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?