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...........

Gaslands: Track and Fury Road

Finally got the Gaslands stuff out of the storage boxes and realise its been over a year since I started some cars and got the rules. Determined to actually have a game I decided to finish off the track I'd bought and get some more cars sorted.

The track is from BattleKiwi and although is under their 28mm - 32mm Alpha City line, is the perfect size for the HotWheels cars. I bought the Road Runner bundle set and some extras, and had a bit of a panic half way through finishing it as it looked terrible. Have tried rescuing it with dry-brushing and shading.

Happy with the 'dirty' look for Gaslands but you can see how pristine a finish can be done with it following the link above. The individual plates lock in to each other and allow the track to be configured for all sorts of requirements, from race track to urban/road setting.

More Cars for the Carnage

Also bit of a sucker for stereotypes and decided to go for some Fury Road style cars.

These two were a couple bucks each and are both HotWheels, '69 Copo Camaro (left) and Mod Rod (right).

The Mod Rod came up well with the addition of North Star's Implements of Carnage and figures, and nothing really needed to be done but to disassemble, carve out room for the figures, reassemble and paint.

Has a good stance on the board and looks suitably aggressive with twin machine guns, fixed forward.

The Camaro was also an easy build with the addition of a massive supercharge intake and also twin machine guns, fixed forward. Although I filed the roof away at the back to allow the guns to seem like they'd been properly fixed.

Also a big 'thumbs up' to North Star with their NSPIoC09 - Wasteland Warriors (Drivers and Passengers) and NSPIoC10 - Wasteland Warriors, I was really able to make them look like the Warboys from Fury Road.

They've got amazing detail - which my photos don't really do justice.

Now to have a game and let the carnage commence!

AWI: Lauzun's Legion

 

I still have a thing for the legions of this period, producing a brigade of horse, foot, and gun that's complete in itself. More so when it's Lauzun's Legion with their sky blue coats and yellow facings (and grey turnbacks). So I've gone for it and produced several units for Black Powder... which might be a disproportionate amount for the rest of the American allied army...

For the uniforms there were several searches on Google and a huge call out to Baccus 6mm Miniatures, Scenery, & Rules for producing their uniform guides - much used for this and many other units in this collection.

Fusiliers

There's two standard BP units of fusiliers, Volontaires-étrangers de Lauzun and Volontaires étrangers de la Marine. Its pretty hard to tell the difference at this scale as only the collar colours differ so most have either white or yellow collars per unit.

These are made up from Italeri Set 6043 French Infantry and the detail is good for 20mm. They were from the Lot 4 commission that Spiro Dotgeek completed, the final figures of that commission, and another joint effort to finish - adding shading.

The flags are the official flag from the Lauzun's reenactment group in the states, not sure if they're historically accurate though - but they look cool.

Chasseurs

I added a small BP unit of chasseurs mostly because it used the advancing figures left once all the standard fusilier units had been assigned to regiments and painted. Also from the Italeri box and Lot 4 mentioned above - but I changed my mind when shading and the original white and red Viennois chasseurs became Lauzun's 😁

Grenadiers

Probably the single biggest stretch of the imagination when using figures of a different period and nationality, to form AWI regiments from 1/72 scale figures. These are from the Revell Set 02574 

Austrian Infantry. The detail was pretty grim from the 30-year-old casting and I'm pretty sure its the wrong bearskin-covered grenadier cap. But it seems the foreign volunteers weren't covered by the 1779 uniform ordonnance so got to wear their bearskins.

Hussars

Continuing on with the craziness, a couple of units of hussars and a command element for the brigade. These are from the SYW Revell Set 02575 Prussian Hussars and are a close approximation of the uniform (pretty close except for the mirliton decoration and chaps).

First there's the 2nd Volontaires etrangers de la Marine and I'm not sure I've painted figures with so many different colours before.

Next there's 1st Volontaires etrangers de la Marine which, I'm pretty sure, only served in what was the West Indies at the time, although different pictorial sources conflict here. So, good for the collection but perhaps not once setting foot on American soil 😀

Then there's a close approximation of Lauzun himself in Hussar uniform. The mirliton is definitely incorrect as he's depicted with a giant bearskin. But a clearly identifiable command unit for a clearly identifiable BP brigade.

And of course there was this guy. This poor horse is going down. There's no other movement it can complete to recover, its front legs won't be able to take the weight of the rider and equipment, given the force of movement, and its back legs won't get underneath it in time - I've been exactly here when I missed a jump coming off another jump and tried to correct - result - eating dirt for horse and rider (and the rider goes over the top of the horse and flies - I can actually remember the wind whistling past and thinking it was going to hurt when I hit the ground, which it did)... either that or its bucking, see 'rider goes flying' comment.

So, cut the thing off the base at the grassy stump and carve a hole in the base, then insert grassy stump and cover with glue 😂, now it looks like its kicking out 👍

But that's the French completely finished. A brigade of Duc de Lauzun and a brigade of units that could feasibly be found at Yorktown. Onwards!