Incoming......15mm Zas Mercs

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 Harkonnen's Finest!
The Baron Needs You

Zas Mercs (Merc13)

Take advantage of Critical Mass Games' 

SALE to recruit your own Harkonnen forces.

Sad day in the Dropship Headshed as my GZG Harkonnen Sand Troopers are finally retired. But no time for tears, as it's another glorious day in the Corps! The Sand Troopers have been reimagined with the new Zas Trooper miniatures pictured above. All hail the Baron!

Cheers

Mark

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In The Pipe......15mm Zas Mercs

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Critical Mass Games is continuing to increase their incredible Mercs range with some real goodies over the coming months.

Craig sent me a pack of the Zas Mercenary Fighters with my latest order, damn him! Yes, damn him because I really like these miniatures. In fact I like all the figures in the forthcoming Mercs packs, but these Zas Fighters - there's something just so  Harkonnen about them, that I want them to replace my current Harkonnen Spice Troopers.

 Critical Mass Games 15mm Sci Fi

Zac Mercenary Fighters

(from Critical Mass Games forum)

To save me taking almost identical photos with my camera, here are some pics from the Critical Mass Games' Forum. If I'm honest the pics didn't inspire me whern I first saw them, but actually having the miniatures in my hand - now that's a different matter. The Zas Fighters are great!  So much so that I've taken Mudd Eisley down off the shelf to play around with the minis in setting and they've shot right to the head of my painting queue.

 Critical Mass Games 15mm Sci Fi

Zac Mercenary Fighters closeup and personal

(from Critical Mass Games forum)

And of course, the production of the figures is everything we've come to expect from Critical Mass Games - crisp detail and trouble free casting. I hope these sell well and the range consequently expanded. I'll certainly get another 2 packs to start (maybe more), giving me at least 3 fire teams for Tomorrow's War and "Ambush Alley Mudd Eisley Style".

A limited number of poses but inspiring miniatures. Thoroughly recommended.

Cheers

Mark

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Cracked the Special Assault Brigade

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Managed to crack my painting stalemate with Jon's Special Assault Brigade! I settled for Vallejo Orange Ochre, with the help of a Mohican separate head from GZG's SG15-XH1 Heads pack.

15mm Sci Fi: Harkonnen Drop Trooper WIP

The headswop above took me 20 minutes plus a large glass of Crows Fountain whilst I carefully pared away the helmet. Made harder by the fact that I'd already assembled and undercoated the figure. Still have fine detailing and some tidying up to go but I think he's turned into a damn fine 15mm Sci Fi masterpeice - screaming dynamic character.


Why the headswop? Look at the pic! The result is so frakkin cool! Straight off the cover of a Dan Abnett novel. 28mm comes to 15'. What other reason do I need!

Rest of the squad in Mohicans like this - 15 man platoon and then maybe a squad or more in Space Marine blue for the hell of it! Hoo-Ahh!

Cheers
Mark
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Harkonnen Combat Droids

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First Harkonnen Squad is finished give or take a bit of fine detailing on these combat droids.


I was going to use Walker Drones but changed my mind for something that looked a bit more 'Harkonnen' and most definitely 'desert proof'. So I decided to use two of the forthcoming figures from Critical Mass Games 'Mercenaries' (MERC) range.


I've painted the combat droids Vallejo German Orange Ochre to match the Harkonnen's desert patrol APCs and stand apart from the grunts. I like these Critical Mass minis a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the torture of paiting them. I will buy more to use as 'Assault Droids' when they are officially released.

Cheers
Mark
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Harkonnen Spice Troopers

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It's amazing what a little bit of character can do to liven up a squad of 15mm Sci Fi figures. Of course being Sci Fi, you can quite literally add your own colour too.

Click on photo for obsenely large pic!

GZG FSE Legionnaire with a headswop from SG15-XH2. I didn't quite spend as much time on this guy's fatigues, as I felt the orange shoulder pad and 'Rogue Trooper' blue skin caught the eye.

I've deliberately gone for a 'grungy', far too long in the desert feel. The 'blue' trooper is a veteran NCO, showing the tell-tale signs of addiction to the potent 'Spice' crystals.

BTW, the bases are painted to merge with my now OOP Citadel 'Sulphur' Desert battlemat and add some colour of their own to the miniatures.

Cheers
Mark
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Harkonnen Sand Trooper Patrol

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My Harkonnen Sand Troopers started as a 'throw away' project (more intel here). But like many before, it's grown arms and legs in quick succession. This time in the form of two platoons of GZG Chariot Light APCs (V15-04C pictured below), plus robotic infantry and Walker Drones (on the workbench). A perfect OPFOR with AA's forthcoming Tomorrow's War.


I rarely buy tracked Sci Fi vehicles. I'm a 'Grav Man', but these Chariot APCs are really tasty little models. One platoon became two, and I really had to fight the urge to buy that third platoon/company command with my GZG discount voucher. The variants available allow you to build interesting platoons that are more than just 3-4 tracked boxes. Regardless of discount, got to keep my eye on next month's new 'Colony Bar'.


Cheers
Mark
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ps: A late night dash to the wire and I manage to finish the Harkonnen headswops too! Huzzah!

Harkonnen's Finest

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This weekend I've managed to paint an 18 figure platoon of 'Harkonnen Sand Troopers'.

These guys are left over GZG SG15-F1 FSE Colonial Legionnaires abandoned and looking for a purpose. And this weekend that purpose became testing a 'quick & dirty' desert cammies painting technique. It wasn't in my plan to paint them fully, but having painted and based them, I now sneakingly quite like the minis and want to put them into action on the tabletop.

I've based the Sand Troopers individually to play Ambush Alley, Tom.War and some 1-2-1 character skirmish games, all loosely based in and around Mudd Eisley. I visualise them very much in the "These are not the droids we are looking for" kind of role.

There's no dedicated leader figure which means one of the grunts in each squad gets a promotion and a big orange stripe. Platoon command is relegated to an Old Crow Outrider Scout Vehicle pulled from another project. Nothing wrong with 'Gorman' style command in the Twenty-ummph Century, but it does make it difficult to love 'em.

I'm bulking out the platoon with FSE Legionnaires in Kepis donated by the Master Chef. I'm not enamoured with these figures but the Kepi heads are easy to snip off and replace. This will add much needed variety and character to the platoon for 1-2-1 character skirmish games. Hope to have these headswops finished and fully painted/based in a day or so.

Finally, I've made a decision to further enhance both the character and firepower of the platoon with Critical Mass Games Merc3 Drone Walkers supporting each squad.

Cheers
Mark
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Harkonnen Sand Troopers

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More painting....this time 'Harkonnen Sand Troopers'


This is the fastest fully opaque paint job I've done to date. 8 GZG FSE (?) figures in 45 minutes! The idea is for the troopers to look 'worn' and with this in mind I've 'distressed' the armour.

1) Undercoat: Citadel Iyandun Dark Sun
2) Liberal wash of Citadel Devlan Mud (before the undercoat was fully dry)
3) Heavy Drybrush of Vallejo Iraqi Sand
4) Citadel Boltgun Metal for paint chips and heavily worked areas.

Still have to paint the hands, drybrush the boots, and use a bright red highlight on the visor. Not sure the distressing works on miniatures this small to be honest, but they do look magnificently 'campaigned out'.

Must add some badges and insignia to add character to the models.

Vallejo Iraqi Sand is brilliant. I'll take better photos over the weekend once the platoon is completed.

Cheers
Mark
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