Quar Recon Robot Conversion

The Quar of Phobos are nothing if not resourceful.

Their mission is to secure land & resources on Venus. Their own supplies, budget and quarpower are limited however. Their ships were designed to be dismantled on landing and made into base camps, wagons and machines of war. This is one such robot. A robot designed from communication equipment and cargo assisters. Versions of these have served as scouts for decades. They are fast, fairly agile and able to transmit messages over long distances. It has been weaponized as well: As it moves, its legs build up a static charge in its internal coils which it can discharge through its antennae. Its simple cargo arms can be used for defense when needed.

I started with the Star Wars miniatures droid you saw in the last post.

It had 4 soft, warped legs. I knew those would need to be replaced or reinforced. I first thought of making it a tripod: I loved the idea, but it was a bit more busy than I wanted. When sizing it up as a biped I thought it looked much better, as well as more awkward: just what I wanted.

I started by removing all four legs.

I then removed the center section of the two legs I would use.

The center I replaced with a paperclip and plastic tubing.

Drill into the leg & the foot for the paperclip support.

The finished legs on the right, original on the left.

Where the legs used to be attached is where the arms will come out from.

Drill in and attach a paper clip and plastic tube just like the legs.

This is the basics of the arms. a hole drilled through a plastic rod, and at the opposite end, a hole is drilled down the shaft (which you can't see in the picture). The paper clip will serve as the joining piece as you see below.

Leave a little of the paperclip sticking through the plastic rod, this will serve as the bolt.

The forearm is longer than upper arm, to add to the awkward appearance.

A close up of the pieces for the simple claw hands.

Almost finished! You can see a glued hand on the right. An old 40k Ork buggy radiator and exhaust looks very steam punk, especially when placed out like a spine.

Attach it with the same paper clip & plastic tube method used before.

Attach the body to the legs, hands to the arms and added rivets.

Must have rivets.

He's now ready to scout the jungles of Venus and zap any wayward Blue Planet Imperialists!

The 3 Walkers so far.

More Robots for the Quar

Last night was the first meeting for the Venus campaign.

This looks like it will be great fun. It is using a modified Mighty Empires for the campaign and Martian Empires for the armies & battles. Since I was a latecomer to the campaign, joining after it was set to launch, Captain Kneemo, commander of an international league of idealists and their robot troops, welcomed my Phobosians as comrades: we'll be splitting the number of banners & characters.

There are 8 players then in 7 initial nations. 6 fairly quick turns were run as the banners made planetfall, the offworld ships landing in succession and their forces moved out to scout. Each nation got 3 base camp villages and 3 native villages. Some nations saw combat, disease and other misadventures befall them as they explored. Fate shows it smiles on those with noble purpose however as the Kneemo-Phobosian alliance scouting moves revealed only 1 village which was unable as yet to see the benefits of joining us, but 12 villages and 1 mountain city joined our cause: some really lucky rolls!

Checking out the other forces, there were some really fun ideas with various minis & toys for creating VSF walkers, tanks & robots. As they get fielded in battle you'll likely see them here!

The Quar clearly need more machines, since the Scrambler walker I made seems to be best suited to being a light gatling walker, which is good.. but I need something with a bit more punch too. So here is the Cracker:

Similar to the Scrambler, but a bit slower, able to withstand more punishment and armed with a 6 pounder cannon.

"Come get some"

Made from a Warmachine Khador Berzerker. Cut the axe pommel off the left hand, cut the hand off the right arm, build a cannon, simply don't add all the extra squared shoulder armor plates & spikes (Quar do not strike me as a chaotic type who want spikes on everything), cut off what spikes are already there, and the head is placed on upside down, with spike removed... upside down looked more appropriate for the genre.

The conversion was very easy and surprisingly fast to do.

No one messes with this Quar, not when he has such backup!

What is on the horizon:

I picked up some Star Wars minis very cheaply, less than $5 for 3 models... have to love that.

I'm planning to replace the legs, give it some lower tech weapons...

I love it! What changes I'll make exactly I'm not sure... but it has so much potential.

What would you do with it?

Stay tuned and thanks for checking it out!

Quar set solar sail for Venus

Stockholm Observatory Reports Sightings of Vessels Departing Mars

"We confirmed our original sightings last night," Announced Professor Bornholdt, Director of Research and Ocular Exploration at the Stockholm Observatory. "Beyond a doubt a small cluster of vessels have left the region of Mars and are on a trajectory that will take them inwards toward the solar center."

Amidst worries of an invading fleet he replied, "Highly unlikely. Their path indicates that they will bypass our planet altogether. In fact, Earth shall be on the other side of the sun as they cross our orbital path. No, all indications are their destination is Venus."

Of what impact this may have on the expeditions to Venus of the various world powers he would not speculate. "One curious item of note however, is that while we are aware there are civilizations on Mars, there is some indication that these vessels came not from Mars itself, but from one or both of the Moons. Whether this suggests that there are civilizations on the Moons of Mars or merely the presence of Naval Bases, I shouldn't hazard."

___________________________________________________________________

I recently became aware that the VSF Venus campaign that I've been following with interest on the Armored Ink blog is actually local to me and looks like I'll have an opportunity to take part!

I had two ideas for possible armies to use: my Draniki, the Lizardmen of Venus (sounds ideal) or to use my Quar, from Zombiesmith, with a similar idea I had for my 'Planets in Peril' background which situates the Quar as rivals on the moons of Mars. Since the GM of the campaign is running the natives of Venus, that left the Quar as my best choice, and the one I was leaning toward anyway, because they'd be the most similar to the armies of Earth, and it gives me a chance to make some tanks and robots... and who doesn't love tanks and robots?

Background:

The Royal Phobosian Light Expeditionary Brigade has requested and been accepted for a daring mission to Venus. Phobos has been in a constant state of war with Demos for several centuries. The two worlds have reduced each other to misshaped rocks. If Phobos is to come to a final victory it needs resources. Mars is close, but very contested for little gain, plus the eyes of Demos would be upon us. Earth is rich in resources, but has a population that is thick with a violent species. These men from the blue planet have recently come to Venus, which has many untapped resources. If left unchecked, Venus may fall to the claims of the Earth men nations.

The time to strike is now! Fortune favors the bold!

___________________

Unfortunately, my Quar are not painted yet, and I have precious little time for painting my own projects, being occupied with many commissions, but I try to have an hour or two a night for my own hobby projects, which helps me stay fresh for motivation for all projects. So hopefully the Quar will see some progress.

The rules being used is Martian Empires, which has been modified for 28mm minis.

Units tend to be on 4 stands of 30mm x 60mm with 2 or 3 miniatures on each stand.

Since my Quar are based for skirmish on 25mm round bases, they'll have room for just 2 minis per stand.

I knocked out some stands to fit the theme of Venus. These were fast & simple. It was very nostalgic for me to do something with thin dense card, sponge flock and plastic plants. A project on the cheap and easy like all my projects were ten to twenty years ago.

Here is a group of 4 stands, with some unflocked areas in the center to place some blue-tack to hold the minis with some stability.

The unpainted (for now) Quar stepping foot for the first time on the Green Planet.

The Scrambler.

A well armed walker of recent design. Its thick armor protects it as it crosses the battlefield, raining lead with its twin heavy machine guns. The Quartermaster of the Royal Phobosian 5th Army has approved the requisition of a Scrambler for the mission to Venus.

Though designed for the rough ground and trench combat of Phobos & Demos, its design should prove beneficial in the jungles of Venus as well.

The Scrambler was made with a Peacekeeper from Malifaux. Instead of the front arm and harpoon gun I've made heavy trench machine guns.

For King & Country & the honor of our Phobosian Ancestors, our next footfall is Venus!

15mm Droid Army: "we used poisonous gases..."

I love miniatures. Pretty safe bet that you do too if you're reading this.

But I also love when you find something that isn't intended to be a gaming miniature and you find a purpose for it in a minis army. It's that feeling you get when you get change and discover one of the quarters is old enough that it is solid silver.

A "whoa, what's this?" reaction. Fun Stuff.

So I picked up a star wars space ship on the cheap and think it's going to be the perfect centerpiece for my Droid army.

Some of the first 15mm sci fi minis I got where little drones, droids & robots... mostly from GZG, from my first order with them when I was testing the waters of 15mm sci fi and realized how inexpensive these little machines are. Why not have a fully robotic army? Kind of a Skynet 001 idea. So I picked up many flying drones, wheeled drones and a few reaper chronoscope robots and had a good sized infantry force. But as I add vehicles to the other forces, the question became 'how do the droids keep up with the Joneses?"

Here is how:

I will be giving this a new base of course, this is the ship straight out of the package.

In the foreground are some GZG spider drones. I have 9 more of these coming too.. I think they are brilliant.

I think it works great in 15mm scale as an anti-grav tank.

Here it is with the GZG Bulldog for size comparison:

This should be a fun robotic army.

In the Planets in Peril setting this will represent the 'Terranauts", the artificial intelligence denizens of the asteroid belt. Early in their development they mined their planet until it broke apart. Undeterred they continued to mine and expand their numbers. Until recently their presence was enough to keep the Jovian Lords out of the inner planets, since they are immune to the psychic attacks of these beings, but for reasons unknown the Jovians have now begun to seep into the realms of the inner planets.

(Insert maniacal evil laughter here).

Now, Binary Solo: 0000001, 00000011...

Anyone else have any cool finds of toys & what-nots for 15mm sci fi?

15mm CMG Kaamados Armored Car: Build it & Review

Critical Mass Games recently had a sale with free international shipping no less, and as I have been looking for vehicles for many of my factions for 15mm sci-fi I decided this was a good opportunity to give CMG a try.

I had not ordered from them before, but they have a wide variety of miniatures and many looked tempting. I have more than enough infantry, too many, so I wasn't looking to start a new faction, only for vehicles for existing factions. Despite that, I picked up one of each of the Mercenary Aliens packs, and some Ygs troops to be villainous scum and local enforcers to populate a More Wretched Hive of Scum & Villainy... but more on that at a future date.

Many of the vehicles don't suit my taste, but some looked very compelling. One of these is the Kaamados Armored Car. Looking at it, the same one gracing the banner of Dropship Horizon, I thought it might be just right for a 'fast apc' for a small squad of my Mangalores and give some mobile hitting power for the force as well.

So let's take a look:

This is the kit contents of the Kaamados Armored Car with Cluster Missile.

Other variants differ only in the weapon bit, the object at the bottom center of the picture.

It is a Resin Kit. Casting was smooth with crisp details.

Mold Tabs are placed in the least obstructive areas, except in the case of the main hull: it is unfortunate it couldn't have been located more underneath the hull. Still, it isn't too bad where it is. The tabs for the main Hull and the undercarriage piece are quite thick. The undercarriage tab is in a very forgiving place: it will be completely hidden when assembled. The main hull's tab will only be partially obscured from sight, so take care when removing it.

A jeweler saw is the most reliable way to safely remove thick tabs, though with some risk you can remove them with clippers and a craft blade if you're experienced. If choosing this option, cut slowly with clippers and don't cut all the way through in one go: 'squeeze' the resin once with clippers without cutting all the way through, and do this on both sides of the tab, score across with a craft blade before returning to make the first cut with clippers, and don't try to get it all in the first cut: it is better to leave some of the tab & shave this with a blade and file smooth than try to cut it perfect the first time and risk breaking into your model.

Again the jeweler saw is the safer option, but for people with experience and impatience it can be done with only a bit more risk and much faster with the clipper option.

As always when working with resin, wear a mask when filing & sawing because resin dust is deadly. I watched a loved family member die indirectly from lung cancer and you don't want to do that to yourself or those who care about you.

This miniature took almost no time to clean & assemble.

It is a very simple kit and fits well together.

In fact, the miniature pictured above is not glued together!

All the pieces are still lose (which explains why the wheels hubs aren't all at the same angle), since I did not want to wait to take pictures until after they'd been washed and assembled.

With Resin you will want to wash the pieces in mild warm water with a bit of dish soap then rinse well and dry thoroughly. This does add to the assembly time, but it isn't 'active' time- you can do other things while this is being done.

Here it is with a Mangalore shown for scale. The armored car is a little smaller than I anticipated.

It may not serve well for a 'fast apc' for a squad of 5, not without some serious 'clown car' suspension of disbelief.

Well, most games have that problem, so I'm not sure I will let it deter me.

I have one of the Kaamados APCs on order, the big boxy one, so we'll compare when it gets here.

A rear angle shot. The design is very cool. Even if I can't use it as a small squad APC I look forward to having several of these on the table. If the Mangalores must walk to battle so that I can have more of these cars in the army, then it is a sacrifice they will have to make. To be fair, the armored car is not intended to be an APC, I was just hoping to push the possible uses of this vehicle.

The Kaamados Armored Car next to the GZG Bulldog.

The CMG vehicle benefits from being cast in resin. Resin is my favorite material for any miniature that I don't intend to convert. The footprint of the two vehicles is comparable as is the price. The Bulldog has more flexible use and the Armored Car has smoother casting. Aesthetics is up to personal preference, for me I like them both in slightly different ways.

I plan to paint all the vehicles I get in a fairly faction-neutral scheme so that I can have more options for each force with vehicles possibly serving several different factions.

Overall I highly recommend this model if you like the look of it. I'm looking forward to getting the CMG Kaamados APC and will be keeping an eye on CMG for future releases.

Rating:

Casting: 10/10

Cleverness of Design: 9/10

Aesthetics: 9/10

Smiles Everyone, Smiles!

Not long ago I finished some infantry: 42 Vleta Raiders from Blue Moon.

I love these minis. They are some of the coolest aliens in 15mm I've run across.

My typical litmus test when considering 'to collect or not to collect' a faction is:

*Do I like the basic infantry & are there several weapon choices to chose from?

*Are there vehicles, monsters, etc that I like that can flesh out the infantry into a nice force?

*Will it be a fun army for looks & play?

I do like the basic infantry. A lot. There are guns, heavy guns, and leader types with guns.

Unfortunately, that's the extent of the range. There are no vehicles, monsters, etc. Looking at them, their gun seems to be a semi-organic tech, and the only clothes they wear is a thin harness... they don't look like they'll blend very well with many, if any, vehicles, walkers, etc that are out there. Despite that, I picked up several packs because I like them a lot, and I think I have a solution to their vehicle problem, but more on that later... on to pictures.

Here is the alien host. I got lucky: 2 packs had an extra mini! One of the extras was a leader-pose, so I gave him a blue harness, and he'll be the army officer. That's enough for 8 squads of 5, with a commanding officer and his assistant. They're all armed with their bio rifle and 4 of them have a larger, double-barreled weapon.

Not a bad core for a small army.

Here's the commander and some of his troops.

Just look at those smiles! And those teeth! They're ready to great their visitors!

Detail on these is nice: no pointless detail, lots of open areas to have fun painting skin patterns and gradation on the guns.

I have an idea for a conversion for a light walker vehicle that should work well for them, and for a tank? I have some sketches for something that I may try to sculpt myself. It's been awhile since I've made any miniatures sculpting from scratch, so we'll see how it goes.

If you're interested, watch this space and follow the blog: it shouldn't be long before I squeeze in some time for this force's reinforcements!

I've been following the progress of Grunts, and it looks very promising for what I'd like to do with 15mm. I've been thinking of a game setting I was working on a few years ago, calling it 'Planets in Peril', or when feeling more silly, 'Perilous Planets in Peril".

For Grunts, I'm thinking these guys would be something like:

Shoot: 5 Assault: 5 Guard: 10 Soak: 13 Mental: 7 Skill: 4

Assault Power 6

Splunderblurp (rifle) Range 9/Power 7

Splunderblurgrumpl (big gun) Range 12/Power 10 * or Range 12/Power 8 AOE 3"

Perks: Brute.

Planets in Peril

The premise of Planets in Peril is not highly original, owing a lot to my growing up a big fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is an Alternate reality of our solar system, where life abounds on every world and every moon. Humanity has just discovered this, as they venture out, not ready for the multitudes of dangers that await them so near at hand.

There are a variety of terrestrial species in the inner planets:

Mercury: Sillicoid men

Venus: The Draniki

Mars: Savage Green Nomads of the Dead Sea, First Born of the Lost Cities,

Phobos & Demos: Embattled City States of Kwar (yes I love me some Quar and a nice excuse to put them in a sci-fi setting for 28mm games)

Asteroid Belt: Terranoughts: mechanical beings who destroyed their planet from over-mining and have not ceased operations still.

The Outer Planets are ruled by the Jovian Lords: Leviathans of various shapes, infinitely old and intelligent, with a plan for the solar system. They've already enslaved the terrestrial species of the moons, now they turn their many eyes to the inner planets.

These Vleta could make good Draniki for 15mm or perhaps a species from IO, controlled by the Jovian lords... which would give me an excuse to add the awesome new Cthul Cultists from Khurasan!

Planets in Peril I had originally intended as a game and background for 28mm skirmish and small army scale combat, but with all the variety of good 15mm miniatures I'll be keeping it in mind for this scale as well.

So if you designed a species, what would they be like and where would they be from?

Ra Ra Ra!

Cheerleaders!

Just as significant to fleshing out a team theme and taking your Blood Bowl team from 'playable' to a 'showcase presence' is the team staff. One of the best miniatures to have is a cheerleader.

But you might say, 'I don't have a cheerleader on the team so I don't need a miniature' or 'But I have 8 cheerleaders on the team, I don't want a miniature for all of them!'

Yes you do, and No you don't. Well.. maybe you want 8 cheerleader minis.. that might be cool, but you don't need them. You do need at least one though.

Why?

* If done in theme it adds a lot of style points to your team.

* If you don't have a score token, the cheerleader miniature is a great thing to use for it!

* If you have one and your opponent doesn't, it makes them jealous.

Three basic ways to go with cheerleaders:

* An actual cheerleader miniature

* Convert a miniature into a cheerleader

* A different approach to the cheerleader issue.

Actual Cheerleaders don't need much explanation. There are many good ones from many companies.

Find one you like, paint in your team colors and you're set. It is worth noting that a cheerleader doesn't have to be the same race as your team... there could be some interesting reasons why there is a different cheerleader type... a dark elf team could have an enslaved human cheerleader... a poor human team might have only been able to hire that homely old orc woman to cheer for them.. you know the one.. with pasties... awesome.

One of my favorite cheerleaders: the high elf, done here as "Christmas Cheer"

Converted Cheerleaders are even more rewarding, because it is something unique and different.

This pair of Dark Elves is one of my favorites I've done. Clip the weapons and make the pom-poms from green stuff.

This is may be my favorite Cheerleader I've made. Again a weapon clip & pom-pom style.

The weapon clipping was a bit more complicated, still, the pom-pom's cover any damage so there isn't much to worry about. This is from Reaper's Pathfinder Goblins. I used the goblins as Hobgoblins in my "Vulcan's Hammers" Chaos Dwarf team so this female goblin of the same style was an obvious choice for a cheerleader.

Some minis need more extensive green stuff to pull off a conversion.

For a necromantic team I started with a Heresy Ghoul and began the creation:

Heresy Ghouls are nude, and thin, and male. I wanted a corpulent female and clothed.

Rather than pom-poms I figured she'd use severed heads.. sure to catch the crowd's attention!

GW kits have many severed heads, and these hair top knots from the Ork kit make perfect extensions... take that you Elves!

"Candy Corn" the Cheerleader complete.

This one isn't painted yet... I'll get to this team someday. I have an all-female Norse team. In our world, football teams are all male and have female cheerleaders, so if the team is all female it stands to reason the cheerleaders would be male!

So here is Sven, ready to cheer for the Valkyries... shake it Sven!

Again, those 40k Ork topknots are ideal.

Last there are Alternate Concept Cheerleaders.

Not all cheerleaders have to be pom-pom shakers.

You could have musicians, yellers, a rock-band, dancers, and the list goes on.

There was an amazing Elf Rock Band on TFF awhile back!

I converted this from a skink with a blow-pipe, he's now ready to call his cheers to the crowd.. and answer the age old mystery "what do skinks sound like?"

A drummer! Perfect way to get the crowd stomping!

I haven't made a Khemri cheerleader before, but I'll leave you with this tidbit from one of my old history professors...

The first cheerleaders were actually from Ancient Egypt!

They changed a lot through the ages, but the original tradition was in religious ceremonies for Aten, also known as the sun-god Ra. Egypt experimented briefly with Monotheism, saying there was only one god, but this was very unpopular with the people, so the temple sent out minor acolytes to get the crowd more enthusiastic about this with chants of "There is only one-god, he is the sun-god, Ra Ra Ra!"

;)

What are your favorite cheerleaders?