Khurasan Miniatures

Space Demons and Garn and Felids oh my!

2012-01-26T16:35:00.000-08:00

Well, just imagine how pleased we were to find out, accidentally, that the readers of The Miniatures Page had nominated three of our ranges for Best 15mm Sci Fi alien line! And they are of course our three most popular ranges, the Space Demons, the Felids and the Garn.

If you want to vote, the poll is here:

http://theminiaturespage.com/polls/240536932/

You get to vote for any five choices, you don't have to just vote for one. Of course there are a whole mess of great models there for you to choose, great evidence of the renaissance in 15mm SF gaming.

Thanks to everyone who nominated the models! And they are in such splendid company. I'm very proud!

Dropship Horizon goes in-depth on the Horizon Explorer

2012-01-22T17:51:00.001-08:00

Dropship Mark has some exclusive photos of our upcoming ATV, the Horizon, as well as its military equivalent, the Iguana. Take a look at it here:

http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/2012/01/khurasans-horizon-explorer-close-up.html

The Federal XM6 Advanced Grav Tank Programme

2012-01-21T08:40:00.000-08:00

After the success of the Mobility Enhancement Programme for the Siler, and subsequent retrofitting to lighter armoured vehicles as well, the Federal Army established a research battalion, the 1RB, for testing purposebuilt grav tech vehicles. The winner in the evaluation was a design now designated the XM-6, a very large anti-grav tank in two submarks, the XM6A, which mounts a rail gun, and the XM6B, which mounts a shutter-muzzle fusion cannon. Each vehicle has two multipurpose laser defence batteries reminiscent of the defence turrets on the Siler, but of greatly enhanced accuracy and lethality.

One benefit of the anti-grav tech is the ability to make a larger craft, and the hull of the XM6 is 12.5 meters long.

In development is an ADC (armoured drone carrier) version of the XM6 carrying the Slayer drone and their techs/operators. In planning for the deployment of these vehicles it is anticipated that the use of advanced combat drones will better suit the unit's deployment than human infantry combatants, and as such the Slayer will substitute its ability to enter built up areas and perform other traditional infantry functions.

The images below show the pattern masters that will be used to make the resin castings. It's quite a large vehicle, about 125mm long. The images show parts breakdown as well. In the rear can be seen the thrusters that propel the vehicle out of orbit and in space, for low orbit redeployment to the fleet.

One of the images just shows the hull from the side, it's very sleek and we will try to retain that shark-like look when the ADC is designed. This will have launch bays/racks for the Slayer, which will be a small grav drone about the size of a human, mounting a light pulse cannon (approximately the size of a SAW) and a grenade launcher. I considered having a traditional infantry carrier for the research battalion, but it hardly seems a step forward to have these incredibly high-tech vehicles make entry and deploy for battle only to have humans popping out of the APCs like they were hover Hanomags! The Slayer will be a sleek little kit all its own, one-piece to the extent practical.

There's also an image showing the bottom of the hull with the grav surfaces, much more advanced in tech than the crude grav plates retrofitted to the existing low-riding grav vehicles (masterfully designed to look like that by Mark Mondragon, and then replicated by Coolhand on the medium vehicles). Our assumption is that the grav drive works by pushing against the gravity field of the planet, so when the tanks are deployed from space they free fall through the atmosphere, perhaps using their thrusters for limited manoeuvre, but then as they get closer to the planet's surface the grav drive kicks in. The same goes for leaving the theatre after operations are complete, except the tank would then need to use its thrusters to leave the planet's atmosphere.

That's our story and we're sticking with it!

Off to the casters, hope to have them back within two months or so....

Khurasan 15mm Sci Fi Building Parts, a Look at the Parts

2012-01-17T18:45:00.000-08:00

Just received the prints for our modular 15mm sci fi building parts. These are in wall segments in 75mm or 100mm length. Take a look!

Here are four walls, two 100mm and two 75mm, with a roof cap on. Note that nothing is glued together, they are just held together by inertia. This was the intent -- to make assembly as simple as possible. We've had three different walls made in each length -- a blank wall, a door/window wall, and a window wall. To start there are two roof caps -- 75x75 and 75x100. If there is a big call for 100x100 we will have the bigger square roof cap made too.

Roof's off! Again the pieces are really just holding each other together. Note the lip around the top leading edge of each wall, which together will hold the roof cap on, or will hold on higher levels if the gamer wants to make multiple levels.

Look ma, no hands! Flipped over, here's the view from the bottom. Once again it's just holding itself together. Of course you'll glue your walls but this just indicates how easy assembly will be. I think I will assemble them exactly this way -- use a roof part as a template, then put the parts together which will make sure the walls assemble level.

Frankly, even that's not necessary -- the walls are thick enough that they level themselves out when placed together. There's also a lip that allows you to guide the parts right together so they snuggle in where they need to be. I've heard some stories about how tricky these wall-buildup structures can be to put together and so I did not want to proceed unless that difficulty essentially went away, and playing with the print pieces suggests it has been sent off!

1BR, 1BTH in Battle Torn nghbrhd! Here's the view from the inside.

There are print lines on the pieces but the beauty of flat parts is that the lines are only on the side edges, so all I have to do is sand them off the sides of the roof caps and we are ready to get them cast. So they should be going off to the casters to be done up in resin this week. My caster has a ton of stuff to cast for me, but I'm hoping to have them back within a month. Roof accessories, including parapets to wrap around the rooftop of this building (giving your resistance fighters some place to take cover on the roof), have been designed and will be printed next. Stay tuned!

Dropship Horizon turns 1,000!

2012-01-09T19:12:00.000-08:00

1,000 posts, that is, and the great Mark Hannam, the Dropship pilot himself, has come back to celebrate that amazing achievement (in only three years?!?!?) with a special preview of an upcoming Khurasan vehicle (two actually), so go check it out!

http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/2012/01/1000.html

Federal Army Medium Tank First Look

2011-12-31T10:33:00.000-08:00

Here's a preview of the upcoming Federal Army Medium Tank, both in basic tracked version and in grav drive as part of the Army's MEP (Mobility Enhancement Program).

As can be seen it mounts a single CIDS gatling cannon, unlike the Siler superheavy tank, which mounts two. The vehicle also has a coaxial light pulse cannon to cover any frontal blind spots that the gatling cannon might not be able to reach.

One thing that might not be readily apparent from the images is the manner in which the main gun mounts to the turret -- it is very deeply recessed. This can elevate to "show it off" a bit more -- it creates in our opinion a very striking appearance. We might have the entire cannon piece painted in a slightly different colour when the physical model is previewed, just to make this design feature a bit more obvious.

Hull is 75mm long -- actually just a little bit smaller than the hull of an M1A2 at 1/100th scale! There will be a heavy APC version as well. Look for it in the spring of 2012. Thanks and have a Happy New Years.

The Huntarr

2011-12-15T18:35:00.000-08:00

We have released the 15mm scale Huntarr, those terrifying hunters who revel in combat and victory above all else, and will travel across the galaxy and even to other dimensions to find a fitting opponent to launch the old struggle, hand against hand, arm against arm. Their technology is sophisticated but they glory in that most primal of all conflicts, hand to hand combat.

Normally when we release a line of models, we post colour photos of the models to give you a full idea of what you're getting, and we were about to do this as well for the Huntarr, but three of them materialised in my office, one after the other, looming over me, and threatened to paint the walls with my innards if I did so! So I won't be posting preview images. Naturally the skeptical consumer may say, "well then I'm not buying them, what sort of nonsense is this?" He'd have a good point, and those who buy will buy on faith.

And they will not be disappointed, for these tall, lanky creatures are splendid sculpts. On average they are 21mm tall!

Of course, once the models are "out there" I can't control what people do with them, but I am relying on the discretion of the gaming community -- I don't want those Huntarrs to materialise in my office again!

Available here:
15mm Sci fi Page

The Stikks

2011-11-30T18:09:00.000-08:00

The Stikks do not speak often, but when they do, they speak all at once, together.

One Stikk will begin rubbing its mouth parts together, letting out a rhythmic chirp, and all at once every other creature in the pod will join in, each predicting the patterns and rhythms of the others, so that they sing as one, except occasionally one Stikk will interject a chord soaring higher over the steady song, which may have some deep significance, or may just be for the sake of the music. We still have not been able to decipher their speech patterns.

Although they are properly called the Entomals, "Stikks" became the popular name for these beings in the Federation soon after first contact, apparently because the Federal troops who first fought them, FLA (former Latin America) regiments of the Federal Army, found them to resemble stick insects. There is indeed some superficial resemblance around the head, but as those Federal soldiers could attest, these are not sluggish or slow moving life forms. In life and in war, they are nimble and aggressive, especially when together in large numbers.

Like the infantry forces of other sentients, the Stikk infantry are the basis of their military. The basic unit is called by the Federal military a pod, made up of three triads and a leader. Each triad has two Stikk gunbugs and a heavy gunbug. All Stikk soldiers wear a reflective armour array that protects the torso and the lower leg from laser weapons and provides some residual protection against other attacks, relying on their tough exoskeleton for further defence.

Each Stikk pod has attached to it a doublebarrelled heavy gun team, which like all infantry weapons is of the gauss type, and a mortar team, which provides indirect fire to the pod, firing an electroshock round. Both gunteams are commanded by another leader who stays in close contact with the pod leader, and serves as a second in command should the pod leader become a casualty.

Available as hive-level support is the Crikket Infantry Cannon, which will "walk" when activated by its crew and fires either an armour piercing or high explosive round. This and many other Stikk weapons systems shows disturbing signs of biological life and is believed to be a synthetic bioweapon, these being collectively called "Synths" by Federal soldiers. When the crew are separated from the Crikket it will go to ground or will amble toward the nearest concentration of Stikk soldiers. It will not fire on the enemy unless crewed. All the crewstikks need do is gently nudge it and it will walk where they direct. It has proven to be an extremely useful infantry support weapon.

Providing potent aerial fire support for the Stikk forces is the Odonate light gunship, popularly called the "Dragonfly" for obvious reasons, another suspected "Synth," although there are unconfirmed reports of Stikk crew evacuating downed gunships. It is small but well armed with a twin heavy gauss cannon, and both anti-personnel rockets and anti-tank missiles. It is arguably the most nimble gunship in federal space, its "wings" manuevering it in directions that would be impossible for Federal flyers, and is exceptionally resilient for its size. These craft operate in close cooperation with the infantry pods.

The Stikks have also been reported to use heavy armoured vehicles in combat and for transport, but there have not been confirmations of those yet. These vehicles are said to be large, modular, and legged. Reports of Stikk heavy shock infantry of a completely different and much larger species, operating in small groups in close coordination with the infantry pods, are also unconfirmed, but are being investigated.

The Stikks were first encountered in the War of Vasq Separation, when the Separatists hired several Stikk battalions to assist their armed resistance to the dominant culture, the Torans, who had requested Federal intervention. The encounter with the Stikks during the first phase of combat operations took the local Federal and Toran government forces completely by surprise, and it is still not known how the Separatists hired the Stikks or introduced them to the theater without discovery by Federal Intelligence. The Stikks fought the loyalist and Federal forces to a standstill, prompting the local Federal joint-services commander to call for a ceasefire.

Reports soon reached Federal HQ that the Stikks had not been paid and had promptly departed, leading to immediate resumption of hostilities upon the expiration of the ceasefire, the Separatists being defeated in weeks.

The Stikks have subsequently been encountered on several occasions serving as mercenaries on the frontier or even in some of the more autonomous Freeholds. Their own language is completely indecipherable, but they have mastered Federal Standard and are able to understand it, and to speak it as well, approximating the sounds by rubbing their mouth parts together. This form of communication is a slow process but in the end they are able to make themselves understood.

Some Stikk soldiers wear backpacks and these are closely guarded. It is theorized that these contain concentrations of pheromones which permit the individual pods to stay in close ocntact with each other and their hive-level support. Each pod has one pack, worn by the senior heavy gunner in the first triad. Many members of the pod heavy weapons team also wear these backpacks.

The Stikks are virtually impossible to break in combat when their pod is intact, but they seem to key closely into each other, as when the casualties rack up they lose their fanaticism and when only a few Stikks are together it is easy to chase them off, easier than would be the case with other opposing forces. As such it seems likely that they have some form of hive or herd mentality.

The Stikks were sculpted in 15mm scale by Mike Lovejoy, and were painted by Chris Yaro. The infantry pod has ten models, each a unique sculpt. The heavy weapons team set has two different weapons and five crew in three different poses. The Crikket gun is pewter and has two different crewmen. The Odonate gunship is also solid pewter and does not supply the flight stand. Although it should be noted that the craft has landing skids so can be placed on the table, as it closely resembles a dragonfly we assume gamers will definitely want to depict it flying! Chris has used an acrylic flight rod and a plastic base.

The Stikks will be released very shortly. Stay tuned!

Goliath Mortar

2011-09-11T08:22:00.001-07:00

The Goliath mortar was heavily used by both the Control forces on Sepulveda 7 and, when captured, their Resistance foes. Shown below is the Control team and the Goliath mortar in 15mm scale.

We've had Resistance crew made as well for the weapon.

Coming later this year, stay tuned for details.

Space Demon Nymph Hosts

2011-09-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

There are many horrible things about space demons, but their method of reproduction is perhaps the most horrible of all.

Space demon queens deliver live nymphs and these immediately scramble about looking for a host. (This task is often made easier for the nymphs by adult demons, who drag hosts off and imprison them in a chamber near the queen, to supply to emerging nymphs.) When the nymph finds a suitable host, it will hop onto it and swallow its head into their body via a huge maw on the bottom of the nymph's body, sinking their scythe-legs into the shoulders of the host and a piercer rod through the skull and into the brain of the host. Removal of this rod results in guaranteed 100% fatality to the host, so once hosts are infected there is no saving them.

The nymph thereby takes over the body of the host, and begins pumping in hormones and enzymes which rapidly transform the body of the host at a molecular level, until about two weeks later the host is a full-fledged space demon. This process tends to spread from the neck down to the legs, but this is not always the case, and for instance one arm of the host may have transformed into a space demon arm before the other has.

The host's brain is the last part to be transformed in order to continue to support the still human bits of the transforming creature. This is a painful process for the host, to put it mildly, whose muffled screams of anguish have led to nymph hosts being termed howlers or shriekers.

This explains why space demon nymphs appear to be assault demon heads with spindly legs, as that is essentially what nymphs are.

Even while transforming, the nymph host can be a formidable opponent, as it is "piloted" by the nymph which will use the host's limbs to flail at enemies of the hive with that terrifying strength that the human body can demonstrate when it is not inhibited by fear of self-injury. Nymph hosts can sometimes be found shambling about, shreiking or moaning, in zones infested by space demons, and make frightening foes indeed if they can get into close combat, made only worse by their piteous shrieks as they flail away.

The models are available now, code TTC-908 (the newest code in the Space Demon range). Click on the above image to see it larger.

Preview of 15mm sci fi interior battlescapes

2011-08-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

Here are previews of our upcoming 15mm scale Sci Fi interiors. They are meant to allow the gamer to represent the interior of a lab where something has gone terribly wrong, the interior of a starship that's been boarded by enemy troops or intruded upon by some horrifying stalker, the underground passageways of a massive defence complex, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

The first piece is your basic corridor, 150mm x 50mm (6" x 2").

Next up we have the smaller corridor, a corner piece or small room, 50mm (2") square.

To clutter up the corridors and to place barriers between them we have consoles/computers/etc, a drab looking desk (over which a guard may be draped, dead, or a desk with a half-eaten doughnut may be placed), and doors and bulkheads of varying sizes to split up your battlescape into fighting zones.

The console/computer pieces are meant to be two-sided, and have on their rear access doors such as those shown above.

Martin of Fire Broadside has done a splendid job painting these up in an ominous, businesslike fashion, and he took it upon himself to array the pieces together to show the kind of look the gamer can achieve.

One note, however. These pieces are not puzzle-like interlocking sets and were not designed to have curtain walls along the sides. The idea was that the gamer would build angular snaking sections which can be placed together in various configurations, but they do not interlock. Curtain walls along the sides, in our experience, tend to get in the way of model placement and a clear view of the action, so the vertical dividers, mostly doors but also including bulkheads without doors, are meant to create dead ends or dividers.

John Bear Ross has done an excellent job putting these together in the look of many popular sci fi realizations of interior battlescapes which we may all be familiar with. And there's more coming! A large round room (yes, round!) to represent a central test chamber, the bridge of a small ship, etc.; a spaceship or test chamber large control seat with readout console; a sleeper chamber for cryogenic preservation, an engine, generator, or other large piece of machinery, and a pillar to create the look of a support, or to put together an elevator, etc. All of these will be shown when they are ready for sale. The first pieces should be released soon. Thanks John and Martin! If gamers like these we will certainly make more.

Vulk Missileman, Jasmine Throne Foreign Battalions

2011-08-06T09:46:00.000-07:00

Above is an image of a Vulk missileman from the JTFB, the Jasmine Throne Foreign Battalions.

The so-called Kingdom of the Jasmine Throne is a freehold in Federation space inhabited largely by humans, settlers primarily from the former Terran Central Asia, and their young queen, Roxann Diamunda, is a just and humane ruler. However, there has always been a great deal of intrigue, rivalry and dissension in the military and ruling caste of the Jasmine Throne, and assassinations and military coups were all too common in the past. This led the queen's great grandfather, the mighty Shapur the Wise, to raise four battalions of aliens to serve as his bodyguard, simply titled the Foreign Battalions.

The force has gradually been expanded and there now exist twelve battalions of JTFB as well as four armoured battalions. Each infantry squad member and vehicle crewman is a different alien species to prevent collusion in the ranks.

This system has worked well and there have been no successful coups since Shapur's time.

Aliens come from around the galaxy to serve in the JTFB, for many different motives. They may all look different but they wear uniform armour (modified to suit varying body shapes, of course) and use weapons of standard design (similarly modified by your friends at Mercanto-Dett Military Solutions). All must know at least rudimentary words in Federal Standard in order to obey simple commands. The training regimen is gruelling and many candidates fail, but those who succeed are members of an elite, hallowed formation indeed.In fact, it was Roxann's decision to send six battalions of the JTFB to Molch that turned the tide in the Molch/Vornid War.

Their battle cry is "to the queen!" which is a reminder that their most important role is to protect the queen and rally to her in case of a coup attempt.

All JTFB members are called "men" even though none are human and some are female. Vulk are some of the larger aliens serving in the JTFB and as such are often tasked as the heavy missileman in Fireteam A in a squad. Vulk are huge, ferocious carnivores and must undergo considerable conditioning to work with other species, but these dauntless warriors invariably earn the respect and sometimes even affection of their teammates for their coolness and bravery under fire. The huge Slaker cannons that native Vulk warriors employ are of no use to them in the JTFB as a logistical matter, and they are equipped with a standard heavy smart missile launcher, which is mounted on their armour and aimed and fired by a pressure point implanted in the Vulk's mouth.

This is the first sneak preview of our upcoming JTFB line, which will be made up entirely of unique aliens, each in standard armour and using standard weapons. They use MDMS vehicles, the Goanna/Taipan AFV and Canetoad APC, and there will be JTFB crew halves for those vehicles as well. We may even commission Roxann and her Neo-Sassanid legions as a future human faction (most of the army of the Jasmine Throne is human, only the queen's bodyguard being alien). Stay tuned for more details on the JTFB.

Space Demon Shockforce

2011-07-21T20:01:00.000-07:00

In their ten millenium-long war with "Species 84," the Ti Monhids have bioengineered what we, in our dimension, call the Space Demons, viciously fearless creatures of unparalled close combat capability. Battle forces of tens of thousands of these creatures, swarming around their enormous Ti Monhid lords, have helped reverse the steady reverses that the Ti Monhids had suffered as, in their arrogance and wickedness, they attacked a far superior race.

Indications are that the Ti Monhids wish to finally gain the momentum in the colossal conflict, and have begun breeding a new species of Space Demon, one that is as skilled as its predecessors with fang and tailaxe but now carries a biorifle, firing chambered acid a very long distance and with great accuracy. (How they can shoot with such accuracy when the species has no eyes is still a mystery to Federal scientists.)

Here's a sneak preview of two of the five poses of the newest swarm bioweapon of the Ti Monhids, the Space Demon Shockforce. There will be five poses, four rifledemons and a demon with a heavier acid-cannon.

As befits a new sub-species, a new head has been developed, with sensor strands on either side to pick up the location of their targets with uncanny accuracy.

Stay tuned for more details.

Fur flies at Khurasan Miniatures!

2011-06-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

Whether you like 15mm sci fi or high adventure, there's something fluffy for you at Khurasan Miniatures.

First up we have updated our Mystri Island range with some hominids who apparently found a coke bottle, or touched a black rectangle, or whatever, and now realise that the nearby bone bed is a splendid arsenal! Ten models in five subhuman poses.

They are available here:
Mystri Island

Pulp sci fi hasn't been neglected on the rug-with-legs front, as the Furrobots have invaded, the leader Spar Tan and his two minions (insert ancient civilization references here) arriving in a flurry of bubbles to wipe out mankind, but hopefully not the cutest girls.

The Furrobots are available here:
Planet 15

Exterminators

2011-06-09T08:58:00.001-07:00

The Federal Defence Forces are static army units which defend far-flung worlds from alien attack or infestation, and preserve government control on planets subject to unrest or separatism. They wear some body armour, though less extensive than in the first-line Federal Army divisions, and it is of simpler design and tech. Their weapons are the older rifles firing caseless CPR but each one mounts a grenade launcher and this affords the FDF troops with considerable close range firepower.

Due to infestation either by Space Demons or Parasachnids, units of the FDF stationed in infested zones have become proficient at eradicating such "xeno-hazards." These units are called, with some dark humour, "Exterminators," and they are the only units of the FDF to be actively posted to foreign worlds, but only long enough to put in place a programme of eradication (POE) so that the local forces can then maintain the xeno-hazard.

One typical unit is the 1/2/469FDF (first battalion, second division, 469th FDF Division), a unit raised on Earth, in the FUSA (Former United States of America). Although raised in the Mid-West of the FUSA, the unit has been stationed for some years in the Florida Quarantine Zone, which was rendered uninhabitable by Parasachnid infestation after the First Pelagic War. It being eventually recognised that these infested zones would be difficult if not impossible to fully cleanse, the emphasis is instead placed on population control, planned and executed by the FDF division in the zone, in this case the 469th.

The most effective bug-hunting battalion in the division is the first battalion of the second brigade, a designated Exterminator unit self-dubbed the "Pointy Toed Shoes" because there is no place the bugs can hide once the second battalion is gunning for them.

Because of their Exterminator status the PTS are periodically deployed to other worlds as well, and they were eventually called in to implement a POE for the Parasachnid population after the Sepulvedan War was over. During this time they also had many battles with holdover Control Battalion Death Squads surviving in remoter outposts of the planet.

We are pleased to sneak preview the first three of nine poses of 15mm Exterminators which will be released shortly. The pack will be a typical squad, split into two four-soldier fireteams and led by a sergeant. Each fireteam will have a MLMG (mobile light machine gunner); one team has three riflemen as support for the MLMG, the other team having two riflemen and a flamethrower operator. These should be released in a few weeks.

The Karkwagon

2011-05-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

The Karkarines are amphibious creatures that evolved from fish similar to earth's sharks. Their body form permits them to inhabit shoreline areas and to live in both the sea and on the land, a strong advantage for a sentient life form.

The Karkarines are the main line infantry soldiers of the Pelagic Dominate, and when their Cnidarian masters call them to war they fight in the very powerful, advanced tech anti-grav vehicles that the Cnidarians provide.

However, they have also ranged far and wide throughout the galaxy themselves, serving as mercenaries for any party willing to pay their price. They are not very good as garrison troops but are an excellent choice as troops to buy before a battle, for they are brave and have a serious attitude toward war.

When they serve as mercenaries they do not have access to the grav tanks of the Dominate, but that does not mean they go to battle without armoured support, and their forces are in fact highly mechanized. The most common vehicle used by them is the Karkwagon, an armoured personnel carrier offering a good degree of protection agaist small arms fire and shrapnel. The vehicle is fully tracked and has two heavy hydroplasma cannons as its main armament.

The vehicle is cramped and uncomfortable for humans but the Karks like it that way, their traditional form of social interaction being to stand or swim in close proximity to each other. The vehicles carry four large boxes which are filled with water before the vehicle goes on a mission, as when the squad deploys the rear door opens and much of the water in the vehicle escapes. When the squad remounts, the door is closed and the water pours from the spare tanks into the vehicle. The Karks can get by indefinitely without water, as they can extract oxygen from air as well as water, but they greatly prefer to have water flowing over their gills.

The Karks widely export the Karkwagon as well, and when they do most races naturally prefer to use the spare water tanks for storage. Some remove them altogether. The vehicles are cheap and simple, being welded plates for the most part, but they get the job done, being well-armoured and having good speed and reliability.

These vehicles, as well as the equally ubiquitous Karkpanzer, were used in great numbers in the Molch Vornid War.

The Karkwagon was designed for sci fi or Weird World War II gaming, and was sculpted by TMP's "Grabula." It is not a CAD design, it was made the old fashioned way! The kit is all resin and easy to assemble. The spare boxes are optional and any or all may be left off. The mail hull piece, not including the tread assemblies, is about 2 1/4" (57mm) long. Coming soon.

Federal Army Infantry Drone (preview)

2011-05-02T20:19:00.001-07:00

Here's an advance look at the infantry drone often attached to Federal Army infantry at the platoon level. Remotely controlled, each of these micro-drones is capable of travelling along the walls of city streets, into a major built up structure or deep underground into an enemy bunker via an air duct or other entrance to deliver vital intel on enemy movements.

And for those moments when causing a little mayhem is in order, the drone will be able to mount an optional rack of F&F micromissles.

This is just one of a whole series of new items being cooked up for the Federal Army by Mike Broadbent. As usual, Mike's done a splendid job on this piece! Stay tuned for more intel.

Chewk paintup preview

2011-04-18T18:41:00.001-07:00

Very pleased to preview the Chewks, sand-shrimp desert aliens in 15mm scale. Click on the images to see full size. The Chewks are the native sentient life form on Sepulveda 7. The first pic shows their size compared to a popular 15mm sci fi alien choice, the human-size Felids. Sure, the Chewk is a wee fella, but he has the heart of a lion (a very small lion), and his bolt action plasma rifle packs a mean punch!

The Chewk infantry will be sold in two packs. The first pack has twenty six chewks in fourteen different poses -- twelve riflechewk poses (pack comes with two of each pose) and two chewktain poses (pack comes with one of each pose).

The second pack has twelve Chewks weapons crews in twelve different poses, as well as their heavy weapons -- to make up two chewkbomber (mortar) teams, two chewkgun (machine gun) teams, and two chewkzooka (chewk-portable rocket launcher) teams.

Also available will be the mighty Chewk Drill Tank, a flat-headed monstrosity in which entire tribes of Chewks travel deep under the desert sands -- only to erupt from nowhere and spill out, raining mayhem on unlucky travellers in the Sepulvedan deserts. It is a resin kit, posed emerging from the sand, with doors that can be posed open so your Chewk tribe can run out shouting oaths in Chewkish. And there's also a field piece, the chewkannon, which comes with pieces to either be mounted on a boom arm on the Drilltank, or on a mobile field carriage, and this even includes the chewkamel, a giant no-see-um beast of burden that pulls the chewkannon carriage.

I've got multiple vehicle kits to release this week, and the Mekanoids next, so look for the Chewks the week after that.

To read more about the Chewks, read this blog entry.

The Molch Vornid War

2011-03-31T06:14:00.000-07:00

One of the many body forms that Molch "extensions" take

The Molch Vornid War is an ongoing, localized conflict outside the boundaries of any of the great spacefaring races, in the FUZ (Fifth Unincorporated Zone). The Molch, a peaceful and intellectual, but physically hideous race, have long provided the sentients of the galaxy with thought provoking philosophical tracts. Be this as it may, they have nonetheless attracted the unkind attention of the sentient Vornids, botanoids (plant creatures) who, apparently on religious grounds, are incapable of tolerating the extreme ugliness of the Molch and are conducting a holy war to “cleanse” planet Molch of its occupants.

A Vornid commander

Invading Molch in force, despite its considerable distance from Vornus, and setting up fortified bases on the planet, the Vornids initially conducted ghastly sweeps in which they annihiliated the peaceful Molch who naively came to greet them as friends.

But soon it became apparent that the Vornids had started a fight rather than a massacre, for the Molch, when given no choice but to defend themselves, are capable of just that, conducting tenekinetic and psychic attacks of startling destructive power.

The Molch also proved more difficult to eradicate than anyone had anticipated – while the details are still unknown even to the friends of the Molch, each individual creature seems to be a physical “extension” of one or more vast beings which reside at the core of the planet itself (or, at least, somewhere under its surface). When a Molch extension becomes elderly, it disappears into certain designated caves called life-portals and soon thereafter another Molch extension emerges, unlike the first and fully mature (there are no Molch children, nor do they appear to be separated by gender). Thus, as long as a Molch extension, living or “dead,” is capable of being transported into one of these caves, it will soon emerge as a new extension. In this way many sectors which seemed “cleansed” by Vornid attacks were in short order heavily populated by Molch again, aimlessly wandering about and chatting amongst themselves, as they are wont to do.

And so at first the Molch seemed quite capable of defending themselves against the Vornids, who had opened this campaign with very aggressive tactics, sweeping straight down on Molch population centers in their slaver galleys and engaging the Molch at point blank range -- the very range at which Molch psychic blasts were at their most devastating, ripping Vornid troopers to pieces or turning them inside out, their slaver galleys brought down in flames. And at their command, certain types of Molch were able to animate stone into vaguely human form (the form they had long ago noted to be most effective for close combat). These towering stone constructs, the Molch Defenders, had only one purpose -- hammering the foes of the Molch – and they never slowed or tired in its pursuit. Although they could be destroyed with enough firepower, the Defender-construct battalions were phenomenally resistant, and utterly terrifying foes in close combat.

But the Vornids rapidly adapted their tactics around the strengths of their hated race-enemy, as was their way. Now they take to opening battle by bombarding Molch population aggregations from space, then move the slaver galleys in to conduct long-range direct fire from nape of earth, often many kilometers away, bringing the devastating power of the mighty ventral rifles to bear, and closing in only when many Molch have been “killed” and Defender-constructs smashed into pieces. This has proved to be a very effective tactic and evens the score in the resulting close quarters battle.

Not achieving the instant victory they had anticipated, the Vornids supplemented their own expeditionary crusading army by hiring large numbers of mercenaries from far and wide, a rogues’ gallery of pugnacious alien regiments exploited as cannon fodder but also at times hired for their specialist combat skills. Kark and Stick regiments served the Vornids in large numbers, using their native vehicle technology to carry the fight to the Vornids. Felids also joined the fight, sub-contracted by the Garn reptilians who are the overlords of the Felids and who have close economic relations with the Vornids. Indeed the Molch-Vornid War is just one of the many campaigns the Felids have had to endure when they have no enthusiasm for the fight and no love for their employers. As one Felid wrote back to his cub, “there is no honour in making war in this way, my imravi … using long range firepower to blast peaceloving creatures … making war upon animated stone machines … serving detestable, emotionless creatures which sway like the weeds in the breeze, stink like a bog, and have no faces. This war wears us down, imravi, but heed my words -- disloyalty to our masters, those who rose us up, would be more dishonourable still.”

The Vornids quickly came to the conclusion that the key to victory was destroying or at least neutralizing the Molch life-portals, striking at the mysterious underground “essence” that generated the individual Molch. And with each battle they are gradually achieving his goal, establishing bases closer and closer to the life-portals, although at bitter cost. Detest it though they may, soon the embattled Molch had to consider adopting some of the methods of their Vornid enemies – by spreading it out to other races, reaching out, somehow, to someone who might help them to preserve the Molch essence that continuously dwelt below the surface for millions of years.

But how? Contact with the humans, their faraway spiritual allies, was impossible due to the extreme human reaction to the Molch physical appearance, which invariably brings insanity with long enough exposure. And only through the humans, with their vast net of contacts and communications, could they hope to approach other races to seek out help.

The Essence pondered this question, and then came to a conclusion – it would create a new kind of extensions, these to be shaped like the humans, which would hopefully be at least tolerable so that humans and Molch could communicate in close proximity. And it set about attempting to generate such extensions, at first bringing to being many that were wholly unsatisfactory, and had to be folded back into the Essence. It was a grave expenditure of energy and thought at a time that this could be ill-afforded, but finally, with the crucial help of one selfless human philosopher who traveled to Molch and gave her sanity so that the Essence might better understand human physicality, extensions began to emerge which vaguely resembled human life forms. They had no tenekinetic powers, and were thus unable to defend themselves. As a wholly new variety of extension, they did not have much of the wisdom of the Essence, and were often naïve and fearful, and the Essence fretted over them. These new extensions were indeed still hideous to human eyes but at least were not madness-inducing to gaze upon and communicate with, and they conquered their fear and feelings of vulnerability, traveling out alone, spreading far and wide, seeking human help wherever they could find it. They called themselves the Molch Emissaries.

And these kindly, hideous creatures achieved their goals, and human help came.

Billions had read, heard or digi-grated the philosophy of the Molch and taken it into their hearts, and were willing to tolerate the nausea-inducing appearance of the Molch Emissaries in order to save the wise and kind spirit that had generated them. Forbidden by federal law to serve as mercenaries, the humans either arranged for the Molch to hire alien mercs, or served themselves, outside the law. Entire battalions were formed, some idealistic volunteers, others mercenaries hired by human donation, purchasing their arms from Mercanto-Dett Military Solutions, the great multiplanetary corporation based on New Australia, or from the black market, these being mostly Nova Respublik weapons and vehicles. In coordinating the actions of these human battalions with the overall Molch defense, the Emissaries proved their worth again, acting as communications links between the humans and the Molch, who the volunteers could not set eyes upon without going mad.

Human financial contributions also hired Kark regiments to assist the Molch, and these fought well, sometimes against their own kind, bringing their native-designed vehicles with them.

Combattants of the Molch Vornid War, seen to scale -- a Felid, an Ursid and a Molch Defender-construct
Further allies and mercenaries came to the Molch almost by accident. Perhaps the best example of this was those famed Armadilloid gunfighters, “los Viejos,” who were at first approached by the Vornids to serve as mercenaries but upon hearing the grisly details promptly killed the Vornids and traveled to join the Molch side. While they were not pleased by the appearance of the Molch, they served right amongst them, often acting as an elite close-range fireteam, for it is said that los Viejos never miss a target they fire at with their dreaded plasma sixguns.

Another example of such a fortuitous alliance involved the Ursids, massive, phlegmatic creatures who have been exiled from their Federal homeworld and now travel the galaxy selling their services to the highest bidder. The Ursids love a good brawl and bring daunting firepower to bear – their standard armament is a BPFG (bear-portable fusion gun) which can crack open a heavy tank at long range. First sub-subcontracted by the Felids, the Ursids immediately took a disliking to the conflict and particularly to the Vornids, and at the first opportunity changed sides, working for less than their normal wage, which was to be paid by human donations. The Ursids have become accustomed to the appearance of the Molch, although like virtually all sentients they find them to be disturbing to be around for too long a time.

Regarding the war itself, the Molch are, as always, philosophical. They seem to take it almost in stride that the Vornids are fanatically seeking their destruction, and have even published poignant tracts in which they plead with other sentients not to judge the Vornids too harshly for their actions. This does not mean, however, that they permit the Vornids to destroy them or penetrate the secrets of their subterranean essence, and the fight goes on, with no quarter on either side.

One thing the Molch truly do fear, however, is that this war will eventually draw the attention of the Cult of Andromeda, as local wars often do, as flies are drawn to a corpse. About this the Molch are very clear – the Cult presents an existential threat and is never, under any circumstances, to be suffered to survive. Few creatures have pondered the universe and the nature of existence as continuously as the Molch, and so few can appreciate the nightmare that can be unleashed by Andromeda and her followers.

Our first codes for the combatants in the Molch-Vornids War are in fact already available – the Molch themselves, released as Lovecraftian intergalactic terrors in our popular 1930s Eldritch Horror range. The models were however specifically made to represent the various types of Molch “extensions,” including the vaguely humanoid, although still disgusting, Molch Emissaries, who can be used as command liasions between the Molch and their various allies. To be released very soon will be the (literally) heartless Vornid pirates, the big, even-tempered Ursid mercenaries, and the big animated-stone Defender constructs. Soon after those we will release the armadilloids called “Los Viejos,” the deadliest shots in the known universe – death in a sombrero. Stay tuned for more information.

Federal Review of Sentient Xeno-Biology: the Vornids

2011-03-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the strangest of all the sentients in known space are the Vornids, commonly called “slavers” or “pirates” because they often engage in piracy or raiding for the primary purpose of seizing other sentients to sell in the galactic slave market. They inhabit a chain of heavily fortified colony pods on the mid-level belts of the gas giant Vornus 5, and also live, sometimes temporarily, in many colonies and outposts in outlying star systems. They possess sophisticated technology and are capable of FTL travel.

Vornids are the only known sentient botanoids capable of fairly rapid movement. They transport themselves using a series of motor-vines emanating from the base of the body trunk, and are also capable of precise manipulation using mid-trunk manipulator-vines. They are capable of obtaining energy by both consuming other life-forms just as animals (and some plants) do, or by more conventional photosynthesis. They “see” by continuously emitting spores from a single “eye” on top of the body trunk, which return information to the individual. While radically different from the senses of most sentient animals, this system evidently produces roughly equivalent awareness of the creatures’ surroundings.

Because of the unlikely physical nature of the Vornids, the prevailing theory amongst federal scientists is that, rather than evolving into this form, they were engineered. One possibility is that the Vornids were created as a race of slavers by an imperial race which no longer exists, or has yet to reveal itself. The Vornids’ social interactions with other sentient races are limited to raiding, piracy, trade in slaves and goods (putting slaves into the market and taking raw materials and finished goods from it), and banking, which is a thriving business for them. Due to their active engagement in slavery the Federation has criminalized any form of trade or financial transaction with the Vornids, including use of their galactically-famed banking system, but alien civilisations (and less scrupulous Freeholds) are actively engaged with the Vornids on all levels.

No matter what the level of engagement may be, however, until recently there were no species of animal sentients in known space which had any significant level of comprehension of Vornid motives, biology or society. They remained a mystery even to the Garn, who heavily employ the no-questioned-asked Vornid banking services, and the Karkarines, who often act as interpreters and go-betweens for the Vornids.

Their motives may not be known, but their methods are. When on raids, the Vornids appear on a planetary surface in force, relentlessly driving sentients before their implacable advance. Their large Slaver Galleys skim rapidly along, hugging the surface, huge barbed grabber-vines dangling down, embracing any unfortunates in their path and stuffing them into expanding trap-bladders on the bottom of the Galley. Any creature that enters these trap-bladders cannot escape or be rescued unless it is released by the Vornids themselves, as species-specific toxins are released into the trap-bladder when any attempt is made to open them.

The great Slaver Galleys also function as combat transports for the Vornids, each Galley being able to carry a squad on a dorsal troop platform, into the surface of which the squad is able to root itself securely, using their motor vines. The Galley mounts its own firepower, a huge ventral rifle of formidable power, capable of destroying a heavy tank with a single shot, as well as two deck guns manned by Vornid crew. These deck gunners are the only crew apparent on a Slaver Galley, and so it seems that the Galleys are themselves living creatures, because they maneuver and also fire the ventral rifle when no Vornids are seen aboard.

Vornid infantry squads are made up of the basic troopers with their trichome rifles, which propel multiple stingers at great speed. These stingers appear to be guided by the shooter, as they swerve and strike at targets that are out of direct line of sight, making their shooting attacks unusually effective. Over time the stingers adapt to take advantage of the genetic peculiarity of their targets. Depending on the susceptibility of the targeted species the stingers can cause rapid death, temporary immobilization or, in the most resistant species, only mild irritation. The most common human response is incapacitating pain, although multiple attacks can lead to cardiac arrest. The trichome rifle is suited for use solely by the Vornids themselves, and should not be handled under any circumstances as the weapon self-envenomates upon contact with animal tissue.

Vornid troopers apparently need to use both of their manipulator-vines to shoot the trichome rifle, although Vornid commanders, recognizable from their ventral thorns, wield a small pistol-like version of the rifle in one manipulator-vine, leaving the other free for other purposes.
The largest weapons carried by Vornid infantry are the thorn cannon and the heavy trichome gun. The thorn cannon has considerable anti-armour capability and is able to penetrate the battle dress of Federal SAB troopers. The heavy trichome gun is essentially a cognate of Federal squad automatic weapons, being capable of longer ranges and a much higher rate of sustained fire than the trichome rifle. These heavier weapons can either be carried by some troopers in infantry squads, or in their own units.

As botanoids, the Vornids are extremely tough and exceptionally difficult to kill in battle, particularly because most weaponry in use amongst the major powers has been developed for purposes of incapacitating animal life forms. They also do not seem to experience fear or panic, and as such proven combat tactics often do not yield the expected results. Whilst Vornids are relatively agile for botanoids, they are still not as fast or maneuverable as most animal sentients. However, they are capable of digging their motor-vines into the earth and are extremely difficult to expel from a position.

It is impossible for animal sentients to communicate with the Vornids unless they provide a V-trans device, which is worn on a sentient’s forehead and permits the wearer to understand simple communications from a nearby Vornid also wearing a V-trans device. In this way the Vornids have very effectively controlled and limited alien understanding of their communications. In fact, until the Molch-Vornid War, nothing was known of Vornid motives or racial goals at all. This war, the only one launched by the Vornids for purposes other than slaving, shed the first light on the Vornid racial consciousness, perhaps permitting Federal scientists to rationally speculate about how the Vornids might react when faced by certain challenges. But what we still have much to learn about this mysterious race.

Part II will summarize the start of the Molch-Vornid War.

The Vornids will be released soon, in three packs -- the warrior pack of eight different poses, the heavy weapons pack with two thorn cannoneers and two heavy trichome guns, and the command pack with two low-level commanders and a high commander. Each pack contains sprues for the Vornid's mouths, half open and half closed, but there are some extra mouth pieces in case you have some preference. Also in the pack are accessory sprues with flowers, leaves, and other growths that can be commonly seen on many Vornids. These are purely optional and may be left off. Also released with the Vornids will be the Molch Defenders, huge stone creations used by the Molch to defend themselves, and the Ursids, cigar-chomping bearman mercenaries who carry heavy fusion guns into battle. A little further down the line will be the huge Vornid Slaver Galley, and vehicles used by the Karks when they perform mercenary service on their own.

Those of you who have been following the discussion on TMP will know that the Molch themselves are the creatures already released as "Thing from Beyond" in our new Eldritch Horror line -- they were originally made as the Molch, peaceful and intellectual but hideous creatures, but they are being crossmarketed as Eldritch nightmares too. Stay tuned for more delvelopments.

Control Battalion Redux

2011-02-16T18:33:00.000-08:00

For those of you who might have missed it, in summer of 2010 we published a story featuring the troopers of the Control Battalions which gives some feel for what they are and how they fight. It can be read HERE.

Felid Prideguard

2011-02-15T17:38:00.000-08:00

When a Felid baron leads his circles to war, he generally has a household bodyguard of veteran warriors which rides in his Lion transport and fights by his side. This is the baron’s Prideguard, promoted from the best of the Alpha Warriors in his circles.

The Prideguard can be concentrated around its lord, or it can be spread throughout the Baron’s circles, acting as elite cadres to bolster the rest in combat.

The most distinctive feature of these household soldiers is their helmets, which provide the Guards enhanced visual and aural perception, an independent air supply, and closer communications with their baron, just as he is linked to the Alpha Warriors commanding his other circles.

These helmets are expensive for cash-strapped Felid baronies, but the wealthier barons have the financial means to also offer the Prideguard helmet as a reward, granting them in a brief ceremony after battle to one common warrior who showed conspicuous bravery. Being granted such an honorific helmet generally creates a fast track to promotion to a coveted position of Alpha Warrior in the circle. Not all Felid warriors see the honorific helmets as purely a blessing, however, as such a reward generally invites the rivalry of the established Alpha Warrior in the circle. Furthermore, most Felids initially dislike wearing these rather form-fitting helmets, for it is against their nature to wear anything on their faces or heads, and they perceive enclosure within the helmet as an impingement on their own keen senses (although they soon learn that the helmet actually improves their senses).

Whatever its perception within the circles, the Prideguard helmet is a clear sign to the foe that they are facing the most formidable of the Felid warriors, endowed with the greatest situational awareness.

Our latest pack of Felids, the Prideguard, is now available in a circle of ten, with one Prideguard Alpha Warrior (generally the eldest son of the baron), one Prideguard Warrior with a Heavy Plasma Gun, one with a Grenade Launcher, and seven with heavy blasters.

Preview of 15mm Chinantecs

2011-02-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

We're about to release our next range of ancients (technically Medievals/Renaissance) -- the Chinantecs, a confederation of people from 20 towns in the Oaxacan highlands in what is now Mexico. They were fierce enemies of the Aztecs and so welcomed the Spanish as allies in their struggle to remain independent of Aztec conquest. Histories vary but some say that they had been conquered just before the Spanish arrived in a bitter series of campaigns, others asserting that a few of the towns were still holding out when the Spanish overthrew the Aztecs.

Probably the most interesting element of their warfare was their use of phalanxes of spearmen using enormous spears, reported, perhaps with some exaggeration, to be over 6m (20 feet) long. Even more unusual, these spears have razor sharp obsidian glass embedded along the lateral edge of the pole, running a considerable length down the shaft. The soldiers who used these spears also used a cloth shield called a pavesina by the Spanish, suggesting it was large and roughly rectangular, this shield apparently being of thick fabric so that when not in use it could be rolled up and carried.

The Chinantecs also used archers, although their role is unclear. They may have formed behind the spear masses to shoot overhead at the enemy, as this is the way they marched to the aid of Cortes during a Conquistador civil war -- intersperced with the spearmen. Or they may simply have marched that way, and formed separately as skirmishers on the flanks or to the front of the spear units.

They also are described as using some slingers, a common troop type throughout ancient Mexico, so we have made some of those as well. They may seem a drab troop type, but the sling was one of the weapons most feared by the Conquistadors.

Next we come to their nobility who, very unusually for Mexico, used the bow, but this was supplemented with the macana, a wooden club/sword edged with obsidian. The macana had a loop for the warrior's wrist. The best interpretation of how they carried it whilst shooting is that they wore it dangling from their wrist as they shot, which to a non-archer like me seems precarious, but I've had archers assure me it would be no problem! You can only see it on one pose here because of the angle, but the nobles all have a macana dangling from their right wrist. They also wear thick fabric armour and helmets which sport fancy feather decorations.

Finally we have a leadership element, a warlord wearing a back standard, and a musician with a conch shell trumpet, common in this part of Mexico.

When the Chinantecs marched to the aid of Cortes, they arrived just too late to fight, and the captured rebels apparently considered this very a good thing! They are quoted as being very impressed with the martial bearing of the warriors. As can be seen from the images, the Chinantecs painted their faces and legs in black and/or red warpaint. They models are depicted in the long breechclout and sandals that were typical of the peoples of the area.

To read more about the Chinantecs, you may wish to consult Ian Heath's wonderful wargamer's guide, ARMIES OF THE AZTEC AND INCA EMPIRES, OTHER NATIVE PEOPLES OF THE AMERICAS, AND THE CONQUISTADORES (Armies of the Sixteenth Century).

This army is a new and fresh element to the DBMM game system, is also provided with a list in Field of Glory, and will also be included in the Field of Glory renaissance list, so it's one of those fortunate forces that sits astride time periods and allows you to use it for several different game systems. Should be released within the week, look for an announcement soon.

Control Battalions -- boots on the ground

2011-02-06T07:57:00.001-08:00

The Control Battalions models are NOW AVAILABLE.

The Control Battalions

2011-02-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

After failures using various alien mercenaries to control the rebellious population of Sepulveda 7, and so that the incredibly valuable extraction of Angravium would continue unabated, the overlord of the Jo-eli Freehold, Jellina Jol-i I, decided to genetically craft her own soldiers. For this she used the vast resources of Sepulveda to oppress its own population -- the staggering wealth derived from the planet's huge stores of Angravium financed the scientific and medical research necessary to forge a race of supersoldiers from a witch's brew of human and alien DNA.

Naturally, this was a serious violation of Federal law, and accordingly the work was conducted in complete secrecy in the Black Tower, Jellina's fortress/palace built on an asteroid in the 368 Sumita system. In an effort to conceal the purpose of the research and experiments, each science team's work was very narrowly proscribed, fusing of the research being left to only the most devoted (and thus demented) of her scientists.

But no bottle remains corked forever. One young scientist initially excited about the research he was hired to conduct, David Rimmer, accidentally learned its ultimate goal, to his utter horror. With his own eyes he saw that Jellina was doing the unthinkable -- tapping the DNA of the ghastly creatures of another dimension, her transplanar expeditions finally having found, in the Imperial Maggots of the Maggoton Empire, suitable DNA for melding with that of humanity. What Rimmer spied one day in the top Secret TBA (Transhuman Breeding Area) was almost beyond comprehension -- part human, part maggot, these creatures were homicidal beyond description.

However, Jellina's scientists had found a method to keep them under control, using a chemical cocktail pumped into their lungs in a fine brown mist, constantly administered within the sealed domes of their permanently installed helmets. Sedated in this way, they made the perfect soldiers -- fearless, cunning and obedient.

Rimmer quickly decided on a course of action, sabotaging the TBA and fleeing the Black Tower, wearing as he went one of the special enviro-suits that scientists were provided to protect them from the intensely toxic Maggoton organic material. Rimmer vowed to stop Jellina's plan, and to aid the people of Sepulveda, whom he now realized were not traitorous rebels as Jol-i propaganda asserted, but rather freedom fighters attempting to throw off her oppressive yoke.

This was a setback, but Jellina soon had the TBA restored and thousands of Control troopers were being bred, domesticated, trained and sent off to Sepulveda where they were a rude shock indeed for the Resistance.

Operating in squads of nine, each used a pulse rifle, and the squad also included an SAP (Squad Assault Pulser) and a remote controlled drone which mounted both an HPW (heavy pulse weapon) and a grenade launcher. Operated by a remote pilot, the drone was often in the forefront of battle, its heavy chassis protecting it from small arms fire.

These troopers took the Resistance by storm, pushing them back on all fronts and asserting Jellina's control over the mining of Angravium, not to mention rounding up subjects who were suspected of Resistance ties -- to what fate, it is not known, for once rounded up, they never returned.

As they strode purposefully through the streets of Sepulvedan cities, villages and settlements, these strange masked troopers inspired fear but also intense speculation. Why had no one ever seen them remove their helmets, or eat or drink anything -- ever? Why when they spoke was it in a weird, digitally altered hiss? They became known, with fascination and dread, as the CoBas or, more often, simply the Helmets.

CoBa crews manned (if such a word can be used for transhumans) Jellina's motley collection of vehicles as well. A single company of CoBa infantry could have some of its squads carried in the MDMS Canetoad APC, others in the few remaining Atlas APMs acquired before the Federal trade sanctions, still others in the Hedgehog APC purchased from Nova Respublik, or even in the ramshackle Sod-Kafez 2.51 "Karkwagon" sold throughout the galaxy (usually for a song) by Karkarine military contractors. CoBa urban patrols were often conducted in the Locust Patrol Truck, these sinister black vehicles being widely used to "disappear" Resistance suspects in the middle of the night.

CoBa tankers similarly crewed Jellina's modest tank fleet, again a motley collection of vehicles including a handful of elderly Federal Silers, but mostly Nova Respublik and MDMS vehicles, including the redoubtable Taipan railgun-armed medium tank.

So successful were the oppressive activities of the Control Battalions that the Federation itself chose to intervene in the Sepulvedan Campaign, though at first covertly, sending Federal Marines in Resistance garb to aid the citizens of this war torn planet. For who knew what horror lurked within the bolted-on helmets of these strange troops, Jellina's obediant attack dogs?

We will soon be releasing two packs of Control Battalion infantry -- the rifleman set and the command and weapons set. Look for a release the week of February 7, 2011.

15mm Chaco War 1: Paraguayan Infantry

2010-12-28T14:26:00.000-08:00

The Chaco War is one of those conflicts between the great wars which was fought in the "Back of Beyond" (to use the spirit, if not literally the meaning, of that expression) and has a small but obsessive following amongst wargamers. I like that! So I decided to make a set of models for the war, starting with the basic building blocks. Each army will have an infantry set and a support weapon set, the infantry set having an NCO, an LMG and six riflemen, the support set having a two MG teams and a mortar team.

The first set is done and ready for sale, I'm just waiting for the world to re-awaken from its holiday slumber before releasing them. They are the Paraguayan infantry. Four are barefoot, a condition so common in the ranks of this desperately poor army that the Bolivians called the infantry pilas. The officer has a Luger, the LMG is a Madsen, and the rifles are Mausers (the infantry weapon of this conflict). Three of the poses are wielding machetes, which was the dreaded and nearly ubiquitous close combat arm of the Paraguayan infantry, and also extremely useful in hacking through the tough, dry vegetation that was (and still is) nearly everywhere in the Gran Chaco.

It's not easy to get good information on Paraguayan uniform colours for the Chaco War, but the sources seem to agree that the Paraguayans went over to two green shades before the war began, an olive green and a darker colour. The olive colour had a slightly bluish tinge to it, or at least that's what surviving uniforms indicate.

The modern Paraguayan army units which dress up in Chaco-era uniforms for their annual victory celebrations wear hats and tunics of the dark colour and trousers in the olive colour, presumably as it looks more martial, but the images from the war suggest strongly that any of the items in the uniform -- hat, tunic, trousers -- could be either colour. That said, the one exception seems to be that the dark green would not have been worn without at least one olive item, so at least one element in every man's uniform was olive green. That is how we have had the models painted.

Next up will be the Bolivian infantry, called affectionately by myself and the sculptor the "milkmen" due to their uniforms. They are sculpted and I received them today in the post. I will be sending them off to the caster in a day or two and they should be available within the month.

The sculptor is making some other models now, including the Thanksgiving Contest models for Capt Jake, and command for the Arach spiderheaded infantry (for my upcoming sci fi black powder range, Rise of the Garn), but after those he will make the Bolivian and Paraguayan mortar and MMG/HMG teams. The Bolivians will be provided with Vickers MGs, the Paraguayans with one Vickers and one Colt -- they had very many captured Vickers in particular.

The mortar for both will be a Stokes-Brandt. The Bolivians actually began the war with almost none of these useful weapons as they scorned it as "poor man's artillery," but learned from bitter experience to acquire quite a few of them. The Paraguayans could not afford as many of the big fancy field pieces, so had a near monopoly of the "lowly" mortar in the first of their many victorious campaigns, when its mobility and high trajectory proved invaluable. When the Bolivians bought mortars the Paraguayans captured no small number of those, bolstering their arsenal still further.

If the line sells relatively well I will make SMG teams as well as artillery crew and perhaps even high command on horseback. If it amazes me and actually takes off, I may even have some of the aircraft of the war made, like the Curtis Hawk for the Bolivians and the Potez for the Paraguayans. (But don't hold your breath.)

Then again, who knows? It's one of those interesting interwar conflicts that are ripe for gaming using Flames of War, and can focus on the infantry combat as there were virtually no tanks or mechanized transports involved -- the tiny handful of tankettes used by the Bolivians being quickly dealt with by the Paraguayans.

The differences come largely from the style of infantry combat. The Paraguayans, whose officers admired the devestating German stormtrooper tactics they saw on the Western Front when observing (as guests of the French) during WWI, used those tactics very effectively. On the other hand, the tradition-bound Bolivians used denser and less fluid combat techniques, largely due to the leadership of a European high commander (ironically, a German). As a result, when they were on the attack they often launched frontal attacks and were mowed down in bloody heaps by the defending Paraguayans. Paraguayan attacks (and that was the more common occurrence) were usually handled better, with infiltration and envelopment being key to their many victories, along with the indomitable spirit of the Paraguayan infantryman himself. This fellow might not have been much to look at, but was arguably the most effective infantryman in South America.

Alternately these models, with their extremely obscure uniforms, would make ideal "generic" infantry for Red vs Blue wargaming, and would also make very colourful planetary defense forces for sci fi battles, something for your higher tech troops to chew up, or reinforce, as the case may be.

First release in a week or two ....

Los Viejos

2010-12-21T10:36:00.000-08:00

The Molch Vornid War brought many mercenaries and guns for hire to the Molch sector to earn a living or get their kicks on the field of battle. Of all those, the most famous shots to participate were, of course, Los Viejos.

Hailing from Texmex 3, Los Viejos moved their herds of Landgrubs across the deserts, and while on the trail spent much of their free time target-shooting with their Foal Peacebreaker pistols, which fires a cartridged plasma round without any recoil. So accurate are they with these powerful longranged pistols, even when firing from the hip, it is said by some that they have never have missed anything they shot at. Whilst the accuracy of this statement has been questioned, the accuracy of Los Viejos has not, and all sentients live in fear of a duel with these small but formidable creatures.

At first it was the Vornids, merciless botanoid pirates, who called on Los Viejos. Showing up on Texmex, through a Kark interpreter they offered free passage and buckets of cash if only Los Viejos would sell their services to the Vornid cause. The hovering skimmer idled over the desert as nearby vaqueros gathered to hear what their chief, Armadil, was talking about with the sharkman and the silent, strangely undulating planet creatures.

As they gathered near they heard Armadil ask what the war was about.

The Kark hemmed and hawed a bit and then got down to business. The Vornids despised ugliness and there were no creatures in the galaxy uglier than the Molch. They all looked different, the Kark offered, but each Molch was exceptionally hideous in its own special way. The Kark went on to say that he himself had fought in two of the campaigns against the Molch because the pay was very good, and they were indeed quite difficult to even look at without vomiting up one's shrimpcakes in disgust.

"Si, that sounds awful indeed," responded Armadil very politely. "What have they done to harm your employers?" He removed his sombrero and fanned himself with it.

The Kark responded that the Molch had done nothing, as far as he knew. They seemed harmless creatures, but could unleash deadly psychic attacks when provoked, because they have very powerful intellects. They also had huge rock monsters that they animated straight out of the earth itself, again seemingly with their minds, and these creatures were maniacal in hunting down and hammering anyone who would harm the Molch. This part of the conversation seemed to make the Kark very uncomfortable, and it was apparent to Los Viejos that the Kark had had firsthand experience with these animated rock creatures.

"So what is the war about again, jefe?" persisted Armadil. "I still do not understand, for I am but a simple vaquero."

"Who cares," responded the Kark, a bit impatiently, "the pay is good. There is much excitement to be had." The Kark winked at them, but Los Viejos continued to stare at him blankly.

The Kark took a deep breath and went on.

"As I said, the Vornids hate ugliness and want to exterminate the Molch ... because they are ugly. They want to wipe out the ugliness as apparently it is too offensive for them to suffer to exist. I myself do not care, but it is warpay and it is good."

"But the Molch are famous for their philosophical thoughts," volunteered a vaquero who had been listening. He took a holo-tab out of an empty bullet loop from his belt and held it up. It was one of the journals that the Molch had sent into Federation space and which were best sellers all thoughout the galaxy. Other vaqueros muttered in agreement, the little sombreros nodding up and down in the audience. Each of them remembered, at one point or another in their lives, sitting around a camp fire at night while out on the trail and listening to the poignant thoughts of the Molch about life and existence in a way that moved the simple vaqueros deeply, making them look up and see the stars in an entirely different way.

"I am very sorry, my friend," Armadil said, "but we will have to decline your employers' generous offer. Please tell them for us. On second thought, we will let them know ourselves." With that, all of the assembled vaqueros pulled their pistols from their holsters and began shooting, rapidly blowing the skimmer and its contents to bits with small plasma rounds. They then dug a pit and buried the skimmer, its crew, and the money, which they refused to touch as precio de sangre, and began assembling to journey to the Molch sector. They would participate in the war, that much was certain.

Bob Olley has made us four poses of the dreaded Viejo gunmen in 15mm scale. They should be available to fight in the Molch/Vornid War, or any of your sci fi combat missions, in spring of 2011.

Garn Flesh Eaters

2010-12-20T11:29:00.001-08:00

Largest, fiercest and strongest of all the Garn are the Flesh Eaters. Of course, all Garn are ravenous meat eaters, but this title is only used for these huge creatures. They bow to no one, other than the mighty Garn Hegemon warlords (who are often almost as large as Flesh Eaters anyway), and even then, the Hegemons are known to consult with the Flesh Eaters under their command as a human officer might respect the opinion of veteran sergeants in his command.

The Garn admire strength and power, and so they enjoy watching these huge champions slug it out in battle. Indeed some of the most exciting of the ad hoc gladatorial combats during the oppressive occupation of Sepulveda were the duels between a Garn Flesh Eater and a Sponk, the battles often going on for hours. Now and then the Flesh Eater would actually win (an amazing achievement indeed), and hoarse would be the throats of the Garn in attendance from bellowing their roars of approval.

Flesh Eaters wander Garn space looking for the most intense combat to be had, and are permitted to join any combat team they wish -- indeed this is seen as an honour by the unit they choose to join.

These 15mm scale models are big (even for Garn), and really imposing. Although the guns were designed as a superheavy flamethrower and a heavy fusion gun, naturally you can use them for whatever you want.

They are available now on our webstore.

The AC-900 Sedan

2010-12-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

The Augsburg-Corona 900 sedan is arguably the most popular sedan in Federation space, and is much sought after outside the Federation as well, being in particular popular with the Lhurggs, who enjoy pimping it up in various garish ways.

It features a large door which opens the windscreen to the right of the car, allowing everyone to pile in. The car can carry up to six people -- four in reasonable confort, or two who can virtually recline (and in the case of teenagers, often do).

Whilst designed for anti-grav transport, the bargain version of the auto is made with a conventional suspension, in triwheel mode, for those who experience grav sickness or live in areas where angravium fuel is at a premium.

Our model of the AC-900 was designed by John Bear Ross. It is in 15mm scale and is approximately 45mm long -- at 1/100th scale it's about the same length as a Toyota Camry. It's a simple two piece model with an upper car body and then a choice of inserts for either grav or tri-wheel suspension. The grav version has discreet little pegs on the bottom to suspend the auto a bit off the tabletop to create that floating feel.

It should be just the thing to stock your sci fi combat or RP games with cars that match your futuristic settings.

Coming in early 2011 -- stay tuned.

HE WHO KILLS Part 2

2010-12-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

(For part 1 of this TALE OF MYSTRI ISLAND, read the blog post below first.)

At this point there were no foes on the battlefield, there were only men (and one woman) filled with wonder, and at the same time a curious sense of impending dread.

As a girl, an orphan in Africa, I would play with the types of animals that other Europeans fled in terror, but when I heard that strange sound rushing through the jungle, even I felt the tingle of fear, running up my right leg and then my back. The sound, the sound – how can I describe it? Like a steel plate being dragged along a cobblestone road by a locomotive? Perhaps. To that was joined the violent report of heavy tree limbs bursting in the wake of this onrush -- a sound like nothing I had heard before.

Then I saw it.

At first it was a dark shape in the jungle, of great height although primarily horizontal, like a colossal battering ram rushing toward a gate. A battering ram with legs, for as it got closer two could be seen, thick as tree trunks, pumping back and forth as they surged the dark shape forward. Then it loomed closer still, into view, colossal, and the shape developed a head, which made it clear that Stalks-at-Dawn’s god was some sort of dragon, a huge squarish head with enormous jaws lined with teeth like railroad spikes. Thick horny crests ringed the top of the head and eye sockets. At first it seemed to have no arms at all, but as it drew nearer it fleetingly showed what appeared to be tiny wings, or at least small arms lined with feathers, for it could never had flown using them.

Such was our group astonishment that no one uttered a sound when this creature hove plainly into view. Stalks-at-Dawn fondled the amulet that hung from his neck, and held something odd in his other hand, which appeared to be a hunk of animal fur matted with drying blood. He watched He-Who-Kills quite closely as the huge beast peered around the jungle, its nostrils flaring. It had just swung that sledgehammer of a head in our direction when from the German lines came a single fearful utterance, “Gott in Himmel,” and the creature then snapped its head to the left and like a tidal wave surged down upon the German lines.

In amazement I turned for an instant to look at Stalks-at-Dawn, to gauge his reaction, but he was gone. Even before I could turn back I heard shouts and screams and gunfire from the German lines, the occasional shot thudding into the armour of this creature, perhaps stinging it no more than a hornet stings a man, as it thrust its great torso in and out of the trees. It would find a man, swing its great jaws open, and then -- and a ghastly recollection it still is -- clamp them shut around him, chopping him to pieces which tumbled every which way to the jungle floor. Again and again this happened, and I watched.

Try though I might to move them, my feet were frozen in place. I didn’t know what Richard or the Gurkhas were doing at this time because I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the scene of this carnage, this monster of myth who tore men asunder, this god so aptly named.

Now, with almost superhuman bravery, a mortar team manned their weapon, a clumsy squat German thing which appeared to be mounted on a wheel of some sort, and tried to depress it to bring fire of sufficient caliber on He-Who-Kills. They hastily discharged the gun and a portion of the canopy fell all around the great beast – too high! The monster seemed to interpret the blast from the mortar as a sort of challenge to its authority, and swept straight down on the hapless crew, who fled … but not fast enough. When it was finished with them, it turned and attacked the mortar itself, seizing the stubby cannon in its jaws and hurling it through the jungle like a toy. As it turned again, its great tail swept through the trees, and when one of these cracked a splinter must have been shot in my direction, for I was struck in the head and was out.

***

When I came to, there was silence, a buried feeling, and an earthy odor. My sight was blurry and I was disoriented. It was dark, then light, then dark again. Where was I? I was … in the arms of von Schrecklichdorf! Ensconced with him, it seemed, in a cave of some sort. Or was it a hollow tree? I felt clumsily for one of my pistols but he held me tighter and nodded with his blonde head to the left, to where the light was shining. My sight was coming back to me and in the sharpening of the world I could now see outside the tree, to the jungle foliage.

A shadow descended, then a huge leg came down with a thud, was rapidly lifted and gone, then a section of tail swept far overhead. Von Schrecklichdorf whispered to me, very quietly in his perfect English, “it is not satisfied yet. It is finishing the job. It smells our lives … and wants them for itself.” I ventured to lean my head ever so slightly out of the tree hollow, and there it was, almost in repose, craning its head out slightly, smelling the air. But it seemed confused now, almost distracted. Then, very suddenly, it swung its head straight toward me, locking eyes with mine. Fear seized me again and I began to tremble, but then it turned its head just as suddenly to the right, and pumped its legs, thrusting its vast muscled mass through the jungle, moving off.

We waited for a while in the tree, the Guards Jager officer and myself. When we had not heard He-Who-Kills for a while and the sounds of the jungle began to return, we slid ourselves out to the ground, still staying low, and put our backs to the great hollowed tree we had just been in.

After a while von Schrecklichdorf spoke. “Your friend, the Englishman, he kept his head. He took your soldiers down to the pier when the creature appeared. They dumped the cages with the Stossechse females into the cove. All twelve of them, and the two male studs too. The sailors shot at them from the U-boat but there was little they could do to stop it.”

I asked him for more details and he said, “I saw there was nothing I could do for the men, so my next concern was the mission. Yes,” he said with a grimace, “I can now admit what you already knew, there was a mission.” I smiled a little. “But I saw them drowning the Stossechse and I knew all was lost then -- my men and my mission. I did not see you with them, however, so I came back to look for you. It was prowling around, and you were unconscious on the ground, so I looked for a hiding place for you, and found this.” He slapped the tree. “I had to drag you fairly far, and it was touch and go for a while.” He paused. “But the creature seemed … distracted … first quite certain it knew where we were, but then confused and looking off in other directions. Almost as if someone or something was purposefully distracting it.”

I smiled again.

***

Many hours passed, and we sat and quietly recalled some of our adventures on the island, many of them so utterly without precedent that passersby overhearing us might have thought we were recounting mutual nightmares. When it was clear that He-Who-Kills was gone for good, and we heard quiet voices in the darkness, we got up and almost immediately saw Richard. He ran to us with a section of Gurhkas, his Webley not quite raised, and said, “Been looking for you my dear, were afraid we'd lost you." Turning to von Schrecklichdorf, he said, "You’re mission’s quite over I’m afraid, old man,” surprising me that his voice sounded almost regretful. Richard was always a gentleman, even to his enemies. “Yes, and I am glad of it,” von Schrecklichdorf replied. “I have fought in the trenches, I have seen men massacred before, but never by an animal, butchered so horribly, torn to pieces. It is no way to fight a war.” Richard was about to say something to von Schrecklichdorf but I interrupted him, which he hates, saying that it is very American. But I had to get it out right away. “I’m sorry I failed you Richard. I froze when it attacked. I should have gone with you and the Gurkhas to the cove. When push came to shove, I was of no use at all.” My eyes began to tear up and I was ashamed that I was behaving like a woman.

As had happened so often in the past, Stalks-at-Dawn materialized from the jungle, and came loping up to me, putting his hand on my arm. “Are you pierced? Is your health sound?”

Richard looked at our friend the lizardman and then at me, laughed and shook his head. “Failed? No, very much to the contrary, you were absolutely critical my dear girl.” He nodded his head to the creature he sometimes dismissively called Stalkers and said, “you befriended this chap, and he was man of the match on this day, there’s no doubt about that. I doubt he would have brought that terror down upon the Germans solely on my account.”

“No, I would not,” Stalks-at-Dawn replied, and we humans laughed a bit despite everything.

***

Although he was our de facto prisoner, in the end we let von Shrecklichdorf go, as frankly we were not sure what the legal niceties were when taking a prisoner on neutral ground. So he got back on his U Boat and sailed away to whatever fate awaits him. I had to cajole Richard into doing this, as he was most eager to make a prisoner of the troublesome, if gallant, German, and was sure he would pop up to vex the Allies again. As he was leaving I thanked him for saving my life once again, we agreed to look each other up after the peace, and he gave us that salute with the clicking boots.

Once he was gone, Stalks-at-Dawn explained to us that no creature fills He-Who-Kills with more fury than a male Giant Ape, and so the Reptilian Hunter had tracked and, with great difficulty, killed one, and had removed a hunk of flesh from its armpit, which he assured us has the most pungent aroma. With this grisly object he lured He-Who-Kills out of the deep jungle. “He is usually a quiet hunter,” Stalks-at-Dawn said, “but when an ape enters his home he is very loud and angry until the ape is dead, even if the ape flees.” For hours Stalks-at-Dawn had fled the rampaging beast, leading it all the while to the jungle above Madawan Cove, its jaws sometimes only meters from his back. He led it to the German lines where it destroyed them before my eyes, and then he had the equally difficult task of leading the creature back again to the deep jungle.

I asked him if this had ever been done by the Reptilian Hunters before. He told me gravely that it had not, and for this he was now an outcast in his tribe, despite the fact that he had brought He-Who-Kills back to his domain. And so it was that the Reptilian, once beloved of his tribe, was forced to leave his island, and it became my turn to teach him of the ways of the wide world beyond it.

--JP

We are very pleased to make available a model of the dreaded He-Who-Kills, based closely on the description of Janice Prishwalken, in 15mm scale. It is a towering beast indeed, and solid pewter! Some eyewitnesses dispute her observation that the creature had arm plumage, so this is an optional piece that may be left off if the gamer prefers. The model should be released during the week of December 6, 2010.

He Who Kills, part 1

2010-11-30T19:58:00.000-08:00

Diary of Janice Prishwalken, March 1918:

When it all came to a head, the Reptilians were there for us in a way we could never have anticipated.

The Germans had backed us into a corner, trumping our platoon of Gurkhas with two good companies of German infantry, supported by light artillery. But despite all their cleverness and planning, their grim efficiency at exploiting the dark mysteries of this island, we had something they did not – we had Stalks-at-Dawn, first a curious onlooker, then a guide and yes, a friend.

And finally, our savior.

We’d heard about it for months, this god of theirs, ominously named “He-Who-Kills,” who lived in the deepest jungle and held sway over that mysterious place. It is said that no human who set foot there had ever come out alive, and I’d not met anyone who tried. Even the Savannah Lords and the armies of the local powers on the island avoided venturing into this deepest and darkest of all the island’s jungles, even if in force. The sheer thought of it was madness to them. The feathered reptiles themselves built their nests a respectful distance from the domain of He-Who-Kills.

Precisely what He-Who-Kills was, Richard and I had pondered many times, occasionally even imagining, upon encountering some new monstrosity, that we had perhaps this time run into He-Who-Kills himself, only to draw looks of bald amazement from those who knew better. On several occasions Richard asserted to me that it was but a myth held in reverence by savages, but he listened attentively all the same when the Reptilians referred to their spirit master in that oblique way they reserved for him alone.

Whenever humans from the island were asked about He-Who-Kills, they invariably said that they did not know and did not want to, for anything that put fear into the Reptilian Hunters was something they wanted to avoid at all costs.

Only the Reptilians would slip into that deepest recess of the island and return to tell the tale. Or at least, sometimes return. Young braves, now old enough to join their tribe’s hunters on foraging expeditions, had first to pass a test. To prove their bravery and skill, they had to bring a small wooden ring into the domain of He-Who-Kills and leave it on a certain branch of a certain tree, then take the ring that the previous young Reptilian had left on that same branch, perhaps years previously, back to the tribal elders. Some of the young Reptilians never came back from that fateful journey, and in this way the tribe assured that only the surest and quietest of their number would sweep forward on the daily hunts.

Our efforts to coax a description of He-Who-Kills from the Reptilians were always frustrated, and we eventually resigned ourselves to the thought of leaving the island with this particular mystery remaining unsolved. But it was not to be, and in the end we had all our questions answered.

* * *

We had learned much of Captain von Schrecklichdorf’s master plan -- to gather a dozen egg-laying females of the dreaded “bayawak balahibo” (feathered reptiles) and bring them back to Germany by means of the huge transport U-boats that crept into Madawan Cove. In the platoon of Gurkhas that had joined us just in the nick of time, we thought we had the means to stop him. But von S. was not a man to be taken for granted, and to our astonishment we discovered that he had brought superior force to bear, no doubt carried on the U-boats that came to retrieve the feathered reptiles in their wood crates. Von Schrecklichdorf wasted no time in sending his little army after us, and our brave Gurkhas, vastly outnumbered and outgunned, could only fall back as the German forces pressed us.

It got worse, for we soon found ourselves surrounded, two squads of the fearsome stormtroopers having crept into the jungle behind us as we fell back. This was just as Stalks-at-Dawn had predicted when he had mysteriously left our party in great haste. The Reptilian Hunters had rapidly familiarized themselves with the “bang-men” (their term for stormtroopers because they use grenades so frequently) and knew they’d have something up their sleeve. He had tried to warn me about this two days before, as the Gurkhas were joining us, but he could not quite find the right words, and I could not let his vague cautions interfere with doing our duty, which was more urgent now than ever. Eventually he stopped pressing me and gesturing, looked at me for what seemed a long time, told me he would try to do what he could to help, and disappeared into the jungle.

He was right, as he always had been, and our moment of triumph had turned into our moment of doom, for neither Richard nor I had any intention of leaving the Gurkhas and planned to share their fate whatever that might be, Richard firing his Webley with his normal deadly accuracy, his pith helmet off but his tie perfectly straight as always. I looked at him there, crouching behind a tree, splinters flying everywhere, and as I stuck another clip into my .45, my own adventures on his astonishing island flashed before my mind’s eye ….

…dinner at the table of the Brothers Hamyldon, the vampires Georg and Vlad, Georg insisting that I wear an evening gown that appeared exceedingly antique …

… negotiations with newly-sentient penguins to join our cause …

… a midnight game of hide and seek in the jungle with those crazed, gibbering cannibals, the Getinmahbeli …

… pursued across the grassy interior of the island by the colossal Savannah Lords …

… more than one face-to-face encounter with that dashing gentleman, von Schrecklichdorf himself, who always asserted with a smile and a shrug, his uniformed stosstruppen around him, that he was simply a German gentleman on vacation, and here only for the hunting …

… and all the while, through the highs and the lows, Richard and I never gave up hope that right would prevail in the end. But now here we were, trapped and outnumbered, mortar shells exploding around us as the Gurkhas fought and died tenaciously for every inch of jungle, fire coming at us now from behind as well as front, ever closer.

But what was that sound, a sound like living thunder? All fire ceased as that roar drowned out even the mortars, rattling the bones of every man, Gurkha, German and Briton -- and my American bones too, the only woman present. Squinting toward the enemy line, in the distance I made out Captain von Schrecklichdorf as he rose up slowly amongst the grey helmets bobbing in the bush, his handsome Broomhandle Mauser in hand, peering in the direction of those thunderous bellows, which were now mixed with the sound of cracking tree limbs as something surged through the jungle.

I felt a familiar presence and Stalks-at-Dawn materialized from the bush, panting. He crouched, pointed in the direction of the sound, and said, “He is here. He-Who-Kills is here.”

To be continued ....

Garn Merchant-Warship

2010-11-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

The Garn, hulking alien reptilians, do not understand what a cruiser is because the Garn do not "cruise." Instead, like a monitor lizard seeking prey, they relentlessly pursue opportunities for conquest or trade advantage. Showing the flag on a cruise is meaningless when there are worlds to be dominated or trade gains to be realized. However, as the ship they use for this purpose, the Merchant-Warship, is roughly the size and strength of a Federal Cruiser, it is designated a heavy cruiser by the Federal Navy.

Federal Naval jargon has dubbed the ship the "MerWa."

The Merchant-Warship can carry two to four turrets each mounting two of the mighty Vulcan Naval Rifles, and batteries of ship-killing heavy missiles (which can be retasked for heavy surface bombardment in support of the ship's troop complement). Alternately two of the Vulcan-mount turrets can be replaced with cargo or launch pods if the ship is seeking a trade advantage rather than straight conquest.

Merchant-Warships do not carry fighters, but are well defended against them, bristling with close defense laser systems. The ships have both heavy armour and forcefield defenses.

As these vessels sail on missions likely to include interaction with aliens on the surface of distant worlds, they always carry a strong complement of warriors and tanks, the huge Crocodile and Alligator class anti-grav vehicles. Indeed this is an intrinsic part of their purpose. In combat with another spacecraft, the powerfully armed and protected, but generally less maneuverable, Merchant-Warship will attempt if possible to send landing parties to the enemy vessel in order to capitalize on the Garn advantage in close quarter combat, and potentially sieze the enemy craft as a prize, garnering honour and cash for the task force's Hegemon.

Our model of this lumbering alien cruiser cum troop transport cum merchant ship was designed by John Bear Ross and will be released as an adversary for our upcoming Federal Battle Class Heavy Cruiser. And coming soon into scanning distance, its weapons hot and armed, is the Pelagic Dominate's sleek Benthic Class Battlecruiser ....

M5MEP Siler

2010-11-07T22:16:00.000-08:00

The main liability of the M5 "Siler" Federal Heavy Tank is its fiddly drive train, which is capable of giving the vehicle surprising agility but requires regular maintenance halts. The tankers and their battalion commanders are aware of this need and adjust their expectations of the vehicles accordingly, but higher echelon commanders often push the units beyond their capabilities, then complain when the tanks break down.

Another obvious limitation is the speed of the vehicle -- at 65kph it is often unable to keep up with higher speed assets and, often, enemy units.

Responding to this need, a Mobility Enhancement Package (MEP) has been developed for the M5, installing two Rolls Royce T45/98 anti-grav engines, along with a replacement pack for the vehicle's molecular softpack to recalibrate for anti-grav mobility. The vehicle's engine and wheels are removed, replaced by grav plates and an anti-grav engine, which clip over existing components. Although at a top speed of 95 kph the enhanced vehicle is not vastly faster than the traditional tracked version, the speed edge is often enough to be tactically meaningful, and the MEP variant can maintain its top speed across all terrain for much longer periods than can the tracked vehicle. Anti-grav drive also provides key tactical advantages, for instance being able to achieve an altitude of 10m AGL for brief periods during engagements.

Like its real-world inspiration, our model of the M5 Siler can take the MEP swap, which simply replaces the four tread sections with the two Rolls Royce engines. This upgrade should be available within a month or so as a swappable drive train for the existing M5 Siler kit, and will include two of the anti-grav drives and a flight base that will attach to the bottom of the hull. Gamers who are clever with rare earth magnets should not have much trouble making the tracks and the anti-grav drives swappable.

Who Ordered the Fish?

2010-10-31T15:20:00.000-07:00

Vis Bellica (Robert Avery) has posted a very entertaining battle report of that name, in which his Carnivoran Hegemony troops (the Garn overlords and their Felid subjects) attacked some Pelagic Dominate troops in a very unfair but very entertaining battle. (Let's remember relatively few battles involve "equal sides" and one side generally does have an advantage.)

He used the I Ain't Been Shot Mum rules, with sci fi variant GYFTOOMF (Get Your Fricking Tentacle Out of my Face) -- the rules certainly seem to have provisions for all sorts of sci fi models, and still give a smooth game. Vis Bellica has in fact posted stats for many of the Khurasan troops from my Federation Forward background on his site as well - as well as GYFTOOMF stats for many other lines.

In particular he has sensed that the Garn Crocodile class gunboat is a weapon of awesome power, and represented it as such! Using two was just cruel though! :)

Good show Vis Bellica!

Atlas Armoured Tractor Options

2010-09-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

The Atlas Armoured Prime Mover will have many options to allow gamers to use this beast as they prefer. First up, the guntruck option, seen above, a rear box that drop fits onto the tractor to make it a one piece patrol truck, and a powerful escort for convoys of softskins.

That photo also introduces the pulse cannon fighting station, which is shown to the rear of the guntruck. This rotates like any turret, and will be sprued up with the rotary cannon turret, and a sprue of both turrets will be included for each weapons station, allowing you to use either one. Of course, you might prefer to have only one turret, rather than two, but closing off the hole should be an easy matter.

Next up is the APT, the armoured personnel trailer. This bunker like articulated trailer is heavily armoured and can carry the full Federal Army squad of twelve men into battle. To complement the direct fire turret in the front of the vehicle, it has a citadel on which is mounted a heavy grenade launcher, allowing the vehicle's crew to get at spots behind cover that the direct fire weapon cannot reach. The citadel is elevated so that even if the truck is firing its weapons straight ahead, the grenade launcher can still be used.

For those of you who think the 15cm thick armour-glass windows on the truck are not thick enough, we are also producing armoured window covers which are inspired by the covers for the "Dragon Wagon," and these will come as part of the kit.

The VTOL craft for the Federal Army, the Cormorant, is being designed now, but after that I will be asking the sculptor, Charles Oines, to make a gun trailer for the Atlas as well, which will be able to mount either a MLRS, a AAA suite, or a large gun.

Can anyone guess why the VTOL craft is called the Cormorant? First person to answer here correctly gets a free set of Federal Army infantry! (First correct answer to be posted in the comments below, it has to be my call as to which person has answered correctly.)

2010-09-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

Wow! This is belated but I wanted to thank everyone who voted for my new lines in the Miniatures Page poll for best new sci line of 2009. I was very happy, and more than a little surprised to see that three (!!!) of my new lines made it into the final poll. Results here -- this is the final round:

final round of poll

Ironically, having three of my lines nominated is splitting the vote! lol. But that doesn't matter, I don't think I'd have won anyway. Great to see all that support though, it is very encouraging indeed. I'll try to continue to provide you all with products you like this year and in the future!

Atlas Class APM

2010-09-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

Here's the first look at the Atlas Class APM (armoured prime mover).

This heavily armoured tractor is armed with a rotary cannon mounted in a turret, but its primary use is to carry a variety of payloads into action, including the APT (armoured personnel trailer), as well as the JUGC (joint use gun carriage), which will have a mount for an AAA suite, a heavy artillery piece, and an MLRS.

Also planned is a dropfit guntruck rear that will carry several men and lots of guns for patrol purposes. This won't be a trailer, it will be a direct attachment to the back of the APM.

The design of the Altas is inspired by current combat conditions, such as the use of MRAPs and the Stryker in ongoing wars. Wheels seem to be the way to go, or at least one viable way. Also, from a marketing perspective, there are so many one-bodied APCs out there, and so many tracked or grav carriers, that we thought it would be fun and different to introduce a wheeled and articulated APC/Gun Carriage into the market.

The Atlas will be joined soon by the gigantic Siler Superheavy Tank, and its passengers, the Federal Army infantry, will also be released imminently, with more planned.

In a day or two we will preview the APT (armoured personnel trailer) that hooks onto the Atlas. The APT mounts a heavy grenade launcher to get those pesky skulking aliens that can't be blasted into pieces by the direct fire of the APM's rotary cannon! The trailers will all be sold separately of the tractor so that you can multitask your vehicles. Stay tuned!

TMP's Best Sci Fi Figures of 2009 Poll

2010-09-09T08:54:00.001-07:00

Vote here!

Just noticed this today ... and today's the last day! :)

If you like my models, it would be great if you were to vote for them. You can choose five different lines. I only market through the Internet, as I am unable to attend shows, etc. So I need all the help I can get! Thanks.

664th Anniversary of Crecy

2010-08-26T04:10:00.000-07:00

On the 664th anniversary of the Battle of Crecy, arguably the battle that made England a great nation (at least, in the eyes of the rest of Europe), we are previewing two codes from our upcoming 15mm Crecy line. These will compliment our existing mid-14th century line, the Early Swiss, and we hope to eventually make many other nations from that period as well. (I was going to call it "Circa 1350" but it occurs that it could just as easily be called the "Black Death" line!)

Above are the English archers, three armoured and three unarmoured. Every effort has been made to fix their armour and dress so that they are accurate for that fateful battle in the twilight.

Also being previewed are the Welsh knifemen, who had a spear and a long knife with which they ruthlessly finished off wounded French men-at-arms.

The foot knights and command will be previewed when the painter is back from holiday! All models are cast and ready to be sold as soon as all are ready to be displayed for sale, perhaps within a month.

All Meat for the Sponk

2010-07-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

The Control Battalion sergeant peered through the goggles on its factory-sealed helmet and considered what it would say next to the obstreperous Lhurgg chieftain standing before it. They had met in the middle of the street, leaving their respective troops hanging back in the rubble on either side of the street; best to keep them apart to avoid any trouble, and have their leaders meet in neutral ground.

The sergeant was part human, but it rarely felt any emotion, as the DNA that had been mixed with that of Humanity in the process of creating the Control Battalions was dominant, to put it mildly, and the creatures that had provided those genes were coldly calculating in their every action, knowing without feeling.

And so the sergeant had the presence of mind not to immediately kill the Lhurgg standing before it, an action a more emotional being, such as a full human, might have been sorely tempted to take against this mercurial, shiftless and selfish creature.

Killing him would not do at all, as the Commander had given instructions to her Control Battalions concerning the Lhurggs: they were only to be eliminated if they were directly impeding Control Battalion activities in the sector. Otherwise, the Commander said, their disruptive presence was now actually rather useful on Sepulveda, and so even if they would not follow orders, they must be left alone. She had reasoned that if the Lhurggs were allowed to remain, some colonists might see the Control Battalions as an acceptable alternative to them. The sergeant had just enough human DNA in its makeup to see the sense of it.

Of the history of this conflict, the sergeant knew as much as it needed to – that the Commander had hired ten thousand Lhurggs to enforce her will on Sepulveda against the Sepulvedan Resistance, and they had failed to do that, occupying themselves instead with what they did best, looting and piracy, and then arguing and fighting amongst themselves over their ill-gotten gains. She had anticipated this, and indeed who wouldn’t, but what had caught her unawares was the utter imperviousness of the Lhurggs to repeated demonstrations of her displeasure, usually administered by a platoon of her Garn bodyguard dropping down from orbit to, say, snuff out a Lhurgg encampment. So shortsighted were these creatures that such ghastly lessons did nothing to affect their behavior. Far from getting the extraction of the precious Angravium mineral back on track, the invasive presence of the Lhurggs had brought it to a standstill as every colonist who could bear arms did so to make war on the Lhurggs as if they were so many locusts -- which is essentially how they behaved, swarming here, denuding an area, and then swarming to the next place, leaving many of their dead on the ground as they ebbed.

The Commander had next hired fully seven arks of Karkarines, Pelagic mercenaries who were good soldiers and much better organized than the Lhurggs but, it turned out, not much better behaved in mercenary service. They were instructed to rein in the Lhurggs and to force the miners back to work. They did not obey those orders, those seven thousand Karks, but acted instead as a force unto themselves. They mostly stayed in their encampments, watching pornographic and action hols as they wallowed in salt-water tanks and ate freeze-dried shrimp-cakes, suiting up now and then to make the occasional token foray to obliterate some Lhurggs or, more often, to cut deals with the organized crime heads of the Sepulvedan Underworld. (Karks did not have nostrils but could still smell money five clicks away.) They also extensively mapped the planet, the Karks did, although for what reason it was not immediately clear.

The Karkarine Mercenaries were of little help against the Lhurggs and of no help whatsoever against the Resistance, but at least they were easy to get rid of – the Commander just told them she would no longer pay them and they got back in their arks and departed the planet without a word, leaving nothing but pools of brine where they had once encamped to show that they’d ever been there at all. It was officially said they had all gone off to the next sector, offering their services to both sides in the ongoing Molch-Vornid War, but the sergeant knew well enough that a few Karks remained as middlemen for some bad apples in the Commander’s Garn bodyguard battalion, who were getting rich in their sales of looted Resistance weapons to the Sepulvedan Underworld. Those weapons, the Platoon Leader knew, went right back into the hands of the Resistance. It felt a rare, momentary rise of anger, but that quickly dissipated. Anger at the Garn was pointless, for against them a transhuman such as itself could do nothing.

The sergeant’s mind had wandered on these matters for a few moments, and so it had not been listening to the Lhurgg, but then again, there was little need to. The Lhurgg interjected only a few words of FedCom as he coughed and brayed in his own language to the sergeant, shoving, gesticulating, pleading and demanding. The sergeant gathered that the answer was no, the Lhurggs would not support the Control platoon’s left flank as they tried again to push their way down Alliance Street. The platoon had left eight dead on the street with the last push, not that the Control Battalions cared about their casualties, but losses made the platoon less effective. The sergeant knew of course that these same Lhurggs who refused to assist would follow right behind its platoon all the same, looting any dead (Control Battalion, Resistance or bystander) that resulted from the action. That’s why they had gathered here now -- they’d been attracted to the fight.

The Lhurgg then asked, again, for elec-chem cells to power his herd’s swords, holding his palms to the sky.

Peering through the brown mist that coursed inside its helmet, the sergeant replied -- lying, of course -- that it would consider the request, and then asked its own question, slowly and deliberately so that the Lhurgg would understand. “Has your herd seen any more Resistance fighters with rocket launchers arriving in this area?” Its question came out of a speaker on the side of its helmet in a sinister, hissing monotone.

“Edrardu gilla helma lets me think, no? I finds out, gorshu,” said Honq, the Lhurgg chieftain, in reply, and leered at the sergeant standing before him. Honq momentarily pretended to ponder the rocket launcher question, squatted slightly, grunted and shot a bolus of warm, wet feces onto the ground, splattering the boot of the sergeant, causing some of the Lhurggs reclining on the rubble to bray and hoot.

“Helma” -- the Control sergeant rolled the word around in its brain. This meant “helmet,” which is what everyone called the Control Battalions on Sepulveda, “the helmets,” because they never removed them.

Ever.

Honq turned to his cackling herd and said, in their own language, “these helmet creatures have elec-chem cells, for I asked for some and they did not say no, so they must have some! What do you say to this, my kin?” The herd looked up, and each of them pulled his Huk-Huk sword a little from its scabbard, then let it slide back down, click. Having run out of battery power, their Huk-Huks had been quiet for some time, although they still had considerable bite, even if their two adjacent blades were not reciprocating back and forth under electrical power. The herd had some disposable blasters, it was true, but as everyone knew, they couldn’t hit anything with them – the Lhurgg was defined by his Huk-Huk, and the Huk-Huk existed to make its grinding sound as it bit into the flesh of the foe.

The herd wanted those elec-chem cells.

“Here, come my child,” shouted Honq, and the Lhurgg giant rose, lifting himself heavily from the street using his mallet as a prop. Fully nine feet tall, the giant had three heads, which had been quietly arguing about something but they were now quiet and attentive as they frowned at the Control platoon. This was met by clicking and whirring sounds as the goggles mounted on Control helmets zoomed and focused on the giant, and on other Lhurggs who were now materializing from the rubble and gathering around. In the giant’s right hand they saw the assault cannon, three barrels now yawning at them.

The sergeant had counted the Lhurggs before, but now that they were gathering it saw that it had underestimated their numbers, and there were sixty or more of them, more than the remnants of its platoon, most with disposable blasters and all with the crude power swords they preferred in close combat. The swords were drawn and their chieftain barked and spat at them, pointing to the Control troops. They began advancing.

They were, in the sergeant’s judgment, now directly impeding Control Battalion operations in this sector. It hissed and went down on its knee.

* * *

On the roof of the old ministry building, Resistance Corporal Hallan, looking out for the Control troops with his binocs, witnessed it all.

He knew they wouldn’t come strolling down this street, of course, but he might see something anyway if he kept watch. And sure enough, out comes a Control leader walking cautiously into the middle of the street, far out of range, and then coming to join him from the other side of the street, a feathered Lhurgg chieftain. They talked, uneasily, or rather the Lhurgg did most of the talking. He could hear nothing of the meeting, for these old Resistance binocs didn’t have aurals. He had feared that the savages would join up with the Control platoon as they again tried to push down this thoroughfare, and considered asking Lili if they could drop a few rockets in amongst them at this extreme range, but before he could do so, and much to his amazement, a battle had begun …

… flashes of white light, obviously from Control pulse rifles, their normal disciplined fire etching streams of light across the street …

… the heavy thunder of a Lhurgg giant’s assault cannon …

… Lhurggs bounding into view, attempting to cross the curtain of fire, their crude swords held high overhead, some making it …

… the unmistakable whir as a Control drone’s propeller kicked to life as it took to the air, firing grenades across the street …

… the Control unit leader kneeling, still in the middle of the street in advance of all its troopers, laying down a steady fire, killing one charging Lhurgg that was virtually on top of it ….

… and finally, gradual quiet, except for the occasional hiss from a pulse rifle and the whirring of the Control drone’s propeller as it now floated into view, hovering cautiously across the street, evidently checking out the position the fleeing Lhurggs had held, the Control leader following slowly behind it, finally the rest of the platoon advancing into view.

His enemies had just made war on each other, and Hallan was relieved. But felt no great pleasure. There was nothing new in this. Everyone fought everyone on Sepulveda, or so it sometimes seemed. As the saying went, it’s all meat for the Sponk -- a saying that could be taken quite literally out past the city limits, where Lhurgg and human skulls mingled with emptied Control helmets at the bottom of the predators' burrows.

Hallan let his binocs swing around his neck, and called Lili’s adjutant to report what he’d just seen.

* * *

Models of the Lhurggs have just been added to our 15mm line and are available now. They were sculpted by Whiff Waff and these samples were painted by Artmaster Studio. Lhurggs are tall, slender creatures that go about naked and are usually armed with a cheap disposable blaster and with the Huk Huk electrical sword.

Enemy artifact

2010-07-01T05:27:00.000-07:00

Highest security level applies to transmission ++

Hostile civilization artifact discovered on outpost Planet R ++

Outpost destroyed ++

Colonists missing ++

Artifact appears to be antigrav skimmer ++

Lifeform appears to hang upside down from "seat" on top of vehicle ++

No known organism capable of piloting such craft ++

Initial weapons assessment team poisoned by physical contact with craft ++

Fatality rate 100% ++

Xenobio team to further investigate once satisfactory safety protocols established ++

Transmission end ++

Tales of Mystri Island: The Stossechse

2010-06-23T10:11:00.000-07:00

The details were kept a closely guarded secret, but part of the Italian trench line taken by the Germans at Caporetto in November of 1917 was not seized by their vaunted Stosstruppen. In one or two selected points on the battlefield, something worse even than the stormtroopers was at play. In those sectors the Italian defenders were utterly wiped out before they were able to withdraw -- worse even than wiped out, torn to pieces, their bodies mangled, sometimes beyond recognition. Only one man survived, a reliable veteran Sergente, but he had been driven insane, and to this day shields his face and screams for no apparent reason. The Germans had here unleashed a weapon that, in its war-winning capabilities, might eclipse the flamethrower and even poison gas itself.

With great effort, Allied intelligence eventually determined from scat left in the assaulted trench sectors that this weapon was biological, apparently some sort of … animal. The Bosche seemed to hold it only in limited quantities at present, or they would have scythed down the entire front, a ghastly slaughter. Thank God for little miracles, though this was literally cold comfort to those torn limb from limb in their trenches.

It was a Belgian spy who first caught wind of the likely origin of the new Hun menace, in the summer of 1917, in fact a few months before Caporetto. She heard two German officers speak obliquely about the “dividends being yielded by a Guards captain on an island in the Pacific,” and how those may “some day yield triumph for the Fatherland.” She passed this information on to the British Secret Service, and it floated around Whitehall Court for a few months, usually described with evident amusement as “Jerry’s Witch Doctor Battalion.” But after Caporetto an enterprising intelligence officer put two and two together, and a team was established specifically to investigate what the Germans were doing in the Pacific. As the Secret Service learned more, two agents, an Englishman and an American, were sent to Mystri Island to see what they could find out. But doubts persisted -- could the obliteration of two full platoons of good Italian infantry be caused by something biological, found on a remote island?

* * *

Von Schrecklichdorf beckoned the party on, his Broomhandle Mauser now heavy in his hand and still hot from use. The native porters remained jumpy from the previous attacks, and clearly expected to see more of the vicious feathered reptiles bolting from the jungle at any moment, but the cadre of German explorers had moved these eggs around on Mystri Inland before and knew that the coast was now clear. The creatures, which Gotz had christened “Stossechse,” would not attempt to retrieve their eggs this far beyond the river.

Good thing too, v. Schrecklichdorf thought as he spat in his monacle and rubbed it on his bluse to remove a blood splatter. Nine more porters killed, over fifty rounds of invaluable K98 ammunition and six grenades expended ... defending six animal eggs. Not that the local tinpot dictator cared a whit about the losses to his own people, but it was getting harder to obtain carriers, conscripted or not, who would not flee as soon as the opportunity presented itself. These simple people, he thought ruefully, nursing a surface gash on his left forearm, had the good common sense not to transport demon eggs out from the deep part of the jungle.

Von Schrecklichdorf allowed himself to relax a little. “Stossechse.” Something right about that name -- “assault lizards” -- yet something so very wrong all the same. Scaly skin and a face like a lizard, but feathers like a bird, and a taut, wiry body like nothing he’d ever experienced before. What were they, besides damnably dangerous?

Well, that was a question for men in white lab coats back in Germany to answer. But what he did know was that these were the first animals he had sent back to Germany that led to clamours for more. Though in their wild state they were incredibly dangerous, in fact nearly suicidal to approach, the creatures were, he was told, domesticable when raised from the egg, and made awesome weapons. (Von Schrecklichdorf tried to image that for a moment.) This was good. He had not come here to fail the German people in their hour of trial. He would collect more of these eggs, and no one would stop him, he thought, looking around the jungle, the hairs now standing up on his neck. He had that old feeling again, like he was once again being watched, but not by Stossechse.

Janice sensed her German subject was aware of her, as she slipped through the jungle, Richard right behind her ….

* * *

Comparison to a 15mm sci fi model

We will soon release a pack of von Schrecklichdorf’s Stossechse (pronounced sh-tows-egg-zuh), dinosaurs now known to science as Deinonychus, often called "raptors" in popular parlance. There are six different poses and the animals are represented in line with the most up-to-date dinosaur science, so they are covered in feathers for heat regulation as well as display. They represent medium to large “raptors” in 15mm scale, but are perfect for 28mm scale smaller “raptors” such as Velociraptor (not the movie monster, the actual animal, which was about the size of a German Shepard).

Mike Broadbent paints the L-HAC!

2010-06-13T09:02:00.000-07:00

Most of you will know Mike Broadbent as one of the world's top rank sculptors of wargaming miniatures, but Mike is also a painter and a gamer, and I was very pleased indeed when he ordered several of my L-HAC models! This was designed by Mark Mondragon and, at about 100mm tall, is huge and imposing even to 28mm models.

That's how Mike says he uses his, as death droids in his 28mm gaming. Here are some pics he was kind enough to share with me.

Thanks Mike. The L-HAC is available in the Terran Federal Marine Corp. area of our 15mm Sci Fi webstore: http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/15mmscifi.html

The Tribal Class DPLS

2010-06-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

A "Bulldog" DPLS flying its freight pod to a neighboring star system is a familiar sight in planetary orbit.

The Tribal Class DPLS (dual purpose light spacecraft) is the most widely used light interstellar spacecraft in the galaxy. This vessel was the brainchild of Sivapathasundaram Patel, the visionary FTL designer of the “Block 16” series of light exploration craft, and is manufactured by Puja-Patel Light Spacecraft Company, a division of ConglomCo. (Patel named the company after his daughter.) Having designed the Block 16 vessels which had established humanity in space, Patel’s next goal was “to create a vehicle that could keep us there,” a single interstellar ship which can be used interchangeably for a dizzying variety of military and commercial uses with little modification. With little effort, the “Bulldog” (the popular nickname of the spacecraft due to the appearance of the cabin) can be configured to perform an impressive variety of roles. Thanks to its ability to hover and land vertically by vectoring the main engines and a suite of thrusters arrayed across the vessel’s fuselage, it can generally go wherever the crew wants to take it.

Even without the Federal navy weapons pod installed, the DPLS still packs a serious punch, as this craft on a NOE attack run against a pirate base is about to prove.

STRIKE
The DPLS is a large, deadly strike craft, in Federal naval service adding one of two weapons pods for attack runs – either the surface attack pod or the fleet strike pod. Like all pods for the DPLS, these can be swapped on the craft, and the accompanying molware reconfigured, in less than ten minutes.

This DPLS is configured for freight carriage and has its 200mm laser cannons stored in the weapons bay.

DROPSHIP
The DPLS can transport up to 36 armed men into battle via planetfall from heavy fleet transports, or 24 armed men when travelling between adjacent star systems, the optional military cargo pod providing them with stowage for a variety of light weapons and supplies. While the troops are being inserted they are protected by the DPLS’s missile turret and its armament of wing-mounted 200mm laser cannon – the turret with its guided missiles being particularly useful in providing them fire support whilst the DPLS is landed.

PASSENGER TRANSPORT
Chances are if someone travels between systems in Federal space, it’s in a DPLS. For short hops up to 24 people can be carried, although Federal guidelines (widely ignored) call for carriage of no more than 12 passengers. For long term trips up to six passengers can be accommodated in two cabins which offer relative privacy, being constructed using fold-down dividers.

The ubiquitous cargo pod of the DPLS can have its top removed for bulk unloading, or the doors on the side can be opened for unpacking of smaller items by individuals or cargo bots.

FREIGHT CARRIAGE
The most widespread peacetime use of the DPLS is in carrying light freight loads across the galaxy, sometimes literally so. The ubiquitous cargo pod of the DPLS can carry up to 24 tons of cargo and an additional 20 tons of cargo can be carried inside the craft itself. Due to its ability to vertically land, unhook the cargo pod and take off, the DPLS is sometimes used to resupply besieged outposts or units in the midst of battle.

The DPLS is also often used to ferry cargo from larger freighters to planetary surface.

THE NAVAL RESERVE PROGRAM
The Federal Navy holds over 6,000 DPLS -- at any time 2,000 of those being on active service and 4,000 in the Merchant Reserve, these latter vessels operated by Navy Reserve pilots who lease the craft and use them to ply a variety of shipping or passenger carriage trades. These NROs (Naval Reserve Operators), as they are called, need to follow strict guidelines for the use of these vessels; for instance, when crewed by/transporting aliens, only SNH (Sanctioned Non-Humans) are permitted aboard, and the wingtip laser cannons are supposed to be dismounted from the vessel and stored in the weapons hold. (This requirement is selectively ignored by Federal NRP inspectors, who, as Navy men themselves, usually look the other way if the NRO is shipping in dangerous zones.)

In time of hostilities, NROs are required to promptly return to their home port, or rendezvous with their Naval Battle Group if it is deployed. Their DPLSs are expected to be fully prepared for combat operations by the time they reach the Battle Group.

THE DPLS UNDER CIVILIAN OWNERSHIP; USE IN PIRACY
The Tribal-class DPLS is not solely a military vessel; in fact it is primarily commercial, only 25% of all DPLSs being owned by the fleet. They are also purchased by private companies or individuals for commercial or recreational use, but these vessels have the wingtip pods permanently installed and of course are not provided with laser cannons. While they mount the missile turret for self-defense, strict fire protocols are built into the molware of the ship to prevent them being used for offensive purposes. (This is at times overridden by some users, in violation of Federal law.)

Unfortunately, these vessels fall into pirates’ hands at times, either by force of arms or because the owner has sold the vessel in desperation, if not lost it in a game of chance. Lhurgg pirates eagerly use these vessels once they are rewired to accept prohibited alien entry, and repaint them in lurid patterns as is the preference of those creatures. Such vessels are invariably filthy and badly maintained. Kark pirates have also been known to finagle the purchase of a DPLS similarly rewired, and these run a tight ship, often jury-rigging an aqua-system in order to create an H2O environment inside the vessel.

The DPLS is so omnipresent that, in situations of piracy where a Federal vessel comes to the aid of a commercial freighter, it’s not uncommon for the commercial, pirate and Navy vessels to all be the same type!

CLASS NAME
The class name, “Tribal,” is an acknowledgement of the multiplicity of the race for whom the vessel was designed – each vessel carries the name of a tribe from human history, the word “tribe” being interpreted very loosely to include any established name for an identifiable group of people; due to the number of vessels, the vessel names often end with a roman numeral after the tribal appellation. For instance, the DPLS that was instrumental in running arms to the Sepulvedan Resistance, and later secretly carrying Federal marines to Sepulveda, the UFS Samnite IV, was named after a nation of aggressive Italian tribesmen who fought tenaciously against the encroaching power of the ancient Romans. As is well known, that ship lived up to its name. Other vessels carry such names as Huron, Geordie, Ainu, Cripp, Rus, and so on.

THE MODEL
The Tribal-class DPLS is a 15mm scale model, and can be assembled in a number or different configurations. It has a flight stand and landing gear that can be depicted either up or down, and the vessel can be removed from the flight stand. It also comes with the standard cargo pod which is used when the vessel operates as a dropship or freighter, and this can be attached or left off. The flight stand plugs into the cargo pod, and the cargo pod plugs into the vessel. Or the cargo pod can be removed and the flight stand plugged directly into the vessel. The exit ramp can also be depicted opened or closed, and it’s a tight enough fit that it could be left unglued, although you might lose it that way, so we recommend you choose one and glue it!

The DPLS was designed by me and Mark Mondragon, and rapid prototyped by Mark. The computer renders are by Mark, and the physical copy was painted by Neldoreth of An Hour of Wolves and Shattered Shields. Available soon!

The Orca Assault Warriors of the Pelagic Dominate

2010-06-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

A pod of Orca Warriors, showing a variety of weapons and helmet types -- both the clear dome for insertion strikes and the hard helmet for planetary assault.

The spacefaring xenophobic aquatics of the Pelagic Dominate have an ace in the hole for special strike missions -- the Orca Assault Warriors, large power armour wearing mammalian sentients who have evolved from carnivorous cetaceans. These behemoths are as intelligent as they are strong and fearless, and have been equipped by the inscrutable Cnidarian Overlords with a powered battle suit of immense strength and durability.

When the Cnidarian exploration craft reaced Orcos, the home world of the Orcas, they found a strong spacefaring people ready to contest any conquest. However, when the scout, a delphine diplomat, explained the goals of the Dominate, the Orcas willingly decided at a meeting of the Orca high council pod to submit to the empire, seeing the logic of it -- provided, that is, that two conditions were met. First, they must be allowed to keep their ancient traditions in governing their own world. Second, once a conquered world was aquafarmed, as a mark of their special status they must be permitted to swim that sea in a procession before any other Pelagic life forms. The response of the Cnidarians was mysterious to the Orcas, but the delphine diplomat interpreted for them, saying that these conditions were acceptable.

The Orcas being intelligent crafts-creatures by nature, each Orca noble makes his own weapons, as is dictated by tradition from time immemorial. Their main armaments are for close combat, the dreaded Ahab power harpoon and the Behemoth power claw for manipulation. For close range shooting they use the multibarreled Stingray gatling gun.

Added to this arsenal by the Cnidarians are several other weapons, for the Cnidarians employ the Orca Warriors as elite special strike forces, often teleporting to a target, destroying it, and teleporting out. One such weapon, the Barnacle smart missile system, is an intrinsic part of every Orca battle suit, firing a blizzard of high explosive smart missiles at numerically superior infantry foes. Another vital weapon is the Sea Snake anti-structural missile, fitted to an arm hardpoint of the suit, permitting the warrior to destroy heavy tanks or structures such as command posts, bunkers and power stations.

An Orca Assault Warrior compared to a primitive human -- meeting fanatical but hopelessly outgunned resistance, the Pelagic Dominate aquafarmed this world in only two Pelagic Cycles.

Orcas are often deployed as well in the first wave of an assault, providing some heavy support to the Myzontid Rangers. Like the Myzontids, they are provided with pheromonal exuders so that they are effectively invisible to the swarming bioweapons that are dumped onto the planet by the invasion fleet. The Orcas are intelligent, vocal mammalian sentients, and very different in temperament from the silent, terrifying Myzontids, but the two troop types have developed a rapport and supported each other well in many a successful opening assault.

These models are in 15mm scale and will be sold in a pack of three. One model is gesturing forward and is the pod leader. As can be seen, they come both "bareheaded" (this actually depicts a clear dome-helmet that is worn by the warriors, mostly filled with water but having enough clearance for the warrior to breathe air from his blowhole) and coral-steel helmeted options, as both are used by the Orcas, it being an easy swap on the suit. Enough bare and helmeted heads are provided so that all of the warriors can be "bareheaded" or helmeted. The pack also includes a wealth of spare pieces that can be plugged into the three suits' hardpoints -- Sea Snake missiles, Ahab power harpoons, Stingray gatling guns, and Behemoth power claws. A great deal of extras are in the pack.

These should be available in a few days after the date of this posting, along with the Myzontid rangers with whom the Orcas so often cooperate. Keep an eye on the 15mm sci fi store page. Pedro Ramos sculpted the models and Steve Dean painted them.

The Federal Marines Special Assault Brigade

2010-04-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

The Special Assault Brigade (SAB) is the elite strike force of the Federal Marines, used for special operations, boarding action and landings to outflank the enemy during fullscale invasions. They alone are deployable using teleport technology. They are a special breed, chosen men who receive years of training, are equipped with power armour suits, and are heavily armed with both a large dual-purpose missile launcher (capable of both anti-tank and anti-personnel action) and a heavy flame thrower. Additionally their boostpack, which has both rocket and jet boosters to move the marines at very great speed, also mounts a bombthrower armed with heavy grenades.

As the open battlefield is dominated by the L-HAC combat system and its supporting marine infantry, so the tunnel, landing zone and spaceship corridor are dominated by these stealthy marines, their rock-hard armour suits not much larger than a man to assure access to tight spots, to coax the enemy out of his lair. However, the SAB can always be found in the forefront of major combat operations, first on the ground, there and fighting before the others even arrive.

The models come five to a pack, four different troopers and a commander. Their arms are separate and have some posability and although they were originally designed to go with the respective bodies, are to some extent interchangable between the models.

Each model comes with two arm sets to portray the trooper with either the big missile launcher or the heavy flamethrower, as well as two loose weapons so that the one not being used can be depicted snapped onto the backpack.

These will be released Wednesday, April 14, 2010.

The Federal Marine Cafferata class hybrid APC

2010-04-05T17:36:00.000-07:00

The Cafferata is the main APC used by the Federal Marines. The Marines call them "camels" or, more often, simply "trucks." It's a conventional/anti-grav hybrid, with retractable wheels. (It's illustrated here in low hover, the wheels retracted.)

As an anti-grav fuel-saving measure, the wheels can be deployed, in road mode, and the vehicle's anti-grav engines make electricity to turn them, rather than hovering the vehicle, as road mode requires far less fuel. It can achieve quite respectable speeds of 70-80 kph in road mode, under ideal ground circumstances. The vehicle can also operate as a normal anti-grav craft, of course.

Its sensor suite is very sensitive to sudden changes in altitude, and the vehicle's anti-grav engines kick on automatically if, for instance, the ground or ice give way, a bridge collapses, etc. (Of course the vehicles can just cross rivers by hovering over as well.) If a tire is shot out, the antigrav engines on that flank deploy automatically to keep the vehicle level, or it can just switch to anti-grav mode.

Marine vehicles used anti-grav mode almost exclusively in the Sepulvedan War, as Sepulveda is one of the galaxy's leading supplies of angravium! This vehicle has quite a punch with its heavy autocannon and two missile boxes, but its primary purpose is to transport the marines into battle. The Federal Marine L-HAC is the main battle platform of the Federation.

The model is almost exactly 75mm (3") long. It is designed to transport a squad of ten marines, plus crew. It comes with a flight base, four wheels, a hull and a turret. The turret has a heavy autocannon and two missile boxes. The wheels can be attached in anti-grav mode or road mode. The vehicle is named after a Terran Marine hero from a pre-Federal Terran war of the C20th , the "Korean War."

The kit is available now on our website, http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/15mmscifi.html

The Biology of Sepulveda 7: Part 4 (addendum, top secret)

2010-03-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

TOP SECRET

Federal Intel has determined that at least one squad of Myzontid Rangers has been working on Sepulveda 7 for several weeks. These collect intelligence for the Pelagic Dominate's Hydrofarming Council, the main strategy-planning body of the Dominate, and their presence usually indicates preparations for an invasion.

These vicious, silent killers are feared and hated by the Karkarines who make up the bulk of the Pelagic forces, although to human eyes they appear similar at first because they wear the same cut of uniform and use many of the same weapons. On closer inspection it is evident that they are a very different species, with small beady eyes and a mouth permanently agape and lined with teeth. Their SCOBA (Self-Contained Out-of-water Breathing Apparatus) gear is also configured differently, as the Myzontids have a single water intake hole on top of their heads, rather than taking water in through their mouths. This is so that they can suck the blood and organs out of their prey for an extended period of time and still take in water for breathing.

Myzontids often operate far from the main Pelagic forces, and as such have a heavier squad weapon, a potent smart missile launcher. In line with their missions, they are also accompanied by a sniper. These are uncannily accurate and patient, more so than human snipers.

Because Myzontids are at the leading edge of Pelagic invasions, they often interact closely with the bioweapons that are dropped on the target planet, the Parasachnids and Mantis Stalkers. In order to avoid attack from these animals, the Myzontids are generally equipped with ento-repellant, somewhat of a misnomer as it does not repel entomalians so much as it obscures the signature of the Myzontid as potential prey, rendering him essentially invisible to the creatures. (It has been observed in previous combats that the failure rate of the ento-repellants appears to be fairly high with respect to Mantis Stalkers, which appear to be capable of sensing the Myzontids despite the ento-repellant.)

The intercepted transmission indicates that the aquans are probing the level of development of the feral Parasachnids on Sepulveda, which is one of the hallmarks of Parasachnid invasion plans. The transmission was intercepted intact and clearly shows two aqua-casts of an Ogre Beetle on Sepulveda 7, possibly two images of the same creature, one from a slight height, the other of the creature actually passing over the Ranger as he captured the image.

The reader is reminded that Federal breakthroughs in Pelagic transmission-interception and deciphering are of the highest sensitivity and are not to be discussed with anyone of lower clearance. As such, the presence of Ogre Beetles on Sepulveda 7 is not to be communicated to Federal forces operating covertly on Sepulvda, or to the Resistance of that planet. Failure to comply is classified as Statutory Treason.

The Biology of Sepulveda 7: Part 4, feral Parasachnids and the "Ogre-Beetle"

2010-03-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

Parasachnids have gone feral since the previous probing attack on that planet, in which the aquans launched, as usual, hundreds of insertion pods (called "bug dumpers" or "cheese carts" by the troops) before their first forces made planetfall. Most of the inserted creatures were killed by smart missiles while descending, by the impact of their pods, or by defending forces on the ground, but just the surviving handful permitted this remarkable species to go feral on the planet. They have now become a menace, particularly in the desert and around the angravite seas.

On Parasag, their native world, the Parasachnids became the dominant species by means of extreme survivability of the species, no matter how small their initial numbers. Each one carries one egg in its abdomen, which, if no queen is nearby, will be laid and tended, hatching in a few days time a "queenling," a larva that can become a queen. These are raised by the creature that laid the egg until old enough to walk freely, at which time they hunt out and fight all nearby queenlings until the strongest remains. This creature becomes the queen of a new hive. A few parasachnids carry a single drone egg rather than a queenling, and these similarly fight for dominance. The surviving drone seeds the surviving queenling, and is then consumed by her.

Current thought among Federal xeno-entomologists is that, after the colony reaches a thousand surviving members, the queen lays one ogre-beetle egg. The ogre beetle reaches lengths of over 7 metres and obviously requires a great deal of resources to nuture it to adulthood, and so it is that their eggs are apparently not laid until the hive can support them properly. These fearsome creatures are not well known to Federal scientists; we have heard that they often travel by tunneling and have the ability to generate some form of extremely potent heat attack which can be sprayed from a spout located on their thoraxes. It is said that the parasachnid feeder legs, usually located on the thorax, have evolved, in the Ogre-Beetle, into a form of biological "gun door" covering up this fire-spout until the moment of fire. It is not known how an animal can generate flame in this manner, but several hypotheses have been proposed. Before they were exterminated by a Parasachnid infestation, the anarchist colonists on Chout referred to these creatures as "dragon bugs."

Artist's conception of an ogre-beetle head, created from the transmissions from Chout. It is not known if this is completely accurate.

It is possible that, to date, no hive of Parasachnids on Sepulveda 7 has reached 1,000 members, as there are no known eyewitness accounts of the presence of Ogre-Beetles. Some Federal biologists believe this is because the native predators, the Sponks, are so adept at catching Parasachnids from their underground burrows, which Sponks will often locate near Parasachnid food sources or nests. However, circumstancial evidence is growing of the presence of Ogre-Beetles, as on more than one occasion convoys of miners' trucks headed across country have been lost, the remnants being badly charred. Some theorize that this is the work of Garn strike forces working for the Jo-el Freehold, as the miners' corpses and the precious angravium ore were missing, and it is known that the Garn have a strong preference for immolating human targets, but others feel that the nearly planetwide presence of Parasachnids makes Ogre-Beetle establishment nearly inevitable.

Federal scientists will continue to monitor the situation in conjunction with local reports, however direct Federal study on Sepulveda 7 is resisted by the Jo-el Freehold, in violation of the Federal Freehold Agreement.

Tales of Mystri Island -- The Giant Ape

2010-02-26T09:52:00.000-08:00

The great beast, a roaring maelstrom of black fur and muscle, had Richard cornered, stuck in the fluted trunk of a vast old sycamore fig tree, ducking from one deep hollow to another as the monster pounded its fists against the mossy wood. Left and right Richard went, and the ape followed him, varying its thrusts occasionally in an attempt to catch Richard unawares. Janice watched the scene unfold from downwind, knowing that if the ape tripped Richard up just once, or if its energy reserves were greater than her companion’s, it would be the end of him. Just one blow of those massive fists would certainly kill any man alive.

She stared at the frenzied giant ape down the barrels of her H&H .600 Nitro Express, which she careened left and right to keep time with it. Never in her life had she seen such a huge and terrifying beast, large enough to easily pummel to death even the elephants she had played with as a child, under Stek’s watchful eye. A great hunter and peerless tracker of the African veldt, Stek had raised the orphaned American girl, teaching her the ways of the savannah and jungle, and she had seen everything the Dark Continent had to offer, but nothing to compare with this. Again the barrels swayed -- she could not shoot, the chances were too great that she might hit Richard, crack shot though she was. And waiting for the ape to lurch more to the left or right simply wasn’t good enough. Richard, barely visible in the crevice, was as imperturbable as ever but even his great strength and endurance were clearly being taxed by this deadly game. The ape let out a deep bark of indignation and accelerated its attacks.

Janice laid her finger lightly on the trigger of the great gun and fought the urge to fire out of panic. Fresh in her memory was the concern on Richard’s face just this very morning as he leapt to her aid, saving her at the last moment from being stuck by a bloodworm. She wasn’t about to repay this latest debt by permitting Richard’s body to be smashed and broken.

The ape had evidently had enough of Richard’s evasions. Ceasing its pounding, it eyed the tree for a moment, then began ripping away at the fluted trunk. The time had come – all she needed was a clear shot at the head. She spied Richard draw his Webley, a futile gesture of defiance before death, and he looked at her for just a moment to communicate his understanding that there was nothing to be done. Janice looked down for a moment and saw a twig propped against the nearest tree. She gently shifted her weight, rested her foot upon the twig, looked back down the barrel of the gun, and pressed down with her boot.

The ape heard a distinct snap behind it – a predator? Another invader? Distracted for a moment from the violator it had cornered, the creature swung around to confront this new menace, its mouth agape in a roar, its eyes searching. The great ape had battled many foes in its time, conquering all with a deadly combination of wiles and brawn, its face a web of scars, bearing testament to countless challenges overcome. Whatever this new threat was, it was ready. Or so it thought. For nothing in all its experience could have prepared it for the roar that split its eardrums, the kinetic energy to which its skull was now subjected, like a meteor hurtling into the front of its skull. For a fleeting instant the stunned ape felt a terrible heat on its face, glimpsed a tall slender human artfully absorb the recoil of a huge rifle in the crook of her arm, and then … blankness, evermore.

Janice looked down the smoking barrels of her elephant gun and relaxed. The ape had collapsed in a heap near the base of the great old tree, the top of its head blown clean off, and Richard was already out and retrieving his white pith helmet. He holstered his pistol, tucked his tie back in his collar and said “not the first time that I’ve been grateful indeed for the cannon you lug about, what? I do wish you’d let the Gurkhas carry the blasted thing for you,” he added, faintly disapprovingly. “Can’t imagine how it must weigh on your shoulder.” He straightened his helmet and, looking back at the tree, said quietly, without looking at her, “thanks for that, as usual greatly appreciated.” Janice’s throat was parched but she smiled and faintly nodded.

The birds suddenly stopped their chorus, and the two adventurers froze in place. Forms silently materialized from the canopy of the jungle. There were eight of them this time, scaly with striped patterns, Reptilian Hunters including Janice’s new friend, Stalks-at-Dawn. They quickly surrounded the fallen ape. Stalks-at-Dawn loped over to Janice and looked at the smoking Holland and Holland. “This is great hunting,” he hissed very slowly to her, then, clearly vexed, snapped his jaws three times toward the other Reptilians who were eyeing Richard up rather like a meal. They stood down and returned their expressionless gazes to the corpse of the ape.

Janice knew what a compliment she had just been paid. “May your blood channels be ever wet,” she said respectfully in reply. “The weapon is mighty indeed that can bring down He-Who-Kills.” Janice held the gun out. She was slightly alarmed that she had slain this creature that obviously meant so much to the Reptilians, the only living thing on the island they truly feared. For how often had Stalks-at-Dawn referred obliquely, and with quiet reverence, to “He-Who-Kills,” the ruler of the deepest jungle at the center of the island, a despot who knew no rivals? The Reptilians, it was said, steered his territory a wide berth, and prevented any efforts to explore those nether regions. Stalks-at-Dawn himself (or “Stalkers” as Richard playfully called him) wore an amulet that represented “the fearless heart of He-Who-Kills.” And now, here the mighty one lay crumpled in a pile, slain by her -- a mere human. Janice was eager to put the credit, or the blame, for the kill on the weapon, rather than the shooter.

The Reptilian looked at her quizzically. Communication with them was not always easy, so she pointed to the ape with the heavy rifle and said, loudly and slowly, “only this great weapon allowed me, a human, to slay He-Who-Kills.” All of the Reptilians were looking at her now, and they hissed, popped and cawed at each other for a few moments. Stalks-at-Dawn shook his head back and forth several times in mimicry of what he had seen humans do before. “This,” he said, looking at the fallen giant, “is not He-Who-Kills.”

(The Mystrian Giant Ape is available now from Khurasan Miniatures.)

2010-02-26T06:53:00.000-08:00

War in Another Dimension: Species 84

Species 84, so named by Federal scientists because no communications from them have been decipherable to date to determine their name for themselves, are creatures that live in another dimension, and have on occasion travelled to ours as part of their 7,000 year war with the Ti Monhids.

The image shows a Species 84 life form with a ceremonial staff, but in combat the species wears instead a scythe-like glove on its right arm. They appear to human eyes to be reptilian and centaur like, but nothing whatsoever is known of their physiology.

Much more is known about the Ti Monhids, their foes, although these are also mostly unknown in our dimension. The Ti Monhids are an extremely aggressive, imperialist race who made an assault on the realm of Species 84 but got more than they bargained for, as Species 84, an incredibly advanced species, obliterated their invading armies and laid waste to their frontier as a warning. The Ti Monhids, knowing no fear and seeking only war and conquest, redoubled their efforts and launched an all-out research and development effort to find a weapon to defeat Species 84. They eventually bred the creatures known in our dimension as Space Demons.

The war has occasionally spread into our dimension, as the Ti Monhids have attempted to outflank Species 84 using dimension travel. It appears that Species 84 continues to hold the upper hand in this war, but this has not deterred the Ti Monhids from their continued efforts to exterminate Species 84, and the Space Demon hordes have gone a long way toward levelling the playing field. Occasionally Space Demons have gone feral in our dimension, which explains theire presence.

These incursions into our dimension have mostly occurred in the space of the Pelagic Dominate, and when Species 84 enters our dimension to fight the Ti Monhids, Pelagic space is almost always where the battles occur. These titanic struggles lay waste to entire star systems, and Federal Intelligence postulates that this is the reason for the imperialist efforts of the Dominate -- to find new systems to colonize to escape the cataclysmic destruction of the Extra-Dimensional War.

The Ti Monhids are the closest that any species in our dimension have seen to pure evil. No image is shown of them here as it is a violation of Federal law to do so. It is thought by some that these creatures may have occasionally explored our own planet in its early history, which would explain the origin of demon myths, but this is pure conjecture. They are tall and lanky, usually about 2.5 meters tall, of essentially bipedal form, have long slender heads lined with eight unblinking eyes, and wear a body suit that continually changes colour, which includes a small cannon growing out of its back, elevated atop a rod, which swivels to fire in all directions, freeing the hands of the Ti Monhid to engage in hand to hand combat, at which they excel.

Both Species 84 and the Ti Monhis have incredible strength and apparently are considerably denser than creatures found in this dimension making them incredibly hard to kill and making armour unnecessary (their garments sometimes appear to be armour like, but seem to be mostly decorative or to show rank). Most frightening is their ability to freely engage in extra-vehicular activity in the void of space, which causes them no harm and can be endured by them indefinitely. This possibly explains the mysterious toughness, and resistance to a void, that the Space Demons themselves show.

Space Demons instinctively obey every wish of the Ti Monhids, which, like all communication by them, is conveyed telepathically. The Ti Monhids, and even more so Species 84, are capable of using telepathy in sustained attacks, and these are especially deadly to vertebrates of our dimension. Federal scientists and intelligence officers have found a way to retrieve Ti Monhid communications, and to some extent to decipher it, which has been the source of much of our knowledge of the species and the Extra-Dimensional War. Efforts to control Space Demons using simulated telepathy have to date been unsuccessful.

15mm scale models of the Ti Monhids are completed and will be available first. Species 84 will be available later this year.

Tales of Mystri Island -- The Savannah Lords

2010-02-06T09:21:00.001-08:00

A massive Savannah Lord on his Wooly Rhinoceros mount.

Entry of November 11, 1917: The most physically imposing of all the thinking beings of Mystri Island are the Savannah Lords, huge creatures that appear to be a mixture of human and crocodilian. They are so called by the human population of the island because they rule the savannah without question, riding across it mounted on the huge Wooly Rhinos they import from the south of the island, the only trainable creature that is strong, fast and aggressive enough for their taste. On the single instance when I observed them standing erect (for they seem forever to be riding atop their mounts), I noted that the Savannah Lords are clearly over seven feet tall. One such creature must easily weigh 28 stone.

Living in villages near the great Mystri River, which cuts through the savannah, these beings are exclusively carnivorous and conduct no farming of their own. They dwell in huts built very close to the river, with channels cut into it which run into the huts so that they may wallow in muddy water as they devour their prey and plan out their next hunt. Around the village are built sturdy pens for the rhinos, where those creatures graze, clearly unhappy to be in such a warm clime. The health of the rhinos does not seem to be affected by the heat, but they do not breed on the savannah, requiring that the Lords purchase the rhinos from the barbarians to the south, which I presume happens by means of intermediaries.

The Savannah Lords are the senior members of the alliance which the people of the island call the Herpetile Confederation -- this includes the Reptilian Hunters, and the mysterious beings that live in the swampiest parts of the Island called the Salamen. Like the armies of old England, these Herpetile forces are composed of knights, foot soldiers and archers, the Savannah Lords supplying their mounted shock force, the Reptilian Hunters the combat infantry, and the Salamen the archers, as well, apparently, as fleet mounted forces; Miss Prishwalken and I have yet to encounter these last creatures so I do not know their method of archery (except that poisons are employed) or the beasts on which some few apparently ride. Stalks-at-Dawn, the Reptilian befriended by Miss P., tells her that the Salamen are smaller even than the Reptilians, but this, as I have learned, is no indication of the danger Mystrian creatures pose.

We are reassured by Stalks-at-Dawn that the Savannah Lords see humans as nothing but prey, and the German agents on the island would find nothing but death to greet them here. As dissemblance is utterly alien to the Reptilian Hunters, I am enormously reassured and grateful to hear this from his mouth, as such gargantua, properly armed and trained in the methods of war, would make formidable foes indeed.

Four months after our arrival, we accompanied a battalion of the Parayan Dictator Lopez's forces as they attempted to make a short excursion across the savannah, in order to outflank a battle line of his foes the Argentians. Despite being armed with muskets, and being accompanied by a cannon (both of which however were, I should point out, exceedingly antique, being at least fifty years old), the dictator's loincloth-clad troops, generally the picture of bravery, were clearly nervous. Fortunately for us, as the march column was about to move out onto the savannah Stalks-at-Dawn appeared from the jungle and restrained Miss P. from leaving the cover of the trees, and as the Gurkhas and I were not about to go on without her, the battalion marched out without us.

What to our wondering eyes did appear from behind a stand of trees but over a hundred of these towering beasts, galloping across the savannah, lowered lances thick as saplings, moving at great speed in absolute silence but for the thunder of their mounts' feet. (It is clear that these creatures are cunning, for they waited for the humans to advance far enough onto the savannah so that escape would not be possible.) The Parayans began shouting and formed a line, then issued several volleys, but these seemed to bounce off the thick hide of the Savannah Lords, and only few of the mounts were struck. The cannon, deployed quickly and skillfully, got off one cannister of grapeshot, killing several attackers, before it, as well as the rest of the battalion, were struck by this tidal wave of scale, muscle and horn, and seemed to be driven into the very earth itself. Fascinated and horrified, we turned to thank our savior but he had disappeared. We watched as the triumphant beasts pounded the few survivors with enormous mallets, which easily weighed five stone, then gathered up as many of the corpses as they could drape over several now-riderless mounts and upon their own beasts, and rode slowly off, over the horizon of the vast grassland, presumably to feast upon this new bounty of human flesh. -- RS-G

(The 15mm Savannah Lords should be released this week. They are very large crocodilian knights riding charging wooly rhinos. They will be released in two packs, one with six riders (three different poses), six rhinos (in two poses) and six savannah lances, another with one commander, one rhino and a replacement totem for a lancer to be converted to a standard bearer. Despite their size, they have been sculpted to fit on bases with a depth of 30mm, in compliance with the basing requirements of most popular 15mm gaming systems.)

The Biology of Sepulveda 7: Part 10, the Space Demons (continued)

2010-01-28T16:52:00.000-08:00

Note: this article examines the biology of the Space Demon because these at one point infested Sepulveda 7 after the defeat of the Pelagic invasion. Its publication is not meant to imply that the Space Demon is part of Sepulveda 7’s current fauna or that the eradication programme on that planet was not satisfactorily completed. Models of the Space Demon Colossus, and Nymphs, are available now on the Khurasan Miniatures website.

Due to its enormous size, the Space Demon Colossus (top) is an exception to the rule of Space Demon propagation; the Nymph (below left), and the resulting Assault Warrior (below right), are the norm.

The Space Demon breeds parasitically. Even in the heat of battle, the female of the species, the Queen, can within ten minutes create from her essence and give live birth to a Nymph, which resembles a slightly foreshortened version of a fully grown creature’s head with four sharp, articulated scythes for legs. Assuming she is provided with the flesh of enough victims, or hunts them down herself, she can create and give birth to as many as 100 Nymphs in a day.

From the moment they are born Nymphs skitter about seeking a host, preferably a biped like a human, and once one is found the Nymph will repeatedly and strenuously attempt to hop onto the host’s head. Once up on the host’s head, huge jaws on its belly suddenly gape and entirely swallow the host’s head so that the host appears to have the Nymph for a head, which, sadly, from this point on it indeed does. The cerebro-positor of the Nymph will immediately burrow through the victim’s skull and deep into the brain, wresting away the higher functions of the host’s body. The host’s brain is kept alive and fully functioning to control the body’s lower functions. This is a continually agonizing experience and the host can be heard screaming inside the body of the Nymph, leading some human populations to term Space Demon Hosts as “Screamers” or “Howlers.” Removal of the Nymph is absolutely impossible – its scythe legs burrow deep into the chest cavity of the host and quickly bond with its skeleton, and even if these are cut off the removal of the cerebro-positor from the host’s brain kills the host.

Over a period of approximately a week, the host’s genetic system goes into a furious acceleration and its cells are rapidly replaced by space demon cells (called “imperial” cells), branching down from the neck to the arms, chest, and finally legs. During this time the host is far from helpless and, under the complete control of the Nymph, can be quite a dangerous adversary, running and swinging its arms wildly, without the restraint that fear of self-injury usually brings. This puts the human trooper in the unnerving position of being assaulted by what was is effectively a talking human corpse, which begs for help while simultaneously pummelling him. Fortunately the Nymph does not know how to work machinery so Hosts are unable to use weaponry.

Eventually the process of assimilation is over and another fully formed space demon joins the hive, all of the cells of the host being replaced by space demon cells. All Nymphs are born as juvenile Assault Warriors, but, based on the needs of the hive, a queen may inject additional genetic material into a host’s belly to lead to the development of one of the higher sub-species of Space Demons.

It has been observed that Space Demons often populate their hives with Nymphs, the adult demons ranging far and wide looking for hosts which are then brought back to the hive to be infected. Also wandering the tunnels of the hive are often large numbers of wailing Hosts in various stages of transformation.

When a planet is heavily infested with Space Demons, queens will begin periodically laying eggs, a method of breeding associated only with the Colossus. These eggs are extremely large and a queen can only lay one in a day. This egg is laid in a deep chamber in the ground which has been dug by the Tunneller Space Demons, and hatches as a larva, a sort of armoured worm that is two meters long at birth and grows geometrically. The other Space Demons will gather live victims for the larva to eat, which are thrown screaming into the underground chamber to be devoured. Soon the entire chamber is filled with the expanding body of the larva, which cocoons and soon emerges, digging itself from the ground, as a tripodal Colossus, most terrible of all Space Demon creatures.

Striding rapidly across the planet’s surface no matter what the terrain, seemingly always in balance atop its three legs, the agile Colossus has many methods of attack. It can impale smaller prey with great dexterity using its razor-sharp legs, flicking a wounded victim off toward other space demons so that the injured creature’s body can become a host for a Nymph. It also bombards more powerful prey, and especially mechanical weapons systems, with its most potent weapon, the void cannon, from which pulses an extremely powerful blast which few targets can survive. Time and space seem to buckle and warp immediately before the void cannon is discharged. Jutting permanently from the creature’s outer mouth, its extensor jaws serve as the barrel of this terrible weapon, but are tipped with two enormous teeth which can flex open and shut, ripping the thickest armour to pieces. Even Federal L-HACs treat these jaws with great respect and strive to avoid the bite of the Colossus.

But the Colossus has one more weapon in its arsenal. Before a great hunt, the Colossus will lower itself and a dozen nymphs will scurry up its legs, then into the nymph-nodes on either side of the Colossus’s head. The Colossus can shoot these nymphs out of the nymph-nodes to fair distances toward enemy infantry formations, the nymphs hitting the ground running, attempting to swallow the heads of nearby prey. For human defenders, this is usually the most terrifying aspect of the Colossus -- its ability to insert the dreaded Nymphs directly in such close proximity.

The Colossus can walk with its legs extended so that it can attain great height, but is often seen in combat with its three legs bent, which puts it closer to man-sized prey and is a more stable platform from which to fire the void cannon.

Molokon Rattler

2010-01-25T17:34:00.000-08:00

From Lambda Sagittarii come the Molokons, imperialist synthetic organisms bent of destruction of all organic life. When the great Molokon Spheres materialize in a star system, it is doomed.

The Molokons will not communicate or negotiate, they will simply begin operations to reduce the planets to their constituent silicon, then engineer these silicon globes in a way that is not well understood but results in the planets becoming part of an interstellar "lattice" conducting the Molokon Network.

How the Molokons came to be is unknown; perhaps some civilization constructed a set of forerunner synths and these seized power, or perhaps they took to fending for themselves after the creator race became extinct one way or another.

What is known from monitoring Molokon chatter is that they never discuss their creators. They care only for themselves, and expanding their network until is encompasses all of space. While Molokons speak in a monotonous drone, it is abundantly clear that they possess the synth equivalent of emotions, speaking at great length of the rich enjoyment of causing pain and destruction to organic life.

The rank and file warrior unit of the Molokons is the centaur-like Rattler, a large robot as tall as a human and considerably heavier. Each mounts a photon cannon used to pitilessly eliminate all resistance on the planet so that the great fabricator ships can process the planet. Scrabbling at the feet of the enormous Journeymen and supported from the air by the Mayfly gunships, the Rattlers move methodically across the surface of the planet, mercilessly exterminating all life forms that offer resistance. Their name comes from the unnerving rattling sound that thousands of Molybdenum talons make as they propel the Rattlers onward at speed.

Mike Broadbent has created the 15mm Rattler model, which has six legs which plug into holes along the main chassis of the unit, as well as a gun torso and head, which like the legs is posable. As can be seen from the photo below, there's some flexibility in the models -- for instance, simply remove the hatchet head of the Rattler and its whole look changes to something much more arachnoid. These are also quite suitable as sentry robots or similar for 28mm gaming.

The Molokon Rattlers should be available in a few weeks. They will be followed by their giant land monitor, the Journeyman, as well as the long slender missile craft, the Mayfly.

Sir Yes Sir

2010-01-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

L-HAC 42R-4 receives orders from his Lieutenant.

The heavy land asset of the Federal Marine Corp. is the Legged Heavy Assault Cyborg, or L-HAC, pronounced "el-hack." An 11-metre tall chassis made of stabilized osmium, the L-HAC has the brain and spinal column of a deceased Marine veteran installed permanently in a life support chamber deep in the citadel of its chassis. To qualify for installation, during his full-body lifetime the marine is required to have given at least 20 years of continuous and meritorious service, to have been cited for outstanding performance at least 10 times, and to have undergone stringent mental examination to establish his emotional stability and eliminate candidates with any tendencies toward megalomania. Marine volunteers who meet all these qualifications and sign a waiver may be installed if they have suffered bodily injury too great to continue to function as a full-body serviceman but possess a sufficiently-intact brain and spinal column for installation, provided of course that an L-HAC chassis is available.

The L-HAC's main armament is a naval rifle usually mounted in the turret of an interstellar battleship

L-HACS are, to the extent possible, deployed in support of the regiment in which they served as a full-body asset; although the identity of the former full-body is supposedly kept a secret, marines who served alongside the installed veteran will admit off the record that they quickly recognize echos of the full-body's personality in the behavior of the titanic machine.

On very rare occasions an L-HAC is temporarily assigned to a regiment from the one in which he served as a full-body, or even another division, but this is generally an expediency dictated by combat losses. The L-HAC is immediately transfered back to his old unit when a replacement is available.

One remarkable exception was L-HAC 42R-4, a Royal Marines L-HAC of 42 Commando posted temporarily with the 1st Battalion ("Timberwolf") of the 2nd Marines during the Third Pelagic War on Sepulveda 7. The 2nd, like most Marine Divisions, was heavily composed of men from the FUSA (Former United States of America), but heavy losses required that a Royal Marines L-HAC (designated with an "R" after their first numeral designation) be posted to the 1st Battalion, which had lost all of its L-HACs in combat. At first received reluctantly (to put it mildly), this L-HAC was eventually held in such esteem by Timberwolf Battalion after the final battles on Sepulveda that a virtual mutiny broke out when its redeployment orders were digi-commed into Division HQ. As a special and one-time exception, L-HAC 42R-4, or "Tommy" as he was called by the Timberwolves, was thereafter permanently attached to the 1st Battalion. When asked why they were so fond of this L-HAC, one lieutenant said, "it's hard to say. There are lots of little differences in this particular unit, of course. But those little peculiarities grew on us, and he is good -- he saved our lives so many times, we figured that he belonged with us. He seems to agree; he's happy to be with Timberwolf Battalion. We went through a lot together, after all."

The main weapons system of the L-HAC is the Weintraub AstroSystems Battlemaster 30cm Naval Rifle, a fleet-grade teleport cannon, so called because such weapons operate by teleporting selected portions of their targets where designated by the gunner. To illustrate, a targeted swarm of space demons can be teleported into the center of a mountain or into the void of space, either of which naturally constitutes a kill. A large target such as a tank or structure will have a targeted portion, such as a turret, teleported away from the remainder, thereby rendering it out of action. The L-HAC has some choice in the matter on the destination of teleportation, L-HAC 42R-4 apparently being fond of teleporting targets 200 metres into the air, or teleporting groups of enemy infantry into other groups of enemy infantry, thereby achieving a KIA on both groups. Battlemaster Naval Rifles are extremely potent weapons most often seen in the turrets of battleships of the Federal Navy, and this armament permits the L-HAC to engage enemy fleet assets in orbit around the planet.

Blurry photo of the business end of the Weintraub Astrosystems Battlemaster Naval Rifle.

The L-HAC also has a large claw hand for manipulation or close assault if necessary, and mounted on this are double 40mm gatling guns. It possesses sophisticated communications arrays and can use the Battlemaster for non-weapons purposes as well, teleporting individual persons or small objects in a non-lethal transport capacity, but this is more time-consuming a task and only rarely done on the battlefield.

In addition to its weaponry, the L-HAC can also serve as a Medevac unit, an extensible antigrav stretcher being mounted on the bottom of its left arm which is capable of lifting an injured person with great care and inserting him into one of three Medevac stasis chambers in the chest of the L-HAC, temporarily halting any deterioration in the medical condition of the patient until he can be transported to a field hospital.

A look at the Medevac stretcher generally tucked under the left arm of the L-HAC.

The L-HAC model was prototyped by Mark Mondragon, printed by Moddler and cast by Valiant Enterprises. It's quite posable and you can put the model into hundreds of different positions, as I've hopefully demonstrated with this model. The legs are however only of limited posability, a choice we made to keep the model stable. The legs and feet are made of white metal for stability -- though leaning far over, this model is standing up by itself. Standing at its full height it is over 10 cm (4") tall so it will make an imposing tabletop presence even for 28mm gamers -- for that matter, even for 40mm gamers!

Apparently having travelled through some time portal, the L-HAC enjoys listening to Minnie Apliss, one of our 1970s pulp 28mm figures.

I thought that, rather than make another tank as the heavy unit for the Federal Marines, I'd make something in human shape, to represent the Federation of Man in his future triumphs and follies in space. He's a tribute to all of those people who, once we've lost them, become somehow even more powerful in our lives. It's wishful thinking, but it's nice to think that they can come back and continue to be there for us, loyally helping us out, after we think they are gone forever. The model is being production cast now by Valiant and should be available in a few weeks, after it gets painted up for display -- though it's huge so I'm a little afraid of what the painting fee will be!

The Biology of Sepulveda 7: Part 11, the Chewks

2010-01-20T18:05:00.000-08:00

The Chewks are currently being sculpted to recreate the appearance of these desert nomads in the Sepulveda 7 campaign. Wandering the equatorial deserts in their immense underground drillships, they will attack any who enter their domain, seeking tribute for passage, or simply taking what they wish from those who dare upset the great stillness of the desert.

These are the first of two teams of Chewkgunners. (This team is a WIP.) The Chewkgun is the main infantry arm of the Chewks, a machinegun cognate which sprays the enemy with deadly fusion balls at a high rate of fire. This has a particularly lethal effect on armoured targets, who lose their armour advantage to the fusion ammunition of all Chewk weaponry.

Like most indigenous life forms on Sepulveda 7, the chewks are xenocrustaceans. Quite small by human measure, the Chewks have "the heart of the Sponk beating within their bodies," as the saying goes amongst the human population. Standing roughly four feet tall (so 12mm tall in 15mm scale), the Chewks cannot shoulder weapons as large as can humans, but it is of little matter, for they have developed a round of ammo to penetrate the hard shells possessed by so many of the creatures on Sepulveda 7, and this fusion ammunition levels the playing field. Even the rifle of the infantrychewk fires a fusion round, although it must be loaded into the muzzle and then detonated by a bolt-action mechanism in the breech.

The chewk is undeniably at a disadvantge in close combat with a human, but to some extent it makes up for this due to its hard shell and sharp pincers, and irritating failure to be intimidated by any creature or any weapon. Nonetheless, it is in close combat that the Chewks are most often defeated, and when obviously bested they will at times simply leap upon the sand and burrow in, escaping with startling rapidity unless tightly grasped. This same uncanny sandburrowing ability is of enormous assistance to them when they are under bombardment.

We are making 29 unique sculptures to represent the Chewks:

four infantrychewks shooting
four infantrychewks advancing
four infantrychewks prone
four chewkzookas (2 x 2 personal antitank rocket crews)
four chewkgunners (2 x 2 chewkgun crews)
four chewkbombers (2 x 2 chewkbomb (mortar) crews)
three chewkannoneers (1 x 3 chewkannon (field gun) crew, plus one chewkamel beast of burden to haul the chewkannon -- the chewkamel is essentially a huge sandflea)
two chewkommanders

We will, if the Chewks are sufficiently popular, make the mighty drillship itself, at least the portion of it emerging from the sand, the cannonbay doors open, a drill-mounted chewkannon firing from atop its cherrypicker-like arm. Also open will be the exit portals from which the Chewks pour to raid their unsuspecting targets.

Coming, hopefully, in Spring of 2010. Sculpted by "clibinarium."

Ox cart preview

2010-01-18T10:20:00.000-08:00

For thousands of years armies have moved supplies via oxcart, often thousands of them, hauling much of what the army needed to survive a campaign in the field. To this day, some armies still use oxcarts for supply. Because many games require that the supply and camp elements be depicted on the tabletop, I decided in fall of 2009 to have an oxcart made. It's been sculpted and is now at the casters.

It will join the growing list of camp or equipment-type models I have had made which are now available or soon will be -- a Tibetan tent (now available), a later Medieval commoner's tent (being cast), a Late Imperial Roman "Vienna Genesis" tent (basically done, just need to get it painted and up on the website), for WWII, Modern or Sci Fi a 55 gallon drum and a dumpster (err, I mean "garbage bin" -- both being cast), and a "letzinen" stone wall section (being cast) which was made for the Early Swiss but of course is usable for any time period -- there are stone walls just like it in my neighborhood! I've also had a unit cohesion marker made for the popular wargame rules Field of Glory which is in the same boat as the Vienna Genesis tent -- it's done and I have the castings, just have to get it painted and put on the website!

Back to the oxcart, it is made as it would appear in a camp, with the animal unhitched and the yoke resting on the ground. Some of these used solid wheels, others wheels with spokes, so I have had both made. Carts usually have vertical rails on either side, sometimes being held together with a single top rail running horizontally, other times simply standing up on their own. I've had the side rail made with a top horizontal rail, but it would be a simple matter to remove it.

Since a supply cart is no good without supplies in it, I've had loads made that fit into the cart: two baskets of food -- one bread loaves, the other fruit; a huge barrel for ale or foodstuffs such as dried fish or salted pork (this would be useful in particular for armies from Medieval times on); and finally a pile of grain or fodder.

All of these pieces will be supplied in each set -- the cart, both types of wheel, and all the loads. When it will be available will depend on the caster, it's out of my hands at this point. My guess is that it will be about two months from this posting. As oxcarts in camps don't generally have the animals yoked to the cart, I have not had it made, but if there is enough demand I may have a few oxen made for different regions of the world.

Not glamorous, but useful! Coming soon (I hope).

End Times, Part 1: the Gunfighter

2010-01-16T08:47:00.000-08:00

Little was left of his mind but the desire to better his foes with the pistol, and the ability to do so. On the road gang he had had many opportunities to do just this. Like the gunfighters of the Old West, he covered his face, although whether this was to shield his identity or to cover some hideous wound or deformity, no one could truly say. Some day he would be killed, and perhaps then his mask would be lifted by the victor, but until then, the mystery would linger.

His boss had taken many slaves and had plundered many caches because of his skills. He saw little of this loot except scraps of machine tools which he worked into his latest pistol. Great was his hunger for a better life-taker.

And behind him in the gang was a rogue's gallery of other outlaws, ready to descend on the last civilized settlements and bring to them what the apocalypse had brought to civilization itself.

2010-01-13T16:38:00.000-08:00

The Biology of Sepulveda 7: Part 12, the Sepulvedan Sponk

3Digimage of Sponk that wiped out a squad of Federal Marines outside Ozli. The 3Digimage was created using blurry digifilm from one of the marines' gun cams.

By early in Month 9 of 2654 (Fed. Reckoning) the Federal Marine battalions covertly assisting the Resistance had driven the XIV Control Battalion to the outskirts of the city of Ozli and were already planning to pursue them into the scrubby countryside just south of the Ozli/Hassings mines. Although dressed in typical Resistance outfit and using Resistance weaponry, they clearly demonstrated the training and discipline of the Marines in their operations. Now that they were planning the probable pursuit in the countryside, the Resistance liaison officers working with the Marines increasingly warned them about animals in the countryside around the mines that preyed on humans venturing too close to their burrows. The Marine officers listened politely but paid this little heed, assuming that when the locals referred to “Sponks” (some of the southern Resistance fighters pronounced it “Spunqs”) it was a colourful local term for the Parasachnids that had gone native on the planet and were now a perennial annoyance. The Marines had dealt with Parasachnids before and believed they would not impede operations, even given the relatively crude weapons they were issued for this mission. Nonetheless, an order was issued that the locals were warning of probable Parasachnid hives and that the usual precautionary measures should be employed.

These measures proved entirely inadequate to protect the first patrols from what they found waiting for them in the ground on the northern outskirts of Ozli.

The Sponk is a large invertebrate that is endemic to Sepulveda 7 (a planet in the Jol Freehold). It is a xenocrustacean generally found in all temperate and subtropical environments. An apex predator outside Sepulveda’s famous angravean fields, it usually reaches heights of roughly three meters and weighs more than 3,000kg. The Sponks is primarily an ambush predator. It will dig a burrow with a trapdoor made of area soil and vegetation, which substances are bound together using a gluelike substance which the animal emits from its mandibles. The trapdoor is particularly hard to detect on the ground. Invariably the burrow will include a vertical hunting chamber large enough to hold the animal, these being called “Sponk holes” by the human population of Sepulveda. The trapdoor is draped carefully over the hunting chamber, and a hinge is made to keep it in place. If prey is of sufficient abundance in the area that repeated kills are made from the same hole, the animal will generally settle in, digging horizontal tunnels from the hunting chamber to a central den. There are generally several transit tunnels branching out from the den, leading to multiple hunting chambers.

Once it has dug its hunting chamber and redistributed the excavated matter, which can take as little as two minutes, the animal will position itself in the hunting chamber, affix the trapdoor, and wait. It is not well understood how they sense prey, as it is extremely hard for naturalists to study the Sponk even under the best of political circumstances, but it is believed that the animals can sense the slightest vibrations in the ground. It has further been observed that, if the animal senses multiple prey subjects in a group, it will wait for them to pass over or around the hole before slipping out to apprehend its prey, invariably a straggler, so that the Sponk will not be detected by other members of the herd or pack (or squad).

The Sponk’s carapace has points on either end which flip the oval trapdoor open when the animal emerges so that its claws are free to grasp the prey and pull it down into the hole. This all happens so rapidly and silently that the prey animal seems to simply vanish even when it is being casually observed, the Sponk and the prey seeming but a blur as they disappear together into the Sponk hole.

In describing the Sponk's hunting methods, some naturalists have drawn comparisons to an extant Terran predator, the trapdoor spider:

To silence the struggling prey without it giving away the location of the hole, the creature has evolved an uncanny aptitude for decapitation, seeming to sense the location of a prey animal’s head even if the prey species is not endemic to Sepulveda. This has prompted some naturalists to suggest that the Sponk is an intelligent life form, but it has proven impossible to obtain a living specimen for study.

The primary weapons of the Sponk are its formidable claws, powerful enough, it is said, to pull the treads off armoured fighting vehicles which are mistaken for prey. Once the meal is in the hole, the creature uses these claws to pull it apart into small pieces which are very rapidly fed into its mandibles. Prey is eaten bones and all. The Sponk will often make multiple kills from one herd or group on animals, especially if they return to the area of the Sponk hole to search for the missing member.

To defend itself the Sponk has a remarkably thick and hard shell which covers its entire body, even its eyes being effectively plated. The local population has noted that most calibers of small arms ammunition cannot penetrate the shell of a Sponk, even if an entire clip of it is emptied into the same location on the animal.

Sponks are territorial and only one will occupy a given location, the size of each plot of territory usually depending on the abundance of prey. Sponks attack each other on sight and cannibalism is a normal part of their diet. Sponks that have hunted out an area will move to a new feeding ground, and will at times hunt above ground as they seek a new location. If a Sponk hole is subjected to persistent harassment from an attacker the Sponk will rapidly bound out of the hole and defend it from the ground level, invariably fighting until all attackers are dead or have fled, or the Sponk itself is killed.

The Jol Freehold does not have a method of classifying the conservation status of animals, but the Federal government on Terra considers the Sponk to be a threatened species, due largely to the Parasachnid infestation of Sepulveda (P. Level 2). While Sponks prey on Parasachnids (which have in fact become a staple of the Sponk diet), the primary threat from the hive-dwelling Parasachnids is that they are outcompeting the solitary Sponk species for prey.

No reliable information is available on the lifespan of the Sponk or the manner in which it reproduces.

Several local sports teams on Sepulveda are named the “Sponks” due to the pugnacious nature of the animal.

Orcid Assault Troops

2010-01-03T11:22:00.001-08:00

Today's post looks at an upcoming item for 15mm science fiction, another favourite product with me and my customers.

I'm having the heavy power armoured elites on the Pelagic Dominate sculpted now in 15mm scale, the Orcid Assault Warriors. That's just a working title, because, like the Karks are sharkmen, the Orcids are Orca (Killer Whale) men. But "Orcid" sounds too much like a flower, so I think the name will change in the end.

They can either act as heavy assistance to the line troops (especially the Myzontid Rangers, who are raiders and often do not act with vehicle support), but more often fight on their own as strike troops who are teleported into action, destroy their target, and are then teleported out.

As these evolved from Killer Whales they will be large, so they will top out at around 24mm tall even though they are 15mm scale. That makes them around nine or ten feet (3 meters) tall. I didn't want to go too much bigger than that because then they don't look like they belong on the 15mm table at all.

They wear power armour, which has a heavy missile launcher build right into the back of the suit, the Barnacle Missile System, with two pods each holding two missiles. I asked the sculptor to make the details on the suit a little on the soft side, as these are aquatic troopers so I didn't want the power armour to have too hard and machined a look to it. It has to fit the theme of an aquatic making war in an alien environment.

For the arms of their power suits they will have a variety of weapons options, and each assault trooper will come with all the varieties. They will be power harpoons (the main weapon), a power claw, or gatling guns. There will probably be multiple types of power harpoon for some variation. These will plug into spots on the ends of the arms.

The heads are separate as well and two will be provided -- mouth open or mouth closed. Three body poses will be available, probably sold in sets of three and then there will be gobs of hand choices in the pack.

Again the dilemma of humaniod aliens rears its ugly head -- literally! If they are in complete power armour what to do about face covering? Cover the head and their identity as whales disappears, unless you make a face mask that exactly mimics the shape of the whale head, and I don't really like that personally -- humans don't wear face masks that exactly copy their faces so I don't know why aliens would either.

I went with the bubble helmet, and have just the indication of where the bubble fits onto the rest of the suit so that the creature's face can be fully seen. I imagine them having a helmet of an advanced-tech clear armour, and the helmet half filled with water so they can be submerged but also can breathe air -- they are mammals after all.

There are various clear items separately available that some gamers may want to use to put their own helmets on them if they want, and some really talented modelers may actually want to partly fill this with a clear resin to show water sloshing around in the helmet as an Orca warrior may prefer. I would probably just leave it off altogether when I paint some up -- but who knows when I will ever have time for hobbying again!!!

I am also considering asking the sculptor to make a separate helmet piece but am going back and forth on that.

One body, one head, and the power harpoons are already done. The sculptor is making the rest of the stuff now. So I anticipate that the Orca Heavy Assault Troopers -- hey did I just come up with their final name? -- will be available sometime in the early spring. Ever the optimist, heh.

Here come the Early Swiss!

2010-01-02T07:35:00.001-08:00

Well, it's 2009 and I've got a bunch of new projects coming up, both historical and sci fi. I got into sci fi on a lark last year but it proved so popular, and was so much fun to do, that it's now effectively a co-equal of my historical projects.

For historical fans, I've got many 15mm projects coming. Today's post highlights one of them:

Early Swiss:
These are finished, and will be suitable for 1291 to around 1420 or so. They are primarily meant for the period between Laupen and Sempach, for instance the knightly commander being in South German style armour from around 1350-70. (He's one of two leaders that were made, the other being a petty noble halberdier in the spirit of Arnold v. Winkelreid.)

The army centers around six halberdier poses, including two throwing rocks. These allow depiction of returning foragers who are pelting the enemy with rocks as represented in some games, although personally I think this is a bit misplaced, as this was not some extraordinary tactic just improvised by foragers! It was a standard tactic of all early Swiss armies, when most men carried halberds, to go into battle with a handful of good stones (mountaineers have their pick of those) and to stone the enemy during the approach. This was no longer practical when the army shifted emphasis to the pike as its weapon to front the main squares, but in the early battles there are many accounts of foes, both men or horses, being stunned or even killed by these stones. I would mix the stone-throwing halberdiers right in with the combat columns.

Also in the army are three crossbow poses, with pavises for these available separately. Most army lists allow only skirmishing crossbowmen due to the fact that in later battles the crossbowmen (and handgunners) would screen the pike columns, but again I'm not sure this is strictly true in the early period, when pavises were more frequently used and letzinen were defended. This is another example of the early, halberd-based army being shaped around the later pike-rush army. Be that as it may, if your game does not allow the crossbowmen to use their pavises these devices will make great adornment of your baggage or camp stands! In the Middle Ages armies often ringed their camp with propped-up pavises.

To supplement the halberdiers we also have two pikemen, for the Swiss always used spears in addition to halberds, right from the start, but it was clearly subordinate to the halberd. Only two poses? Yes, even once the game permits the use of the pike as a formation's armament, the halberd clearly was the predominant weapon in terms of numbers, so your pike elements should probably have one (or even two) halberds mixed in. For instance, I'd suggest that the early pike units in Field of Glory, which I believe are supposed to represent some of the attack columns of the more urbanized cantons, should have front rank elements that are three pikes and a halberd, then rear ranks that have just one pikeman on the outside of the element, with three halberdiers on the element.

The pikemen have the shorter pike used in the early period, about ten to twelve feet long. The huge pikes of the Italian wars were not adopted until the rise of pike-armed rivals such as the landsknechts in the very late 15th century. For the 14th and most of the 15th century, a short pike was still longer than what most enemies used.

Finally we have four command models:

a) a hornblower with the Uri cow horns and ears -- it's easier to shave these off a non-Uri man than it is to add them to an Uri man, if you get my drift!

b) a standardbearer who might at first be mistaken for a pikeman, but his standardpole is a little shorter and much thicker than the pikes

c) a noble commander in knightly armour, the only man in the army with a heater shield!

d) a petty noble halberdier, meant to represent the mythical Arnold v. Winkelried but perfectly appropriate as a veteran commander of lower aristocratic origin -- he's in a slightly better armour than the other halberdiers, but not knightly panoply

What, no drummer? Yes a good question, but it's not been determined exactly when the drum became a key element of Swiss warfare. I personally believe that it took its special role when the pike became the predominant tactical arm, as it was very difficult to maneuver the big pike squares, and so the drum was used as a way to coordinate the movements of each indvidual pikeman. I believe the big horn, which has a huge and terrifying boom (think the horn at Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings), is better representative as the instrument of the early Swiss.

Another dilemma was how to represent the models' appearance, as even amongst the modestly equipped peasant Swiss, fashions did change a bit as the 14th century wore on. Not so much in dress, but definitely in helmets. In the earliest armies most men would have simple skull caps, either cloth, leather or metal, and of course the ubiquitous war hat, the open-faced brimmed metal helmet that the Swiss wore right up to the beginning of the 16th century. But as the 14th century wore on, the bascinet came increasingly into use by the Swiss, as it became fashionable in Europe by about the middle 14th century. So how to depict the models?

We decided in the end to make the models with the universal skull caps and "war hats," and these are what are in the basic packs. Then, we chose five of the models, more or less at random, and had them converted to wear the bascinet. We will be selling this as a separate "booster" pack with a mix of halberdiers, pikemen, crossbow and command in the bascinet, which gamers who want to do mid-late 14th century armies can mix in with the standard packs. It resulted in a slightly greater expense but hopefully this will allow all gamers to make the army as it should look -- armies from 1291 to 1340 or so with just the standard packs, and for later armies with the standard packs plus a mixture of the bascinet men from the booster pack.

You may notice in the photo above that some of the men are depicted with their hose rolled down -- this was apparently a common practice in the Middle Ages, to allow more motion of the legs and to cool off. At least one description of the battle of Agincourt describes the English as having done just this. (See, for instance, WB Kerr's article "The English Soldier in the Campaign of Agincourt," in The Journal of the American Military Institute, Vol 4, No. 4, 1940.) In fact it was such a common practice that the French word avalez was used specifically to describe it.

These will be released in the second week of January, if all goes well. Look for them on the website! And coming a bit later (perhaps a month later or so) will be two additional pieces -- a 40mm length of stone wall for the Letzinen, and a generic later medieval tent for commoners. Letzinen were an important part of Swiss battlefield tactics before they began expanding at the expense of their neighbors. The tent is made based on depictions of the small tents that commoners usually lived when they went to war during the later Middle Ages and Renaissance (1300-1550 or so).

New blog!

2009-10-26T17:28:00.000-07:00

I'm starting up a blog, which is something I'd meant to do for quite a while, and didn't have the chance.

I'll be posting more content soon!