Another Post?

Yes, something approaching normal service has begun. Today was Al Front's birthday; I got him a copy of David Beauchard's graphic novel Black Paths, about an ex-Arditi man in Fiume with D'Annunzio, and my partner got him an Airfix Gladiator I. Hopefully the Gladiator will show up on his blog in the future.

Today I received some more little metal soldiers in the post:

A Valhallan Heavy Bolter team (who were mint in blister when they arrived from Sweden!) courtesy of fellow Warseer forumite SDKFZ, now destined for the Darendaran X Mechanised.

A Valhallan sergeant from eBay, who'll soon have his bolt pistol replaced with an autopistol before he takes command of a squad of Darendarans.

And... from the foundries of Ground Zero Games... the last figures needed for my European Federation Armed Forces infantry platoon!

Oh, and I also finished painting my test models for the Darendarans. Well, I say finished - I need to paint the nosecone on the mortar shell red (for fragmentation) and I'm still umming and ahhing over whether or not to give them Medusa V patches. They fought well for me in Battle Zone Edethor during Op. Rolling Thunder (winning me the Macharian Cross and the Star of Terra), and I feel the need to commemorate their role in that with the patches - golden shields (Battle Group Imperators Aegis) with black swords (Army Group Gladius).

A few more models down; the lead mountain shrinks again...!

Force Generica, or, Vietnam In SPACE

Many wargamers know of, if they aren't fans of, Hammer's Slammers, the series of short stories and novellas centering around the aforementioned regiment of elite mercenary troops in the far future and written by Vietnam veteran David Drake (11 ACR 'Blackhorse'). I bought the series when I was at university, as I often dropped into the Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue (mainly because I lived about five or ten minutes' walk away), and they are a good read indeed.

Ground Zero Games and Jon Tuffley had long produced vehicles clearly based on the gun jeeps, combat cars and 'blower' hover tanks of the series - now available from Daemonscape - and when Old Crow Models arrived at the beginning of the 2000s, it wasn't long before Jez Plumridge began to do the same. Which was fortuitous, because the South London Warlords had been using GZG and Denizen figures and models for their Hammer's Slammers game for some time, and as far as I can tell, the combination of the influential Salute organisers, GZG and Old Crow got together, banged heads, and contacted David Drake himself to see if they could officialise the whole thing.

And they did. Quite easily I think.

Now I suspect this is all very old news to a lot of you, and my clumsy and ill-informed precis of the whole affair should not be seen as anything other than an introduction to pictures of my own collection of 'Slammers' figures from GZG... and a little bit about them.

When I began to get into SF gaming that wasn't 40K, I turned to various different rules sets. I started off with Steve Winter's DropWing - which are really good, actually - and moved on to Stargrunt II. I stayed with these two sets (and have literally just now bought the last copies of MechWing and CyberWing, the expansions for DropWing from an eBay seller) until last year, when Tomorrow's War was released.

I digress. While I was getting into these SF games, I was also building forces to game with. I decided, some time ago, that a good idea would be to create a 'generic' opposing force that I could field against anyone, from my Space Marines to my European Federation security police or, indeed, the rioters. But what figures could I use?

Luckily for me, it was around this time that I went to a Salute - back when it was held in Olympus rather than Excel - and stumbled across Hammers' Slammers for the first time, in the form of the Ground Zero Games' figure range. I bought one of every figure, and over time added to them, so now my Force Generica looks like this:

The original purchase didn't include the vehicles (all GZG, now Daemonscape), the three bare metal Slammers by the left-hand truck, or the Power Armour suits. It took a long time to get them this far!

Force Generica follows the pattern of all of my DW/SGII/TW forces - a reinforced infantry platoon, with some form of transport for each squad, a unit of powered armour, and a tank of some description. This lot are quite third rate - certainly in comparison to the unit the figures are supposed to represent - and I deliberately accentuated this by using the 'eggs on legs' style powered armour. I see them as being a second or even third-line unit from a planetary defence force. They have access to some decent equipment but are better in defence than attack.

Last night, while waiting for bases to dry on the Spore Mines, I got my partner to bring me the crew of the tank destroyer, and I sat down to paint them more like the Slammers:

The woman on the far left is in my original colour scheme of grass green and khaki; very much inspired by the Irish Defence Force, while the tank crew (including, middle, the 'David Drake' figure) are in the Slammer's gear of khaki combat dress and grey 'clamshell' armour.

Some detailing: the infantrywoman has her name and blood group on the back of her armoured vest, while all have their unit armshield on the left arm, and their national/planetary flag on the right (it could even be the flag of Nieuw Frieseland).

And finally, the tank and its crew. A two-man hover tank destroyer mounting a tribarrel automatic weapon and a high-intensity laser cannon. Commander/gunner on the left, driver on the right.

Oh - the little blue and red tabs on their vests? Analgesic and stimulant auto-injectors respectively. Comrade had his arm blown off? Pull the blue tab! Been stunned by a nearby shellburst? Yank the red one!

Painting Points: 2
2013 total: 86 (46x 28mm, 2x 54mm, 2x tanks)

A final note - Vietnam in Space? Literally. David Drake started writing the stories to cope with the effects of the fighting, and based the vehicles on M113 ACAVs and M48 tanks.

GIA Troopers

And here are the last of them, plus a group shot.

Just think - a mere 8 more figures (12 if you include the proposed 'heavy' Powered Armour squad)... so close to completion! So close! They're on my Salute! 2010 'to buy' list, for certain.






Once I've got them all I'll paint squad and fireteam identifiers on their helmets.

Yet More GIA Troopers

Here endeth the current batch of GIA squaddies. The last three were three female troopers (two without their helmets on) and a SAW gunner, giving me 12 so far:

2x SAW
1x GMS/P
1x Sniper
8x Troopers

Just think - a mere £8 (change from a tenner!) will (mostly) complete that force, and under £15 (change from a 20!) will totally complete it. Hurray!

Tomorrow, my last day at work for four days, will see me cracking on with the Goliaths and doing a little bit more on the Terminator (which today got some extra base coats - red on the Storm Bolter and Power Fist, plus red and blue frag/krak missiles in the MRLS unit).

Olley Painting Points:

This Week: 8
2009 Total: 51

Look! More painted figures!

Here are the GIA troopers from earlier today:



I missed taking a photo of Nik Puke the other day, as I'd left him at work. So, here he is:



And finally, I've started painting up this GW Space Marine Terminator with Cyclone MLRS for my best friend's cousin. I'm making up the colour scheme as I go along - so far it's green and purple:


Tomorrow the remaining four GIA troopers will be painted up.

Space 2200: The Greater Israel Armed Forces

Today, at lunch, I painted four more Greater Israeli troopers (pics up tonight). I also bashed out a platoon list for Stargrunt II, which looks something like this:

1st Squad:
Lt, Electronic Warfare/Comms tech, plasma gunner, Platoon Sgt, Cpl, Guided Missile System Portable (GMS/P), Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW), trooper (8 figs)

2nd Squad:
Cpl, L/Cpl, SAW, SAW, plasma gunner, GMS/P, 2 troopers (8 figs)

3rd Squad:
Sniper, spotter, medic, orderly

In order to reach this, I need to buy 2x plasma gunners, the kneeling sniper, the pointing officer, another SAW, another GMS/P, another trooper, and the EW/C2 figure. All for the princely sum of £8!

Anyway, that all adds up to a platoon of 20 soldiers in light powered armour (rigid composite plates over a flexible powered nano-fibre carbon-weave bodysuit, giving full NNBC* protection and strength enhancement). I'm tempted to add a grav tank, if I can find a decent enough one, and some 'heavy' powered armour troopers. We shall see what Salute! 2010 brings.

Olley Painting Points:

This Week: 4
2009 Total: 47

* NNBC - Nanonic, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical warfare

Shalom, Punk!

Still no lead, but I'm going to buy one this weekend if I can't find it tonight.

Today I ignored my Goliaths and painted up three more Greater Israeli Army troops - a riflewoman, sniper, and Guided Missile System - Portable (GMS-P) trooper. Their camo scheme looks a little like this:

Which is an Armja Krajowa home-made armoured car. I've altered it quite considerably, using a lighter brown and with less squiggling, but their vehicles will pretty much match this exactly.

Last night, while my son was sleeping next to me on the sofa (he's got a bad cold and won't really go to sleep without Daddy cuddles which is quite nice but shatteringly tiring) at 4am, I wrote up a set of quick-play rules (60s Spy Skirmish) for the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ranges of Copplestone Castings and Artizan Designs.

I have a few ideas for games using these rules and figures, and the inspiration mainly comes from playing No-One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M's Way, which is an utterly excellent PC game and one which, together with No-One Lives Forever, should be purchased and played at once. Both take equal top spot in my Best First-Person Shooter of All Time ranking.

Olley Painting Points:

This Week: 16
2009 Total: 39

Over 500 views! Oh, and some painting...

Wow! Over 500 views of my 'umble 'log already? I'm flattered - thank you. You push me to paint, which can only be a good thing. Although... more comments would be greatly received if my esteemed readers have the time!

Wot I did Today:

Firstly, I painted up a Greater Israeli Army soldier in light powered armour - aka a GZG New Israeli - for my 'Space 2200' project (which in turn feeds out from my EuroFed Riot project). He looks rather snazzy even if I do say so myself, in grey and brown armour with a black ceramic composite bullpup airburst over-under gauss rifle*, and dark green visor. I kept insignia to a minimum - blue Star of David on the left pauldron, black two-forked lightning strike on the right, name and blood group on the left breast.

More of them to come - he was quick to paint up and looks suitably professional.

Then I started on my Goliath Gang boss, who has fetching pink-purple-blue tartan trousers, green work boots, and a fashionable rainbow mohawk (not to mention a ruddy great big pistol). In the same vein, I named my other Juve: Nik Puke.

In order to whet your appetites for the eventual pictures...


National Bolshevik Republic forward observation team. Note the low-tech level of their equipment; the NBR army is so large that the elite 'Assault Guard' units with powered armour are both rare and still outnumber most other armies. The NBR uses soldiers like these to garrison their colonies.


'Force Generica' - this lot can represent any mid-tech colonial defence force; in this case they could be the troopers from the Free Colony World of Olor.

Tomorrow, I hope to finish the Boss and the rest of the first GIA fireteam (2x inf, 1x sniper, 1x GMS-P).

Olley Painting Points:

This Week: 13
2009 Total: 36

* 10mm gauss rifle with integral 15mm variable-yield HE 'metal storm' UGL.