Saturday 11 June 2011

Meet the New Crew

Pirate Captain by FXMEN at ConceptArtDavid B. from Waystar Highport

Greetings. Long time gamer and roleplayer, victim of the “Oooh, shiney” Complex. Handicapped by time zones, last weekend I thought I was signing up to help do a blog on 15mm Science Fiction figures. While I was asleep I was promoted to Captain of the Dropship Horizon!

I’ve played wargames since the early 80’s and roleplayed almost as long. My period of choice for wargames h
as been the Renaissance as I find periods of transition fascinating. While I’ve played a large number of roleplaying games, I keep coming back to science fiction and Traveller.

Finally getting sick of De Bellis Rationalis, or DBR, in the early naughties, I discovered Ground Zero Games Starships and then their 15mm ground troops. I have Stargrunt II, Use Me, and Chain Reaction to playtest, and I hear good things about FUBAR. The biggest problem I have is finding an opponent so I’m working on the “provide both sides” principle to snare some of my old Traveller cronies.


Chris K. from Basement Gaming Bunker

I started tabletop wargaming with Battletech in the early 90's. When Epic 40,000 was released in 1997 I switched over to that, and spent the next 12 years of my life (and unmentionable amounts of money) on Warhammer 40,000 and Epic 40,000. My inspiration to switch to 15mm Sci-Fi came from two sources - this blog and the Forge of War rules. I've found switching to 15mm to be the most liberating and inspiring hobby decision I've ever made - it renewed a passion for wargaming that I thought was long gone. My rules of choice are FUBAR (no surprise since my name is in the credits), Mutants and Death Ray Guns, and USE ME... and I have a goal to start Alien Squad Leader in the future.


Steve H. from FIREBASE-SPARTAN


I've been a fan of science fiction since I could walk. Got into roleplaying games in my early teens in the '80s, starting with Traveller, then Star Trek:The Role Playing Game. I was also quite a fan of Battletech, which was my intro into miniature wargaming. During the '90s I dabbled heavily in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K, but after a decade of it, wanted more from my gaming experiences, that's when I found DROPSHIP HORIZON, and discovered that a whole new universe of miniature wargaming existed outside of 40K.

I'm relatively new to blogging (started FIREBASE 15mike-mike last September), but was bitten hard by that bug (thanks Mark), and have started quite a few blogs since then, with FIREBASE-SPARTAN being the prime hub. Being a part of DROPSHIP HORIZON's new crew is both a privilege and an honor, and I look forward to( along with the rest of the crew) continuing the journey Mark started.


Martin T. from FIRE BROADSIDE!

Born and bred on Swedish fantasy and post-apocalyptic RPG's, then Call of Cthulhu, then started miniature gaming in the early nineties with Space Marine (epic). Played the hell out of that game actually! Did the whole Games Workshop thing for quite a while, mostly Necromunda, Battlefleet Gothic and Bloodbowl though. Moved to Tokyo in 2005 where I shelved my miniature gaming for a few years. Not enough space, so I started playing more board games. Then in 2009 I managed to convince my friends back in Sweden to get into Full Thrust. I've always been a spaceship geek and loved the GZG models. Poking around the site I began discovering 15mm as well. I managed to resist actually getting any miniatures until I moved back to Sweden last year, but now my Red Mars Rebellion project is in full swing and I have a feeling that it will expand to include our Diaspora RPG campaign as well. Fairly new to the scale, but hopefully I can still make a contribution or two.


Eli Arndt from I SEE LEAD PEOPLE

Well it all started with a little thing called Star Wars, then Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and on and on. You may have heard of them. It's been down hill since then. Initially a fantasy miniatures player, I found Warhammer 40,000 while in high school and evolved to things like Stargrunt and into more free form sci-fi miniatures rules and figures. I've been gaming for over thirty years now and playing everything from RPGs, board games, card games and of course miniatures games. I'm more of a hobbyist than a gamer these days as my gaming group has moved away from a lot of miniatures gaming. I run the I See Lead People blog which is a general hobby/gaming blog as well as Crisis in Alcovia which is a blog dedicated to a civil war in a fictional nation.


Chinatown Cat is not impressed
Thomas R. from Peabody Here!

I worked in kitchens most of my life. Lately I put down the knives, picking up dice and an airbrush instead. Cooking was good to me, but it also prevented me from gaming for many years. It's pay-back time.

In '78 a D&D intro at the
FLGS lead to games of Ogre, GEV, Chitin I, and Car Wars. Good times. I've also enjoyed Mordheim, WarZone, 2Hour Wargames, Ambush Alley & Stargrunt II. I play old-school Spacemaster on a regular basis but Call of Cthulhu remains my favourite RPG. One day I hope to play Cthulhu Rising with 15mm minis!

I enjoy the 'hobby' aspect of gaming as much as playing games with my friends. I'm truly grateful for both. 15mm Sci-Fi is an inspiration to me for great gaming and for making cool stuff.

If you have visited Peabody Here! perhaps you noticed my ongoing 20mm Vietnam War project. That period interests me tremendously and, I think, has a lot to tell us about out world today.




Something of a closet nerd, I can pinpoint my discovery of wargaming to April 1992 when I spent my pocket money on a copy of White Dwarf No. 148 while waiting to catch a train. Thence forth a significant proportion of my waking life was dedicated to covertly combating the Skaven menace in the old world, investigating Cthulhu cults in the marshes of Innsmouth, battling anarch gangs on the gothic punk streets of Chicago, to name but a few. Over the years I dabbled in many periods and manufacturers. These experiences taught me to paint to a reasonable table top quality and taught me that I lose interest in a period very quickly. However, I always come back to sci fi, and 15mm has always been my favourite scale to paint. Blogging helps keep me motivated and hopefully, in some small way, helps you get the most out of the hobby!

8 comments:

  1. So it looks like we're in for a diet of good honest 15mm Sci-fi with more than a little hint on eldrich horror. I'm up for that! Buckle me into seat 27D and bring the drinks trollet round!

    Paddy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you all in the new crew for continuing exploring the 15mm scifi universe on dropship horizon, this is my main source of inspiration and my little ship will follow you in this adventure.
    Wouldn't be cool if followers of this blog took this chance and also identified themselves here?

    Navarro from Buglands site here
    I have been collecting/painting/sculpting miniatures for many years now and have passion for all things bug and alien, not much of a gamer.
    Tyranids, Infinity Yujing, Mercs CCC are my main 28 scifi collections and looking into mcvey sedition wars.
    I'm totally new to this 15mm universe and hope to sculpt some little things for my new fleet, the scale is very different from what I'm used to sculpt but hope to learn the secrets and have lots of fun in the process.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well your certainly not the usual
    suspects...) In all seriousness
    I'm personally very grateful that
    you gentlemen took the time an
    effort to continue you this
    excellent blog...



    Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think i can relate to each biography and if i were to take peices from each that would be pretty close to my own... so with a bit of luck they'll be posts of interest a plenty :)

    Best of luck.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Navarro, have you seen these bugs from Khurasan Miniatures? Alternatively, Bugs with guns from Highlander Studios look like a lot of fun, and there are bugs available from QRF as well. All in 15mm.

    Hope this helps,

    David

    ReplyDelete
  6. I can see something in common with all the guys..
    ;)))

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Kobold Thank you very much for the bug links, they are much appreciated and very useful.
    I just converted my first 15mm and Im finding the painting quite different from what I'm used to. Hope the new crew can make some nice 15mm painting tutorials :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's great to see the first blog I started to follow, and just days before the announced cancellation, will continue to grow and be a source for the 15mm genre! Thank you, Mark for building such an amazing foundation! And to the new crew, I look forward to the future of this fine vessel!

    ReplyDelete