Some progress on the British

I'm painting up some of the British now; the martians need some file work before I can start painting them.  Below are some in-progress shots, up to what I completed today.

I'm using a method I read on TMP (I think), painting from the bottom up rather than the inside out.  It works well for me when I do it right, because I'm less worried about staying "between the lines" as I paint.  I just have to worry about one line, the other side will be cleaned up when I move up the figure.

The earlier martian test was painted top-down.  I didn't like that as much, because it turns out often will rest the figure on its head so I can get to the bottom of weapons and equipment.  This scuffed the paint off the already painted helmet.  Bottom up works much better.

Also, I really hate painting white.  

Test Figures for Colonial Mars

I've finally finished the Martian native test figure for my Colonial Mars project, and have the pictures to prove it.  Here are shots of him and the earlier British soldier I finished.  

(Click the images for larger copies.)

Both figurse are from RAFM's Space: 1889 line; one from the Soldiers of the Queen set and the other from Legions of Mars.  The British soldier is on a Litko plywood base, with wood filler bringing the surface up to the level of the figure's cast-on base.  The base hasn't been painted yet.  Paints are all acrylics, with a gloss coat of Future followed by washes and sealed with Krylon's Matte Finish spray.

Both were fun, quick paint jobs.  It should be easy for me to paint up both units of figures quickly.

Plans for '09

In the spirit of Matakishi and others, what I plan to do in the coming year:

• More Aeronef. I've got a few more ships to paint up and I need to build some terrain, all for a club game mid-year.
• Aliens and Colonial Marines.  I ordered a pile of both from Wargames in their QRF clearance, and I have some paper terrain files from Ebbles Minis that I can scale to 15mm and build up.  This will be run with THW's 5150 rules.
• Star Wars.  I've got a pile of SWMB figures I picked up last year, and I have a notion to run a Crossfire game with them.  
• Victorian Colonial Mars.  This is a long fourth, and will likely end up a 2010 project instead (or even later).  I've got some vague ideas for using TSaTF for British vs native battles on the Red Planet, but I haven't even decided what scale to use yet.

There.  Now that I've divulged my plans, I'm sure that I'll end up getting none of this done and doing something completely unrelated.