Power Armour

I've known for some time that my armies have been lacking in that most important of SF staples, Power Armour.  The figures have been sitting in my "to be painted" box for some time but all I managed to get partially finished were a few Critical Mass Games Kaamados Vivipara and Agaamids (of which more on another occasion...)

A dig through the collection of little polybags in the box provided me with a few human power armour figures who were purchased to help remedy this omission.  Various figures are part way through painting (with several test pieces complete), but these 6 are the first complete set I've finished.  They are Ground Zero Games' SG15-N03 Neu Swabian League Power Armour.  In the bag are a commander with sensor pack, 2 missileers with shoulder-mounted missile pods, a SAW gunner with under-arm gun mounting (reminds me of a GW Terminator assault cannon) and 2 standard troopers.  As often seems to be the case with the older GZG power armour figures, the guns seem a bit small and ill-defined, but apart from that I really like these figures (even if they have super-slim waists that a fashion model woudl die for!)

Base colour is Humbrol 93 acrylic matt Desert Yellow.  Camouflage stripes of 50/50 mixed base colour and Vallejo Reflective Green (it's an olive drab colour, not sure where the "reflective" bit comes in?) were added, I didn't want the green to be too sharp a contrast.  Edges of the green stripes had a smaller dab of Vallejo Cold Grey here and there.  Base was painted with Inscribe Acrylic Sand Yellow.  I was going to paint the back of the knee joints in a darker colour, but I rather liked how they've come out with the shading, so left them as they are.

Vallejo sepia ink over the whole figure including the base.  Humbrol desert yellow drybrush across the entire figure followed by Vallejo bone white.  Weapons are picked out with Vallejo Cold Grey and washed with Vallejo black ink.  Visors are GW red gore with appropriate highlights/shadows and finished with GW red ink.  The commander has received a matt black sensor dome over his left shoulder and the stalk on the right shoulder has a red lense which received the same treatment as the visors.

I'm pleased with the camo, it gives a rather subtle effect, exactly what I was after.  I admit that at normal viewing distances on the 15mm battlefield it'll just look a uniform dull greeny-yellow-brown colour, but as I spend far longer painting figures than actually playing with them, I don't mind!  Click on the pictures for a larger view, showing all the detail which will never be noticed during the games...

NSL Jager Light Infantry review

I've been painting a few lesser-known Ground Zero Games figures recently, some of which you may see on Jon's newly-opened web store.

First up, we have some NSL Jagers - SG15-N02. Click for larger images!

As usual for GZG figures, they were quick and easy to clean up, with very little in the way of flash or mould-lines. As one of the older 15mm infantry packs, it consists of 1 squad leader, 1 SAW gunner, 1 missile launcher, 2 "advancing" riflemen and 3 "advancing/firing" riflemen.

All are wearing long field jackets, chunky boots and the sort of jodhpurs that Terry Pratchett would describe as "trousers that look like they have a rabbit in each pocket". They have quite tall, peaked helmets which appear to have built-in comms, and their jackets incorporate some sort of back protection with a few technical gubbins attached.

Being of the older GZG style, the figures are on the shorter side of 15mm, and are quite chubby in comparison to more recent figures such as GZG's own UNSC or other companies such as Critical Mass Games. Their faces are slightly podgy, but I've seen plenty of motorcyclists who look just the same with their helmets on, so perhaps that is deliberate! Small arms are nicely detailed, though the one carried by the officer looks smaller than those carried by the riflemen This might just be an optical illusion - his left hand is quite large, so his gun might just look small in comparison.

I opted for a 2-tone grey scheme. Trousers and the front part of the helmet are base coated in GW blue-grey, jacket and the back of the helmet in Vallejo Cold Grey. After a Vallejo black ink wash, they received a drybrush of the base colours, followed by highlights. The blue grey received a GW Space Wolf grey highlight, the cold grey received a Vallejo stonewall grey highlight. Flesh is Vallejo dwarf flesh, GW flesh wash, Vallejo dwarf flesh again, then Vallejo elf flesh highlights. Hair was painted in various browns and sandy colours with brown or back washes followed by appropriate highlighting. Small arms, boots, the helmet peak and earpieces are all Humbrol 55 matt black with a Humbrol 32 dark grey drybrush to show the detail. If I were painting them again, I'd probably add some contrasting piping down the trouser leg too, but I wanted to keep these basic so they'd show up the detail in the figures on the web store. Thank you to Jon for giving me the chance to paint them for him!

Overall grade for these figures: B - Quite chunky compared to more recent releases, but a nice variety of weapons and poses. Cleanly cast, easy to clean up and plenty of character. With the jodhpurs, they'd make especially good dress-uniform guards for high-ranking officers! As with many of the earlier GZG figures, the lack of other packs of NSL Jagers means that if you wanted to field an army they'd start to look pretty "samey" after a while, but I realise that there is so much for Jon to do that further NSL figures are probably way down the list!