Get ready for some State of the Art Bad Asses

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The Special Assault Brigade are the elite strike force of the Federal Marines, used for special operations, boarding action and landings to outflank the enemy during fullscale invasions.


They alone are deployable using teleport technology. They wear power armour, and are armed with a large dual-purpose missile launcher (capable of both anti-tank and anti-personnel action) and a heavy flame thrower. Additionally their backpack, which has both rocket and jet boosters to move the marines at very great speed, also contains a bombthrower armed with heavy grenades.


As the open battlefield is dominated by the L-HAC combat system and its sypporting marine troopers, so the tunnel, landing zone and spaceship corridor are dominated by these stealthy marines, their rock-hard armour suits not much larger than a man to assure access to tight spots, to coax the enemy out of his lair. However, the S.A.B. can always be found in the forefront of major combat operations, first on the ground, there and fighting before the others even arrive.


The models come five to a pack, four different troopers and a commander. Their arms are separate and have some posability and although they were originally designed to go with the respective bodies, are to some extent interchangable between the models.

Each model comes with two arm sets to portray the trooper with either the big missile launcher or the heavy flamethrower, as well as two loose weapons so that the one not being used can be depicted snapped onto the backpack.

These tough hombres will be released
next Wednesday, 14th April 2010.

WWW.KHURASANMINIATURES.TRIPOD.COM
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Corporate Marine Conversion

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I asked myself a what Khurasan Miniatures' Corporate Marines would look like with different helmets - and here's my first attempt, using a full face helmet from Rebel Miniatures' Infiltrator pack.

The Corporate Marine's head came off with a twist and the neck just needed a quick scrape with the knife to flatten out. The Rebel Infiltrator needed two knife cuts and then came off quickly and simply. Reckon I could have half a dozen done and prepped, in about 5 minutes.

For the photos I've just used Blutack, but when I repeat the process for real, I'll use the method outlined in this previous post on 26th April (click here).

The difference is outstanding! But that is of course just my opinion. The imporvement was helped by angling the helmet so that the trooper's line of sight is along the barrel rather than head up, straight ahead, and suddenly a pedestrian pose has action and sense of urgency about it.

Jon has mentioned having new helmets put on the dollies. Go for it!

Mike, please do a sprue of separate Infiltrator heads!

Cheers
Mark
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Graffiti Camo Inspiration

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Driving to a work site in a depressed area of the Granite City, I noticed a graffitied roadside telephone exchange box. The box itself was 'battleship grey' and had been given wavy camouflage lines of red-brown and black. It stood out for complimenting it's granite and brick surroundings, and looked cool.

I'd been looking for a slightly 'different' camo scheme for my Khurasan Corporate Marines, so kept the image in my mind. Once home that evening I used Paint.Net, not trying to win any art prizes here, to painlessly try out the grey/red-brown/black camo look on Jon's Corporate Marines without even having to lift a brush - wait for undercoat to dry, you know.....

Even as I went along the line of figures in the photo, I thought yeah, that's not too shabby at all. All well and good, but how does it look in 15mm? My favourite graphic utility for photograph and digital images is IRFANVIEW. Free and completely painless to use for 99% of your everyday digital photography tasks.

I opened up the photo above in IRFANVIEW, held a Corporate Marine miniature to the screen and reduced the size of the photo until the two matched.

Click on the picture to get an idea of the difference.

I use this technique with camo schemes all the time, whether graphic swatches or photos of actual uniforms and soldiers all the time. It gives you an idea of what is likely to work and what will be simply too fussy when it comes to reproducing your chosen camo scheme in 15mm.

Once again, It doesn't replace trying things out on a 'test' mini, but it does help you decide on the colours and best approach before you apply the brush.

Subsequently, the Corporate Marines have slipped into my painting schedule unannounced and are now sitting undercoated Adeptus Battlegrey on my desk. I'll keep you updated on progress in the coming week.

Cheers
Mark
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'O' GROUP.......

My most recent order from Khurasan Miniatures was waiting for me when I got home on Friday. 10 mixed packs of Garn and 6 packs of Corporate Marines.

The Corporate Marines are really nice miniatures. Well sculpted and very much in human proportions. The MasterChef was worried about how thin the legs looked in the photos - I can assure him and anyone else, that the legs are fine, as is the shoulder armour. The figs match perfectly with GZG's new Ravagers which are still on my workbench.

I have two small gripes about the Corporate Marines. First, no VISORS. To me, simply, No Visors = No Sci Fi. It's a personal thing. I don't care whether the visors are chic Ray-Ban strips or half/full face affairs, I just want to see visors on my (human) Sci Fi miniatures!

Second. These miniatures like many currently available, they lack dynamism, being mostly in standyabouty poses. Which I guess is fine for a 'Corporate' Marine guarding premises, installations and corridors, or possibly any military force conducting planetary policing actions. As such, I think they are perfect for RPGs like classic TRAVELLER, where military miniatures in more dynamic combat poses look out of place when they are supposed to be doing guard duty, patrolling streets/spaceports or looking for fugitives in the local Cantina.

To be fair to Jon, he did ask me what changes I would like to see. Given any changes would be at a not inconsiderable cost to him and push back getting these miniatures cast, I didn't want to impose my foibles on miniatures that would likely sell anyway.

These comments aren't a critiscm of Khurasan's releases, more a gentle plea to sculptors and manufacturers. I know it's more costly to sculpt 3 different skirmishing men than an equal number of standing guys who are 'converted' by swivelling torso, moving arms and heads. But bear in mind that the drought of 15mm Sci Fi figures (in comparison with other gaming genres) that existed over the past twenty years has ended in a Tsunami of new releases this year.

Speaking with the MasterChef the other night, we recognise we are lucky to have a fair amount of disposable income that can be spent on our hobby. But we also have come to terms with the fact that it's simply not sustainable for us to continue purchasng new miniatures month after month, purely because they are the latest Sci Fi releases.

This isn't solely a financial decision, it's also a practical one. Like everyone, we have a backlog of miniatures to paint and other wargaming interests. Perhaps more importantly, few of the new releases enhance our core gaming project and we find that we are losing focus. Buying more but getting less done.

I for one, am going to sit back over the next few months, concentrate on my core forces, and wait to see what comes on the market. Even if there's a price hike in-between, I'd rather pay 10-15% extra for miniatures I want in September, that tick most or all my boxes, than spend 100% on something now that will be superceded on the tabletop and consigned to a drawer in the garage in August.

Cheers
Mark