Now I'm in trouble...

 The Abyss of 15mm fantasy!

OHNOES!!!

I just ordered the new 15mm barbarians from Copplestone castings. This means I will have to order some Blood Dawn Orcs now. And some Demonworld figures. Argh.

At least it will stop me trying to play SOBH with lego. I know. Don't ask.

Khurasan Post Apocalypse Raiders

I've had these minis sitting around for a while, and to be honest I've put off painting them because I found them a bit intimidating. They have an amazing amount of detail and a lot of different surfaces.. Chainmail, cloth, skin, etc. I managed to get them finished quite quickly due to some welcome sunshine today. I did it the old-school Warhammer method of "one color at a time on the whole unit", which predictably, worked well.

I'm kicking myself for not ordering the rest of this small range last time, but hey, it's not like I don't have an entire drawer full of unpainted minis, so I suppose I can wait. I may press some more Sci-fi minis into post-apoc service. In fact it will be fun doing a few little conversions. Probably time to get some more GZG gasmask heads in.

Thanks for looking!

Recycled material terrain

A new terrain tile.. But what's it made of?

I was so happy with how my vault system turned out, I have been thinking about additional modules to make. For some variety, I decided that some more open sections were in order. There was one hitch, I was down to 5 mosaic tiles.
Looking around the kitchen, I noticed the styrofoam (?) tray that supermarket pizza comes with. It seemed a good thickness and density to make some terrain out of.

Co-op pizza tray

I cut a foamcore square and a matching slice of this stuff, using PVA to glue them together. Once dry, I used a steel ruler and a normal pencil to scribe in the detail. It was surprisingly easy and I think the same technique would be even better on quality blue or pink foam.

Before and after

detail close up

I hand painted the tile codex grey with a large brush. The paint didn't stick that well, but with a few coats it was fine. A wash of badab black (mistake.. It smells terrible in such a large amount, even when dry) and grey, then white drybrushing was applied. I did a final wash of future wax and a little bit of tobacco ink to give it some character and try to kill the badab black smell.

All in all, a very easy, cheap and quick way to make a 5x5 tile. The only disadvantage is that it is very light compared to my weighty mosaic tile pieces. My only problem now is how to store all this stuff. I suppose I should be happy it's not 28mm scale.

Thanks for looking!

Khurasan indoor furniture

Khurasan furniture set

"I'm not doing any damn dishes!"

Something simple, but probably overlooked in 15mm gaming is furniture. Yes, furniture! Jon sent me a pack of these Sepulduvan household furnishings with my last order, and I found a use for them when noodling with cinematic gunfight rules. Kicking things over and rolling along on trolleys firing two guns isn't going to happen without some props, and these have really got me thinking. I think I'll make a bunch of tables and chairs to kick over with my new pack of ProCreate and some platic sheet when I get some time.

Anyway, these are nice little models. I glued them to appropriate bases either hand made or leftover 18mm MDF bases I don't use anymore. A quick coat of Codex grey, gretchin green detail, then a black wash and some a bit of dirt drybrushed on. Painting things that are meant to be lying around in an abandoned bomb shelter sure takes the pressure off. Hooray for the post apocalypse times!

3D Spaceship tiles begin

I'm quite busy working on a contract job at the moment, so the postman's knock was a welcome break this morning. He had brought me some Hirst arts blocks I ordered from Tabletop buildings in the Netherlands (I heartily recommend this company, their service, prices and product is terriffic). Mark was very helpful over email, and cast me up a set of walls designed to work with a Forlorn: Hope board.

I've gotten so into doing modular layouts now though, that I may forget about making the 3d F:H set and just build some more 5x5 25mm square modular gaming board sections. These would even match up so I could combine the two sets if I want a larger or more varied layout.

I haven't decided on how to do the floor tiles just yeat. I was planning to buy 25mm square recessed bases from Em-4 and then put various things in the recess, like some checkerplate sheet I got hold of. The advantage of these is that I can get good uniformity in the actual grid height, but still do things like snaking cables and exposed plates easily. I might even get crazy and attempt some LED effects... Although I bet that turns into quite the headache.

Anyway, probably won't get started for a while as Jon from Khurasan let me know today that he will be selling a limited stock of minis in the near future, so I will be forging ahead with some of those as soon as they arrive in the post.

Eldritch Horrors

News on all the blogs today is about Khurasan temporarily closing up until (fingers crossed) Autumn. This is sad news for gamers wanting to buy some of the best 15mm minis on the market, but hopefully everyone will just save their pennies and then go nuts when they re-open. I wish Jon the best of fortune in the meantime, and will hopefully be taking delivery of some cool new release goodies to paint, ready for the website when it goes live again.

So in honor of Khurasan , here are some eldritch horrors I painted at the weekend.

While these minis were originally released for the Eldritch Horror (Cthullu mythos) line, they were also marketed in the sci-fi range. I think they are terrific for any era that requires unspeakable gross ...Things.
I will happily utilize these guys are atomic mutations or alien freaks as well as things from beyond.

The paint job was very simple. GW Gretchin green, Ogryn flesh wash, then Vallejo purple or dwarf flesh for the various wiggly bits. Highlighted very simply with a bit of white added to the base color. The color scheme was chosen to tie in with my Octopus God.

I based these models on pennies, as they were a tiny bit too large to fit on my usual 20mm plastic bases. At the last minute I added a second penny to bulk them up to the height of my other minis. I'm regretting my haste now, because the join is clearly visible (it's worse in the photo.. Of course). I may fill it with putty at some point.. But maybe it's fine as-is.

Thanks for looking!

More Vault Explorers

Continuing my Vault Heroes team, are the sister figure from the Khurasan Highway Soldier pack, and a GZG UNSC trooper with a GZG head-swap.

For color inspiration I stuck with a kind of Mila Jovavitch vibe for the twin-gun toting lady and a Gordon Freeman feel for the rifleman. This was mostly because I'd already maxxed out on black for this team, and I wanted some color variety that wasn't green.

My favorite part of this couple are the fingerless gloves on the rifleman/scientist. It was fun to do a non-military color scheme for one of these minis too.

Thanks for looking!

Brotherhood of Bloggers

Comments more than welcome!

When I began this blog, it was strictly a means to motivate myself and document my progress as I got back into painting as a hobby after over a decade away.

I was on holidays at the time, having just left full time employment to start my own business. I posted as often as I completed a mini-project, which was about every day for a while.

After that I slowed down, but thought of the blog more as a web resource than anything else.

More recently though, the blog has picked up more followers than I ever thought likely, and to my surprise  have been getting lots of comments from some of the friendliest and most supportive people on the internet. By following them back I've seen into other people from around the world's day to day, gaming rooms and paint tables.. Which has been a great experience for me too.

I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who follows or reads this blog (or  gets some use out of my occasional tutorials, or even just swipes my color schemes.. It's all good) and an even bigger thank you to those that leave their thoughts on it as well. It is extremely encouraging and greatly increases my enthusiasm to make useful or interesting posts.

On that note, I feel I haven't repaid the favor enough and there are plenty of bloggers that deserve that little glow you get when you see a new comment. So from now on I'm going to make more of an effort to be more vocal on other's blogs as this little endeavor has lead to some great cyber-pals I never expected to make.

Thanks everyone!

Spacejacker

Post Apocalypse Heroes

Here are a couple of figures I painted  on Friday evening. A Khurasan "Highway soldier" and his sidekick, a GZG Alien Merc mini.

Both amazing sculpts oozing character. The highway soldier is scaled very large, at about 19mm to the top of the head, which makes his ordinarily huge Alien buddy look a little less impressive than he does next to other GZG minis. However, once separated by a couple of inches on the table, these like  most "15mm" figures, scale together perfectly well.

I'm putting together a little team of 5 vault-delvers to fight mutants and the like on my vault board. I spent quite a bit of time on these guys and they are finished to a higher level of detail than I would put into units of troops. This extra detail is more for my own satisfaction than anything, as most of it is lost at table distance. I was shocked to discover the little radio mic on the Alien merc's jaw.. it gives a very nice sci-fi flavour to the model and paints up well. I'm pleased with how both these guys turned out.

It's fun over-doing a 15mm mini though, which is part of the masochistic thrill of smaller scale figures. I'm more likely to branch into 6mm skirmish than 28mm for this reason.

 I see now that (as is becoming a trend with my posts of late) I have forgotten to paint the canteen on the Highway soldier's back. Oops.

Micropanzer Aliens

Raivaui squad

Here are my first 5 painted Micropanzer aliens, the Raivaui. I went with a Dheneb stone base colour as I desperately want to paint all my aliens green, and must resist. This way I can tie them in with my Khurasan Parachnids as well. Each of the 5 figures is different, which I thought would be the most interesting for a 5-a-side skirmish game... Which is what I've got in mind at the moment.

The models were quite easy to paint, and are actually quite large.. The upright ones measuring 21mm to the top of the head. I like their poses and equipment a lot too. My only criticism would be the very thin legs/ankles some of them seem to have. They were all a little bent in transit and I was quite scared of breaking them when prepping them to paint. I think they will be OK though, as long as I avoid a drop.

I have just noticed that I forgot to put static grass on their bases. Oops.

Projects Status

I haven't finished much or done any photos lately, so I thought I'd just do a quick post about what's been going on in Spacejacker land.

First of all, I've decided on a new way of looking at units to get through the lead mountain a bit faster.

I will from now on paint 5 model "teams". This was inspired by the 28mm game MERCS, and the Lead Adventure 5-model packs in their PA range. Both these ranges (and the Pig Iron minis) have been tempting me into "small scale" 28mm gaming.. But I have resisted. Another scale is a terrible idea... It would turn into a terrain building spiral that I may never escape from.

Last night I started by selecting 5 characterful aliens and treating them as a little team rather than worrying about what army they might be the core of etc. It worked, and I now have them almost done. Only having 5 minis visible on the painting  table is a huge motivator for me and I concentrate better. Consequently I think I do better paint jobs than when I have loads lying around -and my old GW army instincts make me start thinking about shortcuts. (Photos tomorrow)

I tried out Wastelands 3.0, and while it has a lot of good ideas,  found it a bit lacking in tactical interest. My enthusiasm for post-apocalypse gaming has been ignited though and I am still excited about the models I have planned.

While I haven't been painting or gaming much, I have had a chance to hack away at some rules on my iPad from time to time. I've returned to Cinematic Skirmish rules, with a concerted effort at translating Eureka's swashbuckling rules into a John Woo bullet-fest game. I have posted about this earlier, but now I have something a bit more solid. It has evolved considerably from the source material.

TONS of great stuff has been coming out lately, but I am overcome with guilt when I look at my overflowing unpainted minis drawer. Following is a short list of stuff I want to get painted before I buy any more figures.

• GZG Alien Mercs
• Micropanzer Aliens
• Khurasan Post Apoc heroes and gangs
• Khurasan indoor furniture (to use with my cinematic John Woo rules)
• Khusaran eldritch creatures
• A pile of RAFM Traveller figures. I went to a lot of trouble buying these and haven't touched one yet.

To close on an exciting note, Jon from Khurasan has asked me to paint some new models, which should be arriving soon. I can't say what they are, but I can say they are pretty darn cool.

Modular Vault Terrain

15mm minis from the Scene fighting Khurasan Zombies below ground!

I'm back from my holiday (it was very nice thanks!) and I have something new to share... An easy to make underground "Vault" board for gaming post-apoc or other types of indoor shenanigans.

a 3x3 layout

...Easily changed with a few swaps and twists.

I used mostly the same techniques as my Forlorn: Hope board, mainly so I can use my "outdoors" based minis to play indoors. The project was inspired in equal parts by Forlorn: Hope, the various 3d boards for Incursion I have seen and Mark from Dropship Horizon's "Pizza box gaming" posts.

The aim was to build an inexpensive layout that was easy to reconfigure and would allow play in a very small area. 

The squares are the leftover 25mm mosaic tiles I had lying around, and the walls are from a single A4 piece of  Blue Foam. Other bits and pieces including stuff from from chopped up Imex kits were used too. 

The whole thing is based on foamcore squares, each one measuring 100mm. Each tile will line up with any other tile and allow passage, usually via the middle squares.

The unpainted set.

A complex tile.

One with freestanding doors.

I have yet to play a game with the set (No time!) but I intend to use it to try out the Wastelands 3.0 rules as soon as I can.

Thanks for looking!