Sci fi trees

Well, to pilfer from Radiohead, Fake Plastic Trees, loads of 'em (27 actually). The Bad Squiddo Ghost of Gaia is for scale purposes.

There isn't much to say about them. They are disassembled IKEA plastic plants stuck onto MDF bases with blobs of green stuff, coated in ballast and given a blast of varnish to fix the ballast in place.

I think I may have to weigh the bases down, probably with metal washers or something, but I think they'll do for science fiction landscapes on distant planets.

The backdrop is one of the Jon Hodgson Handiwork Games sci fi ones.

The Battlezone scatter stuff....

 .... and this really is the last of it!

Below is a big piece of Battlezone pipework, which will fit in anywhere, seeing as one end rises from below ground and the other end has a couple of closures. The piece at the back is a length of 2cm plastic plumbing pipe stuck on a couple of little legs capped shut at one end and with a connecting piece at the other. It is designed to come out of the side of a building. Why might that be? Who cares, but it'll look good.

Here are a couple of large generators with attached pipework. These will fit in anywhere, ideally with a building at the end of the pipes.

There is also a platform made up from a few odds and ends and a pallet of some kind of cargo.

Finally, I've made a few barricades/roadblocks from a few odds and ends of doors and wall sections, held up with braces. These are bound to be useful. Everyone and everything needs to hide or shelter from getting shot at. In all of these pieces, I've chosen a grimdark colour palette, especially for the generators. Maybe how they work is an obscure and arcane secret, but so long as the initiates/operators chant the correct prayers the things will keep on generating whatever they generate?

Once again, my Bad Squiddo Ghost of Gaia is here to provide a sense of scale.

So, that's it for the Battlezone stuff.

Mantic Battlezone sci fi buildings

Ages ago at the club's tabletop sale, I bought a big box of Mantic Battlezone plastic buildings, which I never got round to assembling until now. Here are the first few pieces. Scroll down to see them all.

The Bad Squiddo Ghost of Gaia is for scale purposes.

I'm showing two views of this final piece for today. This is because there is some nice detail on in interior. The down pipe in the interior photo isn't Mantic. It is a piece of 2cm diameter plastic plumbing pipe cut to fit.

I have to say that the separate components are tricky to put together and I eventually resorted to using model glue to ensure a nice strong bond. I didn't want my buildings coming apart in gaming use. In hindsight, I should have used greenstuff or Milliput to fill the more obvious gaps, but it is too late now.

Having said that, I am really pleased with the painted and based results. These pieces could be used in so many settings; gang warfare in the depths of a hive city, scavenging the remains of an abandoned mining base on a forgotten planet, post-apocalyptic survival against mutant or alien hordes, Games set in a wretched hive of scum and villainy or just on a battlefield between implacable enemies. The possibilities are endless.

I decided to go for a grimdark, worn-out and run-down feel to everything. That kind of look and feel appeals to me when it comes to science fiction gaming. There is plenty of rust on the walls, grimy floors and a general appearance of a civilisation fallen on hard times or outposts on hostile planets or moons.

I've finished everything off - a couple of weeks of hard slog, I have to say, and I'll post everything over the next week or so. 

I am planning to use some of these pieces with my Jon Hodgson sci fi backdrops to create some nice little dioramas. They will obviously have lots of uses in Xenos Rampant and with my own Reivers Of The Outer Rim rules, which I am currently planning to simplify and re-write.

Bad Squiddo Ghosts of Gaia scavenger gang

 I painted these seven figures in tandem with the ATS women I posted a few days ago. Scroll down to see them all.

First, three characters, a strange alien psyker who wandered in from the wastelands, the gang's leader in the middle and, on the right, the leader's trusted advisor and mentor.

Here are the same figures from behind.

Next, in front and rear views, we have the rest of the gang. First a close combat expert with a chainsaw weapon and a ganger with a grenade launcher.

And finally, two basic shooty gangers;

I think that as a basic gang it is a bit understrength, so I see these additional figures being part of the fun. I am sure a big armoured critter and a couple of crude electronic cattle prods will come in handy.

As it says in the title, these are all Bad Squiddo Ghosts of Gaia minis, and very fine they are too. I really cannot heap enough praise on this range. They are full of character, wonderfully sculpted and really well cast too.

I see these as being perfect for Stargrave, as well as my own ROTOR rules, plus almost anything else with a Sci Fi skirmish theme, such as Necromunda.

Taking the post-apocalyptic dog for a walk

 I've not really had the painting mojo for a while. I keep starting things and then abandoning them either once they are undercoated or part way through painting them.

However, I knew I had to do something about this sorry state of affairs, so I got to work on a few things I got for Christmas. 

These are a set from the Bad Squiddo Ghosts of Gaia range and they are listed as "Wrenchmouth and handlers" but I prefer to think of them as two residents of the post-apocalypse taking their dog for a walk. I like the cute little puppy the figure on the left is holding up. Clealy the little 'un hasn't had its injections yet.

Here they are again, on their way back from the park.

These figures are the usual fabulousness that we have come to expect from Annie's sculptors and casters and they really are very nice minis to paint.

I shall be finding a use for them in all sorts of science fiction games, including my own ROTOR skirmish rules, once we are actually allowed to meet up and play with our toys again.

I have a few more figures primed and waiting for a brush session, so hopefully I'll have something ready to post in a day or two.

I think the key to getting stuff finished at the moment is just painting something I like, rather than painting for a specific project.

OK, so what exactly have I been doing since my last post back in December?

Well, we did have the Christmas festivities, so I will own up to eating and drinking too much 😋 and watching a lot of stuff on Netflix, Prime and the actual telly channels.

I got some wargaming-related presents too; the second edition of the Frostgrave rules, some Artizan 28mm Wild West gunslingers, some Copplestone Back of Beyond Chinese bandits, a couple of Copplestone Future Wars figures in power armour (which I intend to use as combat droids for my ROTOR sci fi skirmish rules) and a couple of the Bad Squiddo Ghosts of Gaia that I didn't already have. I now have most of the range, which is one of my favourite sci fi ones around.

I also bought some 15mm figures for my first project of 2021. I expect that you are asking yourselves what did I buy?

Well, the figures are to go with a set of rules which I found on eBay together with the accompanying source and reference books, as I referred to in my previous post, which were originally published back in 1993 by a rather well-known gaming company.

I have now undercoated and started painting the figures, making reasonable progress with them. I am hoping to have at least a few of them finished by the end of the week, at which point I will reveal all regarding the project.

It has been a couple of weeks, but I'm painting again

Yes, I've not done much painting since my last post back on the 20th of August but I have had a lot going on, mainly having two elderly dogs who were ill at the same time (see below).

These are five more of the Bad Squiddo Ghosts of Gaia range. I have painted a number of these excellent figures before for my home-brewed Reivers Of The Outer Rim (ROTOR) science fiction skirmish rules and I felt the urge to paint a few more. I now have more of them than I'll ever need for a single ROTOR gang of fighters, but it does mean that I could field a number of different gangs for different games. Of these five, the ones I particularly like are the two central figures, the priestess/leader figure with the sword and the weird Psyker one, wrapped in bandages and wearing some kind of psychic amplifier device. The two on the right are a heavy weapons team and the figure on the left has a cybernetic prosthesis, so could happily be a cyborg in my rules.

Anyway, the doggies. They are two Westie sisters and they will be 14 at the end of October. Maisie has has a few niggling things happen recently, such as a Urinary Tract Infection, and Daisy has been generally fairly OK but a couple of weeks ago they both became ill at the same time, with stomach sicknesses. So, it was Vet time. As things transpired, while doing blood tests it was discovered that Maisie has developed canine diabetes, probably because of her age, which accounted, in hindsight for her UTI and some quite worrying weight loss since then. Daisy had a gastric infection and pancreatitis. They both spent a lot of time at the Vet on drips and general observation and Maisie had to spend a night at the overnight emergency service for extra electrolytes because of ketone build-up in her blood. Anyway, to avoid a TL:DR they are better again now, and Maisie is now on insulin injections twice-daily.

It was a very worrying time, though, but it is such a relief to see them getting their appetites back and being more their normal (a relative term where Westies are concerned) selves again

Lockdown continues with a few more Ghosts of Gaia

I've got into the habit of overlapping things on the painting table over the last couple of years. It stops me getting bored with painting just one thing, gives me the chance to work on something else while I am waiting for the paint to dry on the first subject and it is useful for finishing off odd blobs of paint on my palette.

Obviously, at the moment I also have a lot of time on my hands, and I am getting lots of figures done which have been hanging around, but also things that I just fancy painting. These are definitely in the latter category. They are six more Ghosts of Gaia from Bad Squiddo. I actually really love these. I liked them when I first saw them, but at the time I didn't need any 28mm science fiction minis. Now, with my S.F. skirmish rules, Reivers Of The Outer Rim in a playable state, they have a purpose, so I am gradually collecting the whole range.

I've photographed them front and back, because there is so much great detail on these figures. The first four are basic fighters with close combat or ranged weapons.

And the final two are equipped with heavy weapons.

While I was painting these, it occurred to me that the Ghosts would make a fantastic Escher gang for the Games Workshop Necromunda skirmish game, although they are certainly better dressed (and with more flesh covered) than the GW originals.

Actually, when GW re-released Necromunda a year or so ago, I thought about buying an Escher gang for old times' sake but I didn't like the new minis that they put out. The originals were much more to my liking, and the Ghosts of Gaia have, to my eyes at least, the same vibe.

More Sci Fi figures! Ghosts of Gaia

My science fiction project is moving on at Warp Factor 3 (at least!). The latest figures I've finished are from the terrific Ghosts of Gaia range by Bad Squiddo.

These are gorgeous sculpts (as are all Bad Squiddo figures) and lovely clean casts too. As they are so nice, I have chosen to photograph them front and back.

The figure on the right of this group is "Raging Annie", a miniature depiction of the Mother of Peegs herself - for those who don't know, Annie Norman just loves her Guinea Pigs a.k.a Peegs - and in the second picture, you can see her Baggy The Dice Bag backpack. I particularly like the armoured figure on the left with two chain blades. I love the dynamic pose.

After the exuberant colour schemes I chose for the first group, the second group are a bit more stealthy-looking and are clearly the kind of women who will pop up and take a few potshots from heavy cover. I really like the stealth cloak on the right-hand figure. I chose a few misty colours, inspired by the odd camouflage patterns on World War One German fighter aircraft.

It is back to colour for the remaining four figures. These figures have a fantastic comic book quality about them, and that made me paint them so that they will stand out on the table. I thought that red would be a good choice for these two. 

and purple/violet shades for these two.

So, there we have it. Some more figures ready for play-testing my Sci Fi skirmish rules.