Building and Painting the Bastion

Building and Painting the Algoryn Bastion

Complete Bastion Heavy Combat Skimmer

Regular contributor Jon Harrington is an avid Algoryn player (when not fielding his Ghar – their mortal opponents!) so who better to ask to paint up the Bastion and write up how he got on. We’ll hand over to Jon…

[Jon:] The Bastion is the standard heavy suspensor platform used by the Algoryn to mount a variety of heavy weapons. Bigger and more heavily protected than lighter combat skimmers it features composite skin plus a fixed emission hyperlight envelope and patch kinetic shielding. Although exposed the crew have individual hyperlight cells to provide protection.

The primary weapon for the Bastion is the Heavy Mag Cannon but it also carries a support weapon. More details are available in the AI entry to be found here.

Assembly Instructions

The Bastion is a sizeable resin and metal kit that comes with a spotter drone, heavy mag cannon (HMC) and a choice of mag light support (MLS), twin MLS or plasma light support.

The basic assembly instructions on the back of the box are more than sufficient, it’s clear where each piece fits. A step through of the build and painting process is shown below but if you prefer to see a “series of still images projected to give the illusion of movement” then Matt Schreiber over at Rocky’s War Room has produced an assembly video here and a painting video here.

Cleaning and Preparing

Both the resin and metal parts had some flash and mould lines but nothing significant, a light sand and the parts were ready to dry fit. The weapons located neatly on their mounts and the wings were also a good fit. However the locating tabs for the wings, circled in the image to the right, required trimming with a craft knife as they interfered with the fitting of the rear canopy.

Magnets

All the weapons were magnetised so the model can match the options chosen in an army list. It also makes painting easier particularly if you have a magnetised stand or piece of steel to hold the weapon while it’s being worked on. 4mm x 2mm circular neodymium magnets were used on the support and main weapons as shown.

Painting

Completely building the model before painting could compromise the finish of the two figures as they are in an enclosed space. In addition it was clear that, because of the shape of the figures, it was going to be tricky to attach the rear canopy then add the figures later hence painting separately.

First base coat applied to Bastion

There are two different paint schemes for the Algoryn forces from Anakiri, a yellow/desert scheme and a dark blue alternative. This model became a blend of the two as yellow figures would contrast nicely with the blue. Past experience has shown that a white undercoat (standard white car primer) is a much better base for yellow colouring. An airbrush was used with a thinned acrylic yellow and after two coats a solid yellow was achieved.

For speed the yellow sections were masked with paper and a mid blue acrylic added to the model with the airbrush. To complete the blue areas a wide brush (an Army Painter drybrush) was used to neaten the edges and fill any missed areas.

To complete the colour blocking a very dark grey was used on the wing panels. For the blue sections this was followed by a dark blue wash and light blue edge highlights. The yellow was trickier and a soft tone wash was applied but only in the joints not all over to avoid a ‘muddy’ yellow look. Pale yellow edge highlighting was also added. So the model doesn’t look ‘showroom fresh’ weathering scratches were added around the leading edges and on the wing panels using a silver acrylic on a dry sponge.

Finally the model was assembled and put on the stand.

Side profile of Bastion

At this stage it was noted that there was something missing from the painting scheme but exactly what wasn’t clear. Some advice from fellow Antareans (Thank you Adam, Rich and Gary) suggested breaking up the solid colours. Using a stencil and an airbrush, a reptilian look was applied.

As befits a MOD3 unit this is the biggest model in the Algoryn range. Left to right is a Liberator, an Avenger skimmer, the Bastion and a Defiant transport.

The Bastion in store

The kit will be available in the store early/mid May 18.