Fully Painted: Pig Iron Sci-Fi Infantry, and More

A couple years ago, I got my hands on a big ol' box of gorgeous sci-fi infantry figures from Pig Iron Productions. Now, if you know me, you'll know that I'm a sucker for anything by Pig Iron. The gritty, near-future aesthetic of the figures aligns perfectly with my sci-fi wargaming interests. I've already got a big skirmish army built from Pig Iron's Heavy Infantry figures, as well as a hefty group of the totally awesome Kolony Ferals.

This new lot -- offered up by fellow club member Karl after one of his many bargain-hunting transactions on ye olde Internet -- included 30+ Kolony Militia figures. These guys have greatcoats and gas masks and military gear, and they look fantastic everywhere I've seen them. The militia guys were unpainted, and they sat in a box at least a year while I fiddled around with other projects.

I finally got started painting them last summer. My goal is to do small groups in different paint schemes, so they can be used on their own as warbands, or as squads in a larger army.

Here are the first two groups. I'm not sure what to call them -- either half-squads or reinforced fire teams, or something similar.

And just for fun, here are a few more sci-fi figures I finished up recently.

This guy is from from Ratnik Miniatures (via Lead Adventure Miniatures) ... he is called an "assassin," but he could easily work as a squad leader, sniper or forward observer.

These are a couple female troopers from Hasslefree Miniatures. I really like them because they don't have the typical ostentatious armor and crazy proportions that characterizes the female form in most miniatures. Their armor and poses look fairly functional and realistic.

And lastly, we have three character models perched atop some really amazing resin bases that I picked up at the Games Plus auction last year. The resin bases were unpainted, unlabeled and I have no clue where they came from.

The figures themselves are (from left): Pig Iron Kolony Militia, Reaper Chronoscope (trying to be a Gears of War guy) and Warhammer 40k Vostroyan (some of my favorite recent 40k sculpts).

Studious blog readers will note that a few of these guys have already hit the table in various battle reports this year. They're not particularly new -- this is just the first time I've gotten them all together for some decent photos!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

A Harryhausen-Themed Stop-Motion Monster Warband

I have always been an avid fan of stop-motion effects in film. Once the bread and butter special effects in the age before digital animation and CGI, they are now seldom seen. I grew up on films such as “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad” and “Clash of the Titans” wherein actors hacked and stamped in stilted sword and shield combat with bone-dry skeletons, or fought giant scorpions and colossal bronze statues brought to life.

When I saw the models from the Fractured Dimensions Infernal Minions Kickstarter by Brett Zeleznik, I couldn’t help but notice that the Cambian Lord looked very similar to the character of Caliban from the early 80’s "Clash of the Titans" movie. Coupled with a giant scorpion model from Pardulon Models that I had acquired, I suddenly had the idea to build a "Clash of the Titans" Harryhausen-themed warband for Song of Blades and Heroes.

The idea simmered in my mind, and I picked up several models for the warband over the course of the next year

The Cambian Lord (Fractured Dimensions), who was to become “Caliban”

The resin Giant Scorpion (Pardulon Models) dubbed “Fluffy,” one of the most realistic scorpion sculpts out there. Many of the Reaper and similar scorpion miniatures are very unrealistic in proportion and form, and often end up very comic compared to the real thing.

An Abbot Dol Warrior (Fractured Dimensions), very similar in form to the Cambian Lord model. This figure was to become Grimus, a minion of Caliban. (I said themed, not exact to the films!)

A Demon Type V model (Fractured Dimensions), originally a six-armed figure with a snake tail instead of legs and two options for the torso. I also aquired a Reaper Bones Medusa, but eventually opted to instead use the demon model for “Medusa” even though it required some conversion. The PVC material in Bones figures is too flexible in small models.

A Demon Type IV model (Fractured Dimensions) using the helmet and trident option became a flying Warthog monster called “Oinkos” who has been the bane of my opponents this campaign season. While not really a proper fit with the Harryhausen monsters, this model had the same absurdity of form and was thematically a classic in it’s own right.

Skeleton Warriors (Wargames Factory). I looked at several models, primarily looking for the greek style sword and shield. While there are others out there that fit the bill including some produced by Reaper and Otherworld, the cost or materials were negatives. As an added advantage, the Wargames sprues contained the perfect bow and quiver set for the Medusa conversion!

And finally a Talos (Mierce Miniatures), to represent… well… “Talos” a very classic Harryhausen monster of course. I don't have a pic of this fellow just yet.

All of these sat unbuilt and unpainted on my desk until the SBH summer campaign approached, and suddenly I had a week to put together my warband. In three evenings, I assembled and based the entire warband. The Fractured Dimensions models were all very well cast with very few mold lines to remove. The Medusa conversion was very fiddly due to very tiny pieces, and I was forced to drill and pin the bow through the hand so that it would not get knocked off during game play.

Contrary to much of what I have read about the Wargames Factory skeleton models, they were actually very easy to assemble, and work with. The legs are thin, but sufficient to hold up the model, though there is some flex. On the fourth evening of this project, I finished assembly and basing on three skeletons, and painted the warband to a satisfactory tabletop standard, with all of the painting except for a basecoat on the Scoprion model taking place that evening. Talos was not completed at that time, and will be featured in a later blog post.

The detail on the skeleton shields was completed in a follow-up hour of painting.

Overall, while I may yet touch up some of the models, I am very happy with the completed result given the short time frame, and they look great on the tabletop as "Caliban’s Cursed." I created the warband as an "evil" team, allowing Medusa to shoot into combat, and used the standard SBH stats for the skeletons, Fluffy, and Medusa (with the addition of unerring aim to add a small amount of potency without making her overpowering).

Caliban, Grimus, and Oinkos all all received the mutant ability to represent the “Cursed” moniker. I have found it to be a flavorful (but negative) inclusion, since all but two of my mutation roles have been detrimental. I've been forced to use experience advancements to bring them back up to or near original stats.

Caliban was given the necromancer trait to raise more skeletons from combat casualties as the existing ones are destroyed. This is another skill that has proven very difficult to actually use in game. Oinkos has proven to be the brute of the warband. His big, flying, and long move skills make him dangerous in combat, and his primary use has been to quickly take objectives or as a mobile combat support which he excels at. His brutish capability has, however, been offset as the campaign progresses by the fact that fully half of the warband are undead or animals and do not take experience or advancement.

"Caliban's Cursed" has definitely been one of the most creative, fun to build, and fun to and play warbands that I have put together in a summer campaign!

-- Jon, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

The Grimy Jewel Campaign: Session 1 Report

It's summer in Chicago, which means we're getting our annual fantasy campaign underway once again. A vibrant fantasy campaign has been a hallmark of CSW since its inception back in 2010. As in years past, we're sticking with Song of Blades & Heroes as our primary ruleset, though some games may be played with other rulesets such as Kings of War and Open Combat.

We decided to set this year's campaign in the city of Vildeburg itself. Dubbed "the Grimy Jewel of Qaarra," the medieval city of Vildeburg is home to all manner of warbands, each one plotting and scheming to gain profit and advantage over the others.

Ironically, though, our first session took place, not in Vildeburg, but far afield in the foothills of the Valkenwrath Palisades. See, one of our members has apparently had enough of Chicago's bitter cold and endless snow, so Mattias (of the excellent Amateur Hour blog) will be relocating to sunny Hawaii in a few short weeks. To send him off in style, we quickly threw together a scenario featuring a full-scale incursion of Qaarra by an invading force of pale, dead-eyed warriors from the Wyrdwold.

The Wyrdwold, of course, is Mattias's homebrew setting, into which he has poured voluminous amounts of creativity over the course of many months and years. It was a real treat, then to see him deploy a huge force of diverse miniatures from his Wyrdwold collection onto our battlefield for the scenario.

Arrayed against Mattias's Wyrdwold warrior (roughly 1,000 points in Song of Blades & Heroes parlance) were three allied warbands: Josh's Dark Mariners, Terrence's Nameless Orcs, and Karl's Holy Warriors. Their job was to stymie the advance of the Wyrdwolders, who were pouring out of a spectral, half-glimpsed cleft 'twixt a pair of ethereal hills that served as a portal between the Wyrdwold and Qaarra.

In this pic, the Nameless horde surges over a bridge while the Dark Mariners negotiate a river in the background. Karl's holy warriors are on the far right, also about the cross the stream.

Here's a closer look at the Dark Mariners. These are newly painted, from the DeepWars game line.

Just a mess of tentacles and spearguns, wherever you looked.

In game terms, this was a pretty big game. Karl, Josh and Terrence fielded roughly 1400 points among them, and Mattias's faction received one free random monster at the start of each turn, to represent oddities from the Wyrdwold slipping through the astral portal and wreaking havoc on the opposing warbands.

On the first turn of the game, Josh's siren cast a weather spell, and a fearsome rainstorm began scouring the battlefield. As it happened, a fearsome rainstorm soon swept into Chicago, so we were able to do a little live-action roleplay later in the evenings as everyone ran out to their cars. But in the game, the rainstorm had a few measurable effects: it reduced line of sight and limited all shooting to the shortest range band. This proved important during a few key engagements!

Here's a glimpse of the battlefield as the lines edged closer together. In the mid-ground, the gigantic beast with its fists upraised is a scarp dweller from the Wyrdwold, newly arrived and mad as hell about it.

And in this pic, two mounted warriors crashed into the Dark Mariners' line in a glorious cacophony of clanging metal and slishing tentacles. In the foreground, missile troops pour fire into the periphery of the fight.

Karl's holy warriors got a bit mauled in this game. What do you expect from a group of barefoot peasants led by clerics and paladins! Here they are advancing toward a truly gruesome skirmish line of demons and mutants. That octopus is probably fleeing as fast as his little tentacles can slither.

Here's another look at the battlefield. Individual fights were breaking out all over the map as the warbands tried to flank and out-flank each other.

Oh yeah -- either Mattias or I killed Josh's siren a few turns into the game, so there was no way to turn off the rainstorm spell. It continued to rain uncontrollably for the rest of the game! OK, more pics of the action. I lost track of what was happening at this point. Maybe you can piece together the narrative from these pics.

As you can see from the pics, it was a wonderful way to spend a few hours, and a totally fitting send-off for Mattias. As it turned out, his hollow-faced raiders were driven from the battlefield, back through the thrice-cursed gateway and into the Wyrdwold, where they will presumably lick their wounds and sulk mightily.

This was an odd scenario for our first session. Next game we'll hew a bit more closely to our theme for "The Grimy Jewel." For now, I'll just leave you with one final pic from the game, showing the eventual fate of Karl's bishop guy.

Until next time!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Fully Painted: DeepWars Dark Mariners

I picked these fantastic DeepWars Dark Mariner miniatures up at Adepticon in 2014. I started painting them right away, but never finished them as other projects came up. However, Pat has been pestering me for a while to finish them, so I decided to make it happen. These guys were an excuse to use all sorts of fun colors I never get to use normally.

This is the Vanguard Captain. He is a fun, dynamic sculpt, and has a really weird weapon. I tried to use a small color palette with common themes to bring the group together. All tentacles are purple with pink suckers. Shells are goldenrod. Armor is mostly tarnished brass.

This is the Annihilator Biomech. It is one of two resin models in this group. I painted the "power crystals" on his arm in a glossy teal with layers of iridescent medium to make them sparkle a bit.

Here is the Cephalid Scientist. The crystal on his staff is painted the same way as the others, and he also has a weird gun.

The is the Siren of the Deep. It's another fun, dynamic pose -- probably my favorite model in this group. I pinned her so that she appears to be floating over the base.

Here is a close-up. I really love the way her face turned out. You can also see a hint of the metallic purple base coat that all these models started with.

This is the Raider Cavern Crawler. I really like this guy too...he is just so creepy.

The Cephalid Scavengers are basically little crab thieves. I think the Cephalid Scientist can conjure them for assistance.

Here we have the Vanguard Marine, with (you guessed it) another weird weapon. I think this is my least favorite sculpt.

I believe this Deepspawn Reaver was human at one point. He is huge compared to the other humanoids in this group. Scale creep!

The Octopod Biomech is basically an octopus with a gun for a head. Who wouldn't want to paint a sculpt like that?

Here's the other resin sculpt: the Cephalid Biomancer. Yep, it's another dude made out of tentacles. He has a shell hat and is carrying a little octopus pal. He reminds me a little of Orko from He-Man.

These two shots show some of the base detail. I chose to keep the highlights minimal, and added small areas of lightly blue tinged water to make them pop. Overall, I am very happy with these minis and I'm glad Pat bugged me until I finished them. Look for them on the table during our upcoming summer Song of Blades and Heroes campaign!

-- Josh, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

The Dogs & The Dust Sci-Fi Playtest

Last Month, the club gathered for another playtest of "The Dogs and the Dust," a new sci-fi ruleset under development by fellow club member Mattias. Unfortunately, I forgot to take enough pictures, but this report should give you an idea of what went down.

Game 1
On this field, Mike C. and I fought a battle between his space marines and my ragtag mercenaries (figures provided by Mattias). Three objectives were scattered across the center of the table. The mercs managed to get some of their forces to close in quickly on the objectives.

However, the space marines' slow and steady advance proved to be a wise decision.

Despite concentrated fire, the mercs failed to take down a single marine.

The mercs had some fearsome and powerful creatures on their side, but when it came to blows, the power-armored marines wiped the floors with the undisciplined upstarts.

The mercs were quickly routed and fled without being in serious contention for even one objective. Last time we played TD&TD, ranged combat was very deadly. This time Mattias had tweaked the rules in favor of armor and close combat. The result seemed to move a bit too far in that direction, but the core mechanics of activation and combat was still very solid.

Though the summer campaign might delay it, I think I can speak for most of us in saying that we're looking forward to seeing where Mattias takes the rules next.

Game 2 
On the second table, Michael S.' Rebel 69th Liberators fought a battle with Kevin's Inquisitorial warband. Kevin may have been the new guy at the table, but he showed up with an understanding of the rules that put us all to shame!

Michael opted to write up their battle report in a narrative style. As with my game I unfortunately fell down on the picture taking, but it was a dramatic game. Read on!

Svetlana's 69th Liberators
Colonel ‘Iron Bra’ Svetlana, leader of her unit Svetlana's 69th Liberators, sensed someone or something approaching her command post. She sent members of her traitor legion out to investigate. Her bodyguard Zork Dead Dog went along with other members of her Company Command Squad and one of her veteran troop squads to investigate.

Zork and some warriors went to the right, and Svetlana led the others to the left, holding back just a little as reinforcements. The squad with Zork was also given the objective of going to the top of a tall building a block down to see that was coming and have a good spot to shoot from. 

After going a short distance, they ran into what appeared to be an inquisitorial warband, and they engaged in an exchange of gun fire. 

Zork went into the street in front of the objective and fired some shots. He was than charged by one of the enemy who fought him hand to hand. Even though Zork’s opponent was smaller than him, he seemed to easily match Zork’s strength. Maybe he was a mutant? A couple of more warriors charged in to help, but couldn’t stop the enemy. 

A couple of Svetlana’s warriors gained the objective of the roof. As one kept an eye on the alley behind the building, another went to the front of the building and stated to shoot into the advancing enemy. One opponent was hit about four times, but another enemy went to his aid and seemed to cure the wounds. Possibly psychic powers were at work. 

Some of Svetlana’s veteran troop squad went to the left and engaged in a firefight. During this engagement, three of her warriors fell, including the beastman. After a while both forces disengaged, leaving Svetlana to review the condition of her warriors.

Hope you enjoyed these two battle reports. We're enjoying The Dogs & The Dust and are looking forward to our next opportunity to play it.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member