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".

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.