Armour for the Xar

/

As I've said before on this blog, one of the main problems with the 15mm sci-fi marketplace is that figure manufacturers tend to produce ranges aimed at the platoon-level gamer rather than the Q13 company-level gamer.

What I mean by that is that they produce a range of core infantry, with maybe a few support weapons, with maybe one vehicle...but not the whole gamut of kit that you'd need to create, say, the sci-fi equivalent of the modern day army.

Where are all the different sorts of infantry (grunts, scouts, engineers, specialists, exotics etc) and all the different sorts of vehicle (recon, MBTs, APCs, SP Artillery, specialist AA etc)?

Now I know that's all to do with initial outlay and all that, but it is a problem for the company-sized gamer such as myself.

Take Ground Zero Games' Xar, for example. I'm a huge fan of GZG, and before Xmas bought and painted a whole lot of their infantry, which come with the equivalent of MMGs and Bazookas as well. They even have specialist Tech and FOO figures. So far so good.

Mr Plowman's Xar: a bit better than mine!

Now GZG themselves can provide attack drones to give them a bit of punch, but there aren't any vehicles in the range.

Well this gives you the opportunity to have a look around and see what you can find...and the unfortunate demise of Critical Mass Games (well, they have been sold to Ral Partha so hopefully will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes) and the 50%-off sale that resulted gave me the opportunity to buy my Xar some vehicles from CMG's Kaamados Dominion range.

These chunky, and very tall, vehicles really suit the body shapes of the Xar, so go together very well. Not only that but, as with all Critical Mass' stuff (I have their Protolene Khanates (c.f.) and Praesentia (still to be painted) as well) the kits are full of character and paint up very well.

Here are the Gekotaa Armoured Cars: two with guns, one with a scanner:

And here are the Dragamaa Heavy Tanks (and they are heavy!):

Now my Xar are ready to take to the field with the beginnings of a combined arms force!

The Hura Technocracy

/

I like to back the occasional Kickstarter project, but such is the length of time between backing the project and actually receiving the goods, that usually my interest has moved on by the time they arrive, so the figures languish somewhere in the lead mountain waiting for me to remember they're there.

One such project is Clear Horizon Miniatures' Hura Technocracy, a Kickstarter I backed over two years ago. To quote the CHM website:

The Hura Technocracy represents an alien species known as the Hura. While possessing traits of both crabs and mantis insects, the Hura are an advanced species that use their technology to give them every advantage. Not only do they have a strong chitin outer skeleton that can deflect blows almost as well as most basic Human body armor, they utilize a powerful series of miniature, close-contact forcefield generators that provide an extra layer of defense without limiting their strength and speed. Their weaponry, nicknamed “Lightning Rods’, strike out with powerful beams that can fry not only organic material but any unshielded electronics as well.

I came across the box containing the Hura figures whilst cleaning up my painting table. As I've just finished a major paint of Polish WW2 figures, a bit of sci-fi would make a welcome change, so time to paint them up.

Here's the first of my efforts: a company of Hura Heavy Support Weapons:

Again from the CHM website:

The Heavy Support Hura are part of the lower-tier of the Hura Species. They are genetically and cybernetically modified to the point of becoming biological computers. The Heavy Support Hura are lead by a handler who controls them.

Now to start on the three platoons of Hura infantry!

Q13: New Releases from Khurasan

/

As I've been a bit obsessed with Poland lately, I haven't been paying any attention to anything else:  such as Quadrant 13 and 15mm sci-fi in general.

Well, that's apart from buying and painting a whole load of Xar from GZG of course!

Anyway, and moving swiftly on, browsing around the Internet the other morning I came across the Khurasan website again, and thought I'd better check what was new...especially as I think John is still banned from publicising his miniatures on TMP (don't ask!). You can see them all on FB, but who has time these days?

There were two new ranges on here that I'm seeing for the first time, both of which are now firmly on my shopping list.

Alien Invasion

First up are a range of aliens specifically designed as invaders of the Earth. There's plenty of background that I won't repeat here, but basically you've got some science caste types who are your, er, basic greys, and then you have some absolutely wonderful warrior types:

These warrior types are supported by what are called Kalinekt Warborgs, and I quote: "these are both machines and living things -- implanted with the brain of a hunting animal long ago discovered and domesticated by the War Caste. Like earth's sheepdogs, these creatures are relentless in encirclement and pursuit, and keen for the approval of their masters. Brains now housed in a complex chassis constructed of titanium alloy, plastic and other materials, and using advanced weaponry, they are formidable foes."

Finally, and I'm afraid completely ridiculously, there are the Manoeuvre Elements which are...which are...well, see for yourself:

Yes, that is a 15mm tank squatting between its legs.

Now that is one big model. It costs $119 which, for its size is not that bad...but I can't see myself ever getting it onto the wargames table.

So I'm loving the warriors and the warborgs, and will be getting a platoon or two of them. I'll probably use the greys as Big Men.

The Tah-Sig Empire

Next up are the Tah-Sig, part of the Zantin Reconquest range. These are properly alien aliens (not just humans with funny heads!), and come complete with a detailed background as well.

Available are all the figures you'd need for a basic infantry company: sections of riflemen organised in to platoons, with platoon assets such as mortars and LSWs available as well.

So that's my Christmas money all used up now!

You can visit the Khurasan website by clicking here. Feel free to mention VL when you buy something: John might give me a discount!

Q13: Next Steps

Incidentally, I am producing a second edition of Q13 which will be a fairly radical redraft. Apparently, in an attempt to provide differences for all different types of weapon etc, I've allowed the thing to get cumbersomely complicated for tabletop play.

I can see this: after all, I myself have found it easier to produce almost a battlefield QRF sheet for all my armies (downloadable form the Q13 section of this website). So that will be simplified, with those changes running through to army construction etc.

Watch this space for more.

Xar: Infantry Almost Finished

/

Quick bit of painting done whilst I wait for my next batch of Poles to arrive: two more nine-man squads of Xar, the 15mm Critters from GZG.

Just one more squad to go (the Critters in hand-to-hand, martial arts poses!) and then I think I have enough Xar infantry for the moment. Just got to think what armour to get them now...

Q13: More Xar Line Infantry

/

Just a quick post today to showcase the latest nine-being squad to come off the Xar production line:

Note that this lot include the first of the squad commanders: painted up with the gloves-of-rank, but without the red edge to the base indicating a Big Man.

Only eighteen more Xar to go to give me two full three-squad platoons!

Q13: Xar Officers etc

/

I'm really driving through the Xar at the moment, mainly because I know there's a big Battlefront order on its way, and I want to clear the painting table before it arrives!

Today's offering are the Xar officers and specialists:

First up are the Xar Big Men (above). Note the natty gloves: they are what I decided to use to indicate rank, as the Xar don't appear to affect any other form of clothing or insignia, and only the command-type figures where gloves.

Next up (below) are half the specialists: probably to be used as FOOs to bring in some off-table artillery.

Then we have some of the most important chaps: the drone operator specialists, along with two general purpose GZG drones that have been, er, purposed for the Xar. 

These look so good, that I might actually get a couple more of each type, giving me two platoons of three drones each. The Xar shown, by the way, is for size comparison only.

Q13: This Week's Xar!

/

I said I'd finish a squad of Xar every week until I had painted them all, so here's last week's offering: the first of the Xar "line infantry".

I've also managed to take a better picture of the little blighters!

I now have eighteen more Xar to complete from my original batch, plus another eighteen from the new batch...and then some drones and unarmed Xar as well. That will give me two platoons of infantry plus support drones, with only the armour to be decided upon.

Q13: More Xar and more Xar!

/

Finished another squad of the Xar this weekend: this time the chaps with grenade projectors.

My original plan of a single platoon has gone out of the window: I'm now going for two platoons-worth, so need another eighteen of the little critters.

Choice to buy made easier by the fact that I can use my special Xmas sale voucher to get 15% off, and the fact that Jon has just released a pack of unarmed Xar:

I am absolutely loving the ninja-poses! Check out the kung fu critters!

Even better, I think that these will do very nicely for crew figures for some of the GZG generic vehicles and guns that I want to buy to give the purple menace a bit more of a punch.

Watch this space for more...

Even More Xar!

/

I'm still sticking to my target of painting one Xar squad per week. This time it's the first of the main infantry contingent: nine Xar with heavy beamers:

Although I'm very happy with the way that the Xar have turned out, I'm less happy with my photography at the moment. For some reason, I just can't get what I want in terms of a nice sharp, matt image that properly shows the detail of the figures.

Can't quite understand why, as I've done it before many times. At first I thought it was too little light, as relying on the spotlights after dark makes everything very yellow. This time I think it's too much light, as the winter sun at the weekend was streaming in through the windows. Or perhaps it's the combination of purple figures and green background?

Whatever the reason, it's driving me crazy! I shall have to go back to the various articles I have saved about photographing miniatures, and check the camera is set up properly...

First of the Xar

/

Regular visitors will know that my latest sci-fi army is to be the Xar, based on the range of the same name from Ground Zero Games or GZG as they are more commonly known. My inspiration (it's all about inspiration!) came from Ralph Plowman's beautifully painted models.

Ralph went for a sort of desert, sandy look...but I decided that I wanted something quite different to that or to any of my other sci-fi armies.

So I went for purple.

This first unit are the projectile launcher support troops, each weapon having a crew of three.

The launchers come separate to the figures carrying them, so you can choose what angle to have the weapons at: I've gone for an angle that can encompass a bit of indirect and AA fire.

Many more to follow!

A Rather Useful Tool

/

I was in my local Games Workshop the other day, stocking up on various paints after the Christmas break, and was idling chatting to the store manager about various painting techniques and the like.

As I was popping a pot of one of their texture basing 'paints' onto the counter, I happened to mention that I used old paint brushes to apply the texture. Ah, said the manager, you should use one of these:

Now I'm all for having the right tools for the job, but this seemed a bit excessive, especially as that finely carved bit of plastic will set you back £5.

However, I was using up a voucher, and had enough left over to indulge, so I thought I'd get one and try it out...especially as I was fully expecting to be disappointed and have the opportunity to be suitably obnoxious about it next time I was in (what is it about GW stores that make me want to be obnoxious? I don't know: but it's true of all of them!).

Anyway, turns out I was wrong. I used this to base the Israeli half-tracks I posted about yesterday, and it really makes the job a hell of a lot easier that using an old paint brush, even when you attempt to carve said old paint brush into a suitable shape. I would go as far to say that that bit of plastic is the best thing as a basing tool since, er, sliced bread.

So, as compensation to GW for being prepared to doubt their products before I've even tried them, I'm posting about their tool here, and recommending one to everyone who needs to smear a bit of basing material onto a base!

Q13: New Manufacturer: Space Goblins and Uruks

/

There's a new range of 15mm sci-fi figures now being promoted around the web: a small outfit that seems to be called e&c or ec.

They have one range at the moment: some rather nice looking space goblins and uruks that come with a variety of infantry types and even a support weapon. Click here to go to their new shop.

Here are some of their figures:

Goblins with Carbines

Uruk Warriors with Pistols, Swords, and Machineguns

Goblins with Heavy Support Weapons

Although orcs aren't really my thing, these look pretty good to me.

Q13: Army Lists for the Xar Added

/

Inspired by Mr Plowman's painting, I have ordered a whole load of Xar figures from Ground Zero Games to form the basis of a new force for Quadrant 13.

To quote from the GZG website: The Xar - often known to human troops as "Chitters" from the rapid clicks and chirps of their speech - are an eight-limbed exoskeletal insectoid race, with six walking limbs ending in three-clawed feet and an upright torso with two manipulating arms.
Each Xar miniature consists of 2 parts, a 6-legged lower body and integral base plus a torso/arms/head casting with weapon or other equipment as appropriate.

No point in ordering figures unless you can use them in a game, so I have also built a basic army list for them too, available as a pdf download here and from the Q13 Army Lists page.

Only the infantry element are stat-ed at the moment: GZG don't do specific vehicles for the Xar, so I need to have a look around and find some for them from another range. More shopping!

Q13: Another 15mm spaceship from Ravenstar

/

Along with the Stinger that featured in a post on Monday, I also took advantage of Ravenstar Studio's recent sale to pick up a larger model: the Horizon Transport.

This rather retro-looking ship will do nicely as transport for the Ikwen Logisitics Technicians attached to my Chuhuac troops. It looks like something a bunch of newt-like techies would travel round in!

The model was really easy to put together. The main body comes as one chunk, with the landing skids, engine nacelles, and rear fins as separate bits. They glue in place without much difficulty, leaving you with a model that sits very nicely on the tabletop, looking just like a transport should look.

My paint job is really no more than a spray and touch-up that doesn't really do the model justice, so I'm also posting the picture from the Ravenstar site.

Yes: perhaps a little bit better looking than mine...although I've just fully comprehended that actually the 'professional' job is also very much a spray and touch up job: just a better touch up job than mine!

Anyway, it's a great model that will do the Ikwen proud. Cost from Ravenstar is $25 which, as I said before, used to be good value!

Q13: 15mm spaceship from Ravenstar Studios

/

Back in May, Ravenstar Studios had a 30% off sale and, as I'm trying to build up the aerial side of my sci-fi armies, I decided to indulge and pick up a couple of models.

First up was a small flyer for my Protolene Khanate force. This is the Stinger Flyer from Ravenstar's Land Core range (the same range as the Horrid).

Lovely model that glues together really easily. I undercoated in grey, then got out my roll of masking tape and carefully cut a number of squiggly strips out of it and stuck them in place. I then sprayed again in green, peeled off the masking tape, and achieved not a bad camouflage pattern.

A quick wash, a few bits of red paint, some decals left over from the WW2 Italians, and the little craft was done.

Unfortunately, as you can probably see, I did have a little bit of a problem with the finish. For some reason everything came out quite dark and dusty. 

Still, not a bad little model and now the Protolenes have some air support. Cost of the Stinger is only $14...which used to be quite cheap!

Q13: X-14A Raven Class VTOL

/

Following on from yesterday's post, here's the second of the 'big' things I've finished despite now having the black paint needed for my Israeli infantry: an X-14A Raven Class VTOL from Clear Horizon Miniatures.

This is a cracking little kit that is really easy to put together: literally you just stick on the engine nacelles and the weapon pods and then paint. I modified the kit slightly by using a spare twin-MG turret from a Khurasan tank as the under-nose weapon.

As for painting, I sprayed the whole thing desert yellow, then covered patches of it with blue tac and then sprayed the whole thing again, this time in army green. This wasn't entirely successful, as the paint peeled away with the blue tac in a couple of places, but these were tiny little patches and a bit of a re-paint over the top with a brush just gave the thing a bit of a worn-in look.

I then washed the model in a light brown wash, painted the weapons in the pods, and then blacked in all the intakes. The cockpit was done in a dark green, and then given a shine with white lines...which also hasn't worked quite how I wanted it too, but looks okay.

I then used spare transfers from the Egyptian 6DW set from Battlefront to dress the Raven, and Bob's your uncle.

This will serve with my Space Dwarves: either as roving ground support or as a means to 'battlefield' insert a couple of squads. What's also good about the model is that the back door opens on a hinge, so that you can actually have the model on the table with its ramp down. 

A lovely little kit:  highly recommended...especially as Clear Horizon also produce a bigger version called a Condor Heavy Lift VTOL, which will also shortly be added to the roster!

Q13: Big Oil Tank!

/

In yet further attempts to avoid finishing the last 6DW Israeli infantry platoon (my latest mojo for painting 15mm infantry has finally deserted me!) I have run out of the black paint I need to do their rifles and boots.

I'm on my way to get some now, as part of the Saturday morning chores, but in the meantime this gave me the excuse to polish off a couple of large bits (i.e. as far away from 15mm infantry as possible) that have been sitting on my painting table for some time...in one case, for a very long time.

First up was a large tank-for-holding-chemicals from Critical Mass Games. I bought this as part of a set of habitation/factory pieces some time ago at Colours (before the skipped year due to the racecourse renovation!). It was a very good deal, and although I quickly painted up most of the pieces, this one (and the humongous factory bit) just didn't get done.

Well it is now!

It's a great piece that could also serve as some kind of tank in almost any post-industrial revolution game. Here it is shown with my Vornid/fungoid artillery crew for size comparison purposes.

Right:  off to get the black paint now...

More Sabot Bases

/

Regular visitors may remember that I had Warbases make me up some custom built sabot bases to accommodate the way my 15mm WW2 infantry are based.

To remind you, a standard squad consists of a two-man LSW mounted on a 2p piece and six or eight single figures mounted on 5p pieces. Together with a hole for a dice to show Shock, each sabot base carries a single squad.

The difficulty is, however, dealing with squads with two LSWs, such as my later war Fallschirmjaegers. Here, each squad consists of two LSW teams mounted on 2p pieces together with four singles on 5p pieces.

I'd been fudging it for some time, but last week decided it was time to get some more sabots to accommodate these double-LSW squads. One quick e-mail to Warbases and a few days later I had the bases in my hands:

Quick spray of green paint, bit of glue and some flock, and away we go. All ready for the big game next month!

Thanks to Warbases for their usual excellent service.

Q13: Odds & Ends for the Dwarves in Space

/

Been filling in some of the gaps in my Dwarves  in Space army.

First up are the command figure and a sniper for Khurasan's Thrainites:

These are nice models, as you would expect from Khurasan, and paint up well. There's only one slight problem: the command figure stands easily taller than most 15mm figures, so unless his actual legs end at the figure's knees and the rest is battlesuit, he is about as un-dwarvish as you can get. Harold Hastrada the dwarf!

The sniper is better sized, and my painting hasn't really done the little devil justice.

Next up are some command figures and support platform for the Cactus Mine contingent:

The two figures come from CP Models' very limited line of space dwarves. The Armadillo support platform is from White Dragon and is a most unusual model. It is a quadruped walker with an armoured skirt on just one side. It mounts a gatling cannon on top, and has a couple of light mortar batteries on its armoured side. It's a unique model with just one drawback: the price. That little thing cost me £7 at Salute, which is why the little men will have to make do with just the one. I mean, that's as much as a whole tank...and one from Battlefront at that!