I'm Back!

So, I vanished for a few weeks. Sorry about that, completely unintended, just some frantic hobby time and a bit of real life got in the way of blogging. 

So, what have I been up to? Well, finishing off the secret project, as my brother visited at the end of August. I got almost everything done, probably the first time ever. The miniatures turned out great, as did the terrain that I got finished. we got two games in over the long weekend, between sightseeing, babysitting my niece and some board games. Both games went well considering to hadn't play tested them, but I will make some minor tweaks the the scenarios. We should be able to finish the campaign in another session. I'm also less convinced Brink of Battle rules are well suited to the era. They did the job, but weren't quite right - perhaps too many miniatures on the table. 

I did take pics, but won't post them yet - Samulus will also get a play through (of the whole campaign i hope!) and I don't want to spoil the narrative.  

Anyway, after that weekend I took a self-imposed week off the hobby. Nice to take some time out, I got to spend some time on the Playstation - a chance to finally rattle through Skyrim. 

So I sat down last night looking for a little something to ease me back in. I had some 15mm SciFi prepped but languishing for a few months. A few hours work and hey presto (with fluff): 

++++++++++ INCOMING TRANSMISSION ++++++++++++

                  ++++++++ DECODING ++++++++

Arbiter Assessment Report (AAR)

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Sighted: Kravaak system, 2516

Race: Presumed Human

Affiliation: Unknown

Weapon systems: Unknown

Armour: Advanced Therm-Optic Camouflage (ATOC) suits of unknown origin

Assessment: Further intelligence is required for a full threat assessment. All sightings should be reported to the Confederated Systems Arbitration Authority (CSAA) Intelligence Directorate. 

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These are actually Khurasan miniatures modern US Special Forces, but they are so modern I thought they looked quite SciFi. Made sense to me anyway. These are the most elite of  New Vedith's military forces, utilising Advanced Therm-Optic Camouflage suits. of course, New Vedith doesn't officially acknowledge the existence of and Special Forces Units. 

I basically painted them the same as I'd done the bases, almost a shame to dry brush such finely detailed miniatures. But I think the effect works, with the weapons and helmets in a lighter shade to define the miniatures. 

15mm SciFi - Power Armour and support weapons

Samulus has just started posting the background to the universe we've been working on to add some flavour to our 15mm SciFi forces. His post includes some pretty stonking artwork (not his own, he admits). I'll post some background to my home system, New Vedith, later.

In the meantime, I've more 15mm SciFi to share, first up is my first unit of Power Armour - five suits by Khurasan. I say Power Armour, but they clearly aren't as I can't see how a human would fit inside the torso comfortably. So, to me they are remote-controlled humanoid battlesuits. Still, they are awesome sculpts, a real pleasure to paint.

They form the shock infantry of my 'New Vedith' forces - heavily armoured, agile due to their jump jets and equipped with the latest plasma weaponry. With their pilots hundreds of miles away, they are also relatively fearless. To encourage audience participation, comment below if you've any ideas for naming them. I came up with the 'Armoured Assault Brigade', but I was having an unimaginative day as I think it's a bit bland.

'Big Stompy Armoured Suits' would be descriptive, but inelegant

To finish, a little extra I finished at the same time: some squad support weapons for my infantry platoons, one tripod-mounted heavy laser and one portable missile system. All GZG, magnetically mounted to metal bases.

In other news, the first issue of my WS&S subscription arrived last week. I did say I wasn't going to subscribe, but after some thought (and a discount) I did. I'm glad of that, getting a magazine full of hobby ideas popping into my letterbox every other month is nice. If expensive for the potential it offers for hobby inspiration!

EDIT: I've also just got an email notifying me that I won a digital subscription to one of WS&S's other magazines, for filling in a survey (I vaguely remember doing to). They've given me a voucher code which I can use on anything on their store - an extension to my WS&S subscription is in order, I think. That's the first thing I've won in ages, which is nice.

15mm SciFi Command

Well, it was going to be one or two things this week, and the quicker job won out in the end. Nothing to do with the steady flow of packages that have been arriving with fresh goodies to prep!

Here we have my Command stand. Part of the pack from Khurasan's Nova Respublic range. I couldn't resist a commander in a massive hat and shiny medals - I used to play 40K Mordian Iron Guard! The blue uniforms came out quite nicely to match the much more armoured GZG troops which are the bulk of my infantry. I might go back and add some piping to detail the tunics more - or would this be fiddly overkill?

This pic was taken without flash - I find it can make the blue look far too electric.

I thought they made a nice diorama - the Commander reviewing a holo-map with his ADC to attention, while his platoon leader radios out commands. I borrowed the idea for the round base from some Napoleonic forces I've seen on Blogger - I think that it sets them apart nicely.

This time with flash, including the Platoon Medic (the same Khurasan pack) and a squad I finished at the same time (GZG). The two mix well and the lovely Khurasan ranges give me plenty of options for future expansion.

And the winner is...

...Red! Thanks all for your votes - find a snap of squads one and two below.

I decided to tone the visor back a bit and keep the pure red highlight around the top edge of the visor. As Curt suggested, I added a white flash too. I'm not entirely convinced it looks that realistic, but I like the effect. I may finish it with a gloss varnish on the visor, but they need their matt spray first.

Presents arrived from Khurasan today, yay, more to assemble!