I’ve been looking to up my collection of plastic sci-fi miniatures for games of Star Squabble. As much as plastic isn’t my favourite medium for miniatures, I certainly feel a lot more relaxed when playing with them. Paint on plastic is virtually unchippable.

My first purchase was a squad of classic Space Rangers, sold by eM4 Miniatures for the incredible price of £4.99.

My pal had a few of these when we were younger, and I remember they integrated into our games of Space Hulk and 2nd ed 40k seamlessly. They’re a little soft on details compared to what’s out there nowadays, but for less than a fiver, who’s going to complain?

I also got myself some Stargrave Scavengers from North Star.

As I said, I’m not usually a big fan of plastics, and clipping sprues isn’t an aspect of the hobby that ranks high on my list, but this was a great kit to work with. There was just enough variety without it becoming fiddly and annoying.

At £22, these models aren’t too far off a pound a piece either – you can build 20 of them with the contents of the box.

So these guys, combined with my Aliens xenomorphs, give me lots of options for fully plastic games, and my precious metal guys can watch on from the safety of the display cabinet.

By the way, if you’d like to try the aforementioned Star Squabble, I’ve made a fledgling rules sheet available. I appreciate all and any feedback on your playing experience, as well as any tips and suggestions for streamlining and improving the game!

Brace yourselves; winter is coming. And conditions certainly won’t be conducive to priming miniatures outside with a spray can.

With that in mind, I’ve based and primed a wide variety of miniatures. This lot should keep me busy for the foreseeable future.

I did finish a few things, too. These zombies are a new addition to my sci-fi undead warband.

Then there’s Ravey Davey. Not sure he’ll get that crossbow and bag of miscellaneous into Glastonbury, though.

The official Bring Out Your Lead 2024 miniature got a lick of paint, too.

We played a game of Star Squabble yesterday, too. I’m pleased with how the rules are shaping up.

And I set up an ongoing solo game of Mace of Spades. Finishing up new paint jobs is great, but seeing them on the table is even better.

I’ve been building and painting this undead sci-fi warband on and off for the past three years. It was initially intended for Stargrave, but it’ll fit in well with any other ruleset, too, from Planet 28 to my very own Star Squabble.

I liked the idea of a “crew” that didn’t need to be kept safe, fed, watered, and essentially transported around the galaxy. The leadership would simply arrive at the location of their next objective and re-animate the corpses of whatever last happened to die there.

These little undead aliens by CP Models can be used under the ‘Guard Dog’ category.

The backbone of my force: undead space troopers by Diehard Miniatures.

Midlam‘s great Crow Shaman miniature will make an ideal “medic” for the crew. Not a medic in the conventional sense perhaps, just someone with a bit of necromantic magic know-how who can patch up skeletons when they get blasted to bits.

The Captain and Vice-Captain of the crew are Chaos Villain Skully and Kane the Tech Mancer, both courtesy of Diehard.

An ex-Blood Angel, perhaps? He can be deployed in Stargrave in the ‘Armoured Trooper’ category.

These Plague Zombies from North Star are part of the official Stargrave miniatures line.

If you’re not too familiar with Stargrave, you can learn more about it on this episode of the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast. Find the show anywhere you get your podcasts.

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Remember to check out the four companies I used to assemble my undead space crew, too. They are, CP Models, Diehard, North Star, and Midlam. You can find more info about them in my roundup of Oldhammer Miniature Companies, too!

This post was initially published in August 2023. At that point, every single miniature was in its shiny metal form. Now that a decent amount of them have been painted, I thought it was time for an update.

I’m never going to own a 6’4 table. But I still look at those old Warhammer Fantasy Battles pictures in White Dwarf and want to recreate the experience in my own way. 6mm is unarguably a brilliant way to fight out massive battles, but when I learned more about 15mm last year, it felt just right. Not too big, not too small, just right.

To be clear, I’m not abandoning 28mm. It’ll always be the main scale for me. But doing mass battles at that scale is unrealistic for me. I just don’t have the space, or, the budget.

I did have some hobby money available after selling a few 28mm regiments I knew I’d never use. So I re-invested it in two full 15mm armies, which I was able to assemble for around £120 in total.

One is an Orc & Goblin horde (with some Chaos Warrior allies), whilst the other is an Empire/human force. I put them together from three different companies, Ral Partha, Alternative Armies, and Pendraken.

Eleven months on, and here is my progress:

I recently bought a box of Alien Warriors from the official Aliens game. I thought 12 miniatures for £20 was a great price, and I’d been in the market for something like this for a while.

I’m looking to create a DIY version of Space Hulk. I also wanted additional options for my Titan scenarios, particularly non-ranged creatures that can be used as NPC swarms in solo and co-op games.

The miniatures were difficult to build. I’m not used to multi-part plastic and naively clipped them all from their sprues before realising that some parts had very specific companion pieces. Nevertheless, I got some help and managed to eventually get them all put together.

Four of the miniatures had their class inscribed on their bases. Because I’m not using them for their intended rules system, I covered these up with some plastic putty and painted them green. The effect is a sort of xenomorphic acid.

I gave them a zenithal undercoat then covered them with the Terradon Turquoise Citadel contrast paint. I then dry-brushed them with Bleached Bone, and with Tentacle Pink on their heads and faces. Finally, I coated them with Vallejo Gloss Varnish to give them a slimy, wet, shiny effect.

I’m really chuffed with how they turned out, especially given how easy they were to paint (though, as I say, they were also a nightmare to build!).

I’m looking forward to handing them their debut in a playtest of the narrative Titan-based scenario I’m working on. I’ll also be looking to pack them into the cramped tunnels of a derelict spaceship for a bit of Space Hulk-style action soon, too.

View the full photo gallery right here

It was snotlings who pulled me into this hobby. It all started with a packet of ‘Goblinoids’ Citadel Combat Cards. I loved the look of every miniature in that deck (I’m not even sure I knew that they were miniatures at that point), but I was particularly taken by the loveable trio of Snoti, Fungus, and Bogi Dungbreath.

Fast forward a year or so, and I spot a copy of White Dwarf in my local newsagents. It’s issue 166 (October 93), and I’m excitedly flicking through the pages, wondering what whole new universe I’ve just discovered. I get to the mail order pages at the back and I can’t believe what I’m seeing.

Snotlings!

Ten minutes of pleading with my mum and we’re on the bus home with the magazine open in front of me. It would be a year or two yet before I’d actually own any snotlings of my own, but at least I now knew what they were, where they came from, and that you could collect them.

When I did finally get my own base of snotlings, I probably did the worst ever job of all my childhood miniatures. The base was the wrong way round (it seemed logical because the snotlings fitted into the little holes), and I dunked the entire thing in sand once they were all glued in. It looked absolutely hellish.

I got more of them further down the line, and my job on them wasn’t much better. Fortunately, some of those snotlings survived the sands of time (if not the sands of basing), and I recently had the opportunity to strip them and try to make them presentable for the first time in their long lives.

I’ve been building a goblin warband led by Jareth from The Labyrinth, and these guys will slot nicely into his greenskin ranks.

I also have a Nurgle warband and was happy with the way my Nurglings turned out. It inspired me to get cracking with the snotlings and do something similar.

I’ve used large round bases for them – the entire warband are on rounds – and added some 3D-printed mushrooms and toadstools I bought on Etsy.

There are also a couple of new miniatures in the mix. The two goblins with the standard come from Knightmare. The wee snake-charming goblin was a free gift with an order from somewhere, but I can’t for the life of me remember where. If you know where it’s from, please let me know.

I’m looking forward to finishing off the basing and getting them undercoated. I’ll use this post to provide updates and fresh pictures when I have them.

I’m now the proud owner of a fully painted fleet of ships to play Armada with.

I’ve never painted boats before. I went for a quick “bright, bold, basic” approach. I enjoyed the process.

The ships are Man O’War proxies from Etsy. A Royalist Galleon, three Royalist Corsair Ships, and three Royalist Buccaneers.

I got some Armada-appropriate sized MDF bases from Warbases and used Vallejo Plastic Putty to create the sea effect.

I’m using the Asurmen Blue contrast paint on the water, dry brushed with my old pot of Skull White. That’s also a mid-90s Regal Blue around the edge.

Being a narrative gamer, I’m taking lead from Henry Hyde’s Imagi-Nations and creating my own European seafaring nation from the age of sail – Maritonia.

That means coming up with a bit of background fluff and naming each ship. Maybe even the Admiral and Captain of each ship, too.

My 2D terrain, 6mm terrain, and 6mm trees have come in handy for creating decent wee islands.

I have a rival fleet to paint now, alongside my ongoing 15mm armies project. But I’m now more than 50% towards getting a game of naval combat on the table. I am looking forward to it.

I used to base my miniatures after I’d painted them, seeing it as a “final touches” sort of stage. But when I started using the zenithal priming approach to undercoat, I decided to try basing them first. I find it gives them a lot more overall consistency and has improved my process.

I’m not going to try and convince you that you should do the same. I just wanted to share a few pics to demonstrate how it’s working well for me.

I glue wee ripped-up bits of notebook to cover the slots, and smooth the area out with plastic putty.

I use Vallejo Ground Texture on my bases, which turns rock-hard after about 12 hours. This can be painted up in any colour to represent any type of terrain.

Then it’s a typical zenithal approach, a black undercoat then a skoosh of Wraithbone from above.

I use the Citadel Plaguebearer Flesh contrast paint on the base. I find this works well with the natural shading from the zenithal spray. Then, being stuck firmly in the mid-90s, I paint the sides with Goblin Green.

As I say, it works well for me!

My two-year-old daughter is obsessed with Labyrinth. What kind of Dad would I be if I didn’t jump on the bandwagon?

I picked up this Jareth 3D print from Etsy (I found more Labyrinth figures, which are now ordered and on the way, too).

I found him to be a fun, novel painting experience. And he’ll fit in well as leader of my growing goblin warband.

Elsewhere, I had a couple of captive/prisoner minis from Midlam.

These will come in handy for story-driven narrative scenarios.

Whilst shopping for 15mm stuff on the Ral Partha site, I couldn’t resist this Kev Adams demon, either.

If you asked Alexa to show you the opposite of a modern-day GW miniature, this is exactly what it would come up with.

Speaking of 15mm, I do have some stuff in the works there, too, including this cannon. I bought the crew separately and found they (and their kit) all fitted nicely onto one 40mm x 40mm base.

I have some chaos warriors and trolls for my 15mm project nearing completion, and I’ll have photos of them in my next update.

It began with a conversation on the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast, shortly followed by a splurge on two opposing armies (which didn’t actually cost that much at all!). Now, I’ve finally finished two full units, a big stone troll, and a couple of other test paints.

Here’s what’s been done so far.

The Blood-Eye Orcs’ rank and file are from Pendraken. Their command comes via Ral Partha. The standard bearer fell over, chipped, and had to be re-painted about six or seven times. I hate him.

The big lad was a generous freebie from Alternative Armies, where I’d ordered a lot of my 15mm rank-and-file from, including the mounted knight and archer who’ll eventually have their own regiments to join.

The noble Frostguard Paladins were purchased from Ral Partha, too.

The movement trays were from Warbases.

I have some waterslide transfers to try out on the mounted knight’s shield, as well as the banners on both regiments. I think the orc’s shields might be too small to accommodate the ones I got from Essex Miniatures.

I’ve enjoyed my first forays into painting 15mm, and I’m content with the results. I’ve plenty more to be working on for these rival orc and human armies, and I expect they’ll keep me busy through to the end of 2024.