15mm Sci-fi Gubbins

Hi!

Heres a couple of quick pics of some 15mm bits and bobs I've been working on of late!

Crimson Fist Space Marines!

I have had these chaps based and primed for AGES so I figured I should do something with them and after a very quick paint job, Voila! Some ersatz Space Marines! Looking through my bits boxes, I have literally dozens of the little fellows so I may end up fielding a few full squads!

Next up I mentioned a couple of days back that I had played out a small skirmish using Rogue Trader in 15mm scale. Sadly my camera battery is running low so I've only just had chance to take some quick pics of the two forces prior to the game thus far but have taken lots of notes of the action as it played out so I will post a complete report in the next few days once my camera is fully charged!

 The Red Redemptionist Menace

Ert Peacekeepers and Imperial Advisor

As you can see the game takes place between two very small forces but it was rather fun and had a rather unexpected outcome!

Its interesting to note that despite going on a 28mm spree of late, I seem to find myself once again attracted to 15mm too. Who knows, maybe my STAINLESS STEEL RAT BLOG will get some much needed love in the not too distant future!

Finally heres a quick pic of a test piece I have done for my Kryomek project!

Talos Unit

I must admit I was planning on doing a more high tech paint scheme on him but as I looked at him with the simple bare metal effect, I thought it looked fine, especially for a bunch of colonial marines. And speaking of which, I finished speed painting a squad of five plastic EM4 miniatures last night who will be acting as proxies for the real deal and have come to realise that I hate group painting models!

Don't get me wrong, the finished effect is fine but the effort that goes into essentially producing a production line approach just doesn't appeal to me and I would far prefer to churn through each figure individually, even if it takes far longer.

All the best!

First Ork Squad Complete!

Hi!

Well its taken a rather long time but heres a quick pic of my first Ork squad:

Waaargh!

Now I have got the first five finished and out of the way, I need to crack on and get the rest finished which I suspect will take an age but is proving quite an entertaining process. I will also be working on their bases a bit as they are a tad plain at present so there will be some static grass and assorted bits added when I get the chance.

Heres Goff Ork number five:

Ork No5 

He's a bit of a cut and mix of one of the old plastic Orks and arms and hands from the 2nd edition 40k box set Orks. I tried painting one of them up entirely the other day but ended up cutting its arms off and throwing it away as the sculpts are just so hideous!

In other news I have put together a small squad of EM4 Miniatures plastic troopers who will be seeing double duty as Imperial Guard and Nexus Marines along with a rather battered Talos unit to give them some much needed hitting power. Once I have them painted, I will post some pics along with some background for the mini campaign I am hoping to get up and running once I have enough stuff painted!

On a side note I just found this little chap too:

15mm Scale Warboss!

He's a 15mm scale sculpt I completed just before moving house and its taken me till now to find him! I also have another four or five of the little fellows kicking around and when combined with the 15mm.co.uk stuff I produced for a commission a while back, theres enough to field a decent little force which will be seeing action soon as I attempt to play some more games!

All the best!

Kryomek!

Hi!

I've been spending a little time thinking on some of the games I liked back when I first abandoned the GW hobby and struck out on my own. back in the mid 90s, the only non GW store in Edinburgh was Macs Models which stocked an eclectic range of figures ranging from historicals to Flintloque, Leviathan and Kryomek (on a related note, there is now no non GW store in Edinburgh which is a real shame!)

I picked up a copy of Kryomek and some of the figures, mostly down to the rather lovely cover and interior artwork produced by some of the leading lights in the UK comic industry at the time:

What really captivated me was the background, instead of the Grimdark cartooniness of the mid 90s Warhammer 40000, Kryomek seemed a lot more believable and revolved around a setting where mankind had expanded throughout much of the galaxy by using high tech gateways to travel faster than the speed of light.

On one such expedition they jumped into a system inhabited by the Kryomek, a xenomorphic race of monsters, somewhat like the creature from Alien but with the ability to use all sorts of gribbly firearms and swords too!

The idea of mankind in a fight for survival, but with lots of high tech and an actual chance of winning was quite a revelation for someone who had been immersed in the GW Grimdark for years. To be honest the whole background was like the film Aliens and that was a real pull too with dodgy megacorps sending out colonial marines to do battle with implacable alien foes and the writing was very interesting too as it covered all sorts of randomness from first encounters to how the Nexus government dealt with rebellions, convicts and even colonisation and terraforming.

The result was a very rich setting that had lots of plot hooks for campaigns and some really original ideas. The rules themselves were solid but the rulebook was let down somewhat by some slightly unclear elements which were only somewhat resolved by the release of Hivestone, the first and only supplement to Kryomek.

Sadly as with so many of my projects, it went the way of the dodo when I got out of the hobby entirely soon after. Step forward to 2009 and I found myself at University and discovered that the company that made the stuff for my Leviathan project also still produced the original range. Soon after a FORUM was set up and quite a few folks posted interest and Scotia Grendel even made some noises about releasing some new stuff for the game but as time went on, interest waned and Kryomek once again found itself languishing in the unloved list of forgotten games other than the excellent work a chap called Bagpuss who runs a blog called HIVESTONE INCURSION and has pretty much singlehandedly kept the flag flying for Kryomek.

Which brings me to the present. To date, Kryomek is still available along with a lovely range of figures and the rules themselves can even be downloaded for free from Scotia Grendel but there has been no new releases so both the Marines and the Kryomek are incomplete. I am hoping to try and collect a couple of small forces with the hope of getting some skirmishes played in the Kryomek universe and see if I can inspire folks to give the game a try!

I would highly recommend downloading the books HERE. They are free and are worth taking a peek at for the background and artwork alone and who knows, if enough folks show interest, maybe Kryomek will get a much needed shot in the arm from Scotia Grendel too but if for no other reason, it will be fun to paint up some Marines and send them on a bug hunt!

What Kryomek needs is a revised rulebook that covers all the niggles that the original had (interestingly the mechanics were actually based on Stargrunt!) and the range needs completing and expanding a little too and if folks are interested then please feel free to start posting over on the forum with suggestions and ideas!

All the best!

Ork Progress!

Hi!

Well I've finally finished a Nob for my Goff squad (I think he's officially only a Scarboy according to the catalogue but will do the trick for now!)

Goff Nob!

He's got quite a bit of character and I only added a plastic jaw from my bits box and beefed up his plastic arms a little but am quite pleased how he turned out. I mounted him on a 30mm round base as he looked a tad silly with the normal 25mm base.

Here's a shot of the squad so far:

Goffs

The Nob stands a little bigger than the rest and I am rather enjoying painting up the lot of them, even if its at a somewhat snail like pace. Next on the painting table will be a special weapon Ork to give them some hitting power, and will be either a flamer or meltagun. 

I also took a shot of him alongside some of my Carnosaurs (available from CP Models) Despite them being aimed at 15mm scale gaming, they look quite alright next to the bigger fellows:

Carnosaurs!

I think with the addition of a few more of the large jawed ones and a runtherd, it could make for an interesting little unit!

I also managed to play out a small skirmish using Rogue Trader and featuring my 15mm scale Red Redemptionists and some alien Levy and will post a short battle report when I get chance!

All the best!

Dwarven Order of the Axe

Hi!

Just a quick update to show the completed Dwarven commander figure from the Leviathan range:

Order of the Axe Commander

It has to be said he's a big Dwarf standing well over 20mm tall but has lots of nice little details on him such as his warhelm and severed elven head. 

Hopefully I will have the Golem ready for an update over the weekend too and I have even found my 15mm stuff so there might even be a battle report coming up too!

All the best!

All the b

Wargolem Part 1

Hi!

Heres a quick peek at something I'm working on for my Dwarf force!

Wargolem!

Its a bit of a hodgepodge of different models with some shoulders which I've made from Milliput, Greenstuff and Procreate. Theres still quite a lot to do before I get to the painting stage but I thought it was high time for me to actually get on with some big resin stuff!

The model consists of the MkII Black Thunder body and legs along with the MkI Wargolem arms. The mace hand has been cut off, pinned and reposed to give it a slightly more dynamic pose and most of the casts irregularities such as small air bubbles and mould lines have been removed too.

The right shoulder still needs a lot of work and the left needs more studs and spikes adding and I am thinking of adding some large pieces of scale mail to make it more closely match the original concept art. 

The reason I decided to do this project is that the MkI Wargolem kit I had was rather badly miscast and was covered in mould lines where the mould had been mis-alaigned which would have resulted in having to clean up a considerable amount of resin, something I really wanted to avoid as its not unlike trying to chip off rock and even my dremel would have struggled!

Hopefully by this time next week I will have him primed and ready to paint and will post another update then!

In the meantime all the best!

Syntha Androsynth Test Piece

Hi!

While rummaging through my box of unpainted figures, I found my old Syntha figures that I had collected from various places with the intention of painting up at some point and figured it was high time I actually did something about it and heres the result:

Syntha Androsynth Test Piece

Sadly the photo seems to have washed out the colour a little but it gives the general gist what the eventual force might look like! He may get reworked a bit with his shoulderpads and knees getting redone in black as he is a little bland at the moment.

Once I get the force finished they will be seeing action as either a Megacorp security force for Void or Kryomek or even a Rogue Traders retinue for Warhammer 40k!

All the best!

Leviathan Rules Redux

Hi!

Well its been a rather mixed couple of days here, on the one hand I have got quite a bit of painting sorted out but on the other am struck down with man flu! Still its given me some time to think about what I want to do with this project!

Initially I had set up this blog to cover the Leviathan rulebook and setting but it soon became more about the setting that I was developing and taking it off on a tangent from the original into something far more home grown.

Likewise despite having been a supporter of Leviathan all this time I have never actually played a game using the rules from the book. Instead I used lots of other ones such as Song of Blades and even Rogue Trader to represent the rules. I suspect this is partly because I don't have the 8x4 foot board required to play a game and partly because the rules have a rather unfinished feel to them.

The problem is that it was intended as the core rulebook but needed a little more work to it. At present theres too many missing bits, unclear rules and whatnot to really make for a satisfying game so I am proposing cheating and using a completely different set instead!

Theres a long list of fantasy games that would do the trick but Leviathan doesn't really fit them, theres too many big machines, tanks and monsters to fit properly so I am going to experiment with two rulesets that I have found and like, firstly theres Rogue Trader, yes its a sci-fi ruleset but I have always enjoyed playing it and its very flexible too!

The other set is going to be No Quarter by Wargames Unlimited, a rather nice set of generic rules available for free which is good and it has the added advantage of using the D10 instead of D6's.

Now I've made my decision, I need to sort out some forces and looking at what I have left, its looking like the Dwarves have the advantage as I still have a decent amount of stuff available for them!

At present I have enough to field the following:

1 Order of the Axe Guilder

1 Technomancer

2 Order of the Axe Drakes

2 units of 5 Dwarf Guards armed with hand weapons, medium armour and shields.

1 unit of 5 Dwarf Guards armed with spears, medium armour and shields (2 need paint stripping)

1 unit of 5 Dwarf Guards armed with crossbows and medium armour. (still missing 2 crossbowmen)

3 multi barrelled grenade launchers (still missing 9 crewmen)

Dwarf Guard

To this list I still need to add the following to give me a nice force to be getting on with:

2 Thunderhammer Battletanks

1 Irondrake Battletank 

5 Pavices for the Crossbow unit. 

I will also be adding a transport vehicle for one of my infantry squads from Ramshackle Games too but more on that later! For now I will be trying to finish what I have to hand before getting any more stuff and will try and get some stats and armylists put together for both systems.

All the best!

Ork Trio

Hi!

Well I've finished another Ork for my Goffs which takes me to the princely number of three!

Orks!

I still have another five boyz, one heavy weapon and a Nob to paint up but I feel I am slowly getting there. After that I want to get myself sorted out with a warboss and a bolter armed squad to cover the assault troops while they attack. I suspect this is going to be a bit of an ongoing project and mostly made out of plastic too as I still have a fair number of the old Ork plastics kicking around and by combining the arms from the notorious old plastic Orks from the 2nd edition box set I have plenty of axes and bolt pistols to go around!

In related news, I have also been beavering away with getting some Fallen troops sorted out for my LEVIATHAN PROJECT:

 Fallen Knights

Deathseeker Assassin

I must admit I've had mixed feelings about the Leviathan project as I burned myself out with it a few years back which pretty much took me out of the hobby for a while but its been rather fun to re-explore the world of Aeroth and theres lots of ideas I have rattling around for the forces too but you can read more about that over on my other blog!

All the best!

Fallen Knights

Hi!

Just a quick update to show some completed Fallen Knights!

Fallen Knights

Originally from Chronopia, they will be seeing service as Chaos Warriors for Warhammer and Fallen Knights for Leviathan. I actually picked them up a couple of years back from a bargain bin in my local gameshop in Gosport (sadly now closed) and wish I had a few more as they paint up quite nicely and a full regiment of them would be rather nice...

All the best!

Deathseeker Assassin

Hi!

Heres the newest addition to my Leviathan project, the Deathseeker! Reading the background of the Leviathan book theres mention of a prince of the Fallen called Bethshakai, the Hidden One but other than a brief description, not much else so I thought it would be fun to create some troops for him to add some interest to the campaign I am hoping to start!

The model itself is one of the Mage Knight Metals from Ral Partha that I picked up a couple of years back.

Bethshakai, the Hidden One is one of the Princes of the Fallen but unlike Azothar or The Devourer, relies on more subtle ways to achieve his ends than brute force. He has many followers hidden amidst the races of Aeroth who act as his eyes and ears and allow him to carry out his labyrinthine scheming.

One of his most common servants are the cult of the Deathbringer Assassins. Raised in the secret temples of the Spider god, these mortals are taught the many ways of silent killing, secrecy and stealth, their very bodies become weapons of death.

Under the nominal command of the Oracles, The Hidden Ones priests, the Deathbringers deal out silent punishment for those who oppose their master. Armed with bow and barbed arrows the Deathbringer can kill from afar or close in using their knives and with their robes of darkest black, they strike from the shadows before vanishing like ghosts.

One example of their skill was the death of Maleketh, Azothars warchief in the Weeping Glades region. A mighty Elven noble of terrible reputation, Maleketh was killed with a single arrow though the eyeslit of his helm by a shadowy figure in the midst of battle from a range of over three hundred yards. Likewise many a foe of the Spider God have fallen under the Deathbringers blades or been found poisoned in seemingly impossible locations ranging from secure vaults in the Dwarven holds to shrines of the Knights of the Eternal Light.

Deathseeker Assassin

He will be seeing use as an independent character that will form part of a secret cult within some of the non Fallen societies in Aeroth!

All the best!

Fallen Footsoldier

Amongst the human survivors of the Death following the Elves breaking of the great seal, many have flocked to the banners of the princes of the Fallen. In return they are granted power but at a terrible price. 

Azothar the Destroyer, also known as The Lord Of Havok, has raised armies of such foolish mortals to help him conquer large areas of Aeroth as his Fallen minions cannot always be relied upon while the Human regiments are fanatically loyal to their new master. 

Fallen Footsoldiers are the regular troops of the Lord of Havok and wear heavy suits of plate armour, usually painted in ruddy reds or black and wielding heavy iron swords and axes. 

These mighty warriors are especially despised by the Untamed, the human barbarian clans of the north who believe that they have insulted the Earth Mother by turning their backs on her and siding with the forces of evil.

Fallen Footsoldier

Hi!

Well thats the first of a unit of about half a dozen Fallen Footsoldiers that I am putting together at the moment! He's one of the old plastic Chaos Warriors but will be seeing duty in a Fallen warband instead. 

They are a new force I have been thinking of adding for a while now as the background from the book mentions humans fighting for the Fallen and I will add more information on them as I paint up the rest of them!

All the best!

Friendly Goff

Hi!

Well I'm slowly churning my way through my collection of unpainted stuff and have just finished another of the plastic Orks that I bought some time back:

Not Very Menacing Goff

I must admit he's no the toughest or indeed scariest looking Ork and is actually sculpted with a smile! Saying that it does fit in with the Paul Bonner artwork of the time! 

Next up heres a Chaos Warrior thats seeing use in my Leviathan project:

Red Armoured Fun!

I still have a load more bits and pieces to paint and am rather enjoying the experience but am trying to ensure I don't get bored by swapping between lots of different types of model so I don't end up running out of steam!

All the best!

Leviathan Aid!

Hi!

I am on the lookout for some help with my Leviathan project! Essentially I am after a copy of the revised rulebook which was released in the late 90s with a spiral binding and even the faint hope of locating anyone who worked on either it or the original edition so I can get any information on the long lost Earthpower supplement which sadly went missing.

Help find Leviathan material! The Technomancer Demands it!

If you have the revised rules or know anyone who could be of help please dont hesitate to get in touch as I am hoping to put together a new revised fan edition and any information you folks can provide would be very much appreciated!

All the best!

Calling For Leviathan!

Hi!

Just a quick update! I am on the lookout for anyone who may have either playtested or even worked on either the original Leviathan or the revised edition from the late 90s with the faint hope of getting any information on the long lost Earthpower supplement!

It was mentioned on the back of the rulebook and indeed there was a draft copy of it back in the day but it was lost when Scotia-Grendels computer broke so I am hoping to piece together whatever I can from it and put a fan edition together!

I have been in touch with Scotia-Grendel direct, William King, who wrote the background and even John Robertson who originally developed the game but the mists of time have meant I have drawn a blank so I am hoping that there may be someone out there who can help!

For reference, the revised edition of Leviathan came in a spiral binding and had an Elven and Dwarf versions.

I know its a vague hope but you never know!

All the best!

Dramatis Personae

Hi!

Heres a couple of quick pics of some new additions to my painted stuff!

First up theres my Technomancer for my Dwarf force:

Technomancer!

He is one of the only Leviathan sculpts I currently actually have in my collection and in my opinion, is also one of the best sculpts from the original range as he really looks like the original concept. 

Interestingly in the armylists of the book, he comes with a couple of apprentices so I will need to see if I can locate some suitable figures who will also need to be armed with some rockets. I really want to see about sculpting up his other weapon option, that of a flamethrower too though as its a really nasty weapon!

Next up is a freelance magic user:

Zap!

I am not sure what I am going to do with him to be honest as he doesn't really fit in any of the established armies from the game so he may end up as a rogue sorcerer on the run from the Knights of the Eternal Light and either hiring out his skills or hiding in amongst the ruins of one of the megacities that dot the surface of Aeroth. 

He's originally from the Chainmail range and did have a small mace and fireball but I reworked him a couple of years back for a possible VSF force that never materialised but he looks quite fine for Leviathan too!

Next up I have been compiling a bit of a list of what I actually have and it doesn't make enjoyable reading for Leviathan. As many folks noted, I gave up on the project a couple of years back and sold almost the entire collection so I don't have much to work with so am going to have to make do with what bits and bobs I can find in my box of bits before starting on a very limited scheme of purchasing what I need to replace.

I am also looking at what forces I want to concentrate on and have settled on the Dwarves to begin with followed by the Elves.

The reason for this is that the Dwarf range of resin is pretty much complete and has stood the test of time quite well. The Elves on the other hand, haven't really had any attention from me at all, even in my last attempt at the project so this time round I want to make a proper bash at them and I may even sculpt some new stuff for them too!

All the best!

Goff Ork!

Hi!

I rummaged out an old plastic Ork the other night and spent a bit of time painting him as a test piece for the rest of my Orks that are currently languishing in my box of bits!

Grr!

I must admit he turned out rather well, especially as he was stripped of an old coat of paint and I am quite pleased with the skin tone too which I usually struggle with for Orks. I still have another dozen or so of the plastics and even some metal gubbins which I will paint up as and when I get chance over the coming weeks but I think I may end up with enough for a small Rogue Trader type of force!

All the best!

Old School Revisited

Hi!

Well after much pondering I have decided to restart my Leviathan project!

Its my own personal mania, akin to many other gamers obsession with the likes of Warhammer Fantasy Battle 2nd and 3rd editions or Rogue Trader.

The Book That Started It All!

My first experience of the game was as a pimply youth visiting my local independent wargame store the late and much lamented Macs Models on the Royal Mile of Edinburgh. I vividly remember them having the artwork on display and selling copies of the rules and the outsized blister packs of resin monsters. I immediately bought the rulebook with my hard earned pocket money and spent the next few weeks avidly reading the rules and outstanding background (written by William King of Gotrek fame) and found myself strongly drawn to the idea of a post apocalyptic fantasy world with outsized monsters.

Sadly Macs Models closed down not long after and with it my access to the miniatures (this was pre access to internet for the Smith Clan) and my rulebook sat forgotten on a shelf as I went onto other projects and jobs.

Fast forward over a decade and in 2008 I went off to university after spending eight years in a bookshop and being out of the hobby pretty much the entire time. While I was packing for the move to Worcester I happened to pick up my copy of Leviathan and sat and re-read it and found it to be really rather good. Looking around the interwebs, I soon discovered that the game was still in production by Scotia Grendel who had an online store and I set about collecting all the bits and pieces I would need to play the game including some truly epic resin monsters such as this fellow:

Orc Titanosaur!

Sadly my means and small flat didn't allow for much space or money to collect a large force and after initial interest by Scotia in a new edition and two years of work by me, I gave up on the project and sold off most of my collection but here I am back to obsessing over a long forgotten ruleset and the range of decidedly unusual figures that went with it!

I am hoping to get back into the swing of things by collecting a small Dwarf force and see how I go! I will be posting my progress over on my old LEVIATHAN BLOG and I hope folks dont mind the rambling nonsense I will be posting on it!

I will be keeping this blog going with all my random sci-fi stuff (including some Rogue Trader Orks I hope to be able to crack on with soon too!)

UPDATE!

Hi!

I am also thinking of kicking off a bit of a nostalgic Kryomek mini project to top up the old school vibe!

Cover of pure awesomeness!  

All the best!

Painting Dwarves!

Hi!

Well I seem to have found myself painting some 28mm scale Dwarves for the first time in years since my Leviathan project ground to a halt while I was still at University!

Dwarves!

For the most part they are the identical plastics produced by Games Workshop back in fourth edition of Fantasy Battle but with a rather lovely Heartbreaker Miniatures leader!

I must confess I am not sure what I will do with the little fellows as yet but I am sorely tempted to have a bash at playing some of the rulesets I have kicking around which is why they are on the 20mm square bases which will allow me to use them in games of Warhammer and Crucible as well as more skirmish based games like dare I say it, Leviathan?!

I have enough bits and bobs to bash together a small Dwarf army without buying anything else which is very handy too! What I do need though are some command troops as I currently seem to be missing some musicians and standard bearers to complete the units! I must admit I am really liking the Heartbreaker Dwarf and may have to nip over to Black Tree Design and Ral Partha Europe to pick up a few more of the style.

The plan is to get the unit up to 10-12 figures with a complete command and see how I go! I will need to see if I can rummage out some more bits and bobs to go with it but I already find myself basing up some Hobgoblins to menace them!

All the best!