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

Cleared to Engage: The Mystery of the Atom

Last week Josh and I got together to try out Cleared to Engage, a fun, fast-playing ruleset written by P. Todoroff and hosted over at his blog Stalker7. As you might surmise, the intent of the ruleset is to provide a basic framework of rules for running sci-fi, post-apocalyptic and/or cyberpunk skirmish games.

These are Todoroff's homebrew rules used for most of the games featured on his blog. CTE lacks a points system or premade character profiles, but that was no problem for us, as we relish the challenge of crafting scenarios. We were eager to try the rules out! I set the scenario in the Derzhensko Exclusion Zone, which is one of several homebrew settings we've used for our sci-fi and post-apoc games. Here's the scenario outline:

The Lure of the Atom
Location: Derzhensko Exclusion Zone
Area: Unsecured Perimeter K-18

The Zone’s porous perimeter has been compromised by a group of ex-military scavengers, trespassers and adventurers. The goal of the expedition is a single unexploded atomic bomb -- a relic from a past era, when such weapons rained down from the skies. Could it hold the secret to the Zone’s existence? The explorers must first get past the defenders of a small settlement nearby. These hardy folk have spent years rebuilding some semblance of a society in the ruins of the Zone, and they are unwilling to watch their hard work get destroyed by invaders.

The game pitted a group of veteran stalkers, mercenaries and ex-military types (backed up by some rather frightful mutants straight out of the lab) against a ragtag band of dug-in settlers armed with mostly improvised weapons. The stalkers' objective was to reach the atomic bomb and explore its mysteries. Their secondary objective was to reach the water tank outside the greenhouse and restock their dwindling supplies.

The settlers' objective was to annihilate the mercs -- and as we saw in our game, a combination of poor terrain placement and the sheer lethality of "Cleared to Engage" helped the settlers achieve their goal quite nicely.

I deployed my mercs in the wooded perimeter outside the settlement, intending to use the "Snipers in the Woods" scenario rule to lay down withering cover fire while my guys advanced. I knew my weapons and equipment were better than the settlers' pitiful rakes and garden hoes. (That's sarcasm, of course. As you can see in the pics, Josh's guys were lovingly converted to hold all manner of nifty weapons, from a leaf trimmer to a stop sign to a pneumatic air gun!)

I advanced through the woods, sending two groups of guys toward the two objectives. In this pic, Floyd the Mega Mutant and Yadonovsky the stalker close in on the water tank, which is attached to the side of the greenhouse -- and critically, within range of the settlers' firearms!

A turn later, they arrived, taking cover behind the greenhouse before sprinting to the water tank.

Over by atomic bomb, another pair of mercs was advancing cautiously, using broken barricades as cover. Alas, they were ambushed by Josh's recon element, which had been forward deployed near some shipping containers.

Actually it looks like the recon settler killed the mutant berzerker and was then slain herself. Here's the pic -- you be the judge.

Alone and unsupported, Morsov (with the shotgun) darted across the street to link up with the stalkers by the greenhouse. He made it halfway before encountering some defenders. After a brief, fierce close combat, both figures killed each other.

In fact, that happened a lot. Every single one of our close combats resulted in both figures dying in the first round. I'm not sure if that was due to CTE's deadly close combat system, or some misunderstanding on our part. The result was a veritable killing field near the greenhouse! Here's an example of the carnage after three or four turns.

The results were similar over by the greenhouse. Ranged combat thinned the ranks, and close combat took care of the rest. Josh and I both slaughtered each other's figures with reckless abandon! Josh had a medic, which meant that he was able to revive a couple figures -- only to see them butchered a turn later by my guys.

When the dust cleared, I hadn't managed to secure even one of the two objectives, and Josh had decimated my fighting force. His settlers wouldn't be doing much settling anymore, though, as they had left more than half their number strewn about the streets as casualties. We agreed that Josh won the scenario.

CTE proved to be quite deadly, almost to a fault. We couldn't stop our guys from dying! Even the settlers, with relatively poor stats, were able to score hits when rolling buckets of dice with their machine pistols. Some of this came from terrain placement -- the wide open street was an absolute killzone -- but even figures in cover, such as my snipers in the woods, didn't last long once they started to draw fire.

We agreed to try out more multi-wound figures in our next game, as well as lower benchmark combat values across the board. The great part about this ruleset is that it is very easy to modify and tinker with. After the game, we were just brimming with ideas for possible tweaks and enhancements to better suit our play style and figure/terrain collections.

Hats off to Mr. Todoroff for crafting a fun ruleset that has energized our players. Doubtless we'll try this one again soon!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Bridges and Scuttles from O-Scale Train Cars

Over the past few years I've picked up a number of broken O-scale train cars, and I've finally put them to good use. Most of these damaged in some way, usually lacking wheels and trucks, but that didn't bother me since I didn't need them anyway. Aside from price, the main benefit to using model train cars is the great detail, which makes drybrushing a breeze. Check out those great rivets and ladders!

Here are coal and sand scuttles made from open-topped hopper cars. I used my Dremel 543 blade to cut off the bottom of the cars and smooth them out.

Then I glued in a cardboard bottom and added ballast. The coal is gravel painted black, drybrushed and then given a bit of magic wash for a coal-like sheen.

Done correctly, the ballast will bring the floor level up just enough to allow 28mm figures to take cover but still see over the edges.

I did similar work on two gondolas and a Fisher Price Geotrax bridge. I filled the molded-in tracks on the Fisher Price bridge with cement and gravel, though I probably should have cemented over the whole area. The odd melted section of the middle bridge one came that way, which is probably why it was so cheap. Looks pretty cool to me.

The black bridge simply had the ends cut off.

The red bridge was also shortened.

The Fisher Price bridge was actually meant to be used flat on the ground and had big chunks of ground detail molded on the sides. I cut all that off!

All three were simply spray painted, then washed and drybrushed with tan. The end result is a set of extremely useful terrain pieces for very little money. I've got a number of industrial terrain pieces that have buckets or spouts that will spill nicely into the scuttles. Likewise, sturdy bridges and gangways are an essential part of any Necromunda layout. If your local train store doesn't have a bargain bin, a quick search of eBay will show various lots of broken or outdated train cars that can be had for a fair bargain.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Shipping Containers from Micro Machines Playsets

A while back I came across a bag of old Micro Machine playsets at a resale shop. They were largely incomplete, but the bag contained 11 of them and the price was great, so I picked them up as a basis for sci-fi shipping containers. In their original form they would have looked something like this.

(Picture via Toys from the Past)

After cleaning off any stickers, I clipped off the hinges and glued them shut. They're a very nice size, being tall enough to completely conceal a 28mm miniature or even a small vehicle, but thin enough to not take up too much space on the tabletop.

The round details are status markers from the Sedition Wars game that are meant to stack under the bases of the miniatures.

The logo details are mutation markers from the same game.

I used a heavy coat of "Magic Wash" (Future Floor Polish and paint) to weather these. I'm not entirely pleased with the results, as it's almost too dirty and drippy. If I use Magic Wash in the future, I'll probably use ink rather than paint. Still, the results are quite serviceable. I have three each of three different types, each type painted in a different manner.

They are pretty stable and can be stacked to make a rather impressive tower.

I also kitbashed a flatbed transport truck from various toy parts and a removable double container.

Again I'm not entirely pleased with the Magic Wash, but it looks fine on the tabletop.

These are a welcome addition to my sci-fi scatter terrain collection. They've already seen use in Necromunda and Mech Attack and I'm sure that's just the beginning.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

The Exchange with Mattias, Part 2: Escher Gang

Before his departure to Hawaii, Mattias and I arranged a trade of terrain and miniatures. Earlier I showed off the buildings and cliffs that I built for him. Today I've got 15 Necromunda figures that he painted for me. All but one of these are unmodified Games Workshop Escher figures, based on Inkwell Industries resin bases.

The smaller size pics don't do these justice so I've uploaded large versions of each. If you really want to see them close up, go ahead and "open in new tab" any of these images to see the figs in their full glory.

Juves
The lowly cannon fodder of the gang. I had asked for a variety of skin tones. In Mattias' unique grayscale-based painting style, this results in a range from an elfin pale to a shadowed grey.

Ranged Weapon Gangers

At first I was a bit confused by the somewhat monochrome bases, but now I think it's really a nice unifying effect.

More Gangers and Heavies 
Note the great sludgy wet effects. Most of the figures have a bit of it on their bases, but it's particularly notable here. Also, I'm really glad to have the plasma gun figure. The weapon is a nice in-between size that could easily be work as a plasma or heavy plasma gun.

Close Combat and Leader Figures
Very glad to have the iconic (and now ridiculously expensive) "Mad Donna Ulanti" figure as seen on the right. Also, the figure on the far left is not Games Workshop and has a rather interesting history. The original sculpt was a "Mutant Dominatrix" in the Shockforce game. Mega Minis (now Johnnyborg) acquired the rights and re-released her in a slightly resculpted form without her mutant characteristics (gills, tail, etc) and this was the example I acquired.

Unfortunately, the arms and hands were just terrible, so I chopped them off just below the elbows and attached the arms from a Heroclix Elektra figure, with a Necromunda autogun attached. She also has a Rogue Trader-era bolt pistol holster on her right leg. I think she fits in pretty well, and for those interested, she is still available here. 

As a bonus, here's a neat figure I picked up from Mattias when he was selling off a few of his painted figures. Lots of potential uses for him (cultist, mage, mutant, you name it) in a variety of genres, but I particularly thought that in Necromunda he could be a Wyrd, which is a sort of independent magic user. He scales pretty well with an average ganger. Not sure of the manufacturer, but I'm pretty sure he's a vintage sculpt of some sort.

Lastly, my pictures have made the paint jobs slightly more muted than they appear in real life. Here's a shot with flash that washes out the figs a bit, but still shows off a bit more of the contrasts and certain details and reveals the wet effects on the bases.

And there you have it! Fifteen excellently painted Escher figs with enough variety to cover most any gang arrangements. I'm very happy to have these, as the Escher have long been favorites of mine, but I never felt that my dip-based painting style would have been appropriate for these sculpts.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member