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.
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.
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.
This week was mostly prepping Full Thrust and 25mm Stargrunt minis, although I did knock off 10 more colonial militia figures.
The big project for this week was two old school Ground Zero Games Neu Swabian League Der Theuerdank carriers. These humongous pieces of lead were a huge pain in the ass. I got them off of Ebay and they were poorly assembled and filled with putty that didn’t want to come off even in he ultrasonic cleaner. So after several weeks in the ultrasonic cleaner and a couple of times grinding away with a Dremel they were finally ready to be assembled. Unfortunately I think these were some of the last model out of the molds before they were retired, because they’re full of casting flaws and do not fit well together. I have a third one of these that I will be turning into a dreadnought that is infinitely better cast and looks like it will be pretty straight forward to assemble, although to the weight it will still be getting a couple of pins and some putty
I got 10 more Colonial Militia done as I mentioned, including some NCOs which I mistakenly didn’t get painted in the last batch. All three are characters, fitting for militia. One has an orange Mohawk, one is an old man smoking a pipe, and the third is a pot bellied cigar smoking guy. Better photos will follow once I set up my photo tent again.
I prepped a bunch more Stargrunt figs, putting them on bases, evening the tabs out with putty, putting on my basing paste. Doesn’t make for great photos but it’s the dirty work that has to get done.
There’s ten more each of the Colonial Militia (including three primed but not painted), nine more ESU troopers, and twenty one OUDF troops who will be used as a mercenary company in my solo games.
I’ve also been working on figuring out how to mount my Full Thrust ships, preferably on removable stands. I think I’ve finally got something figured out that will work using brass rod and jewelry barrel clasps.
I’m hoping to finish up the colonists and get some work done on my Kravak fleet for Full thrust this coming week.
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.
After a failed legal bid before the Organization of Progressive States to claim discovery of the garden planet Glory, the People’s Republic of China launches a “Liberation Fleet” and starts the first extra-solar system military action in human history. Titan Interplanetary corporate employees and the newly settled colonists leasing land in what will eventually become The Republic of Arden brace themselves for combat. The spark of war ignites as a platoon of PLA troops pushes through Bois de l’écart Foix, a logging encampment set in the Foix Gap. The settlers construct a hasty defense and prepare to repel the PLA troops.
Part of the collection of Ground Zero Games Stargrunt figures I picked up included a platoon of Eurasian Solar Union ‘Naval’ figures. These come in two uniforms, one with helmets and hard chest armor and a smaller selection with the same uniforms and added ‘cold weather capes’. I’ve decided to use these as my Democratic Peoples Republic of Glory regular troops and the cold weather capes as stealth camo capes acquired through the backing of China late in the Second Glory War.
The sculpts were done by Kev White and hold up very well for their age. I ordered some extras from Ground Zero Games recently and the casts are just as clean as the 20 year old ones I have. They are full of sharp details and are consistent in size with the rest of the Stargrunt line and with the WEG Star Wars figures I have.
This week was a good week, with a wide range of progress. I’ve tackled miniatures, work projects, block progress and YouTube progress, although I’ve slipped in my Instagram posting mostly because of the work project.
I finished up 10 Terminator Genisys resistance fighters in a similar urban camo paint scheme that I’ve been working on for the GZG figures. I’m not entirely satisfied with the paint jobs but it pulled together a little more after the ink was so I’m going to call them done and put them in the storage box. They’re just going to get cut down in droves by the terminators anyways.
The week started off well, adjusig my test paint scheme on my 25mm GZG ESU naval troops and finishing the figures I had primed up. There is a squad left in ‘cold weather capes’ that I need to decide how to make up with stealth camo cloaks. In the Tomorrows War setting the Chinese PLA has access to personal stealth technology so I just need to figure out how to model that on the cloaks.
The beginning of April hit me with some hobby ADD. I started the week working on some more Eisenkern, a third squad plus a command element to finish up a platoon. That didn’t last long though! I also have a longish term project of finishing the basing on three platoons of 25mm GZG figures that wasn’t even touched.
