You've been reassigned!

I'm revisiting some of the first 15mm minis I ever painted this week: three packs of GZG Cyclops Battlesuits to go with my Rebel Minis Titan Marines.

They fit well in my original vision for that army (Conquest Development Center corporate research/security forces).  But that army has evolved in different directions now - the role of the Cyclops battlesuits has now been divided among Kremlin Red Banner MANITOU power armor and Rebel Minis Earthforce HAMR suits as heavy support mecha.  Next thing I know... the Cyclops suits, which I really think are great minis, haven't been touched in well over a year.

Time to find them a new home.

I've been slowly building up forces to play 15mm mecha games.  The rules I've been knocking together for those games (more on this later) center around multi-based infantry supporting formations of mecha.  My Eureka Ventaurans are already based for just that type of game:

But don't yet have any mecha units.  I ordered a Micropanzer Valkyur mecha last week as a trial, and later realized that the GZG Cyclops Suits would be a great match.  So I popped one off its old base, mounted it to a 1.25" fendeer washer, painted over the entire thing with Vallejo Boltgun, and gave it the same purple wash/blue-gray and gold details as my Ventaurans.

I like it.  It won't take much time to do the other five suits.  Have I mentioned that the lazy painter in me really, REALLY likes wash-over-metal paint schemes?  And despite its simplicity, I still think it looks as game-worthy as the original paint job.

Cheers,

Chris

Another 15mm army in one weekend

Based on the success of my last effort (see http://basementgamingbunker.blogspot.com/2011/06/complete-15mm-army-in-one-weekend.html), I decided to have another go at a one-weekend force.  And once gain, I am very pleased with the results.

Eureka Miniatures released the Ventaurans through their 300 club last month, and I was lucky enough to be in on the pre-orders.  If you haven't seen much about these minis yet, my colleague David B. reviewed them on Dropship Horizon (link).  But once I had the minis in hand, I realized that I didn't quite know what to do with them.  They are very detailed, but I typically prefer simple color schemes.  

Then I remembered the 300-second Halo Spartan method (link).  

Just like the Sons of Thunder project, I decided to create a 100-point Alien Squad Leader force.  This time, I loosely based it on the Alien Imperial list.  These minis screamed "superior energy weapons" and "aiming devices" rather than plain infantry.  The paint job was very simple - two coats of Citadel Leviathan Purple wash, Vallejo Gold helmet lenses, Vallejo Heavy Warmgrey weapons and backpacks, Model Master Euro Gray on the bases.  I then based them two per stand (1-1/4" fender washers again), and flocked them with a new "gravel/ash" blend.

But what support options could I use with these minis?  I looked at several spare vehicles I had lying around, but none seemed to match the Ventaurans in technology level.  Then I noticed a couple packs of GZG New Israeli Jetbikes that I was going to use in another project.  I think the tech level is perfect, and the body armor is pretty compatible with the Ventaurans.  I may swap the New Israeli heads with Ventaurans someday, but even now they look fine in the same force. 

So here's what I came up with for an army.  It follows the Alien Imperial list, but doesn't hold to the required units.

• 4x Imperial Soldiers (1 as command stand)
• 2x Imperial Heavy Weapon Squads
• 4x Imperial Recon Light Vehicles (1 as command stand)

I look forward to using them against my Sons Of Thunder (Human Imperial) in the near future.  Alien Squad Leader is one of my favorite rulesets, but I haven't been able to properly use it with my single-based armies. Now I have no excuses!

Cheers,

Chris