Dropship Upgrades, Spec Sec Mecha, and Buildings That Aren't Square

Rebel Minis, in conjunction with Ravenstar Studios, has released an upgrade kit for the Titan Marines Dropship/Gunship Kit.

Sculpted by Chris Lynch, the Conversion Kit contains resin components to "upgrade" your dropship. Each pack contains an intake hood, a set of landing gear and 4 weapon mounts. The weapon mounts are especially nice, especially if you have any "spare" weapons from your Earthforce Dropships or Gunships, or from HAMR suits of either faction.

Keep an eye on the Bitz section of the Rebel Minis website. We're going to see quite a few new items to customize our 15mm forces in the coming months.

*     *     *     *     *

Darkest Star Games has added the first releases to the anime-inspired Spec Sec range. The Vantage Drive Armor (pictured left) is "a budget-friendly alternative to combat type mechs like Landmates, for low-impact urban use." The larger Mastiff Drive Armor (pictured right) is utilized by the Spec Sec police forces for heavier operations. It includes a wide variety of weapon options, and can be customized for several urban combat roles.

The Scorpios (pictured left) is larger than not only most Drive Armor, but most combat tanks as well. Its design is something of a paradigm breaker for the Spec Sec police forces - sacrificing visibility and protection for size and weapon capabilities. Finally, the Parma battle armor (pictured right) offers a more conventional Landmate-styled design. 

The first 15mm figures in the Spec Sec range - a 5-man Response Team and the Agent Ionia character figure - have also been released. Darby promises to have their photos on the webstore soon - but you can see the work-in-progress pictures on the Darkest Star blog.

*     *     *     *     *

And apart from the Spec Sec range, Darkest Star Games is steadily growing the Colony 15 line. Two character figures - the Household Guard Adviser and Colonist Scout - are now available. Also, pre-orders are available for additions to the Star Marauders, Zonii, and Magravate Militia (first packs reviewed here), along with the first pack of Colonists:

The characters are available now, and the pre-order packs should be released in the next two weeks. The Colonist figures are particularly inspiring to me. There is some wonderful Space Western potential with them - whether used in an original setting, or used directly in the Firefly/Serenity universe. Combine them with some other armed and unarmed colonists from GZG and Khurasan, throw together a few buildings from Krazy Ivan's Wired West range, and you're ready to play.

*     *     *     *     *

Jonathan at CorSec Engineering noticed something about the latest wave of MDF buildings - they are all very rectangular in shape!

So, creative guy that he is, he started experimenting with flexible styrene instead of MDF. His idea was to curve the styrene around solid columns, giving a unique (and more futuristic) appearance to 15mm buildings:

Once he worked out the basics, he fired up the laser and etched the styrene in the same vein as his flat-pack building fittings:

And after a few successful tests, the Small and Medium 15mm Styrene Habitats are now available in his online store. Here's an exterior picture of the finished Small Habitat:

And an interior picture of the Medium Habitat:

All buildings in this series will have removable roofs, so the insides can be filled with goodies from places like Khurasan Miniatures and the National Cheese Emporium. 

Kudos to Jonathan for these - it's a completely different way to look at laser-cut terrain! He promises more buildings will follow in the coming weeks.

Cheers,

Chris