Dystopian Wars: Russian Coalition Fleet

Happy New Year everyone! Starting my 2026 Hobby in the best way - newly painted models!

Comrade James and I have been planning a Dystopian Wars renaissance and while the new rules by War Cradle Studios are much improved, I much prefer the older Spartan games era ships in their highly detailed resin. These are quite bit smaller in scale to the newer plastic ones and don't mix well so I'm staying with resin, though they are getting harder to find.

Yes the background is AI generated but how cool is it!

A few years ago I bought a painted Prussian Fleet at CANCON Bring & Buy, and James has a few others of his own, namely Brittanic, Covenant of Antarctica and American. New chum David also has some VERY NICE Brittanic plus Italian States fleets too! Surely this would be enough?

So with this post I start another fleet: Russians! Obvious really....

These are an ebay rescue - a modest fleet for a small battle, and I'm naturally planning expansions. All painted in colours of the (real world) Russian Imperial Navy Pacific Fleet of the pre-dreadnought period.

Moskva Class Dreadnought looks like a floating citadel more than a ship! This is large enough to fit in the Admiral's voluminous drink cabinet and dining set.

Borodino class Battleship -the manufacturer proudly states that "this industrial nightmare will forever haunt the ambitions of anyone who dares cross the path of the Russian Coalition". 

3 Suvorov Cruisers - "the harsh, unbending anvil against which foes are crushed" - characteristically subtle

9 Novgorod frigates "operate in a radically different fashion to the majority of frigates around the world, boasting a curious circular hull that affords it unmatched manoeuvrability." These guys provide AA and close range support for the bigger ships.

Submitted to AHPC16 here:

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/12/from-paul-og-dystopian-wars-russian.html

Painting Notes

Undercoated in White, and washed in thinned Nuln oil (GW)

Contrast for the decks and then planks re painted with Zandri dust (GW)

Hulls worked back to the Celestra White (GW) using a makeup sponge. 

Funnel stacks are Averland Sunset washed in Reikland Fleshshade (both GW)

2025 Year in Review

First things first: we live in Hawai'i and its fantastic! 

We hosted a bunch of great visitors, family & friends alike, snorkelled & hiked on multiple islands, and even saw a volcano erupt on the big island of Hawai'i (super cool!)

Mrs Man Cave and I just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, and this year I travelled to Australia, Japan, Phillipines and 6 other states in the U.S. including visits to NASA Huntsville, Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, and Udvar-Hazy Air Museum. 

"Rocket City", Huntsville Alabama

OV-103 "Discovery" - the most flown of the Shuttles

Apollo-11 Capsule

So clearly I en joyed getting my space geek on this year! But from a Hobby lens its been a more mixed bag.

The Good

I reconnected with Rich after many years, and we've been playing some remote Pulp SciFi games which we wrote up here on the blog. Super fun and more in-person games are planned together in 2026. 

I managed to see a few of the lads when I slipped home for a work trip back in April, and even managed to get a 6-player Trojan Wars game in using Midguard, which I enjoyed. Was great to see John, Alan and Gav.

And thats it, those were the two games I managed to play over the whole year. The local gaming scene is 40k and Age of Sigmar only. The search continues but hope is fading. Didn't get to any game conventions either. 

I missed my good mates, our regular gaming and egging eachother on to get our next projects to the table. So I lived somewhat vicariously through other's gaming and Owen favoured me by posting a few of his battle reports here, which I really appreciated.

With the move overseas it also took me another 6 months to get a brush back in my hand too. I really missed it and most of my materials had to be reacquired. Projects were planned, sometimes acquired and then drifted into silence. Still, I did manage to paint up a couple of things for my Black Templars collection (which is in storage back home).

And for the first time ever, I entered into a local painting competition with his guy, which felt out of my usual depth!

On the upside, a range of diverse projects are now in hand for AHPC Season 16, where I'm really enjoying reconnecting with the guys back home on our interweb "paint & chat" sessions. I'm going to actively ride this wave of enthusiasm into next year

In the absence of the tabletop I re-engaged with some solo board wargames this year to fill my tabletop void, and enjoyed my narrative Stuka Ace campaign. I have a few others lined up for next year.

I missed catching up with David & David this year, and appreciated this 'missing man' pic and libation!

After helping out as a playtester, I was also thrilled this year to see Frank go gangbusters with his Blood on the Sands kickstarter and know he is working hard to get it ready for shipment. Cant wait to see that in hand of lanistas across the world!

And finally, I finished my Goodreads reading Challenge which I enjoy each year. 16k odd pages read, unsurprisingly focused in SF and fantasy genres.

If I had to pick a favourite read of the year this would be it

Thanks to all I've chatted and connected with across the year. 

May 2026 be a great year to all.

Black Templar Apothecary

I've loved this model since it came out yet somehow never painted one despite the wonderfully evocative posing. 

Brother Euthenasius of the Black Templars

Having just extracted the progenoid from the deceased battle-brother at his feet, his stares contemplatively at it in remembrance of his fallen comrade before it joins others dangling around his neck, speaking to other recent losses (and ultimately the complete futility of a grim darkness of a far future where there is only War, but I might be reading too much into that...)

Anyway, he joins my growing Black Templars force that I've been working on this year with my Crusader squads.

Painted like the rest of my Black Templars in the Zorn palette style using a combination of Apothecary White (what else?) contrast paint as well as experimenting with some make-up sponge dabbing techniques.  Details were painted separately and assembled at the end. Mars styled basing to match the rest of my BT army.

Submitted to the AHPC16 Challenge here:

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2025/12/from-paul-og-astartes-apothecary-9.html

Its Open Season for AHPC16!

The Wait is Over! 

Thats right! The 16th Season of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has kicked off! 

Around the world, 95 sets of sweaty palms are now desperately grasping brushes to crack on toward their targets. It was particularly cool to have a "paint & chat" session as we crossed the start line

Infamous characters from Canada, US, NZ and Australia

Best wishes to all Challengers and I look forward to seeing the results of your labours!

EDIT for those Anonymous posters:

Constructive comments are welcome. Trolls are not. 

You are welcome to be a harridan, termagant, curmudgeon or misanthrope elsewhere with all your friends.

This hits so hard...