Sunday 21 January 2024

Relics. Britanan 2024 Review



With the new year and the annoucment by TTcombat that they will be restocking the Relics range and promoting the game I have decided to go through by collection and tally up what I have. This will give me a chance to plan some painting and see what gaps there are to fill and what better faction to start than the Britanans! 

My Britanans are a mixture of old Tor Gaming and Ebay joblots so some still carry the paintwork from previous owners and represent quite a eclectic mix


Sergeant-Majors

Including the one I have painted and the limited Edition issue I have found myself with  9 Sergeant Majors!
The sculpts are a step up in character detail from the standard troopers. They are a nice opportunity for personalisation with multiple weapon options and a nice open waistcoat that could be individually patterned. 


Troopers

Including the unit i have painted I have 4 units of Troopers. Nine pupperts strong, the Trooper unit is the main force for the Britanans. I plan on painting/repainting two for my main army, oen as a standard unit and one with a headswap fro one of the Maverick Boys so they look moire like 18th Century Marines to use with the Ship/landing party
The last one will be for the breakaway Continental force which will be with blue jackets




Grenadier Troopers 
With the painted units I have five units of Grenadiers of three figures each plan on keeping all of these for the main army though I might see how they look with a headswap to addd them to the Continental force



Highlanders
The unit comes with six figures but I seem to have a couple extra which I am going to use for a highland themed Colour Party. As I live in Cornwall I might use a Cornish Tartan




Colour Party

Two colour party sets which I will works with eh 18th Century British army tradtio of two flags for each regiment, one for the Kings Colours and one for the Regiment. One will have the Britanan Crown and needles and teh other I will come up with  for the regiment ( and a name for the Regiment!)



Marksmen

These come as unit of two, not sure if i have lost one or just had an extra in one of the job lots I picked up. Plan on painting one unit for each army, not sure about the extra one yet



Puppeters

In the lore the Britanans were originally a human race that appear loosely based on mid 17th Century England but with access to magic.  A great calamity befell the world before the game is set and killed  off the majority of humans which is why they have used puppets for their forces. Some humans have survived and the Puppeters are described as broke survivors touched by madness.  


Dragoons

Two Units which I had started to put together when I was finishing off the Heavy Dragoons.
The paint scheme for these units will be based on the British Dragoons that were featured in the film The Patriot. One will be the fictional uniform and the other from the real regiment. 
Fielding these and the Heavy Cavalry will make quite a glorious Charge!

I plan on getting another unit of Dragoons and switching their heads for those from the Maverick Boys for my breakaway independent puppet Faction, the Continentals. 





Hunting Dogs, Ltd Edition Sergeant-Major and St Nik

A pack of 4 hounds but no huntmaster but could convert one of the Sergeant-Majors into one. One of the limited Edition Sergeant-Majors which has been TTCombats only new release so far, though they had showcased several other Britanans a couple of years ago which hope to see released! 
The last one is one of the OOP Mercenaries, St Nik of which I already have one painted. 


The base for an terrain/feature piece is a Fisherprice ship. As the Britanans are a island race all there interactiosn with the wider world must be via ships to the mainlanad. My plan is to convert this into a Bermuda Sloop inspired Britanan ship and man it with one of the trooper units.




Wooden Fort

This started out as a Medieval fort kit from Zvezda Models and the inital build and conversion I have posted elsewhere on the blog. Its about done, will add some ivy, a new front gate and some banners to fly the Kings colours. 

Painted Britanan Experditionary Force





Sergreat-Major


Grenadiers


1st Trooper Unit


Bomber



1st Heavy Dragoons. The Life Guard






2nd Heavy Dragoons. The Blues and Royals 













Friday 27 October 2023

Zenith 3. Thunderbolt Jaxon.

 Returning to my Zenith Superhero's in a gap between other projects, I have finshed off Thunderbolt Jaxon.

The sculpt is from Attica Games and their Champion superhero figure





Thunderbolt Jaxon in his original comic run had several colour variations on his costume but the all red one seesm to me the most common so I have gone with that one. 




In the Zenith story Jaxon appears in the grand gathering, third form the left with the circular belt buckle


He is later tragically murdered by the possessed Wyvern when his magic belt fails to activate





The full team so far.
Tri-Man, Leopard from Lime Street, Cat Girl, Thunderbolt Jaxon and Oakman 

Tuesday 24 October 2023

IonAge 28. Red Adder

’Its not going to be enough, did you even read our message?!’

Sergent Darin looked on with incredulity as the mud streaked Red Adder sped into the clearing and pulled up into the small encampment Darin commanded.

The mission had been simple enough, Darin and his ExSec detachment would establish a listening station that would eventually form part of a network for the whole planet, the first step for mapping and then colonisation by the Lithic Assumptions ColSec. Two weeks in and the biggest threat had been boredom but then long range parameter sensors had gone dark and a patrol had not returned. Darin had put his reduced command on alert and sent a data burst back to Land Command, flagging for possible DefSec support. He knew the flag would trigger reproach, Section pride and ExSecs desire to stand on its own, but his security forces were only rated at Militia level and out on the frontier mistakes could hand out far worse things than a black mark on his service record.

Close sensors finally picked up movement and gave him the justification for his caution, he just hoped he lived long enough to be smug about it. Across the river movement was sighted, Malig raiders appeared and opened fire. Malig Heavy weapons targeted buildings, shattering Hab domes and turning the new Fabrication Spire into a torch as a cover while ground units started to move forward, probing for gaps in the Militias defensive fire and trying to cross the bridge.


The hatch of the Red Adder opened and the plumed helm of a Muster Centaris appeared, his face marked and dirt covered as Darins own.

‘Who is ranking officer here? the officer asked, his eyes surveying the hasty defences and the increasing weight of enemy fire

“I am.Sergeant Eyer Darin. 32nd ExSec Preparatory Group. Is this it? Its not going to be enough, Did you even read our message!?”

The Officer returned his gaze to Darin as he dismounted the Adder and then unclipped his MPI, swiftly bringing it up for a burst at the bridge as another Malig attempted to rush it.

“I am sorry, but that never got got back to the Castle. The Khanate have been advancing under a CounterNet and nothing is reaching Land Command. Whatever you were hoping for we are not it. I was the closest to this location and came to pull you out, everything is pulling back to Command”

Darin moved next to the officer and raised his own Tumbler MPI, both of them sending fire towards the bridge again. 

“ We can use the Adder to block the bridge and buy us some time. It cannot dish out too much, but its Moth cannon is more than enough to shred Malig’s and make them think twice about trying to rush the bridge any time soon”

The officer hammered the side of the Adder and the driver inside gunned the engine and moved it forward to reposition closer to the bridge, the turret turning to face the body strewn pathway as the Moth started to spin.

Darin turned to the officer, his face moving between relief and worry

“Who are you with?”

“ Centaris Tobias Beare, 2nd Garnet Dragoons. DefSec Response"

Now the pleasantries are out out of the way I suggest we make a start getting out of here. This planets Preparatory has been cancelled. 



Following my Malig Infernus Ball recreated for 28mm I wanted to add some armour to my Ion Age forces and went for the Red Adder Combat Car

Alternative Armies Red Adder Combat Car



Red Adder image taken from the AA website

The Adder is one of a range of combat vehicles with different turret and traction options which will give me some easy options in the future with extra turret changes.

The base model was a 3D print of a Staghound armoured Car







I smoothed off the front machine gun, added the running boards and changed the turret weapon and added the antenna.





Red Adder with Prydian Muster Centaris Officer


Red Adder and Malig Infernus Ball




















Thursday 31 August 2023

IonAge 28. Malig Infernus Tank

 



The belly of the  of Anvils Shield split and a dark red light briefly flooded the ground before being shadowed by a darker tide of men and great machines. Dark purple cloth and flashes of worn rust edges metal from weapon and armour, sickly green skin and yellowed teeth bared in the eagerness of the hunt. 

The Malig forces of Hades Legion were the first to move out, tasked with securing the area and moving on in a Trident formation, the deployed Ordos split with Tesserans forming each of the prongs with heavy support forming the shaft behind, ready to move up to whichever point met resistance. 

The Maligs moved quickly over the broken ground before them and within the hour the left most prong had made contact, trading fire with equal sized force of Prydian Muster that was establishing an outpost. The Malig officer, Hurteg Tar, ordered the unit to hold and called in support. 

A wall of sound and fire broke the tree line before the Infernus came into sight like a vision of hell itself. A tide of churned earth created with shattered wood, fire and smoke. A great ball of tarnished Iron charged forward, its two halves spinning and chewing all before it as gouts of fire shot from guns held at each side. Great plumes of black smoke cut into the sky from dirty stacks on its back, pushed out from screaming engines that spun and drove it into the enemy

‘Hades Demands’ Hurteg shouted in its wake and the Malig Charged 


Within the 15mm universe of the Ion Age Malig Forces can deploy the fearsome Infernus Tank


Alternative Armies Malig Infernus Tank





Inspired by a design for a tank, known as the Tumbleweed Tank that appeared in Popular Mechanics in 1936



As part of my Ion Age 28 project I wanted to try and bring some of the 15mm vehicles to the larger scale and even though there are not currently any rules for them in Moth they will make great terrain pieces/objectives and once I have actually got some games under my belt I will have a look at working some up!
Luckily I found an STl of the Tumbleweed Tank which made for a much easier start. 





I increased the size by 250% and made some conversions to match it up better with the Infernus tank, adding metal plates,  a rear engine block and smoke stacks and changing the weapons.
Painted up in the same style as the 15mm,  rusted bare metal, I added the weathered icon of Hades Legion










Infernus Tank advances with Malig forces