Anvil Industries: Martian Orbital Fusileers - part one

Anvil Industries has an extensive range of multi-part heroic scale resin figures.

They can supply a "standard" squad or you can roll your own from an extensive menu.

I bought the Martian Orbital Fusileers set at Salute.

 Ten armoured torsos with backpacks, ten armoured legs, eleven pairs of arms, twelve sets of rifles and heads. A fusion gun and backpack provide a heavier weapon if required..

 Flash was minor and easy to scrape off. Always a good idea to give them a quick scrub with detergent or mild scourer to remove any remaining release agent.

One great advantage of the resin over metal is the presence of locating lugs and sockets that make assembly easy. The rifle plugs into the right arm.

The figures are supplied with normal 25mm slotted bases, but I decided to use 30mm lipped bases for these science fiction figures.

 And for scale, here is William Killian.

Now, I have two nice figures from Hasslefree that will make really good rebels to face them.

Shieldwolf Shield Maiden Infantry

At the Renedra stand they had the first Shield Maiden plastic infantry box set.

This is the first one I have built. I did remove about a millimetre of neck from the figure.

The shoulder join is not particularly good.

Scale comparison, first one of my Statuesque Frostgrave figures (plastic soldier with a Statuesque Heroic scale female head added).

Another comparison, this time William Killian.

FT Tank - Part 4

The first set of decals have been added.

War Department numbers under the turret.

 Bridge loading rating (it needs to be changed to 7 to reflect the weight of the tank - the five is from the Warlord Universal Carrier decal set). I think it is on the wrong side.

The yellow patch under the driver's viewport is chemical warfare detection paint.

I am trying to work out where to put the white identification patches on the hull side.

Salute 2017

Salute was well organised, the very long queue moved smartly along the twelve twelve columns in hall N11 before we finally entered the hall.

For the true connoisseur of queuing, there was the option of joining the orgeworld queue before you actually entered Salute.

First stop was Mantic (in a change from the normal programme), to buy all the Walking Dead goodies and collect the free walker.

They were down to the last box of the show exclusive Lee and Clementine set by the time I got to the front.

Next was Simple Miniature Games for some Malifaux. They have a multi-buy offer which is always worth a look. They also had the Games Shop only bonus model version of the Queen Returns (an Undead, Neverborn Fey Master and her associated entourage). The bonus model was Doctor Dufresne (an alternative version of the McMourning character).

Then it becomes a bit of a blur.

Hasslefree were high on my must visit list, and I picked up most of what I wanted (some of it was so new they had not received the first casts).

I now have Pulse (female pulling the hood of a hoodie over her head) and Danica armed with a pair of Tonfa (?) which will be added to my A.G.E.N.T.S. cast. Lots of other nice figures, I will get round to building.

Anvil Industries have on their website pre-set regiments based on their Regiments multi-oars resin figures, at shows they will, if ask nicely, collect all the bits for you. I bought the Martian Orbital Fusileers as they reminded me of the old Laserburn Dennis the Dustbin Imperial marines. No icea what they are for, but I will find a use for them. They also had a nice wheeled APC and a Goliath mech.

Crooked Dice had their excellent range of figures augmented by new scenic items in MDF and resin. Highlights are the Giant Gorilla and The Beast Below. I did manage to forget the new Darius figure, but I went back to get one with resin base and one without.

Lots of other stuff to go here, but I do have a couple of photographs of a Ground Zero Games bot that I thought was cute (V15-68A if I remember correctly).

Was not quite the droid I was looking for.

By the time I got to The Plastic Soldier Company and Warlord, quite a lot of their stock was gone. This was especially true of PSC, I did manage to get an M4A3/M4A3E8 Sherman kit, the last one.

Warlord had a special offer on the plastic tanks, but had sold out of the IS-2 I was looking for. They also had a range spanning offer on boxed sets, so three boxes from Beyond the gates Of Antares joined a Konflikt '47 Walker.

I also chatted with someone from Clock Work Goblin about the future direction of Konflikt '47. Nice preview of a British walker and a print of the Automated Carrier (a Preying Mantis would have been nicer).

New figures from Empress, but I could not really justify the U-Boat, nice though it was. I also bought a FV103 Spartan (an HLBS model) having nagged about Empress doing one for years.

From Spectre, I bought their Cops vs Clowns starter set, one of their Technicals and a civilian car. They had sold out of the other technical and the Fast Attack Vehicle. Oh and a DSHK for use on one of Empress's M113s.

Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold...

Frostgrave treasure.

One of the Ainsty Treasure piles (bought at Warfare when I bought the rules).

Undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black. Wooden crate painted with Vallejo Old Wood with grain effects in Citadel Rhinox Brown and Steel Legion Drab. Washed with Citadel Nuln Oil.  Coins dry brushed with Vallejo Brass then dry brushed with Vallejo Gold.

Some Assembly required - Weird War Patriot

So, for the Weird War games I have started work on a second Patriot figure.

Crossover Miniatures Super Soldier, Westwind SHS US head in a helmet and a Hasslefree Hoplite shield.

Warlord Games: Churchill Tank

So the base colours are on, but there is plenty of tidying up to do before weathering and decals.

The light coloured tarpaulins are too light, they need repainting.

FT Tank - Part 3

So the FT tank has now been undercoated with PSC British Tank spray.

The tracks and exhaust silencer were painted with a mix of Vallejo Black and Hull Red. The helmet was painted with Vallejo German camouflage dark green.

Next is markings, shading and weathering.

Concord Faction splinter troops

So, here are the first two blocks of Concord troops from two splinter factions.

Base colour is PSC German held Grey.
Most visors are Vallejo London Grey.
Drybrushed with Citadel Terminatus Stone.
Washed with Athonian Camoshade.

Base colour is Citadel Mournfang Brown.
Visors are again Vallejo London Grey.
Drybrushed again with Citadel Terminatus Stone.
Washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade.

FT Tank - Part 2

The plan is to paint this up as a British Army vehicle mobilised after Dunkirk (possibly for Operation Seal Lion games).

Note to self, do not drop models, they are heavy and the tracks come off when they hit the ground. I removed and replaced the tracks, drilling out the snapped off peg and drilling a corresponding hole in the track unit. Plastic rod replaced the pegs. The skid at the back was removed and repositioned. A plastic rod was added to the back to provide a fixing point.

Next, I added a post to the top of the jack and used it to position the bedroll.

Greenstuff was then used to hold the skid in position. Additional green stuff created some baggage, a tarpaulin and another bedroll. A Rubicon bucket and a British fuel can were added.

FT Tank, Brussels Museum

This is the example of the FT tank at the Brussels Museum.

FT Tank, Part 1

So, as you saw in the photograph of the parts, this is a fairly simple kit.

The parts are well cast. the feeds have been removed (some final polishing is required).

As you can see, the turret top hatch is slightly difficult to clean up, imagine trying to smoothly file the head of a drawing pin.

The only problem is there are no mounting points for the tail skid, so it is (currently) in the wrong position. Check photographs carefully before assembly.

 Scaling photograph.

It is a very small tank, a Rubicon M5A1 for scale.

C3M4 - Gates of Antares combat drone

So, for reasons that are unclear to me, I dug out my Gates of Antares figures and drones and have been doing some work on them.

The Drone is coming along nicely.

I still need to blend the glow on the domes below the turret.

I had not spotted the sensor dome on the nose by the three vertically placed sensors.

 C3 Strike trooper for scale.

For reasons that probably made sense to the designer, the sensor things either side of the turret can pivot. As you can see I have pivoted mine in past the point it was painted. Another fill in job.

As I do not like the tripod based figures in the box set (a tripod is stable, but immobile), I painted the C3 figures as two opposing forces (Citadel Mournfang Brown and PSC German Field Grey).

I have an additional box which will give me sufficient figures for a reasonable game.