Some 15mm 30k Characters - Part 2

Some 15mm characters ready for action with the VII Legion Astartes.

A couple of days ago I posted some of the 15mm Sons of Horus character figures I had painted up for my crazy little 15mm 30k project. Here we have some Loyalist counterparts to go with them - a Praetor, a Champion Consul and a Librarian - all wearing glorious Mark VI "beakie" power armour. These are 3D prints courtesy of Byron, and all are in the colours and symbols of the VII Legion Astartes, the Imperial Fists. 

"I am right, because I have a big sword! And also a blaster if you still insist on disagreeing..."

Swish cloak too...

The Praetor is a faithful tribute to the "sword Praetor" who came with the 2.0 edition of GW's Age of Darkness box set. An excellent, whacky-looking commander, this 15mm rendition is a brilliant version of the original figure, and gets all the key points just right. The blaster. The sword. And, of course, the over-the-top cloak that one wears as part of the appropriate formal attire when smashing the enemies of The Emperor. 

You will soon feel the SPOOKY POWERS...

But there is a handy axe to settle things

In fact, all three of these figures are wonderful little tributes to their 28mm inspirations. The Librarian has the same "I'm about to blast you with some cool mind-stuff" pose as his larger cousin - and of course is also carrying a big axe that will sort things out should mind tricks fail. 

I love this pose...at once "ready for duty" and "I can't wait to hit someone with this sword!"

Not a ton of detail to show, but pretty great considering it's a 15mm figure!

The Champion Consul still manages to exude an air of tightly-controlled fanaticism, waiting to be unleashed at the appropriate time and against the appropriate heretic(s). His bolt gun is present, but tucked away, as this fellow clearly relished sorting things out with his blade.

The loyalist characters face off against the Sons of Horus characters in my previous post...

All of these were fun little projects to paint up over the summer, some extra flavor for the whole "just because it's fun" 15mm 30k project.  

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. 

More 30k in 15mm - SoH Reinforcements

Sons of Horus tactical marines wearing Mark IV armour - 3D prints in 15mm. 

More 30k-themed models have been crossing the painting desk through the summer, but I've dipped back into the 15mm project once more. Here we have a nice pile of reinforcements for the Sons of Horus - a big 20-man tactical squad and a 10-man assault squad. All are clad in Mark IV power armour. These are all 3D prints from Byron, with assorted decals sourced from various GW sets. 

Tactical Squad

Officer on the left, with customary scary pistol an scary sword; Vox-equipped trooper on the right.

No matter what scale you partake, when it comes to the Horus Heresy, these huge 20-man tactical squads are all kinds of fun. 

Closer view of a couple of the tactical troopers.

The 3D prints of the Mark IV armour really turned out nicely. The only real hiccup with these guys is the size of the integral chunk of resin at their feet...I find removing them to be fraught (as the resin can snap in funny ways) and I lack the hobby infrastructure to safely sand/grind them down, so I resorted to doing the best I could to shave them down with a hobby knife...not the smartest decision, and this was abandoned after a couple of the figures! 

Horus for hope!

Anyway, they look fine, and will be even better after I re-supply on grass tufts and can go on a little binge adding them to these figures. 

Assault Squad

Assault squad ready to jump into the action!

It's good to get the classic jump-pack craziness of the Horus Heresy going in my 15mm collection. I had actually started painting these guys...I dunno, a while ago, such that I was sure I had already put photos of them on the blog? But I couldn't find them...anyway, in the event I've doubled up, my apologies in advance...

Fancy weapons for the officer, as per usual.

Working class bolt pistols and chain swords for the rest of the lads!

I do love the look of the Mark IV armour on the jump pack-equipped assault marines, and I also like the style of the jump packs themselves, based around a single large jet - a layout that seems somewhat more sensible than the huge twin-jet set up of the classic armour packs - but for all that the Mark IV jet pack itself it still large enough to be very dangerous, and therefore "fit" properly with the setting. 

Lots of fun to work with these little castings!

So that's another 30 troops for cause of the Warmaster! I guess I'll need to do something to balance things out for the Loyalist side...stay tuned for more on that at some point later this summer...

Summer Painting Update Pt 1 - 15mm 30k Bits

Reinforcements for my 15mm Sons of Horus. 3d printed 15mm sized resin figures.

Well...hey, I'm still here! I'm still puttering about the hobby painting desk! I just find that once one "takes a break" from posting to the Blog then...it is very easy to keep "taking that break". A body at rest staying at rest...you know how that goes...but I have been painting since the end of Curt's Analogues Hobbies Painting Challenge, and it's past time to share some of the work. Up first, another couple of bits for my 15mm 30k project. 

These are 15mm-sized 3d prints provided by Byron M. There are two different units to share here, both from the XVI Legion Astartes, the Sons of Horus. We have some sinister Justaerin Terminators and then a devastator squad equipped with autocannons. Watch out, loyalists!

Justaerin Terminators

"We're heavily armed, heavily armoured, and...really grouchy!" It's the Justaerin, the elite of the XVI Legion Astartes!

The Justaerin are one of the "elite" formations found among Horus' own Legion. They are noted for their dark armour, preference for spikey-type adornments and a generally dour attitude that seems to find joy only in hitting other people. Now, I recognized it can be confusing, given that this describes like 80% of the Space Marines at the time of the Horus Heresy, but I credit the GW armour designers as the Justaerin armour manages to look quite grouchy, and so they still manage to stand apart in what might fairly be considered as a crowded field. 

Power axes for everyone!

These chaps carry combi-bolters and big, scary power axes. For a firepower boost, one fellow is equipped with a multi-meta, but note that he ALSO has a giant axe to smash people. Because 30k, right? For the power axes I went with a bit of an extreme color contrast, to help the blades stand out. It looks a bit silly up close, but from "gaming distance" it comes across nicely.

Another pair of "regular"" Justaerin fellows.

View showing some of the engineering bits on the back of the armour. You can see the fellow on the left lost his axe handle...had an unfortunate encounter with the floor...

The chunky 3d-sculpts have lots of fun little details, capturing the assorted engineering bits on that back of the suit, the recessed helmets and the flashy top-knots. One fellow lost the handle on his axe when the miniature fell to the ground and it snapped away, but I just covered the damage with paint, and figured he would go forward as an extra-grouchy fellow. 

Heavy Support - Autocannons

Mad minute, anyone?

I painted a few autocannon gunners for the loyalist side of my collection, and so naturally the Sons of Horus needed some as well! These guys are wearing the Mark VI "beakie" power armour, and there is now a whole lot else to say...I love how they look! 

Lots of ammo to keep those weapons going!

Lovely details on these 15mm figures...the 3d prints give a great result that paints up rather quickly!

Five autocannons will come in handy when the time comes to mow down some of the new loyalist figures I painted back in April during the Painting Challenge. 

That's all for this post - but stay tuned for more, on this project and several others! I hope to get at least one more painting up shared later this week. Thanks for reading, and have a great summer. 

AHPC Submission #12 - 15mm Imperial Fist Space Marines

15mm/1-100 scale Imperial Fist Space Marines and support vehicles. 3d prints all around.

One of the great things about the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is inspiration provided by fellow Challengers. The inspiration can be a particular jolt when you see another Challenger working on similar projects to yours, and even more fun when those projects are somewhat "niche" by gaming standards. I was pretty happy to see Challenger PeterA sharing some 15mm 30k Space Marines earlier during AHPC XV - and duly inspired, I worked to get some of my own 15mm 30k figures back under the brush!

It was a couple of years ago (during an earlier AHPC, or course) that I noticed Byron starting up with some 15mm 40k stuff. I loved how it looked. I am sure many gamers can relate to that experience of different gaming trade-offs offered by different scales of miniatures. 28mm figures (and larger) offer fantastic, detailed sculpts. Smaller scales, on the other hand, give more room on the table and engagement ranges that "look" a little better on a 6' x 4' table, particularly for settings that involve more vehicles. 15mm size/1-100 scale models can really provide a nice balance between these two aspects of miniature gaming. 

Naturally I immediately thought of GW's Horus Heresy as a great setting for 15mm gaming - and it is! Here are a few reinforcements for the Loyalist side of my 15mm 30k collection. These are all painted in the bright colours of the VII Legion Astartes, the Imperial Fists.

Veteran Tactical Squad

Tactical squad from the VII Legion Astartes.

These are classic Space Marines clad in Mark VI Power Armour - the famous "beakie" helmets.

Sergeant and banner-bearer.

Missile launcher - of the classic "shark fin" variety, and melta gunner. 

We have one officer with a power sword and a bolt pistol, and two other marines in the squad are equipped with support weapons - a missile launcher and a melta gun.

Two regular marines.

View of the rear detail and the power packs.

Two more of the regular marines.

Decals thankfully can be found among the sheets sold for the GW's existing 30k miniature ranges, so that is a nice touch for the shoulder pads.  

Dreadnoughts

Let's party!

The loyalists will be pleased to benefit not only from some extra firepower, but some extra "punch", as you can see from the power fists. One dreadnought is equipped with an assault cannon, and the other a plasma cannon. 

Assault cannon, and an aggressive attitude! Getting results in the defense of The Emperor...

Plasma cannon on this fellow.

I love these dreadnought designs - particularly the one that is pointing! 

Whirlwind  

Whirlwind APC and spotter/observer Space Marine.

The Whirlwind is another "classic" Space Marine fixture, an MRLS-type support weapon based on the ubiquitous Rhino APC chassis.

View of of the back tracks and ramp.

Great details on this 3D print.

I also painted up a figure as a kind of command figure/forward observer type (he's up there by the tank).

Big thanks once again to Byron for printing all of these models for me! Hope to add more during some lazy days of the approaching summer (should summer ever actually arrive). 

Grimdark Future Game with 15mm Space Marines!

A couple weeks back I was fortunate enough to be in Toronto for work, and got to drop in on Conscript Greg for a delicious dinner and a game. Greg had planned a very cool 15mm 40K game using the "Grimdark Future One-Page Rules" and I'd brought along the 15mm Blood Drinkers Space Marines I'd painted in the most recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. So for both his Sons of Horus and my Space Marines, this was their first tabletop outing. LET'S GOOOOO!!!

Greg had set up the three-objective scenario described in the OPR Grimdark Future ruleset. The objectives were pretty evenly spaced down the middle of the table, with the Blood Drinkers coming on from the left long edge and the Sons of Horus from the right. Greg had picked up some really cool new terrain when we were at Meeplemart earlier that day - some prepainted scale-agnostic desert stuff from GF9. It looked just as good with the 15mm Marines as it will with 28mm models! 

The forces were pretty evenly matched - I had three Rhinos (each with a 10-man tac squad in it) and a Land Raider with the command squad and a couple extra Marines. Greg had two Rhinos full of Marines and two Land Raiders ditto (one of them was actually a Spartan model standing in). My cunning plan was to leave the rightmost objective to Greg and try and take the left and centre ones. Above you can see the objective just behind my Rhino.

                                        

The Marines deployed from the Rhino just in front of the objective and awaited contact with the Sons of Horus.

This happened quite quickly as the Sons rocked up and with the help of the Land Raider, wiped out most of the squad. 

The battle in the centre turned into a general fracas with my Land Raider and many Sons of Horus assets becoming engaged. Greg had already grabbed the rightmost objective and the scenario rules dictated that once an objective is obtained, it stays under control until the enemy grabs it. This allowed troops to roll over objectives and not have to worry about leaving a unit behind to hold it, as long as the enemy couldn't reach it themselves.

Here's a good view of the centre. Lots of combat and death here! But keep in mind that the objective itself is behind the Blood Drinkers Rhino at top left...

Endgame in the centre. Unfortunately for the Sons of Horus they just couldn't wipe out the Blood Drinkers and get to the objective. The centre holds for the sons of Sanguinius.

Meanwhile over on the Blood Drinkers' left, a Rhino got blown up by Greg's Land Raider. The passengers bailed out and started movement towards the objective on the hill, just visible at top middle.

The other Blood Drinkers Rhino and missile launcher/meltagun wielding Marines managed to take out the Sons' Land Raider and caused a bailout. The Marines from the destroyed Rhino at bottom started to move towards the objective.

The command squad moved up to intercept the Marines moving toward the objective, but were defeated by the Blood Drinkers.

So that was basically the game, a Blood Drinkers victory, two objectives to one. I quite liked the ruleset and the game fairly rocketed along, lots of stuff died quickly, including the vehicles. Opinions may differ on how those are treated, in the rules as written even bolter fire can chip away at Rhinos and Land Raiders. I don't mind that, because bolters are supposed to fire mass-reactive explosive shells and there's no reason why vehicles would be totally immune to those. But it's something to keep in mind if you have a strong feeling the other way.

My thanks to Greg for setting up the game and for a great visit. It was fun to try out the Grimdark one-page rules and to get our 15mm Space Marines out for their first games!