I Didn't Mean To Do All This Sci-Fi Stuff (Honest): Star Wars Republic Attack Shuttle

It sort of just happened! Honest! Like a bolt of lightning from the blue. See this kit was innocently lurking around in the loft minding its own business gathering dust until I strayed across it. Then an "urge" simply took hold of me "Gotta make it". The Star Wars Republic Attack Shuttle in 1:120 scale so it is almost, as in good enough for me, the correct scale for my 15mm Star Gruntz figures (see below):

I think it is pretty cool as the front opens up giving a landing bay. A bit of a mix between a Huey and a landing craft, although not in shot you can imagine teh 15mm Yaeter troopers poring out (see below)

Although it comes pre-painted, the act of cutting the parts off the sprues invariably chips and flakes some of the paint away. I am not too bothered as I want to "own it" in the modelling sense, so I was planning to add my own weathering affects to it. More so as my eldest son has taken rather a shine to it, introducing other bits of battle damage (aka drops) to it. Whether it even makes it to a wargame table is 50:50.

Star Gruntz .. "Move Out!"

First packet of Ground Zero Games 15mm Science Fiction Star Gruntz figures have been painted. Perhaps a little bit more attention to pay to the basing but I am keeping it all basic (no vegitation, maybe a light white dry brush). A heavy shadow, dirty, grimy 'used to be white' feel to the troopers, kind of like the Star Wars clones without any frills (see below):

There is another pack of basic infantry still to do before I move on to the more 'specialist' figures (heavy infantry weapons, missile launchers, snipers and bossy command/medic types). These figures are from the GZG New Israeli range, but I have named them as part of my Yaeter (nation/race/clan/tribe/affiliation delete as applicable) "Terra Legion".

The Yaeter descend from a not too distant colonist/exploration past but have lost contact with their "roots" (logistical and infrastructure-base, i.e. their replenishable economy). The Yaeter are having to make do with salvaged, washed-out equipment, trying to keep it in a running state. Their high-tech is often of a very "breakable form" and they are ultimately in a race against time to regain contact with their 'home' Terra before "the batteries run out" on their most sophisticated equipment. Their battlefield heavy equipment is becoming less and less sophisticated over time and they now have but just a few off-planet craft capable of a limited deep space travel, beyond the local Sol system. It looks like any time soon they will either have to make a desperate (blind) "deep space jump" gamble or become fixed on a 'home castle' planet.

Sci-Fi don't you just love it, you just make it up :)