Well, the first game with the caverns was a success. It showed up a few oddities in my rules which I shall be tweaking, but it has also interested someone else at the Games Club in getting some 15mm stuff, which is good!
I have also signed up to start playtesting the new HOF Fireteam rules. I've played one game already, so I must log onto their yahoo group to put my comments on there.
Photographs to follow!
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Saturday, 20 February 2010
GZG Colonists
Painted the first couple of colonists I have - these are from SG15-V1 - Civilians/colonists pack A. I have to say, the male colonist looks very grumpy and miserable.
Why? Either he's fed up being stuck on some grotty colony world at the back end of the universe, or he knows that he's about to become monster food - after all, he is wearing a red shirt!
GZG Light Vacc-Suits
When I saw these light vacc-suits from GZG (SG15-V15 Armed crew figures in light duty vacc-suits and SG15-V10 Spacesuited crew in light-duty vacc-suits) , I instantly thought of my old "Action Force" Space Patrol / Security Trooper figures. It was the helmet in particular. I could already picture them in my mind's eye painted with orange environment suits, grey helmets and black visors.
As my AF figures are still in Mum & Dad's loft several hundred miles away, it was time to take a look at "Blood for the Baron", a fantastic archive of everything Action-Force related! I found the figure I was after - the Space Security Trooper.
On closer inspection, I decided to leave out some features of the original figures - bright blue gloves, boots and weapons don't seem out of place when you're 10, but just didn't give the right gritty sci-fi feel to tie them in with my other 15mm figures. I'll go for grey gloves and black boots. The old AF figures had a one-piece armoured torso and helmet, but the GZG figures have an unarmoured torso. Rather than indulge in fiddly conversion work, I just went with the figures as they are.
Undercoat - Humbrol matt 33 black enamel
Base coat - Heavy drybrush of Humbrol 100 german army red-brown enamel
Mid coat- Lighter drybrush of Humbrol 70 matt brick red enamel
Top coat - light drybrush of Humbrol matt 82 orange lining enamel
Helmet/gloves - Humbrol 33 black with a drybrush of matt 32 dark grey acrylic
As my AF figures are still in Mum & Dad's loft several hundred miles away, it was time to take a look at "Blood for the Baron", a fantastic archive of everything Action-Force related! I found the figure I was after - the Space Security Trooper.
On closer inspection, I decided to leave out some features of the original figures - bright blue gloves, boots and weapons don't seem out of place when you're 10, but just didn't give the right gritty sci-fi feel to tie them in with my other 15mm figures. I'll go for grey gloves and black boots. The old AF figures had a one-piece armoured torso and helmet, but the GZG figures have an unarmoured torso. Rather than indulge in fiddly conversion work, I just went with the figures as they are.
Undercoat - Humbrol matt 33 black enamel
Base coat - Heavy drybrush of Humbrol 100 german army red-brown enamel
Mid coat- Lighter drybrush of Humbrol 70 matt brick red enamel
Top coat - light drybrush of Humbrol matt 82 orange lining enamel
Helmet/gloves - Humbrol 33 black with a drybrush of matt 32 dark grey acrylic
Colonial Security
These Colonial Security officers from GZG (SG15-V6 Colonial Security (Cops) pack 2) will be out policing the city soon.
After the standard Humbrol enamel matt 33 black undercoat, the faces and hands were painted with my own flesh mix (old GW bronzed flesh, Humbrol acrylic flesh, a dash of GW bestial brown), followed by a GW flesh wash and highlighting with the flesh mix. Jackets were painted Humbrol matt 104 oxford blue acrylic. When I find my large pot of Humbrol 25 blue acrylic, they'll receive a light drybrush of that. Trousers are also Humbrol acrylics, base coat of 32 matt dark grey followed by a drybrush of matt 64 light grey. Waistband and cuffs on the jackets were re-painted in black. Pistols are black, and the shotgun will possibly be given a brown stock and barrel grip. Bases have received a coat of PVA & sand, which was then painted with brown/grey/green finish.
Mobile Missile System
"We've all been there. You need mobile close air defence, but there's no room in the DropShip for a light tank based launcher unit, and the groundmount system is unmanoeuverable and just too tactically limited. Until now, you've just had to hunker down and hope the enemy fighters don't make an attack run until your backup arrives..."
"Introducing the new mobile missile system for all your medium surface-to-surface and surface-to-air combat needs! The marriage of a tried and tested 4-round medium missile battery with the drive unit from a Mobile Autonomous Weapons System give you the flexibility that you need on the modern battlefield. The tracked chassis gives a stable fire platform for the launcher system coupled with good mobility over rough terrain."
Following a conversation with Jon at GZG, this little project came about, and Jon kindly let me add a MAWP to my order, which already included some missile launchers. The inspiration came from the old Action Force "Z-Force Dart" mobile missile system, and uses parts from V15-25D Medium Missile Battery on groundmount and V15-22B MAWP(T) with Plasma Gun.
The missile launcher section has been assembled in the normal fashion, as has the base unit for the MAWP. As Jon uses the same diameter rod for all the small turret mountings, so all I needed to do was drill the mounting hole on the MAWP slightly deeper and the conversion was done - nice and easy! Now to see how the Plasma Gun from the MAWP looks on a groundmount...