Xenos Rampant Aliens Vs USCM

 

Hotwheels M577 APC

Little Ones

Big Ones

Baby Ones

USCM (unfinished)

There's been some interesting activity on the club Facebook page about Xenos Rampant, with a focus on using the old TTG Laserburn figures for some sci-fi skirmish games. This caught my eye as I have a big stash of these figures and always fancied doing something with them.

However, after a bit of a think, I remembered that I have some painted 10mm Pendraken Aliens and half finished Colonial Marines, from a project that ran out of steam when virtually complete. I have excavated them from the bottom of the lead pile and reckon a rainy weekend would see them finished off...

...another quicky project for 2024!

Project Update

 

I have had a bit of an avalanche of stuff arriving in the post, much to the annoyance of SWMBO, who has now banned me from ordering anything more until after Xmas. I pointed out that I haven't actually bought that much and haven't spent much either, but to no avail. Anyway, I have more than enough stuff already to get on with the Sandbox Skirmish project amongst other things, so it's not a problem. I also have lots of other projects in the pipeline for which I am fully equipped, so 'Bah Humbug' to her indoors! (just don't tell her I said that).

First up, the road sections and terrain templates arrived today from Supreme Littleness Designs. The road pieces will take no time at all to texture and paint, so that I can have a whole network of dirt tracks for the 15mm armoured vehicles to patrol along, with some of the templates possibly being used for stream sections or dry ditches as well, if I have enough. I also now have a 15mm version of the desert ruins that SLD produce in 28mm, albeit actually an 18/20mm version. I think it scales really well with the Peter Pig figures, however, so a big thank you to Michael for re-scaling and cutting it for me. Brilliant!

The 1/100th scale Italeri Westland Wessex diecast model helicopter also arrived at the same time, albeit with one broken rotor blade that I will need to fix and reinforce so that it doesn't snap off again. It wasn't obviously broken when you looked at the packaged model, so it's not the sellers fault that he missed it. I'm sure it will be fine once I've sorted it out. I also found another box picture frame in the charity shop this morning, so now have a smaller terrain board to texture and paint being only 55cm x 47cm in size, so I think I may prepare it either for my 10mm Aliens project or for 10/15mm French Indochina games.

Blimey!

10mm Aliens USCM M577 APC's

These are what started the 10mm Aliens skirmish project in the first place, when I found two of them in a plastic bag of Micro Machines at the local charity shop. I was going to plate over the wheels with plastic card discs to hide the holes where the metal axles stick out but I couldn't find my hole punch, so didn't bother. The bases need some tidying up, especially on the edges, but these are now ready for the use when I've finished the marines.

10mm Aliens USCM bases

I had a crack at the drybrushing on the USCM bases this evening, using a slighty different approach to the one that I used in the alien bases. I haven't applied a wash yet but will probably do so before I add the highlights, as the overall effect at this stage is a bit bland.

The large rectangular bases are for the Micro Machines M577 APC models, which also need some attention before they're ready for painting. I'm off to the club tomorrow, so it will have to wait until mid-week before I get to tackle the two squads of USCM troopers and their armoured transportation.

Aliens Spaceplane Dropship

One thing that's obviously missing from my 10mm Aliens mini-project is a 1/144th scale UD-4L Cheyenne dropship, which exists as a very expensive out of production model that's not readily available and far too pricey for my budget:

http://www.fantastic-plastic.com/ColonialMarineDropShip-CataloguePage.htm

So, to fill the gap, I've kit bashed a  Revell 1/144th scale YF-23A prototype fighter kit that I had in the loft, to create a Weyland Yutani Corporation executive shuttle-type spaceplane dropship thing.

This involved scratchbuiling some landing gear using the spare sidewinder missiles from the kit with some plastic rod and card for the supports and skids, then adding an access ramp using the missile bay kit doors and the original oleo legs from the undercarriage. I left off the tailplanes as they made it look too much like a fighter aircraft rather than a spaceplane-style dropship but had to leave the canopy as it was. I think it'll look pretty neat painted up and will also be useful as a scenario objective.

While up in the loft, I found an old EM4 plastic mech model minus any arms, so I had a go at bashing it into a power loader using some Lego robot arms that I pinched from the kids toy box. It's far too big for the version in the film, so I'll use it as an alternative heavy duty lifter which may just get used as scenic decoration. At least it didn't cost very much to put together, which is very much in keeping with the rest of the project!

10mm Alien Nest

This is a bit better. I did some high-lighting on the eggs after washing them in Vallejo Strong Tone, before adding some detaling to the open eggs and the face huggers. I'm tempted to add some vegetation of some sort to break up the grey effect but that wouldn't fit with the wasteland environment, so I'll just leave it as it is. I may well add some individual bases or eggs and egg clusters, as I think they add some angles for scenarios but it's onto the USCM squads and M577 APC's next.

10mm Alien Swarm

The Aliens Attack!

Warriors

Juveniles

The Queen

The Nest

I hoped to get these done yesterday but my dad made an unexpected visit, so there was no time for painting. I did a rush job on them today instead, with a quick overwash of Vallejo Shiny Black followed by some washing and drybrushing on the bases. The nest base isn't really finished and looks a bit rubbish, so I'll probably tinker with the it later on once the basecoat has dried, adding some highlights and details if I can be bothered!

Aliens USCM Technical Manual

In my family, being half French and half English, we have two versions of Christmas, one on the 25th December in Brittany and one on the 1st January in Hampshire. This is great for the kids, as they get to open two sets of presents and great for us, as we don't have to lug my side of the family's gifts over to the other side of the English Channel.

This year, the UK Father Xmas brought me a copy of the very old but very useful Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual, which he (or she?) spotted in the Waterstones sale and thought might be something I'd like for the bookshelf. I thought this was out of print years ago, so I was very pleasantly surprised to get a copy as one of my second Xmas presents.

This led me to dig out my 10mm Pendraken aliens and colonial marines that I based up last year, with an intial drybrush on the bases to see what they looked like in something other than basecoat black. I screwed up the base texturing on these so that every stroke of the brush dislodged little bits of grit and exposed shiny metal, with some serious washing and shading still needed to fill inthe resulting gaps.

The aliens will get a topcoat of Vallejo Shiny Black once I've sorted the bases out. After that, I'll have a crack at the bases on the colonial  marines before starting on the figures themselves. I'm planning to get the aliens finished tomorrow so that I can spend some time on the humans before the end of the weekend. I hope they turn out to be a good start to 2015!.

Warfare Swag

I set off to Warfare yesterday with a modest shopping list which included a storage box for my new AK47 army, some Peter Pig AK47 professionals for the Indonesia / Borneo and a hard copy of Lion Rampant, so that I don't have to keep flicking backwards and forwards on the Kindle. A fairly simple list of things to find, or so you would have thought?

In the end, I bought a KR multicase for my 28mm Japanese army including a neat foam tray for heavy weapons bases, the Peter Pig figures and, in a moment of 'ooh shiny' distraction, two 15mm sci-fi starter armies from GZG. I didn't see that one coming at all but it's something I've fancied doing for a long time, so there is some logic in there somewhere?

These are a UNSC/L light infantry force and a NAC infantry force, the former being for a high-tech, HALO style army, while the latter will be a relatively low-tech near future platoon. I decided to go for a Colonial Marines theme for the NAC figures, as they look similar to the Aliens film version, so also bought some APC's from Antenociti's Workshop, which was just across the aisle from GZG.

These are lovely models and consist of an assault troop and a HQ troop, each made up of variants of the basic M577 APC. The basic APC models are spot on replicas of the vehicle in Aliens, so will really look the part next to the NAC infantry, even if the figures are not identical to the USCM originals. The rules that I would be using for this aren't definite but Tomorrrow's War and FUBAR look like a good way to go.

10mm Aliens USCM TO&E

 

 

I've been thinking about how to organise the USCM platoon for the 10mm Aliens mini-project and, after a little googling around the subject, have got the basic organisation pretty much sorted. This is an extract from the Xenopedia Wiki which gives me a basic structure for the platoon, consisting of two M577 APC's and about twenty two figures:

 

The organization of the rifle platoons represents the USCM doctrine of small, autonomous infantry units capable of independent action on a non-linear battlefield.

 

The platoon commander, a lieutenant, is assisted by one or two synthetics as technical and scientific advisers, medics and drivers.

 

The platoon is divided into two sections, which are further divided into two squads of four Marines each. Each section is led by a sergeant and includes a driver for the M577 APC. In addition, during Drop operations each section is assigned a UD-4 Dropship from the aerospace company team.

 

Including the platoon commander and crews for the dropships and APCs, a full-strength rifle platoon would number twenty-five Marines, though in practice the platoon operates with fewer personnel.

 

The rifle squad consists of four Marines: a Corporal, a Lance Corporal, and two Privates/Privates First Class. The squad is broken up into two fireteams, the Rifle Team and the Gun Team. The Rifle Team consists of two riflemen armed with M41A Pulse Rifles while the Gun Team consists of a gunner armed with the M56 Smartgun and a rifleman armed with a M41.

 

I have more than enough figures on order for this and, with the two M577 APC models, I also have the armour support. No dropships as yet but I don't think I really need them for what I have in mind.

10mm Aliens Terrain

I've narrowed down the search for some cheap and cheerful terrain for the Aliens project. I was planning to scratch build some colony buildings but, in the meantime, I'll use these very inexpensive and straightforward 10mm card models, which I can print out and assemble without the need to re-scale down from 28mm. I also have some resin scatter terrain from The Scene which I can spread around as hard cover for the USCM to defend.

10mm Aliens Beasties

I've been working out what I have in the Aliens collection and how I'm going to base them up for FUBAR. I have approximately thirty assorted alien figures in four different poses, so the overall effect will be pretty good, especially when they're deployed en masse. I'll be individually basing them up on 15mm mdf circles, which should look pretty effective.

I also have some egg clusters which I'm going to base up as scenic features and objectives for the marines to destroy. The face huggers will be used as suppression markers, which I think will look better than just tipping the figures on their side, as suggested in the rules and will avoid the need for alternative plastic tokens, dice or whatever cluttering up the table.

More on the terrain  and scenario side of things later...

10mm Aliens USCM

 

A bit out of the blue but I've sent off for a couple of packs of the new Colonial Marines from the Pendraken sci-fi range, to equip a platoon for my Aliens FUBAR mini-project. The new figures are much better than the old ones which, despite having some real character, suffered from over sized heads on tiddly bodies.

 

I've also sent off for some survivors from the Zombies range, which should be ideal as colonists. I don't know when this lot will arrive but, in the meantime, I have plenty of aliens to base and paint up. I'll be using 10mm mdf circles for most of the alien and human figures with slightly bigger bases for the alien queen and egg clusters.

10mm Aliens APC

I popped into the local charity shop this morning on the way back from the newsagent and was lucky enough to spot a bag of micro machines including two M577 APC's. These are roughly 10mm in scale and are slightly bigger than the metal APC from Pendraken. They need a bit of tidying up and a paint job but are really nice models.

I have an army pack for Aliens by Pendraken that I bought at Warfare a couple of years ago, so was very pleased to find these two AFV's. I don't have any of the new USCM figures yet, having abandoned the old chunky figures that came with the army pack, so have ordered some of the new marines from Pendraken to use as bughunters.

I originally planned to use the army pack for Future War Commander but I've gone off the rules in a big way after having endured BKC for several months in the club WW2 Aegean campaign. The alternative will probably be FUBAR which has the advantage of being free and very simple, so right up my intellectual street.

A quick mini-project for a wet weekend!