Tag Archives: Rebel Minis

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.

Identifying Squads with Magnet Attached Flags

Before I started this blog, I used Imgur.com to post my projects – pictures with brief captions.  There are several albums over there that I’ll be “porting” over to this blog, a kind of catching up when I don’t have a current project to report.

Right now I’m in the middle of painting 12 of GZG’s Spider Drones, and it’s taking a bit longer than I thought, plus the bases for them are on order, so it will probably be another week before I can show you the results of that.  In the meantime, here’s “Magnet Flags” :

—-

One of the things I love about 15mm Sci-Fi wargames is how generic everything is.  This means my figures have multiple uses.  Not only can I use them for multiple rulesets, but I can split my force in two for a smaller battle with just my own figures, or use the whole army against someone else’s army, or use them for RPGs like Traveller or Eclipse Phase.

Because of this, I need to keep my forces flexible.  In a game like Gruntz, it’s convenient to identify the squad leader, and, by extension, the squad. In one game, a particular figure might be a squad leader, in another, just a grunt.  To facilitate this flexibility, I use magnets on the base of certain figures to attach a flag that identifies the squad.

package

I bought a magnet starter kit. It comes with 50 magnets and the drill bit for $8.99 at TheWarStore.com

 

base

I added the magnet to the mini’s base. I drilled out the plaster part of the base and super-glued the magnet in. Make sure you have the same polarity on all your bases.

 

flag

Then I glued a magnet to a toothpick flagpole. I used epoxy to glue the magnet, because the superglue didn’t hold. Make sure you have the right polarity, or the magnet will not stick to the base magnet.

 

flag_on_base

And here’s the result.

 

strength

It’s a pretty strong hold.  As you can see, you can pick the mini up by the flag with no problem.

 

flags

Here’s the flags in progress.  I have black and green flags for when I want to divide my minis into two forces.

Thanks for reading!

How I Got Into Wargaming (Again)

I’m somewhat new to miniature wargaming. I say “somewhat” because I dabbled in wargaming as a teen in the 1980’s, and I am only now getting back to it. (That’s the “Again” part of the title). As you can imagine, things have changed a lot since then.

I read a lot of Sci-Fi, and I was working my way through David Webber’s Honor Harrington series, which contains a crap-load of space battles. I thought that might be a fun genre for a computer game. I was searching the web for a good computer space battle game, and not having a whole lot of luck, when I came across the rules for Full Thrust.

Wow, I thought. Space battle miniatures. Sounds cool. I bought Ground Zero Game’s Full Thrust Intro Fleet Double – 2 sets of 8 ships, from different factions. I painted them and played a few games with a friend. Super fun.

That led to 15mm Sci-Fi ground combat. I read the free Stargrunt II rules, and heard a lot about Gruntz, and ended up buying that and getting a bunch of minis from GZG, Rebel Miniatures and Khurasan.

Now I’m painting up a storm, making terrain, etc.

Here’s the very first 15mm Sci-Fi I ever painted, before and after.  These were painted in February, 2013.

GZG and Rebel Mini's size comparison GZG and Rebel Mini's size comparison

So, I guess you can blame David Webber for writing those books, and my co-worker Matt who turned me on to them, for getting me back into miniature wargaming after all these years. 🙂