Testing Concrete Effect Spray on Amera Ruins.

I've had these pictures for a few weeks, but I'm only getting round to posting them now. At the time Targe at Kirriemuir Wargames Club was a couple of weeks away. this was to be my second show trading, and after SKELP @ Forfar I had decided to by some display shelves. But what exactly to put on them?

Critical Mass Astagar Fighters

Managed to get some paint brushes out over the last wee while and paint up some Critical Mass Astagar Fighters (now produced by Ral Partha Europe). The default snake\serpentine colour that springs to mind for me is green (of some shade), but mindful that I should be painting slightly brighter than my 28mm for 15mm and that I'm still learning, I hit the interweb with the broad Google of "snake" images. The colouration of the Milk snake really struck me, so I've based the paint job on that. Really enjoyed painting them.

[Shameless self plug - they are available here ]

Now to see what next lies in the already growing 15mm lead mountain....

What is Skirmish Gaming?

Germans advance across the fields as the British CO looks on armed
with nothing but a strongly brewed cup of tea!

There was an interesting discussion thread on [TMP] The Miniatures Page this month, started by Ed of Two Hour Wargames, entitled "What does skirmish mean to you?"

Critical Mass Arc Fleet Recon

It's taken me ages to get these guys finished. Probably because I ended up painting them in 3 batches (test figure, initial squad & second squad) so naturally other things got in the way mid batch!

So I have a Leader, 7 Troopers, 2 Snipers and 2 Grenade Launchers.
These are all the figure variants form the old Arc Recon Command pack. Ral Partha have just released the Arc Fleet figure range but packaged differently.

I happy with the way these guys have turned out. there is a lot of details with straps and small pouches all over the uniform. I've gone for a wash and highlight method, as I'm still finding my feet somewhat with details at this level. But with the consistent contrasting basing and all grouped together I can see them storming an emplacement soon.

Rogue Stars Spaceport Action

A few pictures from my first game of Rogue stars in 15mm. It was a diverse group of mercenaries

New Sci-Fi Terrain

I was at Edinburgh's Wargame Show, "Claymore", last Saturday and thought I'd share my new 15mm Sci-Fi purchases.

Yes I was busy at the Warbases stand buying up some of their new 15mm Sci-Fi range. The Landing  Pad and Control Tower which look perfect for my Space Port, 3 different Hab pods (Single, Double and L-shaped) which can fit in anywhere and a WWII Bunker which will fit nicely into a more ruined Sci-Fi battle zone.

The final biggest piece is the fabby looking Silo which can double as a dice tower. A bit more of a hike in price from the other pieces, but still pretty modest a £16 it should be a big beast.

Rocky Terrain with Cardboard

A great tutorial for making easy rocky terrain with box cardboard. There is a photo on the post with Peter Pig Marines to give an example of how well it scales.

Stop the Orc Necromancer!

In an abandoned village an Orc Necromancer has opened a door to "the other side", looking to bring forth a new army to bolster his meagre forces. Who can stop him?

Painting Amera Trenches

It was about time I started to get some more Sci-fi battle field terrain done, so I dug out with some 15mm Amera Trenches and craters..

15mm Skirmish Supplies is open for Business

I am glad to say that my new venture ,15mm Skirmish Supplies, is now open for business. 

At the moment we have Ral Partha's Demonworld in for Fantasy and Blue Moon Manufacturing Sci-Fi squads. We have also some Gothic Horror and World War II sets. Finally (for the moment) Amera provide affordable terrain options. More ranges will be coming in the future,

The product list has been tailored for Skirmish wargamers. So more different poses for your figures. No wasting money on boxes of unwanted spares. A single place with many options.

15mm Fantasy Ruins Complete

With a few other non-gaming projects getting in the way it has taken a while to get these ruins completed, but finally they are.

Fantasy Ruins WIP

 After reading a post on Gisby's Gaming Blog I had a look at the REDvectors site. One thing I've fancied is a fantasy 15mm mdf ruins kit. The pictures above and below are 28mm from the REDvectors site, but definitely fitted in with the style I like (Tudor-ish), so I got in touch with Mick @ REDvectors.

Demonworld City Guard

I have admit that these have been sitting completed for a couple of weeks waiting to be photographed. Ral Partha's Demonworld\Blighthaven City Guard. As mentioned in a previous post I've misplaced one of the spearmen, so to add to the numbers (and give a bit of diversity) I've added in a Medieval Knight (from an unknown manufacturer).

These are great figures with loads of detail. Strangely the crossbows are the first I can remember painting with the authentic early big flat triggers (in any scale)! I'm looking forward to getting them on the table for a game.

The Laketown Cheese Thieves

Laketown

I had the pleasure of playing Jimboba (author of the Warchest blog) at Falkirk Wargames Club this week. We'd agreed a 400pt game of Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes. I brought along my Dwarf warbands whereas Jimboba had his super cure Splintered Light animals.

Spaceport WIP

It seems that there is nothing like a "workspace update" to signal the grinding halt of any progress on the featured project. But just to show I've at least managed something (even if not painting), I've been working on my 15mm Space Port.

The paper terrain Graffam elements are all done. I've used:

• The Outpost (v1)
• The Observation Post (v1)
• Checkpoint
• Spaceport Crates
• Spaceport Battlemap #1

The Battlemap is printed on banner vinyl by Pixart Printing. It is printed full size as provided which is technicalled for 28\30mm but as you can see works perfectly for 15mm

The other kits are reduced by around 60%. I say "around" as I don't actually scale them down. I use the Adobe Reader print option to "print multiple pages on a sigle side" and print 2 per page. Having measured this up of other (fantasy) kits it comes in at around 60%, which is ideal for based 15mm. 

The small card pieces are obviously quite light by themselves they require some sort of weighing down. Being Scottish I obviously have a spare (out of date) bag of Scotch Broth mix at the cupboard which is perfect for the job. Just partially fill the piece before is is sealed shut, this will not only add weight but lower it's centre of gravity for extra stability.

Now for the difficult part, getting the toy craft painted - queue delay for next update....

Workspace Update

My Spugs are going to need someone to battle with, so I've made a start on a force of Critical Mass ARC Fleet Recon.

I wasn't completely sure how to be painting these guys. My natural choice was a brown/green scheme, but with the Spugs being green I decided I wanted a scheme that was completely different. So I've done a single test figure.

After a little bit of "evolution" I've the pallet I'll be going for...

Ral Partha Spugs

Finished  my Ral Partha Spugs (Space Bugs). Really enjoyed painted these. 4 troopers with rifles (different poses), another Officer with a pistol, a Leader with Power Glove and Blade, Heavy Weapon setup, Support gun and hover bike. This is the entire range but should be enough for most skirmish games.

All Hail Multiple Projects

Sci-Fi gaming moving into view now - prepping my Ral Partha Spugs.

A Slow Start

Well, we are into 2017 now, so the 15mm push is officially on. The Festive Season disruption is slightly extended in my household as there is a family birthday early January, so "serious" hobbying is slow until mid January usually.

But just to assure you I am on the case, here is a quick piccy of my first 2 figures for my Ral Partha\Demonworld Town Guard. I only did two to get my eye in after not having painted since November - especially for this scale again. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have started with 2 main warband characters, but it doesn't matter now.

I'll get them based and properly snapped in a group shot when the rest are done.