Q13 Army Lists: Sisterhood, Brog and VOTT added

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Whilst I've been adding the tabletop stats to the Q13 army lists, I've found the time to add a couple of new ones to the list: both based on ranges of figures that I'd love to start collecting...once, of course, the lead mountain is down to manageable proportions!

The Sisterhood

Onslaught Miniatures produce some of the best sci-fi lines out there. The trouble is that the vast majority of their output is in 6mm: very frustrating for the 15mm gamer when you can see all these beautifully developed ranges and not be able to use them!

They have produced a couple of packs of 15's, however: one for the Sisterhood (sort of space nuns with guns) and one for the Tzacol (more primitive lizardy types).

So, in homage to their single pack of 15's, I've created a list for the Sisterhood for Q13 based on their much more extensive 6mm range. Perhaps this will get the rest of the range up-sized as well!

Here's a couple of pics to show you how good these figures are: one pic of the Athena squad in 15mm, and one of the 6mm command group, showing other types of Sisterhood trooper.

The Brog and VOTT (and VIPERS)

Another manufacturer who carries several ranges that I might eventually just have to buy is Rebel Minis.

Unfortunately, they fall into the category of manufacturer who produce great basic infantry squads, but no more i.e. great for platoon-level games, but not a complete enough range to create a company-plus-supports force.

Two examples of this are the Brog and the VOTT: both available as a three-squad platoon plus command, but with no support weapons or vehicles.

The two races also look quite similar, and seem to use the same weapons...so I've decided to brigade them together into one list.

As they don't have any designated support weapons or vehicles, and Rebel Minis produce a lovely range of support walkers they call VIPERS, I've also decided that, much like Critical Mass' Protolenes, the support for the Brog or VOTT will come from the VIPERS, of which there are five types, so plenty of flexibility as regards weapon loads and therefore role.

Here's a few pics showing the ranges: the Brog infantry platoon, the VOTT command, and a the VIPER with Mk3 weapon package.

Both lists, and all the others, are available from the Q13 Army Lists page. More to come!

Q13: Another New Manufacturer

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Well, I think a returning player rather than a brand-new one: Art Crime Productions.

ACP Games produce a small but beautifully realised range of sci-fi figures that they say are "nominally based on 15mm", with the final size dependent on the designs.

So far they have some what they call Characters, mostly infantry of a couple of different types; some rather nice looking Vehicles; and the start of a Makat Empire range that looks definitely worth investigating.

Here's one of their tanks: the Spartan:

Q13: New Figure Manufacturer

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Here's another new 15mm sci-fi figure manufacturer: White Dragon Miniatures.

Their first releases are for what their range background calls the Marine Tactical Units of the Earth Exploration Fleet. There are some nice looking infantry and tanks, and some enormous anthropomorphic walkers as well. 

The infantry are exquisite: highly detailed and nicely animated. The tanks look fairly standard to me (like squashed modern MBTs) but I am loving the Multiple Rocket Launcher System and Mobile Gun System: very innovative. The walkers...well, most of you will know what I think of giant humanoid robot-types with BFGs! That said, I have rather taken a fancy to the Armadillo Support Mech, and will probably buy a few to use with one of my existing armies.

Q13: Vasseth in the Jungle

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Here's the final squad of Vasseth Strike Tanks for my 15mm Chuhuac army: this time painted up for jungle operations (matching the camo of the 1st Platoon).

These I painted in the same way as I do WW2 Soviet tanks, just added a lot more of the lighter colour dry-brushes. So they are sprayed in the Army Painter Soviet tank base coat, then washed with GW Agrax Earthshade , then dry-brushed with GW Loren Forest, and finally what used to be called GW Bleached Bone (I think it's now called Screaming Skull!).

Very easy: and the longest part of the process is waiting for the initial spray and then the wash to dry.

I am liking these very much, and can't wait to get them onto the tabletop.

Highly recommended!

Q13: Vasseth in the Desert

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As promised, here's the next batch of Vasseth Strike Tanks for my 15mm Chuhuac army. This squad is camouflaged for desert operations, matching the Chuhuac 2nd Platoon colouring.

Someone saw the command tank I posted yesterday, and asked me what I had used for a hover stand i.e. where did I source that little black post keeping the vehicle off the base.

It's actually a cut-down Chart Pin: you know, those flat headed pins available in different colours designed to be stuck into charts. The flat head makes it easy to push in, the fact it's a centimetre or so long and half a centimetre wide makes it easy to pull out!

These are ideal as hover stands: just the right height, and the flat head makes it easy to glue them to a flat bit of the underside of the vehicle. Even better, the bases are mdf, so if you leave a little stub when you cut the pin bit off (eye protection, please, as clipping them shoots the sharp bit in very unpredictable directions) you can push the stub into the wooden base as you glue it, giving you an even better bond.

Tomorrow I'll post the squad camouflaged for the jungle.

Q13: Vasseth Strike Tanks for the Chuhuac

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One of my favourite sci-fi ranges are the Chuhuac from Loud Ninja Games. These are like mini velociraptors with body armour and guns, and paint up really beautifully.

Up until now, however, the only armoured support they have had is from what are called 'Battlesuits' : one man fighting vehicles with a big gun and missile launcher on top and a couple of small guns in front. Nice, but not proper tanks!

Now, however, that gap is filled with the release of the Vasseth Strike Tanks. These are wedge-shaped hover vehicles with the same asymmetric armament as the Battlesuits. I bought seven of them: one squad of three for each of my platoons, and one for the Company HQ.

The models come with loads of different armament options. I used the big main gun for them all, and added either a twin-barrelled autogun or a small missile launcher to all except the Company HQ vehicle: that one I fitted with a much larger missile launcher that I found in the bit box.

Here it is:

Watch this space for the jungle and desert camouflaged versions coming up tomorrow and Wednesday!

Q13: More Dwarves!

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I've finally managed to finish another unit of Space Dwarves for my nascent force.

These are the second unit from Cactus Miniatures: a platoon of PBI to go with the chaps in powered armour painted last year.

Nice figures: not the works of art of some ranges...but very well-priced and, as you can hopefully see despite the poor photography, do have the character that a dwarf army needs to have.

Sarissa's 15mm Factory

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Sorry for the lack of updates over the last few days:  been horribly distracted with real world affairs.

Anyhoo, to get back into the swing of things, here's a quick post showing my latest 15mm building for anything from WW2 right up to sci-fi: Sarissa Precision's factory.

The factory is mainly a single building with a nice roomy inside. There is a walkway halfway up one wall, and the windows and doors are made from heavy card stuck to the inner walls: nicely robust. There a small powerhouse plus chimney on one side, and the kit comes with a steps-and-gantry walkway that leads to one of the doors portrayed on the upper floor.

Now this is quite a challenging kit to build, but the instructions are excellent and easy to follow. It's just a bit fiddly in places, and I don't really do fiddly! The result, however, is definitely worth the time and effort. The outside looks brilliant, even with my rather crude paint job, the gantry is a very nice touch, and the inside is amazing. That walkway is surprisingly easy to build, and will provide a nice little fire step.

On the whole, highly recommended.

Battlefront's Desert Fort

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Those of you who read my post about Battlefront's Dust Cloud terrain markers will know that I have had some stuff on backorder from them for some time. One of the other things that was on backorder was their Desert Fort and expansion pack.

Now I can't remember exactly how this worked, but I think that they said they would only produce another batch of these if enough people agreed to buy them: a bit like a mini-kickstarter. Well I agreed to do so, and then promptly forgot all about it until the e-mails saying they were on the way started to arrive in my inbox, followed shortly afterwards by two quite big boxes.

Here's the fort itself:

It's a lovely piece of battlefield terrain. The walls and turrets are really chunky...and I've just realised I've set it up in the picture above with all but one of the walls the wrong way round...but you can see from the left hand wall what it should look like! Plenty of room for figures on those parapets, and for at least light guns on the tower-tops.

Here are a couple of views with a figure in them for comparison:

fort02.jpg

The expansion pack contains two ruined walls and two mid-wall towers that would allow you to double the length of two of the wall sides, provided you were happy to have the ruined walls included to make up two of the sides. Or you could just have the ruined walls as part of the original square fort.

Here's a pic of the fort set up as a square with on side bashed in:

In all, this is a lovely set of kit, ideal for portraying the desert forts of the western desert in the early 1940's. It would also do, of course, for sci-fi wargaming, and for Beau Geste-style games as well. Recommended.

PS  Sorry about the pictures: I seem to have got most of the walls round the wrong way. That's what comes of drinking a bottle of wine whilst gaming, and then deciding to do a bit of photography afterwards!

Q13: New Manufacturer Added: Evil Bear Wargames

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Another new 15mm sci-fi figure manufacturer added to the list: Evil Bear Wargames.

So far, EBW have but two listings in God's own scale, but they are very nice indeed. First up are hard suits: 21mm tall armoured suits with weapon and shield. I particularly love these and will get some as soon as the lead mountain is small enough to justify a rebuild:

Next up is a very nice patrol/command and control vehicle: the British Army Panther. Again, a lovely piece of kit:

You can get to the Evil Bear Wargames website by clicking here. Note that both the above are also available in 28mm.

Q13: More Dwarves in Space

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I've finally got around to basing and finishing my first platoon of not-powered-armour space dwarves: the Lethlings platoon from Khursasan.

These are lovely figures: as detailed (and just about as big!) as any other 15mm figures out there. These I painted as if they were full-size 15's i.e. basecoat, wash, then two highlights. Although the photography doesn't really do them justice, they look great.

Highly recommended.

You can see the whole Space Dwarves gallery by clicking here; and visit the Khurasan website (if he's open) by clicking here.

Sci-fi Buildings: The Next Generation

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One of the other things I saw at Warfare was some incredible sci-fi terrain from the Laser Terrain Company.

This is best described as slot together, modular corridors and rooms made out of plastic, and with the option to include working lights - achieved through very thin, almost paper-that-lights-up that can sit behind or underneath pieces of plastic with holes in them to look like panels, signs, floor lighting...whatever!

Now this terrain was 28mm, too big for the God's own scale (15mm) that I use, but the lads on the stand did mention that they were considering 15mm as well. Consider harder please!

You can get to their website here, or they have a Kickstarter going here.

Here are some pics to wet your whistle:

Looks amazing in daylight

And lights up at night

Some details

At Warfare, Laser Terrain were giving away samples. As I was with Neil and Tahir, and they didn't ant theirs, I have thus ended up with three barricades. Yes, they are 28mm, but they will do for gates, roadblocks, all sorts of things in 15mm. Here they are with one of my space dwarves:

Ruined Buildings from Commission Figurines

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One of my purchases at Warfare were some of Commission Figurines 15mm ruined buildings in laser-cut wood.

I was quite excited by these, so let one of them jump to the head of the painting queue, and knocked it up in a few hours late on Sunday.

This particular building, Konig Strasse, is easy to put together: four walls slot together and then mount onto the four pavement pieces if pavement is required.

Painting was pretty simple too: I painted the whole thing orange, then put a very heavy black ink wash over the top. Once that was dry, I dry-brushed very lightly in orange again, and then in a bone colour to bring up the relief. The doors I did in brown, the pavement in three shades of grey. The interior I just painted all grey, with no washing or dry-brushing.

I'm very pleased with the result, and can't wait to build the others. I think they'll do for any big city: Berlin, Stalingrad and even sci-fi...and at £13 for the one below, quite good value too.

Q13: Updated "Dwarves in Space" Army List

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As I work my way through painting my space dwarves, I find myself needing to tweak and amend their army list. This is all part of the natural evolution of a Q13 army list.

For simplicity, for example, I've now consolidated the space dwarf infantry into two basic types: squads of 8-10 in armour; and squads of six in powered armour. This should make managing them on the tabletop slightly easier.

I've also added a few bits and bobs. The Goanna tanks can now carry shield generators in their turrets (see previous post), with a platoon now consisting of two 'fighting' vehicles and one 'shielding' vehicle...something that really adds a bit of flavour to things.

Likewise on the flavour front, I've finally succumbed and added a couple of GZG's excellent civilian CLEM (Construction, Logistics and Engineering) Mecha to give the little fellas some engineering back-up, and I'm looking forward to seeing what one can do with a shearing laser and a chainsaw!

hercules "b" mecha from ground zero games (click on the image to go straight to gzg's website)

hercules "b" mecha from ground zero games (click on the image to go straight to gzg's website)

This is the great beauty of Q13: you can field anything you like provided it can be properly represented on the tabletop and fits in with the coherence and consistency of your army's story.

You can download the revised space dwarf army list from the Army Lists page of the Q13 section of this website, or by clicking here.


More Space-Dwarves: Gruntlings in Exo-Suits

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More infantry for my Dwarves in Space army, and the first contingent from Cactus Games: a platoon of Gruntlings in Exo-suits.

These are very cute figures indeed: squat, rounded, and with lots of relief to make painting easy. I undercoated in black, then a coat of metallic blue, then a dry-brush with a dull-metal colour to bring up the detail. 

The only negative is that there are only two poses: one with a built-in gun in one hand and a warhammer in the other; one with just the gun.

Here they are:

Q13: Drones for the Dwarves

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The great thing about Ground Zero Games is the huge range of 15mm sci-fi kit they make that can be added to any sci-fi army. 

Here, for example, I have decided to equip my "Dwarves in Space" with some spider drones with rotary cannon.

Thrainite Spider Drones

Now back to painting the legions of space dwarf infantry scattered all over my painting table!

Q13: More kit for the Space Dwarves

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A bit more firepower for my Thrainites from Khurasan: a couple of MDMS Goanna tanks supported by a Goanna tank hull mounting a shield generator. 

When you buy the MDMS tanks, they come with the option to be manned or un-manned. The manned version, the Goanna, has the full turret you can see in the pic below. The un-manned version (i.e. controlled remotely or by AI) comes without a turret but with a cut down gun mount. Looking at this, I suddenly thought that if I turned it backwards and didn't put a gun on it, it would make a rather good shield generator: something that I think suits the "engineer" aspect of the dwarves. Why risk too much injury when you can build something to protect yourselves with?

Anyway, here they are:

MDMS Goanna Tanks

Goanna hull with mounted shield generator

You can see the whole "Dwarves in Space" gallery by clicking here.

Q13 Gallery: The First Dwarves in Space

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I've always liked dwarves...right from my days playing basic edition Dungeons & Dragons through to GW's Squats through to Gimli in The Lord of the Rings and now through to the sudden explosion in 15mm space dwarf models.

My intention is to collect and paint up all the figures available, making each manufacturer's collection into its own contingent: the sum of which will combine into the space dwarf army as a whole. I'm seeing each contingent as coming from a different "mine", or whatever the Q13 equivalent ends up being.

The first contingent being painted are the Thrainites from Khurasan Miniatures. First up of these are the easy-to-paint armoured infantry: a platoon of so-called Young Nobles in four squads of six each:

With them are three MDMS Cane Toad APCs:

The rest of the Thrainites are currently on the painting table, so more to follow soon!

Q13: Chuhuac Herdmaster

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What I should be doing is continuing to paint my Six Day War lead mountain: no point in having ten Egyptian T-55s if they have no supports and no-one to fight.

What I actually did this weekend, of course, was to dive into my sci-fi lead mountain, painting up a few bits and pieces from projects that needed completion.

Here's the commander of my Chuhuac mercenaries, the Herdmaster, and his APC:

I'm still loving the Chuhuac: just got to get them onto the battlefield again.

You can see the rest of the Chuhuac gallery by clicking here.

"Dwarves in Space" and Related

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I've added a new figure manufacturer to the list of companies that make 15mm sci-fi miniatures: Cactus Games.

They have a line of what they call Gruntlings that includes troopers in armour, and troopers in ornate powered armour.

At the same time, I note that ClearHorizon have just launched a range of what they call High Gravity Mercenaries. These come just as a single mercenary squad of eight, but are wonderfully full of character.

Both of the above are obviously space dwarves, dwarves in space, squats, whatever you want to call them...so I have updated the Dwarves in Space army list as well by adding stats for Gruntlngs and the Mercs, and standardising the overall squad sizes slightly.

All I have to do now is paint them all: five platoon's worth of infantry, and a couple of squads of vehicles!