15mm Critical Mass Games/Halo mash up.

[Commander Vyper]

Well then....

The thing that's kept me away from 15mm for such a long time is the 'munchkin' sculpting I've seen: ie figures that look squashed down and infant like rather than the 1/72 scale airfix plastics I played with as a kid.

Having a soft spot for all things Halo and having too many 28mm projects... I thought I'd start a 15mm one!

So ordered a load of Critical Mass Games Arc Fleet troopers and went to work.

The thing I like about the Arc Fleet sculpts is that they are correctly proportioned and have more than a passing resemblance to Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, (this is not the first halo inspired miniature project I've done, but the first in 15mm).

Made my purchases, got my figures in quick time and have started work on the ODST's.... erm Arc Fleet light Recon troopers.

Theme:

Straight from bungie with this one:



So minis all cleaned up, barrels on the missle launchers drilled, fixed to mdf paint sticks and undercoated:





Paintjobs:

Chaos black, then highlighted with VJ bassalt grey, with more skull white added to bring it up subtlely, I'll then gave them a quick wash of baddab black with some black ink and VJ thinner. Then with this blended, accented the armour plates with boltgun metal/dark grey.

Visors painted white, then painted with a thinned scaly green, inked with the old skool blue armour wash, then highlighted with scaly green mixed with skull white.

Weapons bassalt grey, washed with black. Still to go back and highlight a little more on those, then need to do the ammo pouches and packs and we're almost done.

They're a little dark, but then ODST's should stick to the shadows anyway!





Not the best pictures but hopefully you can see what's been achieved, (then took a few more, bit clearer but better in the flesh so to speak).







Got a little braver with this 15mm lark.

Re-highlighted all visors
Added urban camo to the sniper rifles
Further highlighted the missile launchers
Added IR 'dots' to each rifle.
Added NVG green sights to the sniper rifles.
Blacklined the visors.











Quite pleased with my 15mm work so far.

Next time

Heavy Drop Troopers (aka Spartans!). 



The Commander

[Mr.J]

Looking good! I love the halo universe and they look a dead ringer for ODSTs. Liking the subtle paintjob too.
I'm certainly impressed by just how many active (and great) projects you've got going on! I wish I was that productive...

[Mr. Peabody]

Always a treat to see 15mm getting ready for play. 

What do you have planned in the way of vehicles?

[supervike]

Loving this project!

[Commander Vyper]

Ok then started work on the heavy drop troopers:



Got the trooper and command packs from CMG:



Didn't like the trooper with the hyper extended leg (command pack on the left), so freed up the back leg from the base, used a set of long nose pliers and made a more sensible stance, (in my humble opinion). Also moved a few heads and played with the raised arms on the command troopers.

Once done, cleaned them up, fixed to paint sticks and undercoated matt black. Then started a suitably halo-esque spartan pain up:

GW Camo Green as a base, washed with baddab black and then green wash, highlighted with camo green plus bleached bone. Visor, fingers, weapon and flex points in the suit inked with black ink, visor then painted with thinned VJ gold, washed with Devlan mud.

Still to finish the weapons and highlights on the visors, not great picture but more to follow.

[RJ]

Very nice 

Just ordered some of the recon guys myself.

There seems to be lots of 'spartan' type sculpts out there, just wish someone would do some 'covenant' type sculpts at some point...

[Commander Vyper]

Very nice 

Just ordered some of the recon guys myself.

There seems to be lots of 'spartan' type sculpts out there, just wish someone would do some 'covenant' type sculpts at some point...

Totally agreed matey, having to comble some 'collective' troops together myself for this but if only someone would do some elitesque, brutelike little chaps eh?

[Mr. Peabody]

And the eternal question: what rules will you play by?

[RJ]

Totally agreed matey, having to comble some 'collective' troops together myself for this but if only someone would do some elitesque, brutelike little chaps eh?

would make gaming 'Halo' so much easier...

Keep up the good work.

[Mr.J]

That's what really puts me off doing a halo themed game as there are numerous suitable humans/Spartans but no covenant. I mean the flood would be easy enough to do but i'm not so much a fan of those anyway. If anyone has any suggestions I'd be keen to hear them...

[M Blakey]

they are brilliant im so placing my order and making some of these  superb job!

[Mr.J]

Oh yeh great job on the Spartans btw Commander they look top notch!

[Commander Vyper]

Oh yeh great job on the Spartans btw Commander they look top notch!

They're not finished yet but cheers mate. Jumping between this, my aliens project and my old Terminator project from Christmas, (plus my new Halo:Reach project that;s been in prep since May).

So I aim to be back on the Spartans towards the middle of the week.

Vehicles:

Old crow scout buggies, (Gecko and Guana) when they turn up!
CMG grav tanks

Also GZG has a not scorpion tank so will take a look at that shortly.

The Commander

Cheers all

The Commander

[Commander Vyper]

Still have those damn spartans on the table, just a final wash to go.

Ordered 120 20mm bases from Doug, (going for individual basing, looks nicer in my honest opinion.

Found a great little blog with some really nice paints and how to's:

http://tinysolitarysoldiers.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-07-25T18%3A33%3A00%2B01%3A00&max-results=10

Finally, Mark over at Dropship Horizon have previewed some very tasty halo-esque troopers coming from Khurasan:


http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/

No.1 Squad Leader & Medic (armed)
No.2  Assault Team: Riflemen & Grenadiers (underslung g/l)
No.3 Weapons Team: Team Leader, MAW, MAW No.2, SAW, Grenadier (underslung g/l)

Further packs will follow. Additional command figures, a sniper, heavy weapon with crew and more... are planned.

The Commander

[Bako]

Those would work well for gaming the battles from The Legacy Trilogy, though I know not of any appropriate 15mm-ish scaled saurian/reptile miniatures with mixed crude melee and ranged weaponry to counter them, though the other aliens later on would be a lot more easy to find figures for. Anyone else enjoy Ian Douglas' work?

Though yes, some Sangheili-esque figures would be most excellent. Maybe some not-Kig-Yar as well.