Recently Finished...

Introduction

I know how much my readers like eye candy, so here's a selection of models that I've completed fairly recently.  There's nothing particularly common to them, other than they're all 28mm figures.

Congo

First up is Uguah, the fictional witch doctor who comes with the "Mungo Mah Lobeh" expansion book for "Congo".  He's a seemingly cruel old man but a powerful sorcerer; he provides the main opposition for Mary Kingsley, the explorer upon whose exploits the campaign is based.

Despite his near-naked state, the model is covered with details.  I just wish that they were more visible, as his hunched pose hides much of the work, including the grotesque face that he is pulling!

Next up is a fairly generic lion, also from North Star.  I can never seem to find my existing lion miniature when I need him, so having an extra should help.

Finally (in this section), I have some dugout canoes.  These, like so many of my models, were undercoated many moons ago but only completed recently.  I've added some scratch-built paddles and some baskets (one empty, one containing fish) as I felt the canoes were a bit bare without this.

Dreadball

Here are two more star players for my Dreadball teams:

• The Excavator is a ForgeFather or Brokkr mining robot.  Apparently there's nothing in the rules that says they cannot bring it on to the pitch!
• A'Teo Adysi is an Yndij: a primitive species of hunter from some remote planet.  It seems that his strength and lightning reflexes make him a very good player.

Neanderthals

In our first game of Paleo Diet, all of the hunters were armed with spears.  That's all very well, but perhaps a bit dull.  To fix this, I bought some Lucid Eye Neanderthals to add to the tribe.  Mind you, they're from a different manufacturer and are painted in a different style from my existing Neanderthals so I don't yet know if they'll fit in very well.

One model had a club, so that was fine.  The other two both had spears, though.  I converted one of them into a fire-wielder by cutting down the spear and adding some flame from green stuff.  He's got a flint knife as well, so he'll be all right...

Viridians

I recently stumbled across a Facebook group called Void 1.1 Nexus (not sure if membership is required to see anything much), which is full of enthusiasts for this old game.  They're running a painting competition just now to encourage people to complete old (or new) figures that may be lying around.

Well, I have a very large number of Void 1.1 miniatures lying around, mostly still in packets.  I thought I'd get some out and paint them, without necessarily entering the competition.  Here is the first batch to be finished (and yes, I was persuaded to enter them in the competition after all):

Viridian chain gun on a ground mount

Viridian Commando squad

Conclusion

Well, it's another fairly mixed collection of painted figures; I hope you like them!  Not much more to be said, really...

Jedi Starfighter: Revell easykit

Introduction

Let me tell you about an impulse purchase that I made this week.  I found a trader on eBay that was disposing of large numbers of the same old kit.  I can speculate that these may have come from a distributor that has gone bust or a shop that is selling off excess stock.  However, that's just a guess; I don't really know how these models came on to the market.

Anyway, I bought a couple of the Jedi Starfighter kits at £3.75 each (including postage!).  Now the problem I have is what to do with them!

Options

Actually, I have seen this kit before and therefore I know that it makes a very nice, small sci-fi flyer which is pretty much perfectly scaled for 28mm gaming figures.  I know this because my younger son went through an intense Star Wars phase some years ago and built pretty much all of the relevant "easykit pocket" kits from Revell.  They're not to a constant scale (nothing like!), but all of the models in the range are about the same finished size, somewhere around 10-15cm long.

So, I've borrowed my son's rather dilapidated Jedi Starfighter and posed various figures alongside it to try to inspire a colour scheme and back story.

Spectrum "Angel Interceptor"

My first idea is that I could paint the 2 new starfighters white and give them Spectrum (Captain Scarlet) markings.  They would then make good alternatives for the iconic Angel Interceptor craft and I could use them in games of 7TV or the like.

I'd prefer a "real" Angel Interceptor, but I'm pretty sure that nobody makes a model that is even close to 28mm (though there is a paper model available somewhere on the Internet, I think).  Mind you, even if such a model could be found, it would probably be quite large for a games table!

If any purists gag at the idea of calling this an Angel Interceptor then I could call it something else.  After all, Spectrum had quite a range of aircraft in their fleet; this could easily be some previously-unseen jet.  Perhaps it's an "Angel Scout" or something like that?

Viridian Flitter

Alternatively, I could give the models a green/gray splinter camouflage to blend in with my sci-fi Viridian army (or paint them cream/black for my Syntha faction instead).  If I did that then they would be some type of reconnaissance or light ground-attack craft.  Sadly, I cannot see that they'd ever be used in a game since I don't really use any of my VOID armies and cannot see this changing in the future.  Still, they'd be nice to collect.

Star Trek mini-Shuttle

My final idea is that the starfighters could be painted up pale grey (for Federation) or dark grey, green or blue (for Klingons) and used as single-crew shuttles or fighters.  This doesn't completely fit in with the Star Trek universe; such tiny craft don't appear very much in the canonical version(s).  However, there are enough occurrences in spin-off works to justify pretty much anything.  In any case, it's my universe and I can do what I like, so there!

Conclusion

Have you ever bought something without having a need for it, either immediately or in the future?  Just because you liked it and thought that it might come in handy some time?  I'm pretty sure that most people do this at least occasionally!

I don't really know what to do with these kits.  I could even paint them up as non-airworthy sci-fi objectives, perhaps  being maintained and with inspection panels open.  Alternatively there must be many other ways that I could integrate them with one of my existing collections of figures.  I suppose that I could even start collecting 28mm Star Wars figures to go with the starfighters - but that'll not happen; it's a crazy idea!  Ah, what shall I do?

Showcase: Viridian Skimmers

Introduction

Some of you may remember previous posts on my VOID Viridian models:

• http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2012/08/army-showcase-viridians-part-1.html
• http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2013/04/army-showcase-viridians-part-2.html
• http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2014/01/army-showcase-viridians-part-3.html

If you have seen these before then you'll know of my fondness for this army.  If not, then be aware that I display something from this force about once a year, as the fancy takes me!

Who are the Viridians?  As written in the original VOID fluff, they are technologically-capable fervent ecologists.  They usually choose not to use equipment which would harm the environment in any way.  Most of their military uses updated versions of 20th century weapons, with specially-bred dinosaurs acting as transport (!).  However, that doesn't mean they cannot build fighting vehicles as well, when necessary.  The fast attack skimmers are an example of that...

Viridian Skimmers

Here's one of the Viridian skimmers.  If you have particularly sharp eyes and a good memory, you might have spotted one just like this on my workbench in July 2012.  I've actually got 5 of these models (of 3 different subclasses) and I built them all many years ago.  After that, one was left out on my workbench as a reminder that I needed to paint them.  That lonely model stayed there for at least 2 years (possibly a lot more), until last month - November 2014.

In an attempt to reclaim some of my work space, I finally got round to painting the first skimmer a few weeks ago, though I had to give it a good dusting first.  Since then, I've painted a second as well.  Indeed, the bare model in the pictures above and below is the 3rd skimmer that I have brought out of storage!

I've done a head swap on this pilot; he's got a helmet from one of the EM-4 plastic troopers

I've made some slight adjustments to these models.  The most obvious one is the "roll cage" that I've made from brass wire and plasticard.  I felt that the pilot just looked too exposed on the original models and needed some form of enclosure.  Indeed, if I could have found a source of clear spheres about the size of ping pong balls then I would have used those as canopies, a bit like those on early US helicopters such as the Bell H-13 Sioux.

Since I didn't find anything to use as clear canopies, I went with my second choice and created the "dune buggy" effect.  I built a jig from scrap pieces of plasticard and used this to ensure that each piece of brass wire was cut and bent in exactly the same way.

...And Painted

Support skimmer on the left, regular skimmer on the right

 I've painted the 2 completed skimmers in my standard Viridian camouflage, with a dark green background, superimposed with elongated triangles of dusty, pale green, edged with black.

The basing on the skimmers is something with which I'm not totally happy.  It's meant to look like dust clouds being kicked up, but I think it just isn't right.  If I could think of a better way to achieve such an effect, I might rework the bases.

I think I went a bit heavy on the dark wash for the support skimmer (on the left).  It doesn't seem too bad under the bright camera flash, but the vehicle looks very dark when viewed in real life.  There's not much I can do about this, short of repainting it from scratch (and I'm not considering that!), so I'll just have to live with it.

Conclusion

2 down, 3 to go!  These aren't actually too difficult to paint, once I get round to it - I can hardly believe that I put off painting the first one for years!  Making the extra bars for the cockpit is probably the most time-consuming part of the job.

Finally, a word on realism.  Hovercraft don't have much purchase on the ground (well, that's the whole point, really) and therefore need to rely on aerofoils or directed propulsion systems to change speed or direction.  These skimmers seem as if they're capable of travelling very fast, but I wouldn't like to try turning or slowing down!  They also look very tail-heavy, especially the 2-man command variant that I haven't shown here.

But hey, they're science fiction models, yes?  So everything is all right!

Army Showcase: Viridians (part 3)

Part 3: Heavy Infantry

Following the previous articles on Mounted Troops and Light infantry, it's time to document the 3rd part of my Viridian force: the Heavy Infantry!

The Viridians were one of the original 4 human forces for the VOID game from the long-defunct Scottish company i-Kore.  My figures all date from this era (i.e. VOID 1.1) and the range is still available from Scotia Grendel.  They should not be confused with the faction of the same name from Urban Mammoth, who were a successor company to i-Kore and created new models and some new factions for the same fictional universe.  The Urban Mammoth models are very nice, but they're not really the same style as the older Viridians.

Metal Figures

Firstly, here are some regular armoured infantry.  There are 2 squads in the background and a hero in front.  These are some of my first batch to be painted; they have very distinctive tan knee and shoulder pads and very little weathering.

Actually, i-Kore produced a bewildering variety of armoured Viridians (including, from memory, "Assault marines", "Shock marines", "Interdict marines", "Fenrir's marines"...).  However, as with the light infantry, I just mix them together in whatever way seems best to me at the time.

I also have a much smaller squad that was painted more recently.  They're the same metal models, but the armour is green all over and I've attempted to depict some wear and tear on it.  Possibly I've overdone the bare metal?

More "classic" metal models, though this time they're close-combat specialists.  As well as their "vibro-blades", they have shields made of advanced materials.  Possibly with minor force-field technologies built in to them as well?

The wolf-head designs on the shields are decals of my own making.  The ink on the paper ran a bit and so the designs are somewhat blurred.  Not something I'm really happy about, but I can't do anything about it now.

So far, I've only made up 1 heavy weapon for the armoured infantry - a twin gauss cannon.  Like many of my older models, I've based the crew figures separately from the weapon.  If/when I build more of these (from my lead pile), I'll probably put the whole lot on a single, larger base.

Plastic Figures

Just before the company failed, i-Kore released some plastic Viridians (and Junkers too, but that's another story).  These look a bit different from the metal figures, especially the heads and weapons.  I think I prefer the helmets; they look big enough to fit a human head inside (the metal ones are less plausible).  However the guns are overly bulky and can only be fixed easily to 1 hand.  The plastic shoulder pads are a nightmare and needed much trimming to make them fit.

For comparison, I also have a single squad of Games Workshop's Space Marines.  These have been painted in the same uniform as the i-Kore Viridians, so in theory I could use them in the same game.

Finally, here's a side-by-side shot of an i-Kore Viridian marine (left) and a Games Workshop Space Marine (right).  Make of this what you will...

FUBAR: The Rumble in the Jungle

Introduction

I've mentioned FUBAR before (here); it's a 1-page, fast-play set of rules for squad-level Science Fiction combat games.  Since I was at a bit of a loss when deciding what to bring to the games club this week, I thought I'd give it another outing.  It's been a while since I last played these rules.

FUBAR is adaptable to a wide variety of settings.  For example, it's sometimes used as a free alternative to Warhammer 40K or for games with Star Wars clix figures.  However I though that I would bring out some of my old VOID miniatures instead (note that these are still available from Scotia Grendel).  In this game, the Viridians (fervent ecologists) would attack a Syntha (cold cyborgs) outpost.

I think I may be getting something of a reputation at the club.  When one of the regular players saw the setup for this game, he asked nervously "Does this involve bugs?"  Of course, my answer was "Why?  Would that worry you?" (mua-ha-ha!).  It's true that I have used my Viridians in "bug hunt" games before, but there wouldn't be any hordes of monsters on this occasion!

The Scenario

This would be a very simple game: the Syntha have set up a base in the centre of the jungle and the Viridians don't like the mess they're making.  The attackers must wipe out the base, whilst the defenders must hold on!

The Syntha's southern defences.  2 squads (one of robots, one of humans) man the sandbag wall while "Hades-40" stands ready in the background

Syntha troops are all deployed on the table from the start.  They have:

• 2 tanks (one is much better camouflaged than the other and may be quite hard to spot in the picture above).  Very powerful.
• A troop of grav-bikes.  Fast and heavily armed, but unarmoured.
• Several squads of robots, big and small - a mixture of androsynths and teratosynths, if you're interested.  Well armed, somewhat armoured, but not very bright.
• 2 squads of (slightly) modified human marines.
• ...and finally, a pair of biomechs - mechanically-enhanced cyborg super-soldiers.

The Viridian force would be split into 2 parts; each would enter from a different end of the table.  Total force is as follows:

• 2 behemoths (dinosaur-like "tanks")
• Several squads of power-armoured troopers.
• Several squads of regular infantry.
• 1 scout squad, mounted on fast, bipedal lizards.

Since the Syntha had 2 commanders and the Viridians had 4, I expected the attackers to have a significant command and control advantage.  In FUBAR, when a player fails an activation roll for one of his units then his turn is over.  On average, the Viridians should have been able to activate about twice as many units as the Syntha for each round.  I hoped that this would compensate the attackers for the defenders' semi-prepared positions.

The Game

Oh, there's the second Syntha tank: "Nemesis-41"

The crashing of something large through trees was the first the Syntha knew of the attack on their base.  A Viridian assault behemoth broke through the foliage and its gauss cannons all opened fire on the nearest defending tank, wrecking its grav-drive.  Powered infantry could be seen close behind the monster.

Quickly recovering from their surprise, the defenders returned fire.  The tank fired its star-cannon at the behemoth and stunned it with a near miss, while the marines blazed away on some hapless Viridian troopers who were in the open.  These were quickly suppressed and suffered casualties; they remained pinned in this position for a number of turns until the Syntha eventually found a higher priority target.

The disoriented behemoth failed to activate, as did all of the Viridian southern command.  Figuring that they were only being attacked from 1 direction after all, the Syntha moved some of their large robots into a position where they could see the creature.  A superb shot from the 'bots managed to break one of the behemoth's legs and destroy the nearer gauss cannon.  From now on the Viridian creature couldn't move and had only half its original fire-power.  I would have said that it was a sitting duck - except that it doesn't look anything like a duck!

Finally, the other part of the Viridian attack arrived, from the south.  The Syntha pretty much ignored them, because (a) the attackers were still a fair way off and (b) they didn't seem to know what to do with themselves.

In another part of the northern assault, a Viridian squad had crossed the river.  They hoped that this movement hadn't been seen, but the 2 biomechs were waiting for them.  The armoured infantry turned out to be no match for the super-soldiers and hit the dirt to avoid casualties.

When the Syntha grav-bikes joined in, the attackers started to take losses, despite their armour.  Eventually this infantry squad was wiped out.

Nemesis-41 was busy receiving a software update [i.e. the tank failed its activation roll for several turns in a row], so a Viridian assault squad seized the opportunity to race across the bridge and assault the nearby infantry.  Despite being outclassed, the Syntha troopers defended heroically; both sides were still locked in melee by the end of the game.

At the southern end of the table, the other Viridian behemoth and supporting infantry began edging past the Syntha positions.

For a moment, this looked like a dangerous move.  However, a very lucky missile from the emplaced Syntha infantry detonated the ammunition in the behemoth's howdah, killing the creature and all crew.  The 2 defending biomechs also raced towards the scene, making the nearby Viridian troopers very uneasy.

The worried troopers quickly found that they couldn't draw a bead on the fast-moving biomechs; most shots were dodged and the few which seemed to strike home had no effect.  In return, the cyborgs made mincemeat of the humans, killing one outright and sending others sprawling for cover in the dirt.

Conclusion

By the end of the game (when time was up!), the Viridian attack seemed to have stalled.  Various units were exchanging fire with their Syntha counterparts, but this was fairly desultory.  The one possible success could have been the Viridian assault troopers attack in the north, but a counter-attack from assault robots was expected imminently.  Finally, the defenders still had quite a lot of their forces available as a mobile reserve - Hades-40, the 3 grav-bikes and the 2 biomechs - whereas the Viridian scouts were the only unit the attackers hadn't committed.  I'd say that the Syntha have managed to hold their position very effectively!

So, how did FUBAR work out?  It's certainly quick to play and the unit activation rules force the players to concentrate on what really matters at the time.  Overall I think it's a very useful set of rules, though a lot depends on the attributes you create for your models.

Being caught in the open is bad news, especially for unarmoured infantry.  Not many models died, at least in part because my squads were small and therefore had limited fire-power, but the suppression certainly limited what units could do.

I'm not really a fan of "partial" damage for tanks or other vehicles (e.g. loss of a weapon, mobility or other attributes).  Because of this rule, most of the "vehicles" in the north survived the entire game, albeit with various bits shot off.  Only the luckiest hit would truly destroy such a model!

Unit of the match: the 2 Syntha biomechs, without a doubt.  They were fast, elusive and hard-hitting.  Their elite rating meant that they would activate on a 2+; this made them extremely active.  Indeed, with the exception of the one dead behemoth and its crew, they caused almost all the fatalities in the entire game.

Most useless: I think I'd have to go for the Viridian scouts.  For a long time they refused to come on to the table.  When they finally arrived, they skulked about in the woods and hid so well that they don't even appear in any of the photographs.  At least all of the other units on both sides used their weapons, even if they didn't all hit anything.  Apart from the assault synths, that is - but they were an obvious reserve in case the perimeter was breached!

5150: The Deserted Base

Introduction

On the remote planet of Tantalus III, contact has been lost with a remote scientific base.  A reconnaissance aircraft that was sent to overfly the area has crashed nearby, for reasons unknown.  Finally, the Viridian Planetary Defence Force has ordered in some infantry to investigate and secure the area.  Of course, resources are tight and so the PDF are a mixture of regular grunts and unenthusiastic militia.  I'm sure that most 18+ readers can guess where this is going...

Setup

The base consists of a number of huts surrounded by a perimeter fence.  There's also a big pile of supplies near the gate.  The fence is breached in at least one location, though there is no sign of life anywhere.

The PDF have to investigate each hut for survivors or other evidence and then return the way they came in order to report their findings to higher authorities.  For some reason, there's a lot of interference with their communication equipment near the base.

On the approach road, the PDF have 1 squad of regulars (camouflage trousers, with a missile launcher) and 1 squad of militia (green trousers, with a chaingun).  They also have a Valkyrie-class light scout walker.

Making their way through the wreckage of the reconnaissance craft to the right are 3 more squads (2 regular with a single chaingun and 1 militia with a grenade launcher).

The Game

 Everything was quiet as the PDF squads started to move through the hole in the perimeter fence.

This was the point where a small swarm of bugs erupted from a tunnel near to the first building.  Immediately, the creatures raced round the corner and straight towards the troopers.

The front squad managed to gun down a few of the bugs as they approached, but not enough to avoid being assaulted by 8' long chitinous monsters!  One trooper fell immediately, torn apart by the ferocity of the attack.  However the other 2 (the squad leader and the blonde chain-gunner) both held their own, even when faced by 2 bugs at once.

Rather than get involved in the fracas at the fence breach, the militia squad from the left ran sideways "to help open the gates".

Once inside the base, the 3 squads from the gates fanned out and started to search all the buildings (a good Scooby Doo moment: "let's split up and look for clues").  They spent much of the rest of the game doing this, but without finding anything of interest.

Meanwhile...

At the breach, the second squad of regulars couldn't fire into the melee without risking hitting their comrades.  Instead, they decide to charge into hand-to-hand combat (!).  Even though the humans outnumbered the bugs 5 to 3, the troopers kept losing every fight.  Fortunately, for some reason, the bugs only managed to knock down the soldiers instead of slaughtering them, time after time.

At one point, it even looked as if the humans were winning.  Blonde chain-gunner managed to pick herself up off the dirt and kill the bug that was attacking her, just as the remains of the second squad knocked down their opponent.

Yep, she's still going.  Blondie tried to save a colleague by charging into yet another melee, but ended up facing the last bug on her own.

Just then, another group of bugs erupted from beside the road, just outside the base.  The Valkyrie pivoted on the spot and started hosing the swarm with its vulcan cannon.

In this, it was aided by one squad of militia, though their fire was more noise than substance.  In particular their grenade launcher guy, who could have made a huge difference if he'd hit the tightly-packed bugs, managed to hit just about every other piece of scenery apart from where he was aiming!

Once the bugs closed with the walker, there was little it could do to prevent the creatures from clambering all over it, tearing out cables and jamming moving parts.  A few critters fell off and were crushed as they climbed the machine, but most were nimble enough to cling on.

Within moments, the machine suffered multiple systems checks (requiring a turn of activation to reset before it could do anything) and the motors in one of its legs were badly damaged (so it had difficulty in moving).  Although the crew were safe inside the armoured cabin for the moment, it was only a matter of time before the bugs would strip the machine of all its working parts.

Finally...

A third bug hole appeared, this time in the middle of the base.  This swarm was much bigger than the previous two and it should have been obvious to any observer that the remaining humans had no chance at all if they stayed.

The humans were jubilant as the squad with the missile launcher managed to land a round right in the middle of the new swarm, killing or knocking down 7 enemies.  There were lots of (metaphorical) high-fives and "oorah"s from the soldiers.  The bug player just shrugged and ate them up anyway.

The final scene, as groups of bugs hunted down the last few PDF soldiers, was not a pretty one.  Some of the militia tried to run for shelter inside a hut, but didn't quite make it to the door before the swarm caught up with them.  No-one lived to tell the tale!

Moral

For anyone who thinks that this all seems very familiar, I did run a somewhat similar game some time ago: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2012/11/5150-installing-acoustic-sensor-net.html.  In both games, the players stuck to their assigned objectives way past the point where they might have realised how impossible they were.  Sometimes you have to know when to run away!

The next time I bring the Viridian PDF to the games club, I think I'll have a completely different set of enemies (or maybe none at all!).  The players will be so fearful of "bugs" that they'll not even consider any other possibilities.  Mua-hah-ha-ha!