Tag Archives: blog review

Fjodin’s SHM Aliens for October 2012 – Naming Ceremony

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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

Beighton’s Shipyard Blog

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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

I Can Feel the Burn!

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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

Headless Undead fun over on Barking Irons!

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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

Flintloque Reviews on Voodoo Ork channel

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Rob Alderman, sculptor of Flintloque and other miniatures for Alternative Armies, operates a rather good YouTube Channel under the title of the Voodoo Orc.  He paints, reviews, looks at and talks about many gaming systems and miniatures but his first love (or at least he tells me it is!) is Flintloque.  So in response to requests from all of you out there in the wide world I have gathered Rob’s top video picks for fans of Flintloque.  These videos are all good fun and feature tips, information and of course lovely painted figures.  They are my picks and are not in chronological order of creation but hey, they make more sense to anyone not familiar with the game.

Have a look through the list here and click through to any that grab your fancy.  And of course if there are any Flintloque miniatures you would like Rob to look at comment on this post or email me direct at Alternative Armies.  Enjoy!

A Review of 5025 Flintloque – War in Catalucia

In this video Rob looks at the first game book in the series for Flintloque 3rd edition.  The third edition, written by myself and Mike White, is a quantum leap in the evolution of the the system from the previous edition with a greater page count much more art and that is before you get to the expanded world background and the excellent game mechanics.  I will let Rob tell you more…

The 4th Cacadores Light Infantry Regiment – Goblins of Al-Garvey

In this video Rob talks about his Goblin Light Infantry and lets everyone see how he went about creating his unit.

Guinalean Legion Bog Orcs “Unlucky 13th” Line Infantry

This video is all about Rob’s own vision for the Bog Orcs of the 13th Line regiment.  Unlucky…you bet!

Krautian Guard Infantry

Rob Alderman loves Dwarves…trust me he does!  One of his favourite formations are the iron helmed Dwarves of the Guard.  Check them out!

Todoroni of Nepolise Showcase

In this video Rob goes into detail on his most worked on sculpting race for Valon, the Todoroni.  This includes a look at his first full unit design for LEU01 a code with only 100 numbered sets now long sold out.

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I hope you enjoyed these videos.  I did.  I look forward to more on the world’s best alternative fantasy game soon.

GBS

Eve Hallow gets a Wargaming Blog!

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In a crypt near me a creature stirs from its slumber to emerge into the world of wargaming…that creature is none other than my good friend Eve Hallow.  Now that is not his real name, and it is a he, for apart from his luscious locks he does not much look like a lady. Like some other gamers he likes a ‘handle’ when online.  Eve lives near me in Ayrshire and as a result we can get together now and then for a game or two.  His favourite systems include HOF Fire-Team, USE ME Eldritch Horror and something called Warhammer 40k as well.  In addition to gaming he also is a fine figure painter and dabbles in sculpting too.

You can visit his wargaming blog to learn more about what he and I have been up to in the last month or so.  I have also linked it in my blog roll to the right as well.

We can expect to hear more of Eve Hallow in the next wee while as he has entered his first ever miniature into the SHM range and he has also painted up four of Fjodin’s SHM 15mm Alien Creatures too for use on 15mm.co.uk later this season.  You can also expect some AAR’s as well as we lock horns playing 15mm sci-fi, perhaps MOTH too and if he is brave enough some Flintloque.

Until then Stay Ghoul!  (Terrible pun, but he said it first!)

GBS

Join the Muster!

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“Make your way to the front of the line son.  You wanna fight for your King, you wanna fight for Prydia?  

Well you go right on in.  Sure, you get the Aketon Armour and the Moth Type 6 Rifle…but more than that; you get the pride boy!”

Sam Croes the digital man with the plan has posted the above artwork on his blog today.  Like me he has a liking for sweet little things in uniform (humm…not very PC, but hey it’s my blog!) so as he explains he created this bill poster in a couple of days just for the fun of it.  I want to get this as an actual poster for my wall.  It is that awesome.

Nice one Sam!

GBS

 

Rob Alderman has a video look at HOF Fire-Team

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Congrats to Rob Alderman, talented painter and miniature sculpter and all around good guy, for posting up a video review of HOF Fire-Team on his Voodoo Orc channel on You Tube.  He read a posting by the rules author of the game Bob Minadeo in which Bob pointed out that despite being playtested and bought by hundreds of 15mm sci-fi wargamers he had yet to see any review of the rules.  Well I like to read independent reviews (or watch them as in this case) and also had through it odd that there were no reviews of HOFFT while USE ME has had at least a dozen I know of.

Rob says he will be doing more posts about the game and perhaps even a couple of live play through examples too. Plus possible hobby articles like my own ones on TTWG blog about HOFFT tiles and scenics.  I look forward to this!

I have known Rob for about five years now and he always impresses me as a designer and as a person.  Keep up the good work lad!

Oh, and congratulations also to Harlequin Han on getting a 1st in her Fine Art degree…she is too good for the likes of you now Rob 🙂

GBS

Todoroni Pledge June – Watched with Pleasure

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2o Bellalugosi Line – Mama Mia!

‘Mamma Mia!, Toni has a made a lotta fussa over us’a!’ ‘Whatta we gonna do!’

Well I do not know about the Todoroni but I for one am going to give a round of applause.  Tony Harwood modeller and Flintloque fan has finished his June pledge and very nice they are too.  A set of 56505 Todoroni Militia from Alternative Armies.  You can see the final post in the series on the pledge over on Tony’s blog and from there trace them back to the start.  Check out the image above ‘itsa very nicea’.

Since joining Blogger I have been able to watch this pledge on screen developing from its unpainted origins to finished over a few weeks and it has entertained me; hence this little posting.

GBS

Hussite War Wagons by Mr Roy

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A good number of months ago a customer of 15mm.co.uk purchased quite a large number of the medieval Hussite War Wagon sold by 15mm.co.uk. His name is Emmanuel Roy and he has very kindly sent us and allowed me to make use of some great images of his wagons in action.  Today I replaced the image on the 15mm.co.uk website with photos taken by Mr Roy as they are way nicer than what we had.  HUC10 is a white metal kit that can be made up in a variety of ways.  It comes with all the parts needed including horses so you can have this ‘mobile fort’ in motion or static as per your needs.  So with that I chose to put these images on the blog today.

Please note that though 15mm.co.uk sells the Wagon and some of the pictured miniature many are by others makers so keep that in mind if you are searching the Medus Range.

Thanks Mr Roy.  Great pictures and a joy to look at.  You make me rather jealous!

GBS