August Projects

 During August I worked on completing the remaining 25mm Science Fiction items that had not been done.  These included assembling the buildings I got from PaperTerrain.  I also purchased some aliens as noted in the previous blog post and found a tank and an infantry carrier at Wargame Vault.  I needed different vehicles for the forces opposing the Federation.  

The vehicles are made by Tomoko's paper miniatures.  He also has 2d 28mm soldiers.  However, the vehicles are definitely not 28mm.  Fortunately I was able to use Paintshop Pro to enlarge them to 143% of their original size which made them compatible with my 25/28mm figures.  The PDF file has several different camo schemes.  All of them in shades of grey except for the one I chose to use.  The infantry carrier appears to be an M113 APC.  I haven't checked it against the actual vehicle to verify if it is an exact copy or not.   I added the original sized turret from the tank model to convert it into an IFV.  Instead of using the paper tube mounting system for the turrets I again went with thumbtacks glued to the inside of the turret with a strip of cardstock glued across the top of the thumbtack and to the turret floor to keep the thumbtack in place.  The only other modification was to cut the bottom of the track assembly as a wider straight edge instead of the jagged pattern making them easier to assemble.  The files include detailed assembly diagrams unlike the free ones that I made for the Federation.

The buildings from PaperTerrain were also PDF files and include detailed assembly instructions and diagrams.   The number of buttresses, bays, windows, and door openings can be customized as desired.  

The following photos show the buildings and vehicles.  The miniatures are from Grenadier Models, Inc.  They are the licensed Traveler Imperial Marines Imperial Marines.  They are being used as the Pantharii Impeium Marines.  I believe Magister Militum  has the molds, but has not recast them as of this time.   In addition to the marines I also bought a set of the adventurer figures back when they were released.  In addition to the sets of marines, I recently purchased some additional figures that were not part of a complete set that I found on Ebay.  |Fortunately no one else bid against me and I was able to get them for about $2 per figure.  Otherwise, there were a few complete boxed sets being offered at $120 to $160 per set.  I now have about three dozen of them for a complete platoon.

Again these will be used for Wiley Games Galactic Heroes and Bigger Battles.

The four IFV's, one of the tanks, and some of the Pantharii Imperium Marines.

Comparison of the Pantharii and Federation IFV's

Two of the PaperTerrain buildings.  The one on the left will be a bank.  The one on the right will be the town administration building.

The casino complex

Market building on the left and two others.

Alien Invaders

 I had been looking for some figures to use for the aliens who are harassing the rift frontiers (right edge of the map of human space in an earlier post) of the Pantharii, Domain, and Federation.  I had looked at the Ralnai and Klackon ranges for Starguard, but decided against them.  Last week, I was browsing through Khurasan Miniatures 15mm sci fi range and found what I was looking for.  These were the Soriog.  

They are slightly shorter than the 28mm sci fi figures.  I placed the order on Monday and they arrived on the Saturday.  Kudos to Khurasan for speedy delivery.    For their environmental suits, I painted them light khaki, and used a medium brown for their weapons.  They were given a bright blue skin color for their faces and other parts of their warlock (a psionic).   The humans refer to them as the "blue meenees".  They have a prehensile tail, hands with a thumb and two fingers, and a raptor talon on their legs.

Wiley games printed a book of various sci fi races and I chose the Aeldarin for their characteristics.  These are based on not-space elves.  

The figures are organized into four squads of ten.  Consisting of a squad leader, seven other laser rifle armed infantry, a heavy laser, and a flamer.  There is four figure command team consisting of the commander, a warlock, and two junior officers.

The four squads with the command team in front.

The command team.  From left to right a junior officer, the warlock, the commander, and the other junior officer.