The Joy Of 15mm Scale.

Nothing gets me more psyched up to paint miniatures than a fantastic miniature to start with. When a great sculptor comes up with a brilliant mini, I feel it is my duty and honor to give that mini some life. Lately I've been working on a pretty big force of 15mm vehicles for a good friend of mine. Normally I'm a 10mm scale person, but these minis are awesome! It is fun to step out of my comfort zone for a little while, too. While I've been busy on my friend's forces, I also work in time for a few of my own, just so I don't get too burnt out on one thing. My work desk becomes a staging area for minis in various stages of completion. Now I have managed to complete several of these recent projects of which I will now share with all of you.


First up is a whopper of a battlemech in 15mm scale! This girl is HUGE and made entirely of awesome! I ended up buying two of these big girls because I knew one just wouldn't hold all the plans I made up once I saw her. Here is a link to show you what she looks like when you assemble it right out of the package and give you a bit more info on it:
http://gruntz15.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=trade&thread=892&page=1

If you want one, you can get a hold of the artist here:
mechorder@gmail.com 

Now here is what I have done....

Standing 5.5"/13cm tall, I told you she was a big girl! If you followed my link, you will notice right away that I have made some alterations.

The most noticeable change would probably be the shoulder-mounted rail cannon. The gun came from a set of Armored Core extra weapons. I did a bit of cutting and hacking to integrate the cannon with one of the standard shoulder missile pods it came with so it would fit perfectly to the shoulder.

I added the sensor dome to the missile launcher and added a targeting sensor to the rail cannon pod. A few minor details include adding armor panels to the chest and the upper legs as well as knee joints to the inner and outer leg.

I sculpted the additional engine/power generator on the lower back and added some haevy duty power cables to the rail cannon. The lower set of cables are shoe strings!

Nothing says badass like kill markings and a pin-up girl!

Here is a close up of the details I added to the back. I did a little bit of sculpting for the back of the rail gun and I added the heat vent to her butt.

Purple jewels for the medium lasers and orange jewels for the large lasers.

I added some more cables to the armpits and a pair of search lights by the minigun arrays. I also added the small circular panel to the side just above the miniguns and exhaust vents on the sides of the minigun arrays. I added the rocket covers because I wanted her to have more than the standard 6 missiles that were originally on it. I also drilled some exhaust holes on the arm cannons and added heat vents near the elbows. There is also an armored panel strip on top of the arm cannons.

Close up of the base detail. The rubble was made with pieces of chip board, tree bark, and other random rubble bits.

You can see the upper leg panels I added as well as the knee joints. The base and the feet are covered in dust that I swept out of an industrial laser filter box where I work.

I added some of my 10mm mechs to give you an idea of how big this girl really is. She is going to be a super-heavy for my 10mm forces.

 
 Now get ready for the vehicles. Aaron, hope these better pics blow your mind!
The vehicles are made by Antenocitis Workshop:
http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/governance-of-technology/g-o-t-vehicles-15mm.html

The battle armor is made by ....well, crap. I don't remember. I think they might be Khurasan Miniatures? If anybody would like to help me with this one, you'll get a gold star!

Three AFV's. I just couldn't resist adding some modifications....

This one came with an anti-tank turret, but it just didn't look right on the AFV. I was thinking of something more like the WWII German armored cars, so I dug through my parts box and found a suitable turret. The turret came off of some MW:DA tank, but the main gun is off a German Tiger and the coax gun is a bit of aluminum tubing. I also had to add some crew stowage.

This one is completely un-modified except for the stowage and radio antenna.

Here I was inspired by our current Striker AFVs. I built the stand off screen armor from scratch using brass tubing, plastic card, and window screen.

Did I mention how damn cool these armored cars are!

A group of hover tanks very reminiscent of the old FASA Centurion tanks. Very cool!

All I did to these guys was add some crew stowage.

Engineering the turrets to be movable was a huge pain! Notice the little nub in the center of the turret? That is a paneling nail that I drilled through the turret and into to the hull. I glued the nail in place on the turret. The turret rings were otherwise incapable of supporting the lop-sided weight of the turret unless they were glued into place. I couldn't stand to glue turrets into a fixed position.

Here is the unidentified battle armor. Once again, I could not leave them completely un-modified...

This one has a support cannon added to the top.

This one got some special effects added.

Hope you all liked the show. Coming soon....more StarWars...in a fleet scale!!