Necromunda Board Complete!

While I've had a bunch of projects on my desk lately, one of the major things that I've been working on is completing enough Sector Mechanicus terrain to fill a 4'x6' table with Hive World scenery.

This is basically the Necromunda table that I've wanted since the game first came out in the 90s.

I've still got some stuff to do and add here and there, but for the most part the board is totally playable now. Almost half of the kits used were purchased by my buddy Marky, who has been a huge help and motivator to get this project done.

A genestealer cult pushes across the sludge river.

The mining crew confronts a pair of cultists on the gantry.

Miners, cultists and genestealers collide in battle!

The Foreman squares off against the Word Bearers champion. It doesn't look good.

Close combat cultists ambush an Abberant? Who's got the drop on who?

More genestealer cultists lay down cover fire.

These guys are still ready to fight!

More cultists are ready to pounce!

Another view of the battlefield. 

Besides the Sector Mechanicus stuff, I also added some of the new ST Ryza-Pattern Ruin kits into this set up. I really like those kits as well - moreso because they aren't covered in skulls and eagles and you get a fair amount for $30US. Well worth it and usable across a bunch of scifi settings.

Cheers!

Devastators and Praetorian Done

I kicked out my Devastators and Praetorian for my Heresy Era Imperial Fists this week. Except for a Command squad, I'm almost done working on MKIII armored Marines! Wooo Hooo!! You have no idea how excited I am to paint something else.

I feel like I'm in the home stretch!

The Burning of Prospero set comes with 3 Heavy Bolters and I quickly scoured Ebay for two more lose plastic MKIII Heavy Bolters and they arrived really quick. I'm pretty pumped about playing a game with five of these bad boys in a squad. If I use them in regular 40K, the plan is to replace the Sergeant with a member of my in-progress Command Squad since I can only field 4 in the 41st millennium (Boooo. Hisssss.)

The design of the MKIII Heavy Bolter took a bit of time to grow on me, but now I dig it.

For my Praetorian (Marine commander in 30K) I just kit-bashed a guy from the plastic set. Not super sexy, but he'll get the job done.

All ready to smash Traitor Legion filth!

I'm pretty chuffed with how his face turned out.

This guy has ALL the laurels. ALL. OF. THEM.

So my next step is to get on my Tartaros pattern Terminators - which are all built, primed and ready roll - and then I get to do some neat stuff like tanks and dreadnoughts. I'm super excited to tackle those. 

Cheers!

New Year, New Army

Happy 2017, all!

This past week I completed a 15mm scifi army thanks to a sweet, sweet holiday break. It was nice to be able to get this project off my desk - I've got a bunch of little projects that I want to get through before diving into my Burning of Prospero set. I have a few Stormcast to paint, 2 Napoleonic ships to finish and then rig, and some French Lancers to do before I can move onto other stuff.

Rebel forces of the Mita Gottum core worlds.

This army represents a local uprising against my Zark Industries forces. The army is primarily composed of local civilians and militia, but, the rebels are supported by alien troopers and heavy hardware from the infamous Black Nova Mercenary Company. Power to the People!

Black Nova Titan Assault Unit.
Model by White Dragon Miniatures.

Mark XV Command and Control Drone.
Model by White Dragon Miniatures.

Capable of compiling data faster than a living mind,
the Drone knows what the enemy will do before they do.

A pair of APCs made from the chassis of toy tanks.

A Black Nova support squad.
Models by Khurasan Miniatures.

A strike team of mercs ready to take out hard targets.
Models by Khurasan Miniatures.

The army is primarily made up of the human populace. Here is an LMG team.
Models by Khurasan Miniatures.

A human RPG team.
Models by Khurasan Miniatures.

This force was designed to be used with a homebrew set of rules that I've been working on for generic scifi gaming. Its a less granular system that focuses more on maneuver and good command decisions rather than the specific differences in gear. My friends and I have played a handful of times, and so far its been a lot of fun. I might make the rules available on the blog in the future.

Its nice to have a pair of armies that I can square off against each other a have a cohesive story line. One of the pitfalls of 15mm scifi is that everything is so diverse that battles some times don't have a real storyline. Fortunately, these armies are so cheap that its not a huge issue to buy and paint up two opposing forces.

Cheers!

Genestealer Coven Limo

"Yo, Dawg! We heard you liked Genestealers, so we put a Genestealer in your… ALL HAIL THE HIVEMIND. GLORY
TO THE FOUR-ARMED EMPORER!"

Back in November I posted some pictures of a taxi model I got from the crew over at Warex-minis. Having really enjoyed painting that kit and working on a burgeoning Genestealer Cult army, I decided to grab another of their sculpts - the Genetic Coven Limo. The model is based on the original limousines that Games Workshop made for the 'Stealer Covens but never made commercially available. The moment I saw it, I knew that I wanted this kit.

Pimp that ride. This vehicle is a hover variant. 

That's a helluva cow-catcher on the front of a luxury vehicle.

I really dig the whole 80's Batmobile-esque engine on the back.

The sculpting and casting was really crisp and the whole thing arrived very quickly from across the globe to my house in Seattle. I can't recommend this company and its models enough. Even if I don't use the model in-game, it makes and awesome addition to my scenery collection. I can just imagine using it in an under-Hive scenario in Necromunda. Awesome stuff.

Cheers!

Half the Size and All the Fun

Its been a while since I've unpacked my 15mm scifi models and I've been itching to game with them again lately. A while back, some friends and I got the bug and we ended up building armies for the GRUNTZ game system but got burnt out on the system after some hard core play. Which is a shame, because I really enjoy 15mm as a scale to paint and play in. 15mm does vehicles really well and on the whole armies can be put together for a song compared to 28mm.

15mm is perfect for maximizing your gaming space as well.

One of the fun parts of 15mm scifi is that its so generic that you have the opportunity to create your own stories. I decided to base my army on an oppressive mega-corportation called Zark Industries. Zark Industries makes everything from diapers to death rays and its interests span the galaxy. On worlds that populate the Fringe, Zark Industries uses its power like a club - standing in for local government and militaries. Zark Industries brokers no interference from local populations who may oppose their plans and routinely pacify rebel groups that take up arms against them.

The primary troops are Genetically Optimized Occupation/Neutralization Squads - or G.O.O.N Squads. These clone grown troops obey without question and fight to the end without the burden of a conscience. 

Heavily armored and wielding state-of-the-art weaponry, GOON Squads form the backbone of the army.

The Army is commanded by a local Chairman. Her support unit is even more heavily
armored than the rest of the army.

The heaviest weapons are incorporated into drone units.

15mm also allows you to grab models from a variety of ranges. These AT-43 troops in power armor become huge crowd-suppression mechs in 15mm. Larger vehicle kits become immense dreadnoughts with very little work or cost.

Mobile Suppression Walkers allow for crowd control in built up cities.

I used several pieces from the AT-43 range to make heavy weapon variants.

Polecat Patrol Vehicles lead rapid response teams.

A Mammoth Class Command Truck acts a mobile headquarters from which to
coordinate Zark Industries nefarious plans.

The final unit in the army is the Ajax Class Control Ark. Its built off the chassis of an AT-43 Karman buggy and is meant to be center-piece for the army. The Control Ark was super ridiculous when stat-ed out in GRUNTZ and I probably would only end up using it as an objective in a game nowadays.

The Control Ark is meant to crush all resistance with little regard to the consequences.

I think my next project in 15mm is going to be a rebel group to fight the evil corporate interests of Zark Industries. I've already got a bunch of troops for it, and 15mm scifi paints up so quickly. I know a lot of people are daunted by the scale, but if you aren't painting troops that have to reference historical units then you can really crank stuff out. Most of what I've done here with the infantry is just basecoats with an ink wash for shading. Plus, 15mm is so cheap that there really isn't an excuse to try it out yourself.

Cheers!