Tag Archives: Sci-Fi

New At Brigade Models

Tuesday, 04 September 2018 20:12
Written by Mike
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Another (yes, another!) new 15mm Hammers Slammers detachment fell off my painting table the other week. They almost happened by accident, but they were such a simple build and took very little time.

Strictly speaking it’s a troop, not a detachment – it’s only a half-sized unit. To create a full detachment, just add another identical troop. The United Defence Batteries are another of the specialist outfits from the Hammerverse, a unit tailored to perform one specific role but perform it well. The UDB are an elite air defence unit equipped with our new GS-1018 8-barreled rapid-firing calliopes (released last week) mounted on GEV chassis. That’s all they do – you hire the UDB to keep the skies above clear of enemy aircraft and artillery shells, and trust them to do that job perfectly. Of course, eight 2cm rapid fire powerguns will also make a mess of light armoured vehicles and infantry if you point them in the right direction ! They play a central role in the story Counting the Cost, which you can find in volume 2 of The Complete Hammer’s Slammers.

I wasn’t sure how to paint the UDB, so in the end I opted for a very simple dark grey scheme (German Panzer Grey) with green fabric skirts. The only colour was a couple of orange flashes on the side panels and the sensor blisters on the calliope turrets which I painted in blue. Decals were taken from the same Dom’s Decals vehicle names sheet as I used for the Foster’s Mercenaries names, and numbers were spares from our Heliodorus Regiment sheet. In the end the effect wasn’t as dark as I’d have liked – if I did them again I’d use a black base and drybrush it up with dark grey.

The UDB troop pack contains three GS-1108 Calliopes, one GS-1008 command vehicle (with optional radar instead of the rear turret) plus stowage packs.

HSD15-3301 – United Defence Batteries Calliope Troop – £32.00

LINK

Warlocks At Wee Wolf Minis

Tuesday, 04 September 2018 08:15
Written by Mike
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Inspired by films of my youth Wee Wolf Minis presents the 1st release fo what will be an entire range. Warlocks Baddies available now; Goodies, Characters, and more Baddies to come.

LINK

News From The Ion Age

Saturday, 01 September 2018 12:47
Written by Mike
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Welcome to September 2018 at The Ion Age. Click on through to our blog where we outline the new month long offer, free articles which are coming and our new releases which are on the way later this month. You can also learn about our Reward Points programme (over a million points redeemed for discounts and free models thus far!) and join our mailing list plus catch up with a free Patrol Angis scenario in case you missed it. Space Opera awesome!

Thanks.
GBS

LINK

Who Will Buy My Flaming Sword?

Friday, 31 August 2018 11:57
Written by Mike
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First things first – at Sunday I’ll be in Peterborough for the fourth edition of the Hereward show, catchily titled Hereward IV:A New Hope. I’ll have our latest releases and as much other stuff as I can carry, so that’s lots of Slammers, Yenpalo spaceships, British Nef etc. I’ll also have the full range of Crom’s Anvil figures which we carry at shows, including the new Heroes, Tribesmen and Simurgh Guards.

Back into production this week are this rather splendid collection of 15mm GEVs. The belong to the Flaming Sword of the Holy Brotherhood, a combined arms mercenary unit equipped with medium and heavy tank destroyers supported by infantry and heavy direct-fire mortars.

When they were previously available, the models used a common resin hull and separate metal or resin superstructures. We’ve modified the masters so that all of the versions now have unique one-piece resin hulls with just the turrets and guns to be attached. So the designs are the same, we’ve just made them much easier to assemble. While we were at it, we’ve remastered the all metal parts and made a new production mould for those. There’s also a new hull for the calliope carrier which was previously just stuck to the flatbed. So there are several good reasons why it’s taken a while to get them back into production!

The primary combat version is the GS-1199 Medium Tank Destroyer armed with a 9cm powergun. This is available with either a plain gun barrel or new one with a muzzle brake.

Infantry are carried in the GS-1107 APC with two small gun turrets carrying twin 2cm powerguns. The GS-1008 command version swaps a radar dish for the upper turret.

A fire support version can be equipped with an assortment of turrets – the FSHB’s main version is the GS-1141Rwith a pair of direct fire mortars, but other options include autocannon and a 5cm powergun turret.

The one new(ish) version is the GS-1018 Calliope vehicle with eight rapid fire 2cm powergun for air defence.

The Flaming Sword have a number of different detachments on their list, all of which are available as packs with vehicles, infantry, stowage, fireteam bases etc. This brings the number of pre-defined 15mm detachment packs to 31 now, giving you stacks of options for starting

HS15-2012 – GS-1199 Tank Destroyer – £8.00
HS15-2012a – GS-1199m Tank Destroyer – £8.00
HS15-2013 – GS-1107 APC – £8.00
HS15-2013a – GS-1108 Command Vehicle – £8.00
HS15-2014 – GS-1141R Mortar Carrier – £8.00
HS15-2014a – GS-1026 Light Support Vehicle – £8.00
HS15-2014b – GS-1186PG Heavy Support Vehicle – £8.00
HS15-2014c – GS-1188RG Heavy Support Vehicle – £8.00
HS15-2015 – GS-1018 Calliope – £8.00

HSD15-2001 – Recce Detachment – £35.00
HSD15-2002 – Strike Detachment – £60.00
HSD15-2003 – Heavy Detachment – £75.00
HSD15-2004 – Protection Detachment – £38.50

And before anyone else points it out … yes, they have the wrong unit markings (the FSHB badge looks a lot like that of the Apex Dragoons, and I mixed up my decals…).

LINK

Albedo Miniatures Game

Thursday, 30 August 2018 19:19
Written by Mike
3 Comments

ACP164 is a 28mm miniatures game based on the ‘Albedo Anthropomorphics’ comic written by Steve Gallacci. The product line includes a campaign sourcebook, rules system, a miniatures range, vehicles, buildings and terrain items.

Background
Albedo is a hard science comic, featuring anthropomorphic animals or “critters” in a universe apparently created just for them. The opposing factions in this universe are the Independent Lapine Republic (ILR), which is a society dedicated to advancing the causes of Rabbits and crony-capitalism. They are engaged in a war of expansion against everyone else, which has forced the creation of the ConFed, or Confederation of Planets. The ConFed is represented in firefights by two different forces, the Home Guard, who maintain security on individual planets, and the Extra Planetary Defence Force, an elite force dedicated to defending systems and recapturing systems taken by the ILR.

Rules System
The Albedo rules system, Albedo Combat Patrol, has been written by John 'Buck' Surdu, retired US Army Colonel and prolific and innovative games designer whose previous works include Gaslight, Look Sarge No Charts, Fire Team Vietnam, Blood and Swash, Beer & Pretzels Skirmish and many, many more. The rules feature innovative, fast play card based combat mechanisms that bring out the detail of tactical ground based combat operations.

Miniatures Range
The miniature range has been digitally sculpted and the figures are supplied as multi-piece metal castings to allow a wide variety of troop type to be depicted. The miniatures have been designed to overcome many of the problems associated with multi-piece metal castings. Heads are cast with a neck that finishes in a pin that locates in a hole in the body; where possible pairs of arms are cast as a pair holding a weapon with pins at tops of arms that locate in to holes in shoulders. This ensures that components align perfectly and are easy to glue together. The Albedo comics feature a vast range of sapient mammals so using our multi-piece approach we hope to be able to make all species that appear in the comic available to gamers as miniatures.

Timings & Approach
Sally 4th will be running a Kickstarter campaign between 15th October and 19th November to raise additional funding for the project, however we are adopting a slightly different approach, which we hope will benefit backers and customers. We have funded the Albedo project as far as we can with internal funding and now need the support of the gaming public to take the game to the next stage. The miniatures that we have already developed are going to be made available for purchase just before the Kickstarter launches. They will go on pre-order on 24th September. The reason that we are doing this is that as gamers we have backed many kickstarters over recent years and have been very excited during the kickstarter period and then frustrated by having to wait a year (or more) to actually play the game. Also, The Albedo Miniatures game is a new gaming concept. As far as we know there are no other ranges of anthropomorphic sci-fi miniatures available to use as proxies, and we want backers to be able to start playing and be able to participate in the play test of the rules, and also to experience the quality of the miniatures. A PDF copy of the introductory rules, cards and other player aids will be available to backers to download from 15th October.

LINK