Bad Landing Infrastructure and Objective Marker

The last few days have been quite busy.

 First up, we have a small building made from a pencil sharpener and a broken part from the Critical Mass objective marker from the last post.

As with the objective marker itself, I painted on the yellow paint extremely thickly with a very small brush to get that streak effect I'm so found of.

In retrospect, basing this terrain piece individually was probably a bad idea. I'm working on a large power plant building (using a polystyrene hemisphere as a centre piece) which is going to have a rather large base with plenty of empty space to place removable civilian vehicles, smaller utility buildings and the like. If I'd left the base off, I'd have a lot more options with regards to where to place this terrain piece on the occasions I use it as part of the larger complex.

And a second reason I'm not so keen on the base: it's far too thin. I only used two layers of cardboard for this base as opposed to my more usual four.

Next we have a large storage tank. Other than painting a damned huge "1" on top I've left it bare of any identifying markings for the sake of ensuring maximum versatility. It might be a water tank one day and a He3 storage tank the next. I haven't even added any external piping to the Army Painter Spray Paint lid I used to make it. Mostly because I intend to create or purchase modular pipelines that I can run into a suitable point at the bottom of the tank. I left the base off so that I can incorporate it into a larger facility or use it as a stand alone piece as needed.

I'm not too happy with the hazard lines at the bottom, but they were the best "parallel" lines I could manage in the time available.

Here we have an old, repainted Flames of War objective marker. A crashed WWII German plane. I'll be sticking a few Imperial Guard decals onto this one to finish it off. It's not the the crash for which Bad Landing is named. I need to find a suitably large model space-ship kit to cut up for that first, but a major crash-site is definitely on the cards.

Finally, we have a work in progress shot of a worker's barracks I made from architects' styrene. Only one of them appears here, but the other two are identical. Ideally I would have liked to cut out windows and use clear plastic for the "glass" but I'm not sure it would be wise to weaken the structure so much. Instead, I plan on gluing metal windows, doors and accessories from GZG to the three huts. Each one is 80mm long by 40mm wide by 30mm high. Again I've neglected to include a miniature for scale. As you can see from the picture, the roofs are removable.

I made three of these from one sheet costing about seven pounds. I still have enough left over to make some "repair patches" and even some sheet metal fencing. So not a bad deal really. I just wish the material was a little bit stronger. I've considered reinforcing it with cocktail sticks and the like, but that would mean gluing on the roofs as the interior wouldn't look right.

Anyway, tomorrow a photo and stats of my WH40K Rogue Trader Navigator figure in 28mm and 15mm scales. After that, well, I'm working on some Tau Fire Warrior conversions for my 15mm GZG New Israeli miniatures. The white metal doesn't show up very well in photographs but I'll have pictures put up as soon as they're painted.

Bad Landing Grows

Most of my promised scenery for Bad Landing isn't quite ready yet. Hopefully I should be able to post some more photo's tomorrow.

 In the meantime, here's a sub-station/generator that I've already completed. Or, as it's known elsewhere, a Critical Mass Games' Objective Maker. I deliberately smeared the paint on thick and brushed it on with a too-small brush. In combination with the quick-shade wash I reckon I gives a nice "streaked" effect. I also neglected to touch up a few spots where the new, yellow paint got splashed onto other parts of the building. Hopefully it add's to the suggestion that this is an old, pre-used building with a quick lick of paint thrown own before being sent to another colony. If it looks odd, let me know and I'll tidy it up. It was just a notion.

The building actually is a repaint of a (slightly broken) building I finished months ago. I never did like the combination of dark blue building and grey terrain so I plumped for something a little brighter. It was my intention to paint all the Bad Landing buildings in the same colour as this one. But having seen how nicely Gunrunner's mixed-colour GZG shacks turned out, I'm considering a little more variance for the colony. I might simply keep the golden yellow for infrastructure buildings alone.


I also finished up a small batch of 28mm sand-bags from Black Cat bases I bought about five years back. The individual sandbags themselves are clearly out-of-scale, being larger than the figures themselves, but the overall height is about right for 15mm. There's nothing spectacular about them. Just two lairs of dry brushing, but they do the job well enough. In retrospect, I should have put a 15mm figure in the picture for scale. Ah well.

More Ork's and Bad Landing buildings coming up in the next few days.

15mm Space Orks

Mini's by GZG. Painting by me.  Photo by Amber Renarde.

My first batch of 15mm "Space Orks" are ready for games of 40K and Rogue Trader. I'm really happy with how they turned out. Only another 26 to go. The mini's are "Alien Mercenaries" from Ground Zero Games. Strictly speaking they're not designed to be 40K Orks as such, just generic "Thug" aliens. But they do the job pretty damn well.

In an early post I suggested I might pick up another 36 of da ladz for gaming, but really 36 Orks are enough for a game of 1st ed WH40K Rogue Trader. I'll hold off on buying in any more in favour of picking up an Imperial Guard Platoon's worth of Rebel Miniature's Neo-Sovs.

Bad Landing Update:

I've also been busily working away on expanding Bad Landing. I have a couple of infra-structure type buildings nearing the final stages of painting. I've also finished some 25mm Sand-bag emplacements designed for gun-teams lying down which don't look too bad for 15mm. Finally, I've made a batch of three "corrugated iron" barracks-style buildings to house poorer workers from sheet syrene. The buildings are just a shell at the moment, awaiting windows, vents, fuse boxes and the likes which I'll be ordering from GZG as soon as Jon clears his back-log.

Oh, and I have a chem-pit that'll be finished just as soon as I can find a pair of wire cutters that will actually cut car door wire mesh without going blunt on me. Expect some Work In Progress shots soon.

Hmm. Speaking of buildings. I might just hold off on buying those Neo-Sovs for a little bit longer and order Jon's Colony Shack set instead. No point buying too many toy soldiers 'til I have something for them to fight over.

15mm Warhammer 40K and the Bad Landing Campaign.

Cyborg by "Christianson". Used without permission

Over the next few months, I plan on having a good few games of WH40K using 15mm armies. The plan is to set all my house games played on my terrain on the (sometimes) Imperial World of Bad Landing.

The idea is to play out various battles in the World's History ranging from the Age of Conquest, right through the Horus Heresy and on up into the 41st Millennium. Earlier period games will be played out using the 1st edition WH40K Rogue Trader rules - reflecting the presence of Robots, power-field protected vehicles and similar Tech- up to and just after the Horus Heresy (when so much technical lore was destroyed. Again). Later period games will be played out using 5th edition 40K for larger battles, but I'll be using "In The Emperor's Name," Necromunda and perhaps even Inquisitor for some of the smaller skirmishes.

The hard part of the project will be the business of building and modelling 40K armies and settlements in 15mm. Fortunately, I'll be able to use some of the available GW 28mm buildings during some periods of the colony's history. Those GW buildings look pretty decent next to 28mm miniatures, but used in a 15mm game they really take on some of the grandeur we would expect from public buildings in the Imperium. Hell, if I'm really lucky I might be able to work in some games of Epic/Space Marine.

I look forward to recording the growth of my various 15mm Armies and (possibly) some 28mm skirmish forces on this blog. I'll also be charting the "historical development" of Bad Landing through battle reports and, hopefully, a mini campaign or two. Hopefully, the world will change hands several times through play, with the human Colony being destroyed and rebuilt, reconquered or resettled several times during the course of our games. Should be great

Versatile Mini's: Ground Zero Games

One of the things I love so much about 15mm sci-fi miniatures is there versatility. It's very easy to set aside multiple uses for the same set of figures -and all the more so because so few 15mm miniatures have the instant "brand recognition" of the likes of GW's Space Marines or Privateer Press' Warmachine Line.

The New Israeli's from GZG's are a case in point. Earlier this year I painted a batch of these figures to represent Mass Effect human marines. Now, with a quick re-paint with a nifty white colour scheme I can use them as Imperial Stormtroopers for games of D6 Star Wars Battles. I also intend to use them as Zaman Droptroopers for games of Tomorrow's War. And, in a pinch, considering I intend to add many walkers to the force (in keeping with the Stormtrooper theme), I could even use them as Tau. However, that being said, I have the GZG UN troopers ear-marked for any Tau invasion of Bad Landing.

What's more, by swapping out the aforementioned walker-type vehicles for more traditional tracked or wheeled vehicles, I can even field these miniatures as an especially well-armoured Imperial Guard force. It's amazing (to me at least) how much use a 15mm gamer can squeeze out of one set of figures, helped along simply by a few minor changes in the force structure and some tailoring of vehicle themes for the force.

But I reckon that for a versatile 15mm alien range, you can't go wrong with GZG's Alien Mercenary sets SG15-X05 and SG15-X08. Three blisters will net you 36 of these monsters -which are ideal for painting up as Gears of War Locust, 40K Orks, the Mercenaries from Fifth Element or any other "thug" type alien race you care to mention -even Star Wars Gamorreans! I only have 36 of these guys at the moment, but I intend to net myself another three packs soon to take the force up to 72. I also plan to add in a few vehicles with a random selection of "Orky" refinements made up out of green stuff. That said, I could have just as easily painted my lads grey and purchased a few of the more insect-like miniatures lines out there for Bio-tech support (Khurasan's insect aliens make for excellent grubs) and painted myself a Locust army instead. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact the grey Locust skin would be lost in the lunar-themed scenery of Bad Landing, I probably would have.

Anyway, that photo just up there is a snap-shot of my first test-miniature for the "Ork" force I'm building for Rogue Trader and Tomorrow's War. I've painted quite a few more of them since then, but dearly beloved is down visiting her mum for the holidays and so there'll be no more photo's till she comes home.

 Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays. Until next time.

15mm GZG Free Trader Crew & The City of Bad Landing.

Crew of the "Glow-Worm" class vessel Sanguinity, if you follow me. Available as two separate blister packs from Ground Zero Games: SG15-X04A and SG15-X04B.

SG15-XO4A

SG15-XO4B

Unfortunately, the lighting conditions for these pictures weren't wonderful (my painting spot-light can only do so much) so the marvellous detail of the GZG sculpts doesn't come through all that well. But let me tell you they're lovely sculpts and instantly recognisable. The reading crew-member in the second picture even has a sculpted moustache. The individual sections of the well-dressed lady's tiara and necklace are also sculpted very cleanly.


Recently, I've been moving away from the concept of 15mm solely in a Mass Effect Context. This should be good news for everyone who follows this blog (all dozen or so of you), especially given it means I'll be posting more often. So, what am I up to 15mm wise?

Bad Landing Terrain Project:

In recent weeks I've set about re-painting my GZG New Israelis. While the Grey colour scheme was very close to what I was after, it just doesn't go well with my "luna-scape" 15mm sci-fi basing. Now they have something of the Imperial Stormtrooper look going for them (pictures to follow). I could have simply changed the basing style, of course. But that would be problematic. You see, my biggest project right now is the creation of a 15mm "Colony" board. The city of "Bad Landing". I'm going for a look inspired by the Hadley's Hope colony from the movie Aliens, with a little bit of the settlement from the BBC TV series Outcasts as well. I'm hoping to portray the settlement through several era's of it's development.

In stage one, it'll be a simple mining/terraforming/geo-survey colony. So the original buildings will be pre-fab and shanty style structures, with maybe a bar, a landing port and a few industrial looking structures or two. Not to mention an atmosphere processor. The terrain piece in the Free-Trader pictures is from this era: it's a repainted Pegasus Hobby's WWII ammo dump. On this board, it will represent the dump for seismic survey charges and mining charges rather than an actual ammo dump, but I think it looks the part.

Another look at the Re-Painted Ammo Dump from Pegasus.

In stage two I'll add small apartment buildings such as those made by Old Crow, a larger hospital, police station and so on. Perhaps even a few agri-domes or an enclosed park of two. This will mark the beginning the colony's growth into a proper town rather than a mere frontier mining settlement. The landscape will still mostly be a barren lunar rock, and the colony will start to look more established and settled. However, we're still talking more Mos Eisley than Star Trek Earth.

Stage three will see the addition of high-rise buildings, corporate headquarters, malls, franchise style stores and the like. By this stage the colony will have more of a "Traveller" look than an near-future look, but there should still be plenty of opportunities for game play. Again, the soil will be of the lunar rock variety, but gene-tailored plants  and open air parks and gardens will make the city look much greener than it did in the early stages.

I hope to have a few more updates on my progress posted soon. Currently, my WIP for the settlement is an industrial-style cess-pit. Other than the fencing around the edge, it's almost done. After that, I have a few more buildings in mind. You won't be seeing any actual habitat buildings for a while though. I need to order in some building parts from Jon at GZG before I have a go at those. My skills with the old Green Stuff simply aren't up to the task.

In the Emperor's Name

Last night, I had the chance to lead my Imperial Guard squad in support of Gary's Inquisitorial Kill Team in my first ever game of "In The Emperor's Name," a set of skirmish rules based on GW's 40k Universe.

It is a simple, un-complicated and (best of all) free system which was frankly a delight to play. So much so that I've now been persuaded to follow up our successful rescue of a captured Throne Agent from the evil clutches of a Genestealer Cult by taking part in a new campaign.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with me to the game. But I shall do better next week, when we're having another practice game. Now that I've seen how my force works I have a few ideas about how to improve it. Alas, Commisar Savage, did not survive the first practice game, so my new force will be based around the very capable L.t Mason, who did survive the skirmish (and covered in glory too). I plan on adding an Ogryn and a sniper to my force for next week's game.

You can download this awesome little game and try it out for yourself, here: 

Look out for pictures and a game report soon.