Rebels and Shoretroopers

I loved Rogue One and especially the battle on Scariff, and a while back I got some xmas presents in the form of SW Legion Shore Troopers and Rebel Troopers.

I thought the Shore Troopers were going to be a nightmare to paint but the scale and detail on the SW Legion figures is amazing.

Similarly, I thought matching the rebels' paint schemes was going to be tough, but turns out they're mostly military colours.

Had a lot of fun painting these and still have some Scout Troopers to paint up.

D n D: Props to Set the Scene

 

I know its not meant to be about the props and minis, but I've been trying to entice some beginners (a.k.a. my wife and stepson) to give DnD a go for about two years.

A 10x10 grid system, so peeps can figure out distances.

I might have been a little too enthusiastic to be fair, generating an entire world and set of scenarios... possibly... probably... and despite my stepson reading and retaining just about every monster stat in the book, things have gone cold.

Some simple and quick hovels made from XPS foam, EVA foam, and crafting sticks.

In the meantime we've be building up quite a lot of stuff to play the game, including a small village of hovels, playing grid - to scale for 28mm, and collecting minis as we find them.

I ordered in some Reaper Miniatures from Ausy and we've been getting monsters and characters from our local Wizkids suppliers Wizards Retreat and Iron Knight Games.

The Wizkids stuff sure does paint up nicely and really enjoyed painting the Beholder and Gricks.

Got carried away with the raptor painting, dabbing away down the sides with different colours, and I think the Orc on the end was free with a Reapers purchase.

Its not the same without some town guard to suck up some attacks, think these are Reaper Minis and the dragon born are Wizkids.

Hopefully we'll get a game in at some point in the near future 😆

Space Dwarves (a.k.a Squats)

 

Some more 15mm sci fi completed from my mountain of shame and as ever, I've had all these for quite a few years.

These are Khurasan Minatures, Thrainites and Clear Horizon Miniatures, High-Gravity Mercs (Sci-Fi Dwarves), with some Alternate Armies, Laserburn, V011 Scorpion Air Landers for on-planet transport.

The two figure ranges mix together seamlessly and I struggled initially to think of a paint scheme. But the shoulder pads and poses reminded me of Games Workshop's Epic and 40K Squats from eons ago. 

In the end, I mixed those old paint schemes with the more modern Leagues of Votann.

The landers are resin and were a bit warped, and I didn't really know what to do with them.

I ended up covering them in 1/72 scale stowage and greeblys, which worked well and applied a heavy layer of rust colour first before dabbing the paint on, using the painting technique from the Bill Making Stuff Youtube Channel.

After some eye watering painting, as these guys are really small, was happy with the colourful result.

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!