Nalle and the reindeer

Well, ok, it's not quite a reindeer, it was a small whitetail doe who hangs out up the ridge a bit from our house. My dog Nalle and I sometimes encounter her when we are on walks in the early evening, but we hadn't seen her once since the hurricane.

So i was very pleased to see her on Christmas Eve of all nights, perhaps scouting location for her kin who will be so busy tonight. Nalle is a Finnish Spitz, a breed born to bark, and she had a few choice words for the doe before we turned around and went back to the house -- I had a few more gifts to pack, and then orders to catch up on! But not before I got a snap or two of Nalle and the doe. (It was getting dark so I lightened the image a bit.)

Happy holidays to everyone and thanks for making this our biggest year ever. Many new things coming in 2013!

The Hauk Yearn for Contact

The Hauk looked to the stars and wondered.  They knew they were not alone, the only race in all of infinity to think and feel, to be aware of what it means to be alive.  They felt this in their hearts, and the telepaths, mostly hatchlings and hens, could sense that it was so, with great certainty in fact.  But all feelings aside, they also knew it as a fact.  For in their ancient past, they had indeed not been alone – two sentient races had evolved on Pandion at the same time, but now only one, the Hauk, survived.

The Hauk were slower to reach sentience, and when they did the Krall were already sailing great ships upon the three seas, scrabbling across the decks, their black carapaces glistening with the salt water spray.  Anchoring themselves to the galley roof hang-racks using their spiky tails, the Oar-Kralls swung upside down and rowed, four oars to each Krall, as they chirped out songs in time, songs about seafaring ancestors, their antennae waving in unison as they sang together.  Crowning the head of each Krall were seven lidless round eyes, arranged in a circle, and each of these peered out anxiously across the endless grey sea, searching for land.  And find land they did, having settled two other continents and numerous islands beyond their own. 

Hauk rifle infantry

On one fateful morning, when a boatload of Krall found land, they found the Hauk too -- savage feathered creatures, utterly unlike the Krall, running swiftly on a single pair (a single pair?) of hindlegs across the plains between the great coniferoid forests, hunting with a primitive missile weapon resembling a sling.  Stranger creatures than these no Krall journal had never recorded, and for their part the Hauk were terrified by the black monstrosities that swarmed like so many great scorpions up and out of the tall ships anchored to the shore.

This Hauk grav APC has only one chin rotary gun mounted but many mount two, or a pair of seeker missiles

After many false starts the Hauk and the Krall established rudimentary communications and then an accord, and the Krall set about teaching the ways of civilisation to their new charges.  And this was their undoing, for within four generations the Hauk had utterly destroyed the Krall and extinguished all evidence that the black arachnoids had ever built cities or sung songs together as they sailed the grey seas.  Hauk cities (built above the ground this time) and Hauk fleets replaced these.  Hunted without mercy, not a single Krall survived, although there were rumours – just old hen’s tales really -- that in the deserts, hidden in caves, individual Krall endured, and stole the souls of unwary Hauk in vengeance for what had been done to their world.

Hauk Armoured Fighting Suits are piloted by veterans and can carry a variety of weapons

For millennia this story was passed down as an inspirational myth amongst the Hauk: The cleansing of the world of the black abominations that streamed out of crevices, clicking.  But as Hauk civilisation matured and weathered war after war between their great nation states, they came to understand themselves better for what they truly were.  Hand in hand with this growing awareness came scientific research and analysis of the tiny fragments of Krall culture which remained.  Jaded Hauk society began to actually mourn the ugly, beautiful creatures they had shared this world with so briefly, so long ago. There was a Krall craze in Hauk culture.  Romantic female Hauk took Krall names when they reached maturity, to the exasperation of their parents.  “Krall Epics,” animated drama vids set during great moments in Krall history, were produced and became hugely successful, being watched by millions of Hauk, even across opposing nation states. 

 To a bird, each Hauk yearned for another chance.  They wanted to meet a new civilisation and join it, partners in the stars.  And surely this was close at hand?  Hauk hatchlings often had the gift of foresight, and they were sensing a contact, a joining of sentience with sentience, and sometime soon.  As these stories spread out across the great nation states of Pandion, a thrill rippled through Hauk society, and they looked up to the stars and hoped.  Hauk frigates, now capable only of travel within their solar system (Pandion was the fourth planet from their star), sent out hailing messages on many frequencies.  Probes were launched radiating a greeting.  Many felt it was only a matter of time now.  Finally they could atone.

*  *  *

The Meso-Nai battlecruiser now entered the solar system, shadowed by its light cruiser escort.  The two great intergalactic travelers crept through the blackness with a purpose, headed for the fourth planet from the star.  While this was just one of the infinite number of star systems willed unto them by great god Urodela, this fourth planet represented a special threat to the Meso-Nai way of life.  For against all logic and in an open challenge to Urodela’s infallible word, the planet was showing signs of a self-aware civilisation. 

Reach Force unit leader risks removal of his helmet to peer about as the team heavy gunner covers him

Naturally, seen purely objectively, this was preposterous.  Even a half-educated Salamandroid was aware of this.  Urodela had shown the Meso-Nai long ago that dominion of the universe was theirs and theirs alone.  But there was something real about these signs, these false echos of civilisation – as the Meso-Nai priests knew, they were a real manifestation of Meso-Nai faithlessness, of doubt in the God who had so generously granted all to them and them alone.  These perceptions of other cultures were a sin, a crime against God, and needed to be purged with an iron will and ceaseless devotion.  Confronting these delusions, wiping them from the minds of the faithful, was the only way to fortify the soul and make amends to Urodela for this grave lack of gratitude.  This required violent exertion.

Meso-Nai Reach Force Braves, ready to banish impure thoughts with the application of a great deal of firepower

Such had been the pronouncement of the priesthood which stood at the summit of Meso-Nai society, and the Reach Force, the Meso-Nai interstellar colonial force, made it so.  Using one tactic or another, the Reach Force would forever banish all delusion from these planets.  Yes, violence was indeed the key, for, as they had found, only cataclysmic destruction silenced all doubts as to the exclusivity of Meso-Nai sentience in the universe.  Such was the faithlessness of the Meso-Nai, a heresy within their hearts which they were keen to overcome.

Meso-Nai Armoured Fighting Vehicles are like mobile fortresses (painted by dwartist) 

One common method was to induce the explosion of the star at the center of the problematic solar system.  If Meso-Nai self doubt did not permit this method – self-doubt which often manifested itself as an imaginary fleet of “enemy ships” preventing the painstaking process of nova induction -- then the Reach Force would regroup, acknowledging, with great shame, that heresy was embedded deep within their own hearts.  This demanded that the planet, from which such impure thoughts radiated, must be invaded, occupied, and scrubbed clean, purified.  It was a terrible process, but it had been done before and would be done again.  The lives of many Reach Force braves were often spent along the way; Reach Force veterans knew well that doubt might be a mental failing but it could, and did, physically kill.  But at least once it was all over, and the doubts that inexplicably emanated from the planet’s surface were forever silenced, the surviving braves felt their faith invigorated. 

The captain of the battlecruiser swam up to the upper bridge, surfacing from his immersion pond, and evaluated the readings coming from the fourth planet.  What a cacophony. He was filled with shame, but also determination to be a better Meso-Nai.  There would be a great test of faith here, but the Reach Force was ready.

*  *  *

Hauk infantry with Newtcracker Cannon, developed to penetrate the heavy armour worn by all Meso-Nai Reach Force Braves

We have already released models representing the extreme xenophobes of the Meso-Nai Reach Force, and the first codes of their greatest enemy, the Hauk, will be released soon.  As can be seen from the above image, the Hauk quickly learned to defend themselves, adopting weapons to fight back against the Meso-Nai campaign of extermination, but could they reach out to the Federation to avoid the fate looming over them?  Stay tuned for details.

The Sisters of Celestial Peace

Sister Maria Jesús Ágreda slapped another magazine into her Purifier and wiped the sweat from her brow, peering out into the night from the rocks where her unit, the Second Convental Battalion, was holding onto a perimeter. There was a lull in the attacks and her thoughts strayed for a moment to the Kelnar-ji in the bunkers, their little feelers waving anxiously as the air and water ran out. The space demons had overrun the convent, but that could and would be retaken – loss of the Kelnar-ji village meant the loss of the Kelnar-ji themselves, and Sister Maria would not allow that to happen to those gentle souls. She thought of the little blue-green Kelnar-ji young running around at her feet as they played and her resolve doubled – May our Lord and the Way protect us and our flock from these abominations.

There was a splat near her and she ducked reflexively, a sizzling blob of acid spraying deadly droplets all around, one burning a hole in her habit.  Sister Maria knew the source and scanned for the Hammerhead that had shot at her, and saw it and two others slinking back toward a rock formation, about twenty yards to the southeast, Satanic grins on their faces. She watched them disappear behind the apparent safety of the rocks, raised the muzzle of her Purifier, and slipped her finger down to the grenadelauncher trigger.

Quietly she said a prayer and judged the angle – she was the best grenadier in her unit, and she knew the prayer was not necessary, but she said it anyway. These abominations had messed with the wrong nun. There was a metallic thud and the grenade was on its way, on a path to help cleanse this world of these daemones incarnatus ….

*  *  *

After the Visitation, humans abandoned previous religions for a time and followed the Way. But as the Visitors were leaving, they predicted, accurately as always, that the effects of their visit would fade as the decades wore on. They said this with a gentle and understanding smile, reaching their long slender arms out to touch the heads of the humans who gathered around them. The people wept to hear this, fearing that the transformation that changed the world would reverse itself and humanity would slip back to its old ways. They remembered war and poverty, jealousy and fear, and they begged the Visitors to stay, fearing that all the old human vices would return. That didn’t quite happen – the Visitation left its stamp on humanity forever more -- but as the Visitors became only a memory, humanity did to some extent get back to its old business, with all that entailed.

Most people continued to follow the Way, in a less joyous and more formalistic way as the decades wore on, but there were some who never quite forgot the old religions and cautiously crept back to them, one small step at a time. This was especially true of Christianity and Islam, although at first even those two religions budded in only a few places. Roman Catholic Pope Boniface XI, who like everyone else had promptly embraced the Way during the Visitation, called a Fourth Vatican Council to discuss what, if any, future lay ahead for the Catholic Church. A surprisingly large number of cardinals and bishops responded, and the focus of the Council was whether Catholicism was to continue as a religion at all, and if so if it were to be one path of the Way, or if the old form of Catholicism would be resumed. No decision was reached, and there was for a decade a schism in Catholicism between the Traditionalists and the Way Catholics. Upon the death of Boniface, these two factions came together to elect a new pope, John Paul VIII, who held the Fifth Vatican Council, which healed the schism and sent the religion on a surprising new journey.

One of the principal documents of Vatican V was Excelsis Deo, God in the Heavens, which recognized certain alien life forms as having souls and which therefore require salvation through Jesus Christ and the Way. The Council established a Celestial Council to evaluate alien life forms to determine whether they have souls and to preach to those who do, who are designated Christ’s Celestial Children (abbreviated as “3Cs”).

Throughout the new Federal colonies, and on worlds on which alien life forms had been discovered, the Church sent missionaries, established monasteries and convents, and performed charity for countless life forms. Especially active in this work were the Sisters of Celestial Peace (SCP), a religious institute established in the F-SAR (Former South American Republics) zones and which gained adherents throughout all of the zones of Earth with any Catholic presence. The sisters live in convents all over known space and perform good works, almost always focusing on the 3Cs.

This life has dangers, as indeed such a life always has, and the sisters face these with the same peaceful resolve that men and women of the cloth have faced violence and persecution for centuries on Earth.

But some threats are of a different order.

The same Celestial Council that had been empowered to designate aliens as having immortal souls was also tasked with a darker duty – to classify certain life forms as the incarnation of demons. This classification, “daemon incarnatus,” is naturally a very serious matter and has only been rarely invoked, and then only in consultation with the Pope and the College of Cardinals. The first and most famous example of such a classification was with respect to the Space Demons, after these extinguished civilisation on Obnial 4, a planet of sentient insectiods on which the Church had established a successful 3C mission.

Just as spiritual demons are battled by the Church using the document De Exorcismis et Supplicationibus Quibusdam, physical manifestations of demons are battled by both monks and nuns wherever they threaten the faithful. As they are one of the most active of the new religious institutes, the Sisters of Celestial Peace are often in the front lines of such battles, and toward that end their daily training and ritual includes battle tactics and weapons handling, harkening back to the military orders of Medieval Earth.

As a public relations gesture, the transplanetary defence contractor Mercanto-Dett Military Solutions (MDMS) has developed specifically for the SCP a lighter version of the pulse rifle used by Exterminators -- the Purifier (sometimes disparagingly called the “nun gun” by the Army), and provides refurbished armoured vehicles to the order as well. When possible the Federal Army also provides vehicles and support equipment.

The sisters fight in a version of their traditional habit in order to continue to bear witness to their faith before the masses to whom they minister. Although certainly a departure from what was traditionally expected of women who have taken the solemn vow, the defence component of the life of the Sisters of Celestial Peace has proven to be a vital element of the defence web in more isolated regions of Federal Space.

We have created a first batch of SCP sisters in combat poses, four armed with the Purifier light pulse rifle and a fifth packing the formidable light machine gun. We have also created a set of tanker nuns to put in the cupolas of your vehicles. If there is interest in the range, more will be made, including a command set and perhaps even such colourful personalities as Sister Francine Loyola, the wheelchair-bound nun who was famous for her uncanny accuracy with a heavy rocket launcher.

M1A2 SEP "Abrams" Update

Pleased to be able to show off the first resin and pewter castings of the M1A2 SEP that we will be releasing in 15mm scale.  We're very happy with the results, and this very important modern period tank is also quite a handsome vehicle.

The kit is resin but has a pewter cannon, machine gun, hatches (which can be added closed or open), TC's cupola, and side skirts.

You may wonder why the side skirts are separate -- first of all, having them that way makes them look more realistic.  But equally importantly, it allows us to provide you with two vehicle upgrade sets.

After the base M1A2 SEP is released, the urban warfare versions of the vehicle will be made available as well -- both TUSK 1 and TUSK 2.  Having the side skirts separate made that feasible for us.

Stay tuned for details -- the kit should be available once I get it painted up for display, or when I get the resin and pewter castings, whichever comes first!  One never knows how the pieces will all end up falling together in this crazy business.

Next up -- the T-90A "Vladimir," as well as the newest versions of the HMMWV family, the M1151, M1152, and M1165.

Some notes on 15mm DOE assembly

Our new DOE Gunship is the VTOL blunt instrument used by Nova Respublik commanders for sudden application of overwhelming firepower, and brings with it the ability to insert elite troops right into the action. The kit is impressive, the resin casting being high quality, and despite the large number of pieces it goes together fairly expeditiously.


A few hints on construction would be in order for when you have your DOE in hand. Just three really, which have come up due to the different degrees of shrinkage that resin and pewter pieces go through in the mouldmaking process.

The first hints involve the pylons that hold the plasma rocket pods in place. There are two types of pylon -- one that holds the outer rockets in place, and another that holds the inner rockets in.  As you'll see, the outer rocket pylon has a more irregular shape to fit the rear contours of the wing's trailing edge.  The inner pylon is situated further into the middle of the wing so it has a straighter surface.  One recommendation is to test fit them first, as the tabs on the pylons are a little too big for the slots on the wings and rocket pods -- you can either whittle down the tabs or open up the slots a little.  Pretty simple really.  The other recommendation is to glue the pylon to the rocket pod first, then you can glue the whole thing to the gunship's wing.  It's easier to get the little pylon tab into the wing slot that way, as you can just hold the rocket pod.
One concern might be the strength of the pylons for extended gameplay. The pylons look great, and should be fine if you tend to play local or at your home, but if you are rough with your models, and/or travel a lot, you may want to dispense with the pylons altogether and just glue the pods directly to the wings!  That looks pretty good too.

The second hint concerns the sensor arrays that look a bit like teardrops and attach to either side of the front of the DOE (shown above). The tabs on the gunship’s cheeks are just a bit too large to fit into the slots on the sensors, so will require a little whittling as well.   Not much though as you'll see.

Finally we have the back of the super-heavy anti-material missile racks -- mech killers!  The caster eventually decided it was best to cut the rear off as otherwise lots of air bubbles would have developed on the piece due to the challenge that this extremely complex shape presented.  So in the above image you'll see a line indicating roughly where the cut is.  It's pretty obvious actually where the six tube endings, all one piece, go.

That’s really it! Enjoy your red menace ... it certainly was a long time coming!

Kingdom of the Jasmine Throne Released

We’re pleased to release our newest range of 15mm sci fi figures, the Kingdom of the Jasmine Throne.

Available here:


http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/15mmscifi.html


The Jasmine Throne is one of the “freeholds” within the Federation which gained defacto independence during the First Pelagic War and carries on generally friendly relations with the Core Federation. It is ruled by a neo-Sassanid monarchy, and whilst its military is by and large made up of the human forces of the great planetary satrapies, its bedrock of military strength is the JTFB, the Jasmine Throne Foreign Battalions, a rogue’s gallery of aliens recruited from around the galaxy to serve and protect and monarch and the monarch only.

They are subjected to some of the fiercest training and discipline in the universe, and it shows! In order to prevent plotting in the ranks, each section, and to the extent possible each platoon, is composed entirely of different species of aliens.

Our initial release for the Jasmine Throne military forces is six sets of models, five sets of JTFB troops and one set of Satrapal levies.

The first JTFB fireteam has the section sergeant, and five other ranks – two with anti-matter carbines, one with an anti-matter carbine with dark energy grenadelauncher, one with an anti-matter sniper rifle, and one with a heavy missile launcher.

The second JTFB fireteam has two with anti-matter carbines, one with an anti-matter carbine with dark energy grenadelauncher, one with a rapid-fire light anti-matter cannon, and one (a terrifying Vulk) with a heavy missile launcher.

The third JTFB fireteam has four with anti-matter carbines, and one with a heavy missile launcher.

The fourth JTFB fireteam has two with anti-matter carbines, one with an anti-matter carbine with dark energy grenadelauncher, one with a rapid-fire light anti-matter cannon, and one (a terrifying Vulk) with a heavy missile launcher.

You may recognise in the ranks of the fourth team a certain scrappy little fellow! Quar imagery used at the suggestion of zombiesmith – thanks for that Josh.

We also have a section of Satrapal Levy Infantry of the Jasmine Throne, raised in great numbers by the planetary satraps. They may not be as fearsome as the JTFB, or as prestigious as the elite Asavaran nobles in their grav chariots, but they get the job done protecting over a dozen worlds from pirates and invaders. And the levies of two planetary satrapies, Dai-lam and Sa-bir, are legendary for their ferocity, so it’s never wise to assume that Satrapal levies are second-rate troops!

To give the JTFB some armour support, we have a pair of JTFB tanker halves to adorn your tank hatches. They are a perfect fit for our Nova Respublik tank hatches, but also fit in the hatches for our Federal and upcoming MDMS vehicles and Karkpanzers as well. The Kingdom buys its vehicles from a wide variety of sources so any of these would be fine.

There’s more to come in the range, including Major Histar, a higher commander of the JTFB, Mako gun carriages with heavy autocannons and heavy mortars for both the JTFB and the Satrapal levies, and even a model for the young queen of the Jasmine Throne herself, Roxann Diamunda, this last one sculpted by Tom Meier.

The models were sculpted by Iain Colwell and painted by Steve Dean, except the tank crew who were painted by our own Spacejacker. Thanks guys!

Available now – join the JTFB in its battle cry, “To the queen!” Happy gaming!

DOE gunship, first preview of the resin casting

Very pleased to post the first photo of the DOE VTOL gunship, scourge of Federal troops and especially armour, and the instrument of destruction of the Neo-Mongol hordes by the Raathist Republic of Kym.  This model has had a long and storied path to this point, but now it's just two rocket pods away from being painted, and the caster assures me that the production castings will ship Friday!

The doe is armed with a dozen heavy anti-material missles which it carries in two pods on the outer wingtips, four smartrocket pods, and a three-barreled gatling cannon in the nose.  It's a terror of the 26th century skies.

Stay tuned on this hol-chan for more details, comrades!