Star Wars Rebel Fleet Infantry Platoon Part 1: Command Team and 1st Squad

Although the Rebellion has a Special Forces Command which supplies specially trained ground forces for planet-side operations, Fleet itself provided the bulk of the Rebels' infantry right up through the Battle of Endor.  Here we see part of a Rebel Fleet Infantry Platoon as they would be seen soon after disembarking from a troop transport.

The Rebel infantry platoon I'm building follows the guidelines given for Rebel units in The Star Wars Miniature Battles Companion, though I've tweaked it here and there to suit myself/.  The finished platoon will consist of 4 8-man line squads, a 4-man command team, and a weapon section with two repeating heavy blaster teams, forty men in all.

The Companion says that 8-man squads were standard during the War of the Rebellion, though I don't know why 8. Whatever, I decided to go with that squad structure.  The book says a command team should be composed of a Lieutenant and a Sergeant Major.(?!)

I think they mean Platoon Sergeant. Well, I found suitable figures to represent the officer and platoon Sergeant, then I added a medic and a comm link guy, since an infantry platoon just doesn't look right to me without them.  Don't recall seeing any rules about medics and RTOs in the rulebook...maybe they will just be regular troopers, or perhaps I'll invent some rules for them.

Here they are.  The RTO isthe unarmed Rebel Trooper figure.  I didn't think he was good for much, having no weapon in hand, so I guess it's good that I found him some useful employment.  I wanted him to have a big bulky, annoying comm set, but didn't want to sculpt it, since I have no sculpting skills.  Instead I just made him a backpack out of green stuff and tried to make it look like there's an antenna sticking out of the top flap.

The platoon medic is not officially a member of the platoon.  She would be attached to the platoon for a specific mission, after which she would return to her own unit aboard a medical frigate.  As such she has a lot more latitude when I comes to customizing her uniform and equipment, and can get away with things the Platoon Sergeant would never let any of the others do.  As can be seen here, she has doffed her black vest, and replaced her Fleet Issue heavy blaster pistol for a high quality custom-made side arm, undoubtedly a private purchase weapon.  She has also replaced her Fleet-issue headgear with the army-issue crash-type helmet, which she claims is much less cumbersome when she is trying to work on casualties.  I wanted her to have an aid bag, so I made one out of green stuff, which looked ok, until I painted it.  I'll have to go back and touch it up sometime,  Right now, I just want to be done with the unit.

The squad troopers consist of 6 men with heavy blaster pistols and two 'specialists', one with a blaster rifle and one with what I assume is a blaster carbine,

Painting the unit has been frustrating, I'm not too keen on the way it turned out.  Painting 25mm with realistic proportions is tougher than larger, Citadel-type 'heroically proportioned' figures.

Faces don't show up as well, painting eyes becomes a lot harder, especially when figures are giving the Clint Eastwood squint, as most of these guys seem to be doing.

I'd have liked to have glossed the blast shields on their helmets, but didn't have any gloss to hand, so tried to add a highlight by blobbing some white on them.  It doesn't look too good.  Suppose I'll have to revisit them all at some point.

Oh, well, they're done.  Better luck next time?

Womp Rats!

Deep in the Jundland wastes, old Ben Kenobi runs afoul of a pack of young Womp Rats, voracious, loathsome haunters of Tattooine's dunes and canyons!  I'm sure Ben has the situation well in hand, however.  Actually, Ben's not in the Jundland waste, he's in Afghanistan, but who the hell can tell the difference, really?

The minis are, of course, simple Citadel Giant Rats from a post-Oldhammer edition of WFB.  They came in a lot with a bunch of 3rd Edition Giant Rats but they just didn't fit in with the others.  Wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, until I remembered that the Star Wars universe has big rats, too...

Apparently there's a good deal of learned debate as to what Womp Rats look like, exactly.  Most scholars hold the position that the creatures have four ears.  This illustration is from a book on the wildlife of the Star Wars galaxy I bought a few months age.  This Womp, being of a two-eared variety, looks closest to the miniatures I have to work with, So I chose him as a model for my own rats.

I think the minis look ok...

Womp Rats are supposed to be about two meters long, as I remember.  These are a bit smaller than that, unless you're counting nose to tail.

 
  Maybe they're young Womp Rats who've just been out of the nest a season or two....

Anyway, they'll be lurking around the edges of my Tattooine games, ready to drag down the odd Sandtrooper now and again...or to menace some Princess who's lost her way in the desert...

C is for Crypt Thing

The Caves of Chaos are vast and deep.  Far beneath the earth they wend.  Here ancient tombs and mansions of creatures long vanished lie forgotten in the breathless dark, and  long, roads of echoing stone open suddenly on unknowable pits and gulfs and weird warrens peopled with nameless horrors. Here many powers plot their offensives against the fading kingdoms of The West, and seek to receive its champions into cold and nameless graves.

Construction of my AD&D miniatures campaign has been sadly neglected of late, but I'm going to continue to do what I can here and there.     

  Not surprisingly, I don't have my Fiend Folio here with me. I seem to remember the Crypt Thing of my youthful AD&D campaigns as being an active and enterprising monster who had a following of Thugs and assassins and who could be used by a DM to coordinate all manner of hardships and plot hooks for adventurers.  A good nemesis monster.  That's how I saw him.  Looking for info on the Crypt Thing online, however, I can only find what seems to be a new version of the monster which is a strictly reactive creature, a simple tomb guardian.  How boring.

Well, my Crypt Thing is going to be the kind surrounded by a gang of thugs and assassins who works actively to foil adventurers, kidnap fair maidens, cut holes in the bottom of everybody's boat and energetically plot to bring ruin upon bands of adventuring heroes.  

'Cause that's how I want it.

Here he is.  Citadel's old 'Skeleton Monk' figure.  

Now I just have to start building up his gang of evil human henchmen.

Classic Rebel Heroes Part I: The Jedi Masters

Been really wanting to get back to working on my old school Grenadier Star Wars collection.  So rude of the Dept of Defense to interrupt my hobby like that.  No manners, those people.  Anyway, enjoyed getting things going again with a couple of old childhood friends like Ben and Yoda.

"Poorly lit is this picture.  Some lights in this dungeon you need, hrm?"

I think they came out ok.  Not sure how often I'll use these in actual games, but they're fun to have.

"Have at you!"

A good start, I reckon.  More to follow soon.

Dimensional Shamblers

It's the 1920s.  Or is it the 1930s?  We're not sure.  Doesn't matter.  Mankind braces himself for war whilst Eldritch forces stir restlessly beneath the Earth and malevolent intelligences glare down upon his fragile civilization from the lightless gulfs between the stars.  Here and there, scattered about this helpless little planet, handfuls of humans suspect the truth.  Some seek to ally themselves with the horrors from beyond time and space, deeming their victory over man inevitable.  Others seek desperately to beat these forces back into the darkness and to save mankind from a fate worse than extinction.  Still others hope, perhaps insanely, to channel the powers to benefit their own ambitions, or those of their societies.  To the unknowable powers the feeble twitchings of a doomed humanity matter but little.  Evil things begin to pour through the seams of our reality.  Darkness is nigh.

I've been collecting Lovecraftian minis for about as long as I've been collecting fantasy and sci fi minis, but I've never made a serious effort to paint any of them.  Recently I got to taking a look at the Strange Aeons game and wondering if it might provide a fun system to use with my Cthulhu miniatures.  Bob Murch's wonderful Pulp Figures line should supply plenty in the way of intrepid investigators.

Got the Dimensional Shamblers here in a lot on Ebay recently and decided to paint them up.  Wonderful old Grenadier minis from their too-small Call of Cthulhu line. The light in my little monk's cell of a billet is absolutely terrible, as you can see from the pics. I'm hoping I can improve on it a bit in the days ahead, but not terribly optimistic about it...

There's something about the word 'shamble' that I've always found amusing.  I don't know what it is...

Shamble shamble shamble....

Back at it.

At last.  My little painting desk is built.  The Reaper Paint set has arrived.  They threw in some free brushes which was very nice of them.  Mrs Mouse mailed me a box of minis and other stuff from back home.  Now I can return to what really matters:  Painting and playing with little toys.  So this is pretty much what will be filing up my field of vision when I'm not sitting on dumb screen lines, finding IEDs, filling out stupid paperwork for battalion or going through whatever other pointless motions are deemed necessary here at the end of this largely botched conflict.  Stack of diet coke stolen from chow hall within easy reach. Minis. Paints. Internet on the laptop, MST3K's Revenge of the Creature on the mini DVD player in the background.  Mini coffee maker next to the mini dvd player.  I'm set for the duration!

Time to get back to work.

WALK

"In the hellishly repressive dystopia of America's not too distant future, mindless, televised violence is the last surviving art form.  A dying society's yearning for catharsis finds its ultimate expression in the TOWER OF JUSTICE, seventeen stories of carnage and cameras, where hundreds of condemned criminals fight to the death daily in glorious prime time.  Enter GARROTTE, a living mountain of muscle and angst, a man determined to take the 'long walk' to the top of the tower, where, it's just possible, the ultimate prize of freedom awaits...for whatever it's worth."

"They said I wasn't right in the head..."

Thanks again to Stefano Cardoselli for inviting me to put words to his artwork.  Stefano essentially sent me the finished pages of art, supplied me with the names Garrotte and Tower of Justice and said 'write whatever you think works over the top of it, we just have to make sure we get the hero to (spoiler spoiler spoiler) at the end."  Considering the helter skelter way it was all arranged, I'm very happy with this descent into pure insanity turned out.

Thanks as well to Bram Meeham, who did a stellar job of turning my fiddly, fussy, wordy script into stately letters on the page, and to the irrepressible and always supportive Brian Logan at Thirsty Shadow Comics who organized the kickstarter campaign which made publication possible!

Walk  is available as a pdf download from Comics Drive Thru or you can inquire at Thirsty Shadow to order a print copy.

Press for Walk:
Review for COMIC BASTARDS by Dustin Cabeal
Comics Bulletin review by Daniel Elkin
Indie Comix Spotlight bit

The Mysterious "Grenadier Marsh Demon" AKA: Heritage Umber Hulk

A few months ago I posted an article about Old Time Sword and Sorcery Toys, and how many of these plastic toy figures available in the early 80s were lifted by toy manufacturers straight from classic lead mini lines.  One plastic denizen of the "Dragons and Monsters" series I wrote about in that piece was the orange fellow shown in the middle, here, between plastic re-casts of a heritage Djinn and a modified Citadel Ogre. 

The version of him which I had was blue, and he haunted many an imaginary swamp around the fringes of my bedroom carpet for several years, occasionally snatching and dragging a plastic knight or wizard to a watery doom.  I don't know what became of him.  Down through the years, I saw something that looked very similar to him for sale in lead on Ebay, I would swear that I once saw him for sale as "Grenadier Marsh Demon."  I've been on the lookout for him ever since.

Well, the other day my friend Miss Monkii sent me this.

Miss Monkii and her husband own what I have no doubt is the most extensive collection of classic lead minis in the state of  Nevada.  When I return from back of beyond I intend to post some pictures of portions of this collection here at TFTBB.  It's really amazing.  Anyway, here is the original incarnation of the 'Marsh Demon', the Heritage  Umber Hulk.  He is undoubtedly the same mini, precisely the same size, and with nearly all the same details as the plastic toy figure of my tender years.  The pose of the arms is slightly different, and the manufacturers replaced the eyes on the side of the original figure's  head with horns or pointy ears, a small change which ends up giving him a considerably different appearance.

So mystery solved.  It's been fun trying to track down the original figures these plastic knock offs were derived from.  Still a few weeks of train up left before we  get to where we're going, so it's going to be pretty quiet here for a while, yet.  I do miss painting!

Dimtree's Loot: Epilogue

They had been on Nepenthe for fourteen days.  For fourteen days, it had rained.  On the thirteenth day, some very bad things had happened, which they didn't like to talk about very much, unless they were blaming one another for them.  All through the next day, they had lain, broken and bleeding in the insufferable mud, occasionally trying to move, without much success, and cursing Neel, because he had escaped instead of being mortally wounded like the rest of them.  Eventually they had all agreed that Neel's survival meant that he must have betrayed them somehow, and deserved to die.  

Sometime around sunset Neel had shown up in a mud-spattered wartrukk, Doc Bonetinker and his throng of Gretchin assistants in tow.  Neel and Bonetinker had immediately set about fishing Rikk, Vivyun and Boss Mychul out of the soupy soil.  As the eternal grey rain pelted unceasingly down, Neel  sat and watched gloomily as Doc and his Gretchin servants had set about the laborious task of patching the boys back together.  Quite incapable of anything resembling gratitude, the boys shrieked their pain and hatred and lashed out with whatever functioning limbs they still possessed whenever they could.  Occasionally one of Doc's Gretchins had his skull crushed and flopped nervelessly into the muck, but Doc Bonetinker went on about about his work without seeming to notice...there always seemed to be more Gretchin.

 
 "Just look at me!  squawked Rikk.  I mean, really!  Look at me!  I had a broken spine, thanks to that bone-brained Ogryn, and what does Doc here do about it?  I'll tell you!  He puts me under, and when I wake up, I find he's given me a bloody Aqualung!"

"Well, he also gave you a metal backbone, moaned Neel indignantly.  You ought to be grateful.  I mean, you can walk now, eh?  You couldn't do after the Ogryn broke you in half."

"But I didn't ask for an aqualung, did I Neel?  Rikk bubbled wrathfully in reply.  No, I didn't, did I?  Hello!  Hello!  My name's Rikk!  I was  perfectly happy breathing oxygen, thank you, and now, Ach!  Suddenly, I've got an integral aqualung!  My head's in a bloody goldfish bowl!  How am I supposed to meet girls with my head in a goldfish bowl?"

Da New Rikk

"We're Orks, Rikk, we don't have girls."  snarled Vivyun, metallically.  He was sitting over by the Wartrukk, idly banging his new head against it and enjoying the rattle and clash of steel on steel.  Doc had scooped Vivyun's head out of the mud and tried to sew it back on, but something hadn't been quite right.  As soon as his head was back on, Vivyun had started speaking in a soft and kindly tone of voice, trying to encourage his maimed and suffering friends, assuring them that the worst was over and that things would soon be alright.  This had really frightened and upset everyone, and Doc soon stilled the panic by removing Viv's head again and replacing  it with a mechanical one.  This head immediately began to threaten and disparage all and sundry, in a raucous, clangy sort of voice, which made everyone breathe a sigh of relief. 

All the same, the tinny echo of Vivyun's new voice set Rikk's teeth on edge. "Well you don't know that for certain, do you Vivyun?  I mean there could be stacks and piles of girls on the next planet over, just waiting for us to stumble onto them, but it doesn't much matter to me now, does it?  His voice quavered and he seemed about to burst into tears.  "Not that you'd notice that I'm about to burst into tears...Because my head's in an aqualung!  he wailed.  I can't make out with girls in an aqualung!  I don't even know how I'm supposed to eat!"

"Aqualung never hurt anybody!  Growled DocBonetinker, stitching up a huge hole in Mique's larnyx.  S' an improvement!  I know a lotta boys'd kill fer an aqualung."

"Ugghl...Urk!"  said Mych.

 

Da New Mych

Something strange happened in Neel's head.  Sitting in the bed of the Wartrukk, chin cupped in one big, green paw, rain running out of his lanky gray hair into his mournful eyes, he began to murmur to himself...

"Aqualung...gurls...Feelin' like a dead duck, spittin' out pieces of our broken luck...
Sittin' in a dark trench...eyein' little girls with bad, bad breff...
Snot runnin down me nose...greasy fingers in frilly panties and lederhose...
Aqualung...yeh...aqualung..."

The mysterious song's cheerful imagery almost made him feel not suicidal, and he mumbled it happily to himself for awhile until...

 

Same Old Neel

...He looked up.  The others were all staring at him.  Somewhere, far away, as if in the halls o' Gork and Mork, he heard a sound like a studio audience laughing in concert.  After an appropriate pause, Rikk broke the silence.  

Admiral Ackbar's Mon Calamari Marines

Key Rebel leader and former smuggler Admiral Ackbar poses proudly with troopers of his Marine Brigade, following a successful operation against imperial mining facilities near Kessel.

The Mon Calamari Marines, led by brave heroes such as the redoubtable Captain Calabarr, have distinguished themselves in numerous boarding actions and planet-side battles since their formation shortly after the destruction of the First Death Star.  Their unique skills in amphibious scouting and raiding operations are particularly valued, and the Mon Calamari Marine Brigade is considered fertile recruiting ground by the Rebel Special Forces Command...

A few months ago, I was bitten by the Star Wars bug again, with the result that I began to make extensive additions to my collection of old Star wars Grenadier Miniatures, to include the rules for West End's Star Wars miniatures game.  I should have bought them a long time ago.

So far, I really like what I'm seeing in the rules: they have a stripped-down, old school, home-brew feel to them that fills me with that same weird, nostalgic sense of contentment I get from reading Keep on the Borderlands, or the old Citadel Journal.

Scale is skirmish, with sixty minis per side being the recommended ceiling, and you build your squads from the ground up, mixing weapons as you please within units, both sides drawing more or less from the same equipment list.  This forces play away from Warhammery "Well my guys have _____, which is exclusive to my army list, and which does this and this and this, and you can't have it unless you have my army and, more to the point,  the new army list just published in hardback for $50" type play, to play more geared toward role playing and story telling, which is much more to my taste.  Seems like the game requires a lot of book-keeping for each of your squads, so huge armies may not be that desirable.

The minis are for the most part lovely, but the line, though extensive enough, suffers from a lack of variant figures amoung the numerous alien races and specialist troops.  You only get one pose each for the Tusken Raider, Jawa, and Snowtrooper, for example, which is really quite lame.  The first runs of models were cast in fairly soft lead, though, which gives me some hope that I will be able to do a little conversion work on some of them, and add some more variety to some of my units.

The Admiral attempts to warn me against getting sucked into in a new mini gaming system...

I plan on taking whole bunches of these to the back of beyond with me.  At some point it occurred to me that painting up a fat collection of Star Wars minis might be a great way to stay sane over there.  I'll just have to come up with a method for keeping the dust out of my fresh paint. Hopefully I'll have time to color up two full battle forces while I'm there, so they can get to blastin' each other as soon as I get back.  I like the Mon Calamari, so I couldn't wait to start on these guys.

...Alas, too late.