Last Painting of 2022

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Too late to start a new project, so a couple of bits and pieces rescued from the slopes of the lead mountain.

First up are some more Brute. These are technically 15mm sci-fi figures from Nuclear Shrimp. I say “technically” as they are post-apocalyptic wasteland mutants…so the figures are far more like 25mm than 15mm.

These are a couple of field guns carried on the backs of gorusk beasts of burden. You can see from their eyes and teeth that the poor gorusks are vegetarian herd animals pressed into service by the Brute!

The gorusk were painted with GW Contrast Paints, with the platform and gun painted a base black then dry-brushed in steel and then either a bronze/gold colour (the platform) or a metallic blue (the gun). I then did the chains forming the harness in a bright steel colour to make them really stand out. Fun figures, although I’ve no idea when I’m actually going to use them.

The second bit of painting was a couple of command stands for the Crimean British. You don’t actually need command figures under the Neil Thomas rules that I am using, but I always think it’s nice to have them on the table top, and we will probably come up with a house rule to make them significant. Perhaps having a unit to which a command stand attached always activating at full effect, and having an officer attached to a command stand vulnerable to enemy action in some way. Something simple like that.

So that’s it for painting in 2022. I’ve exceeded my previous record in the Painting Challenge, so I’m happy about that…except, of course, that I now have to do even better next year!

I’ll post the last Painting Challenge update for 2022 on New Year’s Day (I have a handful of entries already in, so don’t hold back submitting your last efforts) and then it’s on to 2023!

Garrhul from Darkest Star Games

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A quick dip into the lead mountain and a chance to paint the Garrhul 15mm dog-men from Darkest Star Games. I already have Critical Mass’ Protolene Khanate and Khurasan’s Raug, so it was a natural fit for me to add the Garrhul.

This is currently a small range, but very nicely sculpted. I particularly like the way they have done the helmets: not anthromorphic like the Khanate but sensibly shaped helmets for troops with a snout!

The range consists of helmeted or unhelmeted infantry, available in packs of ten. Each pack contains a good variety of poses and a chap carrying a squad support weapon. In command you have a Garrhul merchant Prince plus bodyguards, and a sniper figure is also available. I particularly like the Merchant Prince’s pose: standing looking out at the battlefield with his arms crossed. Finally, and newly released, the Garrhul have some two-seater grav rafts: like Jeeps.

The Garrhul are proper 15mm figures, so match perfectly with the Khanate. They are a size different to the Raug, who are (like a lot of Khurasan’s 15mm figures) more like 20mm miniatures. The heads of the Raug and Garrhul are sculpted very similarly, however, and they carry the same sort of equipment, so it’s easy to believe that they are two branches of the same genome.

All in all, these are great figures, and I look forward to the range expanding in the future.

Garrhul (left) and Raug (right)

Brutal Artillery!

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With half the Brute (wasteland mutants from Nuclear Shrimp Games that are 15mm scale but, because of their mutant nature, are more like 25mm tall) infantry now painted, I thought I’d give myself a break and tackle some of their heavy equipment.

First up were the field guns. These come in two variants, all based on the same model. If you use the kit without the extra bit on the barrel, then they become howitzers:

Pop the extra bit in the barrel, however, and they become anti-tank guns or field artillery:

These are huge models that, whilst fitting with the Brute, are going to look a bit odd on a 15mm table…but then perhaps that’s the point. They paint up easily, though, and are unusual enough for a “recommended” from me.

A Few More Brute!

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Still horribly busy at work in the real world, so posts still thin on the ground.

I have, however, managed to finish off another section of Brute wasteland mutants: 15mm sci-fi models that are actually more like 25mm high.

These are lovely models that paint up really well…even if I do find painting 25’s much more difficult than painting 15’s!

Clearing the Lead Mountain

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Still on my quest to bring down the Lead Mountain before allowing myself to open any new package…although in this case it is more like the Plastic Mountain.

Many moons ago I invested in a decent size force of 15mm Brute from Nuclear Shrimp. These post-apocalyptic, wasteland mutants are actually more like 25mm in size, so make a formidable enemy for any 15mm figures.

I’d only painted a few command figures and a single stand of infantry to date, but needing to attach the mutant bulls (see previous post) to an army gave me the boost I needed to search the cupboards and paint a few more. This is squad two, and I have another four squads, four guns and some specials to do.

A Load of Bull!

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For some time now I have been trying to follow the rule that if I want to buy more figures then I have to earn the right to do so by clearing something from the existing Lead Mountain.

As I wanted to buy some more Soviet village pieces and a set of 17th Century Swedish command figures (I reckon that if I have them, then I can field my existing ECW troops as early 17th Century Swedes, instantly creating another opponent to friend Bevan’s Poles, saving lots of time and money which can then be spent on something else) I needed to find some already-purchased figures to paint.

A few months ago, one of my favourite sci-fi designers, Loud Ninja Games (available through Alternative Armies) added a range of large (about 25mm tall) mutant bulls to their Wasteland post-apocalypse range.

I didn’t need them, but they were shiny so I bought a set: they would do perfectly as it wouldn’t be too arduous to paint nine 25mm figures…and so it proved:

Nobody moooove!

These paint up very nicely and will join forces with my Brute mutant humans, only one squad of which I have painted so far (candidates for my next purchase-must-paint I think!)

My only criticism, as always, is the lack of variety: just two poses and a command figure. I understand completely why that is so (platoon- or squad-level sci-fi being much more common than the company-level game that I play) but it does mean that I will limit my purchase to just one squad for the moment.

New Ikwen Finally Arrive

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Loud Ninja games produce a few 15mm sci-fi ranges, two of which I collect: the Chuhuac (think tech-savvy velociraptors with guns) and the Ikwen (low tech lizardmen types).

The original Ikwen infantry set was augmented with another set of rather rough looking fighters, meaning that the range had plenty of fighting men but nothing else. A Kickstarter proposed adding a wider variety of figures but, unfortunately, it failed, so the poor Ikwen have languished unloved for some time.

However, all that has now changed with the launch of some new Ikwen figures that expand the range into something that’s now quite comprehensive (regular readers will know that a pet hate of mine (I almost wrote a “pet bugbear”!) is an incomplete range of sci-fi figures i.e. all foot soldiers with no support weapons, no AT weapons, no specialists etc).

The new figures (available from the Loud Ninja section of the Alternative Armies portfolio) were advertised with a pre-order discount so I, obviously, bought the lot!

First up are some Big Men: officer or hero types.

I absolutely love the chap standing on one leg: says something about the whole Ikwen race not just that particular individual. I also like Mr Far Left with his arms outstretched: a proper character figure rather than just another officer type.

Next up are some support personnel. Here I’ve taken the new sculpts and used them as I see the Ikwen would:

L to R: two tank killer bases, one sniper base, two tech specialist bases

So, on our left, we have various figures throwing what must be explosive charges. They actually look a bit like artillery shells. I’ve grouped these into threes and called them tank-killers i.e. small groups of infantry whose job it is to take out enemy AFVs and bunkers. IABSM, which is what Q13 is based on, has specific rules for tank-killer teams, which can be adapted as part of chrome.

In the middle is a sniper team. Fairly standard, but nicely realised.

On the right are two specialist electronic warfare teams. Anyone who’s played Q13 knows that you are at a severe disadvantage if the opposition has more EW capacity than you do: think an army with no magic fighting one with wizards! The new range has three different EW specialists: the based figures look quite similar but their EW backpacks (no, I didn’t think to take a photo of them from behind, sorry!) are distinct. I could have had three individually-mounted, er, individuals, but as the Ikwen are supposed to be low-tech, I like the idea of having three of them working together in a team. Ghostbusters anyone?

Finally, the piece de resistance in the new range has to be the Ikwen cavalry:

I am loving these Ikwen mounted on what are called Runth. Not quite sure how I will use them yet, but they are cracking figures, even if I have just realised that I have forgotten to paint the tongue of the Ikwen on the right (compare it to the one in the middle).

The Runth come as a body, four individual legs and a lower jaw/tusk, but all very easy to put together. I could have green-stuffed the gaps but deliberately didn’t do so as I like the way they look with a deep line around the shoulder and hip.

I think I might go the whole hog (the whole runth?) and buy another five so I have a squad of eight superheavy cavalry!

All highly recommended, and if people by enough of them, I’m sure that more will be forthcoming, so get your wallets out please!

A Bit of Sci Fi

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A bit of a sci-fi theme to today’s post.

First up is a little painting: filling in the gaps in my Space Dwarf force:

The rather large motocycles are from Boon Town Metals, but are painted to go with my Grudd force. That takes their “mounted” element up to two 10-dwarf squads: a decent size for a recon element.

The standard bearers are from Onslaught Miniatures. My Grudd have a platoon of two squads of “light infantry” (when have dwarves ever been light!) i.e. without squad light support weapons. Those squads are eight strong, and these two will make them 10-strong and also look like a LSW base if I want to field them as such.

Next is a bit of news about the re-emergence of Clockwork Goblin’s 15mm weird world war two range Konflict ‘47.

This was an excellent range of walkers, alternative sci-fi tank turrets and infantry for the Germans, Russians, US and British armies.

Unfortunately, the range died a bit of a death, but has now been resurrected and is available one more at the Clockwork Goblin shop.

Here’s two examples of what’s available, taken from my collection:

Coyote Light Walkers

Grizzly Medium Walkers

Let’s hope they get the whole range back out asap.

More Bits and Pieces

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Whilst I’m still waiting to find inspiration for my next major project, I thought I’d finish up a few bits and pieces from the lead mountain.

First up are a couple of Gallant Gentlemen for my Scots Covenantor ECW army:

Wallace-sized. The real one, not the shorty Gibson effort.

These are 18mm figures from Blue Moon’s new Scottish ECW range, and lovely figures they are too.

I bought these as a test to see how well they fitted in with my existing collection as I still can’t get the hang of whether 18mm figures are actually large 15’s, small 20’s or a scale all of their own!

With these, however, there is no doubt: they are too big to fit in with the Hallmark (via Magister Militum), Peter Pig and Khurasan models that form the main part of my 15mm ECW forces.

That said, a couple of comparative giants as Gallant Gentlemen fit right in with the concept of the GG, so I am very happy to have these two fearsome warriors on board!

As I said: lovely figures, but 18mm, so highly recommended if you want to field an 18mm ECW Covenantor army, but not if you want to field one in 15mm.

Next up was another general for my Classical Indians:

May the Fourth be with you!

These are more figures from Museum Miniatures excellent CAD-designed “Z” range of Classical Indians.

I’m always being told that I should field four generals when playing To The Strongest at 130 points. Now, with these, I can…and I actually needed a more cavalry-orientated commander for the later Indian armies anyway: by the time you get into the ADs, chariot-mounted generals are so yesterday!

Finally, I’ve had these undercoated on my painting table for, like, forever (as Daughter #2 would say).

Thundercats are go!

These are more of Khurasan’s excellent Felids mounted on jetbikes. I already have a couple of squads worth, so can now field a platoon.

These new versions are painted with GW Contrast Paints, and it’s interesting to contrast them (did you see what I did there?) with how I painted their predecessors:

Both look really good, but the old-platoon were painted with the base coat/wash/highlight method (i.e. each figures was picked up three times per colour) whereas the new ones, with the Contrast Paints, are only one coat per colour i.e. each figures was picked up only once per colour.

You can decide which is better!

Filling the Gaps

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Whilst it’s nice to have a project to work on, it’s also nice to paint a whole load of itty-bitty things just to fill the gaps in a collection, or to take advantage of a new release…and that’s what this post covers.

First up, we have yet another Russian Orthodox church. Yes, after my last post, someone (kindly!) pointed out that I didn’t have the Hovels version in my collection. One quick order later, a couple of weeks wait and, low and behold, here’s my tenth Russian Orthodox church, and very nice it is too.

So now I’m fairly confidently stating that I have every single 15mm Russian Orthodox church available but, on the off-chance you know of any others, do feel free to let me know.

Oh, the others I have can be found here.

Next up is another command stand for my ECW armies. These chaps are from Matchlock Miniatures, available via the Caliver Books-run Minifigs website. I was ordering some of their 15mm ECW personalities for my Rabble bases (preaching puritan, ratcatcher, lady with long gun etc) when I suddenly remembered that I was short a Colonel command stand. These are two of their Generals, and very nice figures they are too, and perfectly compatible with my existing Peter Pig, Hallmark and Khurasan troops.

Although it’s quite hard to see in the picture, the chap behind (with the hat) is actually holding a dog! Anyway, highly recommended as a source of character figures if nothing else.

Finally in today’s random selection of bits and bobs from the painting table are more Ursids from Khurasan. For those of you unfamiliar with the range, these are giant 15mm sci-fi bears, seven feet tall, wearing sunglasses, smoking cigars and armed with bear-portable fusion guns or BPFGs!

The original release was four different infantry types, but now Jon has added a Big Man equivalent and an “Ur-Cannon” weapons team to the range. Loving these bears, and added to Stan Johansen’s Blareds (smaller bears) they make a great fun sci-fi force. My painting doesn’t really do these justice!

So all in all a bit of fun from the painting table. Next up are some more Romans and some Druid types to work their opponents up into a frenzy!

Even More Grudd (Space Dwarves)

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Finally got around to finishing the last of the latest batch of 15mm Grudd space dwarves from Onslaught Miniatures.

Absolutely lovely figures with loads of character and a really chunky physique that takes the paint very well. These are undercoated with a metallic spray from Halfords, then spot painted with normal acrylics.

First up is a platoon of Grudd Jarlsmen. This is the fourth or maybe even the fifth basic infantry type from Onslaught, making it easy to add variety and differentiate between units.

You can see the detail and character in the figures in the strip of individuals, below:

Finally, for the moment I hope, is a Grudd Ancient One carried by his retinue. Not exactly sure how useful this figure will be on the battlefield - I think he might be a bit easy to spot and, as you know, when playing Q13 if you can see it you can generally kill it! - but it’s a great fun piece anyway.

Let’s hope Onslaught keep going with the range: perhaps some AFVs now?

Raug from Khurasan

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As the last bit of painting was a “main project” piece (ECW cavalry) it was time to delve into the lead mountain again and see what I could find. Somewhere on the lower slopes, I discovered a plastic box with about a platoon’s worth of werewolf-like sci-fi infantry.

I couldn’t remember where they came from, and was about to hit the ‘net to see if I could search them down, when I happened to turn one over and notice that the manufacturer had kindly stamped their name into the bases!

It was Khurasan Miniatures, and a quick scan of their site revealed that what I had in my hand was a platoon of Raug, a subject race of the Soriog.

From the Khurasan site:

The Soriogs rule over a vast interstellar empire, ruling many alien species, some of whom provide soldiers for the empire – in fact, the most commonly encountered Imperial soldier is not a Soriog at all, but rather the Raug Ceepay (soldier) who serve in their tens of millions. These are brave and tenacious, and come from a warlike predatory culture that makes them pefect rank and file soldiers. A section of Raug is made up of four triads, each of three Raug (two with an autogun and one with a heavy support weapon). Two such sections typically make up a platoon, commanded by two Soriogs, and usually accompanies by a Windhowler (a Raug mystic with healing powers) and between two and four Soriog Gundogs, which provide the platoon heavier organic fire support.

“I am 15mm, I am!”

These looked ideal candidates for GW Contrast Paints, and so it proved. Painting them was a matter of three colours only: the green, the brown, the black (for the guns). I did the whole platoon in a couple of hours: in fact, the basing took longer than the actual painting.

My only gripe, and it is a common gripe with Khurasan, is the matter of scale creep. These are lovely figures, no doubt about that, but they aren’t really 15mm at all: they are easily 20mm from base to eyeline, and more like 25mm tall to the top of the heads.

Now I have no objection in theory to large-ish 15mm sci-fi figures, but to look at a lot of the Khurasan ranges (especially the Thrainite space dwarves) you’d think that humans were the shortest race in the entire galaxy!

That may indeed be the case (who knows!) but I do think that 15mm figures should at least try and be 15mm in size.

Anyway, nice figures, and another unit cleared from the lead mountain.

Hawkmen from The Scene

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I am trying to reduce the lead mountain a little bit during this lockdown period, but it’s very hard when you have two to three active projects on the go and Battlefront are doing daily deals at 40% off,

The tactic I’ve decided to use is to paint one “new project” unit then one “lead mountain” unit in turn…and it’s amazing what you find at the back of the cupboard. Today’s treat is a platoon of 15mm Hawkmen - think Flash Gordon - from The Scene.

Onward my brave Hawkmen! Let this be known forever as Flash Gordon's Day!

I bought these as relatively low-tech allies for my Hauk force from Khurasan Miniatures to be used for Quadrant 13, the sci-fi adaptation of IABSM.

I undercoated them, painted two, then just fell out of love with them. I think it was something to do with the work needed on the wings to get them to look good…because, let’s face it, get the wings right and the rest of the figure doesn’t really matter!

Step forward GW’s Contrast Paints. One coat and the wings pop beautifully. I finished off the whole platoon in a matter of hours. Apologies for the crappy pictures, btw.

All I need now is to convert a spare into Mr Blessed’s Vultan himself and I’m good to go.

Brunt Herd Mercenaries for Q13

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Not commuting does seem to have freed up extra time for painting, although this is countered by all the extra work I’m having to do to cope with keeping the business I work for going during the crisis.

Up to now, however, I haven’t really dug into the lead mountain: I’ve just cleared some of the scree from the lower slopes!

Yesterday, however, I finally finished a unit that has been sitting on my painting table for literally a couple of years. Put it this way, before I could start work on them, I had to get all the dust off the models first!

Khurasan Miniatures are a firm that produce a huge range of 15mm sci-fi and historical figures. Usually the sci-fi ranges are grouped into races or empires, each with a background and a story that gives a bit of life to the lead. On top of these collective ranges, however, Khurasan sometimes produce a stand alone individual unit, and one of these were the Brunt Herd Mercenaries.

(R to L) Big Men, a Nutter with a staff, and a spare heavy weapon

If I recall correctly, these are based on a prehistoric rhino-type with a soft, bifurcated snout. They are large, designed to stand well above your average 15mm human, with the models ending up 20-25mm tall.

As you'd expect from Khurasan, the Brunt are full of life, with some really nice poses that provide a fair amount of variety. I will use these to augment a lesser force, or just to provide some bad guys for the good guys to fight!

1st Squad (to give an idea of scale, the figures are mounted on UK 2p pieces)

All the figures that I had previously painted (or started) are undercoated in white, then painted with a two-step shade-then-light method. For example, the tool belts are a base dark brown and then a light leather colour on top.

The figures that I painted now from scratch - effectively just the three command figures - are painted with GW Contrast Paints: so much easier to use than the method above.

2nd Squad

I’m not generally a fan of outsize 15mm figures, hence the reason it took so long for me to finish the unit, but the Brunt aren’t too bad. They are, however and as far as I know, so old - and didn’t take off as Khurasan hoped - that they are OOP…so apologies to anyone who got excited by the above and wanted to buy some of their own!

3rd Squad

Q13: Strato Minis Studio

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Here’s another 15mm sci-fi figure manufacturer: Strato Minis Studio.

They produce a nice range of battle-suited infantry with armour and walker supports. I particularly like the new 15mm “Stormbreaker Jump Infantry”, although I do note that the bases and supporting wire aren’t included.

Strato are a Polish company, who produce their figures in resin. All prices are in dollars. Here’s a picture of their Tengu Medium Tank:

New Grudd from Onslaught

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Ages since I’ve painted any 15mm sci-fi, but a good way to start the new year is with the latest release from Onslaught Miniatures in their Grudd, or space dwarf, range.

The new releases consist of a two-man “gun trike” and a one-man bike. I’ve painted them, as with the rest of the Grudd, in metallic paints, although the different coloured “armour” didn’t turn out as different as I wanted them to be i.e. the bikes are a dark shade of metallic blue/green (Nautilus car paint from Halfords) and the riders are standard metallic blue (Tamiya).

I do, however, like the contrast between the metallic bodywork/armour and the matt tyres.

Anyway, a couple of recon squads for the Grudd, and I see that Onslaught have announced more releases are on the way.

Last Painting of 2019

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Here’s the last painting of 2019: a couple of things I haven’t had time to photograph until now.

First up is another unit of “Swedish” horse for my English Civil War army:

These are 15mm Peter Pig figures painted with GW Contrast paints. I do like the Peter Pig figures - they have a lot of character and paint up nicely - but I do wish you didn’t have to spend so much time getting the horse stands to actually stand up.

And here’s a close up:

And finally here are a couple of figures that I painted up literally to hit the 2,000 point mark! They are two Onslaught Beserker figures from Nuclear Shrimp Games’ Brute range. Although the range is technically 15mm, the idea is that they are huge mutants, so the figures themselves are a good size 28mm.

Praesentia Hyperion Drones

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Remember the Praesentia? Excellent 15mm sci-fi figures from what was Critical Mass Games, but is now Ral Partha.

Well I started painting all the figures I bought in CMG’s “closing down” sale but never quite got around to finally finishing them off. The half-painted remainder have been sitting on my painting table, occasionally shuffling their feet and giving a polite cough to remind me that they are there.

As I’m a bit sick of painting Sumerians (yes, I know I’m supposed to be on the final push to finish them, but I’ve painted hundreds of the little blighters!) I thought I’d just clear a bit of space by finishing the Praesentia off.

So here’s the first of the three lots of Praesentia: a platoon of Hyperion drone AFVs.

These are actually quite large. The bases are a good three inches long, so you can see the drones come in at about 5 or 6 inches in length.

Unfortunately I believe that they are out of production at the moment (they are certainly not listed on the Ral Partha website) so I’m quite glad I bought them when I did. Just goes to show what I always say: never hesitate to buy figures, as they might not be available when you finally do decide you want them!