NCU Force for Horizon Wars

"Join us in Paradise or we'll send you to Hell"

With a strap line like that, it is no wonder the Neo Christian Union took their followers and retreated to fringe space. Whether to avoid persecution or because their extreme views are unwelcome to many civilised people across known space, it was decided to colonise a system of planets out of the way. God willed it.

That was a long time ago. The Paradise system became something of a Bermuda triangle and was to be avoided. In recent decades, however, NCU Missionary Forces have been spotted pushing further out of the Paradise system. Missionary outposts have been found on a number of planets nearby including New Charon. 

New Charon had, however, already been settled by the Freehold, a commune of quasi religious folk who felt by escaping the central systems they could keep themselves clean of the evils of cybernetic human "enhancement". 

Below we have a typical Missionary force, bringing the light of Truth to the heathens.

Mechs are Iron Wind Metals, infantry are Brigade, light cavalry are GZG.

Bark Rock formations

I have had these pieces of bark for nigh on a year now, liberated from a play area. They have sat in a sandwich bag, annoying my wife for ages. With the summer here I finally got around to experimenting with them. In fact, a bigger factor in me finally doing this is my basing material: floor tiles from Poundland. Now I have these and see them working, I will probably be putting together a lot more terrain.

I have seen some amazing rock formations in my time, but wanted to try myself. Any comments are welcome. How could I improve them?

Crimson Skulls and new terrain.

Here we see the Crimson Skulls on a fairly innocuous job, looking for a research team that went missing while determining the potential worth of these crystal deposits.

The crystals were liberated from a local venue that had purple, shiny gravel. The bases are floor tiles from Poundland (pack of four), textured with Vallejo texture paste. Just a few more things to throw down on a planet surface.

First WWII infantry in 6mm.

Having set aside my 20mm WWII miniatures back towards the autumn of 2015, I had the itch again to play  WWII still. My aversion to basing multiple troops on one base has been overcome thanks to Horizon Wars, so I was looking around for rules to play WWII in.

I own Bolt Action, a couple of the Battlegroup books and Crossfire, have had some of these for a very long time. Crossfire and Battlegroup have never seen the table. Bolt Action has had two outings, once at my only appearance at the Winchester Wessex Gaming group (I think that is the name), where I used someone's 28mm figures. The other was against myself on my parents' dining room table, in 20mm. I enjoyed them, but have not played since. The only other WWII games I have had were Flying Lead, which have the benefit of being playable on a small table with only a handful of figures, which I enjoyed.

However, looking for other rules, I came across A Sergeant's War, looked at some AARs (played in 6mm) and decided to go for it. I then bought some Heroics and Ros miniatures at Colours in 2016, which have sat mostly unpainted in a box since. Being able to say I have two squads-ish of US infantry and two squads-ish of German infantry makes me extremely happy, and has fired my resolve to get back into WWII. 

I have based them in a 3,2,1 format to help keep casualties counted without the need for tokens. I may paint the squad leaders' base rims a different colour to help them stand out more. The normal infantry will have black rims. 

US Infantry squad with a BAR team.

Panzergrenadier squad.

Up next to be based: a bunch of US infantry as I painted loads on the "sprue" (the term escapes me right now) and a few more Germans (mostly MG teams).

To be painted: more German infantry, my PaK 40s, 57mm guns and crews, and the armour.

Mecha Madness!

These Iron Wind Metals mecha (10mm battle armour) have been sitting around on my painting mat almost finished but not quite for a few months now. Tonight I finally gave them a few highlights flocked the bases. 

 The Crimson Skulls. These are the support mecha of one of the better known mercenary groups in the Fringes of human space. The infantry are well trained, usually former military, or trained by former military drill sergeants. They tend to accept contracts that fall on the side of legal, but occasionally may get involved in some more questionable ventures.

The Twins. Little is known about the operators of this armour. They have been on the payroll of HySys for a while now, but their contract is coming to an end...

 Soldiers equipped with this battle armour are trained to jump from low orbit, land in the rear and cause trouble before making a quick getaway. These three suits were scavenged from the remains of the First War of Independence.

If your settlement can afford it, you get at least one mech. These are multipurpose combat platforms. The shoulder mounted weapon can be used for anti aircraft, vehicle, infantry, mecha purposes. Fairly easy to maintain and versatile, this type of mech is popular on fringe colonies that can afford one.

They're minerals Marie!

You can never have enough terrain. The main thing holding me back has been the question, what do I base my features on?! Well inspiration struck when I found a floor tile from Poundland that I had chopped into four. I have been cutting it up and sticking bits on.

Above you see the bark that I liberated from a children's play area. I have more, but wanted to experiment first before committing to a method. I like it so far. needs a spray and then painting.

These purple shineys were somewhere and I pocketed a few. I now have six mineral deposits. The random bead things were from In Excess and cost me like 20p for the packet. I wanted them to be alien artifacts and so have made them into ruins. They will require some burying I think.

This poor picture shows the first of my 6mm US and Wehrmacht infantry. I have a couple of squads here but need more. More are already painted, but were awaiting bases. I have bases so will work on these over the next weeks.

To do list:

Make 6mm hedgerows/bocage.
Finish the rocks and minerals.
Get some games in.

50 bases for £1

I find these bases add real weight to my miniatures. Most of them are also magnetic.

In other news, I have begun the process of basing up my 6mm WW2 forces. I currently have two squads of German and two squads of US infantry who need to have their bases painted and flocked. Pictures will come in another post.

Sunspoke Security and Rebasing

I have some updates.

The Sunspoke Mining Company has a system where it transplants an entire semi self-sustaining colony onto a planet in order to save costs with having to deliver as many supplies across the vast expanse. Sometimes, however, the venture can prove unsuccessful and the company pulls out, taking with it as many people as want to go. 

These people are members of Sunspoke security, or were until the company pulled off this rock. They decided to remain to help provide law enforcement to the other settlers who decided to remain. Many of those settlers were farmers, who provided the nourishment element of the self sustaining colony. 

Below are other miniatures who I have spent the weekend re-basing. I used a cheap craft paint from The Works, I guess it is beige. I then used Agrax Earth wash quite heavily and as it stands I am very pleased with them. They are generic enough that they will fit in many settings, and don't just look like I couldn't be bothered to finish painting after texturing the base.

I have re-based every single individually based 6mm Sci Fi miniature that I own, and have also begun painting a lot of civilians, some "jedi" type figures, and some individually based New Vesta Security.

Pleased to be getting back on track.

UCS Marines and NVD Forces flocked and loaded.

What a difference some static grass makes. I love these now and cannot wait to get them to table. Then next challenge will be to base up and paint some individual infantry for use with Starport Scum.

Seven infantry elements of the UCS Marine corps. These guys are the highest trained infantry in the Commonwealth, and possibly in known space.

To 15mm or not to 15mm.

That is the question. I find myself being drawn to putting together some forces for 15mm sci fi games. I love the miniatures available, and love the size.

I see toy vehicles that I could buy in the pound shop and begin fantasising. I see amazing terrain and get inspired. I go on websites and look at prices and find them reasonable enough.

And yet I can't do it. I do not want to store 15mm terrain. It isn't huge, but space is a premium as is. I mean my generic yoghurt pots and other vacuum formed terrain would work in 15mm, but  only because they have no doors or anything that gives its scale away. I just can't.

I also think of the time I have invested in 6mm. Can I band on that? Do I have enough hobby time to have two scales going on?

This is on my mind over the next few weeks as I look at putting some money aside to pay for some new miniatures to paint over the summer holidays.