28 April 2010

"Are You Ready for Your Probing?"

Despite everything Real Life ©® could throw at me, I have finished painting my Grey Aliens from 15mm.co.uk.
I'm really happy with them.  They were a pleasure to paint, full of "cute" character and interesting poses, and were very clean castings to boot.  And yet, they are oddly menacing....
This completes the two armies I bought that came pre-tailored for ASQL 2.0 (also from 15mm.co.uk, see here), so maybe now I can finally get a game in.  Maybe?  Ahh, who am I kidding?

Anyway, one way or another The Greys will see battle with my Human Imperial Army, using one rule set or other.  I've got a long list of rules I want to try out (see The List for an inkling of what I am up against).

I think my next big challenge is thinking up a background and history for my forces, and better names than simply calling them my Human Imperial Army.  Cool-sounding suggestions are accepted and appreciated.

I've already started filing away at my Retained Knights.  There is not a lot of flash or mold lines, just a normal amount.  Considering that they were cast in 1994 (as seen on the bottom of their bases) they have held up very well.

I enjoyed these Grey Aliens so much I wanted to show them from the front as well as the rear (and no probing jokes!).  I went with very bright colors, partly because I felt Grey Aliens would have better fashion sense than to dress in greys, but mainly because I like them to "pop" on the game table.  These guys have lots of sparkly shiny bright colors because these particular Greys don't have the fashion sense to not dress like that.  I also put the Commanders in bright purple cloaks to make them stand out better; that's the inherent problem with 15mm, it all looks the same from standing-height.
Below are the Robotic Scout Drones and Commander pointing, General with large headset and cape, Grey with Pysker Amplification gear and Grey with distance viewing device.
Below is part of the Grey Science Team:  Grey with Atomic counter gear and Grey with info pad in hand.  Yes, I painted "info" on the info pad.  No, you can't read it, it's in Grey Alien language.  Sheesh!
Next comes the rest of the Scientific Team:  Grey with heavy cases and slung weapon, Grey with capture claw probe.  Obviously the one Grey with the different colored claw is a specialist.  (A specialist at what, you ask?  Why, probing, of course!)  And the two Greys carrying the cases are totally different.  Paraphrasing Bele from Star Trek's "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield":  One is purple on the left, the other is purple on the right.  TotallyDifferent.
Next come the "heavy hitters" of the Grey army.  Four Grey Soldiers with energy rifles and one with the dreaded "Death Ray Projector," and six massive, scary, tall Robotic Servants.  Not a lot to look at in the rear view, just Grey Alien derriere (unless you're into that sort of thing; I'm just sayin').
Finally the Flying Saucer, seen here in convertible mode ('cause every Grey Alien likes cruising with the top down, feeling the wind in his...hair, er never mind).  I went with plain Jane silver, no special effects (unlike on the 15mm.co.uk website [link] ) because I wanted that true-to-life, straight out of the history books look.
Thanks for reading!

5 comments:

  1. These look amazing! Well done!

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  2. That is one of the most detailed armies I've seen in 15mm. Great work!

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  3. Lovely paint job on them as you say they really do pop. I've just ordered mine. How big are the chunks on the bottom of their feet?

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  4. @Apocalypsedreamer, do you mean the size of the molded bases the figures come with? Hmm, I'm not sure, they're pretty small; much too small to be able to stand on their own on a cloth-covered gaming table without a larger base, in my opinion.

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  5. Love the way those have been painted!

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