Nerf Herders

Free Traders/Adventurers
15 mm

Myriad, overlapping, and sometimes contradictory commercial regulations can often make it difficult for interstellar traders to stay on the right side of the law.  Sometimes the best way to make an honest living is to just go with your own personal definition of "honest".  This human and his imposingly furry co-pilot do just that, trading in high-value commodities and frequently having some exciting and dangerous life experiences along the way.

... like raiding a heavily-guarded Cultural Collective data core.  "Never tell me the odds!"

Miniatures are from The Ion Age and a slightly converted 15mm.co.uk "Wildthingian".

The Art of War

Leonardo da Vinci and his tank
15 mm

I stand alone
And gaze upon the battlefield
Wasteland
Is all that's left after the fight
And I'm searching a new way to defeat my enemy
Bloodshed
I've seen enough of death and pain
- Sabaton, "The Art of War"

In 1482, Leonardo da Vinci, already an accomplished artist, came under the retainer and patronage of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan.  Ludovico desired to make his city-state renowned for the arts and skilled crafts, as well as adorning his own court with elegance and splendour.  War never being far from his doorstep, he was also greatly interested in Leonardo's claims of expertise in military engineering.

One of Leonardo's military concepts was his "tank", a mobile wooden fortress bristling with cannons which could wheel across the battlefield immune to arquebus and pike.  Like many of his concepts it was likely never built, but one could imagine Ludovico, mindful of his surrounding enemies, financing the creation of a prototype.

Decorated with the family crest of the Sforzas.

Tank or no tank, in 1499 Ludovico was forced from power a French invasion of Milan, and Leonardo fled to Venice.  He spent the rest of his legendary career serving patrons such as the Cesare Borgia and Pope Leo X, before dying in France in 1519.

 As mentioned in my previous post, these lovely miniatures are from 15mm.co.uk.

Star Port Hustlers

Horansi spice broker
15 mm

Even in a galaxy full of amazing sights and experiences, most species which consume food appreciate a "taste of home".  If they desire an obscure, rare or merely delicious food supplement or flavouring, this merchant might just have some stashed in the slew of leather and fabric sachels slung about its body.  Horansi drive a notoriously hard bargain, but even if it doesn't have what you want, it can usually find it, for a price.

A slightly modified (tail and vertebral plates added) 15mm.co.uk figure.

Space port mechanic
15 mm

Eking out a living repairing shuttles, cargo lifters and speeders, this technical individual might get your ride back in the air just when you need it... or he might try to recharge your displacer coils with counterfeit fullerenes.  Buyer beware.  Another converted 15mm.co.uk figure.

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.

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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.