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Showing posts with label 15mm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 15mm. Show all posts

Sunday, 28 September 2014

15mm Mars Rebellion Update



Alright, it's been about six months since I posted anything 15mm related so let's check in with the my Mars Rebellion setting to see what's going on.

I'm having a bit of a revival thanks to two things. First is the excellent new NSL power armour troopers from GZG. While I like the design NAC power armour that came out last year, they are a bit too slim for my taste and when I saw the new NSL sculpts I knew those were exactly what the doctor ordered! Big and quite chunky (like the regular NSL troops) and with the head integrated with the torso, a design I think just feels much more realistic when you basically want a walking tank. They come with a nice variety of weapons and I think I might group mine in squads of four with one leader, one rifle, one missile launcher and either one plasma or heavy SAW. Should make for a powerful and adaptable unit! The way I envisage them you might have one or maybe two of these squads against a platoon or more of regular infantry! I want to play up the Starship Trooper angle. :)

EarthSec troops escorting some geologists during an MLA raid.

The other reason for the revival was that I got wind of Nordic Weasel Games' new ruleset No End in Sight (again, thanks Dropship Horizon!). While it is written to cover WW2 to "ultra modern" battles, which means it's missing the proper sci-fi elements like powered armour, the basic system seemed interesting enough to me to get it anyway.

It's aimed at the platoon level or lower, it's D6 based and detailed without being overbearing. There's reaction fire and pinning, with focus on disabling your opponent in some way rather than killing him. Point blank firefights (Assaults) are more deadly, and can be needed to really shift enemies from a position. Leadership is very important and as you play you keep using your leaders to give orders, allowing him to roll a die and give orders to that many troops. Giving orders accumulate Stress and sooner or later your leader will become exhausted and unusable until the next turn. It's a fairly fluid integrated turn system that I really find interesting. I'll write more about the game when I actually try it out later. Oh, and please check out the Dropship Horizon link for a better overview.

There will be a sci-fi version (possibly called No Stars in Sight) of the rules released at a later date which should include all the neat stuff that I want in my games, including some kind of EW/hacking which is pretty cool! When I talked a little bit to Ivan on G+ he mentioned that he was hoping to have it out within two or three months, but that is of course only a rough estimate.

Now as I've collected a number of different forces I've started re-evaluating how these fit into my little Mars Rebellion narrative. I recently painted the NSL similar to the EDF troops from Red Faction, but the UNSC I've painted already fill the role of strong armed Earth army so what should I do with the NSL? Well, I think I might model the whole situation a bit on how it's presented in Jovian Chronicles, where Mars is actually split in two. On one side (larger by area) we have the original Earth colonies where EarthSec (GZG UNSC), which is a proper military force protecting the interests of Earth and her colonies, keep things under control. On the other side would be the the Martian Union that would consist of a number of free settlers and private interests and would be protected by the UDF - the Union Defence Force (GZG NSL). I imagine these two main powers would be roughly equally matched in terms of technology and although Earth has in theory a lot more resources to pull from the Union has better contacts with the Nomads in the belt and a better understanding of Mars as an environment.

Then there are third party interests like the Mars insurgents, the MLA - Mars Liberation Army (Rebel Minis Sahadeen), that is classed as a terrorist organization by Earth but enjoys a more neutral status among the citizens of the Martian Union. While there's nothing official it is more or less understood that the MLA are supported by the Martian Union, bringing them weapons and supplies. Then there are the crusties... these don't really fit in all that neatly as I had planned for a completely human centric story. But! The models are so cool and brings in so many opportunities so I'll simply have to throw them in there in a kind of "alternate universe" version of the setting. I really like the District 9 way of presenting them so will simply rip that off entirely and have them as refugees that no one really knows what to do with. The fun thing about them is that they make for great jokers that can fill mostly any role, be it low level slum revolutionaries or a small core of well armed and equipped raiders!

So with the factions sorted let's have a look at the models...

Incomplete EarthSec platoon. Missing a bunch of regular infantry.
My EarthSec platoon is pretty much done. I need to paint some more basic infantry and I'm sure I'll add fun stuff for it in the future as well. But I have two tanks, three APCs, power armoured infantry, a couple of mechs and specialist infantry all done. What I really want to add though is a hover jeep or two as they could do with some light vehicles. And there are of course a bunch of new-ish hovertank variants from Jon that I'm not sure I can resist for all that long. :)


My first test squad of UDF infantry. More to come.
I've really only started painting the UDF and although I have a bunch lined up, primed and ready, I need to fill out their ranks with a little more infantry and, especially, a tank or two and some APCs. After some browsing of different manufacturers' sites and careful consideration I've decided to go with the South African wheeled vehicles from Brigade Models (seen here at right). The new 3D sculpted pieces really look great and the wheeled approach makes them feel different both from the hovering EarthSec and from regular terrestrial armies of today. I haven't quite decided yet if I should go with the Wildebeest APC that is available now, or wait for the slightly smaller Buffel that is in the works. Bigger isn't necessarily better, but I do like those six wheels! Oh, and then there's of course the powered armour I mentioned above and a few fanbikes on their way to me now.


The big mech is missing, but apart from that these are all the MLA painted. Eek!
The MLA at the moment consists of three mechs and five or six infantry which isn't really all that intimidating (although the construction mech is big!). As my revolutionist faction have been split up into two, these guys will get the more improvised equipment and vehicles (as opposed to the UDF) so I'm thinking technicals and repurposed walkers. I have a feeling that the colonial rovers and civilian mechas from GZG will be common in their force. Perhaps also armoured cars or a captured tank. But mostly infantry with RPGs.


Crusty test paint.
Finally we have the crusties and they are so far the least painted force yet. I do seem to recall that the guy above did get four or five friends painted as well, but the rest are only primed thus far. Again, as a joker faction anything goes pretty much. I'll start with some infantry and civvies and then add some heavy weapons and crusty walkers. Not sure about vehicles in general, perhaps either super hi-tech grav vehicles or something like the four legged crab walker from GZG. I haven't decided yet.


Apart from the models there's the question of terrain of course. As some of you might know I have a Zuzzy mat that I got years ago, a small GZG shanty town and some other bits and pieces that would be more than enough to make a decent battlefield. The only thing that's missing is paint, which I have now ordered as well. Hopefully I'll have a nice red piece of Mars in my living room before christmas.

Oh, and to round out this Mars themed article: it seems like we might finally get a tv-series made from Kim Stanley Robinsons Mars trilogy. It's being made by Spike TV (?!!) which doens't really make me confident, but then there's a co-producer from Game of Thrones who's holding in it and Robinson will be there as a consultant, so who knows.

That's it for now!
12 comments

Friday, 7 March 2014

EDF Infantry

"Those damn, dirty rebels went that-a way!"
So I painted up the rest of the first squad of NSL infantry from GZG (or Earth Defence Force as I'll call them) - two riflemen, one SAW gunner and one missile launcher operator. As I mentioned earlier these new sculpts are really nice! Clear details and chunky enough to give the armour some weight, but still well proportioned. The rifles are big and blocky and brings a lot of the character to the models. The light machine gun might be my favourite though (if not the box shaped laser sniper rifle!).

I played around a bit with the visors, that I wasn't entirely happy with in my last post, and after considering some sharply contrasting colour I instead opted to go with my initial idea of orange, but make it a bit more vibrant. The problem with my first attempt was the gem effect that didn't really "read" on the small visor. So instead I made it easy for myself by simply using some Vallejo gloss varnish. Hehe!

Looking at them like this I think some extra attention on the tan parts might be warranted.
These are fun to work on and the relatively light colour scheme is a nice departure from my usual dark/drab schemes. I have quite a few of these guys laying around now and I don't know when they'll all actually get painted. However, I'll be doing a few squads for sure, at least one of every sculpt. But then I think it might be more wise to get my Mars terrain done.

Oh, and since there was a request for something to judge the powerloader size by, here's a picture of them together. Of course this crude mech is not anything the EDF will be using...

"Did you guys hear something?"

6 comments

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

15mm Powerloader

"Get away from her, you bitch!"
Hello there fellow humans! I think I've failed to mention it on the blog (bad etiquette!) but a couple of weeks ago Dropship Horizon ran a 15mm sci-fi painting competition called Titanium Dropship which I entered. I was a little late in getting organized and ordered the stuff I wanted to paint from Jon at GZG just over a week before the deadline. The famous GZG wormhole was luckily working fine so I got the stuff in time, however life got in the way and in the end I only managed to finish my vehicle entry in time.

There were no rules for entering models you'd painted earlier, but I felt that was against the spirit of the competition so didn't want to do that. However, I did get my GZG powerloader mecha done to a decent standard and that's what I sent to the judges! I was happy to see how many great entries there were in the competition, especially as 15mm has traditionally not been a scale known for its great painters. The competition was tough though and I ended up a very close fourth position, just after Dave Pauwel's Heavy Gravtank.

However, Jon had said that he would give out a special prize or two to his favourite entries using models from his range and I, together with Cameron from Cameron's Tiny Little Men, were lucky enough to snag that prize! So not one of the top three winners, but a winner nonetheless. Now I'm eager to see what Jon has in store for me. :)

Gundam transfers to the rescue! Got a sheet last time I visited Japan for use with my Infinity minis.
I'm quite happy with how the mecha turned out, although I would have liked to add some more detailing. An aerial or two, some more detailing on the base etc. Still, I think it will make for a nice centerpiece on the table and something for the Mars rebels to use. In fact, I had this idea for a scenario where the EarthSec forces are raiding a rebel hideout/shanty town and the reb player has to try and get a pilot to the mech before the superior EarthSec forces wipes them out.

The model was a little fiddly to put together (I didn't do this because of the time constraint, but you really should pin basically all of it!) but is a very nice sculpt! As is often the case it looks a lot better in the flesh than on the GZG webstore. Really like the civilian vehicles in the 15mm range and I want to get a bunch more to populate my Mars table - I think stuff like the colonial rover, colonial ranger, powerquad transport and the Bulldog will look great as really worn and dusty everyday workhorses!

My other entry would have been some of the new NSL from GZG painted in the style of the EDF forces from Red Faction Guerilla. I didn't manage to finish them in time, but you should see them here soon enough. Very nice models!

EDIT: Finished a quick proof of concept paint job of one of the NSL infantrymen:


I quite like the tan and terracotta combo as it at least gives him an inkling of camouflage. The EDF troopers I used as a model do have the orange visor like this, but I might change it to something with a bit more contrast. Let me know what you think in the comments!
8 comments

Monday, 26 November 2012

Liebster Blog Award!


Yepp, it's another communal blog award/viral/chain-letter doing the rounds in our part of the sphere and I've been fortunate enough to be awarded not only once, but three times! First by Jody at Frontline Gamer, then by Joakim (a fellow Swede!) at The Miniatures Man and finally by Vladdd309 of Too Much Free Time. I guess if I would have been a little quicker writing this post I could have avoided this little pile-up. :)

Nevertheless, many thanks for the awards guys! While I'm usually not one to pay much attention to stuff like this, an excuse to promote some other awesome blogs is always welcome. The idea is to post five awards of my own (preferably to blogs with less than 200 followers) and let them know via a comment on their blog. Now, as far as I'm concerned I don't follow any bad blogs so any of them would fit among these five, but considering the restriction on 200 followers and which blogs I'd like to promote a little extra I've narrowed it down to these five. I did borrow some pictures from your respective sites guys, but let me know if you want them removed. :)


Dropship unloading.
Clear Horizon - This is the home of Mr Harold, who's quite well known in the 15mm sci-fi community. Besides being incredibly prolific and coming up with new stuff all the time the thing I like the most about this blog are the pictures. Nice miniature painting, terrain, lighting and photography skills result in pictures that never fails to inspire my own 15mm adventures!


Beautiful Minbari fleet from B5.
My Ever Growing Fleets - Although Matgc have been drawn back into 40k recently his huge collection of different spaceship fleets is the main reason for the award. While Fire Broadside started out as a spaceship painting blog these days the spaceships are few and fare between (will have to do something about that), however over at My Ever Growing Fleets they are everywhere! He even has his own rules system worked out, called Pax Stellarum.

A Nomad Zero painted by Tyler.
The General's Tent - Tyler Provick's little corner of the web might not see updates all that often, a couple of times per month usually, but when the posts turn up they are usually thoughtfull, instructive and/or full of beautifully painted miniatures! Many different style of miniatures are covered, like Heavy Gear, Infinity, Napoleonics as well as roleplaying games etc.






Delta Vector - Another blog with a fairly eclectic selection of topics by EvilleMonkeigh. Ranging from constructing your own spaceship combat rules set to talking about whether Joe Abercrombie might be better than GRR Martin Delta Vector is always an interesting read. Lately there has been quite a few review as well, and not of the same hyped games everyone else is reviewing but usually lesser known stuff like Scramble! and Empire of the Dead.


Scourge from Dropzone Commander.
Anarchy of Anton - I've only recently started following this blog but have been impressed by painting and terrain building. Lots of different games so there should be something for everyone! Some nice painting tutorials and other general good stuff to get you inspired to get cracking on your own projects. Glad I found it!





So those are my five Liebster awards! Go check them out and make sure to have a look at their backlog of posts as there are a lot of good stuff hidden away there.

Now I'm going to do some studying, cook some dinner and then hopfully have time to continue on my Dust Warfare speed painting project! More on this later...
5 comments

Sunday, 11 November 2012

Armoured Support for the EarthSec

Zzzzzrrrrroooooooowwww ..... (or whatever sounds hovertanks make)

In beginning of June last year I got a big box of stuff from GZG - a bunch of hovertanks and some UNSC infantry for use as my EarthSec troopers - that unfortunately remained pretty much untouched until February of this year when the guys over at the Gruntz forums organized a little painting competition. This motivated me to get an APC and a sniper team painted so I could enter the competition. Now it's been another nine months and... the rest is finally done! Woo! More hovertanks! :-D

The Gauntlet III hover APC is what made me decide to go hover in the first place. 
I really like the rounded shape of the hull and the extended hatchway at the front. 


This is the command variant of the Gauntlet with some additional communications gear (although it has recently been overshadowed by the new FDC/Comms van). The whip antennas are made from guitar strings.

The Wittmann class medium hovertank comes with three gun options but since I want to keep the feel of my EarthSec troopers in some kind of tech middleground I chose a fairly standard barrel. I think I might do something with the missile box attached to the side of the turret to make it stand out a bit. Should I make it grey/black like the main gun?

Another hover favourite! The Rommel III hover gun-tank with its sleek, low hull and massive cannon just looks... cool. Looking forward to stating this guy out in the new Gruntz 1.1 rules. :)


For me one of the big draws of the 15mm scale was the fact that vehicles can be a larger part of the game. In larger scales you'll have to struggle to bring in more than maybe two or three. In 15mm you could easily play an armoured battle! So I'm happy to finally have sorted some armoured support for my infantry. Of course, GZG keep releasing more great looking models and I definitely need to get a couple of combat cars. These come with a NAC crew but I think I could probably get some UNSC gunners through cutting and pasting from other minis.

As for newer releases, the more heavily armed Gauntlet APC with AT missile system would make for a nice upgrade in firepower for extra risky missions. Then there's the Gauntled IIS field ambulance that could also work well as an all-purpose cargo hauler, so I might get a couple of those as well. I do need some more specialist infantry, like support weapons and drones. However, apart from that I feel that my EarthSec troops are very playable. I still have the Imperator mecha and two Seeker mechs to sort out, but that is simply icing on the cake.

So what does it all look when it comes together? Let me show you...

Actually... there is some infantry missing in this picture. No room. :)


That's all for now! Next up I think I might get some SSU infantry painted for Dust Warfare. Or perhaps my Yu Jing spec-ops. We'll see...


15 comments

Saturday, 10 November 2012

A Lot of Different Things

Hello dear readers! Sorry for the lack of updates for the last couple of weeks. I've simply been busy with work and other commitments so the blogging have lagged behind a bit. To get back up to speed I thought I'd cram in a bunch of different stuff in this post and then simply go from there.

Gaming wise I've played X-Wing quite a few times (fun! but with some balance problems I think) and Dust Warfare a couple of times (where my SSU were dealt their first loss!). I managed to sneak in a game of Fiasco as well which was a lot of fun as I haven't been roleplaying in ages. In fact I'm considering taking drastic measures to get back into some roleplaying as my current group have pretty much lost interest in it (sadface). I'm really eager to play The One Ring and would love to try TechNoir as well. Hmm...


Terrain Ponderings

Yesterday we started talking about what to do for terrain in our Dust Warfare games. You've seen the table that we use and at the moment it's pretty much a hodge-podge of AT-43 stuff, some paper craft ruins and the tank traps etc that you get with the core box. While the pieces look nice enough individually they don't really have a common theme and the immersion suffers a bit. Anders have been looking at some of the pre-painted buildings that Warlord Games produce for Bolt Action. This combined with what the tabletop actually looks like has made us decide to go towards a Normandie/French countryside themed table. A few of those buildings, a couple of roads, some stone walls and bocage combined with a decorative field or two could make for a nice looking table.


While the buildings look pretty good in the pictures I expect some extra work will be needed to make them look a little less like sparkingly clean ruins. As for roads I've recently become intrigued by the many soft style terrain pieces that are available these days. That is to say roads (or rivers etc) that are made from some kind of cloth or rubber that has been painted and flocked. I really like soft terrain as it is a lot easier to store and I think actually more resistant to damage. I particularly like the stuff put out by Terrain Mat. Looking at the pictures at least the roads and rivers look better than most of the homemade stuff I've seen over the years.

While the stuff at Terrain Mat would work great for the table we had in mind, I found myself wanting to by a 120x120cm scrub lands mat and some 15mm roads to use with Heavy Gear! Argh... I need a second job! :)

Other terrain suggestions are of course welcome. At the moment the time to really make our own from scratch simply doesn't seem to be there so ready made or even pre-painted would be preferable.


15mm

MrHarold from Clear Horizon has inspired me yet again as his terrain making, painting and photography skills all combine into very immersive pictures that always gets my imagination going. This time it was his recently finished game board that did it. It's a desolate landscape, almost Moon-like in its greyness, with a few mesas and the awesome colony sheds from GZG. Simple yet brilliant looking! I've been holding off getting to grips with my Mars board, thinking I'd wait until I had enough terrain to fill it up better. But seeing as I have about the same amout of terrain as MrHarold I think I'm actually good to go!

I've got my Zuzzy mat, some of their hills/ridges and a bunch of colony huts so I really think it's about time I got to work. I will need a lof of paint though (primarily red!) and I think I might simply go to a hardware store and pick up some of their acrylic paints as they should be flexible enough not to crack when used on the Zuzzy mat, as well as order of magnitudes cheaper than proper craft paint.


Hmm... still only terrain talk. What happened to painting?! Well, here's a WIP shot of the last four hovertanks for my EarthSec forces. They deserve to ride in style! Really great models that are fun to paint and benefit from some extra detailing like antennas and stowage (that I'll mount later). They are quick to paint too and should be finished before the weekend is over. Stay tuned...


Infinity

As most of you probably know by now Maelstrom collapsed in on themselves like a black hole and swallowed a lot of oustanding customer orders (read more about it at Frontline Gamer). Unfortunately one of those customers was me as I had pre-ordered the Paradiso campaign book from them. I had heard a lot of good stuff about Firestorm Games and after a quick email conversation with Rob there I managed to sort out the book with the special GoGo Marlene miniature as well. Neat! What was even neater was that it shipped the next day and it arrived at my door just a couple of days after that. So now I'm finally in possession of the long sought after Paradiso Campaign book (plus a Gui Feng spec-ops model). I've leafed through it and it looks to be absolutley stuffed full of goodies and reading the first few pages of background had me smiling from ear to ear!


So... baggage remotes and some more hackers will have to be invested in, and I'm seriously tempted to get some MDF terrain for Infinity. Problem is that I really don't have the space for it at the moment. There are a lot of great ranges available for Infinity players these days, but I think that Warmill is the stuff that I like the best. The PUP looks great and their upcoming futuristic shipping containers look really useful as well. I might get a couple of these cool looking containers from Burning Designs as well though. So much choice!

While my regular miniature gaming friends seem to have foregone Infinity for Dust Warfare (sacrilege!) the Infinity community in Stockholm is growing and I know there will be people with whom I can play campaign.


Movies and TV


Earlier tonight I watched the new BSG Blood & Chrome web-series and it looked... ok. Our old friend the shaky cam was back with a vengeance and it felt a bit overdone. Just as the weird bloom filter they were using. I'm sure the point of it was to blend the live action together better with the CGI stuff but it was distracting nonetheless. Story-wise so far: cocky rookie arrives at his first post where he gets dressed down by the officers and emotions flair as his assignment is a simple milk run. We've seen it a hundred times before, but that doesn't mean it can't amount to something as the show progresses. Episode 1 above.

Went and saw three movies; Looper, Die Farbe and Dredd 3D. Looper was pretty good! Nice to see some fresh science fiction that isn't burdened by superheroes or space marines. I think the script could have done with some tightening and the way time travel works in the movie is kind of muddled and doesn't really... make sense, although it does make for some great cinema! And as the dear Doctor has explained time is more like a ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey... stuff.

Die Farbe is a low-budget German adaptation of HP Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space and was screened here in Stockholm during the annual Lovecraft Festival here. I quite liked it overall. Some of the design choices made were different than what I would have done myself, but I could see the reasoning behind the choices and I don't think they were bad in any way. It's black and white and the slowly evolving story has been transplanted to post-war Germany. However this all works very well and doesn't impact negatively on the story. There are very few Lovecraft movies out there that I would anything but tripe (often enjoyable tripe, but tripe nonetheless) however Die Farbe manages to claw itself out of the muck and become something more respectable. Watch it if you have the chance.

Dredd 3D was an absolute blast! I had heard a lot of good things about it so felt cautiously optimistic, but even so it was a lot better than I thought it would be. More gritty and realistic than the comic (or the first movie) but very, very Dredd. Karl Urban does an excellent job of portraying our favourite lawman and Olivia Thirlby and Lena Heady are solid as well. The story is simple; two judges alone and cut-off in a huge hab-block full of criminals hell-bent on taking them down. Yet this simplicity does not detract from the movie, rather it's almost liberating in that there doesn't have to be any huge sweeping CGI vistas -  a bit like the more down to earth feel of District 9 and Moon. These days it's really the low(ish) budget sci-fi movies that makes me pay attention. Sure, Avengers was kind of fun, but it still pales compared to the movies I just mentioned. Er... getting a bit off track but suffice to say I enjoyed Dredd immensely and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the DVD/Blueray sales will be enough for Alex Garland to make a sequal.

Duncan Jones said it best on Twitter: "For anyone out there who claims they love R rated sci-fi, but hasn't seen Dredd or Looper, do it. This is the good stuff." And "If you don't support the good stuff, good stuff won't get made!"


Other Stuff

There are not one, but TWO new Infinity podcasts out there! Forward Observer made by some guys in Australia and Infinity O-12 made by Romeo Filip (from Battlefoam) and some other guys. Both shows are quite good and offers insightful hints and tips for beginners and veterans alike. The O-12 podcast is trying to be more slick and professional and is aiming to become the official podcast for the game, however I think Forward Observer often have better actual game info with a lot of stuff that I find useful. Well worth listening to both though!

I've also started listening to The Infinite Monkey Cage podcast with Brian Cox and Robin Ince and I can't believe I've missed out on this until now! It's a smart show about science with great panel guests that also manages to be very funny. Highly recommended!

Err.... Dead Space 2 and Mass Effect 3 multiplayer although I secretly covet XCom!


Finally... happy Carl Sagan day! I'll leave you with this...

No comments

Friday, 9 March 2012

Alien Hovels, Interstellar Spaceships and Major Kusanagi

Yepp... candy!

Last month I ordered some 15mm stuff from GZG, some 15mm and spaceships from RavenstarStudios and last week I ordered Tomoko and Isseki from Hasslefree Miniatures.

You might recognize Tomoko and Isseki as their twins Motoko and Batou from the Ghost in the Shell franchise. There's a metal version of Motoko as well, but I really don't like the gun on that version so paid some extra to get the resin one. They are both spectacular sculpts and look just like their Japanese counterparts. Only Batou's cybernetic eyes are missing. I think I'll make my own somehow, either using greenstuff or perhaps simply insterting a couple of small rods in his eye sockets. You could argue that the Motoko's pose is a bit on the dainty side, and I'd be inclined to agree but it's not too bad.

I'm planning to use Motoko as a stand-in for Shinobu Kitsune or just as a regular Oniwaban now and then. Don't know where Batou would fit in but the minis are just too cool not to get. Oh, and this was actually the first time I have ordered from Hasslefree! Crazy, right? I don't know if it was because it was my first time, or if they always do it, but my package included some chewie candy. Thanks guys and gals, they were tasty! :)


Sorry everything is still bagged up but it was simply too much to be able to cram into one photo if opened up. :)

From GZG I got the colonial settlement set (aka crusty hovels) as well as some assorted scatter terrain. Jon was also kind enough to include an extra shipping container and some droids and drones. More and more good looking 15mm sci-fi terrain is turning up on the market these days but these shanty buildings are still among my favourites. Incredibly characterfull and with many different ways of assembly means you could build up a whole town of these! For me they'll be used as run down Mars settlements as well as prawn/crustie hovels.

Right now I'm pondering how I should base them. Leaning towards 10cm squares or so which would make it easy to build roads and plazas with them. The shipping container and scatter terrain will probably go on the same bases to add some character (although I need scatter terrain separately as well).


Love the design of the Deisho! Reminds me of the Sulaco but taken to the next level.

From Chris at Ravenstar I ordered a few of the smaller Deisho ships (up to cruiser size) and a Slasher dronebot. There was so much more I wanted to get (Thunderfoot!) but I had to be stingy this time. However Chris included a couple of bonus pieces as well, a hoverjeep and a Deisho battleship!

First off the ships are really great sculpts! If I didn't know better my initial reaction would be that they are 3D printed. Huge amount of detail that easily rivals the stuff Spartan Games put out. There was a little bit of flash, especially on the smaller pieces and I did spot a couple of tiny bubbles. But nothing major really. I'm really excited to get started with these ships, although I still haven't decided on a colour scheme. I think they will paint up beautifully!


Hoverjeep and menacing slasher drone in pieces. Lots of different weapon loudouts available!

The Slasher drone will be used as heavy support for my crusties. It's a large bugger though, definitely in the small to medium mech class. The totempole design combined with the insectile legs made it feel alien and like it should fit well with the crusties. It's certainly large enough to be used in 28mm scale as well where it could work as a largish (TAG sized) drone. Since I'm going full on District 9 with my crusties I'm thinking a dark blue paintjob with some orange detailing. The hoverjeep feels like a futuristic Humvee (and is surprisingly large!) and will most likely find use as a police vehicle. I can really see it in a blue/grey and white colour scheme.

So plenty of stuff to keep me busy! Of course at the moment I'm in an Infinity paintings phase so it might be a while before I get around to this. Hmm... my 28mm backlog is shrinking while my 15mm backlog just keeps growing! Haha!

Speaking of Infinity, what should I paint next? My two Hsien, my doctor and engineer (plus Yáozăo) or a Yáokòng remote? Tell me. TELL ME!!
4 comments

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Some heavy support for the EarthSec


For the Gruntz painting competition I painted one of the EarthSec/UNSC HAMR teams and the other day I finished the rest of the pack; another HAMR team and two GMS(L) teams.

When painting the first sniper I felt I needed to do something to make it stand out a bit (besides the huuuge rifle itself!) and on a whim I tried making the barrel and magazine a very light blueish grey, almost white. I rarely plan when I paint but do things on the fly and most of the time it works out. This time my friend Anders thinks it looks weird, but to me it feels right! First off it makes the figure stand out, making the heavy ordnance easier to locate, and secondly it breaks up the green/orange/black colour scheme of the rest of the troops. Personally I also think it gives the weapons more of a hi-tech vibe which I think fits these miniatures.




I did the same thing with the autocannon barrel on the APC as well as the missile launchers and I think I will go back and add some white to the SAW as well to make it more distinct and keep with the white=big gun theme. Speaking of the APC I'm happy with how well the red dust came out on it. I've been tempted to pick up some of those FoW dust cloud thingies as well. Not really sure what use they would be during an actual game, but they might look cool.


The Gruntz contest also required a commander and I put one together using a squad leader from the Orion heavy infantry and two miniatures from the UNSC command pack. I also took a backpack from the new NAC power armoured infantry and added an aerial to it to make the comms officer stand out better. I'm quite pleased with the result and I'm glad my EarthSec forces finally have a proper commander. I just have to give him a name! :)

At the moment I'm finishing up some more regular infantry as well as a number of SAW gunners. After that we have two MicroPanzer Seekers that will finally get painted! They are such great models and I feel kind of bad that it has taken me this long. Then there are two more APCs and a couple of light tanks. After seeing some very nicely painted Blowers over at Fawcett Avenue Conscripts I'm seriously consindering getting a couple to use as MBTs for the EarthSec.


However, before getting that far I think I'll have to return to paint some more Infinity miniatures. Yesterday me and Anders sat down together to get some painting done and he got the base colours done on his Alguaciles. This is awesome in several ways! Mostly because Anders simply haven't painted anything in years (not counting some terrain) so it was a lot of fun seeing him back with a brush in his hand. Also, it will certainly make our Infinity gaming more pleasing to the eye. Besides, that red/orange sheme should give my troops at least a +1 to hit. Hehe!

Anyway, this fired up my Infinity motivation. I have a half finished Su-Jian and an Aragoto who's done but missing his bike. This cannot stand! I will be painting on my own of course, but I also hope that we can make these kinds of communal painting sessions into a regular feature. At least once per month or so.

I've also been eyeing those sneaky aliens of the Combined Army...
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Monday, 6 February 2012

My 15mm Plans

EarthSec troops guiding a group of archeologists to safety during a rebel attack.

A bit like my recent post on spaceship battle games and miniatures that interest me I thought something similar for 15mm sci-fi might be in order. I have a few different projects cooking that all tie together in the miniatures being used.

The Miniatures
Mars is what got me started with 15mm in the first place. I have always been fascinated by the red planet and had just read Kim Stanley Robinsons Mars trilogy so it all fell together very naturally. What I've painted most of so far are the Earth Sectorial Army, or EarthSec, using mainly GZG's UNSC infantry combined with some power armour troopers from Blue Moon and Amakudari Seekers from Micro Panzer. I've been using hover vehicles from GZG as well, although I think I might get some Blowers from Old Crow as main battle tanks. The part of the Mars rebells will be played by the Sahadeen infantry from Rebel Minis with walker support from Khurasan and vehicles from Critical Mass.

Power armoured infantry assaulting, backed up by light infantry and their AFV.

To be able to combine models from all kinds of ranges and manufacturers like this is one of the great strengths of 15mm I think. I love the feeling you get when you have this idea in our head about how a force should look and perform and you don't have to compromise! More often than not what you have in mind is available somewhere at least. I've got stuff from seven different manufacturers just for the two forces above! This great ability to customise can be seen as a disadvantage as well though. I have a couple of friends who would be reluctant to start playing 15mm sci-fi simply because there are so few ready made armies, or codices to show you how your army should look. While I see that as a good thing I do remember back when I had similar feelings - in some way it didn't feel like a "real game" if it didn't come with a number of pre-determined armies. I guess I had GW to thank for that kind of square thinking. Anyway, back to my 15mm plans!

So, the Mars rebellion is purely human-centric, fairly low-tech (relatively speaking) without any weird aliens or FTL engines. However, since there are so many nice looking miniatures out there I naturally felt that I had to expand a bit. So I'm getting a bunch of non-prawn Crusties and Control Battalion. I'll be doing pretty much a straight rip off of District 9 when it comes to the prawns, complete with off-white guns and dark blue walkers. They'll also get some heavy support from some larger walking tanks from Ravenstar Studios. The Control Battalion will play the role of thr traditional sci-fi Sinister Corporation™ - oppressing the little people and generally doing evil corporation stuff. They'll be supported by the Lion super heavy transport and the Locust patrol truck. I see them mostly as a para-military force so probably no proper tanks for them. I've been toying with the idea of using the Chewks as some kind of symbiote species with the Crusties so we might see some of those in the future as well.


Sinister Corporation™ super heavy transport.


Then there's my Colonial Marine side project as well. Using Exterminators and Space Demons from Khurasan with a Konami Aliens APC. I'm not sure if I will do the red Mars basing for these guys or some interior basing instead for use in dark, infested corridors...

Of course, there are a lot of other miniatures I would like to get my hands on in the future. Reading Tomorrow's War made me want to put together some future Russians using Khurasan's Nova-Republik (or perhaps the recent releases from Armies Army!) with vehicles from Micro Panzer. I would love to paint myself a small force of Garn and recently I've been thinking about making a true hi-tech force with antigrav technology using vehicles from GZG (like this) and post human infantry from Blue moon. Rebel Minis' Titan Marines would also make excellent Kerberos Panzer Cops/Jin-Roh inspired soldiers. Ahh... so many ideas, so little time.

The Rules
There are a lot of rule sets available for 15mm gaming; Stargrunt II, Gruntz!, FUBAR, 5150: Star Army, Tomorrow's War, Fast and Dirty and Future War Commander, just to name a few. Actually, there'a much more comprehensive look at the different rules available over at the Dropship Horizon. Highly recommended!The two rule sets I'm focusing on at the moment though, are Gruntz! and Tomorrow's War.

Gruntz! is written by Robin Fitton and is a great toolbox for creating pretty much whatever you want with a robust unit builder available. I've tried it a little bit and like what I've seen so far. It feels traditional in some ways while adding some more modern mechanics as well. As I imagine it Gruntz! is probably what I will use for slightly larger games involving quite a few troops and vehicles.

Tomorrow's War (that I'm currently reading) is a lot more detailed and is more "gritty" in a way. I think it has a higher introduction threshold than Gruntz! but does reward you for persevering. I will probably use it for smaller conflicts featuring mainly infantry. The system has a number of things in common with the venerable Stargrunt II although it also uses an action/reaction system similar to Infinity!


Of course I would like to try all the other systems as well, but there's a time and place for that later. At the moment I'm focusing on Tommorow's War as I'm learning the rules. For the first time my friend Anders has expressed a slight interest in actually trying it. I think it's the high production values that won him over (he's one of the guys I talked about above. Hehe!).

The Terrain
I have miniatures and some cool rules, but I don't actually have any proper 15mm terrain. I intend to remedy this during the spring. I bougth a 90x90cm Zuzzy mat last year together with some sulfur mounds that I will turn into the surface of Mars! Recently I bought a set of Colonial Settlements from GZG that will serve both as rebel homes as well as Crustie shanty town. I think this will prove enough of terrain to get started playing. I'm looking to add some rock outcroppings and some proper hills as well though. What a realistic Mars board will be missing is soft cover like woods or bushes. I've been considering making some anyway for use on a terraform-in-progress Mars as it adds a lot to the game. Most likely I will make some different alien plants as well for when we're not specifically playing in the Mars Rebellion campaign.

Archeologists about to explore Mars.

The more hi-tech sci-fi buildings from Blue Moon are definitely something I would like to add, although they are a bit pricey and I'm wary about the shipping cost. Then there are the new/upcoming buildings from Brigade Models as well that I really like. Oh, and lets not forget the System Infinity from Sarissa Precision that will supposedly be released in 15mm scale as well. Hmm...

The Moment
So... what am I doing right now? Well, I'm "finishing" my current collection of EarthSec miniatures and then I will get cracking on the Crusties. Hopefully I will get started with the terrain as well simultaneously. A lot of it is probably destined for the Lead Painters League so don't expect to see anything until next month though.


The goal is to paint the forces needed for the first scenario in Tomorrow's War (Lost and Found) using the UNSC and Crusties. While the UNSC are almost done I haven't really started on the Crusties yet.

That's all for now! I hope I've inspired some of you in some way to maybe try out 15mm gaming yourselves! Also, I definitely need a better camera.
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Wednesday, 4 January 2012

Past and Future II

Here we are! A bit late but here's my 2011 retrospective / 2012 prospective. Basically what I've been playing in and what I will (hopefully) be playing soon. I'm one of those anal types who log every single time I play on Boardgamegeek.com and using those statistics I can reveal my top played games in 2011.


Board Games

In first place I'm happy to say we have Earth Reborn! I mentioned something about it making this list next year back in 2010 and indeed it did. It might sound strange that it got so many plays since it's fairly complex and not always easy to introduce to new players, but we played it pretty intensively for a few months. It's been a while now but I'm feeling a resurgence coming! It's definitely my board game pick of 2011 as I think it's awesome in pretty much every way.

Then we have Lord of the Rings: The Card Game that also saw a lot of play when I first got it. We haven't played it for a while now, but I'm getting excited about the new Khazad-Dûm expansion! So far I have also only got the first Adventure Pack and would like to complete the Mirkwood cycle before delving into the depths of Moria. What I really haven't started doing yet is deck building. Probably about time though...

Number three on the list is Gears of War the Board Game which me and my group of friends found to be a lot of fun! We still haven't managed to actually win a game yet, but I'm sure we'll get there. So far it goes splendidly well in the beginning and then we muck it up right at the end.


Below the top three we find Mansions of Madness, Race for the Galaxy, Claustrophobia and... well it goes on and on. Overall I think these top three games correlate well with what I consider the best new board games I played last year. Games I'm looking forward to playing during 2012 are Rex: Final Days of an Empire, High Frontier, X-Wing, Merchants and Marauders, Star Trek: Fleet Captains, Dark Darker Darkest and the reprint of Merchant of Venus (whoever publish it) to name a few. Besides discovering new games it would be fun to try more expansions like Shards of the Throne for Twilight Imperium and Banners of War for Runewars (which I think I might just buy at the end of the month.


Roleplaying Games

 


We finished The Gathering Storm campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd ed. during the spring and after that I was certainly ready for something different. It's not the fault of the game, but rather the adventure - it's a bit too... conventional. My friend Anders told us that he would GM a session or two but in the end that didn't happen. So I started looking for something fresh and different and returned to Diaspora, discovered Mouse Guard and experienced the joys of Fiasco.

We've only played Mouse Guard twice so far but it's been great fun and I really want to play it more. I think Diaspora might be next up though as my friend Jimmy fell in love with it when I first showed it to him, so he's very eager to get going and between the two of us I think we can rustle up a couple more players. Our Farrely brothers-esque session of Fiasco was a blast! From now on I'll simply always bring it and a bag of dice with me to all our gaming nights and pull it out when we want something different.

For 2012 I'm looking forward to more of the same as well as trying new stuff. I've been reading Pelgrane Press' Ashen Stars and Trail of Cthulhu as well as the Dragon Age rpg and Apocalypse World. Not to mention The One Ring which is right behind Diaspora on my want-to-play-list. It will be interesting to see what FFG does with the Star Wars license - I would definitely be in the market for a non-D20 version of Star Wars. For quicker pick-up games it'd be fun to try 3:16 - Carnage Amongst the Stars and Lady Blackbird. Hmm... it'll be a busy rpg year!


Miniature Games

Well... I think you already know. Yes, Infinity which actually was the second most played game overall! That certainly surprised me since we play a lot more board games than miniature games these days. But again it proved popular with the group of friends who I introduced it to. Sure they still haven't actually painted anything, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm really happy that we took the plunge with Infinity, especially since we all seem to enjoy it and it feels like something that's here to stay. Would like some proper  terrain though, and with the new Project Infinity releases from Sarissa I think an Ariadnan frontiers town might be in the cards. Really love the look of their designs!

I also squeezed in a couple of games of Firestorm: Armada. It's decent enough but it doesn't quite click with me. I'm not sure why but think the rules might work better in a traditional naval setting like Uncharted Seas or Dystopian Wars. I'm in the process of writing a review of the game that should be up soon where I expand on my thoughts.

15mm sci-fi deserves a mention as well. I've only played a single game of Gruntz so far but I've been painting a fair bit at least. My EarthSec army is currently the largest with a small group of Reds and some other random elements as well. We should see some additions during January thanks the Gruntz painting competition. I'll prooobably end up painting another EarthSec squad and their ride. Oh, and there's still time to get in on it! Robin will hand out the 1.1 version of the rulebook to the winner and I heard something about Critical Mass Games also contributing with the beautiful new Imperator Mecha. Good stuff!

During the coming year I'm looking forward to a lot more Infinity! That's my number one priority at the moment. But I would also like to finally get my Heavy Gear Blitz army all finished as well as continue on my AE: Necromunda project. I mentioned Dystopian Wars in my last Past and Future post but I managed to hold it off for a whole year. With the release of the French faction though, I think my defences have finally crumbled. There are a few other games I've been looking at but I try not to get (more) distracted. Tomorrow's War is high on the list, but especially I would like to try some more realistic spaceship battle game, with fewer ships but more details. Currently looking at games/minis like Cold Navy, Zandris IV and Squadron Strike. Although the upcoming space supplement to 5150: Star Army (aka 5150: Fringe Space) is looking interesting as well, check out The Ceres Crossroads for more info on the project.

EDIT: I just remembered something miniature game related that I really want to get into during 2012 and that is airbrushing! It's something I've been wanting to do ever since I saw it first used on miniatures in my early teens, but even more so during these last few years when it's become more and more popular. And just looking at the results I feel like I'm missing out. Jarret over at Minijukie.com recently made an excellent Airbrush Equipment Video that has also really inspired me. Check it out!


And, there you go! It's actually fairly similar to the post I did at the end of 2010. I'd say the biggest new things are Infinity and 15mm sci-fi... and perhaps the addition of the new wave of Indie RPGs. Hmm, that's pretty much half the list so I guess there are some changes afterall! Haha!
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