Space: 1999 Eagle and GZG 15mm EVA Suited Astronauts

OK so there’s a bit of a backstory behind this one, bear with me…

On my recent trip to the UK I stayed in Notting Hill at a place that just happened to be up the street from the Museum of Brands, a very cool little museum of… retail brands, that had some very cool stuff in it, including lots of old board games and toys. Here are some of my favourites:

If you say "it's popular," it's popular!

Not exactly Formula De I'm thinking

Frightening

"Hey who's up for a game of Sanctions?"

Well whoever decorated Goering got his armband on the wrong arm, for starters...

My absolute favourite. Mum is obviously drunk

Anyway the other very cool thing I saw at the MoB was their special exhibition featuring toys and collectibles related to two Gerry Anderson properties: Thunderbirds and Space: 1999. All the stuff in the exhibition reminded me how awesome a ship the Eagle was!

So I thought to myself, I should get an Eagle model to game with - it would fit great into the Lunar game! A few years ago a company called Round 2 designed a 1:48 scale Eagle (22 inches long!) that I figured would be great for Lunar. So I sought out and found a built and painted example on eBay. Unfortunately when it arrived it was definitely not the 1:48 Eagle as it was advertised to be - it was ancient MPC model, purportedly 1:72 but actually closer to 1:96 scale.

After getting a substantial refund from the seller, I pondered what to do. Hmmm, I thought, this Eagle is pretty close to "15mm scale"… I wonder if anybody makes 15mm astronauts? Well it turns out that Ground Zero Games makes lots, and I promptly ordered a bunch. These are the first of them - astronauts in heavy EVA suits. They look good with the Eagle don’t they!

Pretty simple paintjobs on these models. They were "overbrushed" with Celestra Grey to begin with, then Corax White. I used Agrax Earthshade to tint some specific parts of the suits, and then highlighted the white parts with a heavy drybrush of pure white.

 

I also painted six armed EVA-suited astronauts. Ironically after painting these models I started looking through a bag of 15mm SF stuff I had been holding onto for years... and found these same two packs of models. No harm though as they are easy to paint and I can always use more of these guys.

Paint style was similar to the other astronauts, I used Coelia Greenshade on these suits and I like the look.

I really like the look of the Eagle with these models and it'll be great "terrain" for 15mm lunar gaming. Of course the Lunar rules themselves are a bit too involved for larger games but I did find a mod for Bolt Action on the Internet that might be worth a try. And if we have a game with 20 or 25 models a side maybe we use Kill Team, Necromunda, Rogue Trader, or even good ol' Lord of the Rings as a basis for the game. Of course there needs to be some specific mods for low-G and suit penetration but that can be figured out.

I also bought a ton of GZG's Moongrunt models to paint up for a larger game, and am pondering what kind of 15mm "structures" to buy for lunar terrain. As you can see here I've already got a bunch of craters so that's covered, but some little domes or industrial structures would look good in a game as well. Suggestions in the comments please. Also I'm still on the lookout for a 1:48 Eagle or 3D printed model in that scale. I still think it would be awesome to see on a Lunar game table!

Some 15mm 30k Characters - Pt 1

30k Characters for my 15mm Sons of Horus collection. 

As I get older, I find myself exclaiming words to the effect of "wow, it's already [INSERT MONTH]!" more and more often. This post is no exception...wow, it's already November! And I'm still posting up stuff I painted in the late summer! Oh well, better late than never, I hope. With that all out of the way I present a few more 15mm 30k characters. These little guys are all amazing 3D prints from Byron.

One great thing about the 15mm 30k stuff is that it travels pretty easily, so I tossed a bunch of the figures into a box during the summer and brought them with me to the cabin back in August for some relaxing summer painting by the lake. Here we have a small group of characters for the XVI Legion Astartes, the Sons of Horus. In this batch we find a Praetor, a Librarian and a veteran sergeant. All are wearing glorious Mark VI "beakie" armour. 

The "Axehole", ready to conquer in the name of the Warmaster.

Obligatory skullz and oversized cloak present ant correct!

These prints are all tremendous fun. Whoever did the digital sculpts was clearly a fan of the setting, and these are excellent reproductions of their 28mm brethren. I particularly love the "Axehole" Praetor...he certainly looks the part of a Sons of Horus commander!

Power armour AND a tabard? Why not? He has SPOOKY POWERS after all...

"Soon I will throw this fireball at you...but I just want to look at it first..."

The Librarian has the necessary sinister cloak, because obviously. The little ball of blue flame in his hand is a nice touch too. 

"Not that way. THIS WAY. Move it, morons!"

Trusty helmet clipped to his belt. Why would he need it? He's a veteran!

And the veteran...well, he looks like a grouch! You'd be mad too if you had to have studs drilled into your forehead because reasons. Anyway, he is doing one of the most important thing that figures representing junior officers on a wargaming table must do - he is pointing at something!

I'm not really painting these up with a specific plan in mind, beyond trying to keep an approximate balance between loyalist and rebel forces in my painted collection. These little 15mm guys were a lot of fun to paint up during the summer. Up next I'll show some of the Loyalist characters who came off the painting line. 

Some More Battlefront Pzkpfw. IVs

Well there seemed to be little interest on my post about military watches (thanks for the comment though Greg!) so it's back to wargames figures... you guys must be heartily sick of seeing Afrika Korps armour but we're getting towards the end here, I promise. These are the last three tanks to be painted for the DAK as I've got no more bare plastic to assemble.

As you can see there are two "Mark IV Specials" equipped with the long 75mm KwK 40 L/43. This was temporarily designated by the Germans as the "Ausf. F2" and was the scourge of the desert!

The tanks were painted with a basecoat of XV88 overpainted with Tallarn Sand, then washed Agrax Earthshade and re-highlighted with Tallarn. Decals were then applied and some chipping done with German Camo Black Brown.

I might paint some armoured cars or halftracks and trucks for the DAK, but that's it for tanks, I promise.

Heia Safari!

MOAR!! Flames of War 8th Army Tanks and Artillery

Cleaning up a few remnants of boxed sets I've bought for the Western Desert project. I'd already painted the Grants from the "Monty's Desert Rats" box but that left these three Crusaders and the two artillery pieces to do. First up, the armour...

Here are the three Crusaders, equipped with 6-pounder guns (I'm concentrating on "after-El-Alamein"). As usual I picked out one to have a commander sticking out of the hatch. Camo was two-colour in keeping with the rest of the force. 

The Battlefront material had limited images of the Crusader so I had to look on the web to see how the camo looked on the "other side" of the vehicle. Fortunately "Key Model World" came to the rescue with copious photos of a 1/32 Airfix build here. Thanks John Bonanni!

As with all of the British armour, the tanks were painted Light Earth as a base, with camo done in Castellan Green highlighted Deathworld Forest. The whole thing was washed Agrax Earthshade then re-highlighted in the base colours, and lastly chipped with German Camo Black-Brown on a sponge.

I also had one Honey built so I painted that too. It's a model from Plastic Soldier Company and don't be too hard on me if you see inaccuracies in the build... I basically wanted to replicate the sand-skirted model that Battlefront makes but I'm not sure I built exactly the right combo of top hatch and skirts... looks fine to me if I squint.

These are certainly iconic little desert tanks aren't they! I still have four more to build...

Now to the guns! The box set came with two sprues that could built as either 25-pounder field guns or 17/25-pounder antitank guns. But since we have the means, I figured why not make the tubes swappable and have both??

The accessories and crew for the models are great. Here we see a 25-pounder.

And here are the models with the 17-pounder tube swapped in for maximum anti-tank capability.

Easy to do, really - that's a small disc magnet in between the trunnion supports...

...and on the 17-pounder tube there's a 2mm spacer and another disc magnet. The 25-pounder tube didn't need a magnet and adding one would lower the muzzle too much anyway, so I just added a small piece of very thin sheet metal to stick to the magnet. Easy swapping and nothing is visible.

And there you go, some more models for Conscript Hugh to figure into the British army list for our next desert clash.

Toodles! 

Battlefront Afrika Korps 88mm AT Guns

Well if you're creating an Afrika Korps force for battles in the Western Desert, there's kind of one thing that you HAVE to have, and that's Flak 36 88mm anti-aircraft/anti-tank guns, full stop. The 88 is so synonymous with the DAK it would be odd to have a game without them. So as a quick couple-day project I decided to paint a couple for the game this week.

 

These are excellent plastic models from Battlefront. The crew models are that kind of soft-ish resin models you get on sprues from BF, not injection molded hard plastic.

A couple of the crew figures were standing at a crazy angle on their bases but a hot water/cold water dip and plunge straightened them out. The crew are really characterful and detailed.

 

The sprue also contained some extra bits like ammo cases and shell casings which look cool on the bases.

I painted the guns with a base of XV-88 and painted them over with a mix of Tallarn Sand blended with Deck Tan just to lighten it up a bit. I then washed with Agrax and chipped with German Camo Black Brown.

The crews were painted in my standard German way - base Khaki, wash Agrax, then tune up some random jackets and pants with lighter tones.

These should do some damage in the game on Thursday, so anyway...

Heia Safari!
 

Forged in Battle Afrika Korps Rifle Company for Flames of War

It's all very well and good painting tanks, but in my opinion, if you want a proper WW2 game, you need infantry. Such it is with Flames of War. A couple weeks ago I finished the 8th Army infantry company for my upcoming birthday game, so now it's the turn of the Afrika Korps models to go under the brushes.

The models are mostly from Forged in Battle with a few from Peter Pig in the command stands. Above are the two company command stands. The models on the right-hand stand are Piggies, I might've swapped a head on the pointing Major.

The rest of the FiB models are quite good - albeit after a complaint about the ones I initially received being terribly miscast and horrible. But to their credit FiB sent me a new pack from "new moulds" and they were pretty nice models.

Unlike the 8th Army dudes there's quite a bit of contrasting detail to paint on these models. The uniforms are Vallejo Khaki washed Agrax, the helmets are AK Light Earth likewise, webbing and straps are Light Earth, wool covers on the canteens are AK Dark Brown or New Wood, rifles are Leadbelcher, Dark Brown and New Wood, slings are Doombull Brown, shovel handles and boots are New Wood. On the officers and some of the men I randomly lightened the DAK caps, tunics or trousers just for a bit of variety.

 

In the FoW list each infantry platoon can have an MG34 machinegun base, so I painted one for each platoon (partly to compensate for the lack of the 2.8cm sPzB41 squeeze-bore antitank rifle that FiB doesn't make). As for the sPzB41... honestly I don't really understand why BF made one an organic part of each DAK infantry platoon. I didn't think they were that widely used (fewer than 2,800 were manufactured during the entire war) and one rarely comes across a mention of it in histories of the desert war... but I stand to be corrected in the comments.

ANYWAY... part of the DAK infantry company list is a platoon of 5cm PAK38 antitank guns. These are from FiB and come two in a pack with crews. The model itself is only two pieces (the barrel is separate) and the trails have the same "wide stance" as the 8th Army 6-pounders, which requires custom-made bases. But they are pretty good models nevertheless, although I think I had to replace the head on one of the crewmen as the original model came wearing a pith helmet (!). The Peter Pig pack of German heads has come in very handy in this project.

 

All in all a very nice set of DAK infantry from FiB. Anyway with the DAK infantry from Battlefront being AWOL these are recommended. The other great thing about this project is using up the spare Flames of War medium bases I've had in a box for well over 10 years!

Here's the entire German contingent I've painted so far. There's still some to paint - more Pzkpfw IVs and some 88mm Flak 36 AT/AA guns - but the impetus for those is reduced somewhat now that I've gotten the infantry painted. Looking forward to the game next week, on which I will duly report!

Heia Safari!