Martians, Sah, fahsands of 'em!

Well, maybe not thousands, but certainly enough for a game. February is Martians month. I set as my goal this month painting some 15mm Martian infantry for Soldier's Companion, the miniatures rules from Space: 1889. The figures are by Black Hat, and the terrain they are set up on is the Mars Station terrain from WorldWorksGames. I really like both the figures and the terrain.

Well, I have managed to paint them already! The unit in question is the Shastapshian Black regiment. According to the book, this regiment comprises two companies of infantry, one of cavalry and one heavy gun. I do not have the cavalry yet, but may reward myself for completing this set by buying them. Anyway, without further ado, here is the contingent all together (don't forget to click the pictures for a larger image):

Regimental command:

A Company:

B Company:

Artillery:

I have actually enjoyed painting these Martians, although I doubt I shall win any prizes for the paint job, which just involved some quick block painting, a dip in my version of the dip and a little highlighting to round the whole thing off. The next question is what to paint next. I have more Martians to paint, but may focus on something else for a change, possibly the Normans that were a secondary objective from last month.

Mission: Ooh Shiny - Month 2

"Commander, primary objective achieved, sir!"
"Very good, Captain. Proceed with the next phase of the plan."
"Yes, sir!"

With 2VPs in the bag, we now need to defend Mars from the invaders. The primary objective for February will be painting two companies of Black Hat 15mm Martians for a game of Soldier's Companion. Soldier's Companion is the miniatures game from GDW's Space 1889 setting. It is essentially a set of colonial rules with extras for adding in various staples of Victorian Sci-Fi, including walkers, Martians, Venusians, etc. The whole Space 1889 setting is a rich and fertile playground for gaming and the role-playing game supplements can be adapted to create miniatures games. It is our intention to play a game involving the British colonial powers from Syrtis Major on Mars versus my Shastapshian Martians, so we need painted figures. Steve is producing the Brits, while I work on the Martians. Here are some Martians I painted earlier to whet your appetite:

This is the Black Hat character pack that includes a servant, a scholar, a Martian warrior, not-Dejah Thoris, not-John Carter and a big game hunter. I plan to use these figures as the basis of a Fantastic Worlds game, as well as providing characters for Soldier's Companion. The figures I plan to paint for February are shown below. The first picture shows the battalion command, while the second picture shows the two companies that form the basis of this month's mission.



This mission is also worth 2VPs. I have not defined a secondary objective for this month. It is likely that I shall probably focus on more 6mm Great Northern War activity, possibly continuing to rebase my figures, and making sure that, whatever I do, we get on and play games with those same figures.

"Cover me, chaps, I'm going in."