Assassinorum: Execution Force

 Army Painter Fanatic

Matt Black

Matt White

Deep Grey

Ash Grey

Grey Castle

Great Hall Grey

Brainmatter Beige

Night Sky

Stratos Blue

Deep Ocean Blue

Brigandine Brown

Prairie Ochre

Dusty Skull

Basilisk Red

Mulled Berry

Amber Skin

Data System Glow

Power Node Glow

True Copper

Weapon Bronze

Gun Metal

Death Metal

Citadel Contrast

Darkoath Flesh

Aggaros Dunes

Black Templar

Flesh Tearers Red

Garaghak's Sewer

Travel Battle

Dragon Lords

 

Fury of Dracula

 

Ack! Zombeez!!!

   April! Always a busy month full of lots of S.M.H.I.T. and fun, including a couple of birthdays and my spring zombie game and movie celebration -- ZombieFEST!

   I like to have something new painted up for every 'FEST, and this year I finished off my copy of the excellent boardgame Zombicide.

Zombicide!

   Made by Guillotine Games and the good people at Cool Mini Or Not, Zombicide is a great blend of miniature action and fast-playing boardgame fun. And it is stuffed with minis... 71 in fact. When they're all painted up it looks like this...

Ack!!

   There are six survivors for the players to choose from. Each is an iconic character with his or her own unique style and skills. You'll no-doubt recognize some of them as being the spitting image of certain movie characters. Here, for example, are Ned, Doug and Amy...

Ned, Doug and Amy.

  ...or there's Wanda, Josh and Phil.

Wanda, Josh and Phil.

   See anyone you recognize?

   Hunting our desperate heroes are a veritable horde of the undead, including extra-zippy 'runners', loathsome 'fatties'...

A fattie and two runners, looking for lunch!

   ...normal 'walkers' and, worst of all, the 'abomination'.

   There is only one abomination, but only the rarest and most powerful of weapons can bring him down. The figures themselves were fun to paint, and again I used Army Painter paints and shades. They always give me great results with a minimum of time.

   Here, finally are some of my friends enjoying a knuckle-biting game of Zombicide at ZombieFEST! last weekend.

   A good time was had by all and almost everyone survived! Thanks again for visiting my little corner of the Interwebs.

See you soon!
-Andrew

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

You can't take the sky from me.....

   Christmas was very good to me this year. I got a big pile of games form my good friends Scott and Stephanie, including the crazy-fun Pirates vs. Dinosaurs, and the new Firefly game (from Gale Force Nine). Firefly comes with little spaceships so, of course, I couldn't resist!

   Included in the game are four Firefly ships, an Alliance cruiser, and a terrifying Reaver cutter. For the Fireflys I tried to make each of the models look like the original from the show, but also gave each one a distinct colour-coded marking so it could be easily distinguished from the others during a game.

There are 30,000+ Firefly-class ships flying the 'verse.

   The Alliance cruiser is designed to look like a block of office towers, to symbolise the cold bureaucracy of the Alliance. As such I tried to capture the look as best I could. Lots and lots of little windows.

Space cops.

   The Reavers' ships are decaying, blood-smeared horrors of weapons, blades, and leaking radiation. All round just bad news.

If you're lucky they've just eaten.

    For those who are interested I recommend this game. It plays very smoothly, and does a good job of capturing the flavour and spirit of the show. Everything from fist-fights to fancy flying, and con-jobs to contraband are wrapped up in this fun little game.

Thanks again for visiting my little corner of the 'verse!
-Andrew

Earth Reborn - Part II

   And now we return to the atomic wastelands of Earth Reborn! This time we will look at the perverted, morally dubious Salemite faction. The Salem city-bunker survived five-hundred years buried under the ruins of America by resorting to horrible, inhuman methods. Now the strongest have emerged, leading legions of mindless zombie slaves. These are, most definitely, the Bad Guys...

The Salemite faction

  
   The Salemites are led by Professor John Kendall Junior. Kendall is the most prominent of the Salemite scientists, and is a descendant of Jason F. Kendall, founder and first leader of Salem Underground.

Professor John Kendall Jr

 
   The professor is determined to push the limits of reanimation technology, at all costs, and regardless of the ethical consequences. He performs horrific experiments on the living as well as the dead, displaying unbound cruelty and a stunning lack of compassion. Kendall is in constant need of test subjects.
 
   Jessica Hollister is in charge of the security of Salem Underground. She is also the Salemites’ chief of police and military leader. She is known for her severity, viciousness, cruelty, and her passion for firearms. Her authority has never been challenged. Soldiers follow her orders unquestioningly, often for fear of reprisal at the mere suggestion of the slightest disagreement with her ideas.
 

Jessica Hollister

  

   Jeff Deeler is a deranged individual. He has spent most of his life surrounded by reanimated cadavers. He has no family. He considers the cadavers his only family, his “brothers.” Some suspect he might have poisoned his parents in order to reanimate them and better control them.

Jeff Deeler

 

   Jack Saw was one of the first of a new breed of enhanced reanimated slaves. His natural aggression and boundless energy have been enhanced with a prototype advanced neuronic helmet, and Jack is now at the forefront of many of the Salemite's missions.

Jack Saw

 

   Zombies are the muscle behind the Salemite operation. These zombies are equipped with a Power Fist and lower body reinforcement. The Salemites often use these zombies as guard dogs or basic infantry soldiers during combat. As soldiers, they cannot use weapons because of their very limited intelligence, but they nonetheless prove useful as defensive walls of “flesh.”

Zombies

   Although Cherokee Bill is a member of the Salemite community, he is consistently mistreated by his superiors, sometimes even regarded as a slave, due to his Test Subject origins. Over time, he has recognized their condescension and resents their contempt. As the years pass, he finds himself hoping for a different life within a different community where he might be better appreciated for who he is.

Cherokee Bill

 

   Finally, we have my favourite, Franck.

   Franck Einstein has been assembled over centuries from various body parts and organs extracted from deceased or, in some cases, live humans. His brain remains that of Franck Einz, a mechanic with an impressive body frame, who had died five-hundred years ago.

Frank Einstein

 

   Franck’s brain is linked directly to a neuronic helmet featuring the best artificial intelligence technology available. Thanks to this electronics marvel, his IQ is almost as high as that of Professor Kendall, although Franck remains under the firm control of Kendall, Deeler, and Hollister. That is the theory, anyway...

   So there they are -- the dramatis personae of this most excellent game. I've only had a chance to play this once since I finished the figures, but I found it to be a very detailed yet smooth flowing game, (once, of course, I figured out the rules!). As I get more games under my belt I'll be sure to post some battle reports.

 

Thanks again for stopping by!

-Andrew