Painted Infantry, vehicles, and the first Bolt action fight!

NATO vs. Neo Soviet game, Terrain in Progress, and more pictures...

So i had my first run through game with my friend Steve Thrift at my local shop yesterday afternoon, and it went very well. Though we had to end it early since he had to leave for a cookout, we managed to get a few turns in, revise a bit of the rules, and get some new ideas onto paper for an update. Here are a few pics of the battle, and please forgive some of the unpainted stuff, i'm trying as fast as i can to get it all done!

The Settlement is fought over by mechanized infantry.

Nato Infantry in Hard cover confronting their Soviet counterparts, taking hits!

Soviet infantry takes up postion in the woodline, supported by their  BTR 100 APC and a Light Assault walker on overwatch.

Leopard 3 and a Warrior III IFV move into the settlement.

Sci Fi Buildings from Pegasus Hobbies Platformer Kits

When i was at Gencon this year, i took a break from my table to hit up the Warstore and to see if i could pick up a few things...of course i came back with 5 sets of the Pegasus Hobbies kits. I wound up getting 3 Platformer kits, the Chemical plant, and the power plant kit, all of which are fantastic for building custom terrain for 15mm or 25mm terrain. Here are a few of the buildings i have put together. Most of these should be painted so when i get around to them! I will also be looking into Lowes Electrical box's and Corsec Engineering doors and windows for quick buildings. Do you guys have any suggestions, or what do you favor most?

Nato Infantry and Warrior III IFV, Combat Walkers, and a Soviet T64 with ERA armor...

Had alot of fun painting up 2 squads of the NATO infantry, and the HQ, and i dry-brushed the walkers. To me they look a bit like the front of the Apache gunship, and so i went for a more basic paint scheme on them. I'm not sure how i want to base these figures though.

NATO infantry (By Rebel Minis) and Antocinitos Workshop's APC comparison

Soviet Light and Heavy walkers, supported by a T64

Allied Walkers

Light walker and infantry comparison

Back of the T64

Detail of NATO infantrymen...still have to base them with grass, etc.

Rebel minis walker back. I Love Rebel Minis, but some of their resin sculpts aren't as clean as they should be.

More to come!

~Jared

NATO Vehicle Pics
So i snapped a few pics of the Leopard 3 heavy tanks, the Warrior III IFV's and the ARV scout cars. I'm not too fond of the light but i have a bunch of errands to run so i basically threw them on the board so i could upload them quickly! I'm also working on the Neo soviet stuff which is nearing completion, but still needs detailing and drybrushing, and a bit of inking.

Camouflage Scheme and painting Technique
I went with the American woodland camo for the vehicles, which i thought added to the Fulda Gap, Soviet threat type of feel. I primed the vehicles with Flames of Wars Soviet Armor Primer, and then used Vermin brown and Vallejo's Black for the camouflage blotches on each of the vehicles. I tried to keep the small enough to be interesting, and not large enought o be too generalized. After that, i painted on Didi's wonder wash (Excellent stuff!) and reapplied as necessary. This worked pretty well, after which drybrushed each of the vehicles with Vallejo's Soviet uniform camouflage, and then Vallejo's Kacki. After this was done, i added in the details for scoped, lights, view ports, etc, and then added black ink in to the spots where i thought needed more punch.

A word on Antenocitis Workshop vehicles
So i love the vehicles from Antenocitis Workshop, but they area  bit of a bitch to paint if you don't clean them very well. I thought rinsing them in soap and water, and then bathing them in baby powder would do the trick, but apparently not for all. See they ship with a degreaser that's still on the vehicle from the molding process and if you dont get this off, it will severely interfere with your priming and painting by flaking off and generally being a pain in the ass. While i will seal these vehicles with Matte Medium or workable fixative  it will probably be a problem for a long time. Just a warning, excellent models, but clean them very well!!!

Hope you like, i'll be back with some more pics soon, and the Soviet stuff as well.
~Jared

Update on NATO, Bolt Action, life, etc....

Life, what a bitch.

Sorry for the long delay, its been a pretty insane week and a half. From being bombarded with professional work to my dad being in and out of the hospital, its just been nuts. Thankfully i had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my girlfriend and her family, and now things have settled down a bit:. I hope everybody had a good Turkeyday as well! 

Vehicles almost Complete

Anyway, I've been painting like mad, and have my NATO vehicles almost finished, with a bunch of the Soviet Walkers and Light Walkers almost ready as well. Just have to paint on numbers, etc, and they will be finished up. I'll have pics for you guys tomorrow to see what I've come up with! 

Sci FI Bolt Action Rules Mod

Also, here are the Bolt action mod rules for you to take a look at and peruse, i'm sure they aren't perfect, and i think i may have to adjust the points, but comment are certainly welcome. I think when i am finished with NATO and the Neo-Soviets, i will work on a few other factions, probably one incorporating hover vehicles, and more heavily armed cyborg/robotic infantry. 

Check out the Rules here. I've compiled them into a PDF for viewing, any comments are welcome.

http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?id=5096415&da=y

Micropanzer Conceptual Work 

In other news, Jason from Micropanzer recently contacted me again about some new work he wants me on, and i have started painting up the pencil concepts I've done for him in the past. I will be working on some new stuff soon i believe, but in the meantime he wants pretty much all of the Conceptual stuff painted and colored (which is like 100 pieces), so i will be quite busy in the coming months! 

Here is the first of many: Valkyur Assault Raven

Walkers and infantry incoming! 

Since I'm doing so much work for Jason and we're good buddies, he's shipping me a whole hell of alot of minis that i always wanted to get my hands on. My favorite figure is the Stomper bot that i designed, its a fantastic looking mini, and he did it total justice, as well as the smaller assault bots:) As i mentioned above, i want the new factions i design to be a bit more high tech than the NATO and Soviets, so i think these figures will feature prominently.

Here are my conceptual pencils for them if you haven't seen them already.

So just a short and sweet update, more coming tomorrow!

~Jared

Neo Soviets and Scifi Bolt Action rules mod.

Intro (Short)
So i've made a blog about my 15mm wargaming exploits finally, and really my first active blog. I've been an avid Flames of War player (Soviet and German), but i've been getting burnt out with all the new lists and special rules, and so i've taken a bit of a hiatus (10 stands of Fearless Veteran infantry with 2 bazookas, Gamon bombs, and Mission tactics for 260 points....really?). Since i have strayed I've always wanted to do some 15mm scifi. I think its one of the best sizes out there for price and wargaming flexibility, and there are a great many manufacturers that you can mix and match to create your own unique system and forces. Its also interesting since i have been the conceptual illustrator for a number of these companies (Notably almost all of the Micropanzer figure range among others), and holding the soldiers and tanks that you have designed in your hand is also quite awesome:)

NATO vs. Soviets, the good old days...
My first project on here is my first foray into 15mm scifi, and i had the idea of doing a Nato vs. Neo Soviet theme, about 30-40 years in the future. As a big history buff (and a lover of the book Red Storm Rising and Red Army), i have found this time almost more interesting than WW2, and for a scifi setting, perfectly believable and adaptable. With figures chosen, its always hard to find a ruleset thats free enought o let people choose their own forces and build something unique. Tomorrow's War is a good system, but not open ended, while Gruntz is interesting but requires too much rolling, math, and limited infantry effectiveness for my taste. For the rules i have adapted the excellent Bolt Action rules for use, as it lends itself very well for modification and is an elegant and excellent system to wargame in. For figures, i'm using a several different manufactures to make up both factions, and i've fianlly been able to paint up the Soviet APC's and scout cars for use.

Figures:
So i have picked and chosen from different manufacturers what models i would use for the projects and settled on a few i'll describe here briefly.

NATO
For my NATO tanks, i ordered a few of the Medium Tanks from Khurasan's 15mm range, as these looked advanced and angular enough to be a sort of Leopard and M1 mashup. I am using them as fictional Leopard 3's, and Khurasan's Superheavy tank as an advanced M4 Abrams (when i get a chance to order it).

Here are some picks of the Medium NATO tank next to the Arsenal M T64 with KonTact armor...A bit of a size difference, but the Leopard 3 will be represented as a Heavy tank, and the T64 as a medium tank with the according points difference in game.

I picked up a few T64 with ERA from Arsenal M (expensive resin 1/87 scale german kits) for my soviet armor of the future as the T64's bulk and mass of armor plates fitted itself well to the Soviet equipment of the future. In game, i have made them medium tanks, just bairly able to keep up with the technology of the Western powers, but still pretty deadly en masse. They were a huge pain in the butt to put together and a bit brittle (and expensive, 28.00$ apiece) but they are a perfect size and shape.

For APCs and scout cars, i went to Antenocitis Worshop for their excellent resin kits here:
http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/governance-of-technology/g-o-t-vehicles-15mm.html

They are cheaper the more you buy and are of superior quality to anything 15mm i have picked up thus far!
I used the Hunchback APC for the soviets due to its rounded shape, and the andgular Kabardin for its resemblance to our US Stryker. I also picked up Rebel minis Mrap scout car for the NATO's recon element as it looks alike a more advanced and heavily armored Humvee. 

For NATO infantry, i picked up the Earth Defense forces from Rebels minis, and the Neo soviet infantry from Armies Army here:
http://armiesarmy.blogspot.com/

Here is a quick shot of some of my finished stuff-

Painting Technique:
I started by priming the minis with Flames of War Soviet Armor color, which is an interesting green. After that, i painted on a standardRrussian Camoflauge scheme, though i had to experiment with the flat tan that they use to get it right and not too bright. my first attempt was with ivory, which made the vehicles look like they had a winter camo on them which i was unsatisfied with, so i went back over with an armor grey. After the base coat camouflage, it was time for inking. Black ink, then dry, then paint back in what needs to be emboldened, and then dry brush to highlight. Took alot long than expected due to the washes...UGH!

Games Workshop ink SUCKS:
I don't know about you, but i have found that GW inks and washes are now complete garbage, especially the Nuln Oil, which instead of settling in the cracks and drying nice and dark, it smothers the whole model and makes it grey. At first i thought this was due to the primers that i used, but as i have used two different primers from two different companies, BOTH with the same effect, its led me to believe that GW's switch from their previous paint line has had some negative impacts. Has anyone else had this problem? Bring back Badab Black please!


First Results- Soviet Mechanized Infantry APCs and BDR 90 scout cars.
Here are some pics of my APCs and scout cars finished.

Detail:

Scout car:

Scout car in woods!

Bolt action Scifi Mod rules:
I'm working off the base rules right now to cover all the elements of the future, and tweaking them as they go along. Some examples of the stuff i am adding to the game are...

-AMS System for vehicles (Anti Missile System): On a 4+ negates any missile hit shot against it just like a Shurtzen save in FOW. 

-No Shaped Charge rule: So infantry will be able to fire AT assets easier and hit more.

-Walkers: Combat walkers move as infantry, and are comparatively lightly armored, but can utilize some heavy weapons making them deadly against both infantry and tanks.

-All infantry are killed starting on a 3+ instead of a 4+, as this leaves room for armor and heavy armor, as well as Veterans.

When i'm finished, i'll upload my NATO and Neo Soviet lists for people to check out:)


For now, i think that's enough! Thanks for reading!
~Jared