sci-fi – Addicted to Lead

15mm GZG Colonial Defense Force review and painting.

Ground Zero Games makes a well fleshed out 15mm line of Colonial Defense Force troops including heavy weapons and both helmeted and soft capped versions of most sculpts. Lightly armored and armed with basic weapons these will fill the role of backwater or reserve troops fantastically.

The line includes the standard packs of riflemen, SAWs, snipers and shoulder fired rockets, command and coms, and several heavy weapons with generic crews that could be swapped into any of the other heavy weapons GZG makes. There are also figures with smaller assault weapons and shotguns, suitable for close quarters combat, horse mounted scouts, and a motorcycle mounted trooper.

Local defense troops set up a roadblock.

Review: Earth Force Homeguard from Rebel Minis.

While organizing my 15mm figures I came across my Rebel Minis Earth Forces Homeguard figures. Aside from the bases needing to be finished it seems I never painted up any NCOs or officers. Thankfully I had several packs of figures still sealed up so I got to painting! These figures are part of the Earth Force range which consists of the Homeguard in open helmets and the Marines in closed helmets but fairly identical kits and weapons. The marines have a tripod mounted gun and crew that with a head swap could serve with the homeguard.

Painting progress for the week of August 2nd.

This was a rough week. Storms, power outages, sick family, construction at our apartment. I got done as much as I thought I was going to and then some, but it was more like mechanical movements than an escape and meditation. This coming week isn’t looking much better, but I want to play around with video and YouTube a little more so I’m keeping the painting expectations down.

I’ve been on a 6mm kick for some reason. I’ve rarely played any 6mm but they’re quick to knock out and cheap to buy so in the scheme of things it’s cheaper than a movie…

GZG 25mm Colonial Militia.

With my solo campaign centering around the invasion of a newly colonized planet I wanted to have some believable militia/national guard. Thankfully GZG has a great line that fits in with my existing 25mm collection.

The Colonial Milita could easily double as corporate security if you leave out the old veterans and crazy hair.

GZG 25mm Partisans/resistance fighters

I picked up a bunch of Ground Zero Games’ 25mm armed civilians from their lines to supplement the Stargrunt Colonial Militia. I’m slowly working my way through them as I batch paint several armies. The first set that I finished are the Partisans, a set of three armed civilians that I’ve done up as two riflemen and one squad support weapon.

SL-25 Partisans/resistance fighters pack

Painting scheme for GZG 25mm ESU Heavy infantry.

In an effort to stop losing my painting recipes I’m going to start posting them here!

Week of June 28th, great progress for the start of July.

I set out this past week to finish off two forces, and start two more. I had the last of my ESU naval troops to finish up in their urban camo, and the last six destroyers for my Kra’Vak fleet that I accidentally washed off the red ink from. I also wanted to start my 15mm GZG Colonial Militia troops and the 15mm murder robots from The Scene that I had to strip the poor paint jobs off of and rebase.

I wanted to paint the robots a metallic red. After seeing a couple of videos on YouTube out maxing your own metallic pants I gave it a try. Unfortunately the robots turned out a pink Pepto-Bismol-ish color that I was most definitely not pleased with. So I took this as an opportunity to test a couple things out since I couldn’t find a metallic red paint I was satisfied with. We’ll see how it turns out and I’ll strip them again and use the best method.

June 21st, a week of new techniques and mistakes…

This past week wraps up a very productive month of June, I’ve been tracking my progress throughout the year on my painting log page here.

I’ve been working on my Full Thrust fleets and one of the fleets I’ve picked up in trade and on Ebay is a fairly large Kra’Vak fleet. Being an alien warrior race I wanted to emphasize their zeal and lust for battle with some garish paint jobs. I’ve been contemplating using inks through my airbrush for awhile now and I just got my hands on a Badger Renegade Krome .21mm airbrush so it was the perfect time. I chose a lime green and bright red paint scheme, with the red being airbrushed ink over a white ink base. I was satisfied with my first attempts and continued onto the wash. Well that is when I discovered that the ink will just reactivate and run unless you seal it before washing. Thankfully I only had to strip six destroyers and redo them. Seven other capital ships got finished this week.

An aging Kra’Vak battlecruiser task force.

Peoples Liberation Army. First Glory War solo campaign.

The First Glory War commences as the Peoples Republic of China lands troops on Glory in a bid to cement their claim on the newly settled garden world. A company worth of light mechanized troops, plus logistical support, lands near what will eventually become the Republic of Arden. The forces were hastily assembled from the 11th Stellar Intervention Division which had just stood down from a seven year long suppression of a rebellion on their colony world Zhuang. Although the war on Glory was short and only included a handfull of major actions it did see the first use of Armored Fighting Suits in the last days of the war.

Progress for the week of June 7th.

Well this is really about a months worth of progress it seems. The ‘Rona caught up and some other family crisis’s slowed me down for a couple weeks. I was making some slow progress but I didn’t finish anything until this past week where I made some good progress.

I finished off ten more of Rebel Miniatures Earth Force Home Guard troops, leaving only about 15 more before I’m finished with that particular lead pile and move on to the Rebel Minis Titan Marines.