Happy Burger franchise

I'm not entirely sure how the Happy Burger chain fits into the background fluff for The Ion Age by Gavin Syme but it has caught my imagination.

http://theionage.com/collections/collected-monthly-miniatures

There's something appealing about a dystopian future where the burger franchise is run by 'happy' robots and the source of the food is best not considered for too long. It's all very Blade Runner.

So I bought some vending bots and happy burger bots a while ago and intend to make my own burger bar for them to populate eventually. In the meantime I'll have to be content ogling the one on Beighton' Shipyard and waiting for the next available franchise.

http://beightonshipyard.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/a-baron-walks-into-happy-burger.html

Some time ago somebody posted some posters to Fwacebook that really suit the feel of the Happy Burger ethos. I'm not entirely sure where they're from and hope I'm not infringing any intellectual property by posting them here. I am in no way passing them off as my own work and will make them down if requested.

They are wonderful pieces of art that will one day find their way into my gaming table in miniature form.

Fiddler Mech part 1

I assembled my first 15mm Fiddler Mech today. A stunning kit from White Dragon Miniatures in 16 pieces with amazing detail that was surprisingly simple to build.

The trickiest aspect of the build are the legs. Each leg has 3 pieces and a foot piece. It's worth dry-fitting them a few times to see how they go together, and it looks like you could get quite a variety of poses from the kit. I quite fancied a running pose, or a crouching pose so that those mandible-like arms could look like they're interacting with something on the ground. I'm the end I erred in the side of caution and settled for a pretty static pose. Well, it is my first attempt! I can get more adventurous with the next one.

The only downside to this model is that because of the way the moulds have been made, the sprue attaches in some really quite odd places, often over the top of some fine detail. I spent a few hours trimming and reshaping a few small areas so that the detail was mostly restored. A shame but don't let it put you off the model. I'm sure I didn't need to be so fussy over what are actually quite small areas.

I think the kit has a very insectoid look to it somehow. I may try to bring this out a bit when I paint it.

The Fiddler Mech is available from White Dragon Miniatures here:

http://www.whitedragonminiatures.co.uk/product-p/the-fiddler-mech.htm

Armies Army BTR160s

One of my favourite vehicle ranges, this. I only have a few of the various modifications available, it's a versatile old range.

Seen below are some APCs, some heavy APCs, a mortar vehicle. A MGS and an engineer vehicle. I only have five hulls, but the turrets and the mortar can be switched out to suit whatever I have in mind for them.

A bit of a quick paint job, but these are seen as serviceable, un-fussy vehicles.

White Dragon Miniatures hab block and barricades

I was very excited today to receive the new hab block and barricades from White Dragon Miniatures. Standing 9cm high (3.5") and approximately 9cm x 10cm (3.5" x 4") square, it is a very impressive piece. The resin is surprisingly lightweight, but holds the detail very well; there are some nice crisp lines here and a lot of very fine detail.

Using a mix of physical and digital sculpting media, sculptor Giacomo Pantalone, "The Lazy Forger" has managed to get some incredible detail into this piece, from the bullet damage to the shutters on the windows in various states of what I'm calling open-and-closedness.

There are ac units, ducts and wires in various states of repair and some lovely rubble on the roof where some part of the structure has collapsed. The odd tyre and blanket are carelessly strewn around too.

One of my favourite pieces of detailing is the crumbling doorframe with bullet holes standing testimony to attempted forced entries. Lovely stuff.

Also newly released are a couple of sets of barricades. The first, plainer set represents what I am informed are called Jersey Barriers. Straight and curves sections, both sporting a satisfying amount of wear and tear without going over the top. They're the sort of terrain piece you didn't know you needed until somebody made them. They'll probably be a part of every table I set up from now on. The longer sections are approximately 5cm (2") long, the shorter ones half that.

Finally, we come to the "Rubble Defensive Line". These appear to be based on the aforementioned jerSey barriers, but have all sorts of rubbish piled against them and thrown across them.

Look at them, go on just look at them.

Have you looked at them?

Lovely aren't they!

Retailing at £20, £5 and £7 respectively, they're not the cheapest of pieces, but they're not at all unfairly priced. They represent the top end in terms of quality.

IMHO, as the kids say.

(Or probably said a few years ago...)

See for yourself. They're available here:

http://www.whitedragonminiatures.co.uk

(PS A little birdy tells me there might be some shanties coming soon from the same team but I don't know if I'm allowed to say that, so pretend I didn't. They look fantastic too though.)

Xar Heavy Weapons Teams

Two new packs of Xar heavy weapons from GZG: a launcher/mortar team and a heavy beam cannon team. 

Really good fun to paint, with their brain/walnut-like heads and all the legs! I do like a good alien figure, and these are up there with the best. Lovely models, as we've come to expect from GZG.

Hopefully that keeps me up to date with this range, but I understand these went on sale at Salute at the weekend, so I'll have to make sure Jon hasn't sneaked any more out!

Mad Mecha Guy Skiffs on the Dropship

I recently bought some of Mad Mecha Guy's new 15mm flying skiffs and wrote an article about them on Dropship Horizon.

Without giving too much away, I like them.

Read all about it here:

http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/2016/04/mad-mecha-guy-15mm-flying-skiff.html

Painting competition entry

I've entered my first painting competition over on Facebook.

The idea is to paint a pair of opposing squads and post 3-5 photos in the group that's been set up for the competition. The post that gets the most likes by the end of March wins. 

Here's a bonus photo of the alien mercs by GZG that wasn't entered in the competition. If you'd like to look at the others and perhaps even vote for me by liking the main post, I'd be extremely grateful. The link is below the photo.

Thanks for looking!

Here's the link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/528055864043233/