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Do those metro troopers have anything to do with France game/lore wise?

 Syro_ wrote:
Do those metro troopers have anything to do with France game/lore wise?

Yes, they are from FRRM (or MRRF, whichever version one prefers) - Merowingian Rapid Response Force, who are descending from French colonists, stuck on the planet that is home to Ariadna. My Ariadna is a "bit" at odds with the official fluff. I prefer to see them as a descendants of Pan-European part of the colony, originaly drawn from all countries integral to ESA (European Space Agency), so French-German, Lotaringian rather than Merowingian. No Brits here because by XXII UK will definitely leave the EU, that and the fact that we have separate Caledonian subfaction.

Anyway, in Infinity the law is "if Your enemy is shooting at Your cheap machine gunner, he is NOT shooting at Your more important and expensive stuff". So, here is a very in-Your-face HMG and a very obvious (and otherwise questionable) Lieutenant.



Again, from Hasslefree miniatures. No flash, nothing to clean or fix... because the only apparent flaw is at the back of HMG bearers head. Directly under the weapon, no chance to fix that at all except to paint it and act as if there is a weird scar or a tattoo there. Single piece metal miniatures - a joy in its pure form!



Lets try to keep them running, more rag-tag Ariadna troopers to follow!

Moving on, here are shotgunner and marksman. Maybe that marksman will be a dedicated doctor? Usually my doctor spends his orders moving from a bad hiding place to an even worse hiding place or administers some medicine to nearby veterans, so it doesn't matter what rifle he (or she) has got.



Tried a bit different painting scheme for that girl, failed, too afraid to repaint now. No more experiments until I have these identical Mantic rebels in good quantities to not be afraid to mess one or two or even three.



Next are anti-tank MI and a non-combat VIP - and then it is over for this year of Infinity!

I like how the uniform for the marksman/medic came out- wouldn't call that a failure at all. And the detail on the scoped rifle is unbelievable! Terrific job!

Thanks, Meer_Cat, but... too much bleeding of one colour onto another. I've tried my best, but even though it may not be immediately seen I know these errors.

So... My Infinity plans for this year are complete! VIP and anti-tank specialist for my Ariadna, both from Hasslefree range.



The Joker is the first "multipart" Hasslefree mini - his D.E.P. tube is cast separately and can be replaced with a rifle, Not even a slight problem putting these two pieces together, very good contact, nothing to fix. Just perfect. VIP girl is one piece with a minor mould line. Easy! Painting was relatively uneventful, a few drops and repairs, as is usual for me... nothing bent or broken, thankfully. The joke, on the other thing, is a dirty one...



I've even got a better background for them -




I still need to invent a proper base rim colour for them all... and then paint it and take a group photo! But now it is back to fantasy.

Excellent pieces- well done! The washed denim look is particularly good!

To bring this thread back from hibernation, here is the proof of some progress on my tracked transports. Nearly done but some work is still needed. Smaller GT-S needs detailing and tent, larger GT-SM is somewhere half-way there. Perhaps in a week or two...




My plan for the second half of 2018 - Deadzone. I have a lot of sameish rebels that need something done about them to prevent "the war of clones" and a few enforcers that should be very similar, so... let's say, 8 rebs and 5 enforcers, that should be enough for a small demo in winter.

Two weeks later - they are finished. First, a little blurb I've promised.

When just 1% of Your territory is accessible by road all year round, You really need some good all-terrain transport, especially when You are serious about getting to all the mineral deposits, wood and wool and whatever is going and growing on at the other 99%. And despite all anecdote stories Your army is equally serious about keeping and not sharing all armor and transport it can get from the industry. Solution? Design small, inexpensive tracked transport with a lot of fuel capacity and not enough other bonuses to make Your army interested in taking over that project. That was the basic reasoning in the design of GT-S (tracked transport - snow/swamp) in 1950 on Gorky Automotive Plant. A quite trivial vehicle, made of motor compartment with 3+ liter engine and transmission, cabin for 2 and a passenger/cargo compartment with maximum load of 1 ton on its 5 rollers ("road wheels" according to Wikipedia, I am not particularly sure about terminology here). It was well received and despite all its weaknesses is still running wherever there are skillful hands to maintain it.

However, these shortcomings were considered significant. Nose-heavy vehicle frequently took swim in one direction only - down. Cargo capacity and volume were considered insufficient. Suspension was slightly overloaded as it was designed and in the course of usual expeditionary use was wearing down too fast. Thus, after about 15 years of production, GT-S was replaced by a larger, improved version - GT-SM (tracked transport - snow/swamp, modernized). Engine compartment was moved behind the cabin, separating it from the cargo bay. The thing became a reasonable swimmer, able to cross an occasional river but obviously not seaworthy. Extra pair of wheels and lengthened hull improved driving and cargo capacity (maximum load formally stayed the same), As time went by, this family of transporters got new engines, an idler was added to the rear of the hull... but here I have the original GT-SM without all the whistles!




Neat pair of kits, I almost feel depressed I've got them incomplete. The worst thing about them is the need to join a long (and warped) parts made of white metal and plastic (some sort of styrene, most likely of ABS variety, PS cement is working but not particularly well, details may still be pulled apart). Design-wise GT-SM kit is much better designed than the GT-S one. Better in everything, from material to overall shape and part fit.

Despite being in a significantly different scale (1:43 rather than 1:55 which is usually considered "right" for 28mm wargaming), they fit with Infinity, Deadzone and Hasslefree modern miniatures very well. It's the base thickness, most likely...



Onwards to Deadzone!

Nice transports- and surprisingly well-scaled, as you point out; I may have to look around at some other 1/43 kits to see what's out there. I routinely use 1/35, but oftentimes you do have to cut some things down to have them come out right, otherwise your scout car is bigger than a Leman Russ!

I feel your pain on trying to come with something short of a plasma welder to join plastic (of unknown provenance) to white metal (of equally dubious origins). I have a terrific Russian kit for a T-35 super heavy tank (the one you see with six turrets) and it has a lot of those little challenges. I'm thinking either greenstuff or two part JB Weld, which is another sort of epoxy, but gooey-er.

With apologies if you mentioned earlier and I missed it, whose kits are these?

Nice paint!

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Nice transports- and surprisingly well-scaled, as you point out; I may have to look around at some other 1/43 kits to see what's out there. I routinely use 1/35, but oftentimes you do have to cut some things down to have them come out right, otherwise your scout car is bigger than a Leman Russ!

I feel your pain on trying to come with something short of a plasma welder to join plastic (of unknown provenance) to white metal (of equally dubious origins). I have a terrific Russian kit for a T-35 super heavy tank (the one you see with six turrets) and it has a lot of those little challenges. I'm thinking either greenstuff or two part JB Weld, which is another sort of epoxy, but gooey-er.

Thanks. I know the pain of scale picking... Some years ago Airfix has released several very nice kits in 1/48, themed Operation Herrick, Afghanistan, our time. Coyote, Jackal, quad-bikes, Land-rover, lots of small junk. A bit on the expensive side and as scale models they were rather thin and fragile, but very, very good. Unfortunately, it seems they are out-of-print and hard to find now.

Tamya and some others, like Hobby Boss, are making WWII tanks and autos in 1/48, but these usually require a lot of efforts to not look as salvaged from museum Fallout/MMax pieces.

That Zvezda T-35 in 1:35 You have mentioned is an amazing kit for a great prototype. If I ever get back (should I say "really get back" as modellers never quit?) into modelling, this will be on top of the list, together with British Mark I (or something later, post WWI, like "independence".




Actually, I've heard of someone who has built another recent Zvezda kit, the Armata T-14 in 1:35, adding to it parts from two 1:72 Panther and two 1:72 T-80 by Revel to create a home-brewn Baneblade... Not for my hands, but sounds terrifyingly hilarious!

 Meer_Cat wrote:
With apologies if you mentioned earlier and I missed it, whose kits are these?

Nice paint!

My fault. Should have mentioned it somewhere - these two are from AVD models, some sort of Russo-Chinese manufacturer with a lot of semi-contemporary civil vehicles in their catalog. Googling produces these links Youtube and Rytm, both in Russian. They have some kits listed on Scale Mates, and then there is E-Bay...

So, the Deadzone... Enforcer half of the deal is really easy, just stick parts together... now, why don't they stick together? Mantic, have You been changing Your "restic" again? Sigh. Well, that does it. No more resin, unless it is a known resin. No more PVC and ABS of any kind, unless they are single-part prints for terrain. Metal and styrene from now on, but all these "plastic" miniatures I've already got still have to be put to some use... Argh!!!

And it is back to the sick bay for me. When best part of summer goes by like shadows on the ceiling, painting-by-numbers start looking acceptable.



Terrible, terrible PVC miniatures, held together by CNA in some cases, "Mario Bros Favorite" in others. I've finally been shown the wonders of the real flow improver liquid and I swear I'll not go back to green soap again. That is, after I get the said liquid...

Sweet paint jobs on those. What game are they from? Also sorry to hear you're sick again. Is it being made of PVC that makes these miniatures bad, or other things too? Hang in there.

 Syro_ wrote:
Sweet paint jobs on those. What game are they from? Also sorry to hear you're sick again. Is it being made of PVC that makes these miniatures bad, or other things too? Hang in there.

These are not the sormtroopers You are looking for.

These are Enforcers for Warpath (big battles), Firefight (skirmish) and Deadzone (skirmish-like boardgame) by Mantic Games. Basically, everything bad about them is PVC. Had I waited for "hard plastic" styrene version of them, it would have been so much better and easier. But no-o! Must have my precious-s! And here I am, with another two dozen of PVC models. Sigh.

They are very good design-wise to my eyes. That's how a faceless army of fearless, invincible, deadly, nameless and faceless bad guys should look. Well, two character miniatures break that "nameless" a bit, but not by much. "Paint-by-numbers" indeed - pick one miniature, chose which color goes where and repeat.

But the material... First of all, it varies even between individual parts of miniatures! Some are hard and can be cleaned with blade and sandpaper to the usual surface quality. Others are so soft I had to leave lots of mould lines after cutting too deep. About 2-to-1 ratio of hard to soft parts. Then there is the sticking point. I have a suspition that harder plastic is not PVC, but it is not ABS either. Plumbers glue melts it almost as good as PVC, making a satisfactory weld. UHU Hard fails to stick to the softer parts, it can be removed from it with just fingernail without any trace remaining. Bison PVC glue works okayish on both kinds.

Enough complaining, another three are done. Tried making them a bit darker and a bit lighter than before, liked lighter version better. Will stick with that.



I've even got the idea for base rim color after just 3 troopers - they will be white. And now - to think about rebels...

Thanks for the info Wirecat, I don't know much about Mantic products. I don't play any of their games, but consistently seem to like the look of their models when I see them here on dakka. I'm sorry to hear about how inconsistent that plastic is, it sounds frustrating.

More restic voes!!! Well, actually, not so much. Both the Iron ancestor (dreadnaught kind of tin can) and enforcer captain (space marine in terminator suit) were of harder type of PVC, easily welded with plumbers glue and cleaned to a reasonable level with a bit of knife edging. Painting was really uneventful, I even risked doing a bit of weathering, although my Martian dust looks more like a rust.



Doing something very different is refreshing. Next are rebels (boring) and multi-gun platform that looks way too orky to be dwarfish!

Even more restic. Weird, some times I am perfectly fine with this stuff, but then something goes really astray. This time it was that space dwarf gun, Not wanting to take any chances I took out the strong stuff - plumbers glue. It did it job, but then... the assembly started warping, as if I haven't straightened it out with hot water before! OK, now I have a warped and bent gun carriage, doesn't matter. The thing is way too silly and orkish to be taken seriously, and I have used it as a test bed for trying new tricks anyway.



My camera is once again producing oversaturated images, these rebels are not as white... and they do have some sort of eyes painted. Sigh. Well, at least their brown coats got captured fairly well. I like Mantic rebel scum if not for their repetitiveness and a very limited model choices. I'll see what I can do, IF I will get to that.

Note to self. Vallejo Bright Brass (metallic), Arctic Blue (metallic) and Royal Purple (of usual variety) produce very funny looking oxidized metal spots that are much more pronounced when dry than when painting. Try again next time, taking care not to overdo much.

This most likely wraps for a year all my Sci-Fi endeavours... unless I decide to do some small bits of this and that. Back to pulp and fantasy.

Some plans for the year ahead. Actually, 2018 was not bad for my Sci-Fi collection, I've done some things so lets make more of them! Namely:

- Warpath starter, space dwarf and human enforcers/corporation troops, about 40 miniatures;
- Industrial terrain for Deadzone, really not that much;
- Some scale kits repurposed as terrain for Deadzone or Infinity, I plan a flyer and maybe another tracked vehicle.

Sounds doable? Well, maybe... We'll see!

I am starting with dwarfs. Forge guard, to be precise, from Mantic. Fall together very well, even though they are more than a bit samey - there are only 6 bodies and assembling them any other way than the prescribed one is major pain in fitting wrong parts to wrong bodies. Since I plan to have just 12 of them I can live with duplicates... Mould lines are a problem, though. I've tried to clean everything, but will be hunting any accidents before undercoating them anyway.

Dwarfs-dwarfs-dwarfs-dwarfs-dwa-a-aaargh!!!



OK, no more plastic Sci-Fi dwarfs, unless I convert a few from the fantasy side. Now - enforcers.

Som enforcers (enforcer guard). These are slightly better and slightly more varied than forge fathers. Got 5 sets of them to make two 10-men squads, 2 by 2 heavy weapon specialists and some kind of commander. Their poses too can get repetitive, but with a help of a hobby knife one can quickly mix and match some pretty weird postures...

There are 10 more to be built, but these will wait until I get to the pathfinders and peacekeepers - maybe their stray bits will inspire me to try something weirder...

More and more grey plastic, this time enforcer pathfinders. Good simple kit from Mantic. Less variety then I'd like to, but still I wish I had obtained two of them rather than a single, for dog and bits. Heads are very nice!



Next week - zombies. I still hate them.

Zombies... they are passable. Could be more varied, but for my purposes 10 of them is enough and that is just enough variety to let paintwork do the rest.



Next week I'll probably will finish my enforcer guard. Peacekeepers are too different in scale to provide any useful bits for them...

The last of enforcer... guard. With weather rapidly improving and health staying more or less stable I hope to start painting very soon...

And that concludes the building phase. Weather is improving, health is... reasonable, so I expect to start painting things within a week, two at most. Hurrah!!!

Looks like quite the force you have waiting for the good weather, to begin painting. looking forward to it.

I'm thinking that last lot of figures would make good 'goon squad' figures for Kid_Kyoto's Arbites force! Hope that the good weather and continued good health let you get a lot of painting done.

Enough is enough, first painted thing of the year.

Since Warpath enforcers differ subtly from Deadzone (early PVC) enforcers, I've decided to slightly alter the standard recipe too. Not too much, surely... Basecoat AV medium sea grey, wash with AV smoke, highlight the same grey, add metallic parts, wash deep recesses with black, refresh metallics, add a little edge highlight and blue-purple for visors.



This one also has got bright orange gloves, washed with smoke, and matching neck guard, but they do not really stand out, which may be good. I will experiment further. Bases will be all kinds of industrial floor / ship desk with white rim.

Sigh. My camera again oversaturate things...

More stuff in the "preliminarily finished" state. Slightly too impressionistic for what I've had in mind, these three enforcers will have to wait some time to have their bases truly finished - I've realized that having too different bases might not be as cool as I've initially thought. Thus - no more progress so far.

Very nice- the armor/uniform colors are suitably subdued, as one would expect from people who make a living not getting shot at by being standouts; but the visors and especially the bit of red at the elbow joints and knee cops really makes the scheme pop. I like 'em!

I like them too, what do you want to change about them? Ever since first watching Star Wars I've been a sucker for white body armor on Sci-Fi soldiers