Multiverse MDF terrain: out of the box

Andrzej over at Multiverse Gaming Terrain made an enticing offer on Facebook recently: he wanted to send sample sets from his new laser-cut MDF terrain lines out for bloggers to review.  Because I'm not an idiot, I jumped at the chance. So the other day, I received two kits, "Command Bunker" and "Apartment Block".

Pics from the Multiverse website, with dimensions.

IKEA fans will appreciate "flat pack" terrain.

Being an MDF kit noobie, I wasn't sure what to expect from this puzzle-piece approach, but a quick dry fitting of the bunker kit was promising: everything just slid together snugly with no sanding and no wiggle room:

The surface detail is thin matte board and really improves the look of the outer walls; I feel the large, flat roof could use something similar.  But it'd be easy enough to customize with card or bits, which I may do later.  As for construction, Andrzej has told me that PVA glue and spray paint will work fine on these.  In my next post, I'll assemble the bunker and start painting.

Cult Movie Alien

Cult Movie Alien
15 mm scale

"Sorry to interrupt your recreation, fellows, but it is time for Sgt. Pinback to feed the alien."

John Carpenter's 1974 film, "Dark Star", is a weird, fun, low-budget story about a cranky crew of oddballs dealing with life in space and trying to save themselves from an intelligent bomb that has decided it wants to explode.  A major subplot features the shenanigans of a maliciously mischievous beachball-shaped alien (obviously made from... a beachball, and a pair of Halloween fright hands) which wreaks havoc on the ship while moving around via the ventilation ducts.

Dark Star was co-written by (and co-starred) Dan O'Bannon, who went on to write a rather more well-known 1979 film about a cranky crew of oddballs whose spaceship was destined to self-destruct, confronting a malicious alien traveling through the ventilation ducts:

"Look, we have actual money now!"

Skyward Sentinel

Colabreta Anti-Air/APC Combo
15 mm scale

A distaste for excessive military production leads the People's Planetary Partnership to design flexibility into much of their equipment.  Although this armored infantry transport currently mounts a pair of radar-guided hypervelocity cannons to engage enemy dropships and ground attack flyers, the turret can be rapidly exchanged for a variety of other weapons, sensor suites, or even rescue apparatus for disaster emergency use.

Although it's often frustrating, I still find conversion to be fun and satisfying.  The AA turret here is made from an Ion Age "Moth 88" gun, plasticard, greenstuff and the end of a novelty pen.  Sometimes it's about working with what you've got in your bitz box and not being hung up on your original design (which was rather different).

Ten Years of Painting Agency!

What?  It's the tenth anniversary of my first post here?  How is this possible?  That's positively ancient in internet years.  To put it in perspective, in 2005 there was no Instagram, no Twitter, Facebook was for students only, and "Cool Mini or Not" was still my hobby website of choice.  I'd never painted a 15mm figure in my life, and this was my first work posted:

There have definitely been some changes over the years: fewer trivial WIPs and "look what I bought" posts, more comments and followers (thanks, guys!).  I got started painting smaller figures when I tried "Flames of War" WW2 models, and now I don't often paint 25/28 mm figures.  The 15 mm sci-fi renaissance has provided endless material that suits my new interests and time constraints.  On the downside, I think my technique has stagnated a fair bit from not being pushed, but I've also shifted my style to one which complements smaller sculpts.

Will I still be doing this in a few years?  I don't know, life goes on.  I certainly hope so, and right now I enjoy the synergy of painting/posting, and definitely appreciate all the feedback I get.

Danger Doctor

PPP Combat Medic
15 mm

The armed factions of human space place a high value on military medics, who are equipped with nanite injections, flesh plast, and organ stabilizers to treat wounds inflicted by numerous exotic weapons.  In keeping with the PPP's philosophy that enemy warfighters are themselves victims of their commanders' imperialist aggression, PPP medics are unarmed and will treat any wounded they encounter on the battlefield.

I sculpted some nice flippy hair on to the bald, male medic in the Planetary Militia command set to produce this now-female character.  I think it was a good idea, since honestly I felt "he" had a bit of a scrawny head originally.

"This is the third case of Arcturian space herpes I've seen today.  Honestly, guys!"

People's Protectors

PPP Home Guard
15 mm

The People's Planetary Partnership have the odd distinction of being the only sustainably functioning anarcho-socialist society in human history, existing across multiple star systems with a government based on group arbitration and consensus-building.  While no official apparatus exists to enforce ideological conformity, this governmental structure is sufficiently popular that dissenters generally find themselves facing social scorn and little cooperation from their fellow citizens.  Consequently, outsiders have variously described the PPP as "stodgy but egalitarian" and "numbingly conformist".

 

The PPP remain technologically inferior to their main stellar-political rivals the Cultural Collective, largely because of their refusal to create sentient artificial intelligences.  They maintain that "leashed" AI's constitute slavery while unrestricted ones represent an existential threat to humanity.  They loosely ally themselves with the photosynthetic Chloros, whose biological collectivism they admire.

The models here are The Ion Age's Planetary Militia and Hazelwurm Patrol Car.  I'm hoping to paint up a bunch more of these troops in the near future, they have a nice mid-tech look and the sculpts are easy to paint well.

Blades of Vengeance

Ghost Warrior
15 mm

This figure "Xin Youxia" was the Ion Age monthly giveaway for February.  I tried to diverge from the catalogue paint job and give her a distinctive look; I think I succeeded...

Dome Sweet Dome

Ion Age Geo Shelters
15 mm scale

Geo Shelters are the smaller of Ion Age's two basic building types, the other being the Hab Dome. I painted up two types, the laboratory (left) and the habitation (right).  More than just a high-tech tent, they still appear to be cramped temporary structures erected for military or exploration use.

Sgt. Barnes and his troopers discover what really happened to the exobiology team.

Stealthy Slayers

“When we’re on a mission, I keep count of how many ninja my father kills. He says not to keep count, only to pray for their souls. But if I don’t keep count, I don’t know how many souls to pray for. So I keep count. So far it’s three hundred and forty-two.”

 
Honestly, Rebel Miniatures' ninjas are not the best figures out there.   They have some weird proportions, giant hands and some oddly-placed lumpy bits, and some more weapon variety would be nice.  But "90% of success is showing up", and for under twelve bucks you get a big bag of them, so hey.

As usual, I don't have time to paint the whole horde...  I did a minor weapon swap on one of them, rope for spear.  I tried to position the lariat so he poses well with other figures:

Worked pretty well, I think!  Perhaps not so sturdy for gaming but it might make for some fun photos.

Marine Miscreants

Bennet's Buccaneers
15 mm

Well, they're done!  And the obligatory group shot:

Seagoing Scalawags

Bennet's Buccaneers
15 mm

My pirate crew got a bit derailed by Real Life as well as the fun hovercraft in my previous post, but I'm trying to get them finished here.  These are fun little figures with lots of character, but since they're individuals they do take a fair bit more work to paint than a uniform "squad" of soldiers.  Anyway there are four more to finish and hopefully I'll get those posted soon too... because I just ordered some brand spanking new Ion Age stuff that I'd love to paint up!  The eternal struggle...

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Speaking of the Ion Age, I've slowly been working on these Geo Shelters for a while.

 
So far they're just base coated and washed, but I like the look already, kind of grimy and industrial. They're kind of small for a factory installation etc., but would make good colony lab or workshop buildings, or a small military camp.  I have to say that, as with the Corbal Hardpoint, the airbrush was really helpful for laying down a nice even base colour on these, though I haven't even a novice's grasp of its more elaborate uses.

Amphibious Attack

Amphibious Assault Hovercraft
15 mm scale

I was a bit stalled on my pirates, and my sci-fi roots must have been showing, because I whipped this off in less than a week which is pretty speedy for me.  The hover is of course an Ion Age "Adder Combat Lifter" missile pod variant I've had kicking around for a while.  A nice model; it has its own style but you could use it for a lot of different factions without it looking out of place.

 
The riders are Clear Horizons' Hell Divers, which were the only seated figures I had, but turned out looking perfect.  I painted them to look very "Star Wars clone trooper", without actually intending to.  I just wanted to distinguish them from my other squad and not be green.  I picture this vehicle doing high-speed shore assaults, rapidly disembarking a team of infantry and then falling back to support them with missile strikes.

Yo ho ho!

Oh the year was 1778
How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now!
A Letter of Marque came from the King
to the scummiest vessel I've ever seen
God damn them all!

I got a couple of sets of these great little pirate figures from Rebel Miniatures back in January.  They're so much fun!  I guess I needed a break from so many "sci-fi space trooper guys".. or maybe my daughter's frequent viewings of "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" are getting to me ;)  I picked up a pack of 24 male pirates, and one with a few women for diversity's sake.  I love that in 15 mm, that was for the cost of like, one Space Marine.

(Dave Graffam Models has some downloadable paper scenery that'd go perfectly with these guys.  Might need to shell out a few more bucks for a suitable photo setup.)

2015: Heavies and Stealth Agent

Puritan Power Armour

15 mm scale

I got these Puritan superheavy troops from Khurasan last year, and just decided to paint a couple up as post-holiday slump-buster.  I don't know what, if any, fluff to assign them yet so I held off on markings etc.  They seem like they'd be nice Neo Soviet/sci-fi-communist elite troops of some kind (especially painted red like this).

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Splinter Assassin

15 mm

The first figure from my latest Rebel Miniatures order (a solid handful of 15 mm pirates and ninjas remain untouched as yet).  This guy is obviously "inspired" by the protagonist of the Splinter Cell video games and his not-very-stealthy green head lamps.  A very nice little sculpt!

Basic bitz box basing...

Rock and Roll all (Christmas) Night

Gingerbread KISS Pinball Machine

Every Christmas season, I try and produce a fun and novel gingerbread creation and post it here.  Longtime readers may remember my avant-garde church, windmill, or light-up lighthouse.  This time, I was non-architecturally inspired by the 1978 KISS pinball arcade machine.

Side panel portraits of the band; almost recognizeable as human.

Four player scoreboard with logo.

For reference, the original item.

So, happy holidays everyone!

Corbal Hardpoint... On The Move!

Corbal Mobile Hardpoint
15mm scale

Well, it's done!  This is definitely the biggest project I've done in ages, and although it proceeded painfully slowly at times I have to say I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I went with a white/colour accent scheme because I rather liked the white/red studio paint job on the Ion Age website, and frankly, because it's not too hard to paint a lot of white this way.  Also, I think camouflaging something like a four-storey-tall walking gun tower would be kind of pointless, especially if you want to use it as a "terror weapon".

(Now that I look at it all finished up it does have more than a passing resemblance to a giant walking Dalek... but that's not really a bad thing.)

"Run away!  Run away!"

"Here's the problem, big guy.  You've got some humanoid stuck to your foot."