WWW2 Inspiration

.

Well it is! Those Star Wars Walkers were just made for slapping a Balkenkreuz (as opposed to a Penelope Cruz) on the side.

Quickest and easiest bit of WWW2 kit to put on the table in 15mm.

Cheers

Mark

.

Götterdämmerung.... Weird Nazis.... & Purplebellies

.
What is all this "Weird Sci Fi Nazi Domina" stuff anyway?

Answer: Fun way of reusing a lot of tired WW2 kit and creating an additional Low-tech Sci Fi army.

Plus, Sci fi Germans are very useful as Purplebellies! The clearest view of an Alliance Purplebelly in Firefly is in a flashback to the Unification War in The Message. Definitely Weird Reich territory.

Went back to work on Friday and was promptly sent home again. I worked from home today and as a consequence do finally feel better and will go back in tomorrow over "Donkey Cough!" at last.

A very real benefit of working from home in cash terms is saving myself twenty 'squid' on train fares and something for lunch, so I've reinvested £3.18 ($4.99) on the GEAR KRIEG German Walker Compendium 1 (Loki).

I'm not into Gear Krieg per se, simply bought this book for the eye candy if I'm honest with you and will probably never read the text. Was it worth that instant gratification that only a pdf can bring? Oh yes! Worth it for the photos of superbly painted 15mm WW2, Weird Reich and Gear Krieg kit by the talented Agis Neugebauer. And I've picked up some nice little touches of inspiration for my own Götterdämmerung collection.

What you get for your money is a 26 page book that's very professionally produced. When you purchase from Wargames Vault you will get a full colour download, a B/W copy to download, and a set of Unit Stats also. The latter has even more colour photos of individual German walker variants.

The very last photo in the Compendium made me want to go back into Wargames Vault and download the Rapid Fire! Battle of the Bulge scenario & mini campaign book ($17.50). Save that for another day perhaps.

Cheers
Mark
.

AaahWoo, Werewolves in Warsaw!

.
Piotr of Pole Bitwy has sent me the following photos of greens from his forthcoming 15mm Sci Fi ranges.

Pole Bitwy 15mm Sci Fi
Werewolf Alpha Male, Simian Trooper, Aquaman

Pole Bitwy 15mm Sci Fi Werewolf Separate Heads
(Battlefront WW2 Soviets for comparison)

The Werewolf Alpha Male is about 26mm to the top of his head, 24mm to the eyes. The Aquaman is 22mm to the top of the crest on the head and 18mm to the eyes. These minis will be sold in packets of eight minis [two copies each of four different variants]. The werewolf heads sprue should fit most modern sized 15mm minis.

Piotr is also releasing a line of '6mm' Simians. Now these 6mm are in fact 12mm tall, which makes them suitable as an alternative race of Simian troopers or allows you to create a Simian Alliance army!

Pole Bitwy 15mm Sci Fi
12mm Simian on left

If you haven't seen Piotr's '15mm' Simian Heavy Weapon Troopers yet, you can catch them on TMP (click here).

Cheers
Mark
.

It's all gone a bit Abominable!

.
Finished my Abominable Snowmen (Green Eyed Minis) - painted and based. God have they have turned out good! Heather thinks they are the best miniatures I've painted. But she said that after trudging through a snowstorm on the way home last night, so her judgement may be suspect!

Ok, so bouyed up by my success, I decided at 10pm to start painting Rebel Minis' Nazi Zombies. In the study I have second thoughts - too late to start paint spraying methinks....maybe, but sitting in the desk tidy waiting for a lick of paint is Herr Doktor Von Klumpenstein the projenitor of the Nazi Zombie menace!

The figure is a Flames of War 15mm WW2 German Officer. He was available a couple of years ago in a command figure pack - 2 different command figs for £1. I bought two, the other specifically to be Kurt 'Panzer' Meyer (as he appeared at Mariupol, 1941).

With only a small conversion - turning his MP40 into a Blaster rifle, he would make a great Sci Fi Commissar or Commander figure!

Nazi Zombies on the workbench tomorrow night!

Cheers
Mark
.

Roll Out The Barrel: Late WW2 15mm Toms from FOW

.
Bought a pack of FOW BR812: British Guards Rifle Platoon (NW Europe) via Maelstrom Games which arrived along with a selection of Vallejo paints and basing textures ahead of the Christmas Hols.

The British Guards Rifle Platoon are EXCELLENT! FOW's photos don't do the miniatures justice. Full of character, helmets cocked to one side in that jaunty tipping a thumb at Jerry fashion, the Brens and riflemen simply ARE 1944 British Toms!

The Way Ahead (1944) has been on TV twice in the last week just as I got in the door from work. Each time I collapsed in the sofa, watched and enjoyed it - prompting me to order these minis.

Overall, these are THE best WW2 LW Brits on the market if you want character. OK, I'm disappointed that the PIAT gunner is sauntering - I mean WTF?, but I have lot's of spares to replace him with. The officers included in the pack are fine but not up to the quality of the privates in their posing, so I'll be replacing them with figures from Peter Pig's pack no.493 Brit LW Platoon Commanders and promoting those from BR812 to Company commanders. .

I would happily take these Toms out of a pure WW2 role to use in Gear Krieg or a Quatermass style pulp sci fi setting. But for Dr Who, or facing Nazi Zombies, then BR790 British 7th Armoured Motor Platoon still retain the edge, given you could easily imagine them as a 1940's/50's version of U.N.I.T.

Cheers
Mark

p.s. I know one of the presents Heather will get me for Xmas - it's either FOW's Villers-Bocage or Montys-Meatgrinder (from the local Hobbycraft store) - so the Toms will come in handy.
.

Rebel Minis - 15mm Nazi Zombies

.

DAWN OF DAS REICH!

Rebel Minis have just released Nazi Zombies!

15mm Sci Fi/WWW2
RMNZ1 Nazi Zombies: $10.99 for 21 figures

As part of Rebel Minis "Dead to Reich" Series, Mike is proud to present the Undead German Warmachine! Each pack contains 21 Nazi Zombies.

RMNZ1 Nazi Zombies: $10.99 for 21 figures

One of the WIP greens to illustrate the detail

I'll share more with you during the week. Available NOW from:

WWW.REBELMINIS.COM

Cheers
Mark
.

Under the Radar..... Neo-Soviet Kombine Ramblings

.
Back at the end of June I wrote about the suitability of the Flames of War 15mm WW2 Soviet Sapper-Engineer Flamethrower Platoon to become Traveller/Traveller Book 4: Mercenary mid-tech Infantry with laser carbines (Click here). Well, PROJECKT KOMBINE has been progressing under the radar since then.

My vision is a planetary Götterdämmerung! Continent sized cities are the battlefields, in a dystopian "diesalpunk" future inspired by Berlin 1945 and Grozny 1999-2000.

Initially I was thinking of only using the Flamethrower platoon figures as a Mid-tech energy weapon armed force. At this point I saw them very much standing alongside RAFM's ex-Traveller/Striker Mid-Tech Infantry. Discussing the project offline initially with Master Chef and latterly with Eli, I'm now aiming towards a Lower Mid-tech urban combat force which has a mix of high velocity Gauss neo-assault carbines (PPSHs) and early technology energy weapons (Laser/Plasma or similar).

Neo-Soviet Kombine
Urban Assault Batnova

To reflect the newness of this 'emerging' technology on TOE, one Plashnya per Kompnya will be armed with energy weapons. One box of SU803 Sapper-Engineers and 2 boxes of SU804 Sapper-Engineer Flamethrowers will give me a Batnova of 3 Kompnyas or preferably two understrength Batnovas.

The project received a boost when I discovered this superb Soviet era urban 'ameoba ' camouflage suit, which just felt like it had the correct Sci Fi and Neo-Soviet look and combined with helmet visors added from greenstuff would move the figures away from their more obvious WW2 origins.

At the moment I'm looking at using traditional FOW style bases for these miniatures and to make my life easier, the 4 man urban bases from The Scene are certainly worth considering.

Here's a rough impression I created as part of my 'mood board' to help me visualise the overall look of the Neo-Soviet Kombine urban combat force - naturally they will look better on urban terrain bases and to excentuate the urban devastation I've purchased a tub of GF9 Ash Waste Flock to try out.

For AFVs I'm looking at a mix of wheeled, tracked and early Grav technology. WW2 era T70s converted into troop carriers, Battlefront M3 Scout Cars (in lieu of a decent BTR 40), Skytrex BTR152s and GZG (grav) Light Gun/Scoutsleds.

I'm in no rush. This is a labour of love and I'll probably not get round to painting and basing until I have time off work at the end of October/beginning November. But, it's something fun to pull out and crack on with when I need a break from my mainstream Sci Fi projects.

Drasny Provovnik!
Mark
.

Life Work The Universe......The Generals Tent

Given the mixed weather this week it comes as little surprise that it's Wimbledon and lawn tennis season already.

June in Kinkydeenshire

Not really my game, but no warm blooded man should ever pass up the opportunity........and far prettier to watch than rugby. Whilst my mind lingers on beautiful Russian figures.....at the end of last month I ordered both the Flames of War WW2 Engineer-Sappers and Engineer-Sapper Flamethrower sets from Maelstrom Games. Ostensibly for and Berlin '45 Gotterdammerung and Weird World War Two games. You may remember that I discussed the potential for using them as Sci Fi Retro-Neo Soviet troops in a previous post.

Flames of War SU803
Soviet Engineer-Sapper Platoon

Well, the miniatures arrived and are bloody brilliant! They are so stonkingly good, I'm going to make them into one of my core Sci Fi armies.

I want to especially highlight FOW's Sapper Engineer Flamethrower Platoon (SU804).

Flames of War SU804
Soviet Engineer-Sapper Flamethrowers

I was instantly smitten by the figures as they spilled out of the pack! Give these guys visors, a comms link on the side of the helmet and they will make perfect classic Traveller/Mercenary mid-tech Infantry with laser carbines, straight out of the original Traveller Book 4: Mercenary book.

The downside is that there are only 16 figures in a pack, with no officer/NCO miniatures, or heavier squad support weapons - so you'd need to purchase the standard Engineer-Sapper platoon pack for these and convert as necessary if you wanted to represent a full leg infantry platoon - However command and support elements can always be provided by APCs, drones and UAVs, especially with Future War Commander, where I will use them as the dismounts for my Hykranian mech infantry forces.

But this project is more than just putting minis on the table. I don't mind admitting that these Engineer-Sappers have given me a huge element of gaming nostalgia for the Traveller Book 4: Mercenary games of yesteryear that I want to capture again.

Cheers
Mark

Walking The Dog

George out walking his dog

In this case, it's a Star Wars Titanium Series AT-ST by Hasbro, £5.95 from my local Forbidden Planet. 70mm tall and 35mm wide at the 'hips' it makes an excellent 15mm support weapon or AFV in it's own right. Go on, you're itching to paint George plus his UNSC buddies white and call them Stormtroopers now aren't you!

Here's my Titanium Series AT-ST's in a 'Benghazi or Bust' Weird WWII game. Herr Leutnant Clumpf's band of hardcore Peter Pig 15mm DAK raiders, storm Monty's HQ.