Power Armor

Power Armor
Khurasan power armor infantry with conversions

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Science fiction tanks and APCs

I painted up some 15mm armor to accompany my science fiction foot troops.  These are Khurasan tanks and RAFM wheeled APCs.  I have 2 more of the APCs to do, plus extra turrets to make them fire support vehicles.  I’ve included some fluff descriptions in the captions, for my scifi setting, and a description at the end of how I painted them.  Thanks for looking!

Two MBT-45 “Wolf” tanks and two APC-22F “Puma” APCs, seen here during United Nations of Earth and Mars occupation of Kyushu



The Wolf Tanks (“Puppies” in the Army vernacular) are decades old and greatly inferior to the latest generation of a-gravity tanks available to the UNEM Marine Corps and to the Organization for Interstellar Progress Expeditionary Forces, but in the low-intensity conflicts, they remain rugged, reliable vehicles.

Re-fitted with a railgun, Puppies can defeat almost any enemy armor it encounters (if it can score a hit).  Secondary armament includes a remote-controlled 19mm automatic cannon on the cupola.

“Muy Chingon”, commanded by Lieutenant Julia Roybal, fought during the relief of Sao Luis Obispo (during the Summer Rising), but was destroyed by a directed energy weapon during the fighting.

“Slug Thrower” destroyed three OIP grav tanks during the brief OIP intervention at the end of the Kyushan War of Independence.  The vehicle’s commander, Sergeant Amita Singh, was awarded the Martian Star for his actions on the SAO Plains.  Sergeant Singh later said of his kills: “We got stupid lucky.  Those A-gravs should have eaten us alive.”

The railgun's flechette rounds were devastating to infantry in the open

Tankers on Kyushu commonly marked their months on-planet 

These two APC-22F “Pumas” (“Kitties” to the troops) are also old tech, lightly armed and armored, but have generally given good service on Kyushu.  Fire support variants are also available.  Their wheeled drives and ease of maintenance made them the only vehicles capable of long-term operations in the foot hills north of the coast, where difficult roads and long supply lines crippled UNEM operations for the first year of the war.

"Billy Badass", armed with twin automatic cannon

"Born on Earth, Died Offworld" Kitties had a transport capacity of 10 (fewer in the fire support version)

The UNEM tactical symbol rearranged the colors of the UNEM flag



The Puppy's conventional weapon was replaced with a newer-pattern railgun.  The charging units with the weapon are visible on the turret's rear.


I painted these with a quick and simple method:
1) Primed with grey automotive spray
2) Base-coated in Vallejo German Camo Brown and hit the tracks/tires/guns with black
3) Irregular squarish-shapes in Army Painter Necrotic Green
4) Irregular squarish-shapes in a cheap wal mart grey-brown color
5) Chipping and dust applied to edges and large areas, using a foam brush
6) Graffiti, UNEM symbols painted 
7) Applied Army Painter Soft Tone Ink Wash (not the can stuff---the water based stuff)
8) Highlighted the graffiti and UNEM symbols
9) Added some light dusty dry brushing

8 comments:

  1. Loving the slogans on the back :) Vehicles look great and they have a great "military" feel to them.
    Perfect near-future

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  2. Thanks Ivan!

    I imagine the UNEM Army as a conscript force, bottom of the budgetary pecking order, maligned throughout the solar system and beyond as an unmotivated police force. Everybody loves the UNEM Marine Corps, who have all the slick gear. The Army doesn't do well in the first phases of the war on Kyushu, but they get their act together, shake out the crap generals and get some good ones in, retrain the infantry, and make their name.

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  3. Great painting, great background and fluff, great...everything!
    You are making it difficult to resist jumping into 15mm SF to play with my son...

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    1. Thanks Paul! I'd say jump in. The costs are so much more manageable than other scales, and a lot of rules out there (especially Ivan's) are playable with small collections.

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    2. 15mm is wonderful. A mechanized platoon with some tanks is around 50-60 bucks (straight infantry much cheaper) and you can play on a pretty modest table size.

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  4. I feel my will to resist weakening...

    Which Khurasan tanks are those?

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    Replies
    1. Paul---Khurasan's site is down (sigh...) but they are from the Neosoviet "Red Faction" line of troops.

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