Clearing the Baffles - 15mm Sci-Fi

Reinforcements for the Control Battalion

As I go from project to project, I often leave some unfinished chunks behind.  In fact, I always do.  Early this year I got started on some individually based 15mm sci-fi stuff.  I did some more early in the summer.  From there I dove into my Golan Heights Project.  But there was still a stub of painted 15mm stuff - nearly all Khurasan.  Thanks to Canada Post I hit a delay on my Golan Height project, and filled it partly with some 28mm sci-fi stuff, but the primed-but-unpainted 15mm bits were nagging at me, sitting there on my painting pile every time I sat down.  Since I am still at a gap with the Golan Heights project, I decided this would be the weekend to clear the baffles, go "Crazy Ivan" and finish off a bunch of that 15mm stuff.  Here are a few pics.

I started with some of the Control Battalion (pictured above).  They are sci-fi favourites of mine for sure - I wish very much that Khurasan would make some 28mm castings for these...oh well.  Khurasan had, late last year, added some new codes to the Control Battalion range - a different pose for the SAW gunner, some RPG-type anti-tank weapons, mortar teams and a couple of new regular trooper poses.  I did a couple of each.

Control Battalion fire team - the SAW is on the left, and the RPG-type weapon is second from the right 

Another fire team for the Control Battalion 

Mortars to help keep "control..." 

Looks to be a heavy calibre mortar...

I have about 20 individually-based Control Battalion troops in all - plenty of models for a game of Tomorrow's War.

Up next was the Federal Army.  I had two more fire teams' worth of primed Federal Army troops, so I finished those off too.  These have rocket launchers instead of melta gun-type weapons as their heavy support weapon.  They also sport some of the alternate SAW poses for the Federal Army, including one of the female troopers.

Federal Army troops - finally finished after sitting on my paint table primed for months 

Federal Army fire team 

The model on the right is a female SAW gunner

I know have a very healthy reinforced platoon-sized force for the Federal Army, about 35 models.  Way more than enough for a Tomorrow's War game.

Up next were some power-armoured Corporate Marines.  These are multi-part 15mm models from Khurasan. I had high hopes when I ordered them, but these are far from my best work.

Power-armoured Corporate Marines from Khurasan

I have to say I found these models disappointing once I actually had them, and this is a big reason they sat for months on the painting table until I forced myself to finish them this weekend.  Assembling Multi-part 15mm infantry is not something I would recommend to anyone for a relaxing time.  These were a pain in the @ss to put together.

The sculpts were a disappointment too. Intended - I believe - to represent a more "realistic" take on sci-fi power armour, these are some of Khurasan's weakest sculpts - and I am a Khurasan fan boy! These models leave you wanting more - or at least they did for me.  To compound the challenge, I struggled with the paint job - just couldn't come up with much of a scheme, so I settled for a grey to generally match the corporate marines.  Didn't turn out that great.  Not terrible, but not great.

Big back packs all around

Armed to the teeth with...something....

I found the weapons in particular to be very disappointing.  What are they? They don't look like anything. Or at least not like weapons.  They seem to be sort of blasters, sort of...speakers? DVD players? I'm not sure...anyway, the field for cool power-armoured troops is still wide-open in 15mm, as nobody has a particularly strong entry...

For my next post there will be some Nova Respublik armour...

15mm Sci-Fi - Khurasan Control Battalion - Single Bases

Do not taunt Control Battalion....

Another post with single-based sci-fi troops, this time featuring Khurasan's amazing "Control Battalion" troops (which I think are now listed on the Khurasan site as 'evil').  The Control Battalion figures are some of my absolute favourite sci-fi models, so there was no way I was going to leave them out of the single-based figure project.

They do seem evil...what is under the mask? On second thought....leave it down....

A "Leaderthing", with a drone controller (to the left) and one other "riflething"

The paint scheme for these guys was very easy, as I have already painted a bunch for my existing Federal Army sci-fi force. I painted the ammo pouches on the belts the same white/khaki as the armour, but otherwise they are almost identical to the ones I have put on Flames-of-War-style group bases.

As with the "Red Faction" troops, the detachment is small due to lack of bases (my test pack from Litko evaporated in no time).  It comprises a command group and a pair of squads.  Each squad has three "riflethings", a "SAW-thing" and a drone with some heavy weapon support.  I hope the Control Battalion will get some more models with heavy/support weapons, but then having drones for that sort of things fits the perception of the troops very well - after all, their superiors would probably want to limit access to heavy weapons, in the event of, er, "out of Control Battalion"....

Control Battalion fireteam - the "SAWthing" is on the right, and the drone is in the back

Unlike my "Red Faction" guys, there is no issue for vehicles - They will also make use of the "blue" vehicles from Khurasan and Old Crow that I have already painted.

Second fireteam, ready to restore "order"....

The shipment from Litko with more bases should arrive by early February, so hopefully we can put these suckers into a game sometime in the late winter.  They will be joined by a few other factions as well.

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Quick update - here is a link to Khurasan's back story for the creation of the Control Battalion models.  While we use a different setting, it still captures the sinisiter nature of the troopers perfectly, which in turn is perfectly suited to these amazing sculpts!