It Came From the Deep!

Hi!

Heres another piece I finished that has been sat almost finished for some time now:

 Giant Orca Mutation of Doom!

He's originally a plastic Gormiti figure but with a little bit of work, he looks rather good as a giant menace for 15mm scale or even 28mm scale too!

 League Troops in for a bit of a surprise

Heres a bit of a shot showing the scale of the beast next to a large 15mm scale figure for reference:

Orca and Gatorgore

Next up heres a piece of conversion work that I finished recently. Originally a truly rubbish model of some sort of robot with ridiculously short arms and legs with a long body, I reworked it as best as I could. Its not perfect but looks a lot more interesting and usable than it used to...

 Pink Cyborg

I have got a batch of cultist type figures kicking around too but doubt they will be finished any time soon as they need a load of work before painting as they are pretty dire too!

All the best!

Blast From the Past

Hi!

Well I am busily working my way through stuff for an upcoming exhibition but have managed to get a tiny bit of hobby stuff done too in the form of completing some figures that I bought way back at the start of my 15mm adventure almost four years ago.

Laserburn Ert Infantry Squad

They have been languishing part painted for pretty much the entire time I was at university and I thought it was high time I finished them.

I do like the Ert infantryman with his goggles and interesting gear, its a bit of a shame that they only have a couple of sculpts and the leader and heavy weapon troops aren't nearly as nice. Still once they are painted they don't look too bad.

 Ert Combat Patrol

I also had a couple of plastic Mechwarrior battle armour models kicking around so have painted one of them up to act as a mobile heavy weapon droid to support the Ert troops.

 Ert Mech and Troopers

I tried a bit of a different look on the bases and am still not sure about the finish but it fits a bit better than the dry desert finish of the rest of my collection.

Next up theres a bad guy who has likewise been sat half done for many a moon. 

 Gatorgore Mercenary 

He is a pretty poor sculpt to be honest and required a fair amount of work to get the best out of. I have tried to go for a sort of Aligator skin patterning but he still looks a bit like a guy in a rubber suit. Still he will make a decent thug or villain for games.

Last up heres a couple of pics of my Ert troopers in action against a marauding Carnosaur pack!

 Carnosaurs rush the Ert Patrol

Gatorgore Pack Master

I doubt I will be able to get much more done before heading off to Bristol in October but I shall see what I can do. I also have some possible employment coming up but we shall have to see what happens!

All the best!

Distraction Danger!

Hi!

For some unknown reason I've spent the last few days sculpting to the backdrop of western movies and am beginning to hanker after trying out some wild west type games. Fortunately for me I still have a number of Peter Pig cowboys kicking around. Some were converted into a hick settler force for sci-fi but I find myself thinking of setting up a game and playing out a gunfight or two.

Thus far I've watched Silverado, The Assassination of Jesse James, The Sons of Katie Elder, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and Breakheart Pass and am about to put on Open Range before moving onto some more old favorites in the form of John Wayne.

I must admit that the era and the movies have lots of inspiration for both fantasy and science fiction gamers so maybe I will compromise and go for some sort of hybrid but we shall see!

All the best!

Squats So Far

Hi!

Heres a quick pic of my Squats so far!

 Squat force investigate an abandoned Ork settlement

I've finally finished a couple of bikers which have been kicking around but needing based for a while which is good but still need to get another few stands of warriors and some berserkers sorted out too!

I have also finished basing the first of my Space Wolves too!

Space Wolf Grey Hunters

I now have some specialist troops for all my forces so need to crack on with some painting done and hopefully will have some decent updates to add in a few days!

All the best!

Robotic Minions

Hi!

A while back I got sent a few robots from Mike at THE SCENE and have had a bash at painting up the little fellows!

Robots by The Scene

They are rather quirky little fellows and would fit in with any Outland settlement. I painted up two as mining/construction machines and the third as an info bot.

I made some of my own robots from bits I had lying around a while back and heres what they look like next to the Scene ones:

Robots!

My robots were made from an old Ork boter with some cocktail sticks and a small tank wheel and wire but they fit in rather nicely with the Scene stuff and I am thinking of making some more to add some more interest to games as objectives, hinderance or even rogue robots set to kill mode...

Next up heres my all time favorite 15mm scale sculpt!

League Scout with light utility vehicle

He's from the old Laserburn range but I can't seem to spot him on the companies website anymore but hes a lovely sculpt with tons of character, even if he is true 15mm scale rather than the newer 18mms. The vehicle is a JES missile carrier from the clicky Mechwarrior game with its missile racks removed and makes a decent light utility vehicle for any frontier colony and is armed with a pintle mounted blaster to deter villains.

UPDATE! He is still available under the Starship Crews section and is a Space Scout!

Robots unload cargo under the watchful eye of the scout

I am still rummaging around for more buildings so I can play some games based in a settlement and hope to get some more sorted out soonish!

Sadly I am going to be off down south for most of October so there probably won't be too much in the way of updates over that time but I shall see what I can come up with on the run up to departure!

All the best!

Stainless Steel Skullduggery!

Hi!

As promised heres the battle report for my recent Stainless Steel Rat game. I used the old Rogue Trader rules, slightly modified to speed things up a bit.

The Background

Soon after Jim is inducted into the Special Corps he discovers a plot to build a secret battleship but the culprit manages to evade him along with the nearly complete ship. After some digging, Jim finds that his foe is a girl called Angelina and sets out to find her before she manages to set her deadly scheme into action.

Looking through the blueprints of the ship, Professor Coypu, the Corps most brilliant, if somewhat eccentric scientist discovers that the ship needs a very rare mineral called Harrissinium to complete a deadly laser weapon that will make the ship all but unstoppable. Hearing this Jim sets out to the Planet Plunder, a one time haven for space pirates where archaeologists have been digging for lost treasure only to find a meteorite made from solid Harrissinium!

Now Jim is in a race against time to get to the dig before his nemesis!

The Scenario

Jim has just arrived at the site and is discussing the best way ahead with the local League Naval commander when Angelina attacks along with the dregs of several systems. Now Jim must stay alive and stop Angelina from carrying out the raid successfully!

The Forces

The Heroes

Jim has not had much chance to raise an armed party to defend the place and is totally unprepared for the attack when it comes.

Slippery Jim and Co

Aside from Jim theres the defence detail, consisting of Sergeant Fung and ranger Kreedo who have been guarding the site. He has managed to bring the League Naval Captain Chard along with able crewman Pooloo. The site also has access to Bertha, an aged and at present dysfunctional armoured car.

The Villains

Angelina has been busy since making off with the battleship and has managed to collect all the worst sort of villains to do her bidding and has turned up at the dig site with some of them to steal the Harrissium and slaughter the archaeologists and anyone else who stands in her way!

Angelinas Raiders

Her force is split into two squads, a more able group with an assortment of pistols and rifles and a group of thugs to do the heavy lifting and armed with knives, pistols and clubs.

Angelina herself is armed to the teeth but prefers to keep out of the action when possible allowing her minons to take the heat.

The Civilians

The archaeologists on the site have been working at clearing the Harrissinium and are still hard at work when the raid starts.

The Dig Site

Professor Churn, his assistant Bunko and a pair of robots along with the film drone are busily working when the shooting begins.

Setup 

The raid begins soon after Jim arrives and Angelina gets the first turn.

The battlefield

Angelinas raiders begin on the southern edge of the board, the thugs on the left to capture the meteorite while Angelina and the trained gunmen deploy in the centre.

 Angelina and the Gunmen

Thug Deployment

Jim begins the game in the prefab that doubles as the digs headquarters along with Chard and Kreedo, Fung is standing guard on top of the storage shed and Pooloo is tinkering with the armoured car and enjoying an illicit cigarette.

The  Headquarters

The Storage Shed

Pooloo enjoys a sneaky smoke while trying to repair the armoured car.

The Game

Turn One sees Angelina and the Gunmen moving towards the headquarters and the thugs moving toward the dig.

Angelina and the Gunmen take cover behind some puffballs and rock formations

 The Thugs thunder forward swinging their clubs in belligerent glee 

Obviously asleep at his post, Sergeant Fung fails to see the raiders and does absolutely nothing while the archaeologists continue working and Jim and co are still deep in discussion in the headquarters.

Turn Two sees the action hot up a bit, the thugs charge at the dig site causing the archaeologists and their robotic sidekicks to panic and scatter. 

 Thuggish Attack!

Run Away!

The archaeologists and their robots panic and scatter. The Drone camera unit manages to fly directly into a tree but survives with only chipped paintwork. Churn follows the robots but Bunko flees into the wilderness and spends much of the remainder of the game hiding behind a cactus.

Bunko behind said cactus

The Gunmen clamber over the rocks and into the clearing (something they would soon come to regret) and begin shooting wildly at Fung but failing to hit. 

Hearing the gunfire, Chard hurls himself out of the headquarters and opens fire with his pistol, dropping one of the raiders in his tracks. Kreelo climbs onto the roof of the building and returns fire but fails to hit anything while Jim radios for the League Navy to send re-enforcements.

Pooloo drops his smoke in panic and desperately tries to start up Bertha but the aged machine refuses to start and Pooloo can do nothing but sweat uncomfortably and wait for the engine to turn over.

 Chard Attacks!

One of the Gunmen Goes Down!

Turn Three sees the thugs chase the professor and robots into the edge of the copse of pines before turning back towards their objective, the meteorite.

 The Thugs chase the Prof

The Camera Drone, obviously malfunctioning, careens off the tree and into an ancient statue, exploding spectacularly and reducing the priceless artefact to rubble.

Kaboom!

The Gunmen, incensed by the death of their compatriot blaze away at Chard but the stalwart captain returns their fire, winging another assailant. Meanwhile Fung finally gets his act together and manages to put down another attacker with a well aimed burst from his autopistol. Jim springs into action and dives out of the building and adds to the shooting but his needle pistol fails to cause any damage, its tranquilizer darts shredding clothing but failing to find skin.

 The Heroes attack

Chard adds another notch to his gun

Pooloo finally manages to get the armoured car going and cackling maniacally sets off from the rear of the building in search of targets.

MWAHAHA! Bertha rumbles into action!

Turn 4 and things are hotting up, once again fire is exchanged between the heroes and villains but Chards luck runs out and he spins and falls as a gunmans shotgun blast knocks him sprawling. Fung, seeing the heroic captain fall, moves to cover him but Kreelos autogun proves more effective and punches another gunman off his feet. 

Chard goes down

At this point things are looking grim for the raiders and they start pulling back just in time to see the cackling Pooloo at the controls of Bertha open fire, incinerating another gunman with a well aimed shot from the plasma gun in the turret.

 Angelina looks on as her gunmen are shot up

 The gunmen die to a man

Despite the losses, Angelina's gunmen have done their job and held up the heroes and as Angelina retreats she sees her thugs lugging the meteor towards a waiting hovertruck.

Jim spots Angelina and moves off in pursuit

Aftermath

Jim spares his compatriots an anxious glance and is relieved to see Chard is still alive as Chud brings the first aid kit and heads off in pursuit of the villainous Angelina hoping to stop her before she can put her diabolical plan into effect.

Whee! Well that was a fun game to play out! I think in future I need to get Jim more involved early on as he didn't act suitably heroically. Still it provides lots of opportunity for a follow on game!

Hopefully I will be able to get some more games played out soon as its been great to get back into the swing of things!

All the best!

Eldar Attack!

Hi!

Well I managed to get some pics taken of the first four bases of my Eldar force:

 Eldar Raiders

Painting eyes on 6mm scale is very frustrating!

Alas due to a panicked request with work which required me to rework 50+ masters for a client I haven't had chance to do anything else with my Epic project this week which is disappointing but can't be helped. 

However I did manage to get a quick pic of a repainted Starwars toy I will be using in my 15mm scale games which I completed a while back but has been languishing on a shelf for a while!

Interstellar Crimelord

Yes I now have Jabba the Hutt to pit against my 15mm scale Special Corps! He's cast from some sort of squashy rubber but unlike most of the human figures in the range, he's solid enough to repaint. Sadly I couldn't remove the mould lines on him properly but they aren't too visible. 

Speaking of the Special Corps, I have rummaged out my Stainless Steel Rat collection and actually managed to get a bit of a game played using the old Rogue Trader rules. The scenario revolved around femme fatale Angelina leading her mob of thugs in a raid on an archaeological site in order to thieve a valuable meteor. Things went pear shaped when the broken down Marine APC sparked into life forcing Angelina and co to make a break for it. 

I will post a full report once I get chance but it was good to get back into the swing of things and play some RPG lite gaming!

All the best!

Death of a Legend and an end of an era.

Well I have done absolutely nothing with this blog for several years now, mainly due to the fact that I have been at university and my Stainless Steel Rat collection has been in storage at my parents.

I was saddened to hear that Harry Harrison, the author of the Stainless Steel Rat books and creator of Slippery Jim diGriz died recently and it only seems right that I try to ressurect this project in a limited sort of way so that once again the Special Corps and James Bolivar diGriz, Angelina, Professor Coypu and Inskipp get a chance to once again tread the spaceways!

Its been a busy few years for me, leaving my job in Dundee, moving to Worcester for university, working on a feature film, setting up my own company, moving to Portsmouth and finally back up to Edinburgh and theres yet another move on the cards for next year.

Sadly my gaming budget is non existent but I do have a fair number of figures kicking around as well as a willingness to sit and sculpt more.

I think the first thing that I need to do is re-read the series as its been several years since I last had chance to peruse them and search out inspiration. Also I will be moving the action over to my new gaming blog TALES FROM FARPOINT as its far easier for me to keep one blog going than half a dozen.

Fear not though! I wont close this blog down but will keep it up as a reference and any games I play I will post the articles here too!

Hopefully I will be able to rummage out my books over the course of this week and get some serious reading and note taking done and get one or two bits and bobs sorted out for a Stainless Steel Rat game!

All the best!

Assorted Additions...

Hi!

Well Its been a busy couple of days work wise so I haven't had much chance to get many bits done for my Epic project but did manage to finish off a couple more stands and some scenery.

First off I found some of the Hexon terrain builder bits in a box and knocked together a passable building which will handily scale for both 6mm and 15mm games. I also got a command stand completed for my Squats in the form of an Exo Armoured Trike which is a lovely chunky looking piece. I do have some biker stands half done but they still need a bit of work.

 Scenery and an Exo Armored Trike

Next up theres the first of the EM4 Miniatures plastic mechs:

Omni Corp Battlemech

For the princely sum of £2.55 you get 5 mechs, two of the light ones above, a pair of heavier machines and a larger biped. They are rather nice pieces of kit with a good amount of customisation potential. I will be using them as a Megacorporate expeditionary force consisting entirely of mechs and battle armour and want to see if I can find a decent super heavy machine to act as a command unit. 

The mech is based on a 40mm round base which may look a bit on the big side but as most of my vehicles are similarly based it fits in ok! I had originally gone for a jade green armour but it looked a bit bland so I added some camo which seems to suit it better. I'm still not too sure about the cockpit canopy and may repaint it though as the jewel effect I tried didn't really work.

Next up will be the remainder of my Squats, the beginning of some Space Wolves and even some Eldar!

All the best!

15mm Scale Carnosaurs Painted

Hi!

Heres a few pics of the Carnosaurs I sculpted a while back which were picked up by CP MODELS:

 Carnosaurs

Voracious predators, a pack of Carnosaurs overrun a mining outpost

I enjoyed sculpting the little chaps and painting them was great fun too. They are available from CP Models online store for £3.50 a pack.

All the best!

Stuff For Sale Page Added

Hi!

I have started adding bits and bobs to my new FOR SALE PAGE! At present its a pair of large resin Leviathan Orc warbeasts but I also have some stuff up for sale on ebay which can be found HERE.

Warbeast For Sale!

I have also added lots of Dwarves, Chaos and Humans to the pile so please feel free to take a peek!

All the best!

Ultramarine Force Thus Far!

Hi!

Heres the Ultramarines I have completed thus far:

Veteran Ultramarine Taskforce

I have finally finished my commanders Rhino so he won't have to travel everywhere on foot. I wanted to differentiate between the command Rhino and normal ones so gave it an extra bit of iconography:

 Command Rhino

I also found an old plastic Dreadnought which will give me an extra heavy support choice for my force too:

Dreadnought!

I even managed to scribe a tiny ULTRA text on its shoulder but foolishly managed to take a picture of its other side!

Next up heres my Squat force thus far, I still need to add a command choice as well as some more infantry and vehicles but its slowly getting there:

Squat Warrior Detachment

I actually managed to get a bit of a playtest game of my own ruleset over the weekend featuring the Ultramarines versus the Squats along with some mercenary support. Its a bit early to take any photos as I badly need to complete some more scenery but I did enjoy the game, despite the Imperiums finest getting a thrashing! As I develop the rules a bit I will post some more reports!

Squats versus Marines

In the meantime heres some more pics of the new additions to the Squats:

 Thudd Gun!

Thunderers

Its mostly been some heavy firepower that I have finished but it has made the Squat force pretty shooty as the Ultramarines have already found to their cost!

Squat Brotherhood 

Finally heres some more bits and bobs that I have completed or rummaged out to add to the mix:

Pirate Spider Mech

Mercenary Heavy Battle Armour

Super Heavy Mining Mech (this fellow decimated the Marines in the game I played)

Marine Armour Deploys!

Mining Mech discovers a fallen meteor

I still have a load of bits and bobs to work on including some bikers for my Squats and a fair few additions to my Ultramarines but I also have another project that will be taking up some of my time too!

All the best!