Interstellar Pigs

Silt pigs of Kwiell
15mm scale

 

The Ikwen of Kwiell were first assumed to be, like Terran hunter-gatherers, a stone-age society.  But the first scientists to discreetly observe them were shocked to discover they possessed a wide variety of metal tools and ornaments, without any apparent mining activity.  It turned out the answer to this riddle was their domestication of "silt pigs", a species of humble grazing creatures.

Silt pigs eat vegetation, but a major part of their diet is a constant earthworm-like processing of rich mud, ingested through their extensible snout.  Mud passes through their elaborate gut, emerging as silty casings.  But periodically, the pigs expel a dense, dark-colored stool the Ikwen call the "fire pellet".  This stool contains a high concentration of bio-accumulated metal oxides.  The Ikwen smelt these in small forges to produce substantial quantities of copper, tin, and iron.  

These silt pigs have been grazing on soil rich in copper, hence the greenish hue of their dorsal spines.  Their tender carries a bioluminescent staff, and waves a coloured cloth to signal back to their village.

The silt pigs and their tender are from Loud Ninja Games via Alternative Armies.

An Ikwen herder, with their signature bioluminescent staff, checks
on silt pigs grazing in an estuary near a large fungal dome.

The New Mutants

Wasteland mutants
15mm

Nothin' left is sacred
So I've changed my point of view
You're the ugliest thing I've ever seen
And I think I love you

Ah, the apocalypse.  Mushroom clouds, fallout poisoning the air and land.  Maybe the disaster wasn't a nuclear war, and yet the world is still laid waste, survivors left to wander a bitter Earth seeking whatever remnants will help them survive one more day.  Crumbling reactors and chemical factories have disgorged tons of teratogenic waste; adults manifest tumours and growths, while new babies emerge with bizarre and horrific mutations.  In this new world, does the term "human" retain any meaning... or value?

This mutant gang and the Wasteland Witch (below) are Loud Ninja Games figures sculpted by Eli Arndt.

Raiders attack the witch's hovel!  The mutants, while outgunned,
are inhumanly tough and quick... who will prevail?

Herd Warriors

Horgosi Prime and Neek warriors
15mm scale

Honour-seeking warriors of an alien empire, the Horgosi Prime and its squad of diminutive but fierce Neeks are formidable opponents...

Figures are from Loud Ninja Games via Alternative Armies.

Watcher of the sandy sea

Desert dweller and solar droid

15 mm

Perhaps they're a roamer, seeking salvage or hidden wisdom in the deep desert.  A moisture farmer gleaning a living selling water pulled from the dry air.  Or a reclusive hermit, anxious to remain alone.  Whoever they are, along with their trusty but worn droid, repaired and rebuilt a dozen times, they probably know the ways of the desert as well as anyone ever has.

I've had these figures kicking around for a while... the human is from Alternative Armies HOF sci-fi range while the droid is from Ground Zero Games.  They're both converted a bit; I added the respirator pack and the antenna to the human (a definite improvement to a fairly generic sculpt!), the solar array to the droid. The human's attire is inspired by real life desert people - the Berbers of North Africa.  The colour coordination with the droid's solar array was unintentional, but looks pretty good.

"Sss-sss-sss, how are things huuuuman? All quiet out here?"
"You're the first visitors in weeks. Will you share water?"
"Sss... it would be an honour."

Fearless Forest Fighters

Ikwen heroes
15 mm

"The gods of my tribe have spoken, they have said 'do not trust the pilgrims'... and for all these reasons I have decided to scalp you, and burn your village to the ground."

The persecuted Ikwen return!  Hounded in their own lands by resource-hungry humans, they take up arms to strike back!  Larger and tougher than the average Ikwen, these fighters have distinguished themselves as fearless and cunning foes of the militarily superior Earthers.  While their traditional meteorite-steel kukri blades slice lethally through armour and flesh, they don't shun the powerful blasters provided by their new off-world allies.

These strikingly dynamic figures are (half of) the "Ikwen Hardened Fighters" set, sculpted of course by Eli Arndt of Loud Ninja Games.  They definitely stand out among regular Ikwen, and provide a bit of close quarters mayhem...

The most dangerous game...

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.

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! :)

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.

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.