Stainless Steel Planning

 Hi!

I've been having all sorts of fun re-reading the Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison and am slowly putting together a list of what I need to collect up to get my project re-started.

As such, I've been rummaging my 15mm stuff and have begun work on cleaning, tidying and sorting out suitable figures as well as painting up some odds and ends to add to the mix:

Governor General van Dorn, accompanied by Journo's observes militia manoeuvres.

While I've still got quite a bit of work to do, mostly on refurbing bases to make them a bit brighter, I'm quite pleased with how well some of these old paintjobs have held together and I'm looking forward to getting more done over the coming weeks.

Media Scrum!

While I'm using the Stainless Steel Rat novels as inspiration, I will be diverging somewhat to use characters in a somewhat different fashion, so for example, the villainous Count Cassitor Rdunrundt is only in one book and decidedly a side character but I plan on making him more of a nemesis, if somewhat hapless as we can't have our anti-hero being outshone by a thuggish toad!

The Governor's personal ride - prime target for theft!

While I do love the larger scale stuff and 28mm, this smaller scale does allow me to paint up quite a bit of stuff with minimal time and still looks pretty decent on the table and should allow me to get some games played fairly quickly to boot.

I've discovered I actually have quite a few civilians and non combatants painted up ranging from heavy exo-suited construction guys to lowly journalists and random passers by which is a handy and rather unexpected boon as I do need to represent quite a few miscellaneous denizens of assorted worlds to add random elements to my scenarios.

 

On top of that, I do have several little warbands that make for suitable combatants in the game too as there's nothing to stop me from having Jim turn up on Farpoint to loot the Governor Generals private wine cellar...

Journalistic Talent

I painted these little Peter Pig journalists a while back and still have a half pack to paint as rivals. In hindsight, I do think that the central pair should have been mounted on a 25mm rather than 30mm base but I will add another doodad onto it to bulk it out a bit. 

A have also found some of my newer Rdunrundt troops. I painted these when I'd been planning on using AK-47 Republic for a pulpy sci-fi ruleset but had been dissatisfied with how they turned out but looking at them now, they're not as bad as I had thought. Hopefully I'll get another few painted in the coming weeks to add up to a full squad of eight.

Finally, to get back into the swing of 15mm painting, I found my old WW2 US troops that have languished in my bits box for probably two decades now (once again Peter Pig figures) and decided to paint them up as random low tech sci-fi troops. Their should actually be six of them but I managed to drop one in the man cave and can't find him which is one of the downsides to smaller scales but I really like how they came out.

I may go back and paint some sort of emblem on their helmets but I figure they'll do as is for the time being.

With this fresh enthusiasm, I'm hoping to keep the mojo going and even if I don't manage to get many games played, I do seem to be really enjoying the process of reading favourite books and painting random gubbins so I'll take it as a win!

Hopefully I'll have something more to show in my next post but until then, All the best!

Lockdown Day 90

Hi!

It's been a bit of a mixed batch today. First up, there's the last of my Pirate Lance for my SD Battletech project:

Pirate Spider Mech

I've had him base coated for a little while now and have put off finishing him for various reasons (mostly due to the teeny infantry fiasco!) but finally sat down and got him finished last night.

 

I tried to give him a more dynamic pose and rather enjoyed adding all his jump jet gubbins too. Here's a pic of him with the rest of his lance:

 Panther, Spider, Jenner, Javelin

Here's the full force in action with Red's Marauders up against Wilson's Hussars!

Mech on Mech!

Speaking of Battletech, I managed to play another game and post a quick report over on TALES FROM THE INNER SPHERE which saw one of Wilson's Mercs tangle with an unknown opponent and will be the first of a series of games I hope to play out in the coming week.

Finally, here's a quick peek at the first of my cultists:

Pud Is Good!

They're a bit rough as it's been a while since I've worked in 15mm scale but should do the job. I've still got a bit of work to do with them such as the guns needing detailing and lots of little details but even if they turn out blobby, I'm not too bothered as they are masked goons so having them perfectly proportioned doesn't matter.

I think I'm going to have to get some serious sculpting practice in for 15mm scale as working in different scales requires different techniques so I shall use this project as an opportunity to get some practice and try and get some more finesse for working with smaller figures.

I'll see what I can get finished tomorrow and post up my progress as always but in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 89: The Pudding Cult Project

Hi!

In order to get back into some 15mm scale sci-fi, I have set myself a bit of a monthly challenge to come up with a theme for a small skirmish force and then build and paint it over the course of the month.

After a bit of thought, I settled on Cultist as the theme as there's always need for some sinister cult for Imperials to squash or Dark Legion infiltrators for the Brotherhood Inquisitors to track down. Similarly there's plenty of games that needs some generic villains for the heroes to battle.

There's also the Red Redemption of Necromunda, fanatical followers of The Emperor and keen to set fire to any heretics they encounter.

A while back I also built a Pudding Cult temple:

This got me to thinking about using July's theme to create some crazies to inhabit it, be they sinister alien controlled, or simply mentalists.

I've had a bit of a rummage and found that I do still have a handful of the Alternative Armies cultists awaiting paint and I've begun work on sculpting a bunch more so I should have a decent number ready for July and the challenge!

I plan on getting the sculpts ready now and painting them up in July as well as looking through my toy car collection for some suitable sinister limousines to transport them around in. I've also got some ideas for some Pudding cult fatties and a floating lectern for the cult leaders to whip their followers into a frenzy of pudding related madness.

I'll get a pic of the first sculpts posted up tomorrow as well as the conversions I've done to the Alternative Armies sculpts too as I wasn't entirely happy with how they looked so have played around with them a bit.

I'm still trying to finalise my fantasy stuff but should have an update in my next post as well as my completed pirate lance for my SD Battletech project but in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 87 Tale of a Solo Gamer, 15mm Edition

Hi!

So after a bit of a ponder, I've decided to keep cracking on with my sculpting projects but I've also got two different projects that I'm keen on doing some work on over the course of the next six months in a Tale of a Solo Gamer mini challenge!

In the last few years I've worked on a host of 15mm scale projects but seem to have lost a bit of steam with them of late so figure that this is a good time to get back in the saddle so to speak and ad such, I'm going to be working on the following:

Sci-Fi

Now the best thing about working on 15mm sci-fi is that it's quite possible to collect a force for under £20 for smallish skirmishing and when combined with conversions, original sculpts and repurposed toys or historical stuff, the possibilities are quite literally astonishing.

Squat Guild Transport

I am really keen to create a number of small forces for a variety of settings that can be rolled into whatever I fancy. I'll be playing around with some hard sci-fi as well as space opera and indeed grimdark.

With this in mind, I am going to set myself a monthly challenge to create a skirmish force on a different theme. I hope it will give me the motivation to clear through my unpainted 15mm lead pile and get back to 15mm. The aim will be to paint a couple of infantry squads with a vehicle or two and character to lead them.

Battleaxe Brigade Merc Troops

Having read back through my previous few posts, I've noticed that there's quite a few settings that I want to explore so I figure this will be a good way to do it. I'm also keen to push my painting and showcase just how versatile 15mm scale is.

Badmoon Ork Warband

For example, I may decide to put together a force from Warzone or Moongrunt or Vor using available 15mm scale proxies and attempting to capture the look and feel of the forces I'm trying to represent. It's going to be an interesting process as I've no idea how it's going to develop!

It's not all going to be sci-fi though, as I have a plan for some fantasy gubbins too!

Fantasy

I must admit that while I've done tons of sci-fi gubbins for 15mm, I've had mixed luck with fantasy and want to do something about it. I've decided to take a leaf out of the Old World Army Challenge and try to put together a 1000 point army using Warhammer 4th edition as a guide.

I'm not sure as to which army to try and put together yet as there's lots of different options to try from several companies but as with my sci-fi stuff, I am keen to showcase just what 15mm scale can do and on a small budget too!

I'm planning on trying to paint 200 points of figures each month so that six months will give me a decent sized army to work with! 

As with all my projects, I try to keep myself to a small budget and figure that my combined expenditure for the two will be £20-£25 a month but hope to see if I can spend less as it is also important to me to show just how far ones pennies can stretch with a bit of care.

Tomorrow will see my initial plan for both projects with the sci-fi theme and the fantasy army I plan on building so watch this space!

If you have any suggestions, please feel free to drop a message and I'll see how I get on and in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 15

Hi!

I'm taking an evening off after painting load of stuff today which I'd hoped to get photographed but the lighting just isn't good enough this evening. I've also realised that I've not really done much 15mm scale stuff over the last couple of months and really need to get some more small scale sci-fi painted as I've made quite good progress with depleting my unpainted lead pile over the last while.

One project I am keen to reboot is the Stainless Steel Rat themed stuff that I began my blogging with back in 2009.

I've read and indeed reread the exploits of Slippery Jim di Griz over the years and in my first year of uni actually had quite a lot of fun working on a 15mm scale project when Sci-fi in 15mm was pretty hard to come by and most of the figures were converted historical figures.

I had lots of fun with absolutely tiny forces with a heavily RPG inspired sort of game where Jim would be required to sneak about thieving stuff and outwitting goons before making a break for it in a hotwired vehicle.

I also only had a 2'x3' gaming area so small games were preferable to big ones as I could paint a small force in an afternoon or two and play a few linked skirmishes in no time at all.

 While I've really enjoyed painting up all the assorted gubbins over this last two weeks I've found the need to work on some 15mm scale stuff starting to call on me again so I think I'll take a look through my 15mm leadpile and see what I can throw together as I'm liking the idea of having some low tech forces such as Count Cassator's goons below:

I'm also keen to see how my skirmish ruleset that I've been working on runs such a small game and I must admit, I want to go for a less grimdark science fantasy vibe than my Imperial forces. I've even been pondering using this as an opportunity to play some UFO type games set in the midwest with UFOlogists, Grey Aliens, Government Operatives, Investigators and Men In Black as well as some of the more fun Cryptids that have reared their heads in US culture over the last few decades.

I shall have to see how I get on with what I have but I am tempted to make some generic buildings too as it's ridiculously easy to construct stuff quickly in 15mm...

We shall see what I have in my bits box but if all else fails, I already have the Ghoulani Enslavers that I painted a while back to double as sinister Grey Invaders:

Anyhoo, I'll post up some gubbins tomorrow and see what I can rummage out but in the meantime, All the best!

Lockdown Day 9

Hi!

Just a quick update this evening. I found that with all the 28mm, 6mm and 2mm painting that I've done over the last few weeks I had been neglecting 15mm scale so have remedied this with a quick and easy addition to my 15mm Dwarf force!

Dwarven Guard Dog

I have a couple of these little plastic Dwarven dogs from Mantic Games lying around and had based the first one a while back but have finally got round to painting it.

He's not the best sculpt but does make for a pleasingly ferocious Guard Dog for my Dwarves to hunt down some Goblins with in 15mm scale!

Tomorrow I will have something considerably larger to showcase which has been taking up quite a bit of painting time and I just need to get its base done before taking photos and putting it up on my blog so watch this space!

In the meantime, All the best!

Hostile Takeover

Hi!

I've managed to get a quick game in this evening pitting my fledgling Bauhaus force against the Battleaxe Brigade Mercenaries!

Bauhaus Megacorp has limited resources on Farpoint as it's largely arid landscape is far from the lush forested worlds that they usually occupy but the rich Promethium finds in the tropical equator region of the world has caught their attention. Sadly they aren't the first to arrive and the scout team has discovered a Con-Am Megacorp facility that has seen recent signs of being put back into operation. As they close in on the facility, they realise the place is being guarded by the infamous Battleaxe Brigade, a heavy power armour equipped force that is more than a match for their light infantry.

Unfortunately the Battleaxe Brigade's sensors have spotted the Bauhaus Jaeger squad and it's supporting mech and has engaged them before they can retire now it's vital that the heavily outgunned Bauhaus force retreat from the heavier armoured force but before they go, they want to give the mercs a bloody nose.

I tried out this combination of forces to see how A Song of Blaster would cope with a heavily outgunned force that had the advantage of cover and rather enjoyed playing around with the rules and although the Bauhaus were rather feeble in comparison to the mighty Battleaxe Brigade, they gave a very good account of themselves!

The Bauhaus force lost the initiative early on and never really got it back with the heavy mercenary force splitting up to catch them in a pincer movement using their superior maneuverability and armour. Early on the Bauhaus troops moved forward into the cover of the forested area but with their Forester skill, they moved unhindered through the heavy terrain which provided them with extra cover against the mercenaries guns.

Battleaxe troops score an early kill taking down the Bauhaus mech and a Jaeger with heavy fire. 

The Bauhaus mech was rather heavily armed but got itself shot to pieces by the two mercenaries in the ruins who piled rapid fire into it before it exploded. It could have easily gone the other way though as the Bauhaus mech scored hit after hit on the mercs with both it's assault shotgun and beam but poor dice rolling saw it get taken out before it did much more than chip the oppositions paint.

 Battleaxe positions early in the game

At this point, things were looking pretty grim for the Jaegers, especially when the mercenaries hit them with repeated rocket volleys but they weathered the storm of fire and in a withering return of fire, managed to blast one enemy trooper to pieces and badly damage the second.

 Battleaxe Drones do nothing!

Possibly the worst unit in the game was the Battleaxe Brigade's drone support which consistently failed to activate for most of the game. I suspect Bauhaus tech's managed to jam their CPU's!

Dakka Dakka! Kaboom!

Sadly despite their best efforts, the second mercenary unit swept around the Bauhaus troops rear and a withering volley of fire from the damaged but still shooting trooper in their front saw the squad lose two more troops at which point they were forced to withdraw before being wiped out.

Drone view of the battlefield

Despite getting beaten, the Bauhaus did remarkably well against their heavily armoured opponent and I suspect that a second squad toting a missile launcher is going to be getting added to my fledgling force soon.

The Battleaxe Brigade on the other hand worked very well together and I really need to add a fifth member to the squad to round out the force. I've also got a couple of techs and some security types to paint up to represent rear echelon forces for their opponents to shoot up when the opportunity arises!

 Crossfire!

All in all, I had another good fun game with the rules I'm working on and better yet, it's inspiring me to keep working on it and add to the forces I currently have, not to mention giving me ideas for new units to add to the mix in the coming year!

Hopefully I'll get another game in tomorrow evening as a game of A Song of Blasters generally runs for 20-30 minutes!

In the meantime, All the best!

Incident at Promethium Plant 17

Hi!

I've just managed to play a couple of really quick little skirmishes using my Song of Blasters test rules and thought I'd post the results here!

Seething at the loss of his snazzy new lander last month at the hands of some uncouth Badmoon Orks, the Governor General has dispatched a combat team of Ultramarines of the second company under the command of Marine Veteran Harland to punish the clan responsible for the loss of his prized ride.

Having tracked the warband for some time, Harland has finally caught up with his quarry near an abandoned Promethium plant. The Orks have realised they have been followed and turn to face the numerically inferior humies...

The Battlefield

In Song of Blasters, each side rolls for initiative with a D10 with the highest getting to try and activate first. Activation requires the unit to roll over their Quality score on a D10, something the Space Marines did repeatedly early on in the battle (quite an achievement as their Quality is 2+!).

The Orks on the other hand had a better time of it in the early stages of the skirmish, rapidly closing on the Marines position in a typically forthright manner by charging forwards chanting and shooting wildly in the air.

Ere We Go!

The Marines soon regained the initiative and their better Quality began to show as they were regularly getting activations when the Orks flubbed resulting in the Marines reaching the ruins before their foe.

 The dash for the ruins

Despite reaching the cover of the ruined Promethium plant, the Orks scored a lucky hit with some wild bolter fire resulting in a Marine taking a wound having been shot in the face while peering through a ruined window.

In shooting, the shooter rolls a D10 and adds their Shooting stat, in this case a 4 for the Orkish blasters. The defending player rolls a D10 and adds their armour rating, in the case of the Marine, this was a 6 reflecting both his heavier armour and superhuman skills. The Ork hit with a 10 while the marine rolled low resulting in him taking a wound!

On the other flank, the second Ork unit approached the Promethium tank with caution, aware that the Ultramarines had a rocket launcher which had the range to hit them at a considerable distance. 

 The Promethium tank

The next turn saw the Orks luck run out with the first Marine element rapid firing their Bolters at the now exposed Ork Boyz wiping them out in a blaze of explosive shells. (I realised at this point that Rapid Fire was probably a wee bit overpowered as it allowed the Marines to shoot twice. In future, I will change this to them adding plus 1 to their shooting stat).

 Eat Bolter shells alien scum!

Meanwhile on the other flank, the Orks had taken a casualty from the second Marine element but the remaining visible Ork resisted Bolter fire and a direct hit from a rocket launcher

DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA! 

The remaining Orks, enraged at the loss of their fellow, broke from cover and let rip with everything they had at the rocket launcher unit but only managed to cause a single wound. The final turn of the game saw the other Marine element close in on the Orkish position and pepper them with shot, forcing them to retire and lick their wounds.

All in all, the game went well and was lots of fun but I need to tweak a few things here and there to make it a bit less overly shooty.

I even managed to play second game using the same units but with the revised rules and stats. The result still saw the Orks vanquished and driven off but with much closer results. I think in future, I may need to bulk up my Ork units to 6-8 strong to counter the might of the Marines who waded into the battle and survived pretty much unkillable.

 'Tis but a flesh wound.

I'm trying to tweak the game so that Marines are dead hard and shooty and rather killy in close combat but are going to be badly outnumbered so will need to shepherd their resources as even a single loss will be felt badly. The Orks on the other hand will be more inclined to get stuck in quickly, using their somewhat ineffectual shooting to weaken their foes before getting into close combat.

Maybe another try with the addition of a unit of Grots might spice things up a bit...

The final Ork position

Harland glanced at the rusted yellow armoured bodies that lay scattered around the old Promethium plant. It had been a short and bloody engagement which saw the Xenos driven off with significant losses in return for only two injured. Yes the Orks had been chastised for destroying Imperial equipment and attacking the Governor Generals forces but Harland knew the warlike Orks wouldn't take this lying down. 

Still it had felt good to get back into combat following months of travel from their last deployment and his squad had operated well together and if the Orks sought to make war on the Imperial presence on Farpoint, Harland knew his troops were more than a match for the savages. 'Let them come!' he thought. The Ultramarines will drive them back to the badlands humbled and bloodied and show the rebellious frontier what Imperial might really meant.

Hopefully I'll get chance to play a larger skirmish soon but I first need to paint up more Ultramarines and finish the Power Armoured Ork Nobz and Warboss I've been sculpting!

In the meantime, All the best!

40k 15mm Style: Orks Part 2

Hi!

So I've spent a little bit of time trawling the interwebs for suitable 15mm scale Ork proxies and this is what I've found thus far:

Ground Zero Games

Possibly the largest selection of 15mm scale sci-fi figures in the UK at the present and they even produce some suitably hulking alien types that make excellent Ork proxies.

There are currently 3 packs available consisting of two packs of grunts and a heavy weapon team. While they are a bit more hard sci-fi in styling, they'd make an excellent addition to any Ork warband and looking at the other 15mm Orky projects folks have done, they seem to be the popular choice.

Vanguard Miniatures

Vanguard have made a name for themselves in small scale gamers with their rather wonderful selection of Epic related sculpts but do also produce some really rather snazzy Boyz too in the form of Skinnerz.

Wartrukk (not painted by me!)

These Orkish types are more similar to the newer GW style of figures but look fab and showcase what one can do with 3d printing these days. I have to admit that I was unaware that they even made 15mm scale Trukks now too.

There's currently about a dozen packs in the range which includes some rather good warbikes for a Kult of Speed and are well worth a shot if you're looking for a more brutish Ork aesthetic.


SLAP Miniatures

SLAP Miniatures also produce a range of Ork proxies called Dorkz which have a somewhat more old school charm to them but are only available in a single pack which is a bit of a shame.

These chaps are a bit of a hybrid stylewise between classic Ork and newer 40k stylings and do have rather a lot of character with somewhat zany weapons and the odd xenos types the pack also includes.

Alternative Armies

Alternative Armies produce one pack of Ork proxies in their Space Viking range that I sculpted many moons ago. They're pretty crude by modern standards but they form the basis of my Badmoon warband:

I also converted some of the other Star Viking range into Ork heavy infantry for my own setting and they do the trick in a pinch!

They also produce some Malig Troops in their Ion Age range which look good too!

CP Models

CP also have some interesting sculpts that again, while a bit crude, do have buckets of character that are worth a punt on.

I also converted some of the Human Adventurers to add to my current warband (as they were sculpted by me too, the style fits in with the Space Vikings from AA).

I'm sure there are others out there making suitable Ork proxy miniatures and combined with a bit of converting, sculpting and bodging, there should be pretty much enough for most Warbosses to put together a decent warband so hopefully this rambling report will encourage folks to give 15mm greenskins a go!

In related news, I've almost finished sculpting my warboss, Orko Fatbelly and will post some pics of his portly magnificence once I've got him finished and painted!

In the meantime, all the best!