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We were in town on Saturday where I picked up a very reasonably priced copy of Aliens vs Predator for the XBOX 360.I started the 'Marine' campaign set on Hadley's Hope and have to say, had a real blast! Dark corridors, bleeping motion trackers, Xenomorphs by the interstellar bus load and a very nice female Latino Marine called Tequila guiding my half arsed, half panicked attempts to survive. The game really got the blood pumping and inspired me to recreate the action on the tabletop!
I want to make an important point here. Computer and console games don't replace the miniatures game for me and the same is true of Master Chef. They inspire us to recapture the console action once again on the tabletop with miniatures.
By way of 'research' just had to watch Aliens (1986) this afternoon, which left me all fired up for a Bug Hunt! The day job is going to be tough up till Christmas, so this will be a nice lightweight and fun diversion, switching between media and back as I like.
Unfortunately, to my mind, there are no decent Colonial Marine proxies in 15mm that appeal to me. RAFM's classic ex-Traveller Mid-Tech troopers are the nearest to my tastes but lack poses, weapon variation and character for any kind of 'heroic' movie'esque skirmish game. GZG's 15mm NAC? Yes, but they are still NAC. Denizen's 25mm Mid-Tech troopers are really tempting but I already own some of RH Model's excellent 20mm Colonial Marines!
RH Models 20mm Sci Fi
Colonial Marines
"State of the bad-ass art"
I will have a go at sculpting a female head onto the slimmest of the marines and share with you my success or failure. Khurasan's Space Demons will be perfect for the 'aliens', especially the big daddy Space Demon King. And, I'll start painting the Marines this week. So there we have it, on the ready line! Lock n load and wake up Hicks - because they're gonna need everything they've got to survive the colony on a terra-formed planet that swarms with bad-ass xenomorphs.
Cheers
Mark
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What about QRF Marines in their SF range. They are supposed to be exactly like the Marines in Aliens.
ReplyDeleteTroll like.
ReplyDeleteMark
For Xenos check out Reverisco's homophage. Its close enough to a Xeno in 20mm, but its not as a clean a sculpt as Khurasan's aliens.
ReplyDeleteThey may not be the prettiest 15mm figures ever but I have to second Eric's suggestion of QRF's Deep Space Marines. They are USCMC head to toe and between the two sets you get Vasquez, Gorman, Bishop and Ripley figures.
ReplyDeleteThe Deep Space Colonist pack has a nice Ripley and Newt figure and some face huggers.
Somebody told me the old AVP games were far better then the new one, but I haven't played it yet..
ReplyDeleteHaven't played the new one yet, but I still have the old AvP II game, which is quite cool.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, QRF has a lot of sets of Colonial Marines... Though personally I'd go with GZG NAC with a GZG dropship and one of the heavier GZG APCs vs. a bunch of Khurasan Space Demons.
I loved the old AvP PC game. Always used to jump when a facehugger got too close. Thoroughly recommended.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid, it's 20mm RH Models Colonial Marines all the way - QRF are real dogs. Woof! That's my other dog impression ;-}
Maybe you do get the characters but it's like League of Gentlemen does Aliens.
Cheers
Mark
Nothing really compares to the original AVP and AVP2 games for PC. Truly the best gritty sci-fi shooter out there. Some have come close (such as the killzone franchise as well as Mass Effect), but none have captured the essence that was the original AVP and AVP2, not even their sequels. I was so excited for Colonial marines on PS3, but the game itself was a HUGE let-down. I might wait for it to be $20 and then pick it up for the high-res pulse rifle action, but thats about it!
ReplyDeleteI painted up the GZG NAC as colonial marines. Look perfect, aside from a lack of smartgunners. Though their SAW gunners do well enough. There are pics on my blog: http://thetrojanbunny.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteStill need to buy the bugs...