Arachnid Bug swarms for Starship Troopers in 15mm

 

It's been a busy time again at work, with staff away on leave and the end of financial year looming. So, I haven't had much time or energy to get a lot of painting or gaming done. As such, all I have to show off right now is an Arachnid Bug swarm that I purchased off either ROK miniatures or Etsy. Both sights have been supplying my Arachnid needs of late, and I still have more I want to buy. But, for now, my time to paint and get things of the table is limited. So, here's the latest painting achievement. An Arachnid Warrior Bug Swarm.

It's pictured here with three Halo Ground Command miniatures that are 15mm in scale. The Arachnids are a 6mm scale miniature but can work with 15 mm by representing juvenile Warriors swarming together. I'm not a fan of Epic scale miniatures, preferring 10mm and 15mm scale for mass combat games. But these do fit in pretty well, especially given that I have a bunch of larger 15mm scale Warrior Bugs as individual models (see here).

I did get a game of Mar's Attacks in recently. I'll post a battle report about that one soon.

ShireCon 2025 is on this weekend

 

ShireCon is on again for 2025. ShireCon is an annual tabletop gaming convention run by the Sutherland Shire Gamers. Now in its third year, if I remember correctly, it's becoming bigger with each year. Sutherland Shire Gamers run the excellent MOAB convention every year and ShireCon is certainly becoming a second success for them on the gaming calendar.

This year, Slave2Gaming is in attendance with a small selection from their shop. Slave2Gaming has some excellent 15mm sci-fi miniatures for Ma.K 15mm that I use for other games, such as Gruntz15mm and Starship Troopers. This ShireCon, the Slave2Gaming team have brought their Ma.K 15mm sci-fi range and these are masterful sculpts.

Apart from the plethora of 40K and Warhammer Fantasy games, there were some others that caught my eye.

A demo game of the sci-fi 15mm Ma.K under way

For a couple of years now, Slave2Gaming have been running Ma.K 15mm gaming convention where the rules for the game get play tested out. You can find out more here. That will be on again for the 14th June.

More Ma.K goodness

I can't remember what rules were being used for this Battle of Ramillies game, sorry.

Broadside - Empires of Steel

Broadside is a new WW1 Dreadnaught era game using 3D printed battleships. The scale is a little too large for my tastes. But below is something more in my style that was exciting to see.

10mm Warmaster Ogre army, 3d printed

I believe it was Dave I was talking too who owned this excellently painted 3d printed Ogre Kingdoms army. But there were about three tables upstairs that were set up ready for Warmaster with one of the guys I talked to fielding a Dwarf army. The games hadn't been set up as yet, but the tables were set with terrain. So, I only got a photo of the Ogre army. This is fantastic to see that this game is making a comeback with the Warmaster Revolution ruleset and being kept alive by a dedicated fanbase. Looks like I'm going to have to dust off my 10mm armies and brush up on the updated ruleset.

This will probably come back for MOAB and so I might think about joining in. It's been years since I played a game of this, my most favourite wargame. So, you just never know.

Anyway, it's on tomorrow as well. So, if you get a chance, stop by. There is also a Bring-n-Buy area that was being well patronised.

Arachnid Bugs for Starship Troopers in 15mm scale

 

This quintessential Tank Bug miniature is from Wakes Emporium and is Epic scale. However, I intend to use these beasties for my 15mm Starship Troopers project. They will be a little small in scale, but still workable and can be used as juvenile Tank Bugs before I can get some larger ones that fit the true 15mm scale.

I've been inspired by Crow Industries excellent Starship Troopers game that you can get off his Patreon. Added to this, Grig Miniatures has some nice proxies that work very well for 15mm scale Mobile Infantry and bugs. I bought from him when he ran an Etsy store, and his workmanship is excellent with each model being handmade and cast in hard plastic. Rok Miniatures also sells the Wakes Emporium models in 3d printed resin.

So, this post is to just show off the Wakes Emporium models. But I will show the relative scales once I have some Federation Mobile Infantry painted up.

I also have about thirty Warrior Bugs that I purchased off Shapeways many years back but haven't had an idea just what to do with them. So finally mounting this thing properly for the game, I've realised that these will make great Lion Warrior bugs that protect the Brainbug. So, here's the first one mounted and painted up.

I also have a bunch of the Wakes Emporium Warrior Bugs to paint. These will be smaller but suit the massed horde feel as seen in the movie version of the Starship Troopers story (which I have finally gotten around to reading).

Happy Easter, 2025

 

Matthew 26:27-28 (NIV)

²⁷ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. ²⁸ This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

May you have a restful, reflective, and wonderful Easter. God bless.

BSG Warden class for Void Admiral

 

The Colonial Warden class is the second smallest vessel of the Colonial Fleet. In Void Admiral, Frigates are the smallest naval vessels. However, in reality, Corvettes should be (in my humble opinion). Patrol and Torpedo Boats are large fighters as far as I'm concerned for game purposes. As such, I swap the Frigate and Corvette designations around. So, whenever the rules speak of Frigates, I call them Corvettes, and visa-versa. As such, the Warden class is a Frigate.

In Void Admiral Corvettes are Squadron sized ships that only have 1 hit each and so aren't expected to last long without shadowing a larger vessel for support or attacking as a pack. Frigates however can take a hit or two, having 4 hits each. As such, these ships operate independently. However, it never hurts for the Captains of Warden class ships to stick close together. Safety in numbers and all, and with more targets to choose from, Warden vessels can survive a little longer in a firefight. Their unique arrow-head shape permits weapon arcs that cover both front and sides whilst lowering the radar signature of the ship.

These miniatures are from Agents of Gaming and are very nice metal sculpts that don't have too much flashing on them. The draft Void Admiral ship data card I've made for this vessel class is below. She's yet to go into action in order to test this out. But that shouldn't be too far down the track before I give it a go.

BSG Arachnie miniature from eBay for Void Admiral

 

Finally finished painting and mounting my Arachnie miniature from BSG Deadlock. I'll be using this for Void Admiral as noted previously. This miniature is an excellent model available through GeektownUSA on eBay. So, a shout out to his eBay store as there are lots of nice models that he sells that are perfect for space miniature wargaming. I've bought from him many times now and never had a problem, and his miniatures are excellent quality.

Each square on my overused cutting matt is 1cm. But given this is mounted, it's a bit hard to see that its actually 7cm (2.75") long.

Right now, I have two of these. They are such a nice model that I may get a couple more.

Cylon Arachnie and Deceiver ship data cards for Void Admiral

Whilst we are on the subject of Void Admiral - Battlestar Galactica ship data cards. Here's a few more Cylon ships. The Arachnie Cruiser and the Deceiver Destroyer (guided missile version).

I'm currently painting an Arachnie model that I bought off eBay. So, I'll post some photos of that mini when it's completed.

Cylon Basestar for Void Admiral

 

In yesterday's post (see here), I showed off some of the Colonial faction ships for my take on the original series of Battlestar Galactica, as represented in the Void Admiral game system. This post will show off the infamous Cylon Basestar.

The mobile base is noted as being lumbering and armed with 2 long range mega-pulsars, 100 defensive turrets, and 300 Cylon raiders. To represent this for Void Admiral I have included laser turrets (for the mega-pulsars), a flak of 6 (for the 100 defensive turrets) and five fighter bays (for the 300 Cylon raiders). The "ship" has a Hull of 15 and a movement of just 4". But to compensate for its slowness, it has good armour and shielding.

I still have to give these ships a run on the battlefield to see how the Void Admiral stats play out in the game. But by posting them here it helps to clarify my thinking on just how to represent these ships appropriately for Void Admiral.

Battlestar Galactica for Void Admiral

A little while back I picked up a print copy of Void Admiral from Amazon and recently, I also picked up its expansion. I wanted a quick to learn space combat game and having watched the review on Guerilla Miniature Games I went and bought a copy. It struck me that, although it's kind of a Battlefleet Gothic lite kind of game, this would also work for Battlestar Galactica. So, I've set about working on the profiles for some of the BSG ships from the original movie and series I grew up with and not the more recent remake. I looked around my star ship collection as well as what's available on eBay and Etsy and what took my fancy from BSG Deadlock, with a view as to what could fit that original series era. Here's what I've come up with so far.

I began with the Loyalists faction as the basis to develop the Colonial faction of ships. I also knew that I wanted the Battlestar to be the largest ship in the fleet but that it was larger than the cruiser size of ship in Void Admiral. This meant that I created two larger classes above the cruiser size of ship, the dreadnaught battleship and the aircraft carrier "CV" size at 12 and 15 points respectively. It kind of breaks the game a little but the Void Admiral expansion permits a Juggernaut class of ship that is roughly the dreadnaught. Technically, from a naval perspective, the dreadnaught should be considered one size down from a battleship. But for now, this designation will do.

So below is the first run at this. I'll post the Cylons at a future date once I have figured out the stats for Void Admiral. But below are the Colonial ships I've workout out so far.

Battlestar class

Artemis class

Corinthian class