What's in the box? ClearHorizon Miniatures Drop Pods

It seems like just a few weeks ago that Mr Harold came out with the concept for these Drop Pods. My first reaction was, like many people I assume, "how come nobody thought about filling that particular obvious gap in 15mm sci fi minis?" My second and close reaction was "ooooh, shiny; me want; me need!"

So a quick paypal-fu move and just 15 days waiting later, 5 of those babies show up in the mail!

After a couple of disapointements (here, here and here) with resin molding, this model does indeed restore my thrust in that medium/process! While Old Crow Models is still my personnal champion for sheer surface texture, those pods really have incredibly crisp details; bravo zulu to the caster! If anything, my picture doesn't do justice to the level of detail!

Living Tomorrow: Asten Space Settlement

The NASA Ames Research Center organize a yearly Space Settlement Design Contest open to 6 to 12th grade students. Eric Yam, a Canadian high school student (at the time, he's getting a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo those days) one of the 2009 winners proposed a truly impressive work. 

Fully illustrated with Google SketchUP 3D views, his Asten Space Settlement doesn't stop at the design and construction of a massive space station (massive by ISS standard, not so much by Death Star standards I guess) but also consider, among other things, emergency procedures, demography or social organisation. Definitely worth a read!

So what's in for a roleplayer?

• The station can be dropped as it is in pretty much any near-future campaign. It would be a very good fit for Transhuman Space for example.
• The design itself is quite ingenious (and makes a lot of sense to me). It can be readily adapted to various settings...
• Travellerize it! Keep the hub and vestibules (the five long white bands on the pictures, housing the station larger communal areas) and use the ubiquitous 30dTon modules to fill in the structure and provide habitat, shops, establishments, labs storage... Have a look in GURPS Traveller: Modular Cutter for dozens of such module, complete with deckplans.
• Using Future Armada (A.K.A 0 hr: art & technology A.K.A. Ki Ryn Studios) awesome deckplans to map one! "Unroll" the Argos III Deep Space Port main hull to use as vestibule, and use the various containers from the MisFortune container ship for the pods... Play on the length/number of vestibule and rows/number of containers to make everything from a free-floating village to a whole city in space!

 

What's in the box? Daemonscape BigRig Dropship

Had this one on a shelf for a while, but thought it might fit my O.U.E.P. Robot Army quite well... Something to drop those legions of riflebots on the unsuspecting aliens and help negotiate access to their untapped unobtainium resources...

Left to right, top row: back (with cargo hatch), turret, upper body, front (with cockpit). Bottom row: back hatch (both faces), lower body (with integral landing gear, the three domes you can see on the picture) and engines. The small metal part taped on the card is the barrel of the turret.

CMG VTOLs assembled!

My domestic techmarine completed the assembly of both CMG VTOLs this week-end! He's got close combat training all this week but will hopefully be able to get back at it next week to paint them in their PLA livery. In the mean time I've ordered PLA decals (thank you for the tip, Kobold) on eBay and kanji numerals for the tail numbers at Fighting Pirannha Graphics... Stay tuned!

People Liberation Army 15th Airborne Corps

Just a few line about my ideas on how to use my brand new CMG Strike Hawk and Galacia VTOLs. I decided to use them as vehicles for a new force of the People Liberation Army Airborne Corps, the WZ-21 and Z-19...

I'm thinking mostly light grey to fit with the rest of my Terran forces, with patches of darker grey and green, optics in red and PLA markings... If I can source suitable decals I'd love to make the tail number kanji too...

Anyone got any idea on where to source PLA decals? The obvious answer is buying a PLA jet model, but I don't want to give out twice the price of the model for the decals...

EuroSpace E950 Minerva Executive Transatmospheric Vehicle (TL9)

The E950 Minerva is an business transatmospheric craft produced by EuroSpace, an aerospace technology subsidiary of EuroCorp. The design traces its origin back to Astrium (a subsidiary of European Aeronautic Defence and Space, EADS, a former global aerospace and defence corporation that merged into EuroCorp) Space Tourism Project.  

What's in the box? CMG Strike Hawk and Galacia VTOLs

Two of  the strech goals of the ZAS Kickstarter (infantry reviewed here, mechas to follow) were an attack VTOL and its transport conterpart... Obviously I couldn't resist. So there went another £26 (£11 for the small guy, £15 for the big one).

On top, the Galacia Heavy Transport VTOL: the two top row are the engines and their support "blocks", note that the two forward are wider, putting the forward engines more outboard that the aft ones and paying at least lip service at avoinding one engine exhaust feeding the next one; on next row are the 4 skids, the body, a chin gun and a chin sensor (that seems to actually go with the Hawk but fits both).

GSbAG U-41 Maori Light Utility Shuttle (TL10^)

The GSbAG U-41 Maori is a military light utility shuttle manufactured by Geschichtkreis Sternschiffbau AG. Its main user, the Imperial Navy, is gradually replacing the system by the newer GSbAG U-81 Luriani. However, countless variants, upgrades, modernisations, monkey models, licence builds and second hand U-41 remain in service in official and private hands, at the imperial and at the local levels, both inside and outside the Empire. This small but versatile reactionless-drive craft is designed as both a ship’s boat and a shuttle.