Painted Reaper Miniatures

Here are a couple of pictures of a few Reaper Miniatures that I have almost finished. They need to be sprayed matt and flocked, but that will have to wait, I imagine as the spray would probably do my daughter some serious damage.

The barbarian looks a lot like my barbarian in Diablo III, whereas the ranger looks like my old Skyrim character.

Here I have a tavern wench and a blacksmith, ready to populate any village I may use in any fantasy skirmish/RPG setting.

Ground Zero Games Infantry Review of sorts...

Point 1: Sorry for the photo quality. It is night time, I am half watching the apprentice and the ladies are in bed, exhausted, and I don't want to disturb them by setting up a daylight lamp.

As mentioned last post, I purchased a set of UNSC Marines, NAC (I think) infantry and a set of Predator/Aliens. The descriptions of the infantry were something along the lines of "30+ infantry in various poses, including heavy weapons". I ordered them on Monday night, I think, and they arrived Wednesday. So delivery was amazing. 

Below are the UNSC Marines. There are 57 of them, which is somewhat more than I would expect from a pack of "30+" infantry. You can see some flash, but at this scale, that should be easily removable by even a craft knife.

Below are the firing/heavy weapons poses. Above, on the left are troops standing, unfortunately all in the same pose. This is one tiny gripe, that can easily be forgiven considering the price, promptness, and quality of the figures.

This next set are the aliens. There were suppost to be 10 of each, I think, and I have 13 of each. The aliens are my favourite. The predators are okay, but I am not too hot on their pose. That won't stop them tearing my commandos to shreds though.

Everything being said, and my general level of pleasedness being considered, it was the NAC infantry who blew my mind. I began counting them out, and my "30+" packet contained somewhere around 85 miniatures in four different poses. There were three grunt weapons and then a rocket launcher. I am amazed at how

I cannot wait to paint these guys up. The bonus being, I can prime them black, paint them another colour, then paint their guns, and visors. I am looking forward to some very quick painting sessions.

The only problem with the miniatures was that some of them were malformed. By some, I mean maybe three or four. I seem to have a set of legs, and a headless rocket man. But when you consider that I have almost 90 of them (which must surely be a packaging mistake) then what is a few casualties before hitting the painting tray?

In conclusion, I would give these miniatures a high score. I don't score things right now, and don't want to set the bar too high, so will wait until my other infantry arrive from another company. I think they are "Solar Empire" Marines or something, but I paid in dollars, so they are likely coming from the USA.

Speaking of Sci-Fi

For the past few days I have been saving these from going in the bin. They are the screw tops for small pouches of baby food. Every time I feed my baby, I think about what I can use them for. 

My feelings at the moment tell me they would make good exhaust ports or ventilation fans. I worry about painting them, as they are very shiny, but hopefully I can do it. With infantry on the way, I need to quickly put together some things for them to fight over, so these might be good representing an underground base.

Does anyone else have any ideas about this too? Anything obvious I have not thought about?

I took the plunge!

I did it. I opted for  Ground Zero Games 6mm miniatures for my foray into Sci Fi miniature wargaming. Having looked extensively at their 15mm range, and having decided to build up a force of NAC and USMC infantry, I just plumped for the 6mm versions of these guys. It cost me £12 to order a 30 odd NAC infantry, 30 odd USMC infantry and 20 aliens that are meant to be Xenomorphs and possibly Predators too.

A purchase was also made of a bunch of 15mm diameter MDF circular bases, as I want these guys on individual bases for now. That might change, if my rule set preference changes.

I hope to be able to bash these guys out by Christmas so that I can start a wargaming/boardgaming after school club. The only unfortunate thing about that may be the safeguarding implications of posting AARs on this here blog.

More to come.

Clash on the Fringe, first thoughts.

Clash on the Fringe is a PDF Sci Fi rule set that is more of a space adventure game like Star Wars, than hard core wargaming.

I picked up the PDF and have been slowly working my way through it. I don't, however, have any 15mm miniatures, so that is probably what I will start collecting. I would love to do fights on other planets, and have found Khurasan Miniatures who will provide me with my xenomorphs and colonial marines. Time is all I need. Time and money that is.

I haven't touched a miniature since school began, which saddens me greatly. We do, however, have half term this next week, and I intend to paint up a few knights and possibly orcs. I want to get back into my hobby. Last winter, I started building a Normandy house that I never finished, and probably won't finish any time soon, but that project gives me hope that I will be able to spend a few Saturday evenings over the winter painting.