Tangermarines!!

Tangermarines!!

So, had my first play of Xenos Rampant just about two weeks ago, and look what happened! This must be one of the quickest 'armies' I've ever painted!

I enjoyed that first game so much that within a few days I'd ordered a bunch of second hand space marines off ebay.. all built and mostly primed grey. They arrived pretty quickly (especially considering the current postal chaos, and I quickly set to work fixing up small repairs and giving them a fresh prime of grey and white. 

Whilst I was doing this, I was trying to decide which of the new Speedpaints from my starter set I was going to use as the main colour for this lot.. not really interested in doing it 'properly' (ie GW space marine chapters or whatever they're called), and pretty randomly settled for the 'Fire Giant Orange'.

These were really quick to paint and although they wouldn't win prizes, I'm loving the overall look of the unit. They are mostly painted using the Speedpaints, with some black and silver 'normal' acrylics used too.

The boss, not Captain Jaffa as I'm trying to avoid any more puns!

fighty jump-packy types.. Assault marines?

The 'tangermarines' name came upon me late at night and I thought it was hilarious.. I don't think it's that funny now, but I'm truly worried that it has stuck.. hardly the most terror-inspiring name for a unit of fighty shooty space soldiers.

Fifteen marines, so maybe two or three XR squads

Anyway, it also occurred to me that XR allows you to field vehicles, and a stompy fighty thing might be fun (as evidenced by Tom's stompy fighty orcish thingy), so an internet search found me the STL files for a suitable 'kit' and a few hours later we have this! Do these things normally have names ?  Not sure, but I suspect that this may get shade of orange too.

Anyway, I suspect that this lot will be far to pricey in Xenos Rampant points to field all at once in a standard game, (I hope to get the book at Christmas and I'll point them up), but I don't care, not exactly a problem having too many tangermarines :-)

Five Parsecs.. solo SciFi fun and speedpaint fun

I mentioned in the last post (Xenos Rampant game) that I never really played any SciFi games.. and that's true. Although, in recent weeks that has changed just a tiny bit. I came across a game called "Five Parsecs from Home" - a bit late to the party I know.. but the fact that it is predominantly a solo campaign game appealed. 

I won't review the game itself, as there are plenty of good reviews and play-throughs out there. I've enjoyed rolling up my first crew, led by Dash Herand, and playing the first game in their campaign. (They came up against three 'Rage Lizard' mercenaries and completed that mission successfully). The game has definite RPG elements, with character backgrounds and sets of skills, really fleshing out the crew.

As well as my crew, I need random enemy dudes for them to fight against..I considered 15mm Lazerburn but was persuaded by Northstar Nick to pick up a box of the Stargrave miniatures at the last Partizan, and grabbed a sprue of the female crew, along with some other figs online. I've since also received an Army Painter Speed Paint starter set and I think you can tell which of these minis received those !

(I've also picked up some Space Marines for future Xenos games, so looking forward to getting some speedpaint on them too!)

Stargrave crew figures (Speedpaint)

Wargames Atlantic lizardmen

Wargames Atlantic 'Cannon Fodder'

Trying out Speedpaint on more Stargrave figs

Dash and some of his crew

A few more 'crew' figures