Mercs: Drones and Weapon Platforms

An assortment of drones and weapon platforms from Mercs: Recon.

This drone is rather cool. I see quite a ffew uses for it.

My primary intention is to use these, or at least those without weapons, as scatter terrain in SF-games, 7TV and Pulp Alley.

I really like the red tri-ped.

I guess they will all come in handy one way or the other.

Meh... but they might be useful in a game of 7TV. Villains always need shooty things...

Mercs: Recon – More Security Forces

These are Type 1 Security from the Mercs: Recon game.

I’m not too sure if I will ever play that game, but the minis could be useable.

These guys will probably see action as minions for an evil master in a hidden base, using Pulp Alley or 7TV rules.

Nice and easy to paint minis, what’s not to like?

Mercs: Recon – CPP-209

This walker is one of the add-ons I bought from the Mercs: Recon kickstarter all those years ago. It shared the fate of so many minis and went to the tin- and polymer-mountain.

 Gaming-pal Thomas sealed its fate when he started babbling about some unpainted post-apocalypse minis he had. So, instead of a shiny-corporate-death-machine-look I gave this a more run-down appearance to fit that kind of setting.

So, this is especially for you, Thomas, as an encouragement to unbox your Ghosts of Gaia figures and give them the paintjob they deserve! 

CPP-209 is up for a fight.

Mercs: Recon – Even More Civilians

Historian, Janitor, two VIPs, Analyst and Scientist

Another couple of Mercs civilians and the final batch for now.

A surprised Historian and a Janitor that just doesn't care one way or another

I still have some ten left, but they have to wait. Next for Mercs are two handful of security types that are slowly assembled and waiting to join the painting queue.

You have a cheap copy of my unique designer dress! Two VIPs that had very strange faces needing plastic (or rather resin) surgery with a sharp scalpel. They still look rather wonky.

Welcome follower Shades. Hope you will enjoy the site.

Copies of civilians I painted in the first round, an Analyst and a Scientist.

Mercs: Recon – More Civilians

I based these on 25mm bases instead of 30mm, to make them useful for other games too.

A couple of more civilians for Mercs, this time four frightened female Workers, an Informant and a Supervisor. 

Supervisor (you could tell, couldn't you...), Informant (listening carefully) and a frightened Worker

Another batch is primed on the painting table and SecFor security personnel are being assembled.

Mercs: Recon - Civilians

When I at last started reading the rules for Mercs: Recon I found out that I really wanted to have a bunch of civilians painted up and more Security Force personnel. I’ve already painted some type 2 and 3 security types, but I also needed type 1 and 4 so I don’t have to use markers for those during game-play.

Administrator and Scientist

Here’s the first bunch of civilians, they're all from expansions or KS-extras. Not the best when you look at details, but ridiculously easy to paint as there are no weapons, scabbards, buckles, belts, backpacks, armour, hats, helmets or other gear. Two more batches are on the painting table now.

Worker and Analyst

These could be use in both more or less modern, near future and SF settings.

Infinity – Haqqislam bikers

I’m sure some minis are cursed and these certainly were. I started them years ago, when I thought I would start playing Infinity. It turned out that the system with all the extra rules for different figures burned by brains to cinders and I gave up on ever having a game. Anyway, I did have some minis already painted and these half-painted. So I started on the bikers again, finished the bikes and just had to finish the men.

Then I dropped one of them. Straight onto my palette. Straight into a blob of paint.

Cursed, wiped it clean and… dropped it again… into another blob of paint.

Needless to say, I just gave up.

But they have laid there in a box, nearly finished, for years, and every time I opened the box they were there, pointing at me with their rifles.

I finally managed to move them to the painting table and finished the men. I might not ever use them in a game, but now they are done. Finally!

Mercs: Recon – CCC and a bit of gaming.

At last! The final pieces from the Mercs: Recon – Counter Threat box are done. These are inspired by the art from the Player Boards, where the soldiers wear predominantly yellow armour. I seems that camo is not high on any soldier’s wish-list, but instead everyone proudly shows his or hers affiliation when they make their hit-and-run attacks.

Not my proudest painting-moment, but they are finished at last and I can have a game.

So, yellow they are. I went for something as easy as possible to paint and I can’t say I’m super-exited by the result. I should have gone for more contrast, but I won’t redo them. I guess they are good enough for a game.

Now I only have to read the rules and have a go at the game. Should be interesting.

This weekend saw Smashcon, a local board game con where we usually stage a To Fat Lardies game. We had to cancel this year’s game, though, as other things came in the way, but I took the two younger kids there on Saturday and we had a blast gaming all day. Me and the daughter went on Sunday too, and had as good a day then.

We managed ten different games in all - Treatment: A Psychiatry Card Game, Evolution, Deep Sea Adventure, King of Tokyo, Splendor, Via Nebula, Patchwork, Kanagawa, Wasabi! and Dream Home. Some good and some excellent. A great weekend (but no painting)

Yesterday saw a game of Zombicide: Black Plague at the club. A really good and tense game where the zombie hordes were following us closely. We won, but it was a rather close shave. An excellent game!

Notice the painted minis!

Last week we had another game of Pulp Alley at the club, and I’m writing that AAR. Coming soon.

We also had a game of Conan. Great fun! That is a game that will be played a lot.

Also making a change in the hobby corner, more on that in a future post.

Finally, welcome new follower Generalissimo Forde with blog Continental Drift Painting, self-described as “An old geezer who paints a bit, and then writes about it.” It’s all about painting, AARs and stuff. Nice! Check it out!

Mercs: Recon - Security Forces

Type 3 and 2 Security Forces (Secfor)

These security personnel come from the Mercs: Recon - Counter Threat box. I previously finished the EU, Inc soldiers from that box and they got a very basic paint-job. These are even more basic as they are the cannon fodder.

I started with one of each and tried out some different colors and did a repaint before I had something that looked at least okay. When I painted the rest of them I skipped some detailing and did some minor changes here and there to speed up painting.

These were the first two. Far to complicated :-) so I simplified the scheme even more.

Paints used

Armour – Vallejo 867 Dark Blue Grey

Boots – 862 Black Grey

Weapons – 863 Gunmetal Grey

All above washed with Army Painter Dark Tone. The weapons got two layers to get them darker.

Shirt and trousers – 819 Iraqui Sand

Cap and jacket – 988 Khaki

Cloth washed with AP Strong Tone

They will do, and now I just have to finish the last five soldiers from the CCC faction, and we’re ready for a first game.

A new league for Pulp Alley – WIP

I’m building a new league for Pulp Alley. It’s a gang led by more or less mad bio-mechanical genius Anders Einstein, illegitimate son of Albert.

The first figure is an “improved” member of the team…

The mini comes from Johnny Borg Castings , sculpted by Johnny Lauck, and will probably be some sort of marksman. More to come soon, as this has become a very much prioritized project.

Mercs Recon – Eu, Inc

A long time ago I backed the Mercs: Recon kickstarter. Everything dragged out and the first shipment was more than a year late when it arrived this February. By that time my interest had waned and even though I built a couple of the multipart resin figures I didn’t paint them. They just stood there on the painting table.

The EU, Inc team from Mercs: Recon - Counter Threat

The other week I looked at them, unpacked the player boards with illustrations of the uniforms and decided to do something about this. If I’m ever going to get these painted it will have to be very basic and easy paintjobs.

Shock trooper and Sergeant

Said and done. I decided to start with the five-man EU, Inc faction team from the Counter Threat box, and the obvious thing with them is the characteristic blue colours on their gear. As every faction have their characteristic colours I decided to keep that as an identifier and then go approximately after the illustrations.

Medic and Analyst

Paints used for EU, Inc personnel

Black – black drybrushed with Vallejo 868 Dark Sea Green

Blue – 899 Dark Prussia Blue highlighted with 965 Prussia Blue

Yellow border on shoulder armour – 953 Flat Yellow

Metal – 863 Gunmetal Grey and an Army Painter Dark Tone wash

Goggles – 52 Silver

Leader

Preparation and painting done during two evenings and they turned out decent enough. Just another five-man team and ten guards and we’re ready for a test-game.

Robots from Johnny Borg Castings

Loot from another kickstarter, Salvage Crew by Johnny Borg Castings. Some of the figures are really nice and especially so the robots that will serve as generic robots in pulp and SF-games.

Quick paint-jobs on them all, a coat of metallic paint, a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone, a light drybrush of a lighter metallic tone and limited detailing. Based on transparent 20 and 25 mm bases from Sally 4th. 

28mm Veer-Myn from Mantic

I got this as an extra in the huge box of Mantic goodies I bought this summer. A nice little figure, that I don’t really have any use for, but I painted it anyway.

It got a basecoat of white with a wash of Citadel Devlan Mud.

Skin: Vallejo 835 Salmon Rose

Leather: Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather

Trousers: Vallejo 822 Middle Stone

Cloth on the arms: Vallejo 847 Dark Sand

Metal: Citadel Chainmail

Pipe: Citadel Blood Red

Everything got a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone Ink.

We have at least one relative of his in our garden at the moment; a rat was seen several times last week. We called for a Space Marine to take care of it, but was only sent an ordinary human exterminator. The traps are set. No heavy bolters…I’m soooo disappointed.

Oh, and welcome follower number 50 - András Szilvásy has his own blog, Random&Creative that looks interesting. A bit of this and that in modelling. 

Mantic Orx vs Games Workshop Ork

I got some orx in the box from Mantic, and I’ve just painted the first, a figure from the orx command sprue.

Paints used (Vallejo unless otherwise noted)

Undercoated white with a black wash

Coat – 988 Khaki

Kilt – 882 Middle Stone

Trousers – 977 Desert Yellow

Skin – 971 Green Grey

Leather – Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather

Metal – Citadel Chainmail

Face on breastplate – Citadel Blood Red

Washed with Army Painter’s new Quickshade Ink Strong Tone. A really nice water-based ink/wash, that is a worthy successor to Devlan Mud.

So how does it compare to GW orks, then?

Well, the orx is obviously somewhat different, as it must be to avoid infringing on GW:s IP. Anyway I like the orx, it feels more alive than the ork. Detailing is comparable, the body is a bit less beefy and it has a smaller head (not really seen on this fig). And it actually looks as if it walks/runs, and not as if it just had an...accident.

All in all, the orx is a much more price-worthy alternative, from a company that has great service, and seem to actually like their customers.

Recommended

Infinity – Haqqislam Starter Pack

Two Ghulam Infantry 

I’ve been salivating over the Infinity figures for quite some time, but another period/rules set… I read the basic rules (free download!) and they seemed decent. Anyway, I plunged into Infinity this summer, bought the basic rules, and was wowed. Really nice fluff, beautiful rulesbook, and decent rules. As it happened, I also bought two starter sets, Haqqislam and Aleph. Haqqislam was a must, I really like the feel of that faction. Aleph – well, I’m not really sure about them, we’ll see.

Anyway, all figures are outstanding when it comes to detailing, and if you want to spend ages on all the tiny details, then you can certainly do that. My intention was to get the figures on the table in a manageable time, but still have nice figures.

Let’s see how it turned out.

Haqqislam – I wanted a desert themed look for these figures, a lot of sand, beige etc. The starter set comes with six figures. Three Ghulam infantry – the basic grunts, a Hunzakut sniper, a Naffatun with rifle and light flamethrower, and an elite Janissaire.

The Ghulam Infantry and Hunzakut sniper

Ghulam and Hunzakut sniper

Clothing – Vallejo 819 Iraqui Sand. Armour 913 Yellow Ochre or 835 Pastel Green. Shoes and belt 912 Tan Yellow on one figure, but it was a bit too light, so I changed it to Shoes and holster 843 Cork Brown, belt 856 Ochre Brown. Backpack 977 Desert Yellow. Rifle 954 Gun Metal and shoulder stock 941 Burn Umber.

The figures were then given a wash of Devlan Mud, and the weapons had a black wash.

Janissaire and Naffatun

The Janissaire was the easiest. Armour 835 Pastel Green with clothing Iraqui Sand. Washes as above.

The Naffatun was a combination of the Ghulam and Janissaire colours.

Then off course details; hair, eyes, bandanas, grades etc. I used about 20 different paints for the Ghulams…

All in all I'm very satisfied with the quality of the figures, they really take the washes extremely well. 

There will be more Haqqislam.