SG15-HS2 Hammer's Slammers with visors closed

 I thought I'd posted these pictures a while ago but if I did I couldn't find them!

These Slammers are identical to set SG15-HS1 except that their visors are closed.  Colour scheme is exactly as the first set I painted.

As before, weapons are (L-R, top - bottom) pistol, buzzbomb launcher, powergun, grenade launcher (thanks to Comstar for pointing that out last time) and 4 more powerguns.

 I think they'd make good security personnel too, they look quite intimidating.

One thing I haven't painted on is the red and blue pull tabs on the front of the armour for the painkiller/stimulant injectors, though they are moulded on.

SG15-J03 - Japanese Power Armour

The conclusion of my Ground Zero Games Japanese Corporate Troops painting project - power armour.

As you can see, we have a squad leader with a couple of very chunky swords.  They have small cables running into them so presumably they are power swords/vibroswords or something similar.  He also has 2 banner-styles fins containing sensors and communications gear.  Next in line are a pair of identical troopers armed with tribarrel support weapons, making good use of the power armour's extra load-carrying capacity.

The bottom row comprises a trooper with some sort of square-barrelled heavy weapon.  Maybe it's some sort of heavy flechette gun or launcher.  Finally there are a couple of troopers armed with paired shoulder-mounted missile pods which are obviously the same as the single hexagonal-fronted one carried by the heavy weapon trooper in the normal infantry set.

 I've followed a pretty similar colour scheme to the regular troopers, using Vallejo beastly brown and charred brown with GW red gore on the shoulder pads, backpack grilles and lower leg details.

The commander has the little sensor windows on his back fins detailed in green for a bit of contrast.

 Finally a comparison photo so that you can see how a normal trooper measures up against one in power armour.

I've seen several other reviews where people have commented on the "teddy-bear" shape of the helmet!  They are quite cute.

Remembrance Day

No games today - just Remembrance Parade to show our respect for those who have given their lives in the service of our country.

Our Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers paraded through the village to the mediaeval round-towered church where we stood round the war memorial and had a short service.

The little metal and plastic people we play with in our games have no families and friends to miss them when they're gone.  They don't have hopes and dreams that will never be fulfilled because they die on some far-of battlefield.

I thank our brave service men and women both past and present for my safety and for my freedom.

Games mat

Following the success of my initial experiments, plans are proceeding apace with my games mat.

Fabric Warehouse on Swan Lane in Norwich can do me 1.4m wide brown leatherette at £6 per metre length.  I reckon that if I get 2m I'll end up with a 6½ x 4½ foot playing surface.  If I trim it to a 6x4 sheet which will be big enough for all my games, I'll have enough in the off-cuts to make over 30 2x12 inch tracks or a mixture of tracks and ploughed fields or whatever I fancy.

Based on the coverage I achieved on my trial muddy track sections, I think another 3 tubes of brown frame sealant will be enough to cover the main gaming mat so a quick trip to "QD" at the same time will give me all I need.  I've got plenty of plasticard scraps which I can turn into scupting tools to create tracks, wheel-ruts and other low relief featuures.

A 6x4 Zuzzy mat would certainly be far superior in detail and quality of finish, but at £32.96 (according to currency converter) plus an additional 22% postage it would be more expensive than my budget substitute which should come in at less than £18 (circa $28).  Neither of these prices includes paint, but that would work out the same in each case.  With my home-made gaming surface I won't mind so much if the painting goes wrong because it should be easy to fix without the worry of damaging an expensive mail order item that I'd have to re-order from the US!

I'll also have the satisfaction of having made it myself, and that chance for creativity is one of the main reasons that I enjoy making scenery and painting models.

If everything goes according to plan, I have ideas for another games matt fro urban games with a low-relief road and pavement layout into which I can drop my existing urban scenery (which has been built using a 10x10cm grid).

SG15-J04 Kneeling & Prone Japanese

I've just realised that I've done these out of order and that the Power Armour should have been next but never mind, I'll leave them for next time!

These kneeling and prone troopers have the same armour and assault rifles as the standing troops.  There's not much more to say really, whether you would buy this pack probably depends upon your views on prone figures.  If you didn't want to use them as regular riflemen, you could probably convert them into snipers or support gunners without too much bother by adding long gun barrels.  A bit of brass or plastic tube would give you an anti-tank missile.  This would be different from the hexagonal shaped launcher with the standing figures, but I've always thought that looks more like an anti-personnel launcher firing smaller warheads.

SG15-J02 Japanese Corporate Troops (bare headed)

 More Japanese Corporate Troops, this time without their helmets.  Other than that they're identical to those in pack SG15-J01.

I think that the bare heads add a huge amount of character to these models.  I particularly like the squad leader shouting orders

I've used exactly the same base colour scheme as the previous set.  After discussions with Jon Tuffley I've given them white headbands with a red circle in the middle to add to the Japanese feel.  I don't know if that would have any particular meaning in Japan but it looks OK anyway!

I'm especially impressed by the fact that these are 8 unique models, Jon has given each a different head rather than just doing 1 variation on each of the 5 basic figure types.

As you'd expect, these figures mix in well with the helmeted troopers.

 Tomorrow I hope to post the kneeling/prone Japanese troops - stay tuned!

SG15-J01 Japanese Corporate Troops

 I've aimed for a Samurai feel with these Japanese Corporate troopers from Ground Zero Games.

Vallejo beastly brown was used for the armour, Vallejo charred brown for the trousers and upper sleeves.  I overpainted some parts of the armour with GW red gore.  Painting it over the brown has kept it fairly restrained, unlike the bright red you'd get from painting it over a white undercoat.

The whole figure received a wash of Vallejo sepia ink.  The darker brown areas received a further wash of Vallejo black ink to ensure a good contrast with the lighter brown armour.

Weapons are Vallejo matt black with a Humbrol 32 dark grey drybrush.  Flesh is Vallejo dwarf flesh with a sepia wash, highlighted with dwarf flesh and then with elf flesh.  I'm not sure that it's an entirely convincing Japanese skin tone, but there's so little flesh on show that it hardly matters!

The officer's sword has GW red gore and Vallego bonewhite stripes.

A nice set of figures.  5 are armed with compact assault rifles, one a tribarrel support weapon and one a 6-round mini-missile launcher.  The officer has an assult rifel and a sword (perhaps a katana?).