Making Headway With The Sci-Fi & Sparking Memories

 I love, 15mm Sci-Fi.

To be honest, I'd really forgotten just how deeply this wonderful 'period' is etched into the DNA of my gaming experience. Rediscovering it, with the emphasis being on not recreating the exact models, but certainly going full-on with the aesthetic, is proving to be a real emotional roller coaster. 

I have always been inspired by the Striker rules, box art, and 'grav' and 'hover' APC's, so it was only natural that this was the direction I took at the outset.

As I mentioned previously in another post, I have opted for a mix of models from GZG, Alternative Armies (who currently have a 20% off everything sale in play - go and buy something immediately) and Brigade Models.

Jon at GZG and Gavin at AA are a real pleasure to deal with, and they look after and dare I say, spoil their customers.

I ordered over £400 of models from GZG at the start of the week, and, even with a late night addition on Wednesday, to my order, Jon got it all to me before 10AM on Friday - phenomenal service.

I decided I would like a couple of sets of the Imperial Comander rules from AA, and a quick email to Gavin, got those added to my order.

From Brigade, I'm waiting for assorted buildings and the aforementioned and magnificent looking flight control tower.

I decided that as I have a LOT of pre-paid credit with my painter, I'd send him the 128 hardsuited marines. after patiently sticking 128 jump packs on them yesterday afternoon.

This means that I can thereby concentrate on painting the two 'conventional' forces, work on which began yesterday, cleaning them and laying them out, partially constructed for priming.

At 8AM, I was outside this morning applying a grey undercoat to everything, befor then adding base sprays to the bodies and hover skirts.

I have begun with the GZG 'Gauntlet' vehicles, using a panzer grey for the hover skirts of the 'combatant' vehicles and a rather jaunty orange for the skirt of the Medevac hover.

For the hulls, I decided to go with Death Rattle Green (how does a sound have a colour?) which gives a splendid verdant finish when filters and highlights are applied, as demonstrated by the Empress 28mm Russian Federation BTR, I painted in the last few weeks, and which, was part of the inspiration to paint some stuff myself, for myself:

 

Now, I don't like airbrushes for wargames figures. I'm sorry, but for me, a figure needs to be painted with a hairy stick, once you get beyond the priming and base coat stages.

Anyway, Amazon delivered my paints at about midday, so I've been able to dodge the showers that day has delivered and I've now got everything with it's base colours on, examples of which I can show you here:

 

Over the next few days I'll apply the filters as spare time allows and, try to use some of the 4 days Easter weekend, to get the highlights on.

It's going to be a slow and tedious job, but I am determined I'll do it myself.

Once the vehicles are done, I'll paint the infantry, crews and any stowage, before applying decals and weathering ahead of the two cots of varnish.

The tones are aesthetically pleasing to my eyes, and the jarring effect of the Medevac vehicle is bang on the old school sci-fi vibe I am looking to recreate.

I'm getting rather excited about it all, and I've also just ordered a 15x5ft sheet of mixed grey felt which, will provide a nice smoot 'concrete' look to the gaming table, onto which I can directly place scenery and the like.

On the runway of the spaceport, I want a suitably 'splendid' starship. Thus, after much searching I have gone with the Moebius 1/72 scale Orion Clipper from 2001: A Space Odyssey which is around 2 and a ha1f feet in length, and which, with some Chris Foss vibes will look perfect as a 15mm spaceliner.

The following pic, from the web, shows it against the MPC 1/72 Space 1999 Hawk and other 1/72 kits. It's a bloody monster...

 

 

Read more about this awesome kit with lots more eye cany here: http://inpayne.com/models/scifi/orion3-72.html 

No, in fact, it's a big bastard of a model with an eye watering price tag. Lord knows where I'll store it when not in use, but I think a custom storage solution will be required.

Looking at the Hawk, I may have to add some Hawk and Eagle transporter models to populate the spaceport apron, in more 'military' colours.

*EDIT* - I just did exactly that and got the Eagle & Hawk set from MPC in 1/72 for a reasonable £79

I know I've opened a creative can of fiscal worms with this, but I will state for the record that I truly think I've got enough historical and fantasy for this lifetime, and with sci-fi you have a literal universe of options, so I can see me increasingly, probably solely heading down the sci-fi road from now on.

My first sci-fi minis were 25mm Spacefarers and Galactic Grenadiers, but then I found the Laserburn, Martian Metals and  the seminal Citadel 'Traveller' ranges and the race was on.

What I am having problems with, is finding some rules for sci-fi ground warfare which are fast and playable and not Grimdark. I can't be doing with Gothic misery in space... No, I want sleek lines, proper colours and old school aesthetics.

And I don't care about background fluff. My games are the story , I suppose, as units win, lose and evolve based on the actions and choices of the players fielding them. 

Imagination is a wonderful thing so why limit yourself?

Well, it's mid afternoon as I am typing this, so I really ought to go and book a collection for the package of stuff I'm sending to the painter, and to  take all the stuff I sprayed up to the studio, where I have to resists touching them for the next four days, because 08:00 to 16:00 is work time...

TTFN