More Armour for the Hura

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Regular visitors will know that the Hura range from Clear Horizons suffers from the all-too-common "infantry only" syndrome: a nice range of infantry, a single type of infantry support weapon...and that's it. No heavier support weapons, no armour:  no vehicles at all.

Now whether that's because the range hasn't proved popular and it's not worth expanding or some other reason, it has still left me with a couple of platoons of unsupported infantry...something which I got around by assigning to the Hura Brigade Games' Xarledi grav tanks from their Yenpalo range.

Very nice looking grav tanks, but still only one vehicle type...that is until now, when Brigade have added a support variant.

As you can see, the Xarledi Support Tank shares the same 'body' as its AFV brothers, but has a short, fatter gun.

I must confess I'm little underwhelmed. Lovely models, don't get me wrong, and always keen to have a variant or two...but they could have made its 'support' weaponry a bit more different. Perhaps more mortar-like, or Stalin-organ-esq. Basically something other than just a shorter, stubbier gun!

Funny, isn't it, how I'm quite happy to be happy with an early Panzer IV and an F2 as contemporaries whose main difference is barrel-length (hush, rivet counters: just pipe down, you know what I mean), but unhappy when you've got effectively the same thing in a sci-fi setting.

As Rich would say: too much space-pixie dust!

Anyway, as always from Brigade, lovely models, and good back up for the Hura.

More Tah-Sig Finished

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I'm gradually working through my two Tah-Sig platoons...particularly as I need to get the infantry finished before my Darkest Star AFVs arrive to provide their support. Fresh off the workbench is a another section of grunts, and two particle cannon teams i.e. floating squad light support weapons.

I particularly like the LSW teams: the two front bases in the pic, above, as I like the way the weapons are portrayed as outlined below. 

Each two-man team consists of a gunner and a loader. Although it's not very clear in the photo, the standing loader in the nearest team has a couple of football-sized objects on a rack on his back, but the lying-down loader has one football-sized object on the ground close to his gunner's weapon, and one 'deflated' football-sized object strapped to the rack on his back. It's now obvious to me that the football-sized objects are some kind of magazine or powerpack for the gunner's gun. Neat!

Anyway, the Tah-Sig come from Khurasan, and I'm looking forward to getting them onto the tabletop when all finished.

New/Updated Army Lists for Q13

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Just realised that some of the army lists in the Quadrant 13 section needed updating...so I've updated them.

First up is a new list covering Khurasan's Tah-Sig: some very non-human aliens for which there are figures to represent a nicely scoped out platoon. No vehicles yet, but the infantry are cracking.

Here's the particle cannon team from Khurasan's website:

Click on the pics to go to the relevant manufacturer's website

Secondly, I've updated the Xar list to take into account the relatively new Xar infantry on flying saucers, and the fact that I've equipped mine with vehicles from Critical Mass/Ral Partha's Kaamados Dominion range.

The pic on the right is a shot of the saucer chaps in the raw, as it were, straight from GZG's website.

I haven't linked here to the pdfs of the relevant army list: how boring would that be! You'll need to vsisit the Q13/Army Lists page to get them.

New Sci-Fi Manufacturer: Boon Town Metals

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It's hard to keep track of all the manufacturers of 15mm sci-fi figures: old ones keep disappearing or being acquired by other people, new ones spring up all the time.

Here's one new one whose website went live only about a week ago:  Boon Town Metals.

Describing themselves as a niche figure manufacturer, they currently have two ranges: cyberpunk orcs (with a few other bits and pieces included) and sci-fi dwarves.

I have, of course, immediately purchased some of their dwarves. As you all know, my opinion is that, whenever you see miniatures that you like, you should buy them immediately as, if you don't, they can disappear from the scene without warning (e.g. Cactus dwarves where are you now?) so we'll see what these are like in the flesh.

Anyway, good luck to Boon Town, and hopefully they will be around for a long time.

First of the Tah-Sig

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Whilst I was waiting for my Battlefront bases to arrive (to finish my second Polish infantry platoon - do keep up!) I decided to start on one of the four sci-fi armies that I have in my lead mountain.

Yes, ridiculous to have four entire armies in the mountain, but I've learnt that you have to buy them when you see them in case the manufacturer goes under whilst you're still vacillating over whether to buy them or not!

Anyway, the chosen race was Khurasan's Tah-Sig: part of their Zantin Reconquest range. They are described as:

The Tah-sig are radically different from humans from a biological perspective, using liquid nitrogen as a solvent rather than water, and therefore living in a much colder environment. They are also burrowers rather than surface dwellers and rely on hearing more than sight as their primary sense. The Tah-sig have eyes but their main sense is hearing, and this is as acute, precise, and long-ranged as the human sense of sight. Their armoured environmental suits have built-in aural enhancers mounted on either side of their helmets to amplify and fine-tune this, and to prevent enemy disruption. The suit also has vision enhancement (the faint blue vision slots being visible in the recesses on either side of their helmets), but even when enhanced the vision of a Tah-sig is not equal to the unenhanced sight of a human. 

The current range of figures covers only infantry, but is nicely thought out in terms of the company and platoon OB.

Here's the first couple of infantry sections:

Now to start thinking about what vehicles to go with them...

Laser Wall from Warbases

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I'm a huge fan of Warbases: their bases are excellent quality, delivered quickly, and their customer service is second to none. 

So when Matt Slade submitted some of their new Starbase 962 sci-fi buildings to the TFL Painting Challenge, I quickly beetled off to the Warbases site to take a look.

Now did he build them then paint them, or paint them then build them?

Now I already have quite a few sci-fi buildings (mostly Critical Mass Games, RIP) so, nice as they were, I didn't fancy investing in any of their standard constructions...but what I didn't have and, funnily enough, what Matt hadn't shown, was what Warbases call a Laser Wall.

As you'll see in the picture, this is individual sections of either straight or corner pieces consisting of a wooden base and pylons, and then a glowing plastic "laser field" that slots in and out.

Each section, straight or corner, is (at time of writing) £2.50 plus p&p. This seemed like a good deal, so I bought twelve sections: four corners and eight straights.

Opening the box, I was immediately impressed: the plastic bits are indeed very glowing (mine were orange not yellow, but still looked great) and very solid as well: each is a serious chunk of plastic. The wooden base and supports are the usual Warbases laser-cut mdf, and each upright back-bit has two little holes in it to take teeny-tiny magnets to keep the fence together on the tabletop.

Getting the magnets was no problem:  one day delivery from first4magnets from Amazon meant that I had them in my hands literally, er, the next day! The twenty-four magnets I needed cost me £5.50 plus another £1.10 p&p.

Building the basic fence was easy: went together in the usual excellent Warbases fashion. Getting the magnets sorted, however, proved a royal pain in the posterior!

As you can imagine, I carefully worked out the positive/negative order in which the magnets needed to go. I then used PVA glue to bed them in and waited for the whole thing to dry. I then went to build my lovely laser-walled compound and found that I had half the bloody magnets in the wrong way round!

That meant working everything out again, then popping the upside-down magnets out of the back support and then re-siting them. Whilst I was doing this, I discovered that PVA glue isn't strong enough to hold the magnets in place: you need superglue for that.

So I then re-sited all the magnets using superglue, only to discover, to my horror, that in the process I had, yes, you've guessed it, reversed some of the magnets...so I now had a number of joins in my compound wall that actively pushed each other apart! And the magnets were superglued in.

I now discovered a use for an old pin drill: popping magnets out of the frame backs: a quick tap with a hammer did the trick, although you have to be careful where the magnets end up, as they are quite small!

One other thing you have to be careful of is that there is not much tolerance for anything sticking out into the groove the plastic laser field sits in on the frames. If a magnet is not flush to the (inside) frame, or there is a lump of dried superglue impeding the groove, those lovely chunks of plastic will not sit right. It took me about an hour to carefully clear each groove (for that read angrily chop at them with an old scalpel and the aforementioned old pin drill) until the plastic at least went approximately in smoothly.

Now that I had the raw compound built and successfully sitting together, it was time to paint it. That was easy: a quick spray of grey undercoat and then a dry-brush in a lighter grey.

See how the bases bow upwards where the plastic doesn't sit flush

As you'll see in the pictures, I still haven't managed to get the walls to sit perfectly together: the bases tend to bow upwards where the plastic doesn't sit flush. However, that is a pretty clinically taken photo against a smooth, white background: on the wargames table, the bowing is hardly noticeable at all.

Here's a pic with a couple of Felids in place, to give you an idea of scale:

Well I'm happy with my new laser-walled compound, and at a total cost of about £40 once p&p is taken into account, I think that's pretty good value too.

Now to write rules and a scenario to get the thing onto the tabletop...

Final Chuhuac!

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Having re-done the Chuhuac gallery (15mm sci-fi velociraptors with guns from Loud Ninja Games) I realised that I hadn't painted the Company HQ's reconnaissance tool, the heavy combat cyberform: a pterodactyl-like bird with a link to a ground-based specialist.

After sitting wondering where on earth it was, as I had definitely bought one, just not painted it at the same time as all the others, I strapped on a heavy backpack and headed for the lead mountain to seek the little bugger out. An hour later and a complete re-organisation of the sci-fi section of the mountain, and I had it in my hands.

The wings went on surprisingly well, despite not having any slots or tabs or anything. As I've said before, it's a feature of the Loud Ninja Games casts that they have a natural build-quality to them. The Chuhuac, for example, come on separated feet but, incredibly and with a little light bending, balance.

The wire is florists' wire (get it at the garden centre) and the base a plastic coin from a kids shopping set: makes it easy to drill a hole for the wire.

So that's the Chuhuac now complete...at least until the next release!

More Chuhuac Gravbikes

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I've been ill all day:  man flu which, as we all know, is 99.999999% fatal in all cases.

Still, being ill has given me a chance to finish off another unit for my Chuhuac force: the second, desert camouflage, gravbike squad:

I can't emphasise how nice these little models are. The bike-n-body comes in one piece, but the separate head means that you can pose them a little: just adds an extra something.

Painting was easy: undercoat in desert yellow, was with Agrax Earthshade, then two colours of red on the heads and necks, and a light yellow for the armour.

For those who are interested, they are mounted on 2p pieces with a hama bead connecting the bike to the coin. Works a treat!

I've also taken the opportunity to update the Chuhuac gallery: click here to visit.

Q13: More Chuhuac Battlesuits

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My Chuhuac (15mm sci-fi velociraptors with guns from Loud Ninja Games) force consists of three platoons: one camouflaged for the jungle, one for the desert, and one (special ops) for the city.

Each platoon consists of a couple of large squads of infantry in APCs, a squad of grav bikes, and a squad of battlesuits. Or that was the plan, until half way through the usual massive initial paint, I got distracted by other things.

Anyway, had a bit of time to spare this weekend, so filled in one of the gaps: the battlesuit squad for the second (desert) platoon.

Xarledi Hover Tanks for the Hura Technocracy

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According to the Clear Horizons website, "the Hura Technocracy represents an alien species known as the Hura. While possessing traits of both crabs and mantis insects, the Hura are an advanced species that use their technology to give them every advantage. Not only do they have a strong chitin outer skeleton that can deflect blows almost as well as most basic Human body armor, they utilize a powerful series of miniature, close-contact forcefield generators that provide an extra layer of defense without limiting their strength and speed. Their weaponry, nicknamed “Lightning Rods’, strike out with powerful beams that can fry not only organic material but any unshielded electronics as well".

Not my Hura!

I acquired my Hura through the original Kickstarter, investing enough to get a full company of infantry plus quite a few of the cyber-support weapons too. They then sat in the lead mountain for a couple of years until the built up guilt of ignoring them became too much and they moved to the painting table.

Unable to match the skills of the painter who produced the sample figures, I decided to go aquatic, and have the Hura's basic skin colour as light blue with nicely contrasting dark grey armour. Weapons would be the same green as for the infantry of the Pelagic Dominate on the grounds that they are aquatic too, so whatever they use to build the guns will work for the Hura as well.

Clear Horizons don't produce any specific vehicles for the Hura, so when I saw Brigade Models' new Xarledi tanks for their Yenpalo range, I jumped at the chance to have the Hura using these. Lovely models. The crewman's head, btw, is from CP Models.

The tanks arrived from Brigade in a box full of polystyrene chips. I pulled out the three Xarledis that I thought I'd ordered and put the box to one side. I had just finished the third tank when it was time to put out the rubbish, so I went back to the box...and what did I find? Yes, another tank: I had ordered four but forgotten! There's nothing more annoying than looking at three finished tanks whilst you are frantically finishing the fourth.

Anyhoo, all four are done now, and I've also added a gallery of all my Hura models to the Q13 section of the website. Or you can click on the pic below to go straight there.

Q13: Another 15mm Manufacturer Added to the List

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Just when you thought you had them all, up pops another. My thanks to those of you who e-mailed me.

Vanguard Miniatures are mostly a 6mm manufacturer, but have got three 15mm ranges available as well. These are the entomorphs, who are rather nice and need to be purchased asap, some space ork types known as skinnerz (any relation, Nick?) and some human types. They also stock Onslaught Miniatures ranges as well.

Here are some of the entomorphs and, yes, sigh, some space orkz too!

Loving these Entomorphs, will have to get some

Q13: Xar Flying Saucers!

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I've often complained that figure manufacturers have a habit of releasing incomplete sci-fi armies: a few infantry codes but without any support weapons, vehicles etc.

One manufacturer, however, who can never be accused of that is Ground Zero Games (GZG). If ever there was a good reason to use the word plethora, then  looking at the GZG catalogue is it!

Ralph Plowman's Xar

One of their latest releases are the Xar:  six legged aliens also known as Critters. True to form, the initial release included basic infantry types with two types of support weapons and separate officer/specialist types. That first release was soon followed by unarmed Xar in a variety of martial arts poses (just brilliant!) that could be used as such or also engineers, gun crews or other such support types, with the plethora of equipment and vehicles available elsewhere in the GZG range.

Now GZG have topped themselves again by launching the first of the vehicle codes for the Xar:  flying saucers! Each one comes as a thickish disc about 2.5cms in diameter topped by a Xar and sided by an impressive array of guns. As you'll see from the pictures below, despite my rudimentary painting technique, these are great. Highly recommended.

Must clean off the spider webs before photography!

Hura: Second Platoon Complete

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Despite my current lack of painting mojo, I have managed to finish the second platoon of Hura: the 15mm four-armed sci-fi infantry originally kickstarter-ed and now available from Clear Horizon Miniatures.

Technically I have one more platoon and the company commanders to go, but I'm unsure about actually painting the third platoon.

That would give me a good, solid, nine-squad company, but I've found that in Q13 I rarely use more than two platoons, so re-tasking these for duty as gun crews and other miscellaneous bods might be more useful than a third infantry platoon.

On top of that, the Hura support weapons now really look to me as if they should form the third squad of an infantry platoon i.e. a platoon would be infantry squad, infantry squad, support squad.

If I do that, I have my three squads per platoon, and all the company command I need, and can concentrate on getting some vehicles and artillery/AA pieces...which I can then crew with my now-spare figures.

Decisions, decisions!

One thing I do need to do is to find the Hura some vehicles, as Clear Horizon don't produce any. My usual solutions would be to pop to GroundZeroGames, who have a cornucopia of such things, but this time I think I'm going to go with Brigade Models' new Yenpalo Heavy Grav Tanks:

What I might also do is get some of the Yenpalo lizard riders and see if I can do a bit of a conversion job: adding half a Hura to each one.

A couple of squads of mounted scouts would add a certain something to the army: it will just be a question of whether I can get the conversion to work without too much superglue, pinning and green stuff!

 

Armour for the Xar

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As I've said before on this blog, one of the main problems with the 15mm sci-fi marketplace is that figure manufacturers tend to produce ranges aimed at the platoon-level gamer rather than the Q13 company-level gamer.

What I mean by that is that they produce a range of core infantry, with maybe a few support weapons, with maybe one vehicle...but not the whole gamut of kit that you'd need to create, say, the sci-fi equivalent of the modern day army.

Where are all the different sorts of infantry (grunts, scouts, engineers, specialists, exotics etc) and all the different sorts of vehicle (recon, MBTs, APCs, SP Artillery, specialist AA etc)?

Now I know that's all to do with initial outlay and all that, but it is a problem for the company-sized gamer such as myself.

Take Ground Zero Games' Xar, for example. I'm a huge fan of GZG, and before Xmas bought and painted a whole lot of their infantry, which come with the equivalent of MMGs and Bazookas as well. They even have specialist Tech and FOO figures. So far so good.

Mr Plowman's Xar: a bit better than mine!

Now GZG themselves can provide attack drones to give them a bit of punch, but there aren't any vehicles in the range.

Well this gives you the opportunity to have a look around and see what you can find...and the unfortunate demise of Critical Mass Games (well, they have been sold to Ral Partha so hopefully will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes) and the 50%-off sale that resulted gave me the opportunity to buy my Xar some vehicles from CMG's Kaamados Dominion range.

These chunky, and very tall, vehicles really suit the body shapes of the Xar, so go together very well. Not only that but, as with all Critical Mass' stuff (I have their Protolene Khanates (c.f.) and Praesentia (still to be painted) as well) the kits are full of character and paint up very well.

Here are the Gekotaa Armoured Cars: two with guns, one with a scanner:

And here are the Dragamaa Heavy Tanks (and they are heavy!):

Now my Xar are ready to take to the field with the beginnings of a combined arms force!

The Hura Technocracy

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I like to back the occasional Kickstarter project, but such is the length of time between backing the project and actually receiving the goods, that usually my interest has moved on by the time they arrive, so the figures languish somewhere in the lead mountain waiting for me to remember they're there.

One such project is Clear Horizon Miniatures' Hura Technocracy, a Kickstarter I backed over two years ago. To quote the CHM website:

The Hura Technocracy represents an alien species known as the Hura. While possessing traits of both crabs and mantis insects, the Hura are an advanced species that use their technology to give them every advantage. Not only do they have a strong chitin outer skeleton that can deflect blows almost as well as most basic Human body armor, they utilize a powerful series of miniature, close-contact forcefield generators that provide an extra layer of defense without limiting their strength and speed. Their weaponry, nicknamed “Lightning Rods’, strike out with powerful beams that can fry not only organic material but any unshielded electronics as well.

I came across the box containing the Hura figures whilst cleaning up my painting table. As I've just finished a major paint of Polish WW2 figures, a bit of sci-fi would make a welcome change, so time to paint them up.

Here's the first of my efforts: a company of Hura Heavy Support Weapons:

Again from the CHM website:

The Heavy Support Hura are part of the lower-tier of the Hura Species. They are genetically and cybernetically modified to the point of becoming biological computers. The Heavy Support Hura are lead by a handler who controls them.

Now to start on the three platoons of Hura infantry!

Q13: New Releases from Khurasan

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As I've been a bit obsessed with Poland lately, I haven't been paying any attention to anything else:  such as Quadrant 13 and 15mm sci-fi in general.

Well, that's apart from buying and painting a whole load of Xar from GZG of course!

Anyway, and moving swiftly on, browsing around the Internet the other morning I came across the Khurasan website again, and thought I'd better check what was new...especially as I think John is still banned from publicising his miniatures on TMP (don't ask!). You can see them all on FB, but who has time these days?

There were two new ranges on here that I'm seeing for the first time, both of which are now firmly on my shopping list.

Alien Invasion

First up are a range of aliens specifically designed as invaders of the Earth. There's plenty of background that I won't repeat here, but basically you've got some science caste types who are your, er, basic greys, and then you have some absolutely wonderful warrior types:

These warrior types are supported by what are called Kalinekt Warborgs, and I quote: "these are both machines and living things -- implanted with the brain of a hunting animal long ago discovered and domesticated by the War Caste. Like earth's sheepdogs, these creatures are relentless in encirclement and pursuit, and keen for the approval of their masters. Brains now housed in a complex chassis constructed of titanium alloy, plastic and other materials, and using advanced weaponry, they are formidable foes."

Finally, and I'm afraid completely ridiculously, there are the Manoeuvre Elements which are...which are...well, see for yourself:

Yes, that is a 15mm tank squatting between its legs.

Now that is one big model. It costs $119 which, for its size is not that bad...but I can't see myself ever getting it onto the wargames table.

So I'm loving the warriors and the warborgs, and will be getting a platoon or two of them. I'll probably use the greys as Big Men.

The Tah-Sig Empire

Next up are the Tah-Sig, part of the Zantin Reconquest range. These are properly alien aliens (not just humans with funny heads!), and come complete with a detailed background as well.

Available are all the figures you'd need for a basic infantry company: sections of riflemen organised in to platoons, with platoon assets such as mortars and LSWs available as well.

So that's my Christmas money all used up now!

You can visit the Khurasan website by clicking here. Feel free to mention VL when you buy something: John might give me a discount!

Q13: Next Steps

Incidentally, I am producing a second edition of Q13 which will be a fairly radical redraft. Apparently, in an attempt to provide differences for all different types of weapon etc, I've allowed the thing to get cumbersomely complicated for tabletop play.

I can see this: after all, I myself have found it easier to produce almost a battlefield QRF sheet for all my armies (downloadable form the Q13 section of this website). So that will be simplified, with those changes running through to army construction etc.

Watch this space for more.

Xar: Infantry Almost Finished

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Quick bit of painting done whilst I wait for my next batch of Poles to arrive: two more nine-man squads of Xar, the 15mm Critters from GZG.

Just one more squad to go (the Critters in hand-to-hand, martial arts poses!) and then I think I have enough Xar infantry for the moment. Just got to think what armour to get them now...

Q13: More Xar Line Infantry

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Just a quick post today to showcase the latest nine-being squad to come off the Xar production line:

Note that this lot include the first of the squad commanders: painted up with the gloves-of-rank, but without the red edge to the base indicating a Big Man.

Only eighteen more Xar to go to give me two full three-squad platoons!

Q13: Xar Officers etc

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I'm really driving through the Xar at the moment, mainly because I know there's a big Battlefront order on its way, and I want to clear the painting table before it arrives!

Today's offering are the Xar officers and specialists:

First up are the Xar Big Men (above). Note the natty gloves: they are what I decided to use to indicate rank, as the Xar don't appear to affect any other form of clothing or insignia, and only the command-type figures where gloves.

Next up (below) are half the specialists: probably to be used as FOOs to bring in some off-table artillery.

Then we have some of the most important chaps: the drone operator specialists, along with two general purpose GZG drones that have been, er, purposed for the Xar. 

These look so good, that I might actually get a couple more of each type, giving me two platoons of three drones each. The Xar shown, by the way, is for size comparison only.