Stargrunt 15mm Alien Light Mecha Lance (or are they 28mm Combat Robots?) plus some Crusties/Prawns

Another showcase of some of Ground Zero Games' excellent Crusty alien range.  To start with, here's a lance of their light mecha.

 

These are great models, although they do require a bit of mold line cleanup before painting and can be a little fiddly to assemble.

 

Worth mentioning that they come with a plethora of extra arms, so you have quite a few weapon options including unarmed empty fist arms.

 

This leaves you with some spares, which are useful bits box items for later builds and kitbashing, especially since they're well-sized for use as 28mm scale cyber prostheses or robot limbs.

 

There are also two different leg pairings, and you could probably swap between pairs for even more stance variety by adding rocks or wreckage to the base to stand on.

 

The bodies can also be positioned looking level, up, or down (as the two-gun build in this set is).

 

They're also uncommonly good scale jumpers and make perfectly acceptable wardroids in 28mm scale gaming, as well as being intimidatingly big in 15mm.

 

John also makes a wide variety of Crusty infantry figs, including gun teams, command figs, civilians, heavy weapon carriers, and alien critters large and small.  I showcased the armored infantry in an earlier post http://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2018/02/stargrunt-15mm-armored-alien-infantry.html but here's a sample of the "naked" versions.

 

 

And here's a few of the bug critters and a couple of handler/civilian figs.  The bigger horsebugs are designed as cavalry mounts and are sold with riders, but I'm using them here as alien livestock.  Have to get around to doing some cowboy Prawns eventually.

 

You May Experience A Burning Sensation: Reaper Fire Giants, Elementals & Other Red-Hot Scorchers

Showcasing a mix of fiery figures painted over the last few years.  Why now?  Because I'm sick and tired of winter.  Just END, already!

 

Huge and medium Fire Elementals

 

 

Another huge Fire Elemental

 

Custom built Thoqqua, for fans of obscure D&D monsters

 

Flame Cultists and summoned Elemental

 

Fire Mage and Goblin Minions

 

Fire Giant Warrior

 

Fire Giant Bodyguard

 

Fire Giant Princess and custom built scenery

Group shot of another set of them with a Mordheim soldier for scale

Stargrunt 15mm Armored Alien Infantry (or are they Battledroids?)

Just a quick showcase of my latest stab at painting Ground Zero Games' Crusty aliens in armored environmental suits.  I've painted these several times over the years, and I think this is my favorite color scheme to date.  The models are single piece casting with an optional separate backpack with odd "mantis claw" arms on them and what might be jump jets or just extra air tanks.  In this case I've left off the packs since I wanted the model to look a bit less busy.

 

There are three different sculpts of the basic trooper with energy rifle, sold in packs of six models.

 

As well as a special weapons pack with three each of two different weapons.

 

The backs of the models are fully detailed, which you can't see when the backpacks are glued on.  With them left off they're a bit less alien looking but still pretty clearly non-human.

 

Personally, I think they'd also make pretty good alien combat robot types, and would probably fit in a Star Wars game comfortably as a battledroid of some kind.  So, pretty versatile, maybe more so than the "naked" Crusty models are.

Dreadful Things: Mashaaf

Latest model off the workbench, Reaper's Mashaaf from their first Bones Kickstarter.

A VERY large model, seen here re-based onto a 120mm base with some added alien eggs from Troll Forged Games/

 

The figure is Bones plastic, and really exemplifies the main beef many people have with Bones.

 

Mashaaf is only about $30 retail, much cheaper than it would be in metal or resin, which is nice.  Comparably sized GW plastics would run at least twice that, maybe more - and the model is a boxed set rather than a blister, which probably added a good $5 to the cost.

 

But the little side claws (which are part of the main body casting) and the two bigger claw arms (which are separate) are not well served by being made of Bones.

 

They're disturbingly flexible, much like the weapons on many smaller Bones figs.  Admittedly they're almost impossible to damage, but it still feels very wrong.

 

Reaper could have (and I would argue should have) cast the flexible bits either in metal or the harder plastics they've been using on some Bones scenery and terrain pieces.  A multi-media kit might have driven the cost up another $5 or even $10, but even at $40 this thing would be a bargain - and making less fancy custom packaging could have pulled the cost back down.

 

I've seen several people replace the claws with hard plastic Tyranid parts, which indicates I'm not the only one who disliked the bendy Bones plastic.

 

Still, it's inexpensive enough that I can't say it's an outright bad buy.  Just feels like a waste of an opportunity to make a good kit even better by going with a multi-media design.  Very typical of Bones-era Reaper decisions, where they regularly sacrifice some quality to keep costs down.

 

Mashaaf was a first-wave Bones release though, so maybe now that Reaper's had more experience with the stuff maybe we'll see them do multi-media at some point down the road.  The material is best for the big chunky parts of any model, not good at all for finer detailing like hair and faces.

 

It does loom menacingly over your average 28mm trooper, doesn't it?

15mm Scifi: Ion Age Prang Raiders & Army Platoon

My latest 15mm scifi project comes from Ion Age's Prang range.  The Prang are an amphibious alien race that are best described as militaristic bipedal hippos with weapons and armor to suit their physique.  There are basically two different types available, the mercenary/outlaw raiders and the actual Prang army troops.

The Raiders are pretty diverse lot, although a lot of their gear is clearly "borrowed" from the regular Army arsenals.  The background fluff for them makes it clear that they're pretty much in it for the loot and will make off with anything they can carry.

I particularly like the captain's "pet" here.  Much more fun to paint than a parrot.

 

As you can see, their guns are kind of huge.  Plenty of pouches and bags for hauling off plunder, too.

 

 

The Army troops are a bit more uniform in appearance, and they tend to come in larger numbers.  As you can see here, they're much more massive than your average human being (or Terminator robot, in this case).

 

 

I've got this platoon split into three squads of eleven, each with a different leader and three heavy weapons.

 

 

They've also got a nice medic (who could also be some kind of scientist or civilian merchant or something) and a couple of casualty figs.  Those are always fun to paint, and make good markers for objectives even in rules systems that don't track injured troops on the tabletop.