Filling the Gaps

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Whilst it’s nice to have a project to work on, it’s also nice to paint a whole load of itty-bitty things just to fill the gaps in a collection, or to take advantage of a new release…and that’s what this post covers.

First up, we have yet another Russian Orthodox church. Yes, after my last post, someone (kindly!) pointed out that I didn’t have the Hovels version in my collection. One quick order later, a couple of weeks wait and, low and behold, here’s my tenth Russian Orthodox church, and very nice it is too.

So now I’m fairly confidently stating that I have every single 15mm Russian Orthodox church available but, on the off-chance you know of any others, do feel free to let me know.

Oh, the others I have can be found here.

Next up is another command stand for my ECW armies. These chaps are from Matchlock Miniatures, available via the Caliver Books-run Minifigs website. I was ordering some of their 15mm ECW personalities for my Rabble bases (preaching puritan, ratcatcher, lady with long gun etc) when I suddenly remembered that I was short a Colonel command stand. These are two of their Generals, and very nice figures they are too, and perfectly compatible with my existing Peter Pig, Hallmark and Khurasan troops.

Although it’s quite hard to see in the picture, the chap behind (with the hat) is actually holding a dog! Anyway, highly recommended as a source of character figures if nothing else.

Finally in today’s random selection of bits and bobs from the painting table are more Ursids from Khurasan. For those of you unfamiliar with the range, these are giant 15mm sci-fi bears, seven feet tall, wearing sunglasses, smoking cigars and armed with bear-portable fusion guns or BPFGs!

The original release was four different infantry types, but now Jon has added a Big Man equivalent and an “Ur-Cannon” weapons team to the range. Loving these bears, and added to Stan Johansen’s Blareds (smaller bears) they make a great fun sci-fi force. My painting doesn’t really do these justice!

So all in all a bit of fun from the painting table. Next up are some more Romans and some Druid types to work their opponents up into a frenzy!

Q13: A Very Big Space Ship!

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Following my recent post about adding Daemonscape to the list of figure manufacturers, I am sure you can guess that it didn't take very long for me to send them my first order.

My Ursids (large anthropomorphic bears from Khurasan and Stan Johansen) needed a bit of transport to take them to their next mining job, so I ordered one of Daemonscape's big 15mm drop ships called, appropriately, "The Big Rig".

The kit arrived within days. I say kit, but we're talking six big bits of resin that fitted together surprisingly well using SuperGlue and just a very small amount of greenstuff in a couple of the cracks. Very easy to put together. The only complicated thing was adding the gun barrel to the turret, but I used drill-and-pin, and found that both gun barrel and turret were easily robust enough to make this relatively simple as well.

Painting was also a dream. A quick undercoat in black, then a coat of a very yellow ochre, followed by a brown wash and then several layers of dry-brush. Once all that was dry, half an hour's worth of touching up windows and viewing domes, grills and the additional of a flag from the bits box, and she was finished.

Not the most beautiful of vessels, but very practical for planet hopping. Really nice model:  highly recommended.

That's a 15mm figure (not an Ursid!) for size comparison

Q13: The Ursids Updated

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Originally posted 15th April 2013

I have updated the Ursid army list with details of the Lesser Ursids: slightly smaller bear-like aliens from Stan Johansen Miniatures. In my Ursid army list, the Greater Ursids (from Khurasan) are pure mercenaries, soldiers if you like, and the Lesser Ursids are miners who fight as militia armed with a variety of sidearms and converted mining equipment, including triple-barrelled mining lasers mounted on grav platforms. Tasty!