SHM Alien Civilians, Kremlin Miniatures outage, RAFM Sale

15mm.Co.Uk has added four new alien civilians to the growing SHM Range. 

Sculpted by Dropship Horizon's own Eli Arndt, these are perfect additions to any bustling spaceport. What I enjoy most about figures like this is their versatility - they can be great background pieces or objectives in larger force-against-force games, specialty characters in small skirmish games, or characters/NPCs in tabletop role playing games. 

SHM Range - Starport Denizens III

From left to right, we have a Varlish Envoy (a good diplomat/clerical figure), a Nimuan Orator (ideal for a public speaker, singer, or even an alien news correspondent), a second Burgansian (complete with float disc), and a Tandapash musician. These figures are available in the new 8-figure blister Starport Denizens III, and each can be purchased as a single casting on the SHM Science Fiction page.

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It was brought to our attention that Kremlin Miniatures experienced a brief web outage this week, and we received some questions about whether they were still in business. Well, I have good, bad, and more good news about them. First bit of good news... They are still operating, so we are still able to get our hands on the figures in that great little range. 

Cyberian Death Commandos

The bad news? Their casting machine is temporarily out of commission, so it will be a few months before they are able to start casting and shipping again. The second bit of good news? Russ was able to get the store back online, so you can once again see all the packs the entire 15mm Power Spike line. 

Rising Sun MANITOU

So send them an email if you're interested in ordering sometime in the near future... a few advance orders might help Kremlin become fully operational. I can always use a few more Rising Sun MANITOU - still one of my favorite 15mm mini-mech/landmate suits. 

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Quite a few 15mm Science Fiction wargamers were introduced to the scale through the original Traveller figures... and  many of us still use them as the basis of comparison for today's figures. It's no surprise - most of the old sculpts still hold up quite well today. RAFM did a great job arranging them into logical figure packs when they took over the range - very useful for grabbing tons of civilians, pirates, crewmen, etc. in a single purchase. 

So for fans of that range (I still love the old "bucket head" marines) - or anyone who just wants to see what the fuss is all about - RAFM is holding a 35% off sale through 31 August.

Space Vixens

The sale doesn't just apply to the ex-Traveller figures. It covers the entire store - including original 15mm figures and vehicles like the alien Insolani, and the 28mm USX drones (which have no details betraying their scale).

So head on over to RAFM's web store and enjoy the sale.

The Ion Age Has Arrived!

Huge news, everyone... a new age is upon us!

The Ion Age, the signature space opera setting from Alternative Armies and 15mm.Co.Uk, has been spun off into its own creation. TheIonAge.Com is now live - including the webstore, some background information about the universe, and featuring some of the finest space opera artwork you'll ever see on a miniature gaming site. 

The 15mm section has opened by stealing the existing Ion Age miniatures from 15mm.Co.Uk's HOF section, but Gavin Syme has loads of new products just around the corner. A quick look at the menu reveals that we will soon see new publications, new vehicles, and terrain. As a taste for what's to come, The Ion Age has released Balthazar and Jerome - character figures depicting a Prydian Retained Knight and his loyal varlet. 

To keep us informed of The Ion Age's progress, Gavin Syme has launched The Ion Age Blog. Gavin is renowned for his support of the miniature gaming world, and I have no doubt that he will quickly build a thriving community around The Ion Age. And as a long-time enthusiast of space opera settings, I am very eager to be part of that community!

Head on over to TheIonAge.Com to look around, and don't forget to follow The Ion Age Blog!

Cheers,

Chris

Breaking News - Martians Attack!

All Quiet on the Martian Front Kickstarter in Live

By Alien Dungeon

"It’s Tanks vs. Tripods, Big Guns vs. Heat Rays in a new 15mm Miniature Game of all out Interplanetary War in 1910."

This amazing project has just got started on Kickstarter and has already funded and reached its first couple of stretch goals. The All Quiet on the Martian Front Kickstarter promises more stretch goals along with its already quite generous pledge levels.

All Quiet on the Martian Front is a 15mm science fiction miniatures game that lets you play out a second invasion by the Martians from H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds". This time, however, Earth is ready with war machines of its own and the Martians will find Earth is not so easy.

The game brings to the scene a huge collection of new and inspired miniatures depicting troops from both Martian and British armies, each depicting advancements on their respective technologies and tactics. The variety of tripod walkers is amazing and the Martians even have human slave troops. Earth brings to the field specialist troops like motorcycle cavalry, grappler assault troops and even mammoth land monitors.

Check it out and join in the fight!

-Eli

Medics, Tomorrow Black, Sahadeen Platoons, and more

Some news and new releases from around the 15mm community:

New Releases:

• 15mm.Co.Uk have officially released the HOF Human Medical Team featured in this blog's last few posts. 
• Highlander Studios has taken over sales of the Tomorrow Black sci-horror/post-apocalyptic figure range sculpted (and formerly sold) by Battle Miniatures Emporium. The Abomination Collection is available as an assorted pack of vicious-looking things, and the Death Digger is available separately.
• Rebel Minis now offers a platoon pack of the popular Sahadeen infantry figures. Rebel's platoon packs are a great value - perfect starter packs for any new 15mm army.

News and Previews:

• Brigade Models has been teasing us with pictures of their upcoming Neo-Soviet, Pacific Federation, and resculpted/upscaled ONESS/German vehicles, along with some additional 15mm buildings. If you aren't a regular reader of their official blog, head over there and take a look!
• ArtCrime Productions shows us production castings of their upcoming Hadai figures.
• Armies Army presents greens of their Kickstarter-funded Commonwealth Troopers.

• Darkest Star Games has been showing teaser pics of the upcoming Anime-inspired Spec-Sec mecha, along with a few additions to the Colony 15 range.
• Rebel Minis shows off a few upcoming additions to the PF-sculpted Brog Empire range

• Zombiesmith are running a 15% off sale through February 14th.

New Kickstarter From Armies Army

15mm science fiction entrepreneur, gamer and personal friend Kieth Armstrong, of Armies Army has kicked off his new Kickstarter campaign.

This campaign is designed to provide a push to his next release, the Greater Britannia Commonwealth Forces. Representing UK forces in the near future, contemporary to his original RUSKS (near-future Russians), they have a gritty, real world +20 years feel to them that will make them an honest and perfect addition to anyone playing hard science fiction miniatures games.

As with many Kickstarters, this one offers a number of Stretch Goals, including basic infantry in alternate headgear, command, support, even commandos. These Stretch Goals will be made available to backers at certain levels and as add-ons.

Head on over and check it out and lend Keith your support and do yourselves all a favour in helping to get these awesome miniatures onto the table.

Thanks,

-Eli

New 15mm Sci Fi from Black Cat Bases

We now welcome Black Cat Bases to the ranks of 15mm manufacturers!

Their first four releases are now available on their website. First we have a pack of three pulpy-looking robots. The left robot is around 23mm tall, to give you a hint at scale:

These are accompanied by a pack of five Future War Troopers with a nice mix of weapons.

And for you horror gamers, two packs of zombies. One set is dressed in business attire, the other in basic street clothes.

I look forward to seeing what paint schemes are devised for the first two packs. Every spaceport can use at least a few pulpy robots roaming the streets. :)

Cheers,

Chris

Releases and Other News

Just some quickies from around the 15mm community:

• Rebel Minis added a command pack to the Vott alien range, and released a pack of Manth ant-men - including a casualty figure!

• Hot on the heels of reinforcements to the popular Exterminators and the long-anticipated Jasmine Foreign Throne Battalions (I'll take a closer look at those later), Khurasan Minis has released the Kestrel Gunship Mark 1. But only for a limited time. Jon felt this one ended up just a bit too close to a gunship from a popular Xbox franchise, and it will be upgraded and released later as a Mark 2.  If you like this sculpt, grab a Mark 1 before they disappear.

• CP Models adds these Carnosaurs to their small-but-growing range.  I really love these little guys as space-opera critters.  Also, how great would these look alongside some Blue Moon Vleta Reavers?

• And speaking of creepy critters, 15mm.Co.Uk has added this pack of Alien Flora to their HOF range.  Perfect for USE ME Post Apocalypse or Mutants & Death Ray Guns.

And some news from around the industry...

• Old Crow Products has gone on temporary hiatus.  Jez will be quite occupied for the next year or so - working on the film adaptation of All You Need Is Kill.  It's a great read, so we're all looking forward to seeing this film!
• Combat Wombat's "holy crap I'm on retirement leave!" sale will be ending on August 5th...
• ...while The Scene's 20% off sale will begin on July 31st.  I've been wanting to try an "electrical-box buildings" project, and some of The Scene's building bits will be perfect for that.
• Edit: Critical Mass Games' 20% off sale has been extended through July 31st (thanks, JBR!).

Galactic War One unveiled

Blue Moon Manufacturing have announced the release of their 15mm sci-fi wargames rules Galactic War One  to accompany the company's exquisitely pulpy 15mm sci-fi miniature range. The Dropship crew tracked down one of the authors, Scott Pyle, to get the skinny on this new release.

Scott, Joseph Dragovich and Schuyler Hernstrom collaborated on this set of rules for Blue Moon Manufacturing's growing line of 15mm Sci-fi figures and vehicles.
A perfect-bound soft-cover book, Galactic War I weighs in at 96 pages and features colour covers and black & white interior illustrations by Chris Moeller. Layout work is by Karl Perrotton. Example unit records and a quick reference sheet, both designed to be copied & printed, round out the package.

Over the last two years of development and play-testing, Scott and Joseph's goals were to make this set of rules easy to learn, efficient and fun to play and yet allow two players to move lots of minis around the table, completing a game in a reasonable period of time. The background, concepts and flavour for the setting were very much the province of Schuyler Hernstrom.


Scott has produced three other game titles complementing Blue Moon's different minis lines, so it makes sense that Blue Moon's owner, Russ Dunaway, should call on Scott for a 15mm Sci-fi rule-set. But Galactic War I is definitely a departure from Scott's respected 'Goal System' game design; this is not a space-flavoured extension of the "Chaos In" series of games.

Galactic War I features a 3d6 opposed-roll mechanic, multiple figure basing and plays at the platoon to company level. Vehicles and walkers are a big part of the fun. A skirmish-mod allows games to be played out using the same mechanics but with smaller numbers of individually based minis. There is no campaign system, but an interesting 'Battle Zones and Scenarios' generator encourages you to fight out battles on exotic alien worlds featuring game-changing environments.

While GWI is intended to stand beside the Blue Moon line, a complete build-system allows you to stat-up and bring in 15mm minis from any manufacturer.
Co-author Joseph Dragovich has published some interesting details on his blog,check it out.
These rules are available now from Blue Moon or from Old Glory.

Latest GZG Update!

 NEWS from Jon at GZG:

Apologies for delay in posting another update, I've been spending the last couple of weeks frantically doing stuff rather than writing about it!

SALUTE went off VERY well, it was great to see so many of our customers there and the day went really smoothly – everyone there was amazingly patient and supportive of the transitions we're going through with the store.

Since returning from the show, I've been working solidly to get the last of the order backlog cleared (which included some VERY large orders – several in the £500+ range – that got placed in the last couple of days before we closed up the old store). I can now very happily announce that the whole of the backlog has been cleared and virtually* all orders dispatched.

Through all the delays, you have all been incredibly patient, in fact out of several hundred orders that took way too long due to our hiatus there were only TWO where the customers decided to cancel rather than wait (this was fine with me, as it allowed me to bump a few others up the queue!!) – so a big thank-you again to everyone.

One particularly good piece of news is that orders to the USA seem to be getting though US Customs a bit faster at last – a customer contacted me just the other day to say that their packages had arrived within a week of them being posted from here, which is pretty much back to normal.

So, I am now working on sorting out all the little bits that need to be done before the new store can open for orders – barring serious problems, I HOPE that we will be able to have it up and running very shortly, I will post another update over this coming weekend with more details.

Best regards to you all, and thanks for your continued support!

Jon (GZG), 5th May.

* OK, there are actually just a handful still outstanding due to various problems – cases where despite repeated attempts, we cannot contact the customers, or Paypal payments have not been made, etc – if you think you MIGHT be one of these, then do please get in touch again in case earlier emails have not been getting through."

  

Latest Intel......Out of Production & Withdrawn Sci Fi Lines

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A quick heads up to let you know that Peter Pig's Sci Fi range is being withdrawn shortly. I recommend that if there's anything you always wanted from this small and unique range, to buy it NOW!

My own peronal favourite is the BOMAG Dropship. It's ugly and utilitarian but a cheap and versatile orbital taxi for your tabletop.

Mike at the The Scene UK has let me know that he has regretably withdrawn his Sci Fi range from sale for the time being. This is due to possible IP issues raised by a certain large games company.

Cheers
Mark
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Incoming Transmission: Heads Up!

Heads Up Marines! We're expecting massive reinforcements over the next two weeks in the shape of new 15mm Sci Fi recruits from GZG, Khurasan Miniatures and Rebel Minis space commands.

First teaser shots of the new guys will appear in stages this weekend. So keep this channel open!

Chief of the Boat......OUT!

Breaking News..............

....4 Beaumonde Steelers 12, with a penalty in the last 15 from Dakota Xia. Back to system news and Exenogeni Research GmBh, a division of the Blue Sun Corporation, continue to deny that the experiments in their HotLab facility at Mt Liang Shan have any kind of military application.

Dr Walter Tuffley stated, "its pure speculation, we are develping better poducts for a better Alliance, for a better BUGS! BUGS IN THE TUNNELS! THEY GOT IN THE PERIMETERBADADADADADADA ERK ssssssssssssssssssssssss"



Now here is some light music.......sponsored by Blue Sun Travel.