REVIEW: Khurasan 15mm Sci Fi Federal Army

.

My week has been stolen by the arrival of samples from Khurasan Miniatures forthcoming 15mm Sci Fi Federal Army range. Not only have I been playing around with the miniatures, working out different organisations and fireteam basing options, but using my 'Google-Fu' to get inspiration for a suitable camo scheme.

The figures are 18mm sole to eye, and all of comparable heights and proportions to newer figure ranges on the market The soldiers all wear closed helmets, chest, shoulder, knee and lower leg armour. Overall the figures have the right 'feel' to them of being soldiers in miniature. This is particularly demonstrated by the way the weapons are carried. You can feel the weapons have a weight and balance in their hands.

No apologies, I'm going to begin with my favourites from the Support Weapons pack. This pack contains a Team Leader, Grenadier, SAW, MAW Gunner MAW No.2.

Khurasan 15mm Sci Fi Federal Army

L-R: Team Leader, Grenadier, SAW

Khurasan 15mm Sci Fi Federal Army

L-R: MAW No.2, MAW Gunner

• The Team Leader is in the middle of communicating and will make a good alternative squad or platoon  leader.  
• The Grenadier is poised at the ready, looking like he's stacked and ready to breach a room.
• The SAW gunner is a gem. Kneeling, his SAW has a large capacity drum and at his feet there's a satchel with further drms. He would easily make a heavy sniper if you chose.
• The MAW No.2, possibly my favourite figure from this pack, he is kneeling at the ready with three rockets hanging from his right hip.
• The MAW gunner is a tasty heavy duty tank or VTOL killer. Whilst some of you might not like this style of 'cumbersome' rocket launcher in a Sci Fi setting, I see it as being a multi-purpose weapon system, perhaps firing thermobaric rounds or 'beehive' canister-like drone killers.

There are five different castings in the Fire Team pack. A Grenadier and four Riflemen. My photo does not do these figures justice, particularly the two advancing figures on the left.

 

Khurasan 15mm Sci Fi 
Federal Army Fire Team

The figure holding his rifle in his left hand can be used as an alternative fire team or squad leader. The Grenadier is not just some johnny standing bolt upright firing his weapon. You can see that he has it braced and firing slightly hgh to compensate for the trajectory of the lower velocity grenade.

Finally, there's a Command Pack which contains a Squad Leader and armed Medic.

Khurasan 15mm Sci Fi

Federal Army Command Team

• The Squad/Platoon Leader is standing pointing forwards. Less dynamic than I would prefer, but a decent figure nevertheless.
• The 'Medic' is IMO, one of the nicest miniatures in the range. He is only identifiable as a 'medic' by a large rucksack with side pockets, so can easily join his mates as a rifleman or demo specialist. I really like his no-nonsense advancing into combat pose. And if that was the only rifle armed pose Jon produced, I'd be happy with dozens of him alone.

As you can see, the Federal Army range are suitable as Near Future transitional troops or Sci Fi planetary forces. If you are searching for an opposing force for Eureka's Sci Fi Germans, the Federal Army miniatures would make great Neo-Sovs in an AT-43 style Red Blok camo scheme. I can also certainly see these in the role of Ghost Recon Future Warriors, HALO Marines or even ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) proxies. To an old Sci Fi grognard like me, there's just that something about them that cries 'classic' Traveller: Mercenary. And of course, they will be right at home in Ambush Alley Games' forthcoming Tomorrow's War.

Jon envisions his Federal Army troops to have smallarms that are equivalent in firepower to today's SAWs, Grenadiers deploy underslung grenade launchers capable of firing powerful, programmable RAM Grenades. 

Due to a little slippage in the casting schedule, it's likely to be a few weeks yet before the Federal Army packs are available, but it's well worth the wait.

All in all, a versatile, well thought-out and designed set of miniatures, allowing you to build a platoon or two with enough variation to prevent becoming stale. Armour is on the way and Jon has plans to augment the range some time in the future with more command, snipers and at least one heavy weapon. If you have any thoughts on additional troops or the type of heavy weapons you'd like to see, share your ideas in the comments section below.

Now off  to paint them!

Cheers

Mark

.

Incoming Transmission..... Khurasan Miniatures Release Schedule

.
Jon at Khurasan Miniatures has sent over his tenataive release schedule
covering the next few months. Some great stuff coming our way!

KHURASAN MINIATURES,
RELEASE SCHEDULE,
AUTUMN 09

LATE AUGUST '09

Pelagic Karkarines
Pelagic Karkarine command/heavy weapon
Pelagic Spearbearers (Insectiod light bioweapon)
Pelagic Cnidarian Overlords
Pelagic Man of War APC
Pelagic Man of War MBT
Pelagic Man of War SPA

MID-SEPTEMBER '09

Pelagic drop pod
Pelagic Sea Wasp Light Vehicle 

LATE SEPTEMBER '09

Civilian pickup truck with tracks instead of wheels

OCTOBER '09

Garn Battle Barge

NOVEMBER '09 ???

L-HAC Corporate Marine Heavy Assault Cyborg
Corporate Marine APC
Corporate Marine Assault Brigade in superheavy battle dress

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER '09 ???

Insurgent guerillas with assault weapons 
Insurgent Support Weapons
Insurgent Inspirational Leader
Insurgent Superhero Scientist
Sponk

DECEMBER '09 ???

Pelagic Orcid Heavy Assault Warriors


Thanks for sharing with us Jon. Lot's to look forward to at:

WWW.KHURASANMINIATURES.TRIPOD.COM

Cheers
Mark

.

Critical Mass Games - Release Schedule

.
Critical Mass Games have kindly given me the honour of announcing the planned schedule of releases for their new 15mm Sci Fi ranges. The first of these will be the Human Arc Fleet and the alien Protolene Khanate.

ARC FLEET

WAVE 1 20th August 2009

Arc Fleet Light Recon 4 Packs

AFLR 1-4

Arc Fleet Heavy Drop Troopers 4 Packs

AFHD 1-4

Arc Fleet Augmented Foot Troopers 2 Packs

AFAU 1-2

WAVE 2 21^st September 2009

Arc Fleet Rifle Infantry 8 Packs

AFSR 1-8

Arc Fleet Combat Walker 4 Variants

AFVH 1-4

WAVE 3 26^th October 2009

Arc Fleet Heavy Tank 3 Variants

AFVH 5-7

Arc Fleet Laser Defense Platform 1 Pack

PROTOLENE KHANATE

WAVE 4 23^rd November 2009

Protolene Khanate Predators

Contents TBD

Protolene Khanate Hunters

Contents TBD

Protolene Khanate Scouts

Contents TBD

Protolene Light Scout Walker 1 Pack

PROW 1

Packs sizes and prices will be confirmed, but in general you can expect 8 figures in a standard Arc Fleet pack consisting of 3 unique sculpts. Codes AFAU1 & AFAU2 have 6 figures per pack.

Arc Fleet APCs and new alien races are planned for the new year.

Craig from CMG has offered to share concept art, WIPs and photos of the final castings over the coming weeks and has granted permission for them to be published on Dropship Horizon.

Cheers
Mark
.

100 Posts in the Pipe!

An express elevator to hell;
GOING DOWN!

Welcome to the 100th post on Dropship Horizon

The 15mm Sci Fi scene has expanded in Super Nova terms over the past 100 posts. There is a vibrancy in the marketplace and new ranges instead of competing with each other are actually fuelling the appetite for more. A new wave of sculptors and manufacturers have come forward and more have expressed the intention of following. New modern rules systems are in development....we really are on an express elevator ride right now. WHAT A RUSH!

My sincerest thanks to everyone who has supported Dropship Horizon to date, and especially to each of the manufacturers who has contributed towards the 100th post! A special thank you to Gavin at 15mm.co.uk for his very generous 15% discount deal for Dropship Horizon readers!



When Mark asked us at www.15mm.co.uk to make a contribution to his landmark 100th posting we were happy to help, after all its rare to have access to such a quality blog as Dropship Horizon. As most of you will be aware we produce the Laserburn range of classic 15mm sci-fi miniatures and vehicles along with the HOF 15mm sci-fi range. Both can be found on our website.

Our latest releases for HOF are all on our site right now. They are:

HOF53 Octopod Infantry. This pack contains ten miniatures taken from three poses of humanoid infantry with rifles. Octopods have slimy skin and tentacle bunches which cover the lower parts of their faces and chests. £3.50 per pack

HOF54 Human Rim Mercenaries. This pack contains ten miniatures taken from three poses of human males armed with rifles dressed in paramilitary gear. £3.50 per pack.

HOF55 Post Apocalyptic Warriors. This pack contains ten miniatures taken from three poses of human males armed with machine pistols and dressed in gas masks and leather trench coats. £3.50 per pack.

HOF57 Starfighter Crew. This pack contains ten miniatures taken from four poses. Starfighter Pilot in helmet, Srarfighter Pilot bare headed, kneeling mechanic and Starfighter Droid. £3.50 per pack.

HOF56 Cultist Infantry. This pack contains ten miniatures taken from three poses of human males armed with a variety of rifles and a shotgun dressed in hooded full body robes. £3.50 per pack.

HOF58 Stellar Refugees. This pack contains ten pieces. One set of Human child with grav sled and separate load, multiples of three poses of Human Refugees. Human male with bags standing, Human male with bags walking and human teenage female clutching bags and robotoy. £3.50 per pack.

As an added bonus in conjunction with Dropship Horizon we would like to extend a promotional offer to all you gamers out there who are fans of this blog. Go to our site www.15mm.co.uk and place an order as normal, when you reach the 'checkout' screen with the white background enter this code ' 1703 ' into the voucher box and automatically get 15% off your order. This is valid for all miniatures, rulebooks and so on from us and will be valid for the next two weeks.

Here's to the next 100 postings!
Gavin

DROPSHIP HORIZON
PRIZE DRAW No.1

Everyone who is signed up as a follower of Dropship Horizon will be entered into a free prize draw on June 21st. First person chosen at random will recieve a Grey Landing Party from 15mm.co.uk. Second person will recieve a pack of Cultists and third will receive a pack of Post Apocalyptic Warriors. Good Luck!

http://www.rebelminis.com/15mmscifi.html

Meet the all new Sabre Dropship coming soon from Rebel Minis:

Rebel Minis 15mm Sabre Dropship - Laser variant

Rebel Minis 15mm Sabre Dropship - Missile variant

MAEF4 15mm Earth Force Marines Infantry (Soft Top): Sculpted by Martin Baker, the Earth Force Marines Infantry (Soft Top) Pack comes with 21 15mm Miniatures (5 EF poses) for $10.95, in a Boonie style cover instead of the enclosed helmet. They also feature respirators over the nose and mouth.

http://www.rebelminis.com/15eafomainst.html

MAEF3 15mm Earth Force Marine Infantry (Hardtop) : Once again, sculpted by Martin Baker, the Earth Force Marines Infantry (Hardtop) Pack comes with 21 15mm Miniatures (5 EF poses) for $10.95, in Hardtop cover instead of the enclosed helmets.

http://www.rebelminis.com/15eafomainh.html

These guys give Near Future gaming a hard edge. Keep an eye on the website for more new releases and remember that shipping anywheer in the world is now one flat rate of $4.60.

http://greeneyedminis.blogspot.com/

Green Eyed Minis will be going live with a website before the end of May. We will be releasing the Tolero (the little bears), Yetis and Slugs to begin with. Future packs will compliment these packs. We have a Tolero Catapult being worked on and also Tolero's rifing giant Terror Birds. There will also be a command pack and probably another 8 basic troopers.

Green Eyed Minis 15mm Tolero

The Yetis will have another 8 figures released. They will be armed with a variety of bones, rocks and stones, and we have a few other ideas being played with at the moment.

Green Eyed Minis 15mm Yetis

We will also be working on several more alien bugs and welcome suggestions as to what people would like.

We have 3 alien races planned and these will be complete ranges with various troop types and vehicles.

We plan to release packs with 8 individual figures in, so you don't need to worry about duplicates.

Finally, We're putting together a range of Space dwarves, with the first pack due for release mid June. These figures will be part of a complete range and we hope to launch with a platoon pack made up of 30 unique figures, which will incld command and heavy weapons.

If anyone wants to contact us we can be found at greeneyedminis@gmail.com for the time being.

Cheers

Adam

http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/

Mark, just for your 100th, here are some EXCLUSIVE images of upcoming items.

1) An closeup image of the missile bay of the Pelagic Dominate's SPA missile tank. There will be an APC and an AFV on the same hull. The basic design is a secret so far, but here's a peek! These vehicles are the amazing work of vehiclesmith John Bear Ross.

2) An in-progress look at the 28mm heavy weaponsgarn. He was changed a bit after this shot was taken (his targeting periscope was shortened, and the power/support cables going from his power backpack into the gun rack were added) but this is the basic look. The gun rack will be able to receive the plasma cannon (shown), laser cannon or missile launcher, all three of which attachments will come with each heavy weaponsgarn.

And here are some further updates on the rest of my Sci Fi lines as posted also to TMP:

The Corporate Marines are in my hands just waiting for the painted samples to be
released.

Garn 15mm are at the casters.

Pelagic Dominate:- Karkarine line troopers in ablative armour are almost done, soon to be

shipped to me (four trooper poses with hydroplasma rifle, one two-kar hydroplasma cannon

team, one commander with hydroplasma assault rifle).

Hydrozoan Overlords, in battle dress with nematocyte energy harpoon, have been described to sculptor and will be started soon

Spearbearer bio terror troops are done and on their way to me.

Pelagic armoured assets (grav tank, grav APC, grav missile artillery) are completed 3D sculpting and the patterns are at the printers.

So lots of sci fi fun coming in the next few months. If sales support it I will make vehicles for the Garn and Corporate Marines as well. Also probably everyone's favorite genocidal overlord, Jellina Joel I, in 15mm."

"Who can resist a girl in leather even in 15mm?"...Mark

http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/

David at Splintered Light Miniatures has informed me that they will shortly have two packs of 15mm Space Crew, one pack armed, one unarmed.

Splintered Light are also offering a 20% discount on purchases made in April and May. Check out the website for details.

DROPSHIP HORIZON
PRIZE DRAW No.2

Win a Rebel Minis Dropship & Earth Force Marines(new and unpainted)

To Win:First person with all 3 correct answers!
You can have one attempt per comment left on the blog
between 30th May and 21st June 2009.
Send answers to dr#pshiph#riz#n@yah##.c#.uk
(This address is purely for the competiton. Replace the # as appropriate)If no-ne gets all three. person with most correct who has
contributed best comments will win. My comp. so my decisions are final.
1) What Sci Fi TV series am I currently watching on DVD?

2) Which pack of 'gritty' 15mm Sci Fi miniatures
do I think would make great Legionnaires?

3) Which movie actress would I like to see cast as Jellina Joel I?

Best of luck!

Cheers
Mark

Latest Intel

A roundup of latest releases and news in the 15mm Sci Fi universe......

15mm Earth Force Marines
21 miniatures for $10.95 from Rebel Minis
(Click here if you want to know more)

15mm Earth Force Marines Heavy Weapons
2 Sniper teams, 2 Autocannon & 2 medium Missle launchers
for $3.49 from Rebel Minis
(Click here if you want to know more)



15mm Octopod Infantry
10 miniatures for £3.50 from 15mm.co.uk
(Click here if you want to know more)

15mm Human Rim Mercenaries
10 miniatures for £3.50 from 15mm.co.uk
(Click here in you want to know more)

15mm Post Apocalyptic Warriors
10 miniatures for £3.50 from 15mm.co.uk
(Click here if you want to now more)


15% OFF ALL ORDERS
at 15mm.co.uk
This offer gives 15% off all Orders placed with 15mm.co.uk via email,
post or web shop for ALL customers.
Those going to the Salute Convention also pay no shipping!
(Click here if you want to know more)


15mm Spacer Ship Crew
A forthcoming release from Splintered Light Miniatures
(Click here if you want to know more)


15mm Space Demons
Khurasans new Space Demons have arrived from the casters
First batch on the way to me for preview
(Click here if you want to know more)



FAD 4.0
Fast And Dirty Rules for Fast And Dirty Combat
FAD 4.0 the latest version of these excellent free Sci Fi
miniatures rules are avilable online in PDF format:
(Click here if you want to know more)


BLACK AUTUMN PRODUCTIONS
An exciting new kid on the block
(Click here if you want to know more)

Please mention DROPSHIP HORIZON

if you contact any of these companies

Cheers
Mark