Progress on the 15mm SF Front

Hello friends:

Not much blogging activity here but slightly more hobbying in the last month or so.   Last time I posted here it was about some Darkest Star models that were nearing completion.  Here they are all done and in flight (no, this isn't a scene from Masters of the Air).

The three "flying" models will be Terran military APCs, which will go nicely with some well painted infantry that a friend kindly gave me recently (see below).   All together, they make a decent infantry platoon to go up against my space kitties.  I couldn't tell you the manufacture of the human infantry.  They look properly armed and accoutered.   If you recognize them, pray leave a comment.

Here one section dismounts will the other two APCs remain in air to provide overwatch.  A wheeled recce AFV has gone forward to secure the landing zone.  I have no idea if that is sound Grav Infantry doctrine in future, but it seems legit.

There are a few decals from recently completed plastic airplane model kits that were put to good use.  That flight stand, by the way, is by Litko, and very useful.  I had to drill the bottoms of the models for the stand to fit, and since I was guessing where the centre of balance was, each model sits a little differently.

Not a great photo, but speaking of decals, you might recognize the unit and formation IDs on these vehicles, from a Flames of War set bought years ago.   I thought they made sense for a formation operating on an arid planet.

The entire platoon deployed.  That should give the Kzinti something to think about.  There's still a Terran grav tank to complete and some Canid allies to fight alongside the Terrans against the evil space kitties.

Of course, the universe is dark and full of fearsome things, including these four armed alien gribblies that my friend also kindly passed on to me.  On the left there's a fearsome pack of armoured beasts/bots/?? that look fast and deadly.   I have no idea who manufactures these figures, but I quite like them,

Speaking of deadly, some of these fellows have proper SF weapons and some have old fashioned choppers.  Like the Kzinti, it looks like the prefer hand to hand as much as shooting.   Are they Kzin allies?  Do they hate everyone?  Do they eat everyone?

I'm happy that I've gotten to the point where I could try a decent battle using Xenos Rampant, but I also have some rules sets for larger actions that I've bought from Nordic Weasal and never tried, so I have some options.

Blessings to your blasters!

MP+

WIP: 15mm AFVs from Darkest Star

Playing a game of Xenos Rampant with my friend James over the holidays has whetted my appetite to work on some recently purchased 15mm figures.  

These are resin models (with some metal bits for the wheeled AFV) from Darkest Star Games, a US (I think) company that makes some very nice models in 15mm and 6mm.   Below are two two 15mm grav (floating) APCs for a Terran force that I am slowly building to fight solitaire battles against my Space Kitties (see previous post).    The paint scheme is for deployments to desert/arid environments, inspired by the Canadian vehicles from the Afghanistan era.  I am used the Sand paint from Foundry tri-tone system, with brown ink lining out over the base coat.

Middle tone:

 And the two vehicles closed to the camera finished with the third and lightest coat for highlights.   When I get back to them, I’ll add some decals saved from various model sets for accents.  

As I envision it, the grav APCs could be dropped from a transport once within a planet’s atmosphere to secure a Landing Zone, whereas the wheeled AFV (can I call it a tank if it has wheels?) would need to b brought down to the planetary surface via heavy shuttle.

More on the project next time.   Cheers and blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Some 15mm SciFi Recon Troopers

After interviewing Curt Campbell for the podcast a while back, I decided that I’d like another go at his Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, partly for the community, and partly because it’s a great incentive to be productive.  I’ve set myself a modest goal for this year, but have gotten three entries on the board so far.

Here are five 15mm SciFi troopers from Darkest Star Games.  DSG is a small but ambitious mini maker, that was recommended to be by Ivan of Nordic Weasel Games (@weasalnordic) when I asked on Twitter for some advice on sourcing 15mm SciFi figures.    I placed a small order, some humans and their humanoid canine (!!) allies to fight what I call my Space Kitties.  Readers with long memories may recall that in 2019 I started a SciFi project that was loosely modelled on Larry Niven’s Man-Kzin wars.   I knocked off a satisfying number of space cats, and then decided to back burner it while I looked for human figures for solo games.

Here’s the first contingent.

I had the idea of painting them in desert colours, using Citadel Zambezi Desert and Tallarn Sand as the main colours, while retaining sections of the dark undercoat to suggest segmented armour.  Vallejo German grey was also used for their clothing visible under the armour.

I wouldn’t want to use these in a stand-up fight but I could see them being used as Special Recon, in some SOF or LRDG role, the first to be inserted on an enemy occupied planet to scout landing zones, work with friendly indigenous inhabitants, attack high value infrastructure, that sort of thing.  All very sneaky beaky.  I gave them blue/white identifier markings on their shoulder armour, which I think is a pauldron if I remember rightly?  Which makes these guys almost Space Marines?  :)

Everybody I ever served with liked their unit patches, even on camo uniforms, and I don’t imagine the future will be any different.  Hopefully I’ll have more SciFi figures to show soon.

Thanks for looking. Blessings to your brushes!

Cheers,  MP+