One of the many enjoyable aspects of our hobby is planning. Of course, planning leads to lead and plastic piles, so it's fraught with danger and one should proceed with caution. One definitely shouldn't shop on ebay while taking pain medication for a tooth extraction.
As I hinted at in a previous post, I have some new projects underway. One is a French & Indian War project - this has no defined parameters but I do know that I want to paint French regulars so that's what I'll start with.
The other project is a Victorian Science Fiction (VSF) project which will encompass both solo games and face to face games with a local 54mm wargamer. There are two of us in the area!
We have decided upon a game set on Venus. We'll likely use GASLIGHT to start, since it's one set we're both familiar with (I haven't played a lot of rule sets that aren't me just making stuff up).
That's what the French Foreign Legion figures from Armies in Plastic that I posted recently will be for - although I have both British and Russian colonial forces, French Legionnaires fighting lizard folk on Venus was my first venture into building proper wargaming armies (albeit in 15mm). The Earth colonial forces will play a small roll in the wars of the Venusian factions, so I don't need many of them, maybe 10 + a crew for a Gatling.
At least that's our current plan.
The aforementioned ebay shopping spree was not hypothetical but based on experience. I had two teeth extracted last Friday (not fun and not recommended, but the pain leading up to that was worse, so ...). The pain killer haze may have weakened my willpower. At least that's my excuse.
As a result, I purchased several boxes of Hat 1/32 ancients figures including: Roman triari, Roman hastati, Spanish infantry, and Carthaginians - they're short a few figures each but enough of each for 10-12 figure units. Except for the Gauls, these will make up one of the Venusian factions (for my own notes, I'm calling them Asterians).
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| Hastati not pictured - they haven't arrived yet |
But wait! What about lizard folk?
Ah yes, a classic Venusian trope and one of my favorite D&D monsters to boot
For them I am thinking a mix of 28mm (hear me out!) and 54mm figures.
The latter are exceptionally difficult to come across in any quantity or a price I could afford in any quantity more than a handful. However, SCS Direct sells a figure that will pass for a lizard warrior and is available in relatively inexpensive packs of mixed creatures. It was seeing them painted up on Quantrill's Toy Soldiers that sold me on them. One pack yielded me 6 such figures (10 is my starting goal):
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| By their smooth skin and serpent necks, I have inferred that they inhabit seaside marshes and are fond of Venus's vast oceans. |
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| Size comparison to an Armies in Plastic Russian. |
For a leader type, I picked up a 54mm figure from Iron Wind - a lizard shaman. I guess Iron Wind has a game about magic-users or something and a whole line of figures for it. To be honest, this figure's existence inspired the idea of uniting different tribes (read: figure scales) of lizard folk as my original plan was just to field a force of 28mm lizard warriors. I'm still awaiting delivery of this one, eagerly at that!
Eventually I plan to order some Wargames Atlantic 28mm multi-part lizard warriors. The box includes parts for 24 figures for less than $35 usd which is quite a bargain, although you do have to assemble them yourself. Much like Ikea costing less because you have to do the tedious part.
The figures come with a variety of head and weapon options but i'll be sticking with classic melee weapons. Sadly they don't come with bows or any warriors with shields. For those, I'll probably pick up some Reaper figures - Bones or Dark Heaven.
In any case, to my mind, the 28mm figures make fine pygmy lizard warriors.
I have some Reaper Bones lizard folk to serve as proofs of concept:
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| A 28mm Reaper Bones mini next to an Armies in Plastic Legionnaire. |
As an example of what I intend visually, I painted one up quickly last night. I'm pretty pleased for what amounts to a single rushed paint session. Although in close up I am finding so much to fix!
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| The gloss is subtle on these figures perhaps due to the general lack of smooth surfaces? |
And another comparison example:
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| In Space: 1889, the Russians have a force on Venus and they wear the white tops / green trousers. He probably should aim lower. |
The SCS Direct set also includes harpie figures that I think will serve nicely as Parrot People (they are found in the jungles of Venus. Duh.), to be supplemented by the Hat Gaul figures (one of the poses has a winged helmet and one pose is naked, good enough for Parrot People for me!) and maybe some Chin Toys Aztecs. Those latter aren't cheap and they only provide eight in a box.
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| What about all of the other figures in the assortment? Some will be painted, many will end up in my son's toy soldier bin. |
Yes, all of this represents exponential growth of my plastic pile. And painting queue.
On the plus side, my Austro-Hungarians and Italians are moving along nicely and their portion of the pile is steadily decreasing. Hopefully this weekend I'll sneak in another game of Trench Hammer.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThe following may not all be suitable for Venus, but you might still find useful stuff made by "Tehnolog"--I now have elves, orcs, skeletons (both medieval and SF), Arctic-clothed Infantry, Werewolves, Romans, and Centaurs. (There are also somewhat aquatic-looking "aliens", Space Indians (!?!), Dark Knights, and many others. The plastic used is listed as "soft", but I think the plastic is actually pretty firm--but still soft enough to allow conversions. And the sculpting is great! I plan to use them with Wiley Games' SF version of Fistful of Lead.
BTW, I should add that there are a number of different companies (all Russian) on eBay selling these; a search on eBay will locate figures as cheap as $1.50 to $2.50 for a bag of 4-6 figures.
Best regards,
Chris Johnson
Thanks, Chris! A few years ago, my son was into the Terminator (despite never having seen it save for memes) so I got my son some of the SF ones that look like Terminators with Darth Vader helmets, for lack of a better description. We love them and use them all the time as the "bad guys" when we play. I have them earmarked for me when he decides he's outgrown such things!
DeleteFistful of Lead is a great choice - each pack could supply an entire side for a game. I have been hesitant to order from the Russian suppliers only due to the long shipping times. I suppose at those prices though, I should just do it, forget about them, and enjoy the surprise when they finally show up.
Cheers!
- John
John,
DeleteMy experience has been uniformly great--often faster than some domestic vendors! The orders have always been spot on, and if you know anyone into stamps, you get a carload of Russian items on each package.
Chris
Blue and orange work so well together (complementary colours?) on these Lizard men.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mark! I believe they are complimentary based on where they fall on the color wheel. That said, I can take no credit here - inspiration came from nature itself: the tokay gecko is light blue-gray with orange spots. I went for more dramatic splotches because i am too lazy to paint little pinpoints on the figures!
DeleteLovely Lizardman, if that is an appropriate comment. I mean he has painted up very well. This is a fascinating project and I look forward to seeing it develop. I have gaslight but have never played it, got it years ago. Aquarium shops could supply interesting scenery...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Alan!
DeleteGaslight was the first time i encountered the card driven activation sequence which I have loved ever since. The game is very flexible (and as of the Compendium, which I don't have, there are rules for using units of sizes other than 10.). If there's a downside it's that it takes a bit of pre-game preparation to stat out the units and vehicles/contraptions. I suppose if you don't like 20-sided dice that is also a negative but as long time role-player, I have a fondness for all the dice.
I can definitely see a use for plastic aquarium plants in the more interesting and unnatural color schemes.
Pain and discomfort are always a good excuse for a littlr self indulgence and toy soldiers last longer than rum or whiskey.
ReplyDeleteGASLIGHT is a solid choice, very flexible.
Seems to me that lizards come in many size on earth, unless you are doing a hardcore replicatiin of a particular book or movie, I see no reason why you shouldn't use what is available and appeals and make your own backstory. Seems like 1/2 the fun for this sort of thing.
Glad to hear there is a compatible gamer around. I have come to enjoy solo gaming but a compatible live opponent is also "a good thing".
That's the same rationale I used for the variety of lizard folk sizes And this kind of fun backstory creation is indeed one of the primary appeals of this kind of game. It's more difficult for me to do this with my WWII collection. A mental block on my part.
DeleteIn the 15 or so years since I started wargaming (I'm nearly 50, so I was a late bloomer), I can count on less than both hands the number of times I have played a wargame with a live opponent. A "lone warrior" solo gamer by nature, I find something quite novel about the idea of playing a game with another person. It's nice that I don't have to build an army in a scale I don't collect anymore in order to do so (attempts to join the local Flames of War and Bolt Action communities floundered for that reason).
Gaslight's flexibility is one of its great strengths. I've been thinking that melee might be a bit brutal when troops are primarily melee weapon armed but i suppose in part that will depend on how many units we field per side.
Plans are always good John and yours sound great! I did something similar years ago. I wanted to do a Christmas war game based on "The Nutcracker." I had Esci British 50mm Napoleonics and I paired them with 28mm Skaven for the rats. I used a small Christmas tree as terrain and it was perfect! You might also want to search for Reamsa recast Aztecs, they would probably be cheaper than Chin Toys. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brad! I cannot express strongly enough how much I want to field a Christmas themed wargame! Monday Knight Productions used to have what I considered the epitome of such figures but alas they disappeared from their site. I rather like the idea of basing the game on the Nutcracker! If I steal this idea at some point, I will give credit where credit is due!
DeleteAlso, thanks for the heads up about Reamsa recast Aztecs. I will take a look and see what's out there!
Thanks for the mention, Brad. I love the Edgar Rice Burroughs books that are kind of Tarzan on other planets! Venus and Mars are rather different in those stories to the, presumably, lifeless world we know of today. but, then again, the scientific evidence is that at a much earlier point in time they had more Earth-like environments and that life may even have originated on them.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, any excuse to pit lizard men, carnivorous plants and red skinned, blue skinned or green skinned men against Earthlings from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, once we have a skimpy explanation of portal travel or miraculous discoveries to enable space travel.
I ma have once mentioned my Blusian invasion of Barsoom. FFL, lancers and zouaves battled artificial men (60mm ancient Egyptians) Green Men (orcs), Red Men (converted American Indians and Aztecs and converted Barsoom lion and gorilla. I had a character figure for John Carter made from a Kinder Egg Ulysses.
ReplyDelete