Veterans Day Sale from GameCraft Minis

GameCraft Minis is having a sale in honor of Veterans Day Weekend.

It's a great opportunity to pick up buildings from their modern and Tomorrow's War ranges. Some of the recent additions:

Cargo Module with Frame and Stairs

Mecha Hangar/Shop

Security Walls

And don't forget about the MDF Spaceship Interiors for building your guncrawl tables. Check out The Angry Lurker for a great review of those items.

New Kickstarter From Armies Army

15mm science fiction entrepreneur, gamer and personal friend Kieth Armstrong, of Armies Army has kicked off his new Kickstarter campaign.

This campaign is designed to provide a push to his next release, the Greater Britannia Commonwealth Forces. Representing UK forces in the near future, contemporary to his original RUSKS (near-future Russians), they have a gritty, real world +20 years feel to them that will make them an honest and perfect addition to anyone playing hard science fiction miniatures games.

As with many Kickstarters, this one offers a number of Stretch Goals, including basic infantry in alternate headgear, command, support, even commandos. These Stretch Goals will be made available to backers at certain levels and as add-ons.

Head on over and check it out and lend Keith your support and do yourselves all a favour in helping to get these awesome miniatures onto the table.

Thanks,

-Eli

Say "Hello" to Darkest Star Games

We have a new face in the universe of 15mm Science Fiction - Darkest Star Games.

This new company, run by Darby Eckles, will be centered around the ex-Adler Miniatures 6mm sci-fi range. But his plans for 15mm are quite ambitious. There are four packs of figures available now in the Colony 15 range, sculpted by the great Bob Naismith. They definitely capture the space opera feel we've seen from manufacturers like 15mm.Co.Uk and Blue Moon Manufacturing.

First up we have the Star Marauders. These are my early favorites, based just on the pictures. I've been thinking about playing Space Crusade-type games using my Blue Moon Orion Republic as Space Marines. These Star Marauders would be great not-Chaos Space Marines to counter them. They would also be good elites for a Kremlin Miniatures Cyberian Death Commandos force.

These Magravate Militia figures are interesting. Their helmets are somewhat reminiscent of certain elvish/space elvish factions we've seen over the years, but the jackets are far more conventional. I could see these as Household troopers in the Dune universe.

And finally there are two packs of Zonii Warriors: dismounted, and mounted on cool alien beasts. These are a lower-tech alien species - ideal "natives" for a more advanced faction's colony world. 

It looks like a good start to a product range. There's just enough figures in these packs for small skirmishes using Blasters & Bulkheads or USE ME or Mutants & Death Ray Guns. 

These Colony figures are just the tip of the iceberg for Darkest Star's 15mm offerings. Darby intends to upscale and release the old Adler sculpts - just take a look at the 6mm offerings to see what's in the pipe. There's also a polaceholder for a category named Spec-Sec, which is going to be an anime-inspired 15mm range. We'll keep a close eye on them to see what develops.

And, to quote Darby... 

what would any Grand Opening be without some sort of special?  It'd be pretty sad!  So, for a limited time we are offering FREE SHIPPING on any order!  How about that!

Cheers,
Chris 

New Releases from Critical Mass Games, Oddzial Osmy, and Khurasan Miniatures

Critical Mass Games has added the Star Marines their Mercenaries range.

I like the chunky look of these new figures - they're almost a cross between GZG NAC Power Armor and those cool armored robots on the Fox network during football games. Critical Mass also expanded the Mercenaries armored vehicles, adding the Warmonger tank, Vanquisher self-propelled artillery, and Hellfire AA tanks. 

All three vehicles are available in Tracked (very useful for near-future games or low-tech factions) and Grav (advanced races/settings) variants.

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The Oddzial Osmy New Vistula Legion, one of 15mm SF's most popular human factions, has been augmented by Long Range Recon Patrol pack. The LRRP team carries a good assortment of weapons and equipment, including a recon drone and large rucksacks for long-haul missions.

The LRRP pack is now available in the UK from Fighting 15s and in the US from Picoarmor.

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Khurasan Miniatures has released the XM-6 Heavy Grav Tank for the Federal Army. Jon wrote up some nicely detailed background fluff for the XM-6 on his blog - definitely worth a read if you're a fan of his Federation Forward universe. 

It's a big tank - 125mm long. This would make for a worthy opponent to the Topgun Marketing tanks (it even shares the orbital-deployment concept), and definitely has uses in settings like Traveller and Hammer's Slammers. It's also big enough to fit comfortably in a 20mm Sci Fi army, and could even be a light tank in 25mm/28mm games.

New Aliens on the Horizon From Ambush Alley/GZG (UPDATED)

Attention Dropship Horizon passengers. If you would be so kind as to look to the pictures below, you will see a strange and new alien race on its way out from the partnership between Ambush Alley Games and Ground Zero Games. 

Appearing the forthcoming Tomorrow's War supplement from AAG titled, "Dagger and Claw" these creatures are the Darghaur and one of many races planned. These minis look like they will be another fine addition to the growing number of aliens available for 15mm science fiction.

Here is what Jon had to say about them..

"WHO LET THE DARGS OUT.....?"

An exclusive first look at the 15mm Darghaur for Tomorrow's War! This alien race will feature heavily in the forthcoming TW supplement, Dagger and Claw. I won't pre-empt the book by going into great detail, suffice to say that these guys are going to give the human forces on Glory a lot of hassle. They are tough critters with their turtle-like carapaces, favouring large-calibre projectile weaponry.

We'll be selling them in packs of ten figures (including separate heads, with a few spares for customising!) which makes up the basic "squad" organisation of the Darg forces. The Dargs have no visible sensory organs, communicating with each other telepathically - their horned "antler" racks denote their rank, with the lowest troopers having their horns cut down to stumps while team, squad and higher leaders sport progressively larger displays.

The first of the Darg figures are now ready for production, and will be up on our (GZG) webstore very soon - www.gzg.com - please also keep an eye on ambushalleygames.com for information about the rules supplement!

................

Jon

While they are not released yet, I'll make sure to post again when they hit dirtside.

Nevis and Averum - Blue Moon's Recent Aliens

So, it seems a few new aliens in 15mm snuck past us here at the ol' Dropship Horizon. Back around June-ish, Blue Moon Manufacturing released two new ten-packs of aliens - the Nevis and Averum.

Both packs present to the gamer with five poses of light infantry, equipped with rifles and little armor. Neither pack seems to offer an obvious leader or special weapon type, though the latter shouldn't be hard to convert from any one of the poses.

Nevis painted by Rich McGee

Averum painted by Rich McGee

Thanks to Rich for the use of his pics of his expertly painted examples of the figures.

-Eli