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!

Q13: Ikwen Kickstarter

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I’m quite a fan of Kickstarter. I’ve backed about six projects to date, and in all but one have received exactly what I wanted…and the exception was very much down to me not communicating properly with the company involved.

So here’s a quick plug for the Loud Ninja Games Ikwen Kickstarter project expanding their Ikwen project with some great new sculpts. Here are a few examples:

I currently use the Ikwen as tech support for my Chuhuac mercenaries. The above will add enough for them to be a force in their own right. Recommended.

Q13: DRS Models

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Another update to the list of 15mm Sci-Fi Figure Manufacturers that you can find listed in the Q13 section of this website.

Latest addition, long overdue, is DRS Models: a range of 3D printed models covering seven different factions. No infantry or other units, but the vehicles do look very good and, pleasingly, cover all the different sorts of model that you need i.e. each faction has main battle tanks, APCs, anti-air vehicles, SP guns etc.

Here’s an example from the Cetian range:

I haven’t ordered or got any of these yet, but they certainly look very good. Some of the ranges are quite unusual as well: giving a suitably alien feel to a battlefield.

Click on the picture above to go to their home page.

Q13: New Manufacturer Added: Trilaterum

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I’ve added a new company to the list of 15mm sci-fi figure manufacturers: Trilaterum.

Trilaterum produce a set of rules (not that you’ll need them obviously, as Q13 will fulfil your every need!) and several ranges of figures. So far they have:

  • The Agarascale: fungus-looking lifeforms that would go well with Ravenstar’s Horrids

  • The Dominion: humans in battlesuits

  • The Kaevur: they look like space dwarves to me…so I’ve ordered a load and will report back once they arrive

  • Quite a few larger mecha, space beasts and vehicles

Overall they look very nice. As I said above, I’ve already ordered some Kaevur, and if they prove worthwhile, I’ll probably get some Agarascale basic toadstool infantry too.

A couple of negatives, though. Firstly, the website shop doesn’t, as far as I can see, give a clear listing of pack contents. It has plenty of photos, but it’s not clear if the group shots are meant to be photographic catalogue entries or just examples. If the former, then my second negative is that it looks to be quite difficult to amass enough infantry for a platoon without buying loads of (perhaps unwanted) support material.

For example, Kaevur pack one is listed as containing:

The Photo of Pack 1

Kaevur Pack 1 contains enough miniatures to make the following units

Hoolda Infantry x 2
Juht Infantry
Kaevamine Heavy Mecha Vehicle

If I only get six basic infantry figures, I’m going to have to get a lot of drilly-things (at the back on the left) to get a decent platoon’s worth of PBI.

I suppose I could just e-mail them and ask, but where’s the fun in that?

Review to be continued when my Kaevur arrive…

More Praesentia

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Almost finished the Praesentia now: just a few Trinaries and the drones to go.

Here are the rest of the Sentinel and Guardian drones:

Here’s hoping that Ral Partha, the current owners of the range, get around to producing the resin as well as the metal elements of the Praesentia. The infantry are lovely, but are going to be easy meat without some drones to back them up.

More Praesentia

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I’m still working my way through painting my Praesentia army: high tech chaps originally from Critical Mass Games and now available through Ral Partha.

First up are another two platoons of RAL robot infantry led by their Enlightened ‘Trinaries’ or collection of three Big Men. Painting them was easy: the robots got an undercoat and then one coat of one of the new Citadel Contrast paints. Add in a red dot for the eye, a tiny bit of green as detail on the weapons, and done! The Trinaries’ robes are painted in the same way, with their bodies a dark blue highlighted by a sky blue.

I’ve also started on the drones that the Praesentia use instead of manned vehicles. Here are three Sentinel drones:

Just a few more Trinaries and drones to do now…

First of the Praesentia

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One of the armies that has been sitting in my lead mountain for some time is the Praesentia: mysterious, super-high tech beings originally designed and produced as part of the Critical Mass Games universe and now available, with the demise of CMG, from Ral Partha.

I like the way that although the figures themselves are fairly humanoid, there is an impressive back story which explains, amongst other things, that the Praesentia equivalent of Big Men always operate as a Trinary i.e. always in a three.

Mind you, in Q13 terms, who wouldn’t want a Tech 5 army that includes teleporting killer robots (excellent for dealing with those hidden away mortars); and Specialists who can alter dice rolls, prevent units from moving, and other fun stuff!

Here are the first two units off the painting table, each painted with one coat of the new Citadel Contrast paints. First up are the Phase Shifters and their RAL Phase-Shifting robots:

Second up are a Trinary of Enlightened with their RAL robots with ranged weapons:

I like these, as I can see them being used for a variety of different robot-types.

Q13: List of 15mm Sci Fi Figure Manufacturers

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I like to keep this site as updated and useful as possible, so spent a little time yesterday updating the list of manufacturers of 15mm sci-fi figures.

Sad that so many now seem to be moribund or out of business, which just goes to prove my maxim that if you see some figures that you like, you should buy them, as you never know how long they will be available for.

For example, I still regret not buying some of the Combat Wombat range as dropships for my Aphids…but you live and learn and it’s a mistake I won’t make again. Food? Who needs food when there are figures to buy!

What is also interesting is how many of the cottage-industry manufacturers’ are no longer available from the individuals who started them, but have been absorbed into being part of a larger manufacturer or distributor’s offering. Ral Partha Europe, for example, are now the only place you can get what was the Critical Mass range, and the Spriggan range, and more. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well at least the figures are still available and not just KIA.

To end on a high note, however, I was pleased to add Nuclear Shrimp as a new manufacturer to the list. They are based in Greece and produce a range of 15mm sci-fi figures under the Black Earth banner: a post-apocalyptic range of human defenders (the United Earth Federation) and Brute attackers (huge mutant humans looking like Mr Hyde from the dreadfully disappointing League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie.

I’m loving the Brutes and have already sacrificed next week’s lunches to buy them!

I was initially a bit worried about their 15mm credentials (scale creep!) but the very nice chaps at the Shrimp and the 15mm SciFi Facebook group provided some comparison shots that convinced me that my fears were groundless. Check them out here.