More Astagar

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More from my latest project: a company of Astagar, the 15mm sci-fi snakemen originally from Critical Mass Games but now part of Ral Partha Europe's offering.

Here is the first of the two infantry platoons that I am painting: 

Really nice models that paint up well. I like the variety in poses and tail positions.

If I have one gripe, it's their size. I know they are designed this way, but the models are mostly easily 20mm tall, which makes them very large when compared to a standard 15mm human. Either humans are the shortest race in the universe, or the world of 15mm sci-fi wargaming is suffering from extreme scale creep!

It also means that they are quite difficult to base. I had to use the Warbases equivalent of a small FOW base for each model, which means that they will take up an awful lot of room on the tabletop. I shall just have to see how that turns out.

Anyway, I like them...and would repeat my request that if anyone has any of the Astagar MBT or SP Artillery models that they don't need, I'll happily come to some arrangement to take them off your hands. They're not yet available from Ral Partha. Admin@vislardica.com please.

First of the Astagar "Foot"

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As, of course, they have no feet!

Anyhoo, here are the first of the Astagar foot (sci-fi snakemen originally from CMG and now available from Ral Partha Europe): the mortar support weapons.

Nice figures that paint up well: I only wish my painting skills/patience were good enough to do them justice.

And, as a reminder, if anyone has any of the Astagar MBTs or SP Artillery that they don't want, do please get in contact (admin@vislardica.com) and I'll happily come to some arrangement to take them off your hands.

Q13: Astagar Army List Now Loaded

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As I'm busy painting up our viperous friends, I thought it about time I produced a Q13 army list for them.

That's now available on the Army Lists page of the Q13 section of this website, or by clicking on the picture below.

An interesting "light" army, better suited to raids and quick assaults than to a stand-up, toe-to-toe sustained fight. I wish now that I'd got the MBTs and SP Artillery models when the Kickstarter finished, as I can see me sorely needing these in the tabletop clashes to come.

So, if you have any Astagar MBTs and/or SP Artillery models that you don't want, preferably unpainted, but I don't really mind, then please contact me at admin@vislardica.com and I'm sure we can sort something out.

Incidentally, the Astagar list is the twenty-fourth now available for free for Q13. Plenty of AARs to read as well, and plenty of room for more AARs if you want to send them in...

Q13: More Astagar: Very Snakey

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Those who follow this blog regularly will know that I am currently building a 15mm Astagar army for Quadrant 13, the company-sized sci-fi wargame published by the TooFatLardies. The Astagar are a range of man-sized snakes originally from Critical Mass Games and now held by Ral Partha Europe.

Last time's post featured the six APCs needed to transport my two platoons of armoured infantry. Lovely models, but not very snake-y: they could have been from any vaguely humanoid race.

This post features the two types of, well, walker is the equivalent, although I'm not sure that "walker" is an appropriate term to use where the Astagar are concerned! These are most certainly snake-y enough to do the term justice.

First up is the Viperia Powered Armour i.e. battlesuits for our serpenty friends:

These are lovely models that paint up really well. They were painted the same way as the APCs: an undercoat of green, a bit of brown sprayed in random patterns, then a heavy drybrush to bring out all the detail. Finally, a nice gloss green for the visor/windshield.

The only pain is actually building the things. They come in five parts:  tail/base; torso; two arms and the shoulder-mount. The arms and shoulder-mount go on okay (a mixture of superglue and PVA glue does the trick...although it can sometimes take a few goes to really get that concrete fix) but getting the torso to stick to the tail/base can be a little annoying. The torso isn't stand-alone (i.e. it doesn't balance upright) so you really do need to pin or support the join whilst the glue dries. 

I say a pain, but it wasn't that difficult really.

Anyhow...how big are these, I hear you cry? Here's a quick comparison shot with a 15mm H-35 tank from Battlefront:

Next up are the Volos Assault Mecha: either a bigger battlesuit, or some kind of robot/android:

Exactly the same comments apply as for the Viperia, except magnified by the fact that these are bigger and heavier! Here's a size comparison with the same Battlefront tank:

Loving these two!

And, before I forget, there's several variants to all these: including this version pf the Viperia which I will use as an electronic warfare or communications Specialist.

So that's the support arm of the army done. Highly recommended, although the Volos aren't available from Ral Partha at the moment. I can't wait to get them onto the tabletop!

15mm Sci-Fi Dwarves from Clear Horizon

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Some of you may wonder why so much of my own painting recently has been 15mm sci-fi rather than adding to my WW2 collection, the period I play most often.

Truth of the matter is, when I did a little add up on my lead mountain a year or so ago, I discovered that I had thirteen companies (yes, companies i.e. three platoons plus supports or around 100 figures) of different sci-fi figures lurking in the cupboard.

This seemed a bit excessive, even for me, so 2017 has been the year when I reduced that figure.

How am I doing? Well, so far I have painted the Xar, the Hura, the Tah-Sig, filled in the gaps in my Chuhuac, and added three platoons to my Dwarves i.e. have knocked five or so companies off the list.

That only leaves me with the Praesentia (ex Critical Mass), the Astagar (ex Critical Mass), the Foreign Legion (Khurasan), the Martians from AQOTMF (not sure now), the Alien Invasion aliens (Khurasan) plus assorted other platoons to add to my existing armies.

Here's the latest bit of sci-fi goodness to emerge from the painting table: Clear Horizon's hi grav space mercenaries or sci-fi dwarves to the rest of us. 

Nice figures, plenty of character. Very dwarvish, but not very small (they tower above last week's Sons of Thunder from Rebel). And no separate platoon command figure, so I either buy another pack of eight and waste seven, or use a figure from someone else.

Hercules CLEM from GZG

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Whilst I'm waiting for my company of 7TP tanks to arrive (well, I've actually ordered twenty-two of the things so that I can field a full jw company and a mixed jw/dw company!) I've been pottering around working on those odds and sods that always inhabit the outskirts of the painting table/lead mountain.

One such potter had me come across a couple of Hercules CLEM (Construction, Logistics & Engineering Mecha) from the great Ground Zero Games range.

These are large construction walkers that come in three varieties: A, B and C:

  • A: a general purpose mecha with hands
  • B: a loader much like the exo-skeleton worn by Ripley to fight the alient queen at the end of Aliens
  • C:  a site clearance version with chainsaw, flamer, and gripping hands options

The pictures on the GZG site (and the models I'd seen on their stand at shows) looked great, so all I had to do now was to build them.

Unlike a lot of mecha models, the GZG set come with one part per section of the body and limbs. So a leg consists of a toe, a heel, a shin, a thigh that connects to the hip piece. This allows you to pose and animate the mecha in a thousand different ways...but is, if I might say so, quite difficult to build. Emptying the little plastic bag that one mecha comes in literally gives you a pile of very similar one centimetre by one centimetre by one centimetre chunks of metal.

Worse, try as I might, I couldn't find any instructions on the GZG website. Only the helpful comment that "some modelling skills and experience of metal kit building are advised"! Well, as my East London friends would say, I should cocoa!

Yes, they are quite tricky to build...requiring superglue, accelerator spray (well, I use PVA glue as my accelerator!) and quite a lot of patience. That said, when I was working out how they went together (lots of reference to the pictures of the completed mecha on the GZG website required) I did manage to build one up to the hips and get it to stand up straight without using any glue, so when they do go together, they go together well.

Now that they are finished, however, I am very happy with them, very happy indeed. The pictures show the B and C variants with a Battlefront 15mm WW2 US infantryman as a size comparison.

As you can see, I painted mine in construction yellow with a brown wash and light dry-brush of GW's rust-colour from their Dry range. I then added warning patches on several of the flat panels. The windscreen I painted dark green, then scuffed with white. A couple of other bits of detail (lights and the spotlight) and done.

Site clearance

In all, I'm very happy with them. Tough to build, but they look good, and are ideal either for dressing a sci-fi battlefield or giving some of my militia/miners a bit of unexpected oomph!

Even More Tah-Sig

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I've set myself the target of finishing all the Tah-Sig I have to paint before allowing myself to buy or paint anything else.

It's proving reasonably difficult, as all the thrill of painting a new army has worn off now, so it's just a question of grinding through the final few figures.

So, first up is the final squad from Platoon #2: eight Tah-Sig foot from Khurasan:

All that now leaves me is Platoon #2's command (eight figures, half way through); and the company command squad of Big Men, mortars and a sniper (another eight figures, all undercoated). Maybe by this time next week...

One thing I have also managed to finish is the promised Garshaw main battle tanks. If you remember, these come from Dark Star Games:

These are painted in the same way as the already-featured Paghgaw IFV, but with a grey base colour rather than green, and with a Platoon #2 infantryman for size comparison.

To re-cap: an undercoat of red, masking tape in rough stripes, an overcoat in grey, peel off masking tape and finish with a very light dry-brush.

Although the technique has 'worked', again I am not too sure if I like it. Will have to actually play a game on proper sci-fi terrain to see. I do like the shape and look of the models, I hasten to add, it's just my paint job I'm not too sure about. Feel free to comment with what you think.

Note also that although I say the technique 'worked', the tank at the back suffered from very bad undercoat peeling when I took the tape off. Rather than be bothered to start the whole process again, I decided to treat it as battle damage, so re-painted in the metallic blue I use for all Tah-Sig equipment, then scuffed it up a bit.

The peel was probably due to me not washing the resin before painting. Either that or not letting the undercoat dry properly. In other words...my fault!

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 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.

Blast from the Past: Cosmic Encounter

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The original box art

As it is my birthday on Thursday this week, this weekend the family gathered at the ancestral home for a couple of meals and many hours of gossip and high jinks!

I was searching for something in a cupboard in my old room when I came across the box of the board game "Cosmic Encounter".

Now this wasn't the original game that I first played at school, I think, the box of which is shown on the right, but the slightly later Games Workshop version shown below, that dates back to the time when GW sold all sorts of fantasy role-playing and board games, some of which they produced themselves outside of any accepted canon.

The GW version 

Well with the kids now just about in their tweens, this was too good an opportunity to miss, and soon the board was set up, the rules re-read and explained to the younglings, and it was off we went.

Amazing fun. We had two hilarious afternoons of playing...with all the usual Cosmic Encounter agreements, disagreements, assurances, reassurances, alliances, broken alliances, backstabbing, and politics!

Youngest player was ten, oldest player was, er, me (firmly within the 45-54 bracket!) and all the old favourites came out. We shuddered at the Void, were gobsmacked at the Virus' numbers, ganged up on the Judge (unsuccessfully, I might add), hated the Amoeba, loved the Healer and so on and so forth.

Now whilst I wouldn't necessarily recommend spending the £45 or so that the modern version of the game costs, I would heartily suggest having a dig around in the cupboards at home to see what you can find...especially if, like me, you first visited Games Workshop when it was at 1, Dalling Road, and nowhere else.

Now to try and find Apocalypse the Game of Nuclear Devastation!

 

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...

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!

First of the Hura Infantry

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Just a quick post today before we're off to the cinema to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Can't wait!

Anyway, the first platoon of Hura infantry leaves the painting table: three squads of eight plus a Big Man:

Two more platoons to go and then it's time to find them some vehicles.

Oh, and the Scorecard for the Painting Challenge is finally updated! Apologies for the delay.

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!

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...