Here’s another 15mm sci-fi figure manufacturer: Strato Minis Studio.
They produce a nice range of battle-suited infantry with armour and walker supports. I particularly like the new 15mm “Stormbreaker Jump Infantry”, although I do note that the bases and supporting wire aren’t included.
Strato are a Polish company, who produce their figures in resin. All prices are in dollars. Here’s a picture of their Tengu Medium Tank:
Ages since I’ve painted any 15mm sci-fi, but a good way to start the new year is with the latest release from Onslaught Miniatures in their Grudd, or space dwarf, range.
The new releases consist of a two-man “gun trike” and a one-man bike. I’ve painted them, as with the rest of the Grudd, in metallic paints, although the different coloured “armour” didn’t turn out as different as I wanted them to be i.e. the bikes are a dark shade of metallic blue/green (Nautilus car paint from Halfords) and the riders are standard metallic blue (Tamiya).
I do, however, like the contrast between the metallic bodywork/armour and the matt tyres.
Anyway, a couple of recon squads for the Grudd, and I see that Onslaught have announced more releases are on the way.
Here’s the last painting of 2019: a couple of things I haven’t had time to photograph until now.
First up is another unit of “Swedish” horse for my English Civil War army:
These are 15mm Peter Pig figures painted with GW Contrast paints. I do like the Peter Pig figures - they have a lot of character and paint up nicely - but I do wish you didn’t have to spend so much time getting the horse stands to actually stand up.
And here’s a close up:
And finally here are a couple of figures that I painted up literally to hit the 2,000 point mark! They are two Onslaught Beserker figures from Nuclear Shrimp Games’ Brute range. Although the range is technically 15mm, the idea is that they are huge mutants, so the figures themselves are a good size 28mm.
Three more Praesentia Hyperion drones: the Soviet musicians are for scale purposes only.
These are from what was Critical Mass Games’ Praesentia 15mm sci-fi range, most of which is now available through Ral Partha Europe.
Remember the Praesentia? Excellent 15mm sci-fi figures from what was Critical Mass Games, but is now Ral Partha.
Well I started painting all the figures I bought in CMG’s “closing down” sale but never quite got around to finally finishing them off. The half-painted remainder have been sitting on my painting table, occasionally shuffling their feet and giving a polite cough to remind me that they are there.
As I’m a bit sick of painting Sumerians (yes, I know I’m supposed to be on the final push to finish them, but I’ve painted hundreds of the little blighters!) I thought I’d just clear a bit of space by finishing the Praesentia off.
So here’s the first of the three lots of Praesentia: a platoon of Hyperion drone AFVs.
These are actually quite large. The bases are a good three inches long, so you can see the drones come in at about 5 or 6 inches in length.
Unfortunately I believe that they are out of production at the moment (they are certainly not listed on the Ral Partha website) so I’m quite glad I bought them when I did. Just goes to show what I always say: never hesitate to buy figures, as they might not be available when you finally do decide you want them!
I’m quite a fan of Kickstarter. I’ve backed about six projects to date, and in all but one have received exactly what I wanted…and the exception was very much down to me not communicating properly with the company involved.
So here’s a quick plug for the Loud Ninja Games Ikwen Kickstarter project expanding their Ikwen project with some great new sculpts. Here are a few examples:
I currently use the Ikwen as tech support for my Chuhuac mercenaries. The above will add enough for them to be a force in their own right. Recommended.
Another update to the list of 15mm Sci-Fi Figure Manufacturers that you can find listed in the Q13 section of this website.
Latest addition, long overdue, is DRS Models: a range of 3D printed models covering seven different factions. No infantry or other units, but the vehicles do look very good and, pleasingly, cover all the different sorts of model that you need i.e. each faction has main battle tanks, APCs, anti-air vehicles, SP guns etc.
Here’s an example from the Cetian range:
I haven’t ordered or got any of these yet, but they certainly look very good. Some of the ranges are quite unusual as well: giving a suitably alien feel to a battlefield.
Click on the picture above to go to their home page.
I’ve added a new company to the list of 15mm sci-fi figure manufacturers: Trilaterum.
Trilaterum produce a set of rules (not that you’ll need them obviously, as Q13 will fulfil your every need!) and several ranges of figures. So far they have:
The Agarascale: fungus-looking lifeforms that would go well with Ravenstar’s Horrids
The Dominion: humans in battlesuits
The Kaevur: they look like space dwarves to me…so I’ve ordered a load and will report back once they arrive
Quite a few larger mecha, space beasts and vehicles
Overall they look very nice. As I said above, I’ve already ordered some Kaevur, and if they prove worthwhile, I’ll probably get some Agarascale basic toadstool infantry too.
A couple of negatives, though. Firstly, the website shop doesn’t, as far as I can see, give a clear listing of pack contents. It has plenty of photos, but it’s not clear if the group shots are meant to be photographic catalogue entries or just examples. If the former, then my second negative is that it looks to be quite difficult to amass enough infantry for a platoon without buying loads of (perhaps unwanted) support material.
For example, Kaevur pack one is listed as containing:
The Photo of Pack 1
Kaevur Pack 1 contains enough miniatures to make the following units
Hoolda Infantry x 2
Juht Infantry
Kaevamine Heavy Mecha Vehicle
If I only get six basic infantry figures, I’m going to have to get a lot of drilly-things (at the back on the left) to get a decent platoon’s worth of PBI.
I suppose I could just e-mail them and ask, but where’s the fun in that?
Review to be continued when my Kaevur arrive…
Almost finished the Praesentia now: just a few Trinaries and the drones to go.
Here are the rest of the Sentinel and Guardian drones:
Here’s hoping that Ral Partha, the current owners of the range, get around to producing the resin as well as the metal elements of the Praesentia. The infantry are lovely, but are going to be easy meat without some drones to back them up.
I’m still working my way through painting my Praesentia army: high tech chaps originally from Critical Mass Games and now available through Ral Partha.
First up are another two platoons of RAL robot infantry led by their Enlightened ‘Trinaries’ or collection of three Big Men. Painting them was easy: the robots got an undercoat and then one coat of one of the new Citadel Contrast paints. Add in a red dot for the eye, a tiny bit of green as detail on the weapons, and done! The Trinaries’ robes are painted in the same way, with their bodies a dark blue highlighted by a sky blue.
I’ve also started on the drones that the Praesentia use instead of manned vehicles. Here are three Sentinel drones:
Just a few more Trinaries and drones to do now…
One of the armies that has been sitting in my lead mountain for some time is the Praesentia: mysterious, super-high tech beings originally designed and produced as part of the Critical Mass Games universe and now available, with the demise of CMG, from Ral Partha.
I like the way that although the figures themselves are fairly humanoid, there is an impressive back story which explains, amongst other things, that the Praesentia equivalent of Big Men always operate as a Trinary i.e. always in a three.
Mind you, in Q13 terms, who wouldn’t want a Tech 5 army that includes teleporting killer robots (excellent for dealing with those hidden away mortars); and Specialists who can alter dice rolls, prevent units from moving, and other fun stuff!
Here are the first two units off the painting table, each painted with one coat of the new Citadel Contrast paints. First up are the Phase Shifters and their RAL Phase-Shifting robots:
Second up are a Trinary of Enlightened with their RAL robots with ranged weapons:
I like these, as I can see them being used for a variety of different robot-types.
I like to keep this site as updated and useful as possible, so spent a little time yesterday updating the list of manufacturers of 15mm sci-fi figures.
Sad that so many now seem to be moribund or out of business, which just goes to prove my maxim that if you see some figures that you like, you should buy them, as you never know how long they will be available for.
For example, I still regret not buying some of the Combat Wombat range as dropships for my Aphids…but you live and learn and it’s a mistake I won’t make again. Food? Who needs food when there are figures to buy!
What is also interesting is how many of the cottage-industry manufacturers’ are no longer available from the individuals who started them, but have been absorbed into being part of a larger manufacturer or distributor’s offering. Ral Partha Europe, for example, are now the only place you can get what was the Critical Mass range, and the Spriggan range, and more. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Well at least the figures are still available and not just KIA.
To end on a high note, however, I was pleased to add Nuclear Shrimp as a new manufacturer to the list. They are based in Greece and produce a range of 15mm sci-fi figures under the Black Earth banner: a post-apocalyptic range of human defenders (the United Earth Federation) and Brute attackers (huge mutant humans looking like Mr Hyde from the dreadfully disappointing League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie.
I’m loving the Brutes and have already sacrificed next week’s lunches to buy them!
I was initially a bit worried about their 15mm credentials (scale creep!) but the very nice chaps at the Shrimp and the 15mm SciFi Facebook group provided some comparison shots that convinced me that my fears were groundless. Check them out here.
Some of you may recall that at Salute I splashed out on a laser cut mdf industrial set up on special offer from Troll Trader. This was a huge layout for the bargain price of only £100 including p&p. I’ve been gradually building it over the last six weeks and have finally finished it.
This is a legendary set up, meant for 28mm troops, but absolutely ideal for sci-fi “15mm” figures which, as we all know, tend to be more 18-20mm.
I’ve always wanted to play an industrial hive battle kind of game, and now I can. In total, I now have the sixteen base boards (that alone used up about a can and a half of spray paint); a couple of small platforms connected by a walkway; the huge platform that looks like the outside of an oil well; a powerplant piece; a couple of big, cylindrical tanks connected by a top walkway; a landing pad; two staircases; two sets of corridor connectors; twenty-four individual bits that join together to form the “iron labyrinth”; and a pile of spare ladders.
The build was arduous: not just because of the sheer volume of things to be built, but also because some of the components were, simply, difficult to build. I’m not really a terrain-building person, so often don’t take the proper time and trouble to prepare and get everything just right: so checking and sanding every slot to make sure its component slides in smoothly just isn’t my cup of tea. Smash the two bits together and use a bit of strength to pop the slots into place doesn’t work with every bit of this complex, especially not the industrial labyrinth sections that caused me more grief than anything else.
Having built the thing, I was going to leave it as plain mdf, but a simple spray of grey paint does make it look more, well, industrial, and will make a beautiful backdrop to my brightly coloured sci-fi figures. I suppose I should take the trouble to dry-brush it all now, to give it some variety and depth but, tbh, that seems like a lot of hard work for something that already looks very acceptable. I might have a game, take some piccies, see how they turn out, and then decide on the dry-brushing then. Or wash then dry-brush if I really want to go to town.
Here’s a gallery of the entire thing: very good value for £100, so Troll Trader (from whom I’ve always had good, if not incredible, bargains at Salute) go straight to the top of my Christmas card list.
Next step is to dress the table with the rest of my sci-fi terrain, buildings etc
Regular visitors to this site will know that one of my regular complaints is sci-fi figure manufacturers who produce a lovely range of basic infantry but then never get around to providing all the support teams that you need to make up a proper fighting force.
Okay, so some of these infantry squads are so loaded with their own weaponry that it could be said that they don’t need any support, but this doesn’t really gel with me. As the Marine Corps saying goes: always hit a nut with the biggest hammer possible…the nut gets cracked and the hammer is untouched!
It was therefore great to see that Khurasan Miniatures, that wonderful if somewhat erratic source of the esoteric, have released a couple of support weapons for their 15mm Hauk range.
The Hauk, for those of you who don’t know, are avians: birdmen to the non-Latin speakers. The existing range had some nice infantry and a couple of officers, but nothing more. Now, however, they can field mortars and their equivalent to a medium/heavy machine gun.
Mortars
Each weapon comes with the same stand, and the option of either a mortar, shown above, or a machine gun, shown below. There’s also a sniper figure, two new types of officer (one pointing, one with clipboard) and a casualty figure. I have ignored the casualty figure, and couldn’t be bothered to see if I could make the stands multi-purpose, so bought enough packs to give me four three-man mortar teams, with officer, and six three-man MMG teams, with officer. Add two snipers, and I still have lots of casualties and snipers left over, but I’m sure they’ll come in useful some time in the future.
Machine Guns
As you can see, I paint my Hauk with a simple but very colourful “parrot” pattern. Undercoat in white, immediate heavy wash with Agrax Earthshade; paint talons and beak yellow; paint wings, tail feather and head crest dark green then highlight with bright green; highlight all the armour in white; weapons are painted black highlighted in grey.
Well done Khurasan!
These have been sitting on the painting table, painted but needing bases, for ages.
My Quar now have ten of these quasi-WW1 tanks available. Might be time to actually get them onto the tabletop soon!
Regular visitors will recall that I took part in the original All Quiet on the Martian Front kickstarter. I was very happy with what I received: I only really wanted the tripods anyway, all of which have now been painted and are prepped for action.
The trouble was that I also received a whole bunch of quasi-WW1 tanks and infantry as well: the Earthlings that are fighting the aforementioned Martians.
I’m still not sure what to do with the infantry, but mention the words “quasi-WW1” and immediately one thinks of Zombiesmith’s excellent Quar range. I have small 15mm forces for all three factions, but not really enough to play the sort of large games of Q13 that I enjoy.
Here then was the perfect use for the AQOTMF tanks: Quar tanks. Here’s the first batch painted up:
I actually can’t wait to get these onto the tabletop, so will move the Quar up the priority list for forthcoming games of Q13!
Although I like my Vornid infantry (15mm sci-fi: homicidal plants with thorn guns from Khurasan), I haven’t used them very much because, up to now, they have been based a singles and the way that the figures are made means that the bases don’t fit into any of my sabots. That means that using them involves moving lots of single figures round the table individually: a right pain!
I therefore decided to re-base them: each squad of ten Vornid based individually converting to six bases of five Vornid each. That gives me the same three squads, but the capacity to field ten fireteams if needed for another system.
I had two four-squad platoons (i.e. eight squads) but they proved a bit unwieldy. I therefore painted another squad up and now have three platoons of three squads each, all efficiently based for moving round the table.
Here’s my revised Vornid company, plus one of the individual platoons. You can see the detail of the entire force in the Vornid gallery.
One of my more unusual scifi armies are the Vornid. These comprise a base of Khurasan’s plant infantry supported by a variety of Ravenstar’s Horrid bio-vehicles. You can see the gallery by clicking here (opens in a new window).
As you’ll see, I’ve been using Slishians (from Hydra Miniatures) as Big Men, but have now found a rather amusing alternative:
The enemy sure looks like plant food to me!
Not sure who the manufacturer is (I bought these on impulse some time ago and have only just got around to their layer of the lead mountain) but these are, of course, models loosely based on Audrey II, the “villain” of the musical comedy A Little Shop of Horrors.
Great fun, and have encouraged me to expand and re-base my Vornid army: but more on that later…
The last time my Hura (four-armed aliens from Clear Horizons) took the field, they were soundly beaten, with their defeat due, in art, to a lack of AA protection and no electronic warfare capacity.
As Clear Horizons don’t produce any AA or EW figures for the Hura (I mean, why would you!) I have decided to use Brigade Models’ sci-fi Polish range to fill in the gaps. I’ve already posted the AA half-tracks, now here’s the EW vehicle:
Officially this is the Suwalska ‘Hetman’ command vehicle, but it does very nicely as an Electronic Warfare specialist for the Hura.
Now all I have to do is save up for a few Suwalska APCs…
Finally finished the last of the Boontown Space Dwarves: a platoon of Clansmen.
Now if you remember, when I started painting the Boontown figures, I was quite disparaging about the quality of the sculpting. I felt the Shaker cannon was, quite frankly, not a very good model, and the crew figures very average if not poor.
I changed my mind a bit about the range with their T-26 walkers, and a bit more with their Hearthguard, but the Clansmen have definitely reversed my opinion.
These are great fun figures with nice, clear definition, especially on the faces/beards and their Schwarzenegger-like arms. Okay, so the guns are still a bit crap, but overall I like them. Not “recommended”, but still a worthwhile addition to any Space Dwarf force.
And that, for the Space Dwarves, should be that. As far as I know, I now have every 15mm Space Dwarf/Squat/Grudd etc figure out there in the marketplace. If I haven’t, please let me know, and I will remedy the situation asap!
Right: onto the Yom Kippur war figures forming a significant layer of the lead mountain…
Vis Lardica is a website devoted to wargaming and military history, with a special emphasis on the company-sized rulesets produced by the TooFatLardies: I Ain't Been Shot Mum (WW2); Charlie Don't Surf (Vietnam); and Quadrant 13 (science fiction)
Welcome to Vis Lardica, a not-for-profit website mostly dedicated to the company-sized wargaming rules produced by the TooFatLardies, but encompassing my other gaming interests as well.
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