6mm Sci Fi Infantry part 2

A couple of weeks ago I painted up a force of 6mm infantry to face off against the Quansec operatives. Having seen these guys, I think I want them to represent Quansec, as I like them more. 

The manufacturer is GZG and they are the NSL infantry. I have painted yellow shoulder pads to represent rank, although I am not super happy with that. I may also add some unit markings.

I can see lots of flash on these guys, but it doesn't bother me all that much. 

A look back at 2015 and a look forward to 2016.

A lot has changed this year. Having a baby really does eat into hobby time and put things into perspective. Sometimes I get sad that I can't sit at my desk every evening with How I Met Your Mother on in the background while I paint and build. But that only happens occasionally. Most of the time I am too busy to pine over my now busy life, with actually important things to worry about.

I notice that my modelling tends to pick up around November time, and I then during the Christmas break. I may then do some during the Spring half term and Easter break. Whether I model during the Summer holidays is hit or miss. We will see what happens this year.

2015:

 - I bought Clash on the Fringe and FiveCore 2nd edition + Five Parsecs from Home. I also re-familiarized myself with Flying Lead.

- I have painted about 40 odd 6mm NAC infantry from Ground Zero Games. They will provide the security wing for Quansec, a major corporation in my Sci Fi world.

- There are about 30 based 6mm infantry from GzG, possibly Israeli, who are waiting to be painted.

- I have enough buildings to be fought over, although they are pretty basic, and will be improved over time.

- For Christmas I received a Darth Vader storage box, that is now filled with other experimental 6mm terrain pieces such as fields, large buildings, some resin buildings on MDF bases while I experiment with different configurations for towns (these are unpainted and untextured).

- I did some half hearted work on some StuG IIIs, but I was unhappy with the wash effect, and then school caught up with me again. It was pretty lame. 

- I recall also mostly completing a handful of Reaper Miniatures for possible games of Songs of Blades and Heroes. 

I did not really think I would have time to accomplish a whole lot this year. The switch to Sci Fi 6mm wargaming has put a spark back in my desire to find time to make models. They take up less room and are faster to paint. I am very much enjoying making terrain, and have some future projects planned out in terms of using cork board to make rocks and hills, and using straws to make some piles of pipes. 

Looking forward to 2016, I want to achieve the following:

- Begin a wargaming club at school. I can easily fit six fairly large games in my classroom, and more if everyone is playing 3x3 games, or even smaller (thank you 6mm). 

- I would like to have at least five different factions available to me in 6mm, along with various civilians and possible scruffy looking nerf-herder types.

- Ideally I would like to get at least one game in per month, even if it is a solo game. The wargames club should solve this.

Christmas Break and new Terrain.

Christmas has happened. I received some money which will be put to good use over the course of the coming weeks. I will need to get some modelling supplies. At the moment, I am having some fun making my 6mm terrain. I look at bits of rubbish and see what I can make from them. Christmas is a goldmine for gathering bits and bobs. All packaging has gone through me first before it hits the bin, all baby food containers are taken apart and washed before they hit the bin. You can see how this goes...

The following pictures are a few WIPs for my Sci Fi table:

The simple yogurt pot. I based it on some card to give it more strength, and have some little bits of things to stick onto it tomorrow. It is going to be a power station or part of a terra-forming complex I think.

Matchsticks cut up to be piles of timber. I figure any table can use some scatter terrain like this. They are useful to be used as objective markers, or just as some light cover. The other two are funnels/chimneys/power generators/moisture vaporators. They can be used to add something to structures, or I can also see them just sticking out in the desert. I want them to just break up the monotony of any barren planets.

This was on a plug of a glue gun or something. I took it off, put it on some MDF and covered the bottom. I want this to be some sort of alien artifact, but could also see it being some kind of power supply/moisture vaporator.

This is what I am excited about. It is the lid of super glue stuck onto the lid of some tomato puree. I just took an MDF base, covered it in wall filler, then built it up around the nose. This will probably end up being an escape pod. It could also be an alien crash site, or just debris from a larger crashed ship.

Two more dwellings, but on smaller bases this time. In total I have enough dwellings to be getting on with for now (10-15). I need to make more vegetation now.

6mm Sci Fi Infantry part 1

I finally got around to photographing my painted 6mm infantry. I am really pleased with how they came out. It took me 2 hours to paint 15 of them. I have another 15 primed and waiting to be finished. You can see I attempted to make squad leaders identifiable by their shoulder pads, but from the distance I will be looking at them from, they can't be seen. As such, some of my primed troops are based on pennies, making them easily visible from wargaming distance.

Sci Fi Dwellings rolling off the bench.

Work has begun on my 6mm sci fi project. I have found the time this week to have three modelling sessions. This post will showcase some of the fruits of those sessions.

Below are three dwellings. I was inspired by the Lars homestead on Tatooine, but did not want to commit to a desert planet. The buildings are just the screw caps of baby food pouches, separated and made to look like living quarters and a chimney of some kind. I think the chimney will actually be a kind of solar power generator or something. Also to keep things generic I based them on grey rock. I feel like they need more details, like doors and such, but that can come later. I would happily put these on a table as they are.

My aquarium plants are giant trees. I am basing them on various bases that I got in my Reaper Bones kickstarter. I can probably use these with other scales too. You can also just see some of my infantry. Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery before I could take pictures of them. I will charge it tonight and take some shots tomorrow.

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.