Starvaulter

Starvaulter Mercenary
15mm

Stay the hell out of way 'cause the girl don't play none
she walks softly but she carries a big gun

Her job of choice is whatever pays the best... her weapon of choice is the Starvaulter ion-particle projector; technically a crew-served heavy cannon but she just slings it over her powered armour.  So... stay uprange.

The "Starvaulter Instructor" is an Ion Age miniature from Alternative Armies, given as a free bonus in August 2014 and still available.

Painted as an update to this badass figure from 2014.

"THIS is your high value shipment?!"
"It's a thirsty planet..."

Inspector Deck

Cyberspace Operator
15 mm

I move through the third world
my third eye's the guiding light
Invite the fight, we all die tonight

Whether they're carrying out a mission on the mean streets or moving through the world of the 'Net, an operator has to be a lightning-fast expert at fighting and hacking.  Their skills with a cyberspace deck and advanced weaponry are the difference between executing reconnaissance, theft, or delivery without a trace... and being just another dead console cowboy.

The Operator is a minor conversion of Duxis Drone Pilot from The Ion Age.

"Streets are like a jungle, can't let my cypher crumble..."

Festive Freebooters

Holiday smugglers
15 mm

Sandy "Claus" Klosowicz and her colleague "Elf" are some of the best smugglers in human space.  While they do work for profit, some of their most legendary runs have been humanitarian missions on behalf of aid and relief organizations.  Their delivery of tons of military-grade peptide bars and medical nanites is believed to have saved thousands during the pirate blockade of Hydra 357 Prime.  Many children, and their parents, at struggling bare-bones colony outposts dream of seeing these folk heroes' freighter landing one day, bringing supplies, food and even small luxuries from the core worlds.

Sandy and Elf are Ion Age figures from Alternative Armies.

Some dropoffs can get a bit hairy...

Upcycled tribal terrain

So at work, we recently started receiving solvent bottles in paper fiber packing, replacing styrofoam.  Huge environmental improvement aside, this immediately gave me ideas.  I knew that something could be done with them.

I trimmed the top couple of inches off the "lid" piece:

... and voila!


Ikwen hogans
15 mm scale

Ikwen warriors confront corporate mercenaries on the home front.

Forest Ikwen often live in large huts or hogans, made from pulped and enzymatically-cemented plant material over a frame of megafauna endoskeletons or branches.  As the Ikwen come into conflict with offworld resource-seekers, their hogans often conceal entrances to escape tunnel networks and caches of weaponry.

Also just painted:


Wrecked Adder armored car
15 mm scale

Despite being cheap, fast, and agile, "Adder" combat vehicles are extremely vulnerable to virtually any mid-heavy weapons, from portable railguns to spider mines.

This mangled heap makes for a nice objective or knock-out marker, or just some interesting cover for squishy infantry.  From The Ion Age.

Holy Heavies

Xin Armormonks
15 mm

Armormonks provide heavy backup for the Xin's infantry forces.  Their enhanced armor is impenetrable to hand weapons, and their gunstaffs are both a power-polearm and heavy plasma blaster.  The monks have a reputation as jovial ascetics, but in combat they are deadly and terrifying, with even a small number often routing a determined enemy and turning the tide of battle.

Wow... nice to get back into 15mm sci-fi!  I've taken a real detour lately, even if it was for some amazing models.  I know these guys aren't  my best work, but they turned out all right, and fit in nicely with the previous Xin I've done:

"I suddenly feel much braver!"

The Xin are Ion Age models from Alternative Armies.

The brains of the operation

Space Brains
no fixed scale

Swooping down from space, their ray guns and menacing claws gleaming, their frontal lobes glistening, the Space Brains attack!  All they seek is total domination, the destruction of the planet, and possibly to grab and menace scantily-clad human women.
 
Cratered Hab Dome
15mm scale

I decided to base a couple of them on a resin scenery model to give them the appearance of hovering over a ravaged battlefield.  The Space Brains are Alternative Armies figures.  The Cratered Hab Dome is a 15mm scale Ion Age model.

"Aim for the squishy bits, troopers!"

The Great Khanate Returns

Shia Khan Troopers and Armored Vehicle
15 mm

Sentinel of destiny
Enemy engaged
Numbered with the dead
Take your glory to the grave

On the smoky, chaotic battlefield, cris-crossed with lethal energy beams and pounding projectiles, the soldiers of the Shia Khan receive support from numerous tanks and armored transports.  Specialized for steady advance into withering fire, they help their soldiers inch towards yet another objective...

It's been a hot, slow painting month, but I've revisited the Shia Khan, the grinding trench warriors of my SF universe.  Their transport is Alternative Armies' Charger APC, a nicely high/low-tech model which I've up-armored with some sort of force field emitters or cage armour.  I have no idea what that long pole device the one guy is carrying is... a weapon?  Teleport beacon?  Reverse-phase matter depolarizer?  Anyway, it looks cool.

It Followed Me Home

New friend
15 mm

"Hey guys, this is Genet-Subspeaker Slaa, I think he's like, a kind of plant or something.  But he's cool... can he come in?"

Just a silly project I put together from some figures (girl: GZG; Slaa: Ion Age) I've been trying to decide what to do with.  Inspired by the possibility that First Contacts might not always be the exclusive domain of giant inscrutable spaceships showing up and asking to speak to the leader...

Short Rounds

Dwarf Mercenary and Goblin Tank Ace
15mm scale

This couple of diminutive but tough guys have been on deck at my painting table for a while.  Fun quick paint jobs, and full of their own character; one a high-tech power-armoured warrior, the other a leather-helmeted trench fighter with a jaunty scarf.  The dwarf is a Khurasan figure, while the greenskin is from Ion Age's Malig range.

"Guys?  Guys?  I could really use air support right about now..."

I have a couple of really impressive 28mm figures coming soon from the Bear's Head Miniatures Kickstarter, they're done casting now so I'm hoping to see them show up within the month...

Dazzling Disco Mutant

Dazzler
15 mm

It wasn't much of a stretch to turn one of the female figures from Ion Age's "Entertainers" set into the iconic 1980's Marvel Comics singing mutant heroine.  The rollerskates and disco club base are my addition; if I was less lazy I suppose could have given her feathered hair too...

Dazzler's first appearance, in 1980.

Dazzler ended up becoming a pretty decent second-tier superhero in her own right, but her origins were squarely in the realm of cross-marketing:

Dazzler was originally a project commissioned by Casablanca Records in the mid-to-late 1970s to be a cross-promotion in the mold of KISS, who had two successful comic book tie-in super-specials by the end of 1977...

Romita, Jr. originally intended for the character to resemble model, actress, and singer Grace Jones, but representatives from Filmworks – wanting to promote model and actress Bo Derek – insisted on design changes to reflect Derek's features. - Wikipedia

"You should be dancing yeah, dancing yeah..."

Something Wicked This Way Comes

 Ion Age Spooks
15 mm

I don't often pull together seasonal pieces in time, but here are two kooky and spooky figures from The Ion Age. Both were monthly freebies, from 2013 (Skeleton) and 2014 (Witch).  I replaced the Skeleton's head with a slightly better 15 mm skull from Alternative Armies, and added a festive jack-o-lantern (not hard to sculpt, as it turns out!) and another skull to give the Witch's base some flair.

Happy Halloween!

The Great Khanate

Shia Khan commander and troopers
15 mm

What's the price of a mile?

Grinding through the churning mud and choking fumes of the future battlefield, the Shia Khan face their enemies with blistering firepower and relentless mechanized advance.  With the help of clever tactics and a willingness to sacrifice, their seemingly crude weapons and vehicles can hold their own against sleeker foes...

I originally intended to do an orange/black version of the studio paint job on these Shia Khan from The Ion Age.  But then I had a look at their little gas masks, and so now they're my grimdark "World War I in space" faction... with no apologies to the Death Korps of Krieg etc.

"I have a plan, sir."
"Really, Baldrick? A cunning and subtle one?"

Flashing Storm of Blades

Xin Combat Acolytes
15 mm

Whirling dust in morning air,
Two warriors in the ring.
With the strength of two great bears,
They make their weapons sing.

Sparks fly high when steel meets steel,
And no one can believe
That these two men are best friends
Not enemies...

Combat Acolytes specialize in close-quarters fighting using edged and striking weapons, seemingly an anachronism in an era of energy blasters and autonomous battle drones.  But in shipboard and fortress assaults they show their value, storming through airlocks and corridors using aggressive movement as a weapon of its own.  Of course, it helps that they wear tough Kuijia III armour suits and are usually backed up by standard troopers with ranged weapons.  Nevertheless they train constantly, honing their abilities to the utmost balance of force and fluidity to ensure they always strike first.  Acolytes seeking a higher calling sometimes leave the service to follow the independent path of the Wu Xia.

Another day of meditation, Tai Chi and sparring...

Figures are Xin Trade Fleet Assault from The Ion Age.

The Three Xiake

Wu Xia Masters of Water,  Fire, and Earth
15 mm

Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong. - Ancient Terran warrior T. Roosevelt

"These highly trained and equipped Xin warriors serve no specific master but follow their own code centred around the idea of righting wrongs where ever they may be found... They wear personalised Kuijia III armour and carry Gonglu Blasters and other weapons favouring exotic energy blades such as twin hook swords. Skilled warriors to be treated with respect when encountered."

Figures are Xin Youxia from The Ion Age.  I like these figures, they have similar armour to the regular troopers but their unique weapons and headgear really set them apart as hero characters.  Incidentally, these are some of the cleanest castings I've seen recently: they required so little cleanup it made me nervous I was missing things.

Death in Vacuum

Grim Reaperbot
15 mm

Space travelers can be an oddly superstitious bunch, and lurid tales abound in ports across the galaxy about eerie and gruesome encounters out in "The Black".  One of the strangest, usually laughed off nervously by sensible folk, is of the Reaperbot... a metallic figure who appears out of nowhere to claim the lives of unwary spacers.  Nobody can claim they actually know someone who's seen it... but everyone knows the stories.

Miniature is Ion Age's "Grim Reaperbot", skulls are from 15mm.co.uk.

"You hear something?"

Galactic Warrior of Dundee

Angus McFife XIII
15 mm

Angus McFife XIII my name
Scion of mighty Dundee
Intergalactic great hero of steel
Ruler of the whole galaxy

Wielding this ancestral weapon
The Hammer of Glory its name
The Kingdom of Fife will forever proclaim

Angus McFife the Thirteenth, king of the Intergalactic Empire of Fife, is the hero of the ridiculous(ly awesome) concept album Space 1992: Rise Of The Chaos Wizards by power metal band Gloryhammer.  Armed with the Hammer of Glory ("powered by lasers entwined in a star") and aided by his allies the Hollywood Hootsman and the Knights of Crail, he battles the evil space wizard Zargothrax, who intends to destroy the universe.

If this all sounds incredibly cheesy, that's because it is...

Warriors of planet Earth, hear my raging cry
For mighty Dundee, the demons will die!

Angus McFife is a converted Prydain Retained Knight from The Ion Age.