Q13 AAR: Snake in the Space Dog's Shadow

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It had been ages since I’d last played Quadrant 13, the company-sized sci-fi game using the basic IABSM engine that I wrote for the Lardies, so it was great to be able to take advantage of a day’s holiday and take the Astagar (space snakes) and Protolene Khanate (space dogs) for a ride.

Click on the pic below to see the whole report.

The majority of both armies originally come from Critical Mass Games, with the Khanate being one of the original races available and the Astagar added vis a Kickstarter campaign.

Unfortunately, CMG closed down, but the infantry figures (not the vehicles, just the infantry) are available from Ral Patha Europe.

Incidentally, one thing I missed out on Astagar-wise was the SP artillery. If anyone does have any that they don’t want any more, the snakeheads could do with a bit of support. E-mail me at admin@vislardica.com if you have some to sell.

And just for completeness, once I start collecting one particular category of sci-fi race, I have to have every variant possible…so my core Protolene Khanate space dogs are augmented by a platoon of Garrhul from Dark Star and a platoon of Raug from Khuarasan. If you are after dog-men, you have the choice of three different manufacturers or, like me, all three!

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: 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…

Q13 AAR: Rivets and Ribbets!

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Those of you who read my last Q13 AAR will know that I am currently playing “king of the ring” with my new sci-fi factory complex. Last game, the Felids defeated the Hauk, so now it was their turn to defend, with their opponents being the Aphids: frog-like beings from Zombiesmith.

My opponents were Dave and John, who were on a strict time limit which actually nicely suited the type of game we were playing: they would play the Aphid attackers, and would have almost exactly 2½ hours to reduce my position.

Click on the picture below to see how they did:

Q13 AAR: I Did See A Putty Cat!

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Regular visitors will know that at this year’s Salute I purchased a bargain pack of mdf sci-fi terrain from TT Combat and have spent the last couple of months building it. It was now time to get some figures onto the table and actually use the damn thing!

The scenario was to be a simple attacker/defender game, with the Hauk (sci-fi birdmen from Khurasan) defending the industrial complex against an assault from the Felids (sci-fi lionmen, also from Khurasan). I would play the Hauk, friend Neal would play the Felids, and in order to make things interesting, there was a time limit for the Felids to take the complex.

Click on the picture below to see what happened:

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.

Q13: Salute Bargain Finally Finished

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Some of you may recall that at Salute I splashed out on a laser cut mdf industrial set up on special offer from Troll Trader. This was a huge layout for the bargain price of only £100 including p&p. I’ve been gradually building it over the last six weeks and have finally finished it.

This is a legendary set up, meant for 28mm troops, but absolutely ideal for sci-fi “15mm” figures which, as we all know, tend to be more 18-20mm.

I’ve always wanted to play an industrial hive battle kind of game, and now I can. In total, I now have the sixteen base boards (that alone used up about a can and a half of spray paint); a couple of small platforms connected by a walkway; the huge platform that looks like the outside of an oil well; a powerplant piece; a couple of big, cylindrical tanks connected by a top walkway; a landing pad; two staircases; two sets of corridor connectors; twenty-four individual bits that join together to form the “iron labyrinth”; and a pile of spare ladders.

The build was arduous: not just because of the sheer volume of things to be built, but also because some of the components were, simply, difficult to build. I’m not really a terrain-building person, so often don’t take the proper time and trouble to prepare and get everything just right: so checking and sanding every slot to make sure its component slides in smoothly just isn’t my cup of tea. Smash the two bits together and use a bit of strength to pop the slots into place doesn’t work with every bit of this complex, especially not the industrial labyrinth sections that caused me more grief than anything else.

Having built the thing, I was going to leave it as plain mdf, but a simple spray of grey paint does make it look more, well, industrial, and will make a beautiful backdrop to my brightly coloured sci-fi figures. I suppose I should take the trouble to dry-brush it all now, to give it some variety and depth but, tbh, that seems like a lot of hard work for something that already looks very acceptable. I might have a game, take some piccies, see how they turn out, and then decide on the dry-brushing then. Or wash then dry-brush if I really want to go to town.

Here’s a gallery of the entire thing: very good value for £100, so Troll Trader (from whom I’ve always had good, if not incredible, bargains at Salute) go straight to the top of my Christmas card list.

Next step is to dress the table with the rest of my sci-fi terrain, buildings etc

Q13: Hauk Re-inforcements

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Regular visitors to this site will know that one of my regular complaints is sci-fi figure manufacturers who produce a lovely range of basic infantry but then never get around to providing all the support teams that you need to make up a proper fighting force.

Okay, so some of these infantry squads are so loaded with their own weaponry that it could be said that they don’t need any support, but this doesn’t really gel with me. As the Marine Corps saying goes: always hit a nut with the biggest hammer possible…the nut gets cracked and the hammer is untouched!

It was therefore great to see that Khurasan Miniatures, that wonderful if somewhat erratic source of the esoteric, have released a couple of support weapons for their 15mm Hauk range.

The Hauk, for those of you who don’t know, are avians: birdmen to the non-Latin speakers. The existing range had some nice infantry and a couple of officers, but nothing more. Now, however, they can field mortars and their equivalent to a medium/heavy machine gun.

Mortars

Each weapon comes with the same stand, and the option of either a mortar, shown above, or a machine gun, shown below. There’s also a sniper figure, two new types of officer (one pointing, one with clipboard) and a casualty figure. I have ignored the casualty figure, and couldn’t be bothered to see if I could make the stands multi-purpose, so bought enough packs to give me four three-man mortar teams, with officer, and six three-man MMG teams, with officer. Add two snipers, and I still have lots of casualties and snipers left over, but I’m sure they’ll come in useful some time in the future.

Machine Guns

As you can see, I paint my Hauk with a simple but very colourful “parrot” pattern. Undercoat in white, immediate heavy wash with Agrax Earthshade; paint talons and beak yellow; paint wings, tail feather and head crest dark green then highlight with bright green; highlight all the armour in white; weapons are painted black highlighted in grey.

Well done Khurasan!

Q13 AAR: Stalemate in the Crop Fields

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Time for another game of Q13, so time to get the space Dwarves back onto the tabletop to battle another of my so-far-untested forces: the Tah-Sig.

This would be an encounter battle fought across a battlefield consisting of crop fields separated by a series of access roads and narrow strips of open ground. The storyline was that this time it was the Dwarves who were the aggressors: outnumbering the Tah-Sig by a fair amount and needing to get as many units as possible off the table on the Tah-Sig side.

Click on the picture below to see what happened:

Q13: Vornid Infantry Re-Based

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Although I like my Vornid infantry (15mm sci-fi: homicidal plants with thorn guns from Khurasan), I haven’t used them very much because, up to now, they have been based a singles and the way that the figures are made means that the bases don’t fit into any of my sabots. That means that using them involves moving lots of single figures round the table individually: a right pain!

I therefore decided to re-base them: each squad of ten Vornid based individually converting to six bases of five Vornid each. That gives me the same three squads, but the capacity to field ten fireteams if needed for another system.

I had two four-squad platoons (i.e. eight squads) but they proved a bit unwieldy. I therefore painted another squad up and now have three platoons of three squads each, all efficiently based for moving round the table.

Here’s my revised Vornid company, plus one of the individual platoons. You can see the detail of the entire force in the Vornid gallery.

A Bit of Fun

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One of my more unusual scifi armies are the Vornid. These comprise a base of Khurasan’s plant infantry supported by a variety of Ravenstar’s Horrid bio-vehicles. You can see the gallery by clicking here (opens in a new window).

As you’ll see, I’ve been using Slishians (from Hydra Miniatures) as Big Men, but have now found a rather amusing alternative:

The enemy sure looks like plant food to me!

Not sure who the manufacturer is (I bought these on impulse some time ago and have only just got around to their layer of the lead mountain) but these are, of course, models loosely based on Audrey II, the “villain” of the musical comedy A Little Shop of Horrors.

Great fun, and have encouraged me to expand and re-base my Vornid army: but more on that later…

More Brigade Models SciFi

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The last time my Hura (four-armed aliens from Clear Horizons) took the field, they were soundly beaten, with their defeat due, in art, to a lack of AA protection and no electronic warfare capacity.

As Clear Horizons don’t produce any AA or EW figures for the Hura (I mean, why would you!) I have decided to use Brigade Models’ sci-fi Polish range to fill in the gaps. I’ve already posted the AA half-tracks, now here’s the EW vehicle:

Officially this is the Suwalska ‘Hetman’ command vehicle, but it does very nicely as an Electronic Warfare specialist for the Hura.

Now all I have to do is save up for a few Suwalska APCs…

Q13 AAR: Dwarves vs Xar

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As my recent painting has been almost wholly focused on clearing all the sci-fi dwarves from my lead mountain, I thought it was only right and proper to get them onto the table again for my next game of Quadrant 13. It would also be a good opportunity to give the Xar (six-legged “critters” from GZG) their first outing.

Click on the pic below to see the report:

Q13: Last of the Invaders

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Just finished photographing the last of the All Quiet on the Martian Front tripods I have been working on. This last batch consisted of another three scout tripods, two grenadier tripods, seven assault tripods and a power node terrain piece.

That’s a lot of points for the Painting Challenge!

Rather than have the tripods as a separate Martian army, I’m going to use them as the AFV element of my Invaders army that uses the Khurasan Alien Invasion range as its core infantry component. As I’ve also now had a chance to photograph all of them, it means another gallery added to the Q13 section of the website: one that shows the entire force.

You can find that by clicking here, but here’s a picture of the army en masse:

Oh yes, finally, someone wrote in asking what colour the tripods were sprayed: it was Ford Neptune Green from the Halfords range of car paints.

More Martian Tripods

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Still working my way through all my All Quiet on the Martian Front tripods.

First up are three more Scout Tripods:

Only three more of them to go!

Next is a quick one off: the Slaver Tripod, which I will be using as the command tripod for the Invaders' AFV force:

That's a metal tripod (the Scout Tripods are all plastic kits) and weighs in pretty heavy.

Finally for this batch, there's an extra I picked up as part of the Kickstarter offer: a downed Assault Tripod.

That's it for this update: plenty more tripods to go.

Oh, and I've had a chance to update the TFL Painting Challenge Scorecard.