The Rest of the Avians from Trilaterum

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With the lookalike Hauk cavalry finished, it was time to start on the infantry.

Again the figures had not survived the journey from the States very well: almost all the pistols were snapped off, and quite a few legs and arms too. Not sure what the solution is here: the boxes the figures arrived in were intact, the figures (in their plastic bags) were enclosed in polystyrene packaging peanuts, and the whole lot were in a bigger box clearly marked as fragile. Anyhow, worth noting that one painting session was almsot solely devoted to repairs, with only two figures remaining unusable…and, as you’ll see below, I even found a use for one of those.

The Avians from Trilaterum divide into three different races. First up, we’ve seen the lookalike Hauk on warbirds, here are the infantry versions, who really are remarkably like Khurasan’s Hauk, albeit a lot larger. Next we have the Corus (I’ve renamed them Corvids in my lists) who look like crows. Finally, the Virginianus (should that be Virginianii?) who are best described as giant owlmen! There’s also a sky sled: some kind of hover or antigrav vehicle.

The infantry are really nice figures: very crisply formed and with clear definition between each type. They paint up very easily, and it is a very much appreciated happy coincidence that their equipment also very closely ressembles Khurasan’s Hauk range.

I used a sky sled with a broken figure as a casualty, and painted one Corvid as a medic (Avian medics are in blue: my Harook have one too).

The sky sleds are, by the way, a bit silly for me: I quite like the concept, but why put all the spikes on the back? What’s next? Skullz?

I had bought two boxes worth at $30 a box, so $60: getting an 8-man Hauk cavalry squad that you’ve already seen, two 8-man squads of mixed infantry, one commander and one medic, and two sky sleds. Counting the cavalry mounts as a separate figure, that’s 34 figures and the two sledges. Seems a bit steeply priced for me, but they are fun and will look good on the tabletop.

In addition to the price, the other catch is their size. Here’s a little comparison shot for you:

Virgianus, Khurasan Hauk, lookalike hauk, harook, corvid, battlefront infantryman

These are big birds: the Virgianus models are a good 28mm high, the two others a good 20mm high.

Now I can rationalise the difference between the Hauk and lookalike Hauk by saying that the airmobile Hauk are deliberately chosen for their diminutive size compared to the lookalike Hauk, who aren’t that bigger than a Harook anyway, but this is a very good example of 15mm scale creep. A very good example.

So there you have it: reinforcements for my Avians now complete.

Look-Alike Hauk from Trilaterum

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Regular visitors will know that, painting-wise, I am currently working through a large delivery from Trench Coat Miniatures’ Trilaterum range of 15mm sci-fi figures.

Next up were some additions to my collection of Avian sci-fi minatures i.e. various ranges that look like bird-men. That includes three types of Bird-man: the Haliaeetus (eagle-like), the Corvus (crow-like) and the Virganianus (owl-like).

My roster already includes the Hauk from Khurasan which, by happy coincidence, the Haliaeetus figures strongly ressemble in terms of both looks and equipment. The Haliaeetus therefore quickly became surrogate Hauk, with the Corvus (renamed Corvids) and Virganianus joining them as ally races within the same “Avian” command structure.

My Avian force therefore now consists of an Harook contingent and a Hauk contingent, with the latter comprising a Hauk airmobile platoon supported by mixed Avian squads of groundpounders.

First off the Trilaterum Avian production line was a squad of mixed cavalry: (Haliaeetus) Hauk and Corvids mounted on Casuarius flightless birds.

These are cracking models…and I mean that literally as well as figuratively, as I’m afraid a good half of them didn’t survive the long journey from the States undamaged. The Casuarius legs were particularly vulnerable (three feet had snapped off and had to be glued back on with a varying degree of ease) and only one of the Hauk lances survived intact…and one of the broken ones - the one at the back in the picture above - was beyond repair, and I had to bodge an alternative head so that it now looks like some form of energy-weapon lance. Three out of four Corvid pistols were also snapped off, one of those also being beyond repair and needing a substitute weapon from the bits box as a replacement.

So nice figures and I am pleased to have them…but I do have to mention scale-creep again. All Trilaterum’s figures seem on the very large side, and I mean large. The riders here, whether Hauk or Corvid, are a good 20mm high, even perhaps 25mm by some definitions.

Let me show you what I mean: here are the Trilaterum cavalry next to a Khurasan Hauk and Mad Robot’s Harook:

Big men on big horses indeed!

In summary, lovely figures (as you would expect from Trilaterum) but a bit fragile for a transatlantic crossing and very much victims of 15mm sci-fi scale creep.

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.

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: 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!

The Hauk

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Originally posted 25th November 2013

I have now finished my platoon of Hauk airmobile troops. These are superb figures by Khurasan that go really well with my existing Harook. 

One can see the Harook as descendents of the prehistoric Titanis or giant terror bird, with the Hauk as descendents of raptors such as hawks and eagles, both species living together in reasonable harmony, one on the plains of their home planet, one up in the mountains.

To celebrate the arrival of the Hauk, I've also updated the Harook army list to include them as an airmobile option, using the equally superb Aerie dropships mentioned below on 8th November.

Grav Transports for the Hauk

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Originally posted 8th November 2013

the start of my Hauk troops: avians from Khuarasan who will support Mad Robot's Harook as their airmobile arm. 

First to be finished are the Aerie grav transports. I'm particularly pleased with the cockpit canopies: carefully copied, albeit in a different colour, from the examples on Khurasan's website.

These are arriving just in time to be used in the final playtesting of my Five Planets scenario pack for Q13, which is due for publication before the start of December. Although designed for 15mm Q13, it can be used with any sci-fi rules, so start saving your pennies now!