We live in an increasingly turbulent world. Our cousin races – the Ee’la, the Stoc’d – withdraw into themselves, thinking only of their own interests. The Beasts – Orca, Grub, Virum Nascii, Lacerats – their numbers grow by the day, encroaching onto those territories claimed by Man. The Dead pour from the dark places.. and even while all this takes place, still we turn on each other.
Our Sky Marines perform above and beyond the call of duty but in the face of peer and near-peer competitors it is vital that we shore up our technologicalto maintain overmatch in the face of these perils. And so we are proud to unveil a new generation of Skycutters to ensure that our forces go into battle equipped the very best in firepower and protection from perils both physical and enchanted. To this end, we present our latest and best battlefield weapon – the Allied Sky Vessel “Dauntless”
Her power fields and wards will provide unmatched protection against conventional and magickal attacks, whilst a Vrilfire cannon can cut a swathe through enemy warriors. Vril-tipped missiles equipped with Artificial Cognisance can bring down threats up to and including the largest dragons employed by the Beast races, whilst reinforced liftwood levitation engines ensure maximal mobility. Noospheric networking allows the Dauntless class to network with lesser constructs such as the Whippet, as well as with platoon command sections and Masters Of Artificials on the groundThe Dauntless combines speed, protection and lethality into one construct, ensuring our society has nothing to fear from the Dead, the Beasts, or any other threat that the world of Hyperia may choose to throw against usShe can be seen here flying the colours of the 301st Skyborne, a tried and tested formation who have defended the Grand Allianceagainstmany foesLive fire combat testing proved the efficacy of the design, the Skyborne being highly appreciated of her concentrated firepower
Yep, I got into the recycling again…
Actually, I’ve been meaning to do this for AGES. Ever since I saw this:
This is the lid of a bottle of laundry detergent. And looked at the right way… it has an air of steampunk, Adeptus Mechanicus-style menace, doesn’t it? And given that the previous incarnation of the Dauntless was basically a toilet roll tube with pretensions, I’d long wondered if I couldn’t do something a bit better.Filled the body with caulk and popped a ping pong ball in there to be the liftwood coreSome EPVC (I think) from an eBay purchase provided the wings – you’ll have seen the same stuff used here as base.Bevelled the wings and glued them on using a mix of quick dry PVA, caulk and superglue.Jet thrusters from a pair of now-dead birosChin cannon (thinking steampunk/ fantasy A-10 here, so something analogous to the iconic “Avenger” cannon) – this was made from a mysterious leftover part from an IKEA bookcase!Missiles added for those hard to reach targets! These are rawl plugs, attached to the wings with the same mix of PVA and superglueSomething this big needs a base equal to the challenge! Pretty sure 2005 virus protection isn’t much use in 2022, so this CD will do, with a Tactical Rock added to cover the holeCardboard added for armour plating and rivets daubed on as blobs of PVA with a cocktail stick, and then we bring the primer! White, to match the WhippetCat litter added to the base for scenic effectPrimed and ready for painting…And done! Painting was the same as the Whippet, and the basing mostly used the same idea – I did a little bot of leopard spotting on the rocks before drybrushing them with cream and using the tried and trusty mix of PVA and superglue to attach the ping pong ball liftwood core.. Thumb added for scale!
So there we go – I’m really, really chuffed with this build, it came together really well and I think it looks the part too… full of menace, hovering across the battlefield dispensing Vrilfire death to the enemies of the Grand Alliance… let’s see what those filthy Greenskin savages, rat abominations or misguided religious zealots can come up with to match her!
Stay thrifty out there and see you soon – we’ve just noticed that it is (drumroll please) Orctober!!! So no prizes for guessing the next few posts themes…
As tensions across the world of Hyperiaescalate, the Grand Alliance coalition of willing floating cities and aero-states are finding it necessary to deploy Sky Marine task forces with increasing regularity. As by necessity these task forces are small in terms of numbers, despite their high quality training and equipment they arevulnerable to near-peer competitors able to deploy overwhelming numbers. To this end, the Alliance military-industrial complexhave been tasked with developing easily deployable “force multipliers”. The Fawcett-Fairchild “Whippet” class Quadrupedal Ambulatory Weapons Platform is such a device, crewed by a single Sky Marine, Vril-enabled Artificial Cognisance enabling it to track multiple targets, prioritise them and engage with twin belt-fed 1-inch canons – all the while networking with “senior” constructs such as the Dauntless-class Skycutter.”
You know that feeling when you see a piece of junk that you’re about to throw out and all of a sudden a voice in your head says “Keep me… I am destined to be more than this..”…
Yes, it’s a junk build. Missed these, haven’t you? 😉
So it was with a simple plastic cap off a bottle of guitar string cleaner – there was just something about the proportions that I thought looked right in 1/72… coupled with the fact that Dan had mentioned a new RTS called Iron Harvest that he reckoned I might get a kick out of…
OK, failed to take any pics of the build process, it seems. So – I began with the clear plastic spray top that forms the body of the mech. Next, I bored some holes in it and used cocktail sticks, snapped in half at the “knee” joints and sealed with superglue to form the legs. A mix of superglue and quick dry PVA did wonders to fix the legs in place to the body.
Next up, the cannons – two more cocktail sticks with sort of grippy bits on them (look at the pic, I don’t know how best to describe them!) – these got the superglue/ PVA treatment straight to the body. This works really well – PVA gives a flexible, sturdy bond but it takes time to dry, whereas superglue is quick drying but brittle. Mixing them seems to do wonders, and there doesn’t seem to be any side effects like Mel The Terrain Tutor describes from mixing superglue and hot glue.
The ammo belts you see feeding the cannons are cut from IDE cable (credit to Zrunelord from TMP there), chopped about 5mm by 10mm and given the magic glue mix, and the shiny thing on top is a defunct watch battery – gives the thing a nice bit of weight.
On the top you can see a chopped down superglue cap, and a couple of thin pieces of card glued to the front for armour plating, and just out of shot are a couple of drinking straws trimmed to represent exhausts:
Old brush bristle got repurposed as an aerial, and the rivets are our classic method of PVA blobs dabbed on with a cocktail stickFinally I drew round a paint pot on a piece of corrugated card for the base. And with that, time for priming!White, as was the style of the time..Prewash with thinned black paint & Vallejo Smokey Ink mix
And once again, I forgot to take pics of the painting process, so here we are with some finished beauty shots:
Basecoat of Vallejo Russian Green, washed with Arm Pinter Green Tone and then thinned Vallejo Brown Ink with a pin wash of Vallejo Smokey Ink.. then drybrushed back with Russian Green, and mixed with craft tan to lighten it. Weathering was Vallejo Skin Wash streaked on to simulate rainwater and then sponge chipping with craft black and Vallejo Mithril silver for where bare metal pokes through (not too much, Sky Marines undertake regular maintenance of their armoury). The brass ammo belts were Mithril Silver washed with Skin Wash, and the base painted with chocolate brown before covered with dry soil, sand and Jarvis flock before varnishSeen here about to kick some greenskin ass.. “They are to our right, left and centre.. they can’t get away now!”
Stay thrifty out there, and if you’re so inclined you can now follow us on Instagram! Just search “@skinflintgames” – see you in the next one
It’s the summertime and the weather is fine, and I’ve been out in the garden knocking back wine…
Time to step away from the Blood Angels for a bit – I’ve lost confidence in my eye for detail (nothing to do with ay criticism, by the way – all the comments I’ve had have been positive, in fact far more positive than I deserve), and I think I need to do a fair bit of freehand practice to get my skills up to snuff before having another go at my command figures. So it makes sense to go to a smaller scale, right?
Well… yeah, actually. See, the issue I had with the BAs was with the smooth surfaces and details like the campaign badges and banners (which also highlighted the downsides to painting with housepaints rather than model paints in some instances… X-D) . The details that are picked out for you on the sculpts – pipes, aquilas etc – I wasn’t too bad with. And with my Orcs, there’s plenty of those. This lets washes and drybrushing take care of the heavy lifting – plus any mistakes you can hide within a regiment of 30, right?
So here we are – a regiment of 30 Black Orcs (Orcs of Colour?):
These lads are the heavy hitters, the elite of the orc infantry, and 30 of them is a big solid linebreaker whether you’re playing Warhammer Fantasy, Kings Of War or Hyperian WarsPaint scheme was basically the same as the other ladz, but a black wash dulled down the skin tones.I gave myself a hand by priming these white and then prewashing with thinned Smokey Ink to get to the parts other painting layers can’t reach….Warchief Gazhrag The Bloody leads his armyA mighty horde!Fancy seeing this lot coming at you?
So that’s Gazh the Warchief, a regiment of 16 Archers, 2 regiments of 30 Orcs each, a regiment of 25 Savage Orcs and now the Black Orcs – one more regiment to go and then we’re on to the Shamans, and I’ve got a few ideas for support units…
Lt. Carruthers’ Sky Marine platoon deploys to the left, with support from an Artificial, Gazhrag’s boyz to the right. The objective is the sacred stones in the middle of the ruined temple… wonder what the Orc Warlord might be wanting with all these stones? Sky Marines deploy forward with command section and mortar anchored on the low hill in the centreAnd there’s the OPFOR…The ladz barrel forwardNo. 3 Squad takes casualties from surprisingly effective Orc archeryNos. 1 & 2 squads hold the hill overlooking the temple, but it looks like they’re getting company soonBlack Orcs crash into the Sky Marines on the hill Sky Marines retreat in good order despite taking savage losses, but the Orc regiment following the Black Orcs catch them in the openSky Marines fight bravely, but 30 Orcs are 30 OrcsCommand section let fly with rifles and mortar, Jim running down all his Command Points to hammer these ladz before they massacre his troops up close and personal. The “1” you can see is the regiment failing it’s morale check – being within 12cm of unsuppressed enemy troops they are captured (or cut down by quickfire .303 rounds and bayonets)Next turn Jim won the initiative and turned the attention of the command section onto the Black Orcs – concentrated casualties in the regiment’s rear quickly caused them to become suppressed and surrender too!However, the command section can’t face two ways at once and the second prong of the Orc attack strikesTwo survivors are all that’s left of No. 3 squad!Surviving Sky Marines consolidate on the low hill for a last stand
But to no avail, as the Orcs crash into them from both sides!
“Those creatures are tremendous in stature!”“Wait until you see the reds of their eyes, lads”
And so Gazhrag The Bloody scored another victory, albeit having lost half his archers, his elite Black Orcs and a regiment of regular Orcs in the process… and we ironed out a few more kinks in the Hyperian Wars ruleset, hopefully bringing the publication date to three days before the heat death of the universe.
Stay thrifty out there – Jim’s got something he’s really excited to tell you all about… 😉
And what better way to celebrate our new found glorious, double-jabbed-plus-two-weeks liberty than by reinstating our Grand Summer Megagame…
Now, admittedly, the last time we did this we managed to precipitate the Great Plague Of 2020, so it’s entirely possible that in a couple of months we’ll be staring at a blank screen lamenting the collapse of humanity to an alien invasion… but we’re willing to take that risk. Let’s break out the toy soldiers!
As before, the mantra was WE BRING EVERONE.
So that’s all the factions we’d built in 20mm for Apocalypse: Earth, Hyperian Wars and Future Force Warrior – seeing as these three games are all built around the same basic principles, they’ve proved to be pretty compatible. And as before, we divided them into two rough factions, “goodies” and “baddies”. Orders of battle below:
Last time out the baddies had been significantly outnumbered and outgunned, but we’d finished adding some special weapons to the Virum Nascii, not to mention about 100 fantasy Orcs, the PFH rebels with their cabal of powerful psychics and a cloud of armed civilians… should be a close run thing!
We also faced a problem this time – having EVERYONE on the table was just not going to work – there just wasn’t room- so we came up with a different scenario to the basic “Kill ‘Em All” approach of last time. This time we placed an objective – in this instance a downed spaceship (3D printer Dan’s son had lovingly assembled and then sat on) – dead centre. The aim would be to pick up the spaceship and move it off your table – the unit carrying the spaceship would only be able to move at half speed and the objective would only be able to captured from Turn 2 onwards.
For deployment, all forces would be available but each unit would have to pass a reaction roll to appear.. each subsequent turn that roll would get a +1 bonus, then an extra +1 the turn after that and so on.
We diced for table edge – the Baddies winning and choosing the ruined city, leaving the Goodies with the beach landing – and then we began to deploy units alternately as per the Apocalypse Earth rulebook, rolling for availability as we went…
Goodies hit the beach – although NONE of ze Churmans or the PSLA 1977th made their rolls, we got the Fists, most of the Atlantic Alliance and the Sky Marines
The Baddies rolled with most of the Holy Soviet Army (Stompy Uncle Joe and the Rampager having failed their reaction rolls), Da Skooderia, the People’s Front Of Hazzard 237th – the Orcs failed their rolls and mysteriously there was no sign of the Virum Nascii….
Birds’ eye view..
And thus the stage was set for quite the showdown – stay tuned for the next episode!
Well damn. The dice are just cooling down after an absolutely blistering playtest of our steampunk/ fantasy/ VSF mashup system, “Hyperian Wars” – today featuring the Sky Marines of the Grand Alliance versus the villainous Virum Nascii. And DAMN, the result was really not what we expected, but it was an absolutely corking game! So, with memories still relatively fresh and unclouded by liquor, time to dive into this evening’s battle report –
Lists:
Grand Alliance Sky Marines (all troops are skirmishers):
5 x Poison Grenadiers (skirmishers) – Poison Grenades, Hand Weapons
10 x Stormtroopers – Hand Weapons
8 x Plague Priests – Hand Weapons
So, one side has the firepower – but the other has numbers. And speed. Who would prevail?
Deployment:
Sky Marines deploy onto the southern edge – with little in the way of missile fire, we went for best firing positions to maximise our ranged advantage
Virum Nascii deploy, concentrating on the ruined village – aiming to overwhelm one area of the Sky Marine lines before moving on. Slaves and warriors to the fore to absorb casualties, Warlord and his retinue of elite troops use them as cover to get in range and get stuck in!
The Slaves catch a glimpse of their enemy on the horizon!
The view from the Sky Marine lines – that’s a LOT of rats!
Turn 1
Sky Marine rifle fire rips through the exposed archer Slaves, killing half their number
HQ section mortar falls among archer slaves, adding to the carnage as the Virum Nascii hurtle forwards – I’d placed my weakest units at the front to absorb casualties, in true merciless villain style!
Turn 2
Sky Marines gain the initiative and gun down the remaining Slave archers
After gunning down the archers, Sky Marines suddenly find the Virum Nascii getting very, very, very close!
Mortar shell falls amongst the slave regiment
Seeing their brothers about to get overrun, No. 3 Squad open up on the Ratmen!
Turn 3
Virum Nascii were just about to hit Sky Marine positions, and things were about to get… interesting…
Sky Marines pour fire point blank into the onrushing Ratmen horde
But it’s not even close to enough – No. 2 squad are torn apart by the vicious beastmen
Mortar shell bursts upon the Ratmen warriors!
The Ratmen warriors finish off No. 2 squad with sword and claw!
The surviving Ratmen warriors achieve Frenzy and crash on into Sky Marine HQ!
The elite human infantry dispatch the Virum Nascii beasts, but at a cost, losing the signallers
Plague priests pile on to the HQ!
The Warlord and his elite bodyguard crash into No. 3 squad!
The Sky Marines put up a valiant fight, but they’re no much for the vicious Virum Nascii!
Turn 4
Plague priests overwhelm the Sky Marine HQ!
Only one Priest left standing, but HQ – and Lt. Gorman – is down!
Meanwhile, No. 1 squad cluster up in the ruins to repel the oncoming Virum Nascii!
A frenzied maelstrom of blood and claws in the ruined temple!
In the last moments of the battle, the last Sky Marine (PFC Hudson) pumps rounds into the seething mass of Ratmen – “COME GET SOME MOTHERF*CKER!”
But in the end.. it was game over, man. Game over.
Wow. Holy sh*t but that was a blast – the Sky Marines deploying, full of confidence in our ranged firepower, taking down huge numbers of Virum Nascii….. right up until the rats got into charge range and then it hit the fan and no mistake! My outnumbered squads were ripped apart in short order, and damn but the Ratmen are FAST!!
In fact, the battle played out much like a steampunk/ fantasy version of the classic movie “Aliens” – the Sky Marines inflicting huge losses on the ratmen for no loss to themselves… right up until the moment when they weren’t.. and then it became a massacre! Hence the title – fans will recognise Hadley’s Hope as the colony established on LV426.
All in all, a hell of a game, right down to PFC Hudson’s last stand in the temple! And we should add, this got the attention of none other than Black Library author himself, Gav Thorpe!
Skinflint Games 