Couple of 15mm bits

Things have been really quiet here on the 15mm front, i've not really been able to get stuck in to any rulesets or get any games in so the models have been sat waiting to be painted but I did manage to finish off a couple of units.

First up is a group of GZG USNC Hardsuit troops, I honestly don't remember ever ordering these! but thought i'd have a go at painting brown and yellow together, they came out ok but i'm not sure how well they will fit in with the other USNC troops.

Next is a great Resin/Metal mixed kit from Khurasan miniatures the Corporate Marine L-HAC (Legged Heavy Assault Cyborg), this unit towers above all the over 15mm miniatures and Mechs I have and even works really well as a 28mm Mech unit. I always thought the model was familiar and it does appear to have more than a passing resemblance to Robo Cain from Robocop 2...

The unit stands really well on it's own so I left it off a base, I just need to get some buildings/city to scale it up against! :) Here's a comparison pic of the L-HAc against a few other minis to show it's size off:

In which I have a go..

Ever since I picked up my first 15mm miniatures and checked through the sculptors blogs i've wondered "could I do that?", so I had a go.
On a budget I grabbed the following kit, a strip of green stuff, some florists wire, a set of sculpting tools, a cork and a box to hold it all.

All of the kit above cost me less than a tenner so no harm done. Next up I needed somewhere to start with sculpting, I used the guide here on the Hour of Wolves blog to create an armature and was surprised at just how easy it was! Next up was the hard part, sitting down and getting to make something. Originally I was going to create some designs and work from them but I was itching to get going and so just got stuck in! and ended up with what looks like a mutant wanting to ballroom dance:

To be honest, the pics are blown up here and it does look a lot better in person, hopefully I will get it painted up soon and it will look a little better.

Overall this took me a few hours on and off to get finished and it gave me a real appreciation for the miniature sculptors out there. Looking at sculpts now it's so impressive how the straight lines of armour and how the minute facial details are created. One things for sure it has certainly driven me on to practise more and to see what else I can create!

New Horizons

...And so it begins. A few months back I kind of stumbled upon/ran into a whole new world of wargaming, i'd been an avid 28mm gamer for a long time being brought up on Rogue Trader and just expanded from there. Painting and collecting, chasing the elusive dream of a complete force.

I was happy, but in recent years the increase in costs/frustration at rules just left me feeling boxed in.

Then along came 15mm, I really cant express how awesome this discovery has been for me! the figures, the rules, the community, so...here I am trying to blog about my journey. Which leads me to....a whole new world of exploration of painting/collecting/photography/modelling.

I started off by picking up a few mini's from Ground Zero Games and just got cracking, here are the results:

and so to the first of my probs, playing around my camera I was having a few issues trying to get the light right and getting the camera to focus on the whole scene. I started off by painting up some USNC light Infantry, the models were great to paint and I really liked how they came out:

To back these guys up I grabbed some of the Spider Drones, when painting these up realized I had skipped over some cleanup and I tried a different paint scheme to contrast with the above troops:

I finally managed to get some better lighting sorted for the Spider Drones but must admit the close in shots show up so many painting defects! I still love the idea of multi legged combat walkers so to provide some heavy support to this group I added Gun Crab Walker, loved this model and the vision of it stepping over terrain firing of support shots:

Anyway, here was my first step into 15mm and I loved doing it all, the above took me just a week to build up and paint with an average of an hour a night so really a great plus for me! Only now I need to get some opposition painted up, some terrain sorted and get stuck into a few rule sets! :)