Pile Of Treads - Khurasan 15mm Sci-Fi Tanks

Nova Respublik tanks - ready to roll

I continue to channel my frustration over the ridiculous NHL lockout (hockey fans see here for some rage-inducing content) into cleaning up the pending pile for 15mm sci-fi.  Up next, following some Federal Troops and Control Battalion, as well as some massive frustration with Khurasan's new DOE gunship model, was a pile of Nova Respublik armoured vehicles - six tanks and four APCs.  Here are a few pictures.

From left - the Red Banner, the Red Banner U, the Red Eagle, the Red Lightning

The Red tank series represent, to me, the very best of the Khurasan design approach.  The tanks are a perfect fit for the near-future, pseudo-Soviet Nova Respublik faction.  The basic tank design - the "Red Banner" is very, very evocative of a T-55 or T-72 of the distant-near-future.  It mimics a great deal of the Soviet design philosophy - low to the ground, massive main gun, eggshell turret that is surely a horrifically cramped nightmare for expendable crews - while looking a little sleeker, a little cooler, so you "know" it is sci-fi.

The Red Banner - tried to make this more weathered than the others, as it would be the oldest mark in service

The Red Banner U - featuring a tank commander in the cupola - this has better protection than the basic tank

The Red Eagle - very evocative of the rumoured Russian T-80 "Black Eagle"

The tanks then literally build from there - you can add reactive armour plates and storage bins to make the "Red Banner U", even thicker armour and a big turret bustle to create the "Red Eagle", and thicker armour, a scary-looking main gun and likely very unsafe bustle mounted battery contraption to create the "Red Lightning".  You get all of the bits you need with each tank to make any tank you want from the range.

The Red Lightning - having all that stuff on the back exposed to artillery is probably not safe...

The "Red Lightning" looks particularly cool - likely as dangerous to the crew as to its enemies.  Exactly the sort of thing a Soviet-style government would put into the field.

A Federal Siler tank in between two Nova Respublik tanks - the Siler is bigger, a little beefier 

Not only do these tanks look very cool, these model designs manage to mimic the design progression of late model Soviet armour, while still standing on their own as awesome sci-fi models. Brilliant.  Also, they are easy to assemble and paint (rather the opposite of the DOE).  I loved the tanks and was all over the place when building the models, so I ended up doing two Red Banners, two Red Banner Us, one Red Eagle and one Red Lightning.  Considering that Soviet style tank platoons contain three vehicles, this was kind of dumb in hindsight.  The platoons will have to contain mixed vehicles.

NR troops pose with the tanks - you can see the tanks are very low to the ground

Ominously, these models are currently listed on Khurasan's website as "Temporarily Out Of Production".  They have been for some time.  Let's hope that doesn't last too much longer...

NR tank commander in the cupola of a Red Banner U; the tank behind in this shot has a different green hue thanks to a defective can of Testors Dullcote.  Frigging spray cans...

I also did some of the "Hedgehog" heavy APCs.  Again, excellent design, blending sci-fi look with basic elements not out of place in the current era. The APC looks not too far from something like a German Marder IFV, but covered in bricks of special/reactive armour.  The gun mount looks spooky too.

Ready to carry the commies of the future to battle

When I first started painting individual Nova Respublik models, I had flirted with using BMP-3s (a favourite IFV of mine) for the APCs, but the models, available from QRF miniatures, just look too small for my taste. Cue the circular and pointless TMP discussion of scale vs. size.  I'm pleased with the Khurasan models, so that will do for me.

NR fireteam poses near their IFV

The paint jobs on all of these vehicles - tanks and APCs - were very basic green, with weathering and powder applied here and there.  I painted some red stars and "Guards" type liveries on the front fenders of a few of the tanks, but these are otherwise pretty plain vehicles. They painted pretty fast.

These models look cool, and look like they would be cramped and uncomfortable, meeting two key requirements for all IFVs in the universe

With like 40 infantry and 10 armoured vehicles, my Nova Respublik forces are more than ready for action.  Just one or two tanks is a lot in a game of Tomorrow's War, so I don't think I will be hitting the table all at once with this stuff.  This would be a ton of armour for even a Bolt Action game too, or Future War Commander.  Whatever rules we play I am looking forward to getting these suckers out on to the table some time.