15mm Siler Force

 Here's the most recent 15mm sci-fi force. I basically wanted an excuse to paint up some siler tanks. All models are Khurasan except the AA tank which is from Critical mass games Merc range. Infantry are from Blue Moon manufacturing.

I can't remember what this thing is called, but it's also made by Khurasan. However, it is not available as it possibly infringes on the IP of a popular video game. The guy from Khurasan sent me one as a gesture of goodwill for misplacing an order of Siler tanks. I must say, I'm quite satisfied with the screw-up. I just added the two infantry and landing gear guns :P

Schwarm Tiger

The Schwarm Tiger out for some preliminary maneuvers on the dining room table

In the annals of the wargaming hobby, what could possibly be less original than doing up a German Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B, the notorious "King Tiger"? Well, how about a Schwarm Tiger?

Up there with the French Old Guard Grenadiers and the British 95th Rifles of the Napoleonic era, and any  40k faction(s) involving input from Gav Thorpe, the Tiger tanks of the German WW2 panzer lineup are one of the great paradoxes in wargaming.  There were not very many of them, and compared to the other weapons in the arsenal, they saw very little action.  Yet every wargamer seems to have them, and every rules system that makes an accommodation for them bestows them with a table-dominating prowess that belies the numerous actual problems and challenges that dominated the day-to-day action they did see.

Left to their own devices, I'm sure many hard-core Flames of War gamers would roll with an "army" where the King Tigers are so prevalent they might as well be staff cars, and the non-Tiger support choices are all direct-firing Hummels with a few Jagdtigers thrown in for variety.  They would smile and tell you it's all good, because they "paid the points".

I like to laugh at this, but in truth I am a hypocrite. I am as stuck into it as any gamer. I may not do the "all King Tiger army", but I still like to roll with the heavy kit. Big guns are fun. I've got a Death Wing force for 40k (although ironically this not actually powerful on the table, but anyway).  I have super heavy tanks for my Imperial Guardsmen in 40k. We've played spearhead scenarios pitting the big cats against the Soviet hordes - and in one funny instance, they didn't even need to engage. We've also used the King Tiger in the odd 28mm WW2 game, either as an objective or as a participant (last stand in Berlin - that was a fun game, although I recall Brian H knocking the King Tiger out with a bit of an iffy shot that left me doing a bit of a sulk).

These are fun games, and as long as the scenario is sensible, you avoid an actual 40K-i-fication of a historical encounter.  Pushing tanks around is fun - and using the toughest tanks with the biggest guns out there is lots of fun.  Knocking them out of action is even more fun (well, for the other players)!

And so the Gün Schwarm. The Güns already have Panthers, and a pimped-out Hetzer. In this context, the Schwarm Tiger will fit right in.  Besides, we face the deadly T-640.  Time to embrace the enjoyment of the big tanks and big guns, and get one for the Güns.

Hobbymaster had put out a 1/48 Scale King Tiger, so last year I acquired one on EBay and took the old hatchet, some tank sprue bits and tried to see what I could come up with.... then I moved, etc. etc. blah blah delay etc. I finally found the thing last week, and thought "what the heck, let's see what I can come up with..."

"Before" - a Hobbymaster 1:48 scale King Tiger tank

First off, just a quick acknowledgement that the Hobbymaster model is quite beautiful.  It felt like sacrilege to hack it.  But once I had cut the barrel off, I was kind of committed....

I mounted the requisite absurd smooth bore cannon and a co-axial laser. I hacked off the cupola, and replaced it with a cupola from a Space Marine Predator/Rhino kit.  I wanted the model to have a bit of eminence, so that called for a tank commander in the hatch. I opted for a Death Korps tank commander and heavy stubber combo from Forge World.  I popped a couple of technical-plate looking things from assorted GW kits on the odd open spot - and there were not too many because the model already has a beautiful bunch of stowage, cables etc. A heavy bolter went to replace the MG on the hull.

The GW tank search light is mandatory on all SpaceKrieg vehicles, no matter the faction

And of course, we needed the standard issue Future War searchlight.

Gün Grenadiers on propaganda maneuvers with the Schwarm Tiger

So far my Gün Schwarm vehicles have all been a single colour - a dark mustard-looking yellow.  A heavy hitter like this tank should stand out, so I bucked up and decided this would be the model where I would try a bunch of different stuff - the Battlefront spray paint, the airbrush, pigment powders.  What the heck?

Rust splotches courtesy of Forge World pigment powders

I primed the whole thing black, then sprayed a coat of "German Armour (Mid/Late)" paint from Battlefront.  This was actually a big change for me - I only spray black, and then paint everything else, as it seems to be the only way my painting approach can cope.  But several people have recommended these sprays, and they were right.  I can see how people can crank out FOW tanks by the platoon using them. I'm glad I tried them, and look forward to using them on other models.

I imagine that the environment on FuturKom worlds would be hard on paint coats

Up next was the air brush.  Oh man, what an adventure that was.  I wanted to replicate some variant of the infamous German "ambush" camouflage pattern - aka the pattern that was already pre-painted on to the model (don't get me started - I like to paint things, or try to, myself - it's a hangup). I have always been wary/afraid of airbrushes, and envious of those who are not.  I like to paint camouflage on to troops and vehicles, even "sprayed" patterns, and will try every trick I can think of just to avoid the airbrush.

Why don't I like airbrushes? To me, adding a mechanical element with all sorts of variables to painting just seems like a big pain in the *ss, and minimal value for the effort. But now was the time to be bold! So off I went...

The Hobbymaster vehicle had great stowage already on the model

Let's just say it was a very messy process.  I hate a lot about airbrushing.  The airbrush is so needy. The paints have to be thinned - or at least some of them do.  The containers involved all seem to be designed to preclude the notion that you would ever be pouring the paint or the thinner into yet another container, so it's a frigging mess. 

The results were uneven, to put it mildly.  The brown and the green worked out OK, but I found that I had covered too much of the yellow.  So I tried some Tamiya yellow-green, and I think it had too much thinner, so it went on kinda funny.  And the whole time I was not really protecting my tank commander from the paint, so he was acquiring many layers of paint for no reason. My summary of using an airbrush - @#$@#$@#$@#$!!!!

I tried to put a lot of rust coloured pigment powder on the vents and exhaust

Thank the powers-that-be for GW's Devlan Mud wash!  A wash of that stuff served to bring a useful tint back to the yellow.  I followed up by using a sponge to dab spots of GW Desert Yellow over the airbrushed Tamiya yellow-green.  I concentrated on some areas where the border between the yellow and the other colours had turned out really runny-looking.  I then dry-brushed the whole thing with the same GW Desert Yellow, and found the pattern had become serviceable, if dark.  But that is one of the advantages of an imaginary sci-fi setting - any camouflage you apply will be appropriate for some place.  It's a terrible rendering of German WW2 ambush camouflage, but fine for Gün Schwarm.

The Templar decal serves as an air identification marker for the tank, to try and keep the SchwarmWaffe from strafing its own side on the battlefield...

I used an Americana black paint to cover the stowage, tank commander, treads etc and go down to some more standard painting for these elements.  Finishing the tank commander was tricky, as he had many extra layers of paint already on him from the priming and various airbrush coats, but here didn't turn out too bad. I painted the tops of the open tank hatches with GW Kommando Khaki to mirror a different internal paint colour for the vehicle.  A layer of gloss was next to prepare for the decals, which were a mix of tactical numbers from the excellent "Company B", and Black Templar decal from a GW Space Marine sheet.  The model then received a hit of dullcote.

The suitably absurd-sized main gun; advanced tech on the turret prevents decapitation of the gunners due to recoil on the gun mount...

Weathering was up next.  I tried to get all clever and mix some rust coloured weathering powder with an acrylic medium.  I hoped to get the pigment to wash into crevices etc.  This didn't work - as opposed to some kind of wicked IPMS-style rust effect, I ended up with a dab of brown-looking acrylic paint.  Oh well. Plan B - a dry application of the pigment powder, and this worked much better. I went really hard on the spare track sections hanging on the turret - I wanted those to have rusty finish, to show the vehicle has seen hard service on some FuturKom industrial planet. I used some black pigment powder on some of the exhaust areas and the muzzle of the main gun. I also painted some chipped areas using GW Dark Flesh and GW Boltgun Metal.

Propaganda maneuvers with Panzer 2050 Ausf. F

And so we have a Schwarm Tiger, ready to join the fight against Kommulism.  I imagine this will operate much like its WW2 inspiration - dispatched to the front in a battalion-sized unit that was worn out by the FuturKom hordes to platoon-sized detachments in no time.  The tank is slow and prone to breakdowns. The Gün techs struggle to perform the maintenance needed on the vehicle's complicated systems, including its insane 135mm smooth bore high-velocity cannon, even as the commanders clamour to keep the thing in the front line.  I'm looking forward to putting this thing on the table, and watching it get knocked out on the first turn...

As for the airbrush, at least I've tried it.  Like anything, I'm sure it will get a bit better with practice.  But I remain envious of those folks that know how to make them work properly.

Gün Schwarm 28mm Power Armour Infantry - "System Troopers"

Gün Schwarm power-armoured infantry - "System Troopers" from Pig Iron

Continuing with the escalation in the race against FuturKom, I have painted up some 28mm "System Troopers" from Pig Iron Productions to serve as hard-hitting, power-armoured infantry for Gün Schwarm. Pig Iron offers a lot of interchangeable heads, and I opted for the "Kolony Inner Guard" heads instead of the standard issue ones. I find that particular head design maintains the armoured appearance, is slightly less bulky, and makes them appear to be a little more sinister - they are here to fight, but not to help, if that makes any sense.

See how I screwed up the one back-pack for the guy on the right? Didn't notice that until I was painting, and just left it like that to be stubborn - figured he was the "smart one" for the squad...

In terms of battlefield roles, I can't top Pig Iron's own description of this particular figure line: "Seriously heavy futuristic infantry - these figures feature large amounts of armour, equipment and ridiculously large guns (just as we like 'em) and are designed for cleansing pockets of fierce enemy resistance." These guys will help hold off the Kommulist hordes, and in particular look to take on the hard hitting power-armoured troops of FuturKom's elite recon forces.  

Special weapons - SAW on the right, some kind of plasma/energy gun on the left

These are very, very chunky models.  They barely fit on the standard GW round bases.  The weapons are huge, and the figures are big, solid hunks of metal.  The poses appear a bit laboured, but I think that is perfect to match the idea of troopers wearing powered armour that provides extra "oomph" and lots of protection while limiting their flexibility/maneuverability.

Rear angle view of the special weapon troops

In terms of special weapons, I had hoped to see something a little larger.  The SAW-style gun looks pretty good, but the plasma-gun-ish weapon is disappointing, and on troops this size, it looks like a hedge trimmer or something.  I am going to experiment with some conversions from spare GW weapons to see if I can come up with something a little more ominous-looking.

One drawback of the Pig Iron figures is that they are so incredibly chunky that conversions for anything other than different heads or backpacks will require a lot of work. But that's a pretty slight drawback in my view.  In a world of "Finecast", my praise for Pig Iron and their sturdy metal figures is high! I've heard reports they are going to do some multi-part versions of their models. That will be fabulous if it turns out to be true.

Evolution of Gün troops - regular Grenadier on the left, "Schwere" Grenadier in the middle, Power Armoured Trooper on the right - the Pig Iron System Troopers are healthy-sized 28mm figures

In "Tomorrow's War", the rules for power-armoured troops are pretty tough - a small group of power-armoured soldiers can take on plenty of enemies.  They have extra dice for armour, tend to carry lots of heavy weapons, and get first-aid-check benefits that makes them hard to put down. Eight or nine of these figures would be able to take on twenty five FuturKom regular troops, or even more if the differential is there (D10 vs. D8, for example).

Even small power-armoured fireteams are very hard-hitting in "Tomorrow's War"

But we won't just be playing "Tomorrow's War".  At some point, I know we will want to fill a 6'x4' table with tons of troops and vehicles again, and that will call for good old SpaceKrieg.  For when that day arrives, I'll need a lot more than eight of these guys, so I hope to paint about 24 of the figures.  I hope this will provoke Dallas into seeing his six power-armoured guys are outnumbered, and respond in kind...

Pig Iron's figures are an absolute joy to paint, and I do really like that "Kolony Inner Guard" head look, so I am experimenting with a paint scheme or two using the heads on the Kolony Militia figures.  Whether they will end up as stand-ins for 40k Imperial Guardsmen, or some new faction for SpaceKrieg, who knows?

15mm Sci-Fi Command (Khurasan content!)

On Monday I got a couple parcels in the mail... one was a small padded envelope from Khurasan containing (among other things) a Federal Army Command Team with Holomap.  I reckoned these would mix reasonably well with the Earth Force Marines.  I based the lot on a large Flames of War base and added some random GW bits from the bits box for interest, to represent some equipment or stowage that the command team would need, maybe a generator to power the holomap and espresso maker? 
 
Anyway, I think they turned out OK and make a nice addition to the Earth Force Marines group.  Here's the force in its entirety (for now) - I added another Merka 5 and three APCs courtesy of Conscript Greg (thanks man!)

Sum Results from the Challenge

For interest sake I thought I'd gather up and photograph the sum total of the stuff that I managed to get assembled/painted/based for Dallas' 'Fall Painting Challenge'. Granted, three of the infantry units shown had modest beginnings of varying degree before the Challenge, but nonetheless its still a whack of toy soldiers that were just so much lead and plastic a few months ago. I'm not a very fast painter so I find it amazing what a little friendly competition can do! Particular thanks go to Sean, Dallas and Sylvain for spurring me on in this painting frenzy!

For any who may be interested I have more photos and descriptions on my blog.

Up next for bonkers projects...space cavalry

This past weekend I joined Dallas and Curt to roll down to the local GW store for an army show-off type competition. Conscript Dave V was also there, and we proudly showed off some of our stuff. I had my "retro" Imperial Guard, Dave had his Eldar, and Dallas pulled out the ol' Chaos Dwarfs for Fantasy!

While the competition nearly prompted me to start another rant about the proilferation of absurd army base trays and overly scenic bases that in fact detract materially from the game, gaming and the minitatures themselves (maybe we can have a seperate army base competition? Because that piece really has a lot to do with the gaming and the figures, as a temple would be dropped from orbit....deep breath...deep breath...nobody cares Greg), in fact the competition has inspired another potential bonkers project among the Fawcett Conscripts.

One of the entrants - and I regret not figuring out who it was - had put together a pretty neat Cadian army, using lots of bits, and unifying scenery on the bases that was not overpowering or absurd. And coolest of all, this person had bashed together some Cadian Rough-Rider cavalry. It was a pretty cool effort, I think. The Cav looked really neat, and has inspired some plotting by Dallas, (which is about all it takes to get me plotting). Assuming we can pull it off, watch this fall for a Space Cavalry battle!

As part of the project research, Dallas turned up this link - holy cow, that is pretty awesome. What says "40k" more than cavarly equipped with a flame thrower? I'll never manage something like that neat (consistent application of green stuff across like 20 mounted figures? Not my skill set by a long shot!!!), but I hope to come up with something cool, and I know Dallas will pull off something excellent.

As for the competition, well, somehow the Conscripts lost out on the schwag. But there was a lot of cool stuff on display - lots of great painters and creative people out there in Winnipeg for sure! One army had like 10 tanks, another had a great variety of musicians - even an organ player! And while elaborate army bases and overly detailed figure bases are not my cup of tea, the painting and modeling skill behind the winning 40k entry was tremendous.

Space Cavalry - bring it on!

"Hooray" on behalf of Modern Russians

I was very pleased to see this on TMP: http://theminiaturespage.com/news/824645/.

And not in 1/56th scale (i.e. the world's worst model scale). While the price is horrifically eye-watering, I will be looking forward to getting at least one of my Soviet motor rifle platoons into these.

And the SP mortar will be great for the Airborne guys!