Canadians in Space -- The U.N.E.

   Ready to face the horrors of the Machine, these Canadian troopers of the United Nations of Earth marine corps stand ready!

U.N.E. Troopers

   These guys are the second half of my Legions of Steel project. The 'Good Guys', if you will. I selected a blue colour scheme because I felt it resonated with the background that these are soldiers of the future United Nations. Also blue makes a good contrast to the gold of their antagonists.

The U.N.E. Behemoth RXS

   These models are also re-based, so as to make them more compatible with my other 28mm sci-fi figures. This comes in handy when I'm in need of figures for games like Gamma World, or Judge Dredd.

U.N.E. Commando squad

   One of the things that attracted me to Legions of Steel was that the game was dedicated to the women and men of the U.N. Peacekeepers. I've been honoured to know just a couple of people who have served in those ranks, and as a small tribute to them I made these troopers Canadian.

Thanks as always for visiting my little corner of the interweb!

-Andrew

Legions of Steel, Legion of Gold

   When you've been in the miniature hobby as long as I have you end up with a lot of little toy soldiers.

   A lot.

   It's just a function of the hobby. You can buy minis much faster than you can paint them.

   And with that lot comes boxes and boxes of unpainted models, many of which sit in a closet for... well... decades.

   As such it is with some sense of accomplishment that I present my (finally!) painted copy of the 1992 Global Games miniature game Legions of Steel.

   Legions of Steel was a Canadian-made game featuring power armoured United Nations troopers fighting killer machines in the future. If it sounds similar to Space Hulk that's understandable, as Games Workshop's success with Space Hulk in large part inspired this game.

   I first played it back in '92 when it was released. Later I bought the game but never painted the figures. In around '97 I traded the old version of the game in for a newer one, which came with a wider variety of miniatures. Still the game sat in my closet, unpainted and unloved...

   ...then three years ago I began playing the latest edition of Gamma World. The final stage of the Gamma World campaign features a mighty robotic enemy known as the Legion of Gold. When the time came for these bad guys to appear I knew just where to go to get the models I needed.

   Now the time has come. And so, after twenty years, I have finally put paint to model. The Legion arises!

The machine enemy!

   The Machine army is made up of robotic warriors called Nightmares. These ubiquitous troopers make up the bulk of every Machine force.

G1 Nightmares with deadbolt launchers.

G1A Nightmares with scatterguns.

   Supporting the Nightmares are small scout units known as Gremlins, and heavier armed and armoured Predators.

G4 Gremlins with deadbolt carbines.

G3 Predators with ice rifles.

   Commanding the Machine forces are the cunning Succubot, and the massive and terrifying Assault Fiends!

C1 Succubot with deadbolt carbine.

MkI Assault Fiend with flame weapon.

MkII Assault Fiend with power halberd.

   Like the Copplestone Castings Terminator Robots from my previous post, all these models have been rebased and treated with a base coat of Tamiya gold spray and Army Painter Dark Shade.

   Just for fun I re-painted some old conversions I had made up for my Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition Necron army. Back then the Necrons had a pretty small selection of models to chose from, so I whipped up some dreadnought-sized machines using ideas from an article in White Dwarf. These  have a similar look to the Legions of Steel models, so they are now oversized horrors for my Machine army.

Floating and striding mega-machines!

   So there you have it! The United Nations troopers from the game are also finished... Stay tuned for more!

-Andrew