15mm sci-fi - update

Over the last week I have painted up another few 15mm tanks for Hammers Slammers...

Most are my own sculpt, but there's also four Brigade Models 'Rhino MTB' as well. I can't remember what the walker is, but it's painted up quick and simple in the same colour scheme. I just need some infantry now...

Trees

So I have gotten myself started on a nice box of 'countryside' terrain now. First up are the woods; I cut 60mm rounds from 3mm thick cork tiles and then glued them to 3mm MDF board. Cut to shape with a jigsaw, a coat of sand, a sealing coat of PVA glue, then household paint and flock. The trees are glued in singles and small groups onto 60mm diameter bases made from 2mm MDF (cheap on Ebay)

And there we are. The trees are good and stable, the area terrain is cleanly defined, and they come off easily for storage. The next piece will be a minefield (difficult and dangerous, offering no cover in 40k terms) made from more 3mm MDF and cork tiles, using half press-studs as mines.

Slow progress

I have finished painting the Space Wolf transport, and got the first bits of colour onto the shop...

I'm particularly pleased with the las/plas turrets for the Razorbacks - I will put together a set of pictures to show how to make them, as they're really easy and rather effective in the game.

Feeling chuffed

Those nice guys at the Overlords podcast ran a competition a while back - finish a story in a thousand words or less - and I got an email from Steve this evening to say I had won! And it's a great prize, too - a signed copy of 'Horus Rising'

The entries can be read here... and this was my short story; the italic section was the 'starter paragraph'...

---

Sitting in a room that looked little more than a steel box he was shivering, visibly shivering, his teeth snapping together sounded like a drum in his head that accompanied the baseline of his heartbeat rumbling through his ears. It wasn't his flimsy clothing or even the cold steel of the room that caused such visible involuntary movements. No, it was the ice cold eyes. The eyes of the Inquisition. He knew he'd pushed his luck once too often and now he was heading for a whole lot of hurt.

“You look ..............”

“I'm just a bit uncomfortable in this chair”

“discomfort?”

“I, I, I .....................”

"Uncomfortable is a stone in your boot or a crick in your neck after falling asleep in a chair, maybe a paper cut. I suspect you will soon want to re-assess your definition."

The young man said nothing more. He knew it was his own actions, and his own inactions, that had brought him to this room. He thought about what he knew of the Inquisitor. What was the rule? Be truthful or be silent. The Inquisition know.

He looked up and raised his chin, trying to put a little steel into his posture. The Inquisitor was seated behind his desk, looking for the world as though he did not feel the chill that radiated from the reinforced walls. Long minutes passed as he read through a scribe-written sheet of notes. Tall, youthful (though that was rumoured to be the result of many rejuvenat procedures), lightly built, fair haired; not an obvious candidate for the Inquisition, but it was rumoured that he could wring a confession from a rock.

The Inquisitor leant forward, augmentics clicking softly beneath his skin.

"You visited a shop on the Street of the Holy Bolter."

The young man nodded his agreement.

"You will speak or this will go badly for you. This was your choice. Do not make it harder than it has to be."

"I did. I was just..."

"Answer the questions. We are establishing facts. We may come onto justifications later, if that is necessary. You visited a shop on the Street of the Holy Bolter."

"I did."

"Where you purchased some five hundred lasgun charge packs."

"Yes."

"You then proceeded to Deliverance Way where you purchased two hundred and five standard weights of a promethium based malleable explosive."

"Yes."

"And three hundred variable delay detonators."

"Yes."

"Good. We are establishing the facts quite efficiently. I do wonder, however, whether you are just telling me what you think I want to hear. And that brings us back to the contrast between discomfort and... other feelings."

The Inquisitor reached into a desk drawer and brought out a small box, similar in size to a pistol case. Outwardly it was unremarkable, a standard military grey case stencilled with the sign of the holy Aquila and a yellow circle with a red symbol that he did not recognise. To the young man, even before it was opened, it radiated malice. Malice and the promise of pain.

"Hold out your hands."

The young man hesitated, barely a twitch, but the Inquisitor saw his reluctance.

"Now."

The Inquisitor did not raise his voice by the slightest amount, but the young man's hands leapt forward without conscious thought; it was as though they had been guided by the Inquisitor's word.

He opened the box and brought out a pair of gloves; dark grey and gossamer thin, they were covered in fine copper tracery that ran through the weave of the material. He handed them to the young man, who put them on unfalteringly.

"Yes, I am controlling your physical actions. I am not controlling your mind. Your thoughts, your fears, your feelings, they are all your own. Now that you have the gloves on, let us try again. And this time, with meaning."

The gloves tightened around the young man's hands, pulling close to his skin, and he felt them begin to insinuate their substance into his flesh.

...

Time passed.

The young man pleaded.

Time passed.

The young man screamed.

Time passed.

The young man whimpered.

And each time, the Inquisitor was there to ask the questions again.

...

The young man looked down at his hands. It was hard to believe how much pain had flowed into his body through his fingers; they must be completely destroyed by now. The gloves had inflicted every possible type of pain imaginable. He had felt the gloves draw his nails from his fingers, felt his bones break, felt them crushed to powder within his skin. And still the Inquisitor stood there, asking those same questions in a level voice, as though none of this were happening.

"I believe we have confirmed the facts. Hold out your hands."

This time there was no hesitation. The Inquisitor drew the gloves from the young man's hands. Drew them from his unbroken, straight fingered, intact hands.

"Inductance gloves. Colloquially known as pain gloves. I acquired them from a contact in the Imperial Fists chapter of the Adeptus Astartes, where they are used for training. And this is the contrast. To you, the gloves inflict unimaginable, unendurable pain. To the Astartes, they sharpen the mind. Discomfort, if you will."

The young man slumped in the chair. He knew that he had told the Inquisitor everything. There was nothing hidden, nothing concealed. There was nothing he could do except await the Inquisitor's judgement.

"You may leave"

The words came as a shock, and the young man stumbled as he rose to his feet.

"But you may wish to consider this, Sergeant Barrow. Keep your receipts and next time your expenses claim will be much easier to verify."

The transport pool

I have managed to get the transport pool for my Space Wolves assembled and primed. Unlikely to have them painted before the game on Monday, but at least they're started...

Three rhinos painted. Four razorbacks primed - one assault cannon, one lascannon, two las/plas. And the slight lingering smell of cheese and spam...

Scenery for 1950s America / Fallout type skirmish game

I was wandering round the boot sale, early on Bank Holiday Monday, and I happened to find a couple of bits from the 'Cars' movie of a few years back. Basically, two Happy Meal promotional cars and a curio shop. Of course, I carry a 28mm figure in my pocket when I go to these sort of things (doesn't everyone?), so a quick comparison later I was shelling out two quid for these bits of plastic.

GW Imperial Guard for scale...

They could be the basis of something like a cross between Fallout, Gamma World and Paranoia...

I'm thinking about whether the Warhammer Historical 'Legends of the Old West' rules could be re-skinned to serve as a set of skirmish rules for post-apocalyptic America in the 1950s. Neil from Meeples and Miniatures has suggested Ganesha Games' 'Mutants and Death Ray Guns' as an alternative; I may have to download a copy of that. Of course, GW's 'Necromunda' may do the trick.

So what would I want to cover a 4x4 table? As well as the shop (which is just a re-paint and a base) I want to make a water tower - there's always a water tower, isn't there? - and a house and barn. Then I need some fencing, some trucks and cars (possibly rusted solid, but you can hide behind them) and a billboard advertising whatever film was big in 1952...

And here's the first part of that work - the shop has been based on 6mm MDF, and the step disguised with torn cork tiles. I will be covering it with sand later, then an overall spray of primer and I can start painting...

And a quick spray of black primer, an overspray of grey, and it's ready for painting. Unfortunately I flipped the top section against the newspaper while it was wet, so I need to tidy up the advertising panels, but it's looking good so far.