The 300 Second Spartan: Lessons Learnt

Listen up Marines! Master Chef here. Take a knee.

The sign of a crack outfit is that they learn from every action and are prepared to turn every defeat, every mistake, every Charlie-Foxtrot into an opportunity for improvement. Chief of the Boat Hannam will now brief you on the lessons learnt from the '300 Second Spartan' challnge. C.O.B. over to you....

No.1 SHAKE

Shake that bottle of Citadel 'Wash' as if you are ringing the neck of an Algolgian Snakemaster.

No. 2 DIP

When Mogi stew is the chow of the day, you know that when the you have to dip your spoon right into the bottom to get the good stuff. Same with the Citadel Washes. Use a Starbucks wooden coffee paddle if you only want a small amout.

No. 3 POOLING

Citadel Washes can pool on flat surfaces and leave 'tide marks'. You can't hide them with another coat of wash, so keep an eye out for this and prevent it with your brush. The only place to worry about on the GZG New Israeli figure is the very top of the helmet.

No. 4 BOLT GUN METAL

I painted the weapon Bolt Gun METAL and carefully applied a black ink to enhance the detail. Next time I will either leave the weapon with a green patina and give it a careful black wash OR paint it black and drybrush with Bolt Bun Metal.

No.5 GAUNTLETS

I was going to leave them green, but I saw some pictures of SPARTAN Action Figures with black/dark grey gauntlets so went for that. Too late, I saw some promo pictures from HALO 3, where the Spartans have gauntlets with green armoured plates covering the hand and fingers. Next time I'll leave the hands green but give them a light black inking to bring out the fingers.

No.6 DON'T LET THE PERFECT.....

My wife made a very valid point about this miniature. She thought it was one of the best figures I've painted in years. Not simply because it really does look great on the tabletop, but because I painted it to what she feels is the appropriate level of detail, not letting "the perfect get in the way of the good". I've been known to spend hours on a single 15mm miniature, but, in this instance I didn't even try to paint the gold into every nook and cranny of the visor, yet the end result is stunning.

Of course the subject matter, figure design and colour scheme helped, so this may not be possible with ordinary grunts - but we'll see.

That's all. DIS_MISS!

Latest Sci Fi AFV's from GZG!

Jon at GZG has sent me the following news item about his latest 15mm Sci Fi AFV's!

"First off, we have some new 8-wheeled combat vehicles - the first three are a basic "battle taxi" APC, a turretted MICV and a Fire Support/Tank Killer variant with a nice long cannon. As with all our 15mm vehicle range, they are generic designs and you can use them for whatever forces you like, but we think they're especially suitable for our Eurasian (ESU) and Islamic Federation forces".

GZG new 15mm 8-wheeled combat vehicles
Fire Support/Tank Killer, turretted MICV, "battle taxi" APC

GZG 15mm 8-wheeled turretted MICV

My personal favourite, this 8 wheeled MICV could replace the Roskopf 1/87th Spahpanzer Luchs of my youth that I mentioned in an earlier post. I can already see it providing support to some new Roco Minitank Wiesals.

Jon continues..."Then, from the opposite end of the tech scale, we have some new High Tech (or should that be Ultra Tech?) Grav Armour; in a distinctly different style from our other Grav releases, these will give you a new force option if you want to do high-vs-high tech battles".

New GZG 15mm Ultra-tech AFV family
heavy tank, infantry assault carrier, missile support vehicle

"The first three items in this new "family" are a heavy tank with a huge fusion cannon, an assault infantry carrier and a missile support vehicle with two 4-round launcher units mounted in the hull. The perfect armour unit to carry and support your crack Orbital Assault Marines!"

Can 15mm Sci Fi get any sexier!

"These are all shots of some basecoated first-off castings from the new moulds; no codes or names yet, but they will be fully listed soon along with prices; the costs are not decided yet, but will probably be in the region of £6 - £7 for the wheeled vehicles and £8 - £9 for the big Gravs. As with all our 15mm range, these are ALL METAL minis in kit form, and for size reference they are all pictures on a centimetre-grid cutting mat".

Jon (GZG)

Jon will have a small number of these new vehicles at HAMMERHEAD in Newark on Sunday and they will be available online to the rest of us ground pounders in a few days time.

Cheers
Mark

The 300 second SPARTAN

Following the Master Chef's excellent stats for HALO SPARTANS in FWC, I couldn't help but set myself a mini challenge of painting a 15mm SPARTAN in 300 seconds or less using the Master Chef's painting guide.

I pulled a GZG New Israeli figure from a pile waiting for a desert paint job. There was no flash or mould lines to remove, so a quick wash and he was ready.

Two coats of Citadel's Thakka Green Wash. quick wipe of Gold across the visor, Bolt Gun Metal for the rifle and Emporer Dandruff Grey or similar for the gauntlets, followed by a quick black inking of the rifle anf gloves. Quick, easy and bloody effective - this figure looks superb!

I'm off to work right now, so no time to blether....just enjoy the eye candy!

GZG 15mm New Israel, now a HALO SPARTAN-III

Green wash on bare metal

pre-black inking for the rifle and gloves

Cheers
Mark

The Master Chef on HALO Spartans in FWC

“OK Marines, take a knee, the Master Chef here. Now, it has come to my attention that there has been some scuttlebutt as to how you represent SPARTANS in 15mm.

The answer is: Green Armour and Gold Visors. Any other answer, you have a problem and that problem is ME. Are you hearing me loud and clear recruit?

Now, I know that Chief of the Boat Hannam is deploying GZG New Israelis and I personally have some UNSC hardsuit troopers but neither of these really meet the 7’ tall MJIOLNIR clad troopers we need. The new GZG heavy vac suits are the right size but they need more armour, a remodelled helmet and more dangerous looking guns. Don’t try to hide Mr Tuffley, Sir – this means YOU. Give me those figures or give me 30 on the deck and I mean now.”

The real question is how to represent the fearsome qualities of the SPARTAN in terms of FWC. You can simply paint your power armour / hardsuit troops in green and gold, call them “Spartans” and use the stats for whatever figure they originally were. This will work to a degree but will not give you the heroic, HALO type performance humanity expects from their last best hope in a hostile universe!

So, it’s time, gentlemen, to build your own SPARTAN. These are very tentative stats for FWC and represent say either 1 heroic Master Chief type or 2-3 Spartan troopers in a fire team.

Move '10'

No flight ability or jump pack. The Master Chief is a bit faster than the marines in HALO so you could give a Move of 15 if you want to sprint things along a bit.

Attacks '4/40' or '5/40'

The Master Chief seems to use the most effective weapon for the target, whatever it is.

Assault '5'
Even just armed with a pistol a SPARTAN is highly dangerous in melee

Hits '5' or '4'*
Nuff Said

Save '3'
"SPI armour...could only take a few glancing shots before failing" - Ghosts of Onyx.

Elite
Of course!

Independent
Which reflects nicely the role of AI in the CCC of SPARTANS; their HQ / CO could be in orbit or on the other side of the rock.

Stubborn
Have you ever run away playing HALO? Have you? Really? GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!

Tough
We are trained to expect the worst; surrounded, armed with a pistol, fight your way out Marine.

Shields '5' or '4'*
Those shields in HALO keep you fighting so bring along.

Adaptive Camo
"The armour's camouflaging textures sputtered and stabilised, however, and once again blended into the rocky terrain" - Ghosts of Onyx.

*field tests show that a 4 is hard enough for non SPARTAN troops to take on. 5 may be overkill.

I’ve not added it all up as you’ll want to chop and change. One version got to 280 points, another 250. This all adds up to not much change out of 300 points. My test versions were about 276 each.
Bottom line, you get say 3-4 SPARTANS for 1000 points. They are tough as nails but with such a small force, their break point is insanely low; even lose one trooper and all bets are off. Your best bet is perhaps 1 or 2 SPARTANS and a larger force of Marines, armour, gunships etc to go with them. Which is exactly what you get in HALO.

FIELD TESTING:

Game 1 pitched 3 SPARTANS vs 9 FSE Legionaire bases in mixed light cover / open ground. The SPARTANS got to grips quickly, suppressing and destroying 3 FSE in assault. They pressed on until one SPARTAN was isolated and almost KO’d – but the FSE couldn’t convert it to a KO and the SPARTANS replied with another suppression then assault combination that broke the FSE. In this game the SPARTANS had shields

Game 2 had 2 SPARTANS in hard cover defending a rubble complex against 9 FSE. They held out well, again edging towards the FSE break point but one was suppressed and then swamped by a wave of FSE – which was of course a break for the SPARTANS. In this game the shields were powered down and it showed. Verdict 1-1 but with FSE losses at an unacceptable level even when they won and it would have been 2-0 if the shields had been used in game 2. I gave the SPARTANS a CV of 10 and the FSE 9 – which kept things moving along.

CONCLUSION:

“OK, Marine’s I kid you not. You can field SPARTANS in FWC but we’re expensive. You get lots of firepower and we don’t run but you won’t have many of us and we can’t be everywhere. You’ll need the Green Machine (and personally that means UNSC or New Anglian Royal Marine Commandos) along to help carry the ammo and hold the real estate while we do what we do best. That’s all. DIS-MISS!”

Future War Commander: The face of futuristic gaming?

Future War Commander
Fast Play Tabletop Wargames Rules For Combined-Arms Operations, The Future

by Peter Jones

From: Specialist Military Publishing

Price £20

A personal review that strips away the hyperbole and drills down to the facts. Whether you rate FWC or hate it, this is not going to be pretty.

Please return later in the week for the full critical evaluation of Future War Commander - Cheers, Mark

Kitbash of the Week No.3

This week, I've set myself the herculean task of painting a Cimmerian mercenary mech company in the employ of Turan (sans dismounts of course). So far, the vehicles, all Old Crow Models, have been cleaned, assembled, basecoated and drybrushed. Now I only have to decide on one of three favoured camo schemes. That's the hard part! We'll just have to see if I can pull off a clever geologically inspired paint job or whether it will look like the Rorschach inkblot doodlings of a colour blind, one eyed, drunken monkey.

Having said that, the Cimmerian rich and famous are finding that Rorschach inkblot doodlings by colour blind, one eyed, drunken monkies are retaining their value despite the recession, and so remain a necessary understatement of worth to be obsenely displayed on their dining room walls to guests similarly devoid of taste, perspective or validity.

With absolutely no bearing at all on this madness, here's another quick and easy 15mm Sci Fi kitbash. This time inspired by the first Tamiya 1/35th scale 'tank' I bought with my own pocket money as a teenager - the M42 'Duster'.

Have Gun Will Travel

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present...you can tell I've been on the sauce tonight....the M419 Hannam Sky Raptor. Applause please!

The hull is a QRF Modern French AMX13/90 tank. The 'turret' with rotary cannon is from GZG's V15-26A Manned Groundmount Weapons Platform with Rotary Cannon. And at only 760,000 adjusted credits, I'm sure you'll agree it's V.F.F. - "Value For Firepower!"

The M419 Hannam Sky Raptor
Not available in any shop!

When you positively, absolutely have to shoot every......you get the idea!

Cheers
Mark