Friday 29 August 2014

[6mm Science Fiction] End of the Week Wrap-up

The end of the week and my head cold is finally on the mend. Pretty much finished off the GZG UNSC Marines I've been painting up as Imperial Marines for my Traveller Universe and am now working on the GZG New Israelis who will form my Imperial Unified Army.

With two platoons of Marines, and a short platoon of armour, I can pretty much deploy a Marine Company. I have a command APC, another tank, and 5 other APCs left to finish to bring the Company up to full strength.

Two Platoons of Marine Infantry and a short Platoon of Armour; figures by Ground Zero Games

Platoon of Armour

Each Platoon of Infantry requires four Grav APCs - one more to go.

Marine Infantry Platoon - Command Team and Platoon Weapons Team in the lead.

Infantry Platoon and Armour Platoon 

Marines deploy from their APCs

Command APC deploys Company Command and Company Weapons Team

Sunday 24 August 2014

[6mm Science Fiction] A Little More Progress

My head cold has now moved into my chest which has the lovely side effect of making me cough, especially as night draws on and the ambient temperature falls.

With little energy, I have made little progress on my 6mm Science Fiction figures, but they are beginning get there.

Marine bases flocked.
 The first Marine platoon is pretty much complete with bases flocked and tufted. I have added a comm aerial to the command stand (back right) but am still not certain if nylon bristle or fine wire is the best material.

Marine platoon with sanded bases.
 The Second Marine Platoon is now based and has its bases coated with sand.

Two Companies of New Israeli/Imperial Army.
 I've finished cleaning up the last of the GZG New Israeli infantry and mounted them on the painting trays - two Companies ready for painting.

Grav vehicle hulls based
 The hulls of three Grav Tanks and three Grav APCs were mounted on their flight rods. I need to tidy up the edge between the blue underside and the camo upside.

Grav vehicles from a different angle.
I'm quite pleased with the way the bases came out.

Thursday 21 August 2014

[6mm Science Fiction] Some more progress

I've just had two days off work with a head cold and have managed to make a little painting progress (around bouts of lethargy and general meh).

I'm at the stage now where I have a bit of a production line going, with units at various stages of completion - in fact, the biggest hold up is waiting for things to dry so I can move on to the next stage.

Two platoons of GZG New Israelis on painting base. The platoon support squad for the right-hand platoon is on the left-hand platoon's base. The third platoon has yet to be mounted on a painting base.

Platoon of GZG UNSC Marines on squad bases

Platoon of GZG UNSC Marines on textured squad bases, awaiting flocking.

Bases for Grav Tanks and Grav APCs finished, painting the Grav vehicles undersides.

Tuesday 19 August 2014

[6mm Science Fiction] An update and a new diversion

I've managed to get a swag of 15mm Science Fiction figures completed over the last six to eight weeks, including a Ventauran Company and a Mid-tech Company. As I was expanding the Mid-tech company, I realized that of the figures I was using (A Flytrap Factory MERC pack, some Hardened Militia from Peter Pig, some Oddzial Osmy NVL from Pico Armor, and some Republic of Arden National Guard from Ground Zero Games), the Flytrap Factory MERCs and Peter Pig Militia worked the best together regarding equipment and general size of figure. The RANG troopers have more body armour and are taller. At the moment, I'm looking at splitting the RANG out as a separate force, though they are currently uniformed in similar colours to the militia and MERCs and could also serve with them as an elite unit. The Oddzial Osmy NVL fit between the extremes in both armour and size of figure, but will probably end up mixed in with the RANG.

All this painting is part of my Traveller project - painting up sufficient forces to be able to actually tabletop game some of the conflicts I have happening as part of the metastory of my Traveller campaign. And, as periodically happens, having been struck with a bit of painting ennui, I re-examined my project. I have an idea for a conflict that escalates, from either a civil disturbance or from a clash between rival colonies, into a major inter-polity war. I have copies of a variety of wargames rules with which to play out this scenario, but at the moment I'm seriously looking at Two Hour Wargames' 5150: Battalion Commander as a rules set, and 6mm as a scale in which to fight bigger battles.

I have a bunch of CAV plastic grav tanks I painted up a while ago, and which, along with some Epic Imperial Guard and Eldar Infantry, I used in a play test of the Command Horizon rules. Some of these figures will see action again as forces of the Outrim Alliance. For the Imperial side, I went to Ground Zero Games Dirtside range.

Work in progress DSM-111 Kivruzh Grav Tanks and DSM-123 Virnazh APCs from Ground Zero Games

Work in progress DSM-111 Kivruzh Grav Tanks

Work in progress DSM-123 Virnazh APCs - detail of underside of APC to left
For armour, and rides, I decided on the Kivruzh Grav tank and the Virnazh APCs. These are really nice models, with a lot of fine detail, such as the grav units on the undersides of the APCs. They are also the closest match I could find for my existing 15mm grav vehicles - the GZG High-tech Grav Light Tank and Light APC.

GZG UNSC Marines in the process of being painted up as Imperial Marines
For Imperial Marine Infantry, I picked up a pack of GZG's 6mm UNSC Marines. In spite of a couple of mis-casts, I was able to make up two Marine platoons with associated command and heavy weapons squads.

GZG New Israeli Infantry in the process of becoming Imperial Army troopers

For the Imperial Army, I picked up two packs of GZG's 6mm New Israelis to use as my Imperial Standard Tech Level-12 Infantry. This should give me four Infantry platoons, plus associated command and support weapons squads.

I had forgotten how quick 6mm figures are to paint, and how effective a couple of colours can be at this scale. I've got a few ideas as to how to make up an Aslan force, and how to recreate the Geithurian Republic Alien Legion in 6mm, so these will probably be next on my list of figures to get.