaxy Painting Challenge 2024 - Day 25 Part 2

Mar 6 2024