The Future......Is Here!

.

Topgun Marketing 15mm Sci Fi: Type 13, Heavy Grav Tank $15.99 each

If like me you were looking for something out of this world to go with GZG's new Trooper minatures, then look no further. Topgun Marketing's Future Shape of Things to Come range of 15mm Sci Fi Grav armour is available to pre-order.

Better still, Rob is offering a pre-release deal on platoon (section) packs which runs through to 31st January:

USA customers - our discounted platoon (or section, on some vehicle models) pricing; free shipping, and a free set of nap of the earth (NOE) flight bases (and magnets to mount them with) for your vehicles. These clear bases raise the vehicles slightly off the tabletop, so that they can be shown to be in a low hovering configuration.

International customers - our discounted platoon (or section, on some vehicle models) pricing; 50% off shipping, and a free set of nap of the earth (NOE) flight bases (and magnets to mount them with) for your vehicles.

So what is available:

Type 7 Scout/Recon Grav vehicle
- two weapons options - $12.99 USD ea, or $47.99 USD for four

Type 8 AA Point Defense/Light Mortar Vehicle
- $12.99 USD ea, or $24.99 USD for two
Type 9 Light Grav Tank
- $13.99 USD ea, or $51.99 USD for four
Type 10 Medium Grav Tank Hunter
- laser/blaster/cannon armed - $13.99 USD ea, or $51.99 USD for four

Type 11 Medium Grav Tank
- $13.99 USD ea, or $51.99 USD for four
Type 12 Grav Tank Hunter
- missile armed vehicle - not yet available

Type 13 Heavy Grav Tank
- $15.99 USD ea, or $59.99 USD for four
Type 14 Heavy Tank Hunter
- $15.99 USD ea, or $59.99 USD for four

Type 15 Superheavy Grav Tank
- not yet available

Type 16 Urban Assault/Fire Support Vehicle
- short, heavy weapon - $15.99 USD ea, or $59.99 USD for four
Type 21 Grav APC
- $15.99 USD ea, or $59.99 USD for four
Type 22 Grav Infantry Fighting Vehicle
- $15.99 USD ea, or $59.99 USD for four

Type 23 Grav Ambulance/Ammo Carrier
- $13.99 USD ea, or $26.99 USD for two
Type 24 Heavy Grav Mortar Vehicle
- $13.99 USD ea, or $26.99 USD for two

Where can you see these models? Click on a link below:

Topgun Marketing Website

Dropship Horizon 29th October, 2009

Dropship Horizon 31st October, 2009

Dropship Horizon 3rd November, 2009

If you have any questions about the range, email Rob direct. He's a good bloke and nice guy and will help you as far as he can. E-mail: topgunace111@yahoo.com


Those Type 7 Scout/Recons look so good! But so does the Type 11 , Type 13, Type 21...... 221st Zod Mech reporting for duty! - I've already worked out a colour scheme for the Troopers - Oh no! I'm doomed!

Cheers
Mark

First 15mm Sci Fi Purchases of 2010 - Mantis Stalkers

.
My first 15mm Sci Fi purchase of 2010 falls to Khurasan Miniatures' new Mantis Stalkers.

Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Mantis Stalkers

I also added more Felids to the order as they are beautiful sculpts and a real pleasure to paint, plus Hammerhead Space Demons!

I'm going to see how I go with these first packs of Mantis Men. I think will make a great alternative to the hackneyed ALIEN and other 'BUG' (Mr Rico) gaming genres.

Oh! Don't get me wrong, I love a good Xenomorph vs Marines game but these Mantis are the stuff of nightmares....

...back to the next painting stage for those Nazi Zombies!

Cheers
Mark
.

Zombies Draw First Blood!

.
Those Rebel Minis Nazi Zombies have drawn blood! They ARE true Zombies! Cleaning up the jackboot on one of them, the hobby knife slipped and sliced across the top of my left forefinger ##@@% ****@K!!!

I love 'em even more!

Is there a Doktor in the house.........

UPDATE:

Bloody Zombies! Grrrrrrr! Sneaking up on them again tomorrow and adopting a 'cinematic' approach with the paintbrush - more Inglorious B'stards than Der Untergang.

Cheers
Mark
.

......You're Gonna Need A Bigger Dropship!

.
Jon at Khurasan Miniatures has exclusively sent me this sketch of his forthcoming Orca Heavy Assault Warriors and it is awesome! Just plain awesome! The sketch has been based closely on the sculpted figures.

The sculptor is Pedro Ramos from Spain. The Orca Warrior is armed with:

- Barnacle suit-mounted smart missile system,
- Ahab power harpoon (the favoured weapon of the Orcas -- most use two and they often hand craft them)
- Baleen class Gatling gun.

Incidentally, A human's head is at the same height as the Orca's mouth. Convenient eh!

I can't wait to see these!

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
.

GZG FREE 15mm Battle Force Offer!

.
I'm finishing off my Abominable Snowmen from Green Eyed Minis tonight - snowy bases an 'ahin! Well with the country looking like the Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe.....

So whilst I'm drying brushing I'm thinking to myself, that man Tuffley needs more ready made Battle Forces to take into account his newer AFV ranges.....

I get as far as "Hi Jon..." when, a chatty email pops into my inbox with this attached........

From Jon at GZG:

"A request for some help in return for

FREE MINIS!

I want to put to you all an idea that came about from a conversation I had this morning with my Web admin chap - we were discussing the fact that while we are now trying to ensure we get photos for the webstore of all the individual new codes we release, we have none showing the special pack deals that we offer.

We'd like to have some good quality pics that really show off the pack deals to best advantage, and there is simply no way I will ever get round to having the time to do this myself - so we're asking if some of you would like to do it.

Most of you are probably familiar with the BATTLEFORCE deals we offer on the 15mm Stargrunt range figures and vehicles - you get a good core force to start your army; the exact composition depends on the pack you choose, but in general you get a combined arms group consisting of a section or platoon of armour, a platoon of mechanised infantry plus (where applicable) a mix of support, recon, command elements etc., with various accessories and extras thrown in as well - over £75.00 worth of minis for a deal price of £60.00.

Now, we want to give some of these BF deal packs away FREE (we'll even send it to you post free)!

The catch is, in return for one of these FREE packs we want you to commit to ASSEMBLING AND PAINTING the minis in a reasonably short timeframe, and sending us some decent photos of them which we can use to illustrate the pack contents on our webstore, in adverts and so on.

Obviously, you get to keep all the minis - all we want are the pictures. You'll be putting in a good few hours of your hobby time, but in return you'll have a finished army that you can use at no financial outlay - so everybody wins! ;-)

We WOULD ask to see a pic or two of previous stuff that you've painted (it doesn't have to be anything of ours, just something to show your style) when you apply, but please don't be put off if you don't think your work is of the highest standard. We are not asking for prizewinning painting levels, though obviously we do want the results to look competent and attractive. Even simple paint jobs (sprayed basecoat and some washing/drybrushing) can look fine, and in many ways these actually show the lines of the minis better than things like complex camo patterns. What we need is a few of you who are prepared to commit the time and effort to actually getting the job done, so please don't respond if you don't have both the enthusiasm and the free time available in the near future.

Just as a final incentive, while I've said that we don't need an incredibly high standard, we WILL give something extra as a PRIZE for the most attractive finished force after we get them all in!

Quantity-wise, we're talking about in the region of ten to a dozen vehicles and forty to fifty infantry figures (which may be single or fireteam-based to your choice) in each BF deal, exact numbers depending on which pack it is.

So, IF you can fulfill all of the following.......

1) you can commit to building, painting and photographing a force of that size in a reasonably fast timeframe (we're looking at ideally around 4 to 6 weeks from you receiving the parcel from us).

2) you have a reasonable standard of painting and modelling skill - sufficient to make the minis look attractive at tabletop viewing distance, we don't need exhibition standard but we don't want splodgy messes either!

3) you have (or have access to) the facilities and equipment to take a number of qood quality, well lit, in-focus shots of the finished minis, in groups and singly, and send the results to us by email.

4) you'd like about £75 worth of completely FREE minis in return for some time and effort....

...then please drop me a line directly, to jonATgzgDOTcom. Please attach at least one pic of an example of your painting, and please let me know which one(s) of the following forces you would be most interested in doing:

TRACKED force
HOVER (GEV) force
WALKER force
EARLY GRAV force
HI-TECH GRAV force
HI-MOBILITY WHEELED force
KRA'VAK grav vehicle force
8-WHEELER force*
AIRMOBILE (VTOL) force*
ADVANCED GRAV force*

(* these are ones where we haven't yet sorted out BF deals on them, but I want to gauge interest in doing them....).

We will need to get ONE of each force type done, so if you want to give us several options in order of preference then that would make things easier rather than everybody wanting to do one type!

Please note that the INFANTRY nationality supplied with each force will be to OUR choice, because we want to depict a good spread of options, but if you have any particular likes/dislike feel free to mention them and we'll try to take that into account.

IMPORTANT: by replying to this request, you are merely expressing interest - you are NOT actually committing yourself (or us) to anything at this stage - we won't send anything out to anybody until we've confirmed and agreed everything by email. However, by responding you do affirm that you are able to fulfill the criteria mentioned above. Obviously we do reserve the right to make all decisions about which offers we accept and reject.

Jon (GZG)

Get cracking guys!

Cheers
Mark
.