We move, five meter spread, no sound

.

"If it bleeds, we can kill it"
'Dutch' in 15mm

Cheers
Mark
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Get To Da Choppa!

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My WIP interpretation of 'Dutch', A relatively simple headswop with a GZG Separate Head (SG15-SH1) grafted onto a Peter Pig AK47 range Modern US Marine.

It's almost midnight so I'm calling it quits. I'm pleased with how he's turning out - tomorrow, I'll finish the eyes, do the face camo, boots and base details.

Cheers
Mark
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Big BAD Dog!

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First glimpse of

Critical Mass Games
Protolene Fenrir Assault Carrier

Here's one Craig Blu-tacked earlier so you can get an idea of the
Fenrir's size and bulk compared against an Arc Fleet Grav Tank

For more details, check with the Critical Mass Games Forum later this week.

Cheers
Mark
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Incoming.....15mm GZG L-UNSC Reinforcements

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The latest L-UNSC forces from GZG!

GZG 15mm Sci Fi: L-UNSC
Four riflemen from SG15-U21 on left and 2 SAWs on right

GZG 15mm Sci Fi: L-UNSC SG15-U21

GZG 15mm Sci Fi: L-UNSC SAWs

I really like the new figures shown in the closeups. So much so, that on the same day I got them, I was inspired to cut them up to explore the range of poses available to me once I have more minis to work with.

Moving forward, rifle ready for action
based on photos of real troops/SWAT

Classic Video Game pose!
Strafing/Moving whilst firing to front

Take that SUKKA!
Strafing with SAW

Pure Gears of War

GZG's L-UNSC are definitely going to become my favourite Futuristic/Sci Fi human & Zhodani military for 2010.


Cheers
Mark
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Barking Irons - No.1

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I bought one of the flashy wargames mags on Friday and it's still in my work bag unread. This is in no small part due to finding a gratis copy of 15mm.co.uk/Alternative Armies new wargames magazine Barking Irons on my doormat when I got home. Thanks Gavin!

Excluding covers There's 28 B/W A4 pages filled with a mix of features, adventures (scenarios) and game articles all based around 15mm.co.uk/Alternative Armies' products. Additionally, t.The inside back cover has colour photos relating to the final article. Now let me say, I've never been interested in Flintloque or Firefight:Iron Age but I've read Barking Irons from cover to cover and thoroughly enjoyed all of the contents.

The magazine has quite high production values, is illustrated throughout and has the feel of a professionally produced society magazine - with a certain charm for that.

I found a lot within it to tuck away for a rainy day - probably more than 2-3 old style glossy wargames mags - especially the article of designing and building a 'Catalucian' windmill. I've always wanted to build one of these for my Spanish Civil War table, and now I can!

Rounding it up I'd say Barking Irons is a fun read, reminding me of the very best of Wargamers' Newsletter and despite being aligned to the parent wargames company, this is more about the practical hobby.

Give it a try you might be surprised!

Cheers
Mark
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It's all about visors...

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The difference a visor makes...

Still have to highlight the visors, but if I wanted to throw these on the tabletop in a hurry, a dab of GW Gryphone Sepia to cover the white patches on the base, quick drybrush of some sandy shade and they'll hold their own against any other painted miniatures.

BTW, those are some of the new unreleased GZG L-UNSC figures lurking in the background. More about those later.

Cheers
Mark
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Saturday Workbench

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Well, only part of my workbench - I just took the snap to send to Master Chef before I finished the Old Crow 'Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighters' - to illustrate my '30 second desert cammie' finish.


The painted trooper on the right is first of my second fireteam of GZG L-UNSC. Just out of picture are a couple of troopers painted yellow who'll be finished today as well - all in between cooking a Steak & Guiness Pie using Jamie Oliver's recipe.

Old Crow 15mm Sci Fi Infantry
White undercoat, GW Gryphone Sepia Wash. Done.

The Old Crow minis are part of two platoons destined for Tom.War. Based in two's because I find it looks more cohesive and gives a better feeling of small unit organisation.

I could easily super-detail these figures but don't want to. I had planned to paint them Vallejo German Orange Ochre but liked how this quick and simple finish turned out. I'll pick out a few details and leave it at that. I still have a squad of GRAW warriors individually based in the original paint scheme Vallejo Dead Flesh/Desert Yellow as modern super troopers for skirmish games and quick Ambush Alley/Force on Force encounters.

GZG L-UNSC Fireteam Leader
Don't make me paint the kneepads!

Of course, this is only the part of my workbench that I'm not embarrassed to show - got out of hand a bit recently - Khurasan Vespulids who are ahem, a bit yellow just now, a GZG AV-7 "FanVan" VTOL Utility Transport, various conversions, Lime Goo, post apocalypse and odds and sods in various states of finish.


Cheers
Mark
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Bugs Mr Rico! from Highlander Studios

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Quick heads up. Highlander Studios 15mm Bugs are now available on their webstore!

So are Khurasan's Vespulids (see here).

Cheers
Mark
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Vacation Alien Painted

Really enjoyed painting Khurasan Miniatures' Vacation Alien this evening. Let's just say I've given the mini a twist on the norm and it's come out a treat!

Unfortunately I've not been so lucky with the photos, which true to form for this week, simply fail to paint an accurate image of the finished miniature. But, this has highlighted that I need to spend some time experimenting with the manual settings to get the best results.

Starting with a white undercoat, I used several washes of XF6 Copper and X34 Metallic Brown from the Tamiya acrylic range plus GW Gramophone Sepia and Devlan Mud washes. To make the 'lattice' effect jump out I added some OOP Citadel Brown ink to the Sepia wash.

Just need to finish the shoulder cannon and may revisit the hands but otherwise I'm really happy with this model and going to leave it as is.

I know it's shaky but I like the 'motion' of the picture
as it brings the figure to life

I'll be adding two more of these Vacation Aliens to my next order from Khurasan - one to paint in a more traditional 'jungly' green-brown with steel faceplate finish - the other model will represent the Alien in 'adaptive camo mode'. To achieve this I'll give him several coats of GW Thrakka Green wash over the bare metal, similar to my 300 Second Spartan.

Now, all I need is 'Dutch' and his unit...... cue Peter Pig Modern USMC and GZG Sg15-XH1 seperate heads! That's tomorrow night sorted!

Cheers
Mark
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L-UNSC 'Wasp Commando'

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Just fancied painting a stand alone figure this evening. Something more video game in style and these new GZG L-UNSC beg for it.

The finished result leaves me thinking 'Wasp Trooper'. Perhaps this is man's attempt to confuse and counter the Vespulid menace?

Nothing special, GW Sunburst Yellow, GW Devlan Mudd wash, more Sunburst Yellow and a 00 Sable.

Cheers
Mark
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Pole Bitwy Go Live!

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The wait is over!
Piotr's new webstore
is up and running...

Immediately available are:

Simian Troopers with Rifles: 4x 25mm tall Giant Space Apes
Simian Command Squad: Giant Space Ape leader and heavy weapons

Human Cultist Coven with Polearms: 8 figures per pack
Human Cultist Coven: 32 figure bumber pack

Infected Males: 8 figures per pack
Infected Women and kids: 8 figures per pack

These also come in a sample pack of Mixed Infected Humans and as a bumper 64 figure Infected Horde!

Be prepared for a lot of exciting new figures and products from Sci Fi to Horror, Pulp, Weird World War Two and Modern.

Visit Pole Bitwy here!

http://15mm.eu

Cheers
Mark
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Weekend Update

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Been painting various mins of the weekend, mostly post-apocalypse types & various Sci Fi troopers. Also started Khurasan's Lime Goo figures this morning for an upcoming confrontation with U.N.I.T.

Of all the figures painted this weekend I'm most proud of a fireteam of GZG L-UNSC troopers. I painted these to emulate the Garrison 25mm Sci Fi figures I owned during my 6th Form days in the 70's.

The camera has flattened the depth of colour and highlighting on the red jumpsuit - but I'm more than happy with the results of the figures on the workbench. I've called a halt to detailing them any further - they are dramatic as is, and I feel less is more in this instance.

Only another two more fireteams to go!

Cheers
Mark
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Shipping Containers

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I picked up some HO scale Hornby Freightliner Containers cheaply on eBay. Dimensions are 80x30x30mm. Worth looking out for.

GZG Colony Shack & New Israeli Sniper with
Hornby Freightline Containers

Once repainted they'll make a nice addition to the slum end of Corporate ville my on LV426b. They could also make nice slums in their own right.

Cheers
Mark
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Barking Irons

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As it's been a BARKING week it seems an appropriate moment to announce the first issue of this new gaming magazine published by Alternative Armies and 15mm.co.uk!

Go to either site to order and take advantage of super cheap shipping option 'magazine only' in the UK and all over the world.

Alternative Armies - & - 15mm.co.uk

Barking Irons is THE place for gaming material on Flintloque, Firefight 2.0, Alien Squad Leader(ASQL) and Age of Might and Steel (AoMaS).

Packed with quality content, only £3.00. A Magazine on comic weight paper in American quarto format with 32pp.

Take advantage of a special magazine only P&P rate of £1.00 in the UK and £2.50 anywhere else in the world. For a complete list of the contents of Issue 1 and more information please click (here)

Also you can go to the 'Orcs in the Webbe' column written by magazine editor Gavin Syme about what Barking Irons is all about (click here).

Direct any questions or trade enquiries to Alexander Scott at enquiries@alternative-armies.com

Cheers
Mark

Life Work The Universe...... TFI Friday

.
TFI Friday! As of Thursday I'd clocked up 7 hours in the office this week over and above paid time. More if one could include working on the train or in the evening at home. Another early start this morning and another late finish!

Today alone I delivered a three pronged corporate EDRMS strategy in a marathon two hour session. Plus, found time to make a well researched contribution towards developing the upcoming Staff Survey, dashed across town to install the computers in an outlying office to the corporate network (lucky I have that background!), then sit down with the HR team to ratify their business processes - the first of many similar sessions.

Lunch? That will be around 9pm this evening.

Am taking Monday off to have a long and well deserved weekend, I think and actually paint some miniatures. With all that's been going on at work you may wonder why I'm putting in the effort? Because I'm enjoying what I am actually doing. The diversity, sense of achievement, and to be totally honest, it all helps the CV.

I'd been waiting to hear from Mike at The Scene about his new Zombie Hunters and I see they are now online to pre-order - thesceneuk.com - so I've ordered some of those plus the 'guns in suits'. I think one of these guys needs a greenstuff Afro out of all reasonable proportions when I get them in my hands! Mike also has some new atypical desert buildings that are worth looking at for any Sci Fi desert or red planet environment.

You can check out TMP for all these, plus the latest news from Khurasan on Jon's upcoming Dictator Combat Walker, Chewks and Lhurggs.

Flames of War are just about to release their (German) GE439: Reinforced Trucks. Nice looking models tand I must admit that I primarily want to use as WWW2 Survivalist or Zombie Hunting vehicles. They're on the shopping list for next month.



Cheers
Mark
.

Lord of the Apes

.
Whilst Master Chef is breaking out the Sterlings in Borchester, I am looking ahead to these 'bio-Mechas' from Pole Bitwy, the Simians:

Pole Bitwy 15mm Sci Fi
Simian Command

Pole Bitwy 15mm Sci Fi
Simian Troopers

Piotr has just received the first sculpts back from the caster. So these should be available very, very soon. Possibly this weekend! For a better idea of the sheer size of these minis take a look at my post of 29th November (click here)

Cheers
Mark
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Panic in the County Hall

.
Master Chef can't help himself. He's gone all TRB on me!

Its winter. Its 79

The heat is on the street - the winter of discontent gets angry.

Borchester gets it on.

Stop and search becomes shoot on sight as Ambridge goes up in smoke

Its gonna be a long hot summer from now on........

"15mm pigs, rioters, brothers and sisters out on the street and the BAOR brought home to restore order. Very British Civil War meets urban apocalypse", all using Ganesha Games' Flying Lead.

Teenage guerillas on the tarmac
Fighting in the middle of the road
Supercharged FS1Es on the asphalt
The kids are coming in from the cold

Mmmm? Eton Rifles vs GMB (Borchester branch) Flying Column.....I could be tempted.

Cheers
Mark
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El Diablo cazador de hombres

,
Dug out my London Irish rugby shirt to celebrate St Patrick's Day this evening with the St. Paddy's Day Massacre set on Company world LV-246b.

I'm playing this in 'cinematic' mode with both Predator and Colonists/Security being run by a set of Reaction Tables. I had fun creating these on the train this morning. Well what else do you do at 6.30am on the Inverness train?

I admit the Reaction Tables are fast and loose but sound enough to have a fun game with. And it was.

The Predator bounced from shanty to shanty as the rules dictated. The occupants rolled against a table determining their actions - stay inside cowering, Vidcast for help, step outside to see what the noise was, pick up a gun (if they had one).

The Predator meanwhile could watch and wait, change position (jump to another shack), fire (energy weapon, disk or spear) or attack (close quarter slice and dice).

Anyone coming out of their shack had to be scanned as a threat, so the Predator lost an 'action' die.

Security could take cover and observe, investigate, go tactical, open fire, call for back up.

I used a bastardised version of the Tom.War rules, Predator leaping from roof to roof, coming down to street level once to slice and dice a security team. He finally withdrew after his armour malfunctioned and being wounded twice. However he had bagged 2 armed colonists and 3 security guards.

Cheers
Mark
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Khurasan 15mm Vespulids Create a Buzz!!!

.
Adjectives simply failed me yesterday when it came to describe Khurasan Miniatures' new Vespulids. Coming back to them tonight, all I can still say, is that they are "amazing".

Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Sci Fi Vespulid Swarm:
Drone (left) GZG L-UNSC (right)

These are classic Black and White B-Movie Sci Fi miniatures. I urge every 15mm Sci Fi gamer reading this to buy at least one pack of Vespulids - you won't be disappointed. There's more to them than just bugs with guns - they are characters in their own right, especially that two gun-toting big daddy of a Drone!

Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Sci Fi Vespulid Swarm:
GZG L-UNSC (left) Warrior (right)

Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Sci Fi
Vespulid Swarm examples

Each pack includes 8 different warriors including three flying, plus a Drone who is by far the best miniature. He has to be one of my all time favourite Sci Fi minis. More please Jon!

The Vespulids are very versatile - I can use them as aliens or even mutants in post-apocalypse or pulp settings. Plus, they successfully make the jump to 25-28mm with ease.

Available, soon. For more info see my blog post of 27th Jan!

Cheers
Mark
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IN THE PIPE... Khurasan Miniatures On The Bounce!

.
Khurasan Miniatures are most definitely On The Bounce! A padded jamboree bag of 15mm Sci Fi goodies from Jon was waiting for me when I got home this evening. Power Armoured Corporate Marines, Lime Goo monsters, Vespulids, but....

First to land, the Vacation Alien!

Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Sci Fi
PLA5: $1.29

Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Sci Fi
PLA5: $1.29, (left), GZG L-UNSC (right)

This is a really tasty miniature! Ready to kick sand in the face of any bunch of slack-jawed faggots ! Worth $1.29? C'mon, for one of the coolest aliens on the block! A one-Xeno killing machine.

Cheers
Mark.
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Life Work The Universe...... Homer The Bruce

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Not my most shining moment of employment relations diplomacy today. And it's all minuted too! So this may be me in a couple of days time!

Life's too short! Plenty of time to paint and drink Tequila - though must be careful not to confuse the two.

LOL!

The good news is that chatting with Double '0' Tuffley from GZG this afternoon, there will be another pack of L-UNSC rifles and a pack of SAWs this side of SALUTE...... And yes Mr T. I will be suggesting some cool heavy weapons dudes for the L-UNSC!

Cheers
Mark
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IN THE PIPE... 15mm Post Apocalypse Outlaws

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Jon at Khurasan Miniatures has also gone a bit apocalyptic! First batch of post apocalypse miniatures are at the casters and should be available soon after Cold Wars.

The figure above is the first sculpt of a new batch of post apocalyptse outlaws Jon's commissioned. A great looking miniature that reminds me of a classic Space Pirate in the mould of the old OOP Citadel 25mm Spacefarers line. Looking forward to these!

Cheers
Mark
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In The Pipe......Tomorrows War

.

Just a heads up. Received Tomorrows War v1.1.0 from Shawn at Ambush Alley Games this morning hot on the heels of v1.0.9, and let me tell you it's good. Really good!

Moving In by Wiredgear
Excellent military Sci Fi artist

Note: This is an illustration I like.
It's NOT official Tom.War artwork.

Tomorrow's War is very definitely grounded, hard and gritty futuristic combat without using a catalogue of highly developed weapon and vehicle stats as a crutch. A very much "If it bleeds we can kill it" practical approach is displayed throughout the design.

I've enjoyed reading through the draft before even getting to put figures on the table - this is a complete game that will be at home whether set in your favourite Future/Sci Fi setting or in Tom.War's own emerging and believable universe.

GZG classic New Israelis from my collection

This is not just Force on Force with ray guns or Daleks in downtown Baghdad. The Ambush Alley team could have taken the easy route and a couple of months after releasing Force on Force, brought out a Sci Fi variant with a few pretty pictures, a thin mantle of Sci Fi and enough of a whiff of futuristic language that WW2 and modern gamers could dip into Sci Fi using a known rules system.

But they didn't. Shawn and the crew have worked extremely hard to create and refine a Sci Fi combat game built on the AA & FoF engine but not as a slave to it. If Jeremy Clarkson can describe a car supercharger as "air goes in, witchcraft happens and you go faster", then here be witchcraft!

Tommorrow's War WILL be the platoon level rules that 2010 will be remembered for.

Cheers
Mark
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Apocalypse: Cheap Toy Cars

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One of the enduring themes in post apocalypse imagery are burnt out cars and I'm keen to recreate this is in my own miniature post-apocalyptic world.

Burnt out cars help to 'populate' and humanise Modern and Post Apocalyptic tabletops whilst also providing very useful blocks to observation and cover from fire. Yesterday lunchtime I was lucky enough to come across some incredibly cheap toy cars in the 99p store behind our office.

Not only were the toy car sets 99p at normal prices but the shop was closing down and clearing stock - everything was 50p!

I bought the remaining three sets to use as abandoned and rusted wrecks, impromptu barricades and possibly a post-apocalyptic combat post inspired by the beautiful Sniperwrecks on the Black Primer Paint blog.


Cheers
Mark
.

Life Work The Universe...... It's all gone a bit Industrial

.
Not much achieved this week hobbywise as my evenings have been mostly taken up with work and employment relations issues.

On the positive side, my EDRMS project is going well. I've managed to negotiate additional facilities out of the prospective suppliers which has been refelected in reducing internal resources, timescales and costs yet again. When handed to me, the project was going to take something like 13 man years and quarter of a million squid - I've brought it down to 14 weeks and around £60,000!

Consequently, I've been lumped with the Corporate EDRMS strategy, "Oh and can you present it on Friday!", despite the task having sat with a senior manager since July and gone nowhere...... Let me tell you, the strain this week was worth it. My strategy if I say so myself is outstanding - no, don't applaud - an overarching corporate strategy with a separate service level layer of 4 options to take into account different needs, bound by "Compliance" (Data Protection legisaltion and corporate policy). All those years designing TOE charts for my wargame armies came in handy afterall!

For me, the best part is potentially saving the jobs of a team currently under threat by building a case for them to become the corporate EDRMS bureau.

If that wasn't enough.......the threat of major indstrial action loomed large on Tuesday when the employers suggested a pay freeze was necessary to meet a shortfall of millions in the staffing budget unless other means were found. Emotions rather than clarity rule the day. This deficeit equates to around 300 job losses. That's probably all I should say in open forum at this time, as I'm somewhere in the thick of this mess.

So...... Haven't had a chance to look at HOF-F or get any gaming in. A couple of headswops plus converting a figure with M16 into a survivor wearing pajamas and a dressing gown with a hood is about all I've managed.

Looking forward to a package arriving from Khurasan - containing some Lime Goo minis - hopefully in the post today. The Lime Goo are destined for an encounter with a fledgling U.N.I.T. from the early 1960's operating in what has become known as the Ambridge Triangle. For rules, inspiration and much, much more see Matakishi's Tea House.


Going to sit down this afternoon and chill with a couple or three bottles of Magners to watch the Six Nations Rugby - Ireland vs Wales. Brill!

Cheers
Mark
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Incoming...... 15mm Felid Heavy Weapons

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Khurasan Miniatures have just taken stock of the all new Resistance infantry, Resistance truck gunners, Myzontid troopers (Pelagic rangers, 'lamprey men'), Myzontid commander and special weapons (a missile launcher, a sniper rifle), plus the much awaited second set of Felids.

Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Sci Fi
TTC1301 Felid Heavy Battle Circle $6.99

Jon's Corporate Marines have a new 'Starship Troopers' paintjob! The Terran L-HAC Walker is available too fo very heavy support!

And no, not my paintjob - but watch this space!

I've got a bunch of Terran Special Assault Brigade Marines in Power Armour on the way. From the pics that Jon's shared with me, they look great for 15mm Space Hulk, in fact they just look great!

Got to run to catch the train.......

Cheers
Mark
.

Incoming...... 15mm Cazador de hombres

.
"Only in the hottest years........" new 15mm Vacation Alien from Khurasan Miniatures Planet 15 range as painted by Carl Robson:

Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Sci Fi
PLA-5: $1.29

To quote Master Chef.... "OMG!"

Cheers
Mark
.

Kaamados Squamata Imperialis Closeup

.
As promised more pics of Critical Mass Games' forthcoming Kaamados Squamata Imperialis!

Critical Mass Games 15mm Sci Fi Squamata to the Right
Critical Mass Games 15mm Sci Fi VivPara on the Left

Critical Mass Games 15mm Sci Fi Squamata to the Right
GZG 15mm Sci Fi FSE on the Left

Cheers
Mark
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