More additions to 15mm Sci-Fi Platoon

I dropped by Hobby town in Greensboro last weekend and found some of the 15mm Sci-Fi crowd gearing up for some games. I had my first real look at 5150: Star Army rulebook. The first thing I noticed was the squads were organized into eight man squads not the ten I was planning on. So I was going to need more figures. I also needed some commander figures and I decided to add a rapid fire laser to each squad. So adding two commanders and six rapid fire lasers. They will give me enough troops to field six eight man squads.

Here is the first commander. I used the same beads as the riflemen and just added them to his sub machine gun.

The commander of the second platoon.

At Chris from Sippin' on Paint Water suggestion when I started converting up the rapid fire laser rifles with two aerials. I used some white glue stretched between the aerials to form the electrical arc between the aerials.

I trimmed down the back of the model and them drilled a hole above the belt. I used a piece of 28 gauge wire I bent and twisted to form the aerials. I glued the wire into the hole and then sculpted the backpack power pack. Last I sculpted the bedroll back around the backpack.

Now I just need to get them painted.

ColKG

15mm Sci-Fi Progress

It looks like I have jumped on another bandwagon, 15mm Sci-Fi. Chris over at Sippin' on Paint Water and Impcommander at Skies of Flies, Ground of Rust have started building armies to use with 5150:Star Army. The original plan was to use my Flames of War 15mm Soviet army as low tech troops and just see how many they could shoot before I swamped them with bodies, just like a regular Flames of War game. After a few questions, it came out the Chris' Power armored troops were virtually impervious to bullets, so I needed a new plan. So I started shopping for new 15mm Sci-Fi figures. They have some real nice figures out there but the hobby fund is about tapped out. Then it hit me, I would just use the left over 15mm Soviets I had and convert them over to Sci-Fi figures. A bonus would be, being able to double duty them for Weird World War Two gaming.


The first thing I considered is the troops need energy weapons and Anti-tank rockets. After several brainstorming sessions and debating the work involved in sculpting "Tesla" style rifle muzzles on a pile of 15mm figures, I headed to Hobby lobby looking for beads I might be able to use. My original idea was to use a small sequin and a round bead to make the rifle muzzle. Alas, Hobby lobby didn't have any sequins small enough to use. I started searching the beads for something useful for the rifle muzzle and a rocket warhead when I found the daisy spacer bead and it all clicked into place.


Voila! the 15mm Soviet rifleman armed with his new Tesla Particle Beam rifle. Construction was pretty straight forward, I filed down the rifle sight and the bayonet. I slid the 4.5mm Daisy spacer on till it touched the filed down rifle sight, added a drop of super glue and slid the 2.4mm round bead on to the filed down bayonet. On some of the models I had to trim the bayonet off at the bead and then either add a bit to fill the hole or file the bead down even.

The next step was adding some rocket launchers for that extra anti armor punch. The closest thing to a diamond shaped bead small enough for my use was a 3mm corrugated bicone head bead. To make the rocket, I filed down to a point a piece of .20 Gauge brass wire. I added a drop of super glue to the wire and slid the bead onto the end until just the filed point was exposed past the bead. I then measured six millimeters behind the bead and cut the wire with some side cutters. I glued the rocket to the models back and then used a piece of green stuff to make a rocket carried on the models back.

A front view of the rocket armed model. I think the corrugated texture of the rocket head will look good once I get them painted. I have also based all these figures on a half inch washers. I was planning on mounting them on pennies but according to Kadlec's Rules for Gentleman Wargamers, mounting models on small coins is very bad form. The coin is legal tender and represents the realm and any defacing of legal tender is a slight against the realm.

My 15mm Sci-Fi/WWWII forces as they stand now. It consists of twenty men armed with Tesla particle beam rifles and their walking tank a micro scale gundam capsule toy I found in a grocery store parking lot. Each five man squad has two anti tank rockets. I have about twenty or so more riflemen I can convert up and probably need to convert some command models too.

Thanks to the 50% off metal bead sale at Hobby lobby I picked up enough beads to make 90+ Tesla rifles and 60 rockets. For about five dollars I have more than enough parts to field a good size force instead of the fifty dollars I was wanting to spend for new models. The soviet riflemen have been sitting in my bits box for more than five years but will finally get their time on the table. I still might end up having to buy another bag of Old Glory WWII Soviet riflemen if I need to build the force larger.


ColKG

Hydra Tutorial Part 3: Gunner's Cradle

Here is the final instalment in my Hydra turent tutorial, where I build the gunner's cradle and add some final details.





Parts Needed

7.9mm styrene angle

6.4mm styrene square tube

1.5mm x 3.2mm styrene strip

.5mm styrene sheet

1mm styrene sheet

Sentinel pilot

small radar antenna from space marine vehicle sprue

Assemble the sentinel pilot.

Cut three pieces of the 7.9mm styrene angle 15mm long.

Glue the first piece to the bottom of the pilot. This is middle piece pictured above. Then glue the next piece onto the rear of the pilot butted up the the piece already glued on the bottom. Finally slide the last section up under the feet and glue it to the styrene behind it and the legs to its front. you might have to take a couple breaks to let everything set before going onto the next piece.

From the 1.5mmx3.2mm strip cut a 5mm piece and a 10mm piece.

Glue the 5mm section to the top of the 10mm section. This will eventually the the gunners head rest.

Trim down the edges of the small piece to make the head rest and shave down the longer piece so it will fit between the gunner and the styrene angle.

Slide the head rest behind the gunner and glue it down. Dry fit this before you glue so it will fit.

Next cut a 15mm piece of 6.4mm square styrene tube and glue it to the styrene angle on the back of the pilot.

Slide the gunner onto the 4mm tube already on the other side of the center pylon. There is a good gap and you will need to cut a couple shims to keep the gunner in place when the gun moves. Once you get the shims glue the gunner onto the 4mm tube.

Cut the 4mm tube off flush with the end of the 6.4mm square. Take a piece of scrap 1mm styrene sheet and cut a piece big enough to cover the end. Glue it down and trim it down. then Greenstuff the gaps around the join.

Assemble the radar antenna and glue it to the end, keeping it level with the gun.

This will be the ranging radar for the gun mount.

Take the 4mm tube you cut off earlier and shave down one side. Insert it into the top of the center pylon and glue it into place. Be careful so that no glue gets onto the tube through the pylon so the gun will still move. Use some more greenstuff to close in the gap at the top of the center pylon.

Next I dug around the bits box and came up with a headlight from a toy truck. I trimmed it down and then mounted it on top of the 4mm tube. This will be the search radar for the gun.

I found a scrap section of .5mm styrene sheet and cut out a 10mm x 7mm piece. I bent the piece around and exacto knife handle then glued it to the receiver. I went back with a little greenstuff and filled the gap around the edge. This will be the spent ammo chute cover.

The gun looked plain so I took a section of scrap styrene strip and glued it on top to add a little detail.

I though about adding some bits but I decided they are good enough. Time to get them primed, painted and back on the table.

ColKG

Hydra Tutorial Part 2: Gun Assembly

Here is the second part of the Hydra turent Tutorial. This cover building the gun from styrene tube and mounting it the already assembled base.

Basic parts

3.2mm styrene tube

11.1mm styrene tube

9.5mm styrene tube

a wheel lug from the ork wheel sprue
The barrel from a bic ink pen

Start with the 3.2mm tube. Cut six three and a half inch sections and a single one inch section.

Assemble the longer sections around the shorter section. I put a good bead of glue around one end of the short piece and added the longer pieces to it. As you add a piece add a touch of glue to each section. Then get them even and set it aside for the glue to cure.

While the barrels cure, take the 11.1mm tube and cut two sections, one half an inch long and the other, one and a half inches long.

The longer section goes in the rear and will form the receiver. The half inch section goes onto the front to hold the barrels together.

Make a mark in the center of the receiver.

Drill a 4mm hole.

The gun assembly them mounts onto the 4mm tube that runs through the center pylon of the base.

I raided the bits box and picked out a lug from the old ork wheel sprue. If you don't have any of these laying around you could substitute the lug from a space marine bike wheel sprue.

Take the lug and glue it in the end of the 4mm tube. You might have to file down the inside a bit to make it fit.

This is what we have so far.

Take the 9.5mm tube and cut a half inch section.

Glue the 9.5mm piece inside the rear of the gun assembly.

While the glue cures dig a Bic round ink pen barrel out from your bits box, remember never throw anything away.

Cut an inch long section off of the back of the pen barrel, keeping the plug in the barrel.

Slide the pen barrel into the back of the gun assembly and glue it down with some superglue.

this is the basic assembly of the gun section.

Come back for the last instalment with the gunner's cradle and finishing details.

ColKG

Venusian Bombards

I haven't played any Victorian Science Fiction games lately, but at the GameOnGw terrain day a weekend ago, Chuckaroobob and myself started talking about old times and it seems that the Lizards are restless on Venus again. Once again Capitan Jean Val Jean must lead his Foreign Legionaries to defend the citizens of French Venus against the Lizards.





Since the last bout of hostilities the lizardmen have a new patron who has provided an equalizer(of a sort) to the French guns. The guns are crude but they will still throw a shell and fire grapeshot.








I have had the idea to add some guns to my VSF lizardman force. To make them double duty I planned to also use them as salamander proxies in my warhammer fantasy lizardman army. The funny part is after looking through my Lizardman box I found I already have three salamanders I had forgotten about. The idea to use dowel rod finial came to me at a local craft store's 50% off 4th of July sale last year. I went with SWMBO and had picked up some odds and ends when I saw the finials and got the idea to use them as gun tubes. Later I picked up a couple clearanced bags of wood scraps at Hobby Lobby. Then the parts set in the Hobby room till last this week. After the talk with Chuckaroo I was motivated and set out to see how hard the build would be. About an hour later I had the first one done except for some detailing. The build went well so I prepped to use the remaining five finials to build five more guns.





Here is the test build gun. The barrel is a dowel rod finial with a 1/4 inch hole. The sides are some scrap piece of thin wood with some bass wood strips for the cross pieces. It is all pinned together with brass wire and the edges are cover in 1/8 inch styrene angle. I need to add a few more detail and fill some gaps but this is close to the final shape. The base is a hardboard off cut I had left over from making some Flames of War bases.

A simple tutorial. Drill a hole in the finial and glue in a piece of brass wire. Drill a hole in the base and glue the barrel to it.

I made a template from the first gun so the rest of the guns will be close to the same size.

I used the template and cut out the sides. The glue the sides to the side of the gun. I then glued a strip of basswood in the front of the gun between the cannon sides. Then another piece of scrap wood was glued behind the gun barrel and finally a crosspiece was glued between the rear of the cannon sides. Then I used some 1/8 inch styrene angle to cover the edges.

Here is a group shot of the new Lizardman battery. After looking through my Lizardman box and finding the three Salamanders in the blister I forgot I picked up at a local store's closing sale, I am still glad I built the guns. They will still work with a change of crew for several different genres. I also thought about using them as mortars for my empire army, plague mortars in my skaven army and switching worlds to use them with Martian crew for VSF gaming on Mars. The more I think about it the more uses I can come up for them.

Now I just need to detail them a bit and a quick paint job to get them table ready.

ColKG

Hydra Tutorial Part 1: Turret Base

I have wanted a couple of the Hydra flak tanks since the new imperial guard codex came out. Instead of shelling out the money for a couple from Forge world, I decided to raid my styrene pile and bits boxes to scratch build a couple turrets. I had a basic plan of what I wanted but kind of worked through it and then went back to repeat the process and build another one. My original plan was to have a gunner in a basket between two Gatling cannons. I couldn't find a suitable basket and didn't want to have to build several cockpits so I decided to go with a pedestal mount, with a single gun and the gunner in a cradle on the other side. I have accepted that some people may have a problem with the conversion not being WYSIWYG with two separate gun mounts. In play, I mark a weapon destroyed result on the model with a dice and them remove the turret on the second weapon destroyed. Since I built the first two I am also thinking about making up a Apocalypse data sheet to use when I play in the Apoc-Eclipse games.

A parts list for the Base

Regular Bits I used
The bottom bit of the old style Chimera Turret
One door from the side of a leman russ
One box from the Mk1 Rhino sprue

Styrene Sizes
2.4mm tube
6.4mm square tube
4mm tube
4.8mm tube
2.5mm quarter round
1mm plain sheet
7.9mm angle

other recommended items
dremel tool with drill bit
20 gauge brass wire
styrene tube cutter
mitre box and razor saw
clippers
files
sanding films
razor knife
plastic cement
super glue
Pin vise
green stuff

Now to the tutorial



Start with the turret base and drill a hole in the center of the stud

glue a one inch piece of brass wire into the hole with super glue

Cut a one inch piece of 2.4mm tube

Insert the wire into the styrene tube and glue with super glue

Cut a one and a half inch piece of 6.4mm square tube

Drill a 4mm hole about a half inch from one end of the tube.

cut a three inch piece of 4mm tube.

Insert the 4mm tube into the drilled hole. Do not glue. This will the the main support bar for the gun and gunner's cradle.

Leaving the 4mm tube in the square tube take a piece of 4.8mm tube and insert it in the long end of the square tube. Mark the 4.8 mm and cut it flush with the bottom of the square tube.

Take the trimmed piece of 4.8mm tube and glue it into the bottom the square tube. Be careful that no glue gets onto the 4mm rod.

Test fit the pylon over the 2.4 mm rod on the chimera turret base. Depending on where the hole was drilled you may have to trim the 2.4 mm rod so it is clear of the 4mm support arm. Once everything is clear glue the 2.4mm rod into the 4.8mm tube inside the pylon. There will be a gap and you need to use either a piece of styrene or a bit of green stuff to make sure that the two pieces meld. Before everything sets up make sure that the front of the pylon is parallel with the front of the chimera turret base. This will form the center piece of the whole assembly and being parallel will keep everything square later on.

Then you will need to take the 6.4 mm square tube and measure from the front of the pylon to the front of the chimera base. Cut this piece and glue it to the pylon and the chimera base. Wait for this to set up. When the glue has set break out the mitre box. I don't have a measurement for the two angle cuts. I guess at the cut on the back so that it is about level with the rear of the chimera base. The longer angle piece, I cut so it was even with the front of the bottom piece of 6.4mm styrene tube. Glue them in place and let set up.

I dug a Leman Russ small door from the bits box. The door comes from the side of the tank where the sponsons are.

Turn the door over and trim off the back. Sand it so it will lay flat.

glue it onto the chimera base. I centered the rear hinge with the gap between the main pylon and the back support piece. The main reason for the door is to give the illusion that the turret actually is deeper into the hull, instead of just setting on top of it.

Measure the door and cut three pieces to go around it.

Glue the three pieces around the door and trim the front one level with the the two side pieces. I plan to come back and fill the gaps with a bit of green stuff.

I used some 1mm plain sheet styrene to make the floor of the turret base.

I cut a piece of 1mm sheet a half an inch wide and about five inches long.

Measure from the front and back of the quarter round and cut two strips of the 1mm sheet. glue them down and let them set up.

Measure from the front of the 1mm strip to rear most 1mm strip on the door side. Them cut a piece of the 1mm sheet for the opposite side. Glue it to the chimera base and let it set up.

Take the 7.9mm angle piece and cut a section about 10mm in length.

Dig through the bits box and get a box from the Mk1 Rhino sprue.

Glue the 7.9mm angle to the base 6.4mm square tube to act as a step for the gunner. Then glue the box behind the step to represent some of the electronics controlling the turret.

This finishes the basis of the Hydra flak turret. It still needs to be detailed some more and several other things done to it but that covers the basics of construction. Next in the series will the the construction of the gun and the pilots cradle. Then maybe a finishing touches post.

You might ask how much money did I save over Forge world after having to buy all the different sizes of styrene for the project. I actually only purchased a couple packs to use in the gun construction. The rest of the styrene was either remainders from other projects or part of a bunch I bought when a local model shop went out of business. They had lots of styrene left at the end of their going out of business sale so I picked up a supply for future use and have been digging into it for years. If I did have to go and buy the styrene I used in the build It would cost me the price of a forge world Hydra turret but I will have enough extras to build at least four turrets and maybe more.

Next, The Gun and Gunner's Cradle

ColKG