Colonists

In preparation for what will hopefully be this summers campaign I have painted 4 Ground Zero Games (GZG) miniature colonists. Having found myself constantly refering to the miniatures as having a nice finish and good detail, I don't know what else to say because that's what they are. I tried to paint them in earth colours to make them look more like colonists living in farmlands rather than in a larger settlement.

The minis were painted with my standard 15mm miniature painting technique: 1) a basecoat of a foundation paint, 2) a appropriate wash to create a shadow, 3) a lighter colour drybrushed as a highlight and 4) a gloss varnish and matt varnish to protect the miniature. I usually paint with GW paints, but has recently bought some Vallejo Game colours. I rather like the bottles, which will make mixing a lot easier.

The plans for the summer is to run a narrative campaign in the Tuffleverse using the Flying Lead rules. I only have to finish my Kra'vak strikeforce. I've got a new P3 red ink to try out, I'm contemplating whether to use that instead of the red wash on the Kra'vak armour. I wonder if the colonists can hold their own against the aliens.

NSL Jagers

Started painting these Neu Swabian League (NSL) Jagers this morning, while watching Stargate SG-1. Took all day to finish them, but I am pretty pleased with them. Gave them a Gretchin green basecoat, Thraka green wash followed by Orkhide shade camoflauge pattern. I then gave the uniform a light drybrush of Gretchin green. The Jagers have been given a black hat, which is the traditional hat of the NSL Jagers. I like their hats, which gives them a unique and very germanic look. All in all they are some nice miniatures, I like the design.

The 5 Jagers are to be used in my first game of Flying Lead. I'll pit them against a small squad of Saeed Khalifate mercenaries. I painted the mercenaries a while back, but havn't got any pictures of them yet. I'll post a few pictures during the week. I have used GZG Islamic Federation (IF) infantry as the Saeed Khalifate mercenaries supported by Eurasian Solar Union (ESU) produced power armor. Hade to use IF and ESU as Saeed Khalifate, since GZG doesn't do Khalifates in 15mm.

If all goes according to plan the battle will be fought next weekend. I am looking forward to trying out Flying Lead. Although the game is designed for a modern setting, it's also applicable to near future gaming. The Weapons bulider and Squad builder on the Ganesha website, www.ganeshagames.net, is simple to use, and makes it possible to design weapons of the future.

Since all Ganesha games use the same core mechanic most of the special rules from other settings will be usefull in a Sci-fi setting. But for my first game, I'll just stick to the basic rules and similar forces, to learn the game. For later games I'll paint up an entire platoon as a recon unit for the the 487th Raums Stosstruppen. I just have to make some decision on whether or not the Jagers will have vehicles.

Colour scheme Neu Habsburg Colonial Militia

This is the first trial run on the Neu Habsburg Colonial Militias colour scheme. The miniature is a 15mm GZG SG15-C1 Colonial Militia. Unfortuneatly the casting of the miniature isn't up to the normal standard of GZG's miniatures. A lot of preparation of the miniature had to be done before painting and still it felt like the edges of the two halfs of the miniature were slightly off, creating an edge along the casting line. But, I do like the concept of the Colonial Militia miniature, specially the combination of male and female militia. The gender mixing and the choice of uniform captures the feel of a citizense militia in a newly estabished colony or a growing colonial community.

For the Neu Habsburg Colonial Militia I have opted for an Astronomican Grey coat followed by a Asurmen Blue wash and a highlight of Space Wolf Grey. This gives the uniform a blue-grey feel, that I even might use for my 15mm WW1 Austro-Hungarians. I imagine the Neu Habsburg Colonial Militia only being issued with one type of uniform, a standard uniform and without any terrain specific camouflage. The standard uniform is mainly to be used within the colonial settlement, and the militia's main task is to uphold security and policing functions within the colony, not conduct military combat.

Hopefully, my current vacation will make it possible to have the 16 miniatures I own painted and based before bedtime today. The miniatures will be organised into 2 patrol squads and 1 heavy support squad.

The first ever...

So I guess the time have come for me to take the first step into the blogging community. This is my first post ever and I am happy to be writing about miniature gaming.

For me it all started in the late 80's. I was playing roleplaying games and was looking for miniatures to use with them, when I found a lot of interesting little lead figures. I bought a bunch of 15mm sci-fi miniatures as they were the cheapest ones. But as I was standing in the store I got very interested in a rulesbook with the words 'Rouge Trader' in the title. A couple of weeks later I had saved enough money to buy the book and a blister with three Space Marines and that is how it all started. My gaming interest would accelarate with the boxed edition of WH40K, Epic Space Marine and WHFB in the early 90s.

My GW addiction faded as the new millenium approached and I slowly matured, only to find historical miniaturegames fascinating. As the first decade of the 21st century started to come to a close a google-search helped me discover Dropship Horizon. Little did I know what impact it would have on my gaming. 15mm had been an interesting scale as far as my historical miniaturegaming interest was concerned...

All of a sudden I found out that 15mm Sci-fi miniatures were thriving, I instantly got hooked on Sci-fi gaming again. This time I found myself looking att GZG, Critical Mass Games, 15mm.co.uk, Khurasan Miniatures, Rebel minis, Old Crow and so on. The miniatures were, and still are, excellent in quality and in quantity. To make things even better a bunch of rules to play with were available and the constraints of the WH40K setting were no more. I sat out to try as many rulessystems as I possibly could. My only concern is: I am unsure if I can find an oppenent...

However, being hooked I remembered a bag of old 15mm miniatures laying around somewhere. I had used them for a roleplaying game in the late 80s and early 90s. As it turned out I still had them. When I had a good look at them I realised that they were old Tabletop Games miniatures for Laserburn. I had owned them for 20 years not knowing that there was a Sci-fi rulesset to go along with them. Not only that, it was one of the oldest Sci-fi rulessets (30 years old), that accually had inspired Rouge Trader and it was still available. What a twist of fate. It had all started with 15mm Sci-fi miniatures and now my intrest got a new kick-start with the very same miniatures and a whole lot more.