Eastway City Spaceport - Heavy Loader

Eastway City Spaceport may not be the busiest port on Forsey, and it certainly isn't the most high-tech or modern, but it still boasts a unique mix of the old and the new, from interplanetary transports, cargo haulers, service droids, to aliens from around the galaxy.

The UBX-4593 "Ball" is just one of the cargo movers that can be seen in and around the spaceport. These heavy lifters can either be manned, remotely controled, or have AI Droid intelligence systems fitted. They are capable of working both in planetary atmospheres or in zero gravity.

Some models have also been armed, either with dual lasers or with heavy bolters. Though slow, the heavy armour of the Ball was designed to be able to withstand great pressure and is therefore a difficult target to damage, making this vehicle a favourite of some rebel or bandit groups.

 The Ball is a soft plastic Gundam Gashapon (Collectable Figure) that I picked up for less than £2 from eBay. I've tried to make the base look like a spaceport surface rather than the textured bases I usually put on the figures. The other minis are from Khurasan, Ground Zero or from the old Traveller range.

DPRG (Democratic People's Republic of Glory) Regular Army

The Federal forces on Forsey were disappointed and concerned by reports that the DPRG (Democratic People's Republic of Glory) Regular Army has recently began supplying troops and arms to the Eastway Militia. DPRG sources have claimed that these forces are only there in an advisory position and that if the Federal Army can field troops for peace-keeping purposes then there is no reason why they can't.

Federal Forces have responded by stationing the Frankfurt class Escort Cruiser FSS Marshall Hemson to Forsey with a promise to reinforce with more ships if needed.

The DPRG are from the new Tomorrow's War official 15mm miniatures range that Ground Zero Games are producing in association with Ambush Alley Games. Each pack contains 10 figures; two each of 5 different sculpts (Squad Leader, kneeling and advancing riflemen, advancing SAW gunner and prone SAW gunner firing). These are a really nice set of figures and I look forward to this range being expanded. The figure were very cleanly cast, with almost no flash. The only issue seemed to that the officers helmet needed a little cleaning up. All in all, and impresive start to a range, but we are talking about GZG, so quality is to be expected.

The Cruiser is from Ground Zero's Full Thrust range.

Here is an image with the new DPRG shown alongside other popular figures for comparison.

These are, from left to right, DPRG from GZG, Sepulveda Resistance from Khurasan, ARC Rifleman from Critical Mass, Federal Army from Khurasan, Alien Bounty Hunter from Brigade Models UK, and a Traveller Militia from RAFM.

Are these the Droids you're looking for?

Fyoder is not only a dumping ground for all sorts of human or alien refugees hoping to make a new life, but also the destination of a variety of robots, droids, automatons and other artificial lifeforms. Many are out-moded antiques, while others are state-of-the-art scientific models.

Below are a selection of the droids that you could encounter on Forsey.

The Droids in the pictures are;
Top picture from left to right - Traveller/Rafm workbot, a tracked droid with comms array from 15mm.co.uk, Traveller/Rafm Droid, Armoured Sentry Droid from 15mm.co.uk, Mk II Law Enforcement Droid from Laserburn/15mm.co.uk, plus a laserburn civilian for scale.
Bottom picture from left to right - A four legged domestic service droid from 15mm.co.uk, Traveller/Rafm Combat Droid, Laserburn Sandar Worker Droid from 15mm.co.uk, a Starship Servo Droid with repair tools from 15mm.co.uk, a Ground Zero Games Workbot, and the Laserburn civilian again.

Fyoder Industries Construction Vehicles

Back from holiday and I really need to get the blog updated. I've got some Oddzial Osmy Vistula Legion on order, I've got a great new 15mm APC from Antenociti's Workshop getting painted, and I need to get more Spugs painted so I can post them up.

I've also been wanting to make some construction vehicles for my scifi project - nothing hi-tech, just some diggers/earth movers - but I really didn't want to steal my little boys toy cars. So it was lucky when I was in the local Poundland discount store that we saw a set of really cheap construction toys for £1. They weer of particularly poor quality but I thought that this little digger would maybe have som potential. Purchase made, I cam home, undercoated it black, and got painting. It was great fun and I think it came out really nicely. It's slightly big for 15mm but that's okay as I can justify it as being "scifi big". I need to work on a driver, or I could just use this as a terrain piece. The mini-mule is from Ground Zero.

Federal Army Bobcat

The Federal Army fields the Bobcat 4-wheel HMLCV (High Mobility Light Combat Vehicle) alongside it's Scout Recon units.

Armed with a heavy autocannon, and able traverse even the most difficult terrain, this vehicle is able to get in amongst the action wherever required.

It's been a while since I posted as I've been busy with a commission of GW Night Goblins. I've had this Bobcat from Ground Zero Games sitting for a while and thought I'd better get something posted.
I've also got some buildings started and base coated, finished a unit of low-tech reptilian aliens, and started another couple of sculpts - one an insectoid alien and the other a power-armoured leader for the low-tech reptiles.
Anyway, here's the goblin commission that has been taking up my spare time, in case your interested...

Fyoder Water Mining Plant

Fyoder Industries hold water mining rights on Forsey - a highly lucrative contract due to the rarity of water as a commodity in the sector. Small processing plants are scattered over large areas of the planet, drawing water from both the atmosphere and the underground reserves that permeate the planet.

Fyoder's monopoly of the water production is a sore point with the general population of the planet, both native and human colonists, who feel agreived that they are forced to pay for a resource that should be rightfully theirs.

Recent attacks on Fyoder facilities has forced the corporation to station security forces at their plants, and as one of Fyoder's other major sections is Robotics most of these senties are cybernetic.

The Security Droids are programmed to defend the bases and have a tendancy to follow their orders to the extreme, making it dangerous to even approach Fyoder facilities. Droid patrols often come into conflict with the locals, causing growing tensions.

The water plant in made from some plastic from the bit's box. The figures are from The Scene (Security Bots), Ground Zero Games (The mini-mule) and worker droid is from the old Traveller range now sold by RAFM.

Federal Army

The Federal Army has sent a small taskforce to the planet Forsey to assist the Fyoder Corporation. Water mining rights on the planet have been openly disputed by the Nationalist Independence Party resulting in armed conflict with the corporations security. Fyoder Corp has asked for mediation in the ongoing conflict and is threatening to send in it's own forces to protect it's facilities if issues are not resolved. The Nationalists meanwhile deny any attacks on Fyoder's properties but have stated that they will defend their territory against Federal incursions.

This is my Federal Army forces so far. I think I'll take a break from these as I want to add some alien races to the collection. I have some new figures on order that should hopefully arrive soon. Meanwhile I have to work my way through a large painting commission of Night Goblins.

Federal Drones and Control

When it's too dangerous to send in the infantry, the Federal Army utilises remote Drones. This version of the wheeled drones are armed with autocannons and are controlled by a command team from as far a way as several miles. The command team can track the drones on a field holoprojector.

The drones are from Ground Zero Games and the Command Team is from Khurasan Miniatures. The holoprojector is supplied with the projection printed onto clear acetate - a brilliant idea from Khurasan who also manufacture some of the best 15mm scifi figures on the market.

Ground Zero Games Mini-mule

Here's a little vehicle I picked up in a bundle from eBay. I really like this small 6-wheel machine, it reminds me a lot of the moon buggies from Space 1999. I painted this up as a construction/civilian vehicle rather than military and painting the yellow made a pleasant change from camo greens and browns. I'm now tempted to steal the kids toy diggers and build a set of mining/colonists.

You can get these from Ground Zero Games and they come in several options, armed or unarmed and with trailers etc.