Well, I finished painting the colony components. Looking at the photos, they kinda look messy. Note to self, don’t rush, even if you have 40 of the little buggers to paint.
Ah well, on the game board at normal viewing distances they look ok.
I didn’t want to paint the originals that came with the game so I had 3 options:
- Order replacement parts from the publisher
- Buy the Factions Expansion
- Buy the Upgrade pack
I went for the Upgrade pack, even though my first choice was the Factions Expansion. It looks like a neat addition to the game but it’s damn hard to find, either online or locally. Both the Factions Expansion and the Upgrade pack include the extra components to allow a five-player Alien Frontiers game, using the publisher’s expanded rules. So on to the painting.
Before I started painting, I looked at a lot of space colony images like these for inspiration.
Then I primed the components – 2 coats, first a dark to fill in the shadows, then a white, from above only, to provide highlights.
I wanted to test some colour schemes first, so I mocked them up using some image editing tools on the iPad. I took photos against a white background, converted the images to black and white, then kicked up the contrast.
Then just overpainted the image on the iPad until I found an appealing colour scheme.
I like this technique. It lets me work anywhere, gives reasonable results, and doesn’t cost me any paint to trial it.
Next up, the Field Generators. And I’ve got some ideas for the Rocket Ships too.
