Inquisitorial Scions (TW / W40K)

I've been temporarily diverted off my Tomorrow's War jungle colony project this week by all the great 15mm-scale Warhammer 40,000 conversions I'm seeing out there - especially Dan's Tau, Orks, & Sisters of Battle on Gunners Wargaming.  So I've been putting together some Inquistorial Scions (Stormtroopers) using Rebel Minis Titan Marines.  I've been thinking for a while that they would look good for this purpose, & after a simple paint-up, I'm pleased with the results.

As my first-ever attempt at converting 15mm infantry, I had a go at Green Stuffing a couple of grenade launcher figures, plus a plasma gunner.  I'm most pleased with the plasma gun.  The grenade launchers came out a little big (although it's 40K, so not really a problem!) & they're not as cylindrical as I'd like.  I may try to smooth out the launchers. 

If I get round to using these for gaming, I'll be using the excellent Tomorrow's War rule system.  Below are some photos of the minis before painting, showing my amateur Green Stuff skills...

Liebster Award

Recently I was kindly nominated for a 'Liebster Award' by Barks, which made my day, thanks Barks!  I'm new to the concept of the Liebster, but I feel I should do my best to follow the informal rules as I understand them.

There are so many great wargaming & miniature hobby blogs out there, it's such a fantastic community we have.  I'm going to find it hard to pick nominations, so I'll start by directing the reader to the list of blogs that I follow down the right-hand column of this page.  I really enjoy the updates from all these great bloggers.  Have a trawl!

However, if I had to pick some current favourites/Liebster nominees, they would be as follows (in no particular order):

█    Gunners Wargaming. Dan has been putting out some outstanding 15mm-scale Warhammer 40,000 conversions, including Tau, Orks, & now Sisters of Battle! Stunning conversion work at this tiny scale.
█    Dave Taylor Miniatures. Dave churns-out fantastic Warhammer 40,000 figures, including many intricate kit-bashes.  His recent Mechanicum models & Gaunt's Ghosts are absolutely amazing.
█    Imperial Armour.  Tacobat produces gorgeously realistic paint jobs on modern & 20th Century tanks, AFVs, & infantry.  So much eye-candy.
█    Modern Wargamer.  Gunrunner paints lots of ultra-modern & sci-fi 15mm-scale minis & scenery to a really high standard.  Great stuff.
█    Monty's Wargaming.  I really enjoy reading about areas of wargaming/miniatures that I'm not familiar with on Monty's blog - such as Vikings/Normans, 28mm-scale WWII, & Judge Dredd.  Also there are the occasional thoughts on wargame-fodder movies & computer games.

I would have included Wargaming with Barks as well, but he's recently been awarded a Liebster anyway, & it seemed silly to pass it back!

Tents (TW)

This weekend I've painted-up six tents for 15mm-scale Tomorrow's War.  These are 'Sahadeen Hab Tents' from Rebel Minis.  They are nice solid resin sculpts, & very straightforward to prepare & paint.  I've painted them up in a generic military green, to be used as either UMC or Colonial Militia tents.  To help tie them in with the jungle bases of my scenery & figures, I drilled a few holes here & there to glue-in the tiny stems of aquarium plant leaves.

Jungle cliff & small foliage scatter (TW)

This week I finished off the cliff with some lichen & small ground plants, & made another dozen small foliage scatter pieces.  In Tomorrow's War rules terms, these small-base jungle pieces will be usedt o designate areas of Light or Average Woods.  I will make irregular-shaped bases for the areas of jungle, so that the footprints are clear.  The scatter foliage will define the type of vegetation, but can be moved as needed to accommodate units moving through the jungle.

Jungle cliff (TW)

This weekend I made my first terrain piece (other than scatter foliage) for my Tomorrow's War jungle colony setting - a cliff.  I'm pleased with how it's turned out, but I don't think it looks finished yet - I'll add some lichen & dark green Gale Force 9 flock for ground plants, & pick out some small loose stones in grey, which should break up the patches of earth & grass a bit.

The cliff / outcrop is built from 2 ragged chunks of polystyrene, glued to an unwanted stand from the back of a picture frame.  I added a few real stones in places as boulders jutting out from the cliff, then textured it thickly with all-purpose filler.  After that it was a case of several coats of drybrushing on the dark blue-grey undercoat, whilst I marked out the areas of grass & earth with paint before flocking using Gale Force 9 flock.  The foliage is snipped from plastic aquarium plants.

Pariah (W40K)

Today I finally finished painting this Inquisition agent for Warhammer 40,000 / 'Inquisimunda'.  It was strange going back to 28mm scale after many months of 15mm painting, but I found the detail work a lot easier!  This is Issla Black, a pariah in the entourage of Inquisitor Augustus Dissero Isiah.  Her soulless psychic-null-effect is much valued by the Inquisitor & his other agents.  Issla is young & much less experienced than many of her comrades, so combat-wise she won't excel as highly.  Nevertheless, she is armed with a pair of stub pistols, & knows how to use them. 

This figure is one of the many fantastic sculpts from Hasslefree Miniatures - Dionne (b) from their Modern Adventurers range. 

Hostile Somali civilians (FoF)

This week I painted up some 15mm scale hostile Somali civilians.  I will use these (alongside Somali gunmen) in Mixed Mobs for 'Day of the Rangers' Force on Force scenarios.  My next batch of single-based Somali civilians will be less actively hostile, & will include some female figures in traditional African dresses.  Mixed Mobs are a challenging prospect for the UN / US player, as he will want to avoid civilian casualties where possible, but when faced with armed militia amongst groups of civilians, this becomes very difficult.


 The figures are mostly Rebel Minis Modern Rioters, which are excellent sculpts with very realistic proportions; although their hoodies make them a bit more suitable for Western/Northern unrest settings.  I have saved the figures with placards for use on Hostile Mob bases, whilst there is another variant in the pack wearing a trenchcoat that doesn't fit the African setting.  The mini with the chainsaw is from the Peter Pig AK 47 Republic Range Looters pack.

Tier One Personality (FoF)

Today I finished a 'Tier One Personality' for Force on Force games in Somalia.  I was specifically thinking of Osman Atto (financier of Aidid's militia) when I was painting this figure, as there is a scenario of his capture in the 'Day of the Rangers' book; but I'm going to be painting-up a group of similar figures which can represent High Value Targets or hostages.

The figure is from the Rebel Minis 15mm Hostages pack.

Revised colonial militia fighter (TW)

Here is my revised paint scheme for colonial militia in Tomorrow's War.  Based on feedback, I've reduced the diversity of colours (though I have kept the bright orange in the form of the base colour of the spots on the camo hood).  There's still a lot of colour on the figure, which is something I definitely want, but they are now mostly traditional forest tones.  I was a inspired by WWII 'autumn oak-leaf' Wehrmacht paratrooper camouflage for the hood.

I think I'll go with this general scheme for my 'scratch' militia - keeping the hoods the same, but with variations in tops and trouser colour.  This figure is wearing captured UMC gear (trousers and some of his equipment pouches).  One aspect of my militia figures I haven't decided on yet is the goggles that some of them are wearing.  On other test minis, I have painted these in the same green as the gun casing & with red lenses, to match my colonial androids.  This is for a bit of uniformity, & to suggest similar manufacturing source.  However, this looks quite toy-like, so I'm thinking I may go with gunmetal and various coloured lenses.  I think the gun casing and lenses alone should be enough to visually link the militia with the combat droids.

As mentioned before, I am using Rebel Minis Sahadeen for my militia.  These are 15mm scale figures mounted on 1p bases.