Friday 31 March 2017

SLAP Miniatures Space Dorkz Kickstarter

The latest Kickstarter campaign from SLAP Miniatures has just launched, and this time it's the turn of the greenskins, or Space Dorks.

I'm a big fan of the SLAP Minis 15mm ranges, even the Global Defence Force, which some complained were too small (I will use them as a non-human race. A kind of beardless half-dwarf).The sculpting has been excellent and detailed without too much fussy stuff, and the casting is also clean and crisp.

The Space Dorkz look to continue the tradition, with some stunningly characterful models with suitably vicous looking weapons. They have a great Commie-Space-Chimp look to them, which gives them a bit of a retro look.



The Kickstarter campaign has again been kept simple. They come in sets of 25 models and you can buy multiple sets, with multiple sets getting you increasing numbers of free (random) minis up to a full free set if you buy 5.

Each set comprises:
1 Dorktator (the leader with... well, just see below)
1 Dorktenant (Second-in-command with the best uniform)
2 Boomerz (rocket launchers)
2 Grillerz (flamethrowers)
2 Quick Bangerz (LMGs)
1 Dorkter (medic with immense pistol-syringe and serrated bonesaw!)
1 Greaser (mechanic)
6 Bangerz (assault rifles)
6 Stabbers (assault troops with handgun and melee weapon)
1 Mutilator, and
1 Stinkrat.

These last two are the lizard and little beastie in the picture above.
 
 

Also available are the Space Knights and GDF minis from the previous Kickstarters, because the Dorks will need some opposition.

Space Dorks "They Don't Look Dorky"
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1835446295/space-dorkz-15mm-sci-fi






Saturday 11 March 2017

Critical Mass Games To Cease Trading



JBR here with bad news.


Critical Mass Games has announced that they are leaving the business, and are accepting offers for their inventory and intellectual property.  Per their website news page...

---------

Well it is with some sadness that we are announcing Critical Mass Games will cease trading on April 2nd 2017. Both Dale and I who own and run Critical Mass Games have reached a point where our personal commitments are no longer compatible with running this enterprise with the passion and time it needs.
The 15mm Sci-fi community has show great support and loyalty since CMG came into being 10 years ago, and we are eternally grateful for the support you have shown.
In the coming weeks/months we hope to find a new home for the CMG product ranges so they can still be enjoyed.
Anyone wanting to enquire should contact cmgsales@criticalmassgames.com
In the interim the 15% sale on the site shall continue until the CMG store is decommissioned on April 2nd 2017.
As part of this, and to manage down our stock levels, infantry platoon packs and vehicle platoon packs will be removed from the web store on Sunday 19th March 2017.
Craig @ CMG

--------

So, it's grim tidings.  Get what you can, while you can, for a discount.

The final curtain falls on April 2, 2017.

Craig and Dale are good people, and I wish them well.

Best,
John Bear Ross

Animechs Now Available At Rebel Minis

JBR here with great news.

The Animech Kickstarter pledges have been fulfilled, and the Animechs are now available to the general public in the main Rebel Minis webstore.


 Here's the link.
http://www.rebelminis.com/animechs.html

Here's the WolfMech


The ScorpionMech


And The SpiderMech.


Also, a weapons and turrets pack that's also compatible with all current (and future) RUMV accessories.

Awesome news.

Best,
JBR

PS for instructions on how to put these beauties together, here's the...
WolfMech Assembly Guide

...and the ScorpionMech Assembly Guide, which also applies to the SpiderMech for putting all those legs on.

Thursday 9 March 2017

The Ion Age - Six Different 15mm Khanate Weapon Platforms, Gun Crew and Anti-Gravity lifter released!

The Ion Age makes all of its releases for the month of February today with a lot of new 15mm Shia Khan Empire codes all focused around portable weapon systems. Check out the Shia Khan Empire on our website HERE or read on for more information about these new codes. All of these releases and next months too are working towards the release of the next Patrol Angis book which is scheduled for April 2017. Giving you a full infantry force for the client races of the alien Khanate.




There is a lot to show you and these releases add portable weapon platforms of two types and six variants as well as legionary gunners and an anti-gravity motive unit for use with the platforms. Now you have firepower to take on the Espaten Portable Weapon Platforms and the Havelocks of the Muster and Retained. Here are the details of each new pack:




The first encounters with infantry support grade weapon platforms came with the initial break out from the Belkus Depression by those Shia Khan forces which had followed the digging machines. Though a watch was kept on the edges of the crater, which has once been the famed passages of the labyrinth, by planetary defence platoons they were rapidly overwhelmed by the aliens which poured out into the sunlight. The digging machines had no more than cleared their drive sections of the soft dirt and Legionaries as well as accursed Maligs followed them. Being some distance off due to the background radiation left over by the detonation of the fusion core the defence troopers had time to made transmissions back to Pelacan city to inform and then call for reinforcements. What was not expected from vids and audio from the gateway chamber was the immediate reach the enemy had. It was the first encounter with code name Selene and code name Hypnus portable weapon platforms.

Floating forwards at a steady pace with two alien operators running alongside each of them the Selene platforms opened fire first upon elements of the 3rd Pelacan Regiment at a range beyond their ability to strike back. A barrage of 20mm cannon shells and laser beams were followed by the shrieking rage of 12.7mm rounds by the thousand and it killed many of the troopers who were unable to find thick enough cover. It was however once the aliens drew closer and the troopers loosed off anvil rounds and bursts of grenades from their Moth type 12's that the other Khanate platforms entered the fray. The Hypnus have a single operator who seems to be bonded to the weapon platform by a chair behind a thick gun shield. The weapons carried by the Hypnus are dangerous in their own right giving off in many cases a degree of radiation or gene potential damage. Atomic Destabilisers and Triple Plasma mounts tore through Aketon armour and the hulls of a half dozen Steornede Battlesuits at close range with ease. This led to the loss of the craters edge and marked the start of the remorseless advance of the aliens. Portable weapon platforms have proven tough to deal with without armoured support and the Khanate makes great use of them especially in urban areas to hold taken junctions and structures.

Academy Auto-Trainer Series 66, New Glastonbury, 4337 IC




IAF131 Selene Portable Weapon Platform – Three Variants
The Selene is a portable weapon platform which acts as support for Khanate infantry. The pieces are the four legged stand and a chosen top mounted weapon. These parts make one complete platform. The options for the Selene are the Mars 20mm Chain Cannon (A), Maia 12.7mm Scatter Cannon (B) and the Juno 18kw Laser Cannon (C). These go with IAF133 Legion Gun Platform Crew. You can get an idea of the size of the finished portable weapon by noting that each of them is standing on a 30mm round base (their basing size for Patrol Angis) and again they are labelled with the letter corresponding to their variant weapon. Each pack contains ONE kit. You have the option of purchasing a pack or three packs with a saving. Price 2.00GBP per pack. Go HERE.




Kalidaral reclined in the last chair in which he would ever sit. When first he had lowered himself into the chair it had been comfortable; its padding molding itself to his contours. Later it had become uncomfortable and then painful to him and then even the pain had dimmed away to nothing. Now he felt nothing from his body and time was hard to grasp for him too. Had it been hours? Days? Weeks or perhaps months since he had been given the honour of the Hypnus acclamation and been fitted with the collar and the circlet. Since then he had been carried upon the honoured set and fitted to a frame carrying the mighty atomic destabiliser cannon. Then taken through the sparkling curtain of the gateway and brought to this strange new world. Now his vision was of red and of death; his nerve impulses not his own any more. Aliens came within his view and thoughtless he would bring death to them with a blast of screaming energy. So it had been, so it would be evermore. So far from Jalania and her loving embrace....


IAF132 Hypnus Portable Weapon Platform – Three Variants
The Hypnus is a slaved portable weapon platform which acts as support for Khanate infantry. The pieces are the four legged stand, legionary crew piece, gun shield and a chosen top mounted weapon. These parts make one complete platform. The options for the Hypnus are the Hydra 14Mw Laser Swarm Cannon (A), Helios 80kw Atomic Destabliser (B) and the Triple Jupiter Plasma 46mm Mount (C). You can get an idea of the size of the finished portable weapon by noting that each of them is standing on a 30mm round base (their basing size for Patrol Angis) and again they are labelled with the letter corresponding to their variant weapon. Each pack contains ONE kit. You have the option of purchasing a pack or three packs with a saving. Price 2.00GBP per pack. Go HERE.


IAF130 Khanate Anti-Gravity Propulsion Unit 
While it is perfectly fitting to have your Selene or Hypnos Portable Weapons static on the battlefield giving fire support or acting in a defensive and dug in formation you might want some pace to them and a way to get them around during the heat of battle. To that end we have a motive system suitable for them. For use by the Legionaries of the Khanate. This pack contains four identical 15mm scale white metal miniatures. These fit with the IAF131 Selene and IAF132 Hypnus platforms. Price 4.00GBP per pack. Go HERE.




IAF133 Legion Gun Platform Crew
This pack contains two 15mm scale white metal miniatures in different poses. Two Legionaries in glimmer suits with the first holding the remote control interface for a portable weapon and the second with interface range finder. Combine these portable weapon crew miniatures with IAF131 Selene Portable Weapon Platforms or use them for other purposes in your forces. Choose from a pack, three packs with saving or single poses. Price 1.00GBP per pack. Go HERE.




Information Burst
With all of our releases made for the month of February 2017 we want to remind you that you get IMP43 Female Muster Banner Bearer who fits right in with your Muster or Patrol or even Planetary Militia platoons in play free in every order. Until the end of February she is included at one per order (you can order more of her this month by going to the Year Collection page) and you get your Reward Points on your account too. 




We have two more things to show you later this month. An example page from the coming Khanate Return book the third in the Patrol Angis series and an article about an Afara Strider in the service of the League of Canlaster taken from our own gaming collection. The Afara is generic enough for many settings and it is designed for tabletop gaming being easy to assemble from few parts and durable to use in play too. I am also told it can be easily converted and altered with parts from our other codes such as IAF065 Vehicle Conversion Kit. Lastly we have a new month long special offer...it is a bloody good one....25% off all three variants of the IAF128 Afara Strider our resin light mecha which is 55mm tall. Click on the links.


Thanks for Reading


GBS

Friday 3 March 2017

The Ion Age - IMP43 Female Muster Banner Bearer free for all March 2017!



What a mad short month February was as most of my attention was taken up with the merger of 15mmcouk back into Alternative Armies and with getting a concept article on the coming Shia Khan book out on the blog plus a whole Legion Pioneer Ordos. Wow! All in twenty eight short feeling days. Now we are in March and it will be an exciting month for IonFans with several new Khanate 15mm releases plus preview page of the coming book and ending with details of when the book will be out to be in your hands. All of this to come. Now onto the news for the start of the month. A new free monthly and a special ones at that. A banner bearer free in every order placed automatically.






The Ion Age is all about space opera adventure and warfare in the far future and to that end it assumes not only the use of powered armour and powered swords but also of concepts such as valour and heroic nature. In Patrol Angis this concept is carried into the game on the tabletop with an Advanced Rule on page 38 called 'Valour' where the sight of a banner waving in the breeze of battle inspires troops all the more. All of our command packs of miniatures have a banner bearer in them and these are considered core poses. This month we present IMP43 Female Muster Banner Bearer who fits right in with your Muster or Patrol or even Planetary Militia platoons in play.







We welcome the 43rd free monthly 15mm miniature and month of our little space opera setting. Free in every order every time all month before being retired. This miniature is automatically put into every order at the rate of one per order regardless of order value. It can also be bought in any amount on the monthly IMP page of the website for this month only too before being withdrawn on the first of next month. We are into Year Four now and if you missed it you can see the Year Three Collection on the website. Standing 17mm to the eye line the Female Muster Banner Bearer is fitting for any platoon and is wearing standard Aketon Armour and holding a Tumbler SMG. Her banner is sculpted to the figure meaning all you need to do is choose the design to go upon it. It is a superbly impressive 15mm scale figure. There is a growing page on the Ion Age website where the current and all former IMP series free miniatures are shown so that you can see what came before. Enjoy looking at what came before. This miniature is worth 0.60GBP.



We ask you to sign up for a website account with us on your first order. Why? For one reason only. Not to send you emails (we never will. If you want our emails sign up for our Mailchimp list on the right top of the blog home page) or to pester you; but only to keep track of the Reward Points that all orders with us earn. Reward Points through our online partner Sloyalty which can be used once accumulated to get discounts or free stuff at any point in the future. Learn more about this HERE. Every order earns Reward Points! Yes free extra value. Part of our promise to keep the fun in wargaming. 


Lastly we have a new month long special offer...it is a bloody good one....25% off all three variants of the IAF128 Afara Strider our resin light mecha which is 55mm tall. We will have a fun article later this month with an Afara in the service of the League of Canlaster taken from our own gaming collection. 


The Afara is generic enough for many settings and it is designed for tabletop gaming being easy to assemble from few parts and durable to use in play too. I am also told it can be easily converted and altered with parts from our other codes such as IAF065 Vehicle Conversion Kit. The discount is online and all you need do is add to cart, reward points are as normal and can be used on this offer too. Offer ends 1st April. Click on the links to learn more. 



As always if you are reading this bulletin later in the month or further into the future please do have a look at our blog and use it as a time machine to read all the excellent content that is there going right back to our start. Try August 2016 for instance where you can find a parts article on the Afara plus civilian pack releases and our Uniforms of Prydia poster too.

Thanks for your support and for enjoying The Ion Age!

GBS