Baroness Julanna at the head of her Knights
My good friend Sam Croes has just posted up a piece of art by the talented Emel-de-Syrs. The art shows Julanne a baroness of the League of Canlaster at the head of her Retained Knights. A scene from the Ion Age universe taken from the MOTH game book. I really like this image, its got pace and drive and scale too. Makes a fella want to go AWOL from the Prydian Army and join the rebel Canlastrian ranks.
Well done Emel!
GBS
Since August I have been watching the progress of Eli Arndt’s tiny Fleet Scale Mecha designs and I am pleased to be able to say that Eli giving me the chance to get them into production has turned out brilliantly. This month will see them released in their own part of the 15mm.co.uk website along with a special Barking Irons Online article for them all about their presence in USEME and how to make best use of them overall in gaming.
FS01 Fleet Scale Mecha or 6mm Power Armour
FS06 Fleet Scale Mecha or 6mm Power Armour
These are some of the smallest wargaming pieces I have ever dealt with and on average each of them is 6mm or less in size. That said some clever mold making and production sees them in white metal which was then painted by Eve Hallow. They will be released as single miniatures and as value sprues which are a little cheaper. There are nine different, and they are different, mecha and from the paint schemes I asked Eli for Eve has done a super job (I heard him gibber when he handed them over that never again…too small!).
O.G.Joel has a draft of a 6mm rules set for USEME and these will fit in lovely.
Well done Eli!
GBS
There is just a week to go now until the release of the 777th Croaked Line and since I posted the second part of the three that make up this arc about the Undead Toads a lot has happened. In the last week or so I have taken delivery of two painted sets, both by pro-painters, each with a vision of just what these new and unique miniatures should look like. There is no official uniform or flesh tone for Zombie Todoroni as it has never existed before so there was a free hand for both Rob Alderman and Eve Hallow to do their thing on a set each.
I have many images of the two sets but I am saving most of them. Here is one shot of each of them so as not to disappoint or to spoil next week. Eye Candy!
Eve Hallows spooky and bloody ‘burtonesque’ 777th Croaked Line.
Rob Aldermans recently and long dead Bella Lugosi militia inspired 777th Croaked Line.
Along with the official release on Alternative Armies which will consist of a core set, trooper blister, recently dead blister and full unit too I have arranged with Craig Andrews over on Barking Irons Online to provide news of the release and an article about the characters of the set with lots of great images and a scenario entitled ‘Deep Freeze Toads’. A bonanza for Flintloque players who have suffered my lack of attention at the expense of 15mm sci-fi of recent months. I will not gush for long here in this post as this will happen in the article but I adore both these Flintloque sections. I adore Rob’s clean lines and crunchy flesh while Eve’s use of bright skin and blood spatter combined with stark black and white skeletons is superb.
So until next week..which do you prefer? Which will be the official uniform for the Croaked Line?
Its been a great build up but my role here is all but done…its Barking Irons turn now.
GBS
Uncle Rogipoos and Jose survey their new premises!
A few weeks ago Tony Harwood asked me to do him a little favour. What is it you ask! To send on a gift to Roger Willcox, or as he is better known to the Notables Yahoo Group ‘Uncle Rogipoos’. I was delighted to do this for Roger as he is a very entertaining and stand up fellow who often makes me laugh with his crazy tales of adventure on the group. Also to help out Tony who is a very talented modeller and fan of Flintloque. Above you can see the item which was the gift. The coop of the Were-Chickens of Beesdone. I could not resist having a look and taking some pictures. This image shows the coop along with Uncle Rogipoos and his pet Armadillo Jose, two miniatures from the VLE10 set based on Roger’s characters.
I can say that Roger got the gift in perfect time for Halloween as Tony asked me. He did open it a day early and I accept the blame for this as a recent bad head cold made me forget to email Roger and tell him not to open it to the 31st! But hey ho. I know Tony is planning a book on his wonderful terrain, perhaps the coop will feature in it.
GBS
Carrying on from the first part of this posting about the 777th Croaked Line for Flintloque and Alternative Armies I present to you all the end result of the molding process. White Metal miniatures!
Below you can see all of the poses in this brand new regiment both front and back views.
Vampyre Officer, Skeletal Liche, Skeletal Standard Bearer, Zombie ‘squeeze box’ player
Rear View of the above four
Zombie Chef, Decayed Zombie Private, Fresh Zombie Private, Skeletal Zombie Private
Rear View of the above four
Poor Dead Luigi!
Going from the top we can see all of the white metal loveliness. These are ‘tins’ that is master mold castings which are then used to make the production molds which will make all of the miniatures which will go out to Flintloque players all over the world. These are brilliant miniatures filled with character and inspiring a lot of adoration even at this point.
Being an Undead formation the unit code for these miniatures will be twenty eight figures strong which will be released alongside a pack of all the poses and a couple of blister codes for trooper boosters and extra dead Todoroni. So far reaction to my asking has been that the casualty should be in the core pack but not in the unit code. This might change. I know Todoroni players will want a pack of corpses for their mortal troops demise on table.
I am going to save naming these miniatures and character ideas until I see them painted up and complete which brings me onto the next part of this series of wee articles. Rob Alderman is busily painting up his own set of the 777th Croaked Line in a uniform of his choice…but…Eve Hallow is also painting up a set of the same with his own idea of the uniform. My plan? To bring you both versions! As this is a brand new Undead unit there is a lot of leeway with uniform choices and flesh tones. Rumour has it that Rob has gone for a variation on the Bella Lugosi Militia uniform and Eve has riffed on the historical uniform of ‘Kingdom of Naples’ line infantry. We will see what is what soon enough. I will be impartial and intend to studio photograph both sets…perhaps a vote on the Notables Yahoo Group to chose which uniform becomes the one for the official website page.
Until the flesh rots people….
GBS
Fjodin’s new 15mm Miniatures for the SHM Range
I have known Fjodin (I call him Nick) really since the first month after the SHM Range began on 15mm.co.uk. A young and fierce design talent he lives in Australia and though we have never met we speak fairly often by email and I enjoy his blog too. He has taken a real shine to the creatures of deep space and told me quite a while ago that he intended to sculpt as many of them as he could manage so that his vision of alien life would make it to the wargaming world. This is what the SHM range is all about. I doubt any miniature company except 15mm.co.uk (I am very responsive to industry and customer feedback, just read this ) would have looked at what will end up being a dozen unarmed creatures of all types and said ‘we will take a risk on these’. It is a shame that a lot of existing and new 15mm ranges consist of nothing but more ruddy human soldiers in powered armour.
My plan is to release all of Fjodin’s designs into SHM as single miniatures but also as packs for wargamers and even just painters to pick up and adore because they are quite simply lovely. Examine the image above, each of these creatures could very well be treading or oozing across the dirt of a world under a different sun right now. In wargaming terms they will all feature in my next USE ME project ‘Alien Safari’ which is a solo game system seeing a group of hunters or soldiers trying to capture or evade random critters. Fjodin actually inspired me to want to write this set of rules based on these creatures.
Fjodin left it up to me to name these creatures and so I have done so right here on this blog. They are, from left to right, as follows:
SHM44 Nessian
SHM45 Slurmite
SHM46 Avarep Cobra
SHM47 Galdor Burrower
The miniatures in the picture were painted by Eve Hallow and he did a great job I think as he had no idea and no instructions from myself or Fjodin on what these critters looked like!
These SHM codes are out at the end of this week on 15mm.co.uk.
GBS
HMS Surprise takes to the waves
Mighty Albion needs all the ships she can muster to hold the French tyrant at bay. This task for the Royal Navy has now become easier thanks to the laying of keel at Beightons Shipyard blog run by model maker Mark Burgess. Mark has come to my attention this last week with his impressive skill in assembling wargaming scale Napoleonic ships of the line. He has but one vessel at the moment but do go and read the postings as they are very interesting and his approach is to use paper, wood and more to make these unique models. Keep up the great work Mark!
Three Huzzah’s for the King!
GBS
Maj. Diz Aster over on Firebase Aries 15 blog is getting set to unveil a new adventure in miniature wargaming. I was intrigued by the image above and the cryptic clue and asked him for more details…to my delighted surprise I have been offered and have accepted a senior position in the new adventure which will feature USE ME heavily. More on this when the time is right…but I can feel the burn!
GBS
Mail Chimp Logo
Back in June 2012 I put up a posting that 15mm.co.uk would be switching over to Mail Chimp for its email marketing. Well since then the company has enjoyed using Mail Chimp and has built up a large mailing list which is responsive to weekly or fortnightly messages about new releases, special offers, support materials and more. The time arrived this week for Alternative Armies to do the same and move across to Mail Chimp for its email marketing.
You can see my motivations for switching in the previous posting and I stick to them. It is an excellent service.
So if you are a customer of Alternative Armies expect your inbox to feature some shiny new messages soon. In addition to product news I intent to feature links to Barking Irons for scenarios and such that are related to releases and also links to featured blogs for hobby and painting and so on tips. Plus some special offers too of course!
GBS
Tony’s Headless Zombie conversions
Craig Andrews has posted the last of the three parts of Tony Harwood’s ‘Headless Undead Fun’ arc for Flintloque over on Barking Irons Online. I have been wating for this for a wee while and indeed both he and Tony have put notes on the final scenario explaining the delay and what was going on. I am more than excited on this and have been patiently await it.
You can see scenario three entitled Getting Ahead Part Three – Just Get me the Hell out of Here! now. It is a cracking ‘steeplechase’ format scenario that sees Acting Captain Margahrah and his section try to cross several boards while the Undead try to stop them and prevent the wretched Halfling Posco from escaping their clutches. From there you can follow the links back to parts one and two.
The fiction in part one is well worth a read on its own and it explains why these Headless Shamblers exist and just what is at stake as the Ferach Grande Armee tries to retreat from the flaming hell of frzon Moskova and the Witchlands.
The first Headless Shamblers
Sometimes it takes time for elements to come together and for articles and material that wargamers are waiting on to be completed (I know this I think better than most!) but it is worth the wait and once more Tony Harwood with a little help has given us all some Flintloque gold. I hope he keeps his head!
GBS