SA5150: AAR: Platoon Attack

Walking into it!

So after a pretty disastrous section patrol into AO Buffel, I decided that the Ark Light Battalion wasn't going to take any further chances.  It's clear that small patrols in SA5150 are likely to get absolutely creamed by even average PEF rolls.  So from now on any operations into District 10 were going to be a lot bigger and more capable.  

Crusty IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle)

Legs are tiresome to paint

This is one of the walkers from Ground Zero Games.

I've painted it in keeping with the other Crusty Armour that's on the shelf.

AAR: SA5150: A Surprising Day Patrolling

I've had the Star Army:5150 rules for a while now and been wanting to try them out.  I was particularly intrigued with the solo play aspect of it (and the fact it'd be over in 2hrs was a good selling point too!).  So I printed out the pdf, put a few bulldog clips on it to hold it all together and gave it a whirl.

I'll start off by saying that I didn't strictly adhere to every rule.  I ignored some (defended structures for example), modified others (Man Down test) and invented my own (the advanced combat rifle didn't have a suitable entry so I made it up).

The MNU PMC will count as 'Star Army'- and are armed with ACRs (advanced combat rifles- shoot like an assault rifle but hit like a laser rifle).  

The Prawn Militia will count as 'Planetary Defence Force' but with a campaign morale of 3.  

CAMPAIGN SETTING: District 10: AO Buffel

Campaign Morale: 

MNU PMC: "Ark-Light Company"- Morale 3 and Contesting

Prawn Militia: "Talon Battatlion"- Morale 3 and Controlling

Investment Level:

MNU PMC: 3

Prawn Militia: 3 

Ark-Light PMC: Zulu Platoon: Call-sign "21A"

Klotz and his fire team

Star (Squad leader): Lt. Klotz - Rep 5, Star Power, Larger than life, Cheating death, Free will

Tomorrow's War AAR - The Rescue

Background

It was unusual.  Being pulled off the usual pointless "presence patrols" and being sent off into the boonies.  All of a sudden the vehicles we were in drove off Route 6 and dropped us off in the middle of nowhere.  We piled out, wondering what was going on.  Our sixth senses were tingling.    

The patrol commander, Klotz, gathered us in a huddle and gave a quick set of orders for a fighting patrol.  I'll spare you the details, but The Company wanted this done.  One guy- another merc- had become separated from his unit during a gun battle with a gang of prawns in the area.  The Company's board were worried- they didn't want a captured human being beheaded (or eaten even!).  The negative effects of District 9 were still being felt today.

How did I feel about it?  I felt for the guy- the trapped soldier.  If it was me- yes, I'd want Zulu Platoon kicking down doors and hosing enemy with lead.  So I checked my magazine, fell into formation and started patrolling forward.

Always Bring A Friend

I need double the usual ration of cat food

I'll have to wait until a free day when it's sunny to take a good set of photos.

They look mean as.  I'm rather pleased with them.  I'll have to get some 'normal' tanks to sit them side by side and see how they measure up.

Walker MBT- "Miskruier"

Cat food- NOW!

Crusty MBT.

Thematically it doesn't quite fit perfectly with the prawns I have to admit.  It's very human tech- the vision blocks and hatches for example.  But hey, it'll do.

I went with a solid colour scheme- trying to keep a similar look to the rest of the army.  It came out a bit bland.  But for table top- it'll serve.

 

So- awesome obvious features of the tank:

1.  The main gun- some sort of massive energy weapon I suppose.  Could be a rail gun except the size of the shells (looking at the bore of the barrel) would be enormous.

2. The tribarrel (yes, that term is stolen from Hammers Slammers).  I think it's a CROWS (crew remote operated weapons system) which can maybe double as an active defense system against anti armour missiles.

3. Machine gun mounted just outside the commander's hatch.

4.  The White Dome.  Some sort of passive detonation field or radar.

Apart from putting the darn thing together, it wasn't too bad to paint.  The lack of changing colours made it reasonably easy to paint to table top standard.

Crusty Tank

See this cannon?  Where is the cat food?

It's a real pain to put together!!!

You can see the milliput marks where the joins have fallen off.  The legs were super annoying.

I'm a little put off by how painful to put the model together.

We'll see how the thing shapes up.

Another Four Power Armoured Crusties Done.

Cat food somewhere ahead!

Finished another fire team of PAP (Power Armoured Prawns).

I kept the base grasses to a minimum on these guys.  The prior ones were a bit too much.

Weapons in detail

So here's a bit of a close up of the weapons.  The anti-armour/ area affect weapon on the left.  The standard LSW in the centre.  The heavy machine gun on the right.

Having a quick read through some of the Tomorrow's War scenarios and I've noted that PA troops tend to be deployed in 3s.  I suspect that larger teams leads to some balance issues in fire-teams getting too good.

Oh well!

Next I'll do a tank and then I'll be able to start some of my MNU and terrain!

Sneaky Prawns, eh? Power Armoured Crusties!

I've got an in built can opener for that cat food!

The first four completed PA Crusties (power armoured prawns- PAP!).

I wanted to have a lot more completed but unfortunately life got in the way (I worked every single weekend this month!- in addition to working to every day of the working week).  That being said, life didn't suck entirely- I strict pressed 75kg!  Personal best!  Hooray!  Must be the painting!

I've talked a bit about the painting scheme for the PA troops so I won't go much into it.

I'm really happy how they've come together- they really are pretty cool models as far as aliens go (and I'm a massive xenophobe).

So in game terms- they are all carrying pretty hefty weaponry.  The standard rifle toting PAP looks like he's packing a LSW (SAW) equivalent.  The cone shaped weapon I imagine is a plasma anti armour weapon- also I'd imagine highly useful in splatting small areas in fusion goo.  The other PAP- not well shown- is carrying a heavy weapon- I think it's a .50 cal equivalent of alien goodness.

I considered leaving off the power packs/ back packs entirely.  They look cumbersome, those horn things jutting into the air.  I can see them getting caught on door frames, branches, concertina.  I guess if it's alien enough- it could actually be kind of organic and limb like- automatically curling in or ducking back out of the way.

Jets!

I think those jet things provide some mobility for the PAPs in zero G environments and under water.  It doesn't look controllable enough to provide them 'hop' abilities like the Mobile Infantry in Starship Troopers.

As far as how the army is progressing- once I complete the next four PAPs- I'm onto fixing up a single Crusty Tank.  We'll see how it goes.   

More WIP: PA Crusty

Getting dressed for the big night

I haven't updated in over a week as I was stricken with gastroenteritis.  I was laid out for a week- which was shitty.  I was utterly nauseated and glued to the porcelain throne so painting was out of the question.

As I recovered, I picked up Deus Ex and played it to the finish.  Which was a cool diversion- but ultimately the more I played- the more cool I thought the power armoured augs looked.  

Thus, refreshed and energised I'm back on point with the painting.  So there isn't a lot of progress but there is a bit.

I'm serious about getting that cat food

I have to say that the photo makes them look better than they are in real life.

Back packs are being prepped now.

More to follow.

WIP- Power Armoured Crusties

Just an update on what I've been painting this week.

These are GZG power armoured crusties.  I've kept the paint scheme the same as the walkers for consistency.  I have to admit that the scheme makes them look like little green blobs at a distance.  Still, I think it's ok.

The palette was:
1. Undercoat with citadel chaos black
2. I used VGC Dark Green as the base coat

3. Wash with Citadel Athonian Camoshade
4. Highlight with VMC Uniform Green
5.  Very light dry brush with VMC Uniform Green again

6. Then do the whites (knees and shoulders are with Citadel Administratum Grey).  (Weapon with Citadel Celestra Grey).  Highlighted with Citadel Ulthuan Grey.
7. Then do the eyes.

I still have backpacks to do and about a dozen of these little guys to get through, so there will be more to follow.

How Do Your Weapons Work?

I finished my second walker today after a very busy week at work.

Woke up this morning with brilliant autumn sunshine coming through my window and I figured I'd finish this little guy and take some photos.  (My daylight bulbs just don't compare to natural sunlight). 

Stalking forward

Having learned a few key lessons from walker number 1, the whole process wasn't as drawn out and painful.  Knowing how it was going to turn out was a great motivator in getting him complete.

Cool looking weapon

The heavily inspired District 9 -style weaponry looks extra cool.  I've always struggled with reds- finding that my highlights make the whole thing look orange more than red.  But the Khorne Red (maroon) base and bright red highlight and lazy dry brush really helps.

Walking away

I thought about painting a design on the back panel but I lack the artist talent to paint one of those District 9 'gang' signs that the Prawns have on their shacks.

Bright blue eyes

The eyes are serviceable.  I'm not super happy with them- I think OSL (objective source lighting- i.e. 'glow') would make them look super great- but until I find a good (and fast!) way of doing OSL I won't risk mucking up my paint job.

If anyone is interested, the base is a combination of beach sand (Australia has incredibly fine powder like sand on it's beaches) and some "Faller: Streumaterial >>Quarz<<" (Quartz bits) glued on or milliputted on.

I then mixed some watered down Chaos Black and PVA and soap, inked the base and allowed it to dry.  A quick drybrush with Citadel Zandri Dust for dirt and Citadel Administratum Grey for the rocks followed.  Finally there was a touch of Zap-A-Gap for the Citadel Mordheim Tufts.

BTW- if anyone has a good way of obscuring the white plastic base of the tufts, feel free to post a comment.   

Second Walker Work In Progress

In bits

Another walker in the works.

I have to say, I'm always struck by how rubbish miniatures look before they've had a good lick of paint.

I'll aim to complete this fellow by the end of the week.

I'm happy to have found a Tomorrow's War stat sheet for various walkers in the appendix.  It saves me having to design one myself (I am not a terribly creative individual).

Lots of goals for April.  I'll see if I can reach them.

There's These Markings- So It's Definitely Alien....

A GZG Crusty walker. 

I had a lot of trouble assembling the models.  They are good sculpts and there is minimal flash.  I had a lot of problems gluing the parts together.  The magic Zap-a-Gap that has served me so well for everything else so far just couldn't hold the parts together.  Instead, I found my fingers extremely well stuck to various arms and legs.

After ripping my finger tips off the metal I had to do a rethink.

I used small amount of milliput AND Zap-a-Gap on the joins and it worked out serviceable.  But not perfect.  The irony of course, was that I then had to rip the arms off to get into the corners to paint.

Then a friend suggested I try "epoxy".  It was the first time I'd ever heard of it.  I'll definitely look for that product.  It'll save me hours of pain and frustration.  My next free day, I'm going to track that mysterious substance down. 

As for painting- I tried to keep it simple. 

1. Black undercoat. 
2. Dark green base coat (VGC72.028), washed with Citadel Athonian Camoshade (a mucky brown green ink) and highlighted with VGC Sick Green (VGC72.029).

3. Citadel Administratum Grey for the white panels, highlighted with Ulthuan Grey

4. Weapons: Celestia Grey base (taking care to the leave the black lining) and then highlighting with Ulthuan Grey.  The red was Khorne Red base and highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet.

I was tempted to try OSL- but considering my average skills- I was happy with simple blue dots for the 'eyes'. 

As for what these monsters count as in Tomorrow's War... I don't know.  Walkers clearly.  Perhaps Light Armoured Vehicles?  They look suitably mean and well armoured.  And armed with some heavy weaponry. 

I've got another one on the way so he'll soon have a buddy to cover him whilst he does the sprint across the street. 

Thanks for reading.

21D- Maneuver Support Section

21D- MSS

MSS. 

Pretty much complete- just need to finish black lining the rims of the bases.  If you look closely you can see the white markings of dried "Zap-a-Gap" that I use to stick on the grassy tufts.

21D- In fire teams

I think in game terms (Tomorrow's War)- the heavy weapon will count as a dual antipersonnel and anti-tank role.  I was reading through some 'Force on Force' stats on RPGs and I think that'll be a reasonable stat line to copy.

21D In Progress

Weapon teams in progress

They are the equivalent of GPMGs on tripods - though now looking at them I'm beginning to think they are more .50 calibre equivalents.

They are a bit of a grind to paint and to be honest I'm not super happy with the paint scheme.  That being said, they'll do for now.

I've had to mount them on 25mm bases as I found 40mm bases were a bit too large.

Platoon in Progress

Platoon 21- In Progress

Sorry, it's a bit blurry.

So I'll show some close ups....

21A

21B

21C

Platoon HQ- in progress

The platoon organization should be a bit clearer now.

The platoon will consist of:

PHQ: Platoon commander, Sergeant, Forward Observer, Signaller (?irrelevant in the days of being on Grid), platoon medic.

3x rifle sections, each consisting of 2x four man fire teams.  Each fire team having a fire team leader, a gunner with light support weapon, a grenadier (plasma caster) and a rifleman.

1x MSS - manoeuver support section- (not shown as it's still being put together)- consisting of 3 fire teams.  These are a bit different- being made up of a team leader, a heavy weapon (anti-armour or medium machine gun equivalent) and his number two and a rifleman.

The idea is that fire teams can be kind of tacked together like lego blocks as required for whatever mission the platoon commander is tasked with.  The MSS can be broken up and parceled out or kept together as a big fire support group.

The tactics for this platoon are quite straight forward.  Once contacting the enemy, the Platoon commander should be able to move his MSS into position to act as support by fire.  This allows him to then use the remainder of his sections to assault the enemy from another direction.

I'll concoct some attributes to make the prawns a bit more alien.

At the moment, their organization is distinctly human.
  

21A and 21B

16 Prawns complete.

I was thinking I had completed 2 sections but much to my annoyance- I realized I had only 1 grenadier and 1 LSW (light support weapon- SAW) per section.  There should be two of each!

A quick rummage through my box of GZG goodies found me 1 LSW short of being able to make a proper 3 rifle sections.  Argh!  Too bad- one fire team will have to make do with 2 grenadiers instead of an LSW & grenadier.  I'm sure I can make up some sort of SNAFU that will account for that divergence from doctrine.

I'll start writing my fluffy stories to go with them once a more complete look of 21 Platoon evolves.

Thanks for reading!

WIP: Crusty

Semi-presentable.

Still nowhere near as neat as my 28mm scale miniatures.

On the tabletop, I think he'll do OK.

I have to give credit where credit is due- I have been inspired by the fantastic work of Tiny Solitary Soldiers- and obviously District 9.  I don't think I'll ever get to the wonderful standard I see on-line, but it serves as a constant motivator to improve, try new techniques and play more games!

The actual model itself is a "Crusty" from Ground Zero Games (as an aside- great customer service!!!).  I love this range in particular- and there are (I hope) many posts to come of  Platoon 21 (two one) aka "Christopher Johnson" Platoon.

Note to Self: Prawns

I'm experimenting with my Crusty's.  I've never painted 15mm before- and never non humans- so this is going to be interesting.

(The Unfinished) Recipe for Prawns:

Celestia Grey- watered down- under/base coat.  Still leaves lots of metal exposed.

Vallejo Game Color- Dark Green- uniform.

Wash- brown ink.  Good definition of detail, however it looks messy.  Perhaps separate washes?  Badab black for skin/ weapons.  Green ink for uniform?

Highlight: Golden Olive (?change it up).  Perhaps a greater contrast is needed?

Weapons: Celestra Grey, highlight with Ulthuan Grey.  Weapon stripe: Evil Sun Scarlet.

Webbing: Evil Sun Scarlet.

VERDICT: quick but nasty.

I'll tinker with it.