Sci-fi nonsense

Its been a busy work month so I haven't had much time for painting, also i'm currently waiting on some orders to appear for some cold war and modern conflict 6mm projects. In the interim I decided to make a start on my imagination scifi project as I really wanted to get something painted. 

Despite having not painted anything Games Workshop based in a very long time now I still obsessively read the books and fluff, there is just something about the universe I really like. So I thought why not make up my own army and create it in 6mm (far more affordable). 

-----40K Fluff------

 The Imperial Settlement on Natalian II is a rural farming planet at the very edge of Segmentum Pacificus situated close to the inward edge of the Sabbat Sector. 

A rural world, the planets main exports are food and man power for the Adeptus Militarium. The planet has long been a low priority for equipment and arms. As a result the PDF is poorly armed with late model laslocks and little in the way of modern vehicles.

The majority of the PDF is truck borne, with some limited units benefiting from lightly armoured halftracks. 

The original founding settlers were led by an imperial family by the name of Castius hailing from the Mordian home world. The current head of the family is the lady Natalian (a popular name on the planet) Castius who is the Governor of the planet.

The Planet sits in a system comprising of 4 planets 2 of which are little more than dead rocks sporting Adeptus Mechanicus mining operations. The remaining planet consist of 1 gas giant with an orbital refinery. 

The system has limited defence fleets, and no standing garrison. Despite being under resourced the PDF sport colours reminiscent of the Mordian Iron Guard, though that is likely where the similarities end. 

The planet has an Arbitus overseer but other than that the policing actions on the planet are all locally sourced.  

----- Fluff ends----

So I painted up 6 stands of infantry, the figures are from the Baccus WW1 range mainly as I had them lying around. I'm quite happy with how my fictional little army turned out. I'm thinking as the PDF are under strength 3 stands is a Company (1 stand is a platoon), so 6 represents a half strength Battalion with no HQ, transport or support equipment. 

I have some command units undercoated and intend to add some vehicles in due course, I just need to find some suitably 40k type vehicles. 

My Kingdom for some Light

Before I start to drone on about my figures I must apologies for quality of the pictures. My daylight lamp stopped working (the bulb) and I have not been able to find a replacement so the pictures were taken using actual daylight only and are frankly terrible. 

The lack of lamp has also been why I have not posted much this month, without the lamp i'm restricted to painting when there is good local light (which has not been often). 

Miniatures wise I've just finished a range of 6mm stuff for my 51st Highland Division project. First up 6 Battalion command stands. I realised recently that whilst I had a Headquarters Company each Battalion had a further command section above this at the Battalion level. So the following 6 stands represent the actual Battalion commanders on the table top. Gaming wise these are probably not really necessary but what the hell it was a good reason for some small diorama stuff. 

I also painted 3 trucks which I was short of in one Battalion and 4 bren carriers which again I was short of in one Battalion. These are below.

Lastly I painted up the majority of the 17th Field Regiment Royal Artillery. The had, so far as I can see, been issued the new 25pdr guns by 1940 and with little information as to what specific regiments had towing wise I just went with the classic 25pdr towing vehicle which was also coming into service in 1940.

 The regiment comprised of two Batteries further divided down in to 3 troops each. Each troop had between 3 and 4 guns depending on issue. As with the scale elsewhere in my force I am representing 3 guns with 1 model so 1 gun is a troop and 3 is a battery. I decided to base the arty on separate bases to their towing equipment as bases big enough for both just looked too big. 

The individual vehicle and figure on the small stand in front of each troop is the troop commander who acted as the forward observer/spotter for the troop his XO commanding the guns themselves.

I need to do two battery command stands and a further Regiment command stand but the bulk of this is done. I'm not sure how much painting i'll get done in the next few weeks as work is packing me off to Birmingham. 

A little foliage

I'm sort of between 6mm projects at the moment as I wait for my latest Heroic and Ros order to put in an appearance. I did however have a lot of scatter material so thought I would have a crack at making some 6mm terrain, namely trees.

I made these using just scatter material and cocktail sticks cut down a bit. Honestly I'm rather pleased with the result, this was the first time doing this so I just based them on a big round base I had lying around. In future I'll cut some 3mm mdf or similar into a nice random shape and make some bigger groups of trees.

Above is my first attempt next to the finished article. I initially made the trees way way to small and based them on a 2p piece. It was immediately obvious that the trees were barely bigger than the figures so I restarted and the right hand base is the finished article.

Some shots below of the trees with my 6mm Bacus Naps, strictly speaking the trees are still a bit under size to be truly in scale. But to my eye they look right, and that's good enough for me!

Last Z standing

Just finished the last four of my Studio Miniatures metal zombies. Lovely sculpts which were a joy to paint. I particularly like the sculpting on the zombie scratching its head. The face is really nicely done.

 Went with a sort of 60's inspired purple dress for the zombie chick

 Typical IT/Engineer zombie with some top pocket pen action

 Another office like zombie

Surfer dude, love this sculpt

Waiting on my order from Heroic and Ro's at the moment which will allow me to start making my Infantry Battalion command stands and the first of the Divisions arty support. Once that's done (as a break from just infantry) I'm going to crack on and complete the last 3 infantry Battalions in one go just to get them done so I can then concentrate on all the fun Divisional support stuff! 

In non modelling related news my wife is now officially a Childrens Book illustrator represented by the Bright Group. She's in the process of illustrating her first bits of proper work. Two educational books for the american school system, which is sort of exciting to think that thousands of american kids will see her art. And some other commercial items for clients with Christmas in mind. 

Twice the fun

 Not a very exciting post today, I've spent the last week working on another two infantry Battalions for the 51st Highland Division. I've completed them as per the previous 4 Battalions that I've done and I'm pleased with the results. At this point I have 6 infantry Battalions completed which means I have two of the Divisions 3 Infantry Brigades finished.

I had intended to crack straight on having finished these and complete the last 3 infantry Battalions but I'm getting a bit bored as I've painted the same units countless times now. So instead I'll be working on the Battalions HQ stands and a couple of the Divisions support Battalions/Brigades, so more interesting things like arty etc.

Some more pics below of the two newly finished Battalions (1st Bn Gordon Highlanders and 5th Bn The Gordon Highlanders respectively)

Highland Warriors

 Been a bit busy over the last few days, but had time to paint up my first stand of Napoleonic Warriors. I'm pretty pleased with the results myself, got another 3 to do and i've also just finished 4 more zombies which I'll blog about later or tomorrow.

Tiny Hip

Those of you that follow my meandering blog may recall this post Hipster where I discussed the below picture and how I had an urge to create a diorama of it. Well the Hip in 28mm was going to be massively expensive so I decided to do it in 6mm.

Original Picture

My Diorama

Its not perfect, I don't like the helicopters blades at all and the chopper I've used is not an exact match (the picture is a more modern variant I believe) but I'm fairly happy with the results. The whole thing is a tad pointless as I don't game any modern africa in 6mm. I guess if I ever do this could be some sort of objective marker or something. 

I've got more Zombies on the paint desk at the moment as well as some more 6mm naps. 

Trucking on

 Nothing very exciting today, just painted 4 trucks to go with my 6mm brits, waiting on Heroic and Ros sending me my latest order so I can make real progress on this project. Also just undercoated another set of Studio Miniatures metal zombies, so probably will paint those later.

A tale of two Battalions

 I've spent the last couple of days working on more of my 6mm version of the 51st Highland Division. Just finished most of one Battalion which will be the 4th Battalion, The Queens Own Cameron Highlanders. Which means the 152nd Infantry Brigade is now completed, only another two infantry Brigades to do and I'll have all three of the Divisions infantry element.

Handily I've also finished most of the 4th Battalion The Black Watch which is the first of the 153rd Infantry Brigades three Battalions. To finish it I need to complete the Carrier Company and the 6 stands of truck transport which represent the motor pool.

I also still need to do the Battalion Headquarters stands for the Battalions I've completed to date and then a Brigade Headquarters stand for those as well. I want to do these on bigger 60mm x 60mm bases and make them into little dioramas. Still not sure what i'll do with these yet.

For the moment I've run out of my 6mm WW2 bits  so time for a bit of a topping up me thinks of the lead pile! In other news I've just ordered some of Studio Miniatures Zombies from North Star as they are having an amazing sale which is around 50% off the usual price.

Last of the regulars

 Just finished the last stand of bog standard British Naps that I had (green facings this time). I'll have to order some more, got six stands of highlanders to paint next while I wait on a delivery of some of the lovely new WW1 Brits that Baccus have.

Spot the difference

I am aware that today's post looks remarkably similar to the previous one, but that's because I've painted basically the same base of figures with the same flag and facings again. I've completed 6 stands in total now which i'm pretty pleased about.

Working on a seventh at the moment which will have green facings then I have some 6mm Highlanders to do.

I'm still oddly uninterested in painting anything 28mm at the moment (it just seems like to much hassle) who knows that might pass at some point.

More Naps

In between some terrain projects I finished another stand of my 6mm Napolionics. Given I haven't painted much over the last year or so I was pretty pleased with how these turned out.

Over the weekend I hope to finish a couple of building projects to share.