MA.K Maschinen Krieger 15mm

 Slave 2 Gaming, a small company with a big vision for the Maschinen Krieger universe (aka S.F.3.D.) has recently released several of the models in 15mm scale for gaming purposes. SF3d as I have known it since the 1980's had to change the name to MA.K or Maschinen Krieger for legal reasons back in the 90's, but that's beyond the scope of this article. 

I have to say that I have NOT done anything in 15mm scale in years. Seriously, years! I'm getting to old to paint anything less than 28mm scale and still be able to see it and enjoy painting the subject. The difference here is that most of the models are in Powered Armor, and on top of that Slave 2 Gaming did an excellent job in sculpting these little gems. They say they are in the works to continue to add to the line, and I certainly hope they do so. It has something of a niche following, but has never gone away. The problem they may have is that this has been mostly a modelers realm in 1/20 scale models, with the odd few in different scales, but definitely a modelers hobby. 

Science fiction miniature fans may know little about this Sci-Fi themed subject, but I hope they are able to reach out to those that game and are successful at getting interest so they continue to make more stuff. Of course that is me being selfish for my own wants, as I will buy every single thing they release. So everyone buy this stuff now! 

Right now there is no specific set of rules for these miniatures, but Gruntz seems to be the rule set of choice. I bought a copy after purchasing these miniatures and have to say there not bad. I even bought the tactical cards to add a bit of flavor. You'll have to come up with your own unit stats, but the Slavers and a small fan base are working on that. So that should not hold anyone back. 

Ordering from Australia (where the company is based) to the US can be a pain, but that has nothing to do with the wonderful customer service that this company provides. It's the getting stuck in the pipeline trying to get it on board a plane to US because of Covid restrictions. This is something I am sure you all can understand. But trust me you will get it. 

I've corresponded with Drew (I believe the owner of company?) and I must say he gives pretty darn good customer service.

Anyways, here is my first batch of models painted. It's the Gustav powered armor suit, and the unit name I have given it is the Sundowner's.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, this is not post WWII, or weird war or anything like that. This is actually where WWIII has happened, earth gets abandoned by the main players, starts to heal herself up with the few people left, and then the people who left come back and...... you'll just have to read the story about and;)

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Freeblades Traazorite Keshark finished

Quintus (ie fifth) Albus (ie White, bright in latin) the Lion of Isarchael a title bestowed upon him by the Emperor himself for his courage and bravery in the many rear guard actions he led that saved many a Legion from certain destruction during the final days. The Emperor has decreed that he is allowed to carry his family crescent upon his shield. There is not a Traazorite that has not heard the fabled stories of Quintus riding upon his famous Velozar Azrael in their many battles together.

Now we move on to the conversion bits. I replaced the mount with an Etsy 3D print Velociraptor which was a perfect match in size to the actual mount that came with model. To modify the Keshark figure I had to really work out the bits in the crotch area with my dremel to get him to properly fit on mount. Next I converted the cloak as the one he came with was a short shot, so I used a Roman General cloak from Victrix plastic sprue and then used green stuff to tie it in. Lastly I liked the large round shield in the concept art so I needed to replace his arm as it is cast onto the baseball diamond shield that comes with figure. I took a Victrix Carthaginian arm from one of their plastic sprues and cut it off on the elbow, and a round Hoplite shield also from Victrix plastic sprue and used them to replace his shield arm. I used a shield transfer that covered about 60 percent of shield so I had to use some blending skills to match the paint and tie it all in.

On another note, today, I discovered how fragile these 3D prints can be. I suppose material used to make them has something to do with it. I proceeded to work on my Velozar Knight conversion, when my clumsy butt dropped the model onto a carpeted floor. The dino shattered at the ankles, with one leg breaking into three pieces. I was pissed as hell since I had put a lot of work into painting it. Super glue wouldn’t take, and I’ve decided that 3D printing is not where people think it is at. While it’s cool to get something special, to replace something that you can get without a good reason to do so is just a waste of time and money until we see some quality improvement in 3D printing materials.

Anyways, tell me what you think of the Keshark.

As always thanks for looking!

Cheers

Kevin

Freeblades WIP report

 Been very busy doing real life stuff, but that hasn’t stopped me from sneaking in some hobby time. I only have two Terminators of my Space Hulk commission left to do but I needed a break. So I started to work on my Dino riding Freeblades warband.

The first picture I am showing you is the concept art.

The following picture is a photo from the website of what my actual model is supposed to look like. This is the leader of my band of savage heroes and he is called a Keshark.

Now the shield that you can’t see on this figure (that is not painted by me) is a round shield with a square shield laid over top of it. So it’s lined up like a baseball diamond, and while it looks cool, if you look at the round shield in the concept art, this I like way better. 

Now the beasts that they ride are called Velozar’s and they (of course) remind me of velociraptors from Jurassic Park. On another note these figures have caused me to watch Jurassic Park and it’s follow ons more than a few times.

Okay the Velozar has the leap ability which in the game of Freeblades cancels some ones counter charge. This made me think of how I wanted to pose the figure. To me it needed to be dynamic.

Now while the figures from DGS Games for Freeblades are nice, they are very static. The way the are made makes the ability to pose them very difficult, and the fact they don’t have a variety of model poses makes it harder to make yours unique. Now I belong to their Facebook group and they have some good painters that show their projects and I am pretty awed by it. But one can only paint a figure so many different ways, and bottom line is it’s still the same pose.

Kevin was having none of that. Kevin is unique. Kevin must be different🤔

Since there is only one rider, and one that is not very posable, I still needed to keep to the spirit of it being a Freeblades model. So what could I change? 

It hit me like a freight train! 3D printing was my answer! Someone out there had to make something close to 32mm and with the popularity of velociraptors my hope rose as I started searching Etsy.

I will post more in the coming days on this project.

Cheers

Kevin

The evil that lurks in the dark, finished

 Yep, I finally summoned up enough mojo to place my personal projects aside and finished those Genestealers. In the end it wasn't so hard, just my heart is not into the subject matter as it once was. Oh I will play for sure, but just lack the conviction to paint and play. I have been in and out of 40K stuff so much I can't keep count. The only game I am currently involved in with Games Workshop is Adeptus Titanicus. Well at least until they put out another cool model.... no stop it... I will resist!

Anyways here are a few shots of what I did as living proof. I placed figures that would be more like the center pieces first, followed by the grunts.

[The Beast in Charge of all the rest]

[and the rest of the pack]

This leaves me with these last two figures to complete and I will be done, done. I am so looking forward to it. 

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Freeblades game report

 Got a chance to play a game face to face yesterday. 57 degrees and sunny skies, perfect weather for an outdoor adventure.

My buddy came over and we played a skirmish fantasy game called Freeblades. Urdagger (a Conan like barbarian force) vs my partly painted Eclipse (a Amazon like force). 

My friend has only played a couple of games, and I one demo game at Adepticon way back (in the old days when we had a thing called conventions) in 2019. It was mostly a learning game, just feeling out the rules, and more an excuse to get together for human companionship.

It was worth it. I have posted a few pictures below of our experience. The 6 sided die shows the turn number we were on.

[Below first face to face game of the year 2021]

While the game was slow only because we were learning, we could see the merits of the game and that it will play faster after we get comfortable with the rules. Definitely looking forward to more play.

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin

Freeblades: Nightwhisper

 DGS Games on International Women's day had a sale for all there Lady figures. How could I resist these nicely sculpted 32mm miniatures for a Fantasy skirmish game. 

After painting Genestealers for a commission I am almost done with, I needed to reboot for a minute. So today I spent the day painting one of my favorite Freeblade ladies in the Nightwhisper. Such a cool name, and the rule of cool is what I follow to paint.

Here's a quick blurb on her from the site:

"A Nightwhisper is one of the most dangerous weapons in the arsenal of the Eclipse. These highly skilled archers know every street, alley and rooftop in the teeming cities of their birth. Impossibly elusive, they might be responsible for the deaths of more Traazorite notables than any other member of the rebellion. Imperial Ravagers do not try and take them captive, they have a standing kill on sight order."

The Eclipse is the name of the rebellion where the women are basically putting their collective feet down and demanding their due rights.

I figured out the colors I wanted, and didn't just copy the art work like I usually do, and I found this tough. At first I thought I was going to have to strip it or throw it away and start all over again, but I changed a few colors and now I am most partial to it.

So without further ado, here it is and I hope you like it.

As always thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

Kevin

More Adeptus Titanicus

 Well I've started in earnest on the Genestealers, but last week before I went full bore into them I completed two more Titans for my Legio.

They are two Warhound Titans for my Legio Mortis. Of course I've chosen the Heresy side (and depending on your view point) they are the good guys or bad guys.  They are model kits that you have to assemble and magnets have been added to the waist so it can swivel, and I drilled out the weapons to make them posable but more importantly be changed out so you have maximum re-playability.  

[below is Scar of Honor]

[and this bad puppy is named Tenebris Fedelis]

[and lastly them together with their interchangeable weapons]

As always thanks for looking.

Cheers

Kevin