At last! 15mm German WW2 Heads in Gasmasks

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Piotr has come up trumps with two new 15mm separate head sprues from Pole Bitwy......

Piotr stayed up till 4am in the morning to create several sample headswops including this figure from an FOW Mid-Late War German rifleman - definitely worth the effort too!

And this WWW2 themed wolfschutzen....

......At last, because I have a WWW2 project waiting in the wings, screaming for them!

POLE BITWY

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 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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"Oh my God. Ze Gas Mask Bandits!"

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Told you I was having fun! Peter Pig WW2 Pack 285: Russians in greatcoat with SMG given that retro Sov-Block 'Kolony' Rebel look with a GZG gasmask separate head.


Just a rough 5 minute job to see if it works. Peter Pig 15mm are exactly what they say on the tin - mostly that is - a few ranges, such as the modern USMC are bigger. This means that side by side with Rebel Minis, GZG, Critical Mass Games, these P.Pig Soviets are noticably smaller, though not at all when a couple of inches away from each other on the tabletop.

The new GZG separate heads though , are not surprisingly on the larger side, so they won't work in every instance - but the gasmask heads do! And, because they ARE just that bit larger than the P.Pig figure, the whole distopian effect is enhanced.

Peter Pig also offer a range of WW2 Germans in greatcoat which includes MP44 assault rifles, Panzerfausts, Soviet SMGs. Many of these and some of the Germans in 'Zeltbahn', could be potentials for the 'Kolony' treatment.



Cheers
Mark
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Another Day Another Head Swop

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Ever since Jon sent me the first samples of the remastered New Israelis, I felt compelled to turn the the superb squad leader miniature in pack SG15-Z7 into a character along the lines of Sergeant Major Avery Johnson from HALO or Sgt. A. Apone from Aliens.

Another Glorious Day in the Corps

This mini took about half an hour. I used clippers to take the helmeted head off then carefully paired down the remaining metal - think of Paulie preparing the garlic in Goodfellas.

The character head I chose was from the original sprue of character heads Jon sent me. Too late, I found that the spigot attached to this head under the chin and not the neck. I'd already removed it from the sprue by this time and because the head is too small to hold and safely cut the remaining spigot away, I had to use a rat-tail file to trim it back sufficiently.

The head still sat too proud of the neckline - a common error in this type of conversion, so I used a semi-round rat-tail file to create a dip that would allow the head to sit more realistically. The finished figure will have a suitable collar round his neck created from Greenstuff, to tidy up the join and provide additional strength to the head.

Hope you like it. I'm seriously chuffed with how 'Sgt Major Johnson' has turned out and think it makes a very powerful miniature that will add character to the whole unit. Next New Israeli figure I fancy converting in this manner is the advancing Sniper from pack SG15-Z10. I think he'd look really mean with the separate head wearing vision enhancing goggles.

Cheers
Mark
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Are You My Mummy? - GZG Headswops

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Started playing around with GZG's latest 15mm Sci Fi separate heads in tonight and having fun!

I had a couple of figures left over in a duplicate pack of SG15-X04A Free Trader Crew and thought that I'd begin by trying out the heads on the 'Captain' wearing a dustcoat.

First up, "Are you my mummy?" Took about 5 minutes to carefully remove the existing head leaving as little damage to the figure and head as possible. I managed this by carefully carving round the head using a downward cut, before snapping the head off with my fingers.


Not bad, though I think the head with a Mohican and smaller mouth/nose mask would create a more interesting character without any further work. But, continuing with this full face 'gasmask' head - turn that pistol into a Glock or machine-pistol, place a machete or shotgun in his left hand, obligatory post-apocalypse keffiyeh/shemagh cowl round his neck - you have a bona fide post Nuclear/Pandemic/Zombie/Alien holocaust survivor.


Of course you might just want a 'Bad Ass' character, heavy or crime boss. This bald head with visor shades and cigar oozes Samuel L Jackson attitude!

The separate heads with visor/goggles alone will provide five good potential conversions in the G15-X04B Free Trader Crew and Passengers pack before I even get to the Ravagers, Armed Civilians/Colonists and various military types.

Cheers
Mark
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New 15mm GZG Heads Up!

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Back in November Jon at GZG took up some of my ideas here on Dropship Horizon for 15mm separate Character Heads (click here). He consequently produced some brilliant 15mm heads for those of us who wanted to give our miniatures a bit more individual character. We had fun building upon the theme of these original heads and the fallout of this is that Jon's had several additional sprues sculpted, two of which are illustrated below:

GZG 15mm Separate Heads
Top: Shades/Visors & Goggles/Vision Enhancers
Bottom: Gasmasks and Breathers

A closeup of the Shades/Visors & Goggles/Vision Enhancers

My photos simply don't do these heads justice. They are magnificent. I take my hat off to Chromecat of the D.C.2150 blog, Joe Dragovich and their ilk for their fine conversion work (click here), and these heads present a real bonus to those of us who find we lack the patience (my particular malaise) or the skill to do this sort of thing for ourselves.

The possibilities are now endless for creating new miniatures using Jon's new separate heads - colourful military personnel, Mercs, Insertion teams, Cyber-Punks, Post-Apoc survivors/gangs, wasteland warriors, industrial world militia, RPG characters. A whole new realm of life can also be given to existing miniatures beyond paint conversions.

Next up from GZG - a 30mm tall human infantry Walker. First of several variants from Jon's workbench.

GZG 15mm Sci Fi Power Armoured Trooper

The Walker is 30mm tall and comes with moulded power/jump pack and separate arms. These arms have a ball joint that attaches to a socket at the shoulders which gives you plenty of scope for posing them individually. The detail includes integral smoke or anti-personnel grenade dischargers.


It's a really substantial miniature that has a very real world design about it. I'll pop up a few more photos over the coming weekend once I have the arms attached. If you have suggestions for additional variants/weapon types post your ideas below.

But that's not all from GZG. Jon has also scuplted some additonal support weapons for the New Israelis - a MILAN style missile launcher - I've seen it and am very impressed, together with a HAMR gunner that is still being worked on.

Finally....a new range of Sci Fi troopers are coming from GZG! You are going to love them! Stick with Dropship Horizon to find out more in my first entry of 2010!

Cheers
Mark
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GZG 15mm Character Heads

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Jon at GZG has earned a BIG cigar for listening to my rant about the need for 15mm character heads just over a week ago here on Dropship Horizon.


I was absolutely gobsmacked when these unexpectedly dropped through the letterbox today. We'd chatted about the possibility and various head/sprue options last weekend. I hadn't expected anything before the new year!

What we have here in this release is a sprue of true character heads. These heads will allow you to personalise your WW2, Pulp, Modern and Sci Fi figures for 1-2-1 character skirmish games, RPGs, guncrawls etc with unique miniatures. There's a head compin on a cigar, snarling with crew cut, a Mohican and bandana. C'mon! You've got to have a least one SAW or Plasma gunner wearing a bandana on your guncrawl!


I felt the head chompin on cigar deserved to be seen in more detail. This serving USMC Colonel is a dead ringer for Sergeant Major Avery Johnson (HALO), and as you can see one of Jon's new 15mm character heads has caught the expression perfectly!

These character heads will not only personalise and breathe life into your 15mm figures. They will both create greater variation amongst the miniatures of your military units and extend the use of existing GZG or similar 'character' packs through a simple headswop, giving you distinctly different figures.

Thanks Jon!

Available soon from:

GROUNDZEROGAMES.NET

Cheers
Mark
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Getting Ahead

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You know, I would like to see some more 'character' types for my 15mm Sci Fi military units. For instance, grizzled grunts wearing bandanas or headscarves, such as Marcus Fenix in Gears of War or Vasquez in Aliens. Also, guys with goggles on the top of their head, like Damon (Gears of War) or a cowboy hat - yes cowboy hat - the full on Kinky Friedman Texas plasma gunner look! Don't tell me you didn't have a sneakin' admiration for Blain in Predator.

As for cigars! Well cigars maketh the man, as they say. Peter Pig's very first 15mm WW2 releases, included an American NCO with Tommy gun chewin' on a cigar - brilliant little figure. I kept him when I sold all the rest. So why haven't we seen the likes of Apone, the absolute baaddd ass NCO in 15mm Sci Fi?

Course, Apone has been supplanted to those that know, by Johnson, the hardest of the hard Marine NCO in HALO Contact Harvest.

And that brings me on to 'ornery. There's a distinct lack of love 'em or hate 'em 'ornery dudes in 15mm Sci Fi. I could post up pics of characters from several 'military' console games - but you know, they exist in reality too. Like Sergeant Major Pangborn, USMC - this guy cries out to be honoured in 15mm! His IS the face of the Master Chief, Mark Fenix or Scott Mitchell.

So, what am I looking for? Well, how about some separate character head sprues to allow us to personalise our mniatures in the first instance. Ring changes and breathe a little individuality and uniqueness at little cost to the manufacturers or us.

Secondly, some spare helmets on sprues - the quickest way to create a whole new force, is to replace their helmets. 15mm Modern troops can be turned into transitional or advanced forces through simply being given a new helmet. Such as Rebel Minis' Infiltrator or Critical Mass Games' Light Recon helmets.

Modern and Sci Fi troops could be turned into mercenary, insurgent, survivalist, post apocalyptic types or even special forces, through separate heads with gasmasks, ski masks, woolly hats and baseball/field caps.

Spies, specialists and quirky characters can have heads with goggles - both being worn and sitting on top of head.

Now, I know some of you dislike the human in a rubber mask characterised by popular Sci Fi TV shows, but the quickest way of fielding a lot of alien types would be to produce separate heads and alien helmets that could be transplanted onto existing human or otherwise miniatures. Those new Protolenes from Critical Mass Games would also look superb as lizard warriors.


Cheers
Mark
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Corporate Marine Conversion

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I asked myself a what Khurasan Miniatures' Corporate Marines would look like with different helmets - and here's my first attempt, using a full face helmet from Rebel Miniatures' Infiltrator pack.

The Corporate Marine's head came off with a twist and the neck just needed a quick scrape with the knife to flatten out. The Rebel Infiltrator needed two knife cuts and then came off quickly and simply. Reckon I could have half a dozen done and prepped, in about 5 minutes.

For the photos I've just used Blutack, but when I repeat the process for real, I'll use the method outlined in this previous post on 26th April (click here).

The difference is outstanding! But that is of course just my opinion. The imporvement was helped by angling the helmet so that the trooper's line of sight is along the barrel rather than head up, straight ahead, and suddenly a pedestrian pose has action and sense of urgency about it.

Jon has mentioned having new helmets put on the dollies. Go for it!

Mike, please do a sprue of separate Infiltrator heads!

Cheers
Mark
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More 15mm Headswops....

A couple more WIPs. Another Vargr and my favourite; a 15mm Colonel Steiner, Michael Caine becomes a 15mm 'Space Marine' Merc Commander.

My name is Michael Caine...

The minis are brilliant (even if I say so myself) despite looking far too washed out and rather unimpressive in the pics. That 'light' blue is Citadel Shadow Grey which drys darker than you expect, then with an additional Asurman Blue Wash. The lighter 'flesh' colour is Citadel Tallarn Flesh which if you know, is actually quite dark. Nevertheless, I'm so impressed by how effective 'Steiner' looks here in front of me that I'm going to create a 15mm WWW2 Götterdämmerung unit of Waffen SS types in pea dot camo.

Bit ruff this morning.......

So, how difficult is it to do swop heads? The answer is, not very as long as you are not fussy. At worst, it can be time consuming and incredibly boring after your first half dozen or so. I took a pair of sharp wire stripping snips, snipped off the heads and removed the resulting ridge along the cut with a sharp knife.

Did I drill a hole to pin the head? Did I bollocks! Took the edge of the knife and gouged out a small hole approximately where the neck (spigot) would sit within a blob of glue. I use cheap knifes with those reusable blades you snap, 5 for £1 from Poundland. I snipped the neck spigot down to about 1 or 1.5mm. Steiners head was attached using UHU Superglue gel, the Vargr using an epoxy resin.

If the head is at a high angle or doesn't have much purchase, I would suggest an additional 'sock' of epoxy resin to secure the attachment for all time. If you are worried about longetivity, I have headswopped miniatures which are 7-8 years old and short of a nuclear apocalypse, nothing is going to remove their heads.

The Peter pig human heads are really small and trying to position them with your fingers is only going to end up in tears and stuck fingers - believe me I know! Instead, roll out a small amount of Blutack, stick this to the top of the head and hold the other end of the Blutack to control placement on the shoulders.

On my first headswops I carefully built up new detail using expoxy modelling putty, but you know what? This is 15mm and once the figs are painted, even holding them up to your nose, you will barely notice any roughness or small blobs of glue you missed. Unlike the camera, our eyes don't have a Macro setting.

Cheers
Mark