Chaos Dwarves with axes (WQ)

I've just finished painting a few more minis for 15mm Warhammer Quest.  Here are another 1D3 Chaos Dwarves, this time with the more usual armament of axes.  Again, these models are from Copplestone Castings' excellent 15mm Fantasy range.  As with my 15mm Force on Force figures, I've used 1p pieces for the bases.

Chaos Dwarves with spears (WQ)

I needed a mini hobby task to get me back into painting, having returned this weekend from my first foreign holiday in nine years... So I've painted-up 1D3 Chaos Dwarves with spears, for my 15mm scale Warhammer Quest project.  These figures are from Copplestone Castings' 15mm Fantasy Range, & have a fantastic amount of detail:

I stuck to the traditional red-&-black colour scheme for these evil foes, & gave them a swarthy skin tone to suit the volcanic wastes of their Dark Lands, & to mark them out more strongly from Dwarves in the Warriors party.  I considered Green Stuffing the classic Chaos Dwarf helmet shape, but thought it might be too ambitious.  I may do this when I make a Chaos Dwarf Champion & Lord.  I've only painted 3 to start with because they're actually fairly tough enemies for low-level Warriors to face in Warhammer Quest.

Iraqi Republican Guard (FoF)

Whilst I've been mulling over a change of setting for Tomorrow's War with my friend Tim, I've been back to painting my Iraqi platoon for Force on Force.  I've nearly completed the force, which will consist of combined Iraqi regulars / Saddam Fedayeen, as featured in many of the battles from the Road to Baghdad sourcebook.  Below is one of the 3 rifle squads I have painted. They will usually be split into a 6-man fireteam with AKs, & a 2nd 4-man support team, which carries an RPG & RPD:

To save on cost & time I've been looking at dual roles for my Force on Force armies.  These Iraqi Republican Guard can also represent Syrian PLA troops in 'Lebanon 1982' games. Below are the NCO, medic & CO, plus a 73mm recoilless rifle team:

Public Security agents (TW)

Now that I'm comfortable with the look of my fledgling 15mm Tomorrow's War collection, I've painted some Public Security agents.  The inspiration for these was mainly the Section 9 operatives from Ghost in the Shell (I based one of the figures on Major Kusanagi), but I was also thinking of Bladerunner & The Fifth Element when working on these.

They are the first proper 'character' figures that I have painted in 15mm scale.  I thought carefully about colour schemes, & lavished more time on them than standard troopers, & I think it's paid off.  I think I've managed to achieve a bit of a unique feel to each one, to give them some sense of character.

The men are Rebel Minis Irish Hitmen figures, whilst the women are Rebel Minis Black Widow Mercs. There are quite a few other minis there that I have an eye on for my Tomorrow's War cyberpunk setting too.  More of these agents (plus Seriously Wounded variants) will follow...

Public Security assault troopers (TW)

Sticking with 15mm scale, this week I finished some more figures for Tomorrow's War.  Here is a fireteam of Public Security assault troopers:

Public Security is a clandestine department that fights a 'ghost war' against rogue government agencies, cyber-terrorists, & corrupt multinational corporations.  These troops are called on when Public Security agents require some heavy backup, or to carry out raids or hostage rescues.  The team leader on the right has a pistol, the 2 soldiers at the front count as armed with suppressed SMGs, whilst the rear left one has an assault rifle, & the last bloke has a SAW (I cut the barrel off what I think was an SA-80, to give it a blockier near-future look).

I went with a limited urban palette & a simple mottled camo scheme (inspired by Half Life: Black Mesa) but I'm pleased with the results.  I tried painting a glowing effect on the turquoise eye lenses to add a touch of the futuristic.  These miniatures are Rebel Minis SAS, & the sculpts are of good quality, though I thought it was odd how all but the SAW gunner are modeled as left-handed.

Combat androids (TW)

In a break from the large volume of 15mm Middle East stuff that I've been producing lately, I've dipped into the miniatures I picked up earlier this year for Tomorrow's War (the near-future companion rules to Force on Force).  I've been a fan of Ghost in the Shell for a while, particularly the Stand Alone Complex series, & I've also been very inspired by the brilliant figures painted by Mark Kinsey.  I have in mind a background that will be an amalgamation of Ghost in the Shell style cyberpunk, mixed with the inter-corporate skirmishes of G-Police, with a setting & scenery look that draws heavily on Bladerunner.

Here are some combat androids that I have dubbed AIT-7 'Ashigaru' units.  Painting them was very straightforward, but I'm really pleased with the results - 2 thin coats of white as a base, then a wash of Ultramarine Blue with a touch of Red Gore in it to bring out the detail.  I then highlighted the raised sections of plating etc with white, leaving some darker shading in places.  The trickiest part was adding dots of red to the optics/sensors, especially the miniscule trio of lenses in the centre of the faces!  These will have been manufactured by a Japanese corporation initially to bolster the JDF during WWIII, but subsequently exported.  As well as security duty for multinationals, many have found their way through the black market into the hands of dangerous factions.

These excellent miniatures have fantastic detail as well as a variety of great poses, & were purchased from Rebel Minis - they are marketed as 'Shalur Mercenaries'.

Wrecked car (FoF)

Here's a wrecked Mercedes (from Peter Pig's 'AK47 Republic' range) that I painted a while back.  It's a single resin piece.  I'm pleased with how the windows came out as it was the first time I've attempted painting a glass/canopy effect at 15mm scale.  A small but neat bit of scenery for Middle East Force on Force games.

Middle East warehouse (FoF)

This week I finished a large warehouse for 15mm Force on Force.  I've kept it fairly simple, but the addition of N Scale corrugated sheet for the roller doors at the front adds a nice bit of detail I think.  I was considering looking-up Arabic text for "warehouse" or "garage", to paint a sign above the main door, but decided to leave it generic for now.  Below are a few photos of the warehouse with a Delta Force fireteam securing the structure:

Middle East / Somali graffiti (FoF)

During my recent more-productive-than-usual phase I've been adding a few graffiti slogans to my Force on Force buildings.  As I'm trying to focus on Mogadishu scenery for Day of the Rangers at the moment, I copied or adapted most of these from DVD extras stills of the sets from Black Hawk Down.  The amateurish depictions of guns & hurried scrawly style hopefully will lend a bit more character to my terrain.  I think they have a generic enough feel for use in wider Middle East settings too.  In the future I will have to print-off some tiny posters to plaster about on the walls too.  Here's a selection of the graffiti - the total amount of blank wallspace in my scenery compared to these is high, so the street daubings won't dominate: