A Dream Given Form

It was the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the Earth/Minbari war. 



The Babylon Project was a dream given form. Its goal, to prevent another war by creating a place where humans and aliens could work out their differences peacefully. 



 It's a port of call - home away from home for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers.

 

 Humans and aliens wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal, all alone in the night. 

 

It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace.  This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations.  The year is 2258.  The name of the place is Babylon 5. 

Another Commission

Having resumed The Babylon Project once more I find myself idly browsing ebay for more miniatures.  I happened to come across some of the harder to find ones I've been looking for.  A friend of mine made me an offer I couldn't refuse:



What you're looking at (aside from the patches) are 2 Shadow Omega Cruisers and an Earthforce Civilian Transport.  The Shadow Omega Cruisers are ones I see from time to time, and while it would take some digging I know I'd eventually find one.  The real treasure here is the transport.  For the past several years I've been looking at Babylon 5 Wars, and there was a point where they were picked up by Mongoose Publishing.  When I did my original order the Civilian Transport was one I remembered seeing, but when I went looking for it I couldn't find it.  It started to become mythical, and I was feeling kinda down because you see it show up in a lot of episodes.  The point is that my friend came across one, and it is now mine!



There's a LOT of cleaning up that needs to be done.  Flash to be removed, and I've already had one issue with glue.  I'll talk more about that later though.  The other piece I got is the Shadow Omega:



Going to need to do a lot of fiddling with these two cruisers.  At a glance it looks like there's only two points for attaching the fiddly bits that compose the "shadow" portion.  I'll have to do some research into these before I really dig into them, but for now I'm going to put them to the side.

With all good finds there is a price.  My friend is rather fond of doing trades, and this time around is no exception:



27 Bretonian Archers, a Shadow Omega Cruiser of his own, and a handful of WWII German Tanks which will probably find their way onto an OGRE battlefield.  I've been doing some experimenting with my paints and if things go well I may be able to start taking commissions a bit more regularly.  I just have to see if I've improved my painting speed, but I'll talk about that next time.

An Explanation

It's been a while since I posted anything, and I wanted to take a few moments to explain why.  Back in April I was in a car accident while attending Adepticon, and as a result I was unable to participate in a tournament I had spent the last five months preparing for.  Time painting and assembling different miniatures, many of which appeared here on my blog.  Since then I've been having a difficult time painting, and I wasn't feeling the same joy or passion that I used to experience.  Well earlier this week I attended court to testify against the person who hit my car.  While there I learned enough things about him to know that justice would be served.  Even though it doesn't undo the damage or the financial strain I walked away with a sense of closure. 

So how does that affect my painting and this blog?  How about a renewed sense of vigor as I revive The Babylon Project:



I sat down and started painting some Babylon 5 miniatures that had been lying around and staring at me for almost a year.  Six Raiders that I knew would be a quick session, and I was right.



For the first time in months I felt that old flame burn true once again.  As much as I love spending time breathing life into intricate models I also enjoy sitting down and knocking out a handful of minis in one sitting.  The Babylon Project was a fun diversion, and I plan to continue it with painted models here and there.  Nothing but good clean fun where I attempt to paint up models from a different faction each month.  Except that this time I'm just going to paint what I have, and if I get through a lot or a little it won't matter.  Painting should be fun, and I have returned to that point where it is.

So how about a little walkthrough?  Let's use the Earth Alliance Hermes-Class Transport.



This is my experiment to try and get the look of the Earth Alliance ships down.  In the series they have a grey base with blue trim.  The hard part was determining if the, "grey," on the ships was actual grey or if it was metal.



I went with grey as it would be easier to add trim and weapons in metal.  My first choice was a bit darker.  You can see where I started to drybrush on a lighter grey over the rear, and the original basecoat on the front half.



This is where I mixed in a grey that was pretty close to white, and while it was closer I think my next attempt will be a bit of the darker grey mixed in with the lighter. 



One thing I've started to do is a wash followed by drybrushing afterwards in an attempt to help bring out the plating on the ships.



When all was said and done everything looked a little bland.  I went looking for a pic of the ship, and while I could have sworn that I saw this ship on the show itself there was no real pic to be found.  I ended up deciding to add some blue, metallic, and a light grey to help spruce things up.  For now though I'm calling this complete.  My next project is the iconic Babylon 5 station itself.  I'm pretty excited about it and look forward to the post as I have known exactly what I'm going to write for it since I started the project.

Preperations

Having finished up my Centauri month I felt the need to prepare for the following, "Month."  Yes I am aware I'm going by some non-traditional calender.  I actually have a few things on my plate this month.  First is a commission for a friend who has been patiently waiting for me to turn some old Warhammer Fantasy Miniatures into something he can display.



He is ok with me not painting to my full ability.  This will be a new experiment for me since whenever I paint a miniature I tend to paint it as though I was going to display it.



I have about sixteen Wights in all to paint, and I hope to get them done in short order.  I also have some Malifaux miniatures to get done, including some of the stuff from the recently released fourth book.



You may recognize those two from an earlier post where I started building terrain.  Well I found some polystyrene strips that were shaped like I-beams at Leisure Hours Hobbies.  They worked perfectly and I plan to make use of them for the rest of my railway Arcanists.

Last but not least I'll have a miscellanious month of Babylon 5 miniatures. 

 

This month the focus will be on Raiders, Civillians, and the Babylon 5 Station itself.  I'm also prepping an Earthforce Hermes Priority Transport since my Earthforce month is going to be chalk full of Earthforce miniatures.



Since all of these pieces are not attached to their bases I plan to sit down before I start on the Babylon 5 miniatures and just paint all of them in one fell swoop.



This will make things easier since I'll be able to focus on the miniatures and just glue them to their bases when I'm done.  Going to be a busy month!