Flotsam and Jetsom

Months have passed since my last post but I haven't been entirely bone idle and to prove it here are some new bits and bobs for my Fifth Frontier War project.

A second Z-55 Grav tank for the Sworld Worlders.



And the rest of the Sword Worlder Infantry



Plus a couple of light gun sleds to provide additional fire support.



Lastly some provincial government troops to bolster the Imperial forces.



I've also redone a lot of the basing on my troops so that they all match better and added the greenery as the bases looked a bit dull without anything. I'll post some shots of the Zhodani and Vargr with their new basing when I get around to it. Consider it the start of a terraforming project on the world.

This last pic is here because someone on the Guild asked for a scale pic with a 20mm figure in it. I thought I would include it here in case that's of use to anyone else.



To close our new club website is now up and running. Please come to www.sswg.co.uk to check it out. There's not much on the front page yet but we've already added a lot of our old stuff, and some new stuff, to the gallery, and more will follow soon.

To live by the sword

Getting somewhat back on track, here is the latest progress on my Fifth Frontier War project. I meant to get these done ages ago but real life annoyingly intervened.

For a colour scheme I've gone with a simple and traditional military style for the Sword Worlders, in order to make them seem less advanced than the higher tech Imperials and Zhodani.

In this first picture we see two XTR-60 G-Carriers, an obsolescent Zhodani design widely used by second line Zhodani units and many of the Sword World member states. Note the obsolete external grav plates.



All these models are part of the same army deal from Ground Zero Games. There is another tank, a couple more mobile weapons platforms and some more infantry to complete the force.



These Sworld Worlder Grenadiers are equipped with an older version of the standard Zhodani combat armour. Notice however that the face plate is a single piece version, rather than the characteristic Zhodani 'clam shell' style.



Although the canon typically has the Sword Worlders producing their own equipment that doesn't seem likely to me, at least not for the majority of the confederation's worlds. In the real world, military development is expensive and most minor powers import surplus or export equipment from major powers rather than develop their own kit.

As such I imagine that the Sword Worlds would buy second line equipment from friendly or just capitalist suppliers. The Zhodanis are probably the main source for most equipment but Imperial corporations might provide substantial quantities too. Our own developing nations are probably a good model to see the variation, yet also the similarity between their forces. Similarity in supplier would also make the policy of allowing member states to choose their own equipment far less of a logistical nightmare than it might otherwise be if each state manufactured their own.

Here we see a lone Z-55 Grav Tank. The Ubiqitous Z-55 has been widely exported by the Consulate and can be found equipping the armoured units of states throughout the Spinward regions of known space.



An added bonus of assuming that the Sworld Worlders use second line Zhodani equipment is that the same troops can double as second echelon Zhodani units too.

Two XRM-1 light recon vehicles skim across an arid landscape.



A heavier variant of the XRM-1 the XRM-2 can effectively engage lightly armoured grav vehicles as well as infantry.



Finally, a shot of a Sword Worlder Lift Grenadier platoon on the move.

War Hounds

Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated but my feebleness on the blogging front is pretty self evident. Unfortunately a series of work related issues, culminating in my needing a new job, have had to take priority. Short of things going horribly wrong in the next couple of weeks though, this little problem is now sorted and I can start thinking about toy soldiers again. Hooray! The following rather poor photos of the Vargr I painted for stage three of my 2010 Group Build project are not exactly a dramatic improvement on nothing but it's a start.

  

 

The Empire Strikes Back

Finally, here are the first of the Imperials forces for my Fifth Frontier War project. It's a rather feeble force to take on the might of the Outworld Coalition so far but I'll be adding more later.



So far I've only got a single squad of marines done.



I intended to use these RAFM (ex-Citadel) Hi Tech troopers as my Imperial Army. I still might but...



... I've recently been dithering on whether to use them as Aslan in power/combat armour like these from the cover of this FASA supplement. They are a pretty close match but maybe need some conversion on the helmets.



Anyway, back to the Marines. I first painted them red, as in the classic Traveller canon but they looked too 40k, so I redid them white, as in Megatraveller canon. That looked quite good but I based them on MDF that warped, so stripped and repainted them again. I was going to use the colour they are now as a base for the white but when I'd washed them I liked the look, so I left it. I'll do some more experimentation later, maybe try a darker red.

Here's the heavy support, in the shape of Trepida grav tanks.





The inspiration came from these 3D models by Andrew Boulton.



See Andrew's website at http://www.traveller3d.com/ for more 3D Traveller goodness.

The Zhodani are here

Here is a group shot of my completed (for now) Zhodani forces for my 15mm Fifth Frontier War project. The photos are still a bit poor I'm afraid. I'll have to practice.



First we have three GZG Ultratech grav tanks serving as proxy Z-80s.



Next the grav transport for the Zhodani infantry. Four IFVs and a command vehicle. I think I need two more IVFs though, as getting 24 armoured troopers in two looks a bit cramped.



Here is my force commander deep in thought over his battlemap.



First platoon.



Second platoon.



The Zhodani are big fans of robots, so I had to include some as scouts and additional fire support.



Here's a closer group shot. I think the vehicles need basing to give them a proper hovering look.



Each platoon of infantry has a single heavy support base.



Here's the final version of the split 'bug like' helmets.

Split Helm Test

Okay, following Eli's suggestion, here's a quick test shot of some unfinished Zho infantry with the line painted on the face plate. I think it does make them look more like the characteristic bisected helmet from the art. I'm quite pleasantly surprised actually.

First Contact

Apologies for the lack of updates, the day job was really busy last month. Anyway, here are a few pics of my progress so far.



I've gone for a rather garish camouflage pattern on the vehicles as I didn't want them to look too much like modern vehicles without wheels. On the other hand I also didn't want them to look like something from 40k, so I've tried to stay with something vaguely realistic. I'm assuming red, sand and grey/blue camouflage must be of use somewhere in the universe. Of course the idea that 3000 years in the future tanks will still be painted is probably laughable anyway. So, who knows, maybe this pattern is only a traditional remembrance of some ancient Zhodani campaign or just because such patterns are still considered to look martial.



As the figures were not that close a match for the canon image, I've stuck with the traditional grey/black colour scheme for the infantry. For the bases I wanted to avoid the look of a sci-fi battle somewhere-in-Hampshire and I've gone for an arid sulphur-rich world.



Lastly some combat droids to supplement the rank and file.

The Zhodani are coming!

My first batch of figs from GZG have arrived. Thanks Jon.



While the Citizens of the Imperium sleep, the Zhodani Consulate is mobilising.

Fifth Frontier War: The Imperials

Turning now to the imperials. Here are my thoughts.

Clambo's excellent rendition of the 4518th Lift Infantry - the Duke of Regina's Own Housecarls - was a big inspiration for me, so I'll be producing something similar for the provincial army. The troopers are these RAFM (ex-Citadel) Traveller figs.



The vehicles are from GZG.




The figures in the last shot are GZG's UNSC marines.



They match very nicely with the image of Imperial Marines from the canon.



Rumour has it that the GZG UNSC troopers will be getting some extra packs soon too, which is good news.

Alternatively, this other pack from RAFM matches quite nicely with the marines on the cover for TNE supplement 'Survival Margin'.




The classic vehicles from the canon are the Trepida Grav tank...




... and Astrin APC.



The GZG vehicles above are a reasonable match but these 'coming soon' vehicles from Topgun marketing are even better. Thanks to DropshipHorizon for posting the pics.




They look to match well with the GZG vehicles I plan to use for the Zhodani too.