Starship Troopers

A few years ago, I bought Mongoose’s Starship Troopers miniatures game from a friend. I still have yet to play the game (the rules do look pretty good) but I did manage to paint all the minis, both MI and Bugs. It took a long time. The MI troopers were multipart plastics (stress on multipart) and despite this, were very difficult to pose differently. I did a little cutting and repositioning of a few of them, just for some variety. The Bugs allowed for a bit more variation, though painting them was a but boring.

I also got a set of the Grizzly powered armor suits. These are some of the best powered armor minis I have seen and are among my favorite minis of all time. I took extra time and care painting them up. The color scheme isn’t exactly inspired but they did come out very nice.

I do apologize for my lousy camera skills (or lack thereof). So here we go:

Grizzly Squad – Heavy Flamer, Missile Launcher, Rotary Cannon

Squad Leader about to pitch a grenade

Troopers

Sniper – A bit of a conversion – I chopped up some of the weapons and put them back together to make a long-barreled rifle.

Grenade Launcher

I’ll get some pics of the bugs up later!

WIP and next minis on display

Time and energy are a little short these days but I’m still working my way through my Spacelords Cybertech Bunkerbreaker platoon. All I need is a quiet weekend and I can bust out the second squad, which is about halfway done now.

That little poll on the right there has only 4 votes on it right now, and they’re all for different things! So, I’m just going to start at the top. I’ll put some pics of my Starship Troopers minis up tomorrow.

Cleaning out the closet

The Endgame Oakland minis swap was today, and I went down and got myself a little bit of table space. I have an old coffee can I keep my loose minis in and I decided to try to clean it out. Shelf space in my minis display case (a glass-sided IKEA job) was getting a bit crowded, so I also decided to try and unload my old Crimson Skies and Battlefleet Gothic minis.

My wife thinks I have a lot of minis. I do not. Not, at least, compared to some of the folks at the swap meet. Clearly, I am a minority, in that I don’t have a garage filled with plastic cases filled with minis I will never paint, and piles of unopened kits and minis sets (not saying I wish I didn’t have this condition – I want space/time/money for a huge pile of minis!)

Anyway, there was a lot of stuff on those tables and most of it was, of course, Games Workshop. Despite my old infatuation with GW, and my recent bout with temptation, I didn’t pick up any GW stuff. Just as well I suppose, since I don’t see myself playing 40K again anytime soon.

I managed to sell/trade almost everything I brought. I only came home with my Crimson Skies planes, some Napoleonic minis, and some old 20mm WW2 figs. I sold my BFG fleets for a good price too, so I came away in the black.

It was a fun time and I met some new people and pawed through piles of interesting stuff. Looking forward to it again next year!

Wavering

My first minis game, not just single figures mind you but first full-on miniatures game, was Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. I started with it in 1987, with a box of plastic Space Marines and box of Ork Raiders. Got a lot of mileage out of that old game. My enthusiasm never carried over into the later editions.

But, from time to time I find myself looking at the new stuff and sometimes, like now, I think about maybe getting some minis and just painting them up. I’m entertaining the thought of picking up a Space Marine Battleforce and doing them in my Rising Sun Chapter colors.

Then I remember one of the big reasons I stopped buying GW stuff; the prices.

New Project Concept – Olympica

“The Webbies want your mind”

So says the back cover blurb of Olympica, an old sci-fi wargame (of the Metagaming variety) from back in the mists of time. You old dogs may remember this one, having saved up your pennies to buy these little games that came in plastic bags (hey, c’mon, it was 1978 – I was 11). Anyway, inspired by some of the fan-made upgrades that you can see in the BGG entry I linked to, I’m considering doing one myself, with miniatures – sculpted board with terrain, and 15mm minis.

And thinking about those, I’d like to try to heave close to the original look and feel. Here’s the cover of the old game.

For the UN Marines, I’ve already decided I’d like to use Rebel Miniatures Earth Force Marines. For the UN vehicles, Rebel’s grav tanks should do nicely. The UN also has these funky drilling machines (because their enemy lives in tunnels) and I think I could convert Rebel’s combat flatbed into one.

But, I’m stuck on the Webbies. That’s a Webby on the back cover up there. They’re kinda like group-mind space communists I think (on close reading of the rules fluff). So, I’m taking recommendations for good 15mm troops to use for these guys. Suggestions?

Maschinen Krieger SAFS repaint

A few months back I got a nice little pile of the Maschinen Krieger 1/35 scale battlesuits when Hobby Link Japan had their blowout sale. I don’t know what I thought I’d use them for, but at the prices they were asking ($5 a box was it? Can’t remember) I couldn’t resist. Anyway the pre-painted figures are very nice, but something moved me to repaint and convert one of them, so here it is.

The original pose was very static, just the figure standing there with its arms at its side, so I did some cutting and puttying to give it a more dynamic pose.

Once again I went at it with the rub on transfers. I really like these things. This shot shows the weathering.

The insignia on the shoulder plate is from an old tank model decal set.

Detail on the back.

And another front view and a close up.

I’ll probably take a closer look at the other minis I have in the MaK range at some point.