Monthly Archives: April 2013

Barbed Wire Barriers

I made some barbed wire barriers, and it was pretty easy.

I used:

  • toothpicks – from my local grocery store
  • steel wire – from my local hardware store
  • rectangular wooden bases – from my local craft store
  • super glue / paint / basing material – the usual stuff

in_production

Take a 3 foot long piece of wire, and fold it in half around a pen or pencil.  Hold both parts of the wire and spin the pen in such a way that one strand wraps around the other strand.  So one stays straight while the other wraps around it.  When this is done, cut the loose ends off, and wrap the whole thing around the pen to make the spiral shape shown above.

Cut 3 sections of toothpick.  I cut the tapered ends off and kept the middle part.  Wire cutters work fine for this.  Take 3 sections and glue them to make the “tank trap” shape show in the picture above.

Glue 2 of the tank traps to each base.  Prime and paint the base and tank traps.  Put your basing material on the base.

Once the whole thing is painted and based, glue on the barbed wire.  Paint some rust / blood on it.

 

wargame barbed wire

There ya go. Cheap and easy.  Fairly quick, too.

I use these to play Gruntz, and I make them impassable to vehicles, and infantry has to stop, and take an extra action to cross them.

Khurasan’s 15mm Scientists

I’m still on a “fun painting” kick while I wait for my bases to arrive for my GZG Spider Drones.  I just finished Khurasan’s 15mm Scientists.  They are a pack of 4, each in a different pose, but I only painted 3 of them, because the 4th pose is a dead one lying on the ground, and it didn’t really interest me.

By “fun painting” I mean I don’t really have a use in mind for these figures.  They could be the objective in a game of Gruntz, I supposed – rescue the scientists.  But I’m just painting them for fun, not for a specific game or purpose.

Khurasan_15mm_Scientists_ready_for_primer

All cleaned up and attached to the stick with poster tack.  There was very little flash or mold lines to clean.

 

Khurasan_15mm_Scientists_painted_attached_to_base

Painting is done and they are superglued to the wooded base.  That’s a 0.8mm wooden base, 20mm in diameter, with a magnet stuck to the bottom of it.  Both the base and the magnet are from Litko.net.

The feet on the two male figures are really small.  It’s going to be difficult to not cover them in the next step.

 

Khurasan_15mm_Scientists_base_spackled

I used vinyl spackling mixed with a little water to cover the bases.  It applies easily with a brush.  In the past I’ve also mixed it with sand and very small rocks to make it bumpy, but in this case I wanted it smooth.

 

Khurasan_15mm_Scientists_base_painted

I gave that about 2 hours to dry and then I painted it brown, and the edge black.

 

Khurasan's 15mm Scientists

I glued on some static grass, and they are done.  WIth the grass, it doesn’t really matter that their feet are so small, they are hidden in the grass, anyway.

 

Khurasan_15mm_Scientists_complete_2 Khurasan_15mm_Scientists_complete_3 Khurasan's 15mm Scientists

I gave the guy on the left a pink shirt, because he reminds me of my friend Derrick, and Derrick often wears pink shirts.  The bald guy on the right just makes me laugh.  I imagine him totally out of breath, scared shitless from the zombies chasing him, really wishing he was in better shape.  Also, his glasses are broken so he can’t see very well.  Poor guy.  He’s going to be zombie chow very soon.

Mantic’s Deadzone Kickstarter Reaches Funding Goal In 33 Minutes

Mantic’s Kickstarter for their new game, Deadzone reached it’s goal of $50,000 in just 33 minutes, and is now at over $178,000.  Mantic posted:

Well, we’d hoped Deadzone might be popular (with such beautiful scenery and gorgeous miniatures, we could only hope!) – but seriously… hitting our goal in 33 mins? Absurd!!

The game looks great, and follows their critically acclaimed Dreadball, which was one of the more successful Kickstarters last year.

I’m in.

This Is What $85 Buys You In 15mm Sci-Fi

One of the great things about 15mm Sci-Fi minis is that they are so inexpensive.  An infantry figure costs around 60 cents. A tank or wheeled vehicle around $11.  Compared to some company’s 28mm figs, that is super cheap.

Here’s what $85 buys you:

full_frontal

This is my 15mm Sci-Fi army, which can  be used to play Gruntz, Tomorrow’s War, Stargrunt II, FUBAR, etc. I ordered from Ground Zero Games in the UK  and Rebel Miniatures in the USA. Total cost was $85 US, not including shipping or tax. 65 infantry, 4 big guns, and 5 wheeled vehicles.

 

full_off_center

The big list:

— Vehicles: —

Right side

  • GZG V15-42A Bulldog 4-wheel HMTV closed-back Troop Carrier version
  • GZG V15-39A Bobcat 4-wheel HMLCV (High Mobility Light Combat Vehicle) with autocannon turret

Left Side

  • GZG V15-42B Bulldog 4-wheel HMTV closed-back Command Post version (with left over Rebel Mini’s gun)
  • GZG V15-41A Bulldog 4-wheel HMTV (High Mobility Transport Vehicle), open, with tribarrel autocannon mount (+ crew) (I didn’t use the crew)

Center

  • Rebel Minis RMEFG1 Earth Force ATV Buggy.

— Big Guns: —

Right side:

  • GZG V15-25A GAWP – Groundmount Autonomous Weapons Platform with Rotary Cannon

Left side:

  • GZG V15-73A Heavy Autocannon (with NAC gunner)

— Troops: —

Black “Command” and Black 1:

  • GZG SG15-SFE5 Assault Team (human troops in fatigues) – 4 character figures and four line grunts

Black 3 & 4:

  • GZG SG15-F03 FSE POWER ARMOUR

Black 2 & 5

  • GZG SG15-E03 ESU POWER ARMOUR

Green 3 & 4:

  • GZG SG15-A23 NAC Power Armour & SG15-A21 NAC Assault Power Armour pack A

Green “Command”, 1 & 2:

  • Rebel Minis MAEF1 The Earth Force Marines Infantry Pack

full_off_center_lower full_side wheeled_from_side wheeled_and_plants command_flag sunglasses_in_center armor_manned_guns_and_buggy

auto_guns

in_the_tin

 

All 65 troops fit in a cookie tin.  Magnetic bases keep them in place.

Khurasan’s Little Green Imperialist Warriors

Little green men.  The staple of 50’s Sci-Fi.  I was browsing Khurasan’s 15mm Sci-Fi pages when I happened across them, and I knew right away they’d be fun to paint.  I think that’s an important quality in miniatures – fun to paint.  The order I placed at Khurasan that day was all “fun to paint” minis.  Nothing for my armies, nothing I even had an intended use for, but just stuff that would be fun.  Fleeing scientists, women with big (ahem) guns, aliens, predators, hill people.  Fun stuff.

Khurasan_PLA-12_Little_Green_Imperialist_Warriors_raw

Cleaned up and ready for primer.  They were pretty clean already, it only took a few minutes to clean the minor flash and mold lines.  Khurasan is pretty good about that stuff.

 

15mm Little Green Imperialist Warriors PLA-12

Painted and based.  If you look close, you can see their tiny little faces are actually way down at the bottom of their giant heads.

 

15mm Little Green Imperialist Warriors PLA-12

I decided to go with a “Martian soil” look for the base.

 

Khurasan_PLA-12_Little_Green_Imperialist_Warriors_group_top Khurasan_PLA-12_Little_Green_Imperialist_Warriors_single_rear

Is it weird that I think their little alien butts are kinda cute?

Yeah, that’s weird.  Forget I said anything.

 

Khurasan_PLA-12_Little_Green_Imperialist_Warriors_group_height

So, I’m painting then, and I’m thinking “why am I so sloppy with these details?” Then I realize, these guys are tiny.

 

15mm Little Green Imperialist Warriors PLA-12 size comparison with GZG and Rebel Miniatures

Here’s a size comparison with a GZG power armor and a Rebel Mini’s Earth Force Marine.

I had fun painting these guys.  I know they are mean little bastards that would shoot me on sight, but they are just so darned cute, with their little blue suits and white shoes.  Like little kids paying sailor.

 

Ok, maybe I’m reading too much into this.  🙂