Starport - Local Garrison

Just a quick post before I head off to bed - I've been working on a few bits and pieces over the past couple of days. These are the local garrison for my spaceport - a planetary defence force recruited from the planet itself as well as neighbouring worlds. 

From left to right we have: sniper in half ghillie suit,  NCO with pistol and reconditioned non-human power glove, officer wielding powerful pistol and bags of attitude, trooper with servo-arm assisted smartgun/heavy stubber.

L to R again: trooper with lasrifle with attached torch, NCO with machine pistol, comms trooper with hardround rifle, trooper with lasrifle and attached torch.

All of the above are sculpted by Mark Copplestone and are available from em4 miniatures. Some lovely sculpts - the pictures suck. But it's late, there's zero natural light and it's the best I'm going to get for now! When I expand them (I want another smartgunner and a bunch more standard troopers) I'll be sure to get better pictures. These are basically my not-NCR (New California Republic, from Fallout: New Vegas), to be used as Colonial Marine-types in my Predator Versus setting.

On the subject of expanding these guys, I did buy these a couple of years ago in a 50p eBay auction, recently rediscovered them whilst looking for parts for the security AA truck. I've decided to attach them to these guys, reminiscent of the troopers wearing power armour in New Vegas. I also have a Halo Warthog buggy that I'm going to paint up and attach to the force.

My thinking with these troopers is that they're basically not very well liked by the inhabitants of the starport - just as likely to tax them as to protect them from local bandits. The AA truck for example, is actually owned and maintained by the people that live directly in the starport, where you can find various militias who claim to be the one true force protecting the town. Think stormtroopers in Star Wars, or the Colonial troopers in Firefly.

Any suggestions for other additions I could make to these guys? I have a sci-fi tank that I could refit for these, just a plastic toy but could turn out quite nicely. Another note - I didn't lose any posts with the recent issues with blogger, but I did manage to lose a bunch of comments - so feel free to post again on the earlier blogposts!

Slow Start...

Well, I've had a rather slow start to the year - miniatures, painting and modelling have taken a backseat whilst I work out some of the real-life stuff mentioned a couple of posts ago. I'm viewing a new apartment on Tuesday, with the aim of moving into it (as long as it's in decent condition) the following Tuesday. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks! Meanwhile, I've been back to work which always takes a lot out of me, I've had a few different family events going on so they've taken my time too. I have got a few bits and pieces done miniature-wise, but nothing particularly of interest...

1. Dark Eldar - I've basecoated the first batch of 5 Wyches and the Hellion skyboards. Nothing else so far though - hopefully I'll have a chance to sit down tonight and maybes work on these...
2. Zombapoc - I've recently ordered a few different miniatures for this genre in order to add to my current hunters and zombies - some Studio Miniatures zombies, one survivor and then another 4 survivor/hunters from Hasslefree. All gorgeous miniatures that I've recently managed to wash/assemble.
3. em4 Soldiers - These will be fodder for the Predator games I have planned - I've managed to get these assembled and up to basecoat stage too.

Lots of little bits, but nothing of interest for a blogpost!

On the moving-out front, I've been painting various pieces of furniture, including a bed and a wardrobe. Give me miniatures to paint any day of the week...

I've also managed to buy 18 Quar off a forumite as well as 11 Horrorclix figures. Looking forward to receiving these in the post!

Bikers continued...

The last two Astartes of the Bike Squadron...

This guy got one of the new Blood Angel heads in the renovations...

The meltagun upgrade piece from the old bike squadron boxed set - I used the plasma gunner torso in one of the armies Tactical squads.

This Marine Captain is having his shield repainted - the shield hand had come off at some point, so I decided to redo it.

Dark Eldar Pain Tokens - they're made from pieces from the Warhammer 40k basing kits - various Marine and Eldar parts. Thought they'd be rather appropriate! I picked them up off eBay for this purpose, then days later there was an article on the Games Workshop website using the exact same bits for the same purpose! Great minds...

Had some PVA going to waste after the Pain Tokens, so added the sand and gravel to these soldiers for the wasteland/Predator games. I wish Imperial Guard had something equivalent to the Aliens Smart Guns. Man-portable Heavy Stubbers, filling the role of a SAW in Guard Squads. Oh well!

Bounty Hunter Crew - Hurn

Third member of the crew is complete - the not-Predator from Heresy Miniatures. This guy will also be used as a Predator in some other games - I've begun to collect some more materials to make some tasty-lookin' jungle terrain. I've been planning this for a while, but finally seeing Predators made me need to make some even more...