Eureka 300 Club Project - Denizen's Federation Space Troops

Following the success of the Eureka 300 Club Ventaurans project, fans of the old 25mm Denizen minis have decided to try and get a second range sculpted in 15mm.  This time they have set their sights on the Federation Space Troops, SF 30-39 on the Denizen web store:

From Denizen Miniatures' Web Store

For those of you who aren't familiar with Eureka's 300 Club - here's the concept.  A customer can submit an idea to Eureka that has a reasonable chance of production.  That project is placed in the 300 Club Pre-Order section... once a project reaches 600 miniatures preordered from 10 customers, Eureka has them sculpted, cast, and makes them available for sale.  

Denizen graciously allowed their Ventauran designs to be used last year, and those minis are now available in 15mm.  For the Federation minis, Denizen is once again allowing their designs to be used.  So if you have any interest in seeing these troopers in 15mm, head to this page and place your orders.  

And just for some fun weekend discussion: what would you, the readers, like to see submitted to the 300 club?  Something else from an old and defunct range?  Or something new entirely that isn't currently offered in 15mm?  Post some ideas in the comments!

Cheers,

Chris

New 15mm Buildings from Brigade Models

Brigade Models have just announced some new 15mm buildings that should be available shortly. These are upscaled versions of Brigade Models' recent 6mm desert buildings range and are small dwellings that have a strong "Mudisley" feel to them. These are just the first of the range of buildings due from Brigade and there are apparently several more in development, including some more futuristic designs.

 

The Dropship previously caught up with Tony at Brigade to hear about his ambitious plans for 15mm sci fi so we're sure there's more to follow, including Neo-Soviets and Pacific Federation in 15mm.

Critical Mass Games Review Part 2

As Critical Mass Games has a “20% Off” sale running on their Mercenary Line until 31st October, it makes sense to focus this second article on some of the Mercenaries.

Originally, the Mercenary Line consisted of Captain Bytt and his crew, and Bytt’s hired guns. The concept was brilliant. Like one of those slightly non-PC jokes that begins, “a Ptaar, a Korahga, a Gathneiki and a Farthoom walk in to a bar …”, we were presented with a group of characters, rather than the makings of an army.

While some of the later releases in the range, such as the Blockheads, the Ygs, the Astragars, and the ZAS, were more racially homogeneous, Critical Mass Games has continued to offer us disparate groups of story-rich characters, such as the Mercenary Droptroopers and the Freakshow.

I do like MERC11 The Freakshow. If Bytt’s hired guns are Interstellar bad-asses, then the Freakshow are just bad – a mini-gun toting cyborg with half his fleshy face ripped off; a big, heavily armoured guy with a huge beard; a little, two-toed demon with bulging eyes; a guy wearing partial ARC Fleet-style body armour and carrying an enormous rifle; and an enigmatic lizard-man. The Freaks look like they’d happily break things for no extra charge. As I mount my figures on 16mm washers, I have clipped Lizard-man’s base to fit and gently bent his tail around in a curve.

In the second photo, you can see the back of the little demon – a huge spread of braided hair. Big Beard, at photo-right, has pointy ears on either side of his big, bald head and, while he appears to be wearing a lot of armour, much of it appears to be strapped on over clothing of some sort, rather than a carapace. There is a lot of very intricate detail on these figures and I keep finding new things as I look at them closely.

I mentioned in part 1 of this review how much I welcomed the arrival of the caninoid Protolene Khanate as they seemed to me to be ideal proxies for Traveller Vargr. MERC12 Protolene Mercenary fighters offers four figures that can either be adventurers, or officers and specialists for a more conventional Protolene force. Along with a sniper and a leader-type (with pistol and rifle), there is a rifleprotolene and a SAW gunner. Again, there are lots of little details on the armour and equipment that really repay close scrutiny before painting.

Most of you are familiar with MERC13 ZAS Infantry, as they grace this blog’s masthead and are frequently enquired about. The ZAS are a four-sophont squad of sniper, SAW, and two rifleZAS, wearing slim-line, fully sealed, full combat armour and sealed helmets. While humanoid, they are slightly taller than standard humans, and their legs seem just slightly out of proportion to their bodies which gives them a slightly non-human vibe.

These three sets of figures will either provide you with ready-made crews for ItEN or 5150: New Beginnings; or characters or villains for a Science Fiction RPG; or squads for creating your own Alien Legion-type force; or officers, specialists and “foreign advisors” for a larger, Tomorrow’s War-type field force. And there’s no reason why they can't fulfil all these roles.

In Part 3 of this review, we’ll look at big, stompy battle suits, more Praesentia, and resin casting as it should be done.

Review - TMC Jump Troops by Mad Robot Miniatures

Mad Robot Miniatures released their first 15mm minis this week (the Tachyon Mercenary Corporation Jump Troops), and Steve was kind enough to send me a review pack. I’ve been looking forward to these ever since the original discussion thread at TMP. Jump troops are a great science fiction trope, and many rules currently allow for this type of infantry to be used. But the 15mm sci-fi community has long been devoid of jump-pack/jet-pack infantry. Mad Robot has come to the rescue.

The TMC pack comes with ten minis, composed of six different poses. Half are airborne and half have both feet on the ground. They can be used as a complete 10-man squad, or one could swap “airborne” for “ground” poses to represent movement of a 5-man squad. The detail of the sculpts (and the castings) is very, very good. Other than a sliver of mold line on the helmets, these minis required no cleaning or trimming. The integrated bases on the “ground” troops are nice and flat - no Blue Moon-style “pitcher mounds” here. The flying poses come with no base at all - they could be attached to the ground or a small rock, or they could be mounted on wire or acrylic rods (I’m going to attempt the latter).

Ready to paint

The weapons are a bit unusual for this type of release: three different weapons are clearly visible. Two appear to be assault rifles, and the third is definitely a directed-energy weapon. I really like this decision. Mad Robot Miniatures designed these as a mercenary unit. One can easily imagine that these troops purchase their own weapons with their signing bonuses - instead of being forced to carry an “off the rack” weapon, each trooper has the flexibility to buy, carry, and maintain the weapon that he is most proficient with.

Comparison with GZG Ravager and Rebel Titan Marine

And now for some possible bad news: these minis are VERY tall. I measured 18mm to the eye, around 21mm overall. At 1/100 this means the Jump Troops average 6’10” each. The NBA will probably watch their careers with great interest!

Comparison with Micropanzer SAS and Kremlin Cyberian

Does this pose a major problem? Maybe, maybe not. If you plan to use these minis to augment (or oppose) an existing human force - you’ll probably notice the difference. But even this could be explained away. Perhaps they are from a low-gravity colony world? Or, as my wife (the sci-horror writer) suggests, some sort of genetic enhancement or tampering?

Comparison with HOF Post-Apoc and Critical Mass Light Recon

But if you’re using these as their own force, especially if their opponents are aliens, their height won’t be an issue. They scale well to most aliens I own; in fact they look great alongside Crusties, Astagar, Garn, and some of the other “big” xenos.

Comparison with Critical Mass Astagar and Khurasan Garn

Comparison with Micropanzer Raivaui and GZG Crusty

Steve was up front with me about the height issue. And he assured me that future human releases will not suffer from this problem. This is Mad Robot Miniatures’ first ever 15mm sci-fi release. Other than that one flaw, I think they produced a great set of miniatures.

Comparison with The Scene Heavy 'Bot and Khurasan Felid

What would we like to see from them in the future? I’d start my wishlist with a second pack of these! Maybe we can see another Jump Troop set that’s just a few millimeters shorter (obviously!), uses identical/issued rifles, and includes one or two females in the pack. Including another NCO and some kind of heavy weapon would give us a great rank-and-file jump troop pack.

Cheers,

Chris

News Flash - Antenociti's Workshop 15mm Vehicles

Antenociti's Workshop, known for their very popular 28mm Governance Of Technology range, have updated their store with their first 15mm releases.

The NRF Kabardin APC is available with both General Purpose and Anti-Tank turrets.  This is a high-tech wheeled transport that looks like it would be at home anywhere from 50 to 5000 years in humanity's future:

They have also released the NRF Skorpion Light Grav Tank.  While there are enough styling cues in the hull to use the Skorpion alongside the Kabardin APCs, I think this tank would easily be at home in a xenos army:

So let's open our wallets and welcome Antenociti's Workshop to the world of 15mm Sci Fi.  They already have so many great 28mm items to choose from... hopefully we can encourage them to release more of those goodies in 15mm!

Cheers,
Chris

SPOTLIGHT: The Mysterious "PF"!

Dropship Horizon recently caught up with the French sculptor known only as “PF” to get an insight into the person behind the impressive creative talent.

First of all, how did you get into the hobby and science fiction?

I think I began to love space opera and especially aliens with the Shi’ar Empire depicted in the X-Men comics. There wasn’t much, but I really loved those cool and weird aliens in the background. At the time I also had Star Wars toys but only saw the movie several years later.

I guess I got into the hobby like many others; I read Steve Jackson books where you were the hero, then discovered RPGs and little metal fantasy soldiers. I often hear miniatures were much cheaper in the good old days but when I was a kid, collecting an army was just an expensive dream and I couldn’t do much more than paint them (or rather ruin them!) with Humbrol paints. One day, I wanted to find another box of those plastic space marines I liked so much but my older brother told me they had disappeared and brought me a Warhammer 40,000 box instead. That was pretty cool. Still, I didn’t really start collecting and painting armies until I got a job at a GW shop in Paris. It’s there I got the virus.

I discovered 1:100 sci fi two years ago after John Bear Ross told me I should try to make a few aliens in that scale. So I would really like to thank him for the suggestion as I’m having a lot of fun with 15-18 mm!

How did get started sculpting and who have you sculpted for?

GW showed sculpts in the White Dwarf and wrote they were made out of that “green stuff” they were selling so I tried. There aren’t many fields where you can have access to the professional stuff for very little money. In the early days of coolminiornot.com I created an account (which has been erased since and recreated), posted a sculpt or two and was contacted by a small company, met some cool guys and started to earn a few Euros for my sculpts. Most of the companies I have worked for can be seen on my website.

What are the key sources of inspiration for your sculpting and art?

Except when I’m commissioned or for some subjects (animals, fabrics, well, to be honest, too many things), I tend not to use inspiration. I mean there are probably enough subconscious inspirations (movies, comics, etc.) at work when I sculpt so when I go “freestyle”, I try to empty my mind like a space ninja!

When you're sculpting do you start with a plan or image of what you want sculpt?

It really depends. Sometimes, I just have a general idea of what I’m beginning to make - say a girl, a small alien - and sometimes I have a pretty precise idea of what I want to make - a space girl in spandex shooting with a pistol with lines on her clothes like that and a helmet like this, a D***head alien with three eyes and tentacles running!

Why not check out PF’s website and blog for more pictures of his work.