Painting Rebel Minis Grav Tanks

Three new Rebel grav tanks painted. These use the hull from the Tempest Class and the turret from the Thunder Class. I like the heavier feel of the Tempest hull but since the parts are interchangeable I can swap turrets whenever I like. 

I made hover bases for the tanks from an MDF disc and the tip of carry-out chopsticks. The bamboo of the chopsticks is really tough and the tapered tip works perfectly with the hole on the bottom of the tank. Some rubble rock and sand finishes it off.

For the color scheme I wanted a simple and dark color that matched my Titan Marines. I'm calling this unit the "Night Hunters".

Earth Force APCs from Rebel Minis.

Just finished a couple of APCs from Rebel Minis that are truly loaded for bear with four missiles and a large caliber main gun. What better way to deliver troops safely than to annihilate the opposition?

Assembly on these is a breeze, just two track units, the turret, and hull, and they offer a lot of possibility for conversion or stowage modeling.

Now that I'm starting to get a small collection of 15mm sci-fi I'm wondering about a ruleset. Should I try to find one I like or just make my own. So far I've not sampled anything that I particularly care for. Maybe I'll find something at Gen Con.

Painting Rebel Minis Earth Force Hover Tank

Check out how I painted this VIPER here.

Just a quick one today, one of Rebel Minis Earth Force Hover Tanks. I added a tri-barrel weapon from a VIPER Mk. II as well as its chin gun since I was going for a Hammer's Slammers blower tank design. Painting was super simple, (two colors!), with some added Flames of War decals. I think this works really well as a medium or light blower and eventually will be painting units of them.

Painting Rebel Minis VIPER Mk. 1.

Life has been pretty crappy lately so I've been seeking solace at my painting table. I've been listening to a lot of Hammer's Slammers audiobooks as well so I'm getting interested in 15mm sci-fi stuff. To get my painting up to speed and just to enjoy myself I decided to start with three VIPER Mk. 1s from Rebel Minis.

I started by filing and sanding them to get rid of any mold leftovers and washed them with dish soap to remove any weirdness that might have accumulated. These are older minis and have a bit of strata texture from the 3D printing process but not enough to care about. Besides it makes drybrushing work really well and I like the overall texture. I mounted them onto round hardboard bases and added rocks and sand to cover the join.

I also added a small vent piece to cover the rear mounting point. These are made by Kotobukiya and are a great source of very cool add-on bits.

The walkers were then primed black then drybrushed and washed. The cockpits were painted with a standard jewel treatment. I then added a sharks mouth to the front. I like the idea of these as walking A-10 Thunderbolts so I tried to keep the paint scheme similar.

Grrrr...

With Rebel Minis Titan Stormtroopers.

These were really fun to build and paint and I'm looking forward to collecting more Rebel Minis especially their hover tanks and dropships.

Warbot Battle Trooper Mk IV.

It's been a while since I've been able to revisit the Grenadier Miniatures Warbots by John Dennett but I've finally had a chance to finish the Battle Trooper Mk IV. This little fella is pure vintage sci-fi, from his globe-like head to the flared legs. For a warbot meant to fight alongside or against mecha like the Destro Walkers he seems to be lacking a bit in the size department. However the weapon load out of a laser rifle and what I imagine to be some sort of particle cannon implies that while the Battle Trooper might not be able to soak a lot of damage it can deal out plenty.

Like the other Warbots this mini was designed to be used with micro-armor scale games but it also scales up or down really well. With 6mm minis it looks like an imposing, man piloted battlemech. For 15mm and larger it starts to look more like a vintage patrol-bot, designed for use in large numbers and computer controlled. It is a simple design that can be used in a variety of systems and could easily be modified or kit-bashed.

These are currently available from Mirliton in a pack of three minis.

Troops by Rebel Minis.

Trooper conversion using a Wargames Factory Greatcoat Trooper.

Great Race of Yith Preview Miniature.

"They seemed to be enormous, iridescent cones, about ten feet high and ten feet wide at the base, and made up of some ridgy, scaly, semi-elastic matter. From their apexes projected four flexible, cylindrical members, each a foot thick, and of a ridgy substance like that of the cones themselves. 

These members were sometimes contracted almost to nothing, and sometimes extended to any distance up to about ten feet. Terminating two of them were enormous claws or nippers. At the end of a third were four red, trumpet-like appendages. The fourth terminated in an irregular yellowish globe some two feet in diameter and having three great dark eyes ranged along its central circumference.

Surmounting this head were four slender grey stalks bearing flowerlike appendages, whilst from its nether side dangled eight greenish antennae or tentacles. The great base of the central cone was fringed with a rubbery, grey substance which moved the whole entity through expansion and contraction."~ H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time.

The next miniatures that will be released for Eldritch Empires are The Great Race of Yith. These cone shaped creatures use complex hypnosis to force their own minds into other creatures during various epochs in order to gain knowledge and to extend the lifespan of their race. During the time of Eldritch Empires they are inhabiting the bodies of a species native to earth but one that is destined to be destroyed by the mysterious and terrifying polypous beings that haunt them.  

The two clawed tentacles are cast separately allowing for a variety of poses.

The Great Race of Yith are one of my favorite of Lovecraft's Elder Races. Their desire for knowledge and almost magical levels of science make them incredibly interesting. Lovecraft drops tantalizing hints throughout TSOOT about the world that they inhabit in these cone shaped forms even describing various types of transport vehicles and discussing their ways of war. 

"Warfare, largely civil for the last few millennia though sometimes waged against reptilian or octopodic invaders, or against the winged, star-headed Old Ones who centered in the antarctic, was infrequent though infinitely devastating."~ H.P.L.

Although they are extremely tough-bodied even the Makers fear the rending claws of the Great Race.

He mentions their favored weapon as being "camera-like weapons which produced tremendous electrical effects" and although he suggests that these are primarily to deal with the polyps it is not too far of a stretch to imagine them using against their other foes as well.

Lovecraft's biological design of the Yithians is as bizarre as the Elder Things in its seemingly odd combination of parts. Yet when looking at creatures found during the Cambrian Explosion, especially those discovered in the Burgess Shale, it is easy to see how someone with a scientific imagination like Lovecraft could let his mind run riot. Take a look at this brilliant program by David Attenborough to see what I mean:

These will be available soon from Nameless Design Miniatures. Price and shipping still to be determined.

Elder Thing Miniatures Assembly Instructions

Today marks the release of the first miniatures in the Eldritch Empires line, The Elder Things or as they're known in Eldritch Empires: The Makers. These star-headed fellows are pretty much responsible for all native life on Earth, including the abhorrent Shoggoths, and have had aeons of warfare with the other various races that have colonized the planet.

Each miniature consists of eight pieces, 1 head, 1 torso, 1 tentacle base, and 5 arms. 

The arms are cast to a sprue. Make sure when you cut them off that you leave the bit of mounting peg that is attached to each arm.

Sockets should be drilled into the torso for the arm pegs. First file the mounting point flat and then to drill a hole that allows the arm peg to fit snugly.

If you want to pose the arms this needs to be done before they are glued in to the torso. Use a pair of pliers that have a flat jaw surface. It is best to hold a small bit of the arm in the pliers and then press down on the larger bit to bend it. 

If you decide to bend the bottom part make sure you're not bending the mounting peg since this can easily snap off. 

When you assemble the miniature you can pair up two arms to give the effect that the Maker is using its arms in tandem.

Finally just glue the torso to the base and the head on top. You can tell the top of the torso by the small, slit-like gills around the neck. And there you go! Your own Elder Thing ready to brew up some shoggothy goodness.

The next parts I'll be releasing for the Makers will be blasters of some sort. These will plug into the existing torsos to make tactical troopers. These will be followed by swords and shields for The Sensei, the Maker masters of close combat.

These miniatures are currently not for sale but will be again in 2017.

First Miniatures for Eldritch Empires

"Objects are eight feet long all over. Six-foot, five-ridged barrel torso three and five-tenths feet central diameter, one foot end diameters. Dark gray, flexible, and infinitely tough. Seven-foot membranous wings of same color, found folded, spread out of furrows between ridges. Wing framework tubular or glandular, of lighter gray, with orifices at wing tips. Spread wings have serrated edge. Around equator, one at central apex of each of the five vertical, stave-like ridges are five systems of light gray flexible arms or tentacles found tightly folded to torso but expansible to maximum length of over three feet. Like arms of primitive crinoid. Single stalks three inches diameter branch after six inches into five substalks, each of which branches after eight inches into small, tapering tentacles or tendrils, giving each stalk a total of twenty-five tentacles.”

"At top of torso blunt, bulbous neck of lighter gray, with gill-like suggestions, holds yellowish five-pointed starfish-shaped apparent head covered with three-inch wiry cilia of various prismatic colors. Head thick and puffy, about two feet point to point, with three-inch flexible yellowish tubes projecting from each point. Slit in exact center of top probably breathing aperture. At end of each tube is spherical expansion where yellowish membrane rolls back on handling to reveal glassy, red-irised globe, evidently an eye. Five slightly longer reddish tubes start from inner angles of starfish-shaped head and end in saclike swellings of same color which, upon pressure, open to bell-shaped orifices two inches maximum diameter and lined with sharp, white tooth like projections - probably mouths. All these tubes, cilia, and points of starfish head, found folded tightly down; tubes and points clinging to bulbous neck and torso. Flexibility surprising despite vast toughness.”

"At bottom of torso, rough but dissimilarly functioning counterparts of head arrangements exist. Bulbous light-gray pseudo-neck, without gill suggestions, holds greenish five-pointed starfish arrangement. Tough, muscular arms four feet long and tapering from seven inches diameter at base to about two and five-tenths at point. To each point is attached small end of a greenish five-veined membranous triangle eight inches long and six wide at farther end. This is the paddle, fin, or pseudofoot which has made prints in rocks from a thousand million to fifty or sixty million years old. From inner angles of starfish-arrangement project two-foot reddish tubes tapering from three inches diameter at base to one at tip. Orifices at tips. All these parts infinitely tough and leathery, but extremely flexible. Four-foot arms with paddles undoubtedly used for locomotion of some sort, marine or otherwise. When moved, display suggestions of exaggerated muscularity. As found, all these projections tightly folded over pseudoneck and end of torso, corresponding to projections at other end.” ~H.P. Lovecraft, At The Mountains of Madness.

Two Maker scouts make their way through a primordial jungle.

Here are the first miniatures for my upcoming tabletop wargame Eldritch Empires. This game will focus on great battles that take place in the early history of the planet we now call Earth. Throughout the stories of H.P. Lovecraft he describes conflicts between many of the major races that colonized earth. Since it is highly likely that The Elder Things were the first creatures on Earth and created all of its native life I decided to start with them.

This description of The Elder Things gives a very clear picture of the absolutely alien physiology that Lovecraft imagined these creatures to possess. Although they are highly intelligent and wise creatures they possess no visual cues that would endear them to even the most open minded human. Often in science fiction aliens are of the "prosthetic forehead" type, basically humans with some slight cosmetic difference. Lovecraft's aliens are wholly unlike us in any way and more than likely find us to be just as unsettling and ugly. 

In the world of Eldritch Empires these creatures would certainly not call themselves "Elder Things". Instead they prefer a simpler and more elegant title. Amongst themselves they are simply called Makers.

The Eldritch Empires miniatures will be sculpted in 15mm scale to allow them be used with ranges from other manufacturers. Makers are upwards of 8-9 feet tall so the miniatures are 22mm or so.

Following this first release will be Maker Troopers with Orgone Blasters, Heavy Weapons Teams, and The Sensei, who are masters of bladed weapons. The Maker army will focus on  technical prowess, intelligent tactics, and the Maker's legendary toughness.