Plastic Fantastic 4: Sci-Fi Bio Domes

My recent dabblings in 6mm Sci-Fi, and the on-again/off-again 2/3mm Sci-Fi project has had me casting around for some ideas regarding scenery, and whilst as the regular reader might have noticed, Hobby activity has been a bit thin on the ground of late, I did manage to source these interesting candidates in Lego via Evilbay....

What could be more futuristic than Bio-Domes, from worlds-in-a-bottle archetypes a la Logan's Run, to the Agri-ships of Silent Running and Battlestar Galactica?

I think these particular examples relate to some sort of undersea diving toy, and most tellingly of course, the cockpit glass of a Lego T.I.E fighter, however when placed on a suitable base, could do duty as protection from the poisonous atmosphere of most Alien worlds.

They're not particularly large, but this example from the outbuildings pack available from Brigade Models looks pretty good ensconced in its 'bubble', I think:

Talking of worlds-in-a-bottle, how about this City base from Mighty Empires - this would certainly go well alongside the 2/3mm Sci-Fi stuff - adds a sort of super-villians lair look to the whole:

The smallest dome, seen here alongside the large MHU from Angel Barracks, with one of those ubiquitous plastic bottle caps for scale, is not going to fit much in the way of habitat, but would look pretty spiffing housing the mutant product of a deranged experiment in a laboratory complex, or maybe a single earth tree specimen the colonists couldn't part with when they travelled off-world:

Given the pocket-money prices these can be picked up for, (or free, of course, if you raid the kid's toy box...) they are never going to be big enough to contain full-on 6mm buildings, but they still scale well alongside some well-known characters from a certain Space Opera:

These are from Irregular Miniatures, and are among a few dozen cool minis I've been inspired into painting up recently, joined as you see below by my version of a unit of Decontamination Troops - Power Armour from Brigade Models, and the excellent Comms set from Michael at Angel Barracks:

Who of course are here to deal with any ugly and troublesome Alien Infestations that they come across - to whit the excellent Drill Worm Nests from Angel Barracks:

I'd like to see any parasitic Alien fauna, or even face-huggers take on these guys, in their hardened Hazmat suits.....

These bases still need finishing off, of course, when time permits, and I keep telling myself that this is all just a sideshow to all the rest of my projects, but I guess only time will tell.....

Small Scale Sci-Fi: Drone Army Progress

In the current spirit of 'getting on with stuff', here's a few photos of an old project now almost complete; namely the Small Scale Sci-Fi Drone Army made up of the 3mm AFVs by Germy available from GZG.

In line with my previous efforts, they are mounted up on 50x40mm artist's card bases backed with magnetic sheeting - the general idea is to produce a number of army factions on roughly company-sized unit bases, that will then battle it out under the auspices of some Homebrew rules.

Bases will be divided into a number of classifications, from Super Heavy through Medium to Light via Scout, Attack, Aerospace and Infantry, etc, giving a quick play basic system of combat. In theory, bases will be identifiable by the number and placement of the miniatures thereon, as much as by their size or appearance.

The only exception so far, in typical fashion of course, is my version of the Germy Cyber Tank, which is intended here as an Ogre-type vehicle, in the guise of the Drone controller unit.

Then again, I haven't yet sorted out how Aerospace units - VTOL, ground attack, shuttles, drop-pods will be based yet either......

The base colour is provided by some Homebase sample-sized matt emulsion named "Delicious", to give a sort of Martian dust look; I have a vague and somewhat experimental notion of using a playing surface that is not flocked or even coloured - so the unit bases themselves will be the only colouring - each faction sort of taking their background along with them as it were - not sure how much play this will actually have though, in the long term....

Moving on to one of my favourite notions when handling Sci-Fi, namely the all-scale 'mash-up', where mixing and matching various minis can provide some interesting effects - let's see the Drone scout machines alongside some 6mm USNC Hardsuit Infantry from GZG:

I think that they would make some pretty good mini-warbot type machines to accompany 6mm troops, kind of like some of the robots currently under development:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIuRVr8z_WE&feature=related

Next, the Germy Cyber tank alongside a couple of items from Brigade Models in 6mm, the German Thrall Hover Truck and SAC Wildebeest Command APC:

Given the size of the Germy piece, it would certainly give most 6mm a run for it's money, if not an Ogre, then at least a pretty big mega-tank thingie:

My plan is to go back and flesh out some of the other factions for this project, namely the Alien Telosians and Krevlak, the Humanoid Mid-Tech Rimworlders and Federation - looking in particular to add in further units and make-over the somewhat sparse bases, and then do a couple of other factions that have a movie theme, then work on the rules themselves - so hopefully more to come on all of this in the near future.

Small Scale Sci-Fi Reboot: 2mm Drone Army

A re-visit to an old project now, thanks mainly to the Lead Mountain trade with David Crook of A Wargaming Oddysey, that enabled me to bulk out the available forces in teeny-tiny scale. These came in the form of some of the excellent 2mm minis designed by Jeremy 'Germy' Claridge, available from GZG.

Having had a look at some traditional Alien and Human protagonists previously, I thought it might be fun to have a go at an army of automatons or drones - I was recently re-enthused by the great work being done by Andrew Beasley and his 'Earth vs. the Flying Saucers' project:

http://2mmwars.blogspot.com/search/label/EVFS

His own Human armoured units had me reaching for the brush to do a necessarily basic, but I hope effective scheme to represent automated armour and support, that would be used to counter the heavier weapons and capabilities of an Alien enemy - sort of a 'quantity overcomes quality' type of strategy.

Germy's 2mm is, in spite of its diminutive scale, very clearly sculpted and has bags of character, without looking too cartoonish or overblown. A great example is the GMM10 Medium hover APC - I'm going to use it as a type of 'swarm' light vehicle - here in a couple of colour schemes, so I can do a sort of two-echelon army, brown and green:

Next up some support units - I did little more than the base colour, grey hover skirt outlines, and pick out the weapons; a rather skew-whiff attempt at a sensor window with red stripes over white stands as the marker of their homogeneity:

Moving on to the meat of the units, namely the GMM02 Heavy armour, which on my terms serves in a more medium role:

These are backed up by the GMM01 Super-heavy, probably closer to heavy for my purposes:

I reserve the moniker Super-heavy in this case for that other amazing sculpt from Germy, namely the GMM CYB1 Cybertank - I figure this army of diminutive drone vehicles will need a Drone Controller - it could even, in an Ogre style, be an artificial intelligence in itself, not necessarily crewed, but would obviously need to be much more hardcore than its tiny minions:

As you'll notice, I've made my own interpretation of the Cybertank - Germy's version can be found at the GZG website, but they kindly provide the whole in what is effectively kit form, with all the various turrets and weapons separate, allowing you to go wild with your own versions:

I threw in some plastic tubing from an ink pen, and a radar/comms dish from who knows where to mark its role as controller, oh and plenty of guns and of course the land-train style missile carriage to go along too:

It will be a while before I have time to get these guys based and furthermore re-boot the original small scale forces I did some time ago, but I thought a quick effort would encourage me to get some work in wherever I could - obviously the Cybertank is next on the list.

Just one slightly left-field idea occurred to me whilst I was working on these - the shape of the Heavy Tank in particular got me thinking.... a very quick and rough paintjob later, and we maybe have some re-booted maniacal pepperpots on the horizon too.....?

New "Test" Project: WTJ Eylau Sequence MGVs

A look now at yet another "Test" project, this time Sci-Fi related, in the shape of the excellent 'Eylau Sequence' minis produced by War Times Journal. Yes, you guessed it, the recent rush of shiny new metal across the pages of the Blog has ignited the need for more of the same - and I found myself justifying just a small purchase of a selection of these intriguing models.....only to test the water as it were...... :-)

For some time now, Jim over at WTJ has been working on a whole new type of line, a far cry from his normal 1/3000th naval, and has come up with a product that is of similar quality, which is further supported by a whole slew of relevant gaming and background information, from creative fiction to stats and rules - you might say he has written a whole new Sci-Fi Universe into the canon, or should that be Microverse?

I won't attempt to explain the well-thought out and inspiring ideas behind the range here, the WTJ site itself has links to all the relevant information, but suffice to say that what we have is a future war where the main protagonists employ tiny or even microscopic vehicles to engage each other, autonomous, armed and deadly!

http://www.eylau.com/about/

http://www.wtj.com/store/

Being such a small scale fanatic, I knew I couldn't resist the siren call of these 'tiny' minis for long, so took the plunge with the sculpts that I will be showcasing here.

Now WTJ, in the same way as their 1/3000th Pre-Dreadnoughts, have detailed photographs of the miniatures on their site, so I won't attempt to replicate those here, but merely relate those I acquired to one another to give an idea of how my own project might shape up.

Two of the factions in the Eylau Sequence story have vehicles that are named for, and loosely designed around real-world flora and fauna, with the Californians employing reptiles, and the Selangor carnivorous fish. The Mediterranean states are the exception with a less organic look, deploying craft of hard, technical weapon-related nomenclature.

I got a selection of heavy and light from the various factions, with a view to producing a sort of battleship and escorts type of unit from each.

From the Californians, then, we have the larger L35 Chameleon (WTJ-9011501) and the smaller L63 Whiptail (WTJ-9011502):

The sculpts on these are clean and sleek, with the very high quality detailing familiar to purchasers of the company's ships. There are some mould lines visible, but to be honest at this scale, these become more part of the design than extraneous to it, and where present are very clean and sharp. Seen here in their 'out-of-packet' state, there is a small amount of venting/flashing remnants, but nothing worth speaking of.

The intriguing concepts brought forward from WTJ, not only the miniature technology but the 'organic' design background are fresher than the standard 'future aerospace-spacecraft with wings' or 'alien equals bulbous bugs' approach, and I think it is great to see some new thinking in terms of styling making it from concept to the gaming table - I have seen in various discussion forums that these minis could equally be used as Grav-tanks or even Fleet-scale spacecraft, as well as for their intended purpose.

In keeping, perhaps, with this novel approach, WTJ has decided to include a unique mounting system with these miniatures; to whit a notched metal part to the base of the mini that corresponds with it's own small metal stand and base - these are included within the purchase price of the mini itself.

I was initially sceptical about this, having moved alongside most gamers into the area of using magnets and plastic stands for vehicles such as this, and I also feared, given the small weight of the minis themselves, for what the balance and fit would be like.

I need not have worried; in line with the product quality on show elsewhere in their ranges, WTJ's MGVs should fit neatly and easily onto the stands - indeed, in the following picture, the Chameleon and its partner are balanced 'au-naturel' on the corresponding base pedestal - at this stage no glue involved!

Of course, gluing would be necessary, and the company has thoughtfully provided advice on their website as to how this is done, although many people might have their own ideas as to how to do this, or might even feel the notch and groove pedestal would not fit into their standard basing - but I don't think this makes the minis any less attractive!

Moving on, we see the EU11 Mace (WTJ-9011406) alongside the EU7 Lance (WTJ-9011404):

These Mediterranean/Australian craft have a much more technical look, and would therefore, perhaps, more easily fit in as alternatives alongside existing small-scale Sci-Fi ranges.

It wouldn't be hard to imagine either as Fleet-scale starships, for instance.

I think the L35 Chameleon is particularly effective, and has great proportions, and let's face it, just looks d*mned cool, even in an unpainted state:

It's heavyweight foe might be the K312 Rock Shark (WTJ-9011306), which has a really menacing aspect, again with a technical edge.

These micro- or even nano-bots look like they could kick up some serious fuss, even if it is on such a small scale - the game statistics themselves feature the option to have them battling it out out with insects, fungii or even malevolent mold, and the terrain might be littered with impeding ice crystals, dust or hair!

At the moment, my take on these minis will probably follow the conventions laid out by WTJ themselves, including the basing - I've even got a bag of mini toy plastic insects somewhere that would add some colour to their combats - but it does occur to me that the more organic-looking sculpts might even do double duty as some scary alien Aero-Fauna in VSF/Aeronef gaming.

Hopefully, a lick of paint should firm these ideas up a bit, and I'll return to these little beasties in forthcoming posts - in the meantime, remember the old adage that it isn't the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog - small can be deadly!

6mm Dalek Heavy Metal Update

Some progress photos of the 6mm Dalek Heavy units for you now, just to show how things are getting on. The units are yet to be based, and I'm not totally satisfied with the colour schemes as they are, but it's a start, anyway!

The walkers went together quite nicely with their 'drivers', and I thought I'd go with a sort of futuristic-looking camouflage scheme, but so far, this has only evolved into a few splotches of random colours - these are echoed on the Dalek units themselves, but given their size, have ended up making them look a bit grubby, rather than sleek and menacing!

The Naval units were a bit more straightforward, although again the scheme is not 100 percent; I had toyed with the idea of doing them in Pre-Dreadnought colours, but the this got me thinking of a whole new project involving 'Victorian' Daleks taking on pre-1900 Martian Invaders, and I had to go and have a lie down in a darkened room before I got distracted into new territory yet again......

These make some good riverine units, I think, although they could do with a bit more detailing, as well as an ink-wash to pull things together.....maybe some more added antennas/radar dish type thingies would give them a more workmanlike look, and...well...make them seem less like metallic ducks? (!).

Exactly how would a Dalek say "Quack"?

I've also been thinking about taking these units further, by playing around with some Marine Daleks to work alongside them - this has so far only got to adding a blue scheme to the standard grey, but might yet evolve into more camouflaged types.....or will I be drawn back towards those Colonial landing parties ideas yet again?

Some close-ups of the walking Daleks next - I like the proportions as they are, so not sure if I should go with an 'up-gunning' with various weapon pods or arms, as yet:

The bases, of course, need finishing,these will probably end up being mounted on UK 2 penny pieces, for ease of storage. (The newer coins have a ferrous core, so handily stick to magnetic sheeting)

I suppose if I'd been really clever, I would have chopped one off at the legs, and had it emerging from the river - being this tall, units like this could merely wade across such an obstruction - an idea superbly carried through here, with Martian war machines:

http://justahandfulofmen.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

So, coming along slowly then, anyway, but these have got me thinking:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqW0hQdhNXXT6nyZTyUtfIQofUPkCNuo7doR4SNE5GMYjIL1fey5l3XOrgVIMYq2YSvJyrJRhLRDoGpOQE2-BuwsQEpNs6myJZ_n2vcG9qa5Tt6vwiArLcDq5esMRVn90EUcFW8N9hiA96/s1600-h/Dalek-Tank-Inks.jpg

http://www.slipperybrick.com/2008/06/steampunk-dalek-has-wheels-cant-climb-stairs/

The second link is from a blog which has loads of VSF/Steampunk goodies, BTW, well worth a look.....meanwhile, where did I put those spare 1/300th tank chassis?

6mm Dr Who: Dalek Heavy Metal

Thoroughly inspired by my recent reading of the fantastic narrative and pictorial work over at Mechmaster's CG Lair, I thought I'd re-visit an old project, and add some new Heavy Units to my Dalek army.

http://www.cg-lair.co.uk/daleks/secemp-index.htm

The online graphic novel adventures of 'Daleks- Second Empire' are are an absolute creative tour de force, and cannot help but get fans like myself thinking of the various possibilities if you lay the traditional 'canon' story arcs to one side, and go wild with the inherent potential of those tin-pot dictators playing out their meglomaniac plans.

I heartily recommend reading the online novel from the very beginning; yes, the humour can be a bit off the wall, and purists may shudder at the interpretation, but I think it is highly entertaining and well worth a visit as it continues.

Having in the past added some flying saucers to offer an air capability, I thought it only fair that any expansion of the force should see some naval craft; we've seen on screen, at least, that the Daleks can move underwater - there is that iconic image of one emerging from the River Thames - but I don't think we've ever come across them speeding about in boats.

My starting point, as you can see above, was the slightly unusual candidate of the IKBO4 Monitor from Irregular Miniatures' 2mm 20th Century Boats range. The sculpts in this group are quite quirky and enigmatic, and perhaps are not that closely representative of actual vessels, but for some reason the shape of this particular craft has always caught my eye.

Perhaps it is the flat forward turret and its guns that are so suggestive of the mid body accoutrements of the Daleks, but after a bit of surgery on some of the NSF7 'attack robots', I couldn't resist popping some on top:

I envisage these as a form of fast patrol craft that enable the Daleks to conquer even watery worlds, speeding along hovercraft-like as scouts or interdictors.

You can see them above next door to a Germy-designed 'GMM-42' 18mm Mecha from Ground Zero Games, that I was contemplating working on, when the influence of 'Second Empire' really took a hold of me.

If the artist/creator there can come up with everything from special sniper units to pink-coloured TV Reporter Daleks, why couldn't I go the extra mile as well......the only downfall of the pepper-pot dictators has always been their inability to climb stairs, due to their obvious lack of lower limbs, so I thought, why not terrify the Universe out of its complacency, and give them legs?

So now nowhere is safe from their depredations:

The Mech head was left off, and replaced with a piece of plasti-card bridging, topped by a steel spacer from my bicycle brake pads (Hope these won't need replacing anytime soon...!), to give an invincible walking Dalek.

I may well add in some weapon packs for extra fire-power on these, as well as toying around with the idea of modelling hover cushions to go under the water-craft, but you can see the general theme emerging here; the Daleks are going to be an all-arms, all terrain force from now on...stay tuned for some updates as work on these and other insane creations progresses!

Small-Scale Sci-Fi: Plasmablast Games Review

I thought I'd do a quick run-through review of some recent acquisitions here at SteelonSand Towers, which in typical fashion crept in under the wire, and added metal to a project that was officially on hold....so much for good intentions!

The temptations in question were a couple of types from the new kid on the block in the 6mm Sci-Fi market, namely PlasmaBlast Games, run by Marios in Greece.

http://www.plasmablastgames.com/index.html

Now as ever, I need little excuse to feed the 'metal' habit, and to be honest, I didn't have a clear role or niche in mind when ordering these particular minis, although having got my hands on them, quite a few interesting possibilities have opened up.

As you can see above, I chose the Nizzlebat Light Grav Tank and Jagon Medium Grav Tank from the Orbital Combine, as well as the Barracuda Medium Tank and Spiderblade Light Assault Tank from the Progenitors.

Ordering was efficient and easy via the Plasmablast Website, and the choice of turrets available for the various vehicles meant you could tailor the order to suit your particular requirements; I went for the Infantry support version of both Barracuda and Spiderblade.

The order arrived within eight days direct from Greece, and was well packed in a strong cardboard box, the minis themselves being in the usual plastic ziploc baggies.

What was immediately noticeable was the quality of the casting of these models, with absolutely no flash being present, and the whole very clean and in proportion. Mold lines are visible, but are not obtrusive.

They are a little on the pricey side in comparison to similar from GZG or Brigade, but given the quality and the fresh and interesting design concepts on show, they are well worth the expenditure.

Plasmablast have some excellent photos of their product up on their website, including detailed images of all the various variants, so I won't duplicate their efforts here, merely show what I purchased in their 'naked', unpainted states, which should give any potential buyer a closer idea of what they will actually receive.

In turn then , the Nizzlebat and the Jagon:

Some beautiful, techie-looking lumps, bumps and protrusions, and a really unique looking design, make these a sure thing for depicting something suitably Alien and menacing. The Jagon turret, as with all the models, fits in nice and snugly, and is an intrinsic part of the model, rather than being just an afterthought, with a whacking great gun to boot!

(Remember, all shots on this page are clickable for an enlarged, Macro view)

From above, you can see the comparative sizes, the larger mini being around 24mm in hull length:

From behind, the superlative detailing is also apparent:

Moving on to the other two, the Spiderblade is on the left (Which is described on the website as a 'stripped down' version of the other), whilst the Barracuda is resplendent on the right with full-length steel skirts protecting and enclosing the running gear:

This is more apparent in the following photo, where you can see a side view; again the design concepts at work mean that you could choose a particular vehicle type for a particular role on your table top, an approach well explored by in particular, Brigade, and also effectively engineered here:

The rear view again gives you an idea of the size, here in the 25mm or so range:

Moving on then, I thought I'd throw in some comparison shots, and below we see the Barracuda up against the Wildebeest HQ APC, SF300-607b, from the SAC faction, a hefty counterpart if there ever was one:

I think it more than holds its own in the role of a medium to heavy tank, an appearance which is underlined when it is placed beside the German Thrall Hover Truck, SF300-310, also from Brigade:

I've been a little underwhelmed by the rather old-school Warsaw Pact feel of some of the MBTs from the recent Brigade Neo-Soviet releases, and have been considering these new contenders to make up part of just such a force, so here is the Barracuda up against the Kunitsa APC, SF300-1203:

Hmmm, certainly more on the medium side of things, I think, but a good, solid looking counterpart all round.

Of course, my initial approach to small-scale Sci-Fi was based around the use of Irregular's 2mm range, and in particular the cross-over potential of various scales of mini, but I must admit that the quality of this exciting new range has me wondering whether I ought to deploy some purely 6mm units too......is that a version of 'scale creep', I wonder.....

So finally, then, the Nizzlebat in the company of that old favourite, the 2mm IKSF28 two legged walker:

Not too badly out of scale, and again opens up the possibilities of some mixing and matching as the mood takes me - certainly I would heartily recommend investing in this new range of models, particularly as Marios expands it, and I for one, will probably continue to be tempted whilst I drift aimlessly toward yet another new project!