The Work (In Pogress) Continues

When I got up this morning I decided that I was going to paint ten of the old Grenadier (now Mirliton) trooper figures. Nice simple figures with an almost standard uniform that even if I do give certain aspects of it a camouflage pattern, should be done by the end of the week.

 Then I picked up the two D&D mimic figures I picked up last week. Then I thought what the hell, I'll do these first. So I did. When you have a small number of essentially similar figures, they are quick and easy to do so I just got on with them. I guess each of them took about an hour to an hour and a half to finish. In the round, and certainly on the tabletop, the look pretty good.

When they were done I went back to the troopers. They have progressed a little bit. All the boots, equipment and uniform are finished. To be honest I haven't made up my mind what I am going to do with the armour and helmet yet although I have an idea (does anyone remember Aliens). Given that a lot of what I am doing is vaguely desert, I think I will go for something like MTP/Multicam. I do like the Copplestone vibe.

These figures have all sorts of potential uses for me. Aside from the standard sci-fi, 2300, Stargrunt, Titansgrave Tomorrow's War ad Traveller, I can see a use for them in other genres. The armour would look pretty good for combat armour for Fallout. They have planned uses in some post apocalypse stuff as well. Maybe even as soldiers in a super hero game.

This is more for my benefit so I can go back and remember what colours I used if I decide to do any more

New GZG 15mm Ground Vehicles

As well as the civilian mechs I got at Triples I got some of the new trucks. These are now glued together. They have a nice rugged 2300ish look. I'll not do too much about them here but I'll post a bit more when they get closer to being done. The one on the right hasn't quite set right so I've had to re-glue it.

I have been playing about with some of the GZG vehicles. I started on the military ones the other day. These are still at a very early stage. The trucks are really what I was after. I know they are vehicles but in many respects I see them more as scenary. The aim for them is more as things to make the terrain more interesting than it is to use them as vehicles.

I like the buggies as they have a nice Space 1999  vibe. This show is one of the best bits of scifi cheese even now. These too are a long way from ready.

15mm GZG SciFi Armour

I have purchased a large amount of  GZG 15mm vehicles that have have been sat around for a while now. In terms of weight in the lead mountain, this is the single biggest purchase I have made in ten years. I wanted some stuff that would fit in with my ideas for Tomorrow's War. Sort of 2300 meets Aliens. So lots of mid-tech stuff with wheels and tracks are the main order of business. I have a some srmoured grav vehicles which I think  will do for a more advanced focred just for good measure. Mostly I wanted some civilian looking vehicles to use more as scenery rather than vehicles. All of which now require some degree of attention.

They have been taking up limited storage space ever since I got them. I thought it was about time I did something about it. Sooooo...... If I put some paint on them, it means the project has been started and is not at the gathering dust stage. I can justify buying some more stuff to stick in storage when I go to Triples later in the month. Then I can sit back and admire an even bigger lead mountain. In general, the lead miuntain has been getting smaller (or did I just stop buying 28mm figures?)

Wondering why there is a picture of a mountain at the top of the post? Well that is lead Mountain Colorado. No, seriously it actually exists, it's not just a clever metaphor :-)

The Dead Walk, I Mean Lie Down

Well it's been a slow time on the blog but this is mainly because the real world has been fairly busy. Paperwork and training were things I had thought I had left behind but perhaps not. The painting table hasn't been especially busy but some stuff has been going on. I now have a phone with a decent camera again so I can take some pictures. There is plenty of stuff but I thought I'd start with these as they are on the tabletop at the moment.

The Not Walking Dead

I had felt I needed some dead bodies and Peter Pig seemed the obvious choice. As my previous background project is over I thought it was time for a new one and corpses seemed like a good idea for something to keep me occupied.

I got a chance to go to Vapnartak wargames show at York race course last weekend and spent some cash. Mainly with Peter Pig who I haven't seen at a show for a while. York is a bit of a trek from Home but it was a nice show if a little bit cramped. I've never been before but it's had a few good reports from friends.


I had a few ideas for Peter Pig minis after seeing a blog called the Special Corps. Sadly it's not active anymore but it is well worth a look. He had been using Peter Pig "Hey you in the Jail" minis for sci fi including some nice conversions. This blog had been a major influence on me when I started down the road of 15mm gaming and I have been planning on buying some minis.

So I went to York to get some corpses, some western figures and plenty of odds and sods. Sadly they don't take the western figures to shows so I had to settle for corpses, scenery and some vehicles.

I had a few corpses and casualties from GZG in their NAC range and some body bags from TheScene which I had painted already but wanted a lot more (which I will get round to posting but it will be a dull post). I have painted some live NAC troopers and a corpse as Vault Dwellers for my current RPG endeavor  a couple of weeks ago and wanted to paint some more bodies. This is not because I thought the players would be intimidated by them. Honest. No, I really am being honest but it would have been a good idea.

I wanted some corpses for several reasons. Firstly mass combat games leave corpses behind so a few bodies for markers is a good idea, particularly for force on force and stargrunt. Secondly I wanted corpses to be proto zombies for a zombie game. It's always nice to have some corpses for RPG games. Finally I wanted some bodies for scenery purposes. The scenery pieces aren't here, they are still in a bag. I perhaps went a it crazy as I now have well over fifty bodies to paint. This is one of the nice things about gaming in 15mm, you can have lots and lots and lots.

Armed porters

I wanted some unusual figures for my Fallout game and I happened to have some armed porter figures from a manufacturer that I am not currently mentioning because of their appalling customer service. I was planning on moving into doing some 1920s figures at some point so got these a few months ago. As they were an easy paint job I thought I would give them a go. They still need to be inked and based but that won't be too hard.
I have some more stuff to go up so I will hopefully be posting some more over the next couple of days. It feels kind of nice to be posting again.

Replaying Stargrunt II

A few months ago I thought I'd try out Stargrunt II GZG's grand daddy of a Sci-Fi combat game. I had a few hours to spare as SWiMBO was away riding a horse. I have a copy and it has been out of print for a long time but I think I am right in saying that it is still available for download for free on GZG's web site. Given the economic climate, it seems like a good idea to do stuff for free especially when it's something I once paid twenty pounds for.

So I set up a dummy game. Quickly so there were really no time for frills. The marines were going in to check why contact had been lost with a village (any similarities between this and AVP: Requiem are purely coincidental). The marine have no vehicles because they know that the road through the village is blocked.

The Marines Arrive

The Marines arrive and take up a commanding position at the corner of town. Another team is going down the main road. A third team are going to sweep round the far side of the village. A forth team gets up on the roof of a building to get a better view of the situation. Whilst this is going on, the 2nd Lt and the Sergeant keep in an over watch position on the hill with the third team between them and the errr, action. At this point they have no idea what is going on so they are adopting a better safe than sorry approach.

The aliens have four teams of six that are going to try and get the Marines. In addition to this, they have three bio booby traps that they have placed on the village. 

Sneaky Sneaky

On the left hand side of the picture above, out of sight of the soldiers, a small swarm of aliens creep up on them ready for a flank attack.

In the picture below, the soldiers move on with their recon they trigger one of the booby traps. Thanks to some goof/bad luck two of the marines die instantly and another get injured. The screening squad move round the outside of the village in an attempt to outflank anything that might be in the heart of the village. The aliens continue sneaking around. They stop just short of revealing themselves to the marines and make ready to charge towards them an attack.

And The Battle Starts

The marines attempting the flank advance past another booby trap. This did not go so well for the aliens. It explodes and does no damage at all. I can only imagine the looks on their faces. Then they get jumped by six aliens. The aliens perhaps jumped a little early but I thought they would capitalise on the shock on the explosion. They don't get all the way there so the marines get a chance to fire killing two of the aliens and injuring another. The marines are still facing a closer assault  which would be bad for them. The aliens are almost certain to kill them if they get into hand to hand with the marines.

The lone survivor from the team in the centre of town retreats towards his last position and sees the aliens waiting to pounce.

"Poop"

Thinking better than waiting around for the aliens to charge, the marines use discretion and run away firing. They get lucky and manage to kill the injured one, injure another and kill a third. Meanwhile the aliens sneaking around start their attack. It takes them a turn to get up the wall so they have to wait around. Sadly this is bad news for the survivor of the team that got hit by the booby trap earlier and he gets munched by two of the aliens. Meanwhile the marines on the roof get an opportunity to hose the aliens below injuring one of them.

"Our Father...."

The Marines on the flank finish off the remaining alien with the help of the platoon leader and sergeant and continue their redeployment to their platoon HQ. The aliens get on the roof but but only some get into hand to hand combat. The marines fire at them knocking them off the walls. Both sides take a couple of casualties.

The Marines Say Goodbye

The aliens get shot before they get a chance to move on the marines. This is where it all ends. The marines don't have much of a chance of completing their mission until reinforcements arrive. The humans have a casualty left behind so they might want to go and retrieve him assuming the aliens don't stop for a snack first.