USGMC Exterminators

These are Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Federal Defence Force "Exterminators" for use with/against their awesome Space Demon line (not Aliens).

I'd got a bunch of 'not aliens' finished back in 2016 by commission. I'd painted the vehicles back then too but was unhappy with the result. 

So I took the plunge and bought a company's worth of Exterminators and have been finishing them and their vehicles over the last few years. This included doing a bit of movie research and getting some custom decals made for them.

These marines hail from the United Systems Galactic Marine Core vessel, USGMC Odessa -  a slightly larger cruiser than the Sulaco (both named after cities in the US).

I got sucked into the 'lighting' debate regarding the Aliens movie and after much thought, went with a dark grey green for the main grunt armor and vehicles. This is because I don't have the lighting effects from the movie on hand for most games... I did stay true to the film though and made all the pulse rifles a scale version of Brown Bess.

Marine Platoons

There are three platoons of about twelve multi-tasking soldiers, each with their own APC - Khurasan's M2189 Caiman.

Tan coloured fatigues and helmet covers - different colours for different platoons.

Jungle green fatigues and helmet covers, closer to the movie.

A generic grey, just to distinguish platoons on the table top.

Company Commanders

There's a company commander and 2IC, both with their own 'command/support' cars - Khurasan's M3918 Polecat.

Dropships

For the dropships I went with Khurasan's Cormorant Lander and am thinking of printing an APC version of the drop cargo. 

Where there was space, I placed the name of the ship on vehicles, taking prompts from the APC in the movie.

Atmospheric Craft

Still in progress are a series of atmospheric craft and I've chosen Clear Horizon's Condor Heavy Lift VTOL and X-14A Raven-Class VTOL.

Support Weapons

There's a raft of support weapons which the grunts can break out from their APC when needed. In game, you have to swap out standard marines from the platoons to field these... because there are never enough marines.

Sentry Guns

I also got some sentry guns, because, well, why wouldn't you? They were in the movie and its fun to set something up on the tabletop that fires at anything that moves in front of it - including marines.

Hard Suits

For troubling infestations I painted up three sections of Extreme Environment Suits.

These guys can head down into xeno lairs and passages like tunnel rats, clearing out the menace without fear of xeno acid splash.

I'm pretty sure these are based off the peeps that come into the prison with Weyland at the end of the 3rd movie .

Basing

Using Flames of War as a 15mm reference, I've used MDF and magnetic bases from LITKO and always get the best service from this company. 

This allows me to field the grunts in FoW style squads or as individuals, but still moving them around on bases for ease of use during a game.

Warhammer 40,000: Ultramarines

Back in the darkness of winter 2023, my wife and stepson went to the UK and came back with an amazing present - the Leviathan box for 40,000, by Games Workshop. Amazed and a bit stunned, more space marines and Tyranids arrived soon after.

I've been painting them all in dribs and drabs since then and have a growing collection of finished minis. My wife has taken on the task of painting up the Tyranids, which is as equally stunning as it turns out she's an amazing painter 😆

Primaris Veterans

Some first company vets from the Leviathan set. Painting white helmets against blue armour... sigh... worth the effort in the end and for the terminators, I'll spray their helmets white before assembly.

Primaris 3rd Company Flamers

Gotta have some 3rd company, but who the hell wants ten flamers. Will beg, borrow, or print some different heavy weapons for the other five of these dudes from the Leviathan box, and do some converting.

Washing the flamer's heat cowlings was easier than I thought it was going to be. I used three different Citadel shades for the job and applied and mixed them while still wet.

Heroes of Macragge

Bit of second company fun. These guys came from the Warhammer Heroes boxes, which were a fun thing for me and my stepson for a while. We'd head down to do shopping and head in to the local GW shop (Iron Knight Games), anticipating which ones we were going to get.

First Born Tactical

From the pre-10th Edition box of Tactical marines... did not dry fit enough and hate the pose I made for the sergeant 😆

The others came out pretty well, and really went for a grimy look for these guys. These were the first ones I did. 

I think I've gotten less grimy as I've progressed onto the Leviathan box minis and love they way the weathering ties in to the bases.

Chapter and Setting

Picking a paint scheme was a no brainer. Having painted an entire Ultramarine Epic army, and not having any 28mm SMs since the 90's, the Ultramarines were still my only choice.

I liked the ascetic of the 'grim dark' of recent paint schemes so have gone full on dirty, 'mid-campaign' look... without the rust. Its more grim than dark, and I just can't paint rust on equipment that's meant to be serviceable... it your equipment is rusty, its dangerous and won't work... rant over.

So with the Behemoth colour scheme chosen for the Tyranids, the only other thing to do was to weather and base the SMs as if they were doing their last stands in the twisting and turning concrete tunnels, beneath the frozen northern laser defence batteries on Macragge.

Still a truckload of minis left to do, but slowly getting through them amongst other projects.

Painting

For anyone whose interested here's the painting guide (nicked from a mix of Youtubers):

Step 1: Undercoat spray Citadel Macragge Blue.

Step 2: heavy wash 50:50 mix Citadel Agrax Earthshade and AV 73.201 Black Wash (or Nuln Oil).

Step 3: sponge 70:30 mix Citadel Macragge Blue Base and either Vallejo 72.021 Magic Blue or Citadel Caledor Sky.

Step 4: Detailing equipment with whatever blacks, reds, greys are on hand, washing with Nuln Oil or Agrax Earthshade, and line highlighting lighter colours.

Step 5: Aquilas and highlights using Citadel Retributer Armour, Reikland Fleshshade, and Retirbuter Armour again.

Step 6: Line highlight armour using Citadel Calgar Blue and shade pauldrons between edge and plate with Drakenhof Nightshade.

Step 7: touch ups using mix from step 3, and doing step 6 again if necessary.

Base: Citadel Dawnstone, wash as per step 2, highlight using Administratum Grey.

Tie in Base: Lightly dab Administratum Grey on marines using a drybrush, focusing on legs and feet and angling brush from the bottom (opposite of zenithal highlighting) - with hardly any paint on brush.

Helmets: Red - start with Blood Angles Red contrast and highlight up. White - start with a white and use Apothecary White Contrast and highlight from there.

131st Pi Orionis Mechanised Hover Infantry

Something a bit different and have finished the mech infantry for some 15mm Sci Fi goodness. These are from Ground Zero Games, 15mm Star Grunt range, New Anglican Confederation (NAC) and Hover Combat Vehicles lists.

Painted as "nearish future" British, in a sea of bronze grey straight out of the eighties. The hover tanks are based off similar chassis and kinda reminded me or the FV 432 and "Scorpion" lines of British vehicles, so I painted up a company's worth with as many derivatives as GZG could muster. 

These are excellent 15mm models from an excellent range, which clean up quickly and paint well... so much so that I got some custom decals made for them :) - applied with varying success. For even more nostalgia, I based the decals on a mix British WWII armoured vehicle markings and modern AV designations.

Company Command

Couple of 'coms vans' carrying the company commander and another with their 2IC.

Assault Troops and IFVs

Four teams of armoured infantry to push out on recon and support their APC borne brethren.

This variant mounts assault guns which limits space for infantry, hence smaller teams and a nice shot of the decals front and back. The company insignia is a view of the Pi Orionis system rising over the only inhabitable planet in the system.

Infantry Platoons

Two full platoons of APC-borne hardheads, 8 person teams, two heavy weapons per team, to project firepower against the enemy with great prejudice :) 

Although all clad in bronze green mid-tech armour, I've colour coded each team using shoulder armour, fatigue colour, and wet weather roll. Pics of the rear of the vehicles to show the individual vehicle designations (in white).

Alpha Platoon

Each platoon includes a Lieutenant and a Staff Sergeant.

Beta Platoon

Heavy Support Teams

A couple of hover derivatives, ambulance and coms, but commandeered to carry two heavy weapons teams.

Company Support Platforms

Slightly different platform with varying weapon combinations to directly support the company in its missions. From left to right, two anti-tank supports, MLRS, and tank destroyer.

So in my nearish-future universe, the Pi Orionis MHI is part of the British Galactic Empire, so I guess I better start saving up to buy something to fight against them... perhaps the Empire Français Galactique... Libertat o Mòrt!

AWI: 5th/14th Continental, Green Mountain Boys, Grenadier Guards

 
After a 12 month hiatus due to a chronic illness that kicked my arse, a few more units for Black Powder AWI. Can't believe its been 12 years since I started the collection, now with over 46 standard infantry units completed. I reckon I've got another 12 or so units to go plus a few bits and (light) bobs.

Uniforms are again from multiple references, mostly the Black Powder: Rebellion supplement, Osprey references, and internet searches.

5th/14th Continental

Another continental unit from the Italeri Set 6060 American Infantry set. Brown/tan jackets with red facings, tan breeches and waistcoats, and a generic flag.

Still love the command and musicians, have reversed the museos coat just for giggles.

Warner's - Green Mountain Boys

Another iconic unit of renown, this time made up of the slightly smaller IMEX Set 511, George Washington's Army (and a redcoat thrown in from their British set for a standard bearer).

Have done a mix of green hunting shirts, and shirts, with green coats and red facings for the officers. Also a number of hat swaps so that most are wearing the tricorn... with varying success.

Combined British Grenadiers - Guards

A small unit of grenadiers from BnB Miniatures, painted as if units of guards and blue facings have combined during a battle.

Go to admit after 12 years, I'm kinda over painting these guys, especially with the fantastic 28mm ranges now available. But think I'll persist, with a standard unit of combined grenadiers up next, along with a small unit of French, Bourbonnais, grenadiers to boot.

Epic Astra Militarum

To celebrate the recent release of Legions Imperialis, - or more precisely to spite it coming out in a scale that is incompatible with the thousands of Epic miniatures previously purchased - I decided to revamp a vast swathe of my Imperial Guard 😂

This included stripping the second hand stuff bought over the last twenty years, fixing a whole lot of broken stuff, and touching up previous paint schemes. This gets them more in line with the 40,000K Armageddon lore which has become a thing in our household now that my step-son is into 40,000K.

The result is a plethora of Cadians, Elysian Drop Troops, and Valhallans.

Cadians

First up a horde of cannon fodder in the form of three companies of foot, with another company with Chimera IFVs in the works. I think these are all from 1991's Space Marine and came based and painted. But after several days in stripping agents of varying types, I couldn't get them off the square bases, so this is how they've turned out.

Next a regiment of Lemann Russ from another early edition of Epic.

Finally some broken up Shadowswords, stripped from my previous dark green and purple, with some decals from the 40,000K vehicle decal set. I've tried rescuing the two broken weapons by making them Stormshadow-ish.

Elysian Drop Troops

Some Troublemaker Games, Mk I Valkyries and Vultures. Long story short, purchased back in the day and all but one had broken rear spurs. So in a fit of recent rage at Legions Imperialis, I got down to work with some thin brass rod and superglue... many fingers were glued in the saving of these birds. I also couldn't help but buy the giant flying brick like thing, very cool now its painted up.

The drop troops are plastics and also from earlier editions of Epic.

Really liked how these turned out.

Valhallans 

Finally, I stripped almost every tank I could find painted in my pervious dull, grey, standard 'Cadian' paint scheme and dark green and purple. I went for a more somber dark blue-grey. Also figured the plastic soldiers looked more like Valhallans than anything else, so touched up the previous dark green and purple with a lighter green and red.

The Leviathans have come out well, especially the white one - the only deviation from the dark blue-grey. With more decals from my step-son's vehicle decal sheet, they finally look more 'Epicy' if that's a thing. Which leads into the raft of self-propelled artillery and tanks that got treatment.

First up a company of metal Bombards and Basilisks from way back.

Next a company of Basilisks with not so older metals in the back row and some Forgeworld resins in the front row.

Last, all Forgeworld resins with a platoon of Manticores rear-left, some Thunderer siege cannons rear-right, and Demolisher pattern Lemann Russ front row.

There's still many companies of Epic Armageddon Lemann Russ, Chimera, Hellhounds and Griffons to go. At some point I'll treat myself to Vanguard Miniature's Industrial Waste minis, if they're still about, and use them all to form a Steel Legion.

Then my Armageddon Epic IG army will be ready to play...........