Cataloguing Extraterrestrial Life in 15mm

Following on from the previous post, the Dropship Horizon exobiologists have been busy cataloguing extraterrestrial life in the known universe. And have identified four broad classes of 15mm aliens.

1) Bipedal near-humans

These are aliens who appear to closely resemble us humans. But perhaps for their skin colour, a few bulges, minor alterations to physical features and more or fewer toes and fingers, etc. these guys are like us. These include: Critical Mass Games’ Mercs, Kaamados and Praesentia; Ground Zero Games’ Kra’Vak and Alien Mercs and Greys; Rebel Miniatures' Kurgens, and Grey Aliens amongst others; 15mm.co.uk’s Grey Aliens, Shia Khan, Octopods, Ghoulani, Froogs and Zidhe, etc; Blue Moon aliens including the Arlocks, Shivan Sisterhood, Aquans, etc; Eureka Miniatures' Ventaurians; Khurasan Miniatures’ Chewk and Vacation Aliens and; Zombie Smith’s Quar.

2) Anthropomorphic aliens 

These are Earth animals that appear to have been “uplifted” and now run around blasting up the galaxy like a bunch of naked apes with advanced tech. These include: Khurasan Miniatures’ Felid, Garn, Ursid, Karkarine, Myzontid and Orca; 15mm.co.uk's Draccians; Critical Mass Games' Protolene Khanates and Astagar (snakemen); Ground Zero Games’ Crusties; Stan Johansen's Blarad; ArtCrime Production's Hadai; Irregular Miniature's Reptilians and Space Goatmen; and Traveller War Hounds of Sirius, Car Leonis and Dracos produced by RAFM.

3) Bug life

Similar to anthropomorphic aliens (perhaps a subclasification?), there is alien life out there that has a passing resemblance to Earth’s insect life. These include: Ground Zero Games’ Ixx; QRF Alien Bipeds; Khurasan Miniatures’ Vespulid and Space Demons (possibly) amongst others; Battlestation's Zoallans; Spriggan Miniatures’ Spugs, Brigade Models' Cimexians; Highlander Studios' Space Bugs; and Micro Panzer’s Raivaui Swarm.

4) Intergalactic weirdness

At the weirder (more alien!?!) end of the spectrum there is: Khurasan Miniatures’ Vornids (triffids / ambulatory plants), Cnidarian, and the wonderfully alien Molch extensions and emissaries; Moonfleet (ex Peter Pig) Phugs; Battlestation's Canosians, Xeloxians, Silicoids, amongst others, and; 15mm.co.uk’s Creegan Doom Spores and various aliens in the SHM Range.

You may disagree with our classifications and we may have missed a few 15mm aliens, but the Dropship Crew are interested to know if you have a favourite 'type' of alien and more generally what kind of aliens you would like to see in the future from 15mm sci fi manufacturers!

Weyland-Yutani Weapons Division Stock Rises

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Just messing around - well sort of, but what if, what IF the boys over at the Bio-Weapons Division pulled their fingers out for once and came home with the bacon. Eh?

I don't know about you, but THESE are the sort of fookin' armoured aliens I want to see. Never mind yer fookin' prawns. One Xeno Walker and a squad of Xeno hardsuits are about to take shape over the next few nights.....mostly.

Cheers

Mark

   

Pizza Base Aliens

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We had a cinema night last night. A full-blown Chinese take out followed by ALIENS: The Directors Cut. Damn! It's still a great movie.

To my mind the best role in the film is Hudson, played by Bill "How do I get out of this Chickenshit outfit" Paxton. Hudson has some of the best lines in the movie and his anti-hero character gets to take the audience on a one-man emotional roller coaster from being cocksure wise cracker, to competent com-tech, scaredy "you can count me out"  'villain' to when he finally redeems himself as "state of the badass art".

So, I must make more of gaming Aliens, well, more Aliens vs Colonial Marines, whether in 15mm or 20mm. Jon at Khurasan has some more new(ish) menacing poses for his Space Demons that I must buy.

TC901A Space Demon  Assault Warriors (textured head)

TC903A Space Demon Infiltrator Warriors (smooth dome head - not shown)

I also came across this photo (below), which made me think - hang on, there's a really good room and corridor design hidden in there for 'pizzabase' gaming.

Sure there's little real logic to the layout, but why does there have to be? Do I really need crew quarters, state rooms and the like? No! Think "Ambush Aliens", a labyrinth of infiltration routes, fire lanes and hidden corners. In true Mass Effect style, the larger open spaces can be altered with crates and containers to provide additional cover, impenetrable walls and ad hoc corridors.

 Mass Effect 2: N7 Hahne-Kedar Facility

I have a good selection of crates and containers from Jon at GZG, but I think I need to add a pack of Antenociti Workshops G.O.T. Secure Crates. These have a definite Mass Effect feel.

The fight in the Hahne-Kedar Facility is one of my favourite side-quest missions in ME2. It's a straight firefight between yourself and 2 companions against up to 40 combat androids amongst a maze of crates and containers. You continually have to keep pushing forward to stop the avalanche of robots spawning from their storage/shipping containers.... but it has to be timed right, between each wave and you need to maximise use of cover, shieid regeneration and firepower.

 That's next weekend's project sorted.

Cheers
Mark
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All Gone A Bit Hadley's Hope

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We were in town on Saturday where I picked up a very reasonably priced copy of Aliens vs Predator for the XBOX 360.

I started the 'Marine' campaign set on Hadley's Hope and have to say, had a real blast! Dark corridors, bleeping motion trackers, Xenomorphs by the interstellar bus load and a very nice female Latino Marine called Tequila guiding my half arsed, half panicked attempts to survive. The game really got the blood pumping and inspired me to recreate the action on the tabletop!

I want to make an important point here. Computer and console games don't replace the miniatures game for me and the same is true of Master Chef. They inspire us to recapture the console action once again on the tabletop with miniatures.

My Googlefu failed to find a decent pic of Tequila on the net, to captivate budding 15mm Colonial Marine sculptors out there - but Natassia Malthe makes a gratuitous but very attractive proxy for this foxy Marine.

By way of  'research' just had to watch Aliens (1986) this afternoon, which left me all fired up for a Bug Hunt! The day job is going to be tough up till Christmas, so this will be a nice lightweight and fun diversion, switching between media and back as I like.


Unfortunately, to my mind, there are no decent Colonial Marine proxies in 15mm that appeal to me. RAFM's classic ex-Traveller Mid-Tech troopers are the nearest to my tastes but lack poses, weapon variation and character for any kind of  'heroic' movie'esque skirmish game. GZG's 15mm NAC? Yes, but they are still NAC. Denizen's 25mm Mid-Tech troopers are really tempting but I already own some of RH Model's excellent 20mm Colonial Marines!

RH Models 20mm Sci Fi

Colonial Marines

"State of the bad-ass art"

I will have a go at sculpting a female head onto the slimmest of the marines and share with you my success or failure. Khurasan's Space Demons will be perfect for the 'aliens', especially the big daddy Space Demon King. And, I'll start painting the Marines this week. So there we have it, on the ready line! Lock n load and wake up Hicks - because they're gonna need everything they've got to survive the colony on a terra-formed planet that swarms with bad-ass xenomorphs.

Cheers

Mark

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15mm Xenomorph Face Off!

15mm Rebel Minis Earth Force Marine
Vs
Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Space Demon

15mm Xenomorphs: L-R Khurasan, GZG, QRF


An idea of actual size

For more details of any of these miniatures
click on the Labels below for previous posts.

For full range, pack sizes, prices and order details
click here for the Khurasan Miniatures web store.

Cheers
Mark

They Come In The Night..........Mostly

It's been a fraught weekend spent recovering my final data analysis after it finally decided to go tits up at five to six on Friday. It was only due for submission to the CEO and Corporate Directors at 8.00am this morning, with a presentation followed by Q&A session this afternoon.

Well, I have to say the gods were looking after me as the mishap had several major positive ramifications. The long and the short being that I AM TOP DOG! And my hard work is recognised by the CEO!

Here's Johnny!

I drove all the way home this evening grinning from ear to ear! Seven months work vindicated. And to cap it all, there's a package waiting for me inside the front door. Rebel Minis or Khurasan? Rebel Minis or Khurasan?


It's my first order of Space Demons from Khurasan Miniatures! Well, I may have come home Top Dog, but these minis ARE the Dogs Bollocks!

I haven't got them all out of their ziplock bags and I already want more! Especially that Space Demon King. Luckily I intend buying some of Khurasans new Vikings in a month or so and will just include these in the order.

There are 5 Space Demon types: Space Demon King, Queen, and then Infiltrator, Hammerhead and Assault Warriors. The 3 warrior types have 4 different bodies and separate heads to allow for plenty of variation.

15mm Space Demon Infiltrator Warrior

You can find out more about the Space Demons in my previous entry here (Click here if you want to know more).

Jon at Khurasan is currently preparing the Space Demon web page for his online shop, which should be ready soon. I'll write a full review in a few days time, with comparison shots against GZG and Rebel Minis figures. Afraid it will have to wait till I've got the final report to the Scottish Government done and dusted and I can regain my sanity and 20 hours a week of my life.

Cheers
Mark

QRF 15mm Alien Bipeds

I have to say that I do like QRF's 15mm 'Alien Bipeds - Large'. Pack SF06 has three different miniatures which have animation lacking in GZG's SG15-X1. These are large, substantial and menacing figures, some 24mm to the top of the skull carapace of the tallest figure. You can see from the photo above, perfect for anyone looking at redecorating their spaceship corridors.
Pack SF05 'Alien Bipeds - Small' contains eight 12mm tall bipedal Alien Xenomorphs in two poses. These mix well with Pendraken Miniatures larger 10mm Alien miniatures and are best based in multiples as part of a 'Bug' or 'Hive Mind' army.

My own Alien Movies inspired 'Hive Mind' Army for Alien Squad Leader consists of:

8x Centurions (individually based QRF SF06 and GZG X1)
10x Warrior Bases (Pendraken and QRF SF05 based in 3's and 5's)

QRF also have a pack of 'Face Huggers', SF03 six individual figures for £1.00 and a HUGE multipiece Alien Queen, their SF07 Alien Big Mother for £6.00.


LKM Direct / QRF
SF05 - Alien Bipeds - Small
£2.00 for 8 miniatures
SF06 - Alien Bipeds - Large
£2.00 for 3 miniatures

GZG 15mm Xenomorphs

As previous posts have looked at Vacc-Suited miniatures, tonight I'm turning the spotlight on 15mm Xenomorphs beginning with GZG's SG15-X1.

GZG 'Aliens' and SG15-V14 Heavy Vacc Suit

GZG's pack consists of five 21mm tall bipedal Xenomorphs in two poses, an egg cluster and a base of two 'face huggers. The Xenomorphs fit the bill for anyone inspired by the 'Alien' genre of movies. As you can see in the photos, there's plenty of detail which will paint up beautifully.

Not shellfish for supper again sighed George

Ground Zero Games: SG15-X1
£2.50 for 5 Xenomorphs, an egg cluster and a base of 'face huggers'