Leonardo and his Tank

"You up for a little reconnaissance?"
"You mean where we all sculpt and paint and stuff?" 
"No, that was the Renaissance."
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I normally don't bother to just post stuff I bought these days but I have to share this one.  15mm.co.uk recently released miniatures of Leonardo da Vinci and his famous concept "tank", one of many inventions of his that was so far ahead of its time that it was, as far as we know, never built.  Leonardo was a military engineer for the Duke of Milan, producing other more practical deadly mechanisms and fortifications, as well as overseeing the Duke and Duchess' opulent wedding.

They're really nice models: well-sculpted crisp casts with lots of detail.  The tank is two resin halves with sixteen (!) metal cannon barrels, and you get two versions of Leo: mounted, and unmounted holding blueprints and a tiny model of the tank!  Too cool.  I can't wait to paint these up.

It's pretty big too.  With other figures for scale.

Kill for Gain/Jacked In

Mercenary
15 mm

Kill for gain or shoot to maim
But we don't need a reason
The golden goose is on the loose
And never out of season

'Net Runner
15 mm

In the bloodlit dark behind his eyes, silver phosphenes boiled in from the edge of space, hypnagogic images jerking past like a film compiled of random frames. Symbols, figures, faces, a blurred, fragmented mandala of visual information. - "Neuromancer"

Two Ion Age miniatures, from the recent "Precinct Adventurers" set.

Space Cannon (finished)

Ion defense cannon
15 mm scale

It took a little while to get back to this project, but I finally fired up the airbrush and quickly painted it up.  I used a not-very-SF "woodland" camo scheme to match my Multiverse Terrain MDF command bunker; the result is, I think, a mid-near-future or mid-tech look.  Or something.  I added a few hazard signs and some weathering to break up the greeny brownyness a bit, and also "fix" the scale to my 15mm figure collection.

A truly remote outpost...

He's back!

So for the past year or so I've been missing the guy I once called my "most loyal reader", who seemed to be on a lengthy hiatus from blogging.

Well, sculptor and blogger javi started posting again this week, and right out of the gate he does not disappoint, posting this unique and striking original creation:

I love it!  Anyway, if you've visited his blog in the past, drop by and say welcome back.  And if you haven't... go check it out.  It's worth it :)

Saucer Sighting

After all the fun I had making my last "budget project", the Ion Cannon, I thought I'd have a crack at something else that appeared on my worktable recently.  Our "Stranne" lamp from Ikea has been flickering for a while and I replaced the cord switch, leaving me with this surplus item:

Yeah.  The project potential was obvious so I popped over to the craft store and bought some 1/2" wooden balls. These I sawed in half - surprisingly difficult to do evenly.  Fastened to the underside of the switch, they give us a retro-chic "Adamski" UFO look that many people probably recognize.

I decided to leave the cord holes, but added mesh inserts to make them look like some kind of sensor or port, and scribed some lines suggesting a ramp or hatch on one side.  Lastly, I added some view ports made from smallest brass washers I could find, and primed.

After a couple of coats of silver spray, and a few accents (ramp borders in steel and viewports in gloss black), I had a UFO!  Not too bad if I say so myself; a bit "clean", but it seems to suit the subject.  And as befits a budget project, it came in at around $8.00 (and some of that was Canadian Tire money!), including a fresh can of silver spray paint.

Scale is about right for a small "scout" type UFO...

(Note my lazy failure to fill the screw holes)

"'Klaatu Barada what', Mulder?"

Blindsight/Singing Sentinel

Blind Gunman
15 mm

Unable to finance costly cloned replacements or a set of bionic oculars, this freelancer has hacked a black-clinic neurode array to receive visual data from the scope on his blaster.  Great for gunfights, not so great for social situations.  An Ion Age miniature.

---

Calamite Cantor
15 mm

While not a populous race, Calamiti are familiar to most other sentients, especially travelers.  The Calamiti believe in the Drowsy Gods, powerful beings who protect the universe from incursions by hideous, unspeakable terrors from other realities.  Their complex, multi-tonal chants, a familiar sound in many starports, are intended to keep the Drowsy Gods awake despite aeons' worth of age-weariness.  Musicologists have noted disturbing mathematical similarities between their songs and certain prayer chants described in the writings of the ancient human Abdul Al-hazred.

Space cannon WIP

Ion defense cannon
15 mm scale (?)

Someone on the 15mm sci-fi gaming Facebook group posted a link to this set recently, and I cavalierly commented that it'd be cheaper, and easy to just build one.  Normally when I say things like this I'm full of crap wishful thinking, but this time I thought "Don't be that guy", and decided to put my hobby tools where my mouth is.

The inspiration: $40 USD

I wanted this to be a cheap project; partly to prove a point and partly because I don't really have any use for it.  So it's made out of bitz, card stock, and repurposed items:

One Canadian craft beer, one papier mâché Xmas craft ball.

Can end cut down and tabs folded over for stiffness.

 

Decorated with bitz and card.  I went for a longer cannon; size matters.

The result, even when just spray-primed, is surprisingly decent-looking:

At 15 mm scale this is much smaller than the famous "Hoth cannon" from The Empire Strikes Back, but I was careful to avoid any obvious scale-betraying details, so it could be used as a turret for 28 mm, or a planetary defender for 6 mm.  I anticipate the rough papier mâché texture being a bit of a problem when I go to paint it, but my plan is to obscure it with painted-on details if needed.

Boarding party backup

Chuhuac "Vasseth" Strike Tank - Shipboard Configuration
15 mm scale

Sometimes even a routine policing mission just needs "more dakka", so Chuhuac marines have a special ace up their tail-sheath for boarding actions encountering heavy resistance.  The compact Vasseth tank has been modified for off-planet use; its grav units supplemented with a deployable air-cushion and reaction jet systems for use in centripetal pseudogravity and even limited zero-g maneuvering.  Twin beamer turrets are highly lethal while avoiding explosion damage to friendlies in close quarters.

 I also finished up my remaining few Chuhuac special forces figures to go with this:

The pirates guarding the airlock are about to have a bad day.

Square dealer

Valter the Vendabot
15 mm

A retail droid who surpassed his programming, Valter can be found wheeling and dealing on the streets of Dropfall City.  His sales pitches for everything from children's travel holos to illegal stim packs can be quite persuasive.  In return for the occasional tip, law enforcement fail to inform his former owners of his whereabouts.

One of The Ion Age's monthly freebies from last year.  Paintjob inspired by the 2000 AD/Judge Dredd character "Walter the Wobot" as painted by sho3box.  Paper terrain from World Works Games (and Google image search).

Embattled Aboriginals

Ikwen guerrillas
15 mm

The pseudo-amphibioid natives of the jungle world Kwiell were progressing well through their version of the Bronze Age when the first sky visitors arrived.  Unfortunately for the Ikwen ("the Forest's Children" in their own language of hypersonic clicks and squeals) the visitors were not a curious scientific team, but a fleet of freebooters hired by the Human Empire to scout out sources of the fusion-modulating superheavy element unbihexium.

Upon learning of the Ikwen, the Empire ordered its contractors to not only extract the planet's unbihexium, but capture thousands of the Forest's Children as slave labourers.  Their resistance with primitive weapons would have been doomed if not for the hasty arrival of military advisors and equipment from both the Cultural Collective and the Garafraxian "Chloros", hoping to starve the Empire of a strategic resource.  Now the Ikwen find themselves in the middle of a three-way proxy war, with their own home hanging in the balance...

Figures are from Loud Ninja Games via 15mm.co.uk, with thanks to Eli Arndt, Todd Ulrich and Roderick Campbell for creating such a cool species! :)

The Floating World of Lady Urokubi

The Lady Urokubi
15 mm

An influential socialite and traveler in human space, Urokubi has used the most advanced cybernetics, repulsorlift and micro-teleportation technology to give herself a truly extreme body modification.  Nutrients, blood supply and neural impulses are transmitted freely between transmat gates in her body's neck and her head, while brain implants allow her to effortlessly control her body while her head hovers independently of it.

The figure is a slightly modified "SGF23 Rokurokubi" (Japanese headless vampire) from 15mm.co.uk.

"You are as lovely as ever, Lady.""And you, as obsequious as ever, Ambassador."

Edit: here's a scan of the rug pattern for those who liked it:

The Ghost of Tom Joad

Men walkin' 'long the railroad track
Goin' someplace there's no goin' back
Highway patrol choppers comin' up over the ridge
Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge

Shelter line stretchin' 'round the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleepin' in their cars in the Southwest
No home no job no peace no rest

The highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light
Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad

This figure is actually a scientist casualty marker from the Khurasan "fleeing scientists" set.  It has a certain pathos which lent itself really well to this subject, once I added some street scenery and personal effects.

Remember, in the end, nobody wins unless everybody wins. - Bruce Springsteen

Veloci-Raptors

Chuhuac gravbike racers
15 mm

Three racers are snout-to-tail as they round the final pylon
in the annual Hatchlings' Day Classic.

While sports like tailball and hoopstick remain vibrant centuries after their invention, motor-sports competitors are some of the biggest media heroes of Chuhuac popular culture.  Gravbike racers are often former military scouts or pilots with lightning reflexes and seemingly no fear.

"Highway to the danger zone..."

Models are Loud Ninja Games "Chuhuac Grav Bikes".  Paper models from Dave Graffam Models.

The Thing That Should Not Be

Tentacled Vivisectionist
15 mm

Straight out of hell
One of a kind
Stalking his victim
Don't look behind you
Nightcrawler

The chaotic, murky underlevels of Dropfall city are home to secretive criminal gangs, the diseased or mutated, and the merely poor and desperate.  Rumours of far more sinister denizens abound; in a lawless world where inhabitants can simply disappear for any one of a thousand reasons, a predator can select victims with total freedom.  The Vivisectionist intends to learn the biomechanical secrets of all sentient species, one flayed and twitching body at a time.

Amarjit battles through gibbering revenants, intent on taking the fight to their
hideous master.  Will her blades end its terrible reign, or will she end up as its
latest experimental subject?

Figure is a Reaper "Darkspawn Familiar", intended for 28mm scale.

Diminutive Extra-Terrestrial

Friendly Asogian
15 mm scale

The small-statured natives of the planet Brodo Asogi ("The Green Planet") are intelligent and good-natured.  Their society values science and exploration and they send research expeditions to the farthest reaches of space in the hopes of discovering new natural wonders.  Though physically weak, they have potent psi powers which give them telekinetic and healing abilities.

A Khurasan figure from the pack "friendly demons".

Daring Deep Space Dinos

Chuhuac Space Marines
15 mm

Like most spacefaring species, the Chuhuac have a strong interest in exercising sovereignty over their home space; this includes aggressively suppressing elements such as pirates and smugglers.  Crew and troops on the corvettes Wingfinger, Talon, and Far-Seer are experienced in intercepting and boarding criminal vessels.

Another trio of Loud Ninja Games' fun space dinos here.  I used the "Chuhuac Troopers" pack from 15mm.co.uk for my ground forces in the previous post, these are "Chuhuac Special Forces".  Giving them a higher-tech space-suited look completely changes the feel; I definitely like how these turned out.

Raptors in Spaaaace!

The Chuhuac
15 mm

A boisterous race of social carnivores who appreciate a good hunt or aggressive play more than anything, the Chuhuac had long been troubled by the suspicion that something was amiss with their origins.  Only once they developed the paleontological sciences were they able to confirm what several major religions had long argued - that while their species had inhabited their lushly biological world for eons, they did not originate there.  Their fossil record began abruptly about 65 million years ago, preceded by faint traces of a previous, unrelated early ecosystem.

Though first contact between humans and the Chuhuac was initially distrustful, it was still existentially stunning for both species to discover blood relatives across the vastness of space.  As relations improved, both species' scientists eagerly began to work together to learn how an entire ecosystem descended from Cretaceous fauna and flora came to exist on a world dozens of light-years away from Earth.

Although individually aggressive by nature, historical interludes of catastrophic internecine conflict have left the Chuhuac with a distaste for actual warfare.  Their military forces, like this pack leader and his troopers, exist largely for self-defense and to assist allies in ventures deemed ethically justifiable.