15mm Powerloader

"Get away from her, you bitch!"

Hello there fellow humans! I think I've failed to mention it on the blog (bad etiquette!) but a couple of weeks ago Dropship Horizon ran a 15mm sci-fi painting competition called Titanium Dropship which I entered. I was a little late in getting organized and ordered the stuff I wanted to paint from Jon at GZG just over a week before the deadline. The famous GZG wormhole was luckily working fine so I got the stuff in time, however life got in the way and in the end I only managed to finish my vehicle entry in time.

There were no rules for entering models you'd painted earlier, but I felt that was against the spirit of the competition so didn't want to do that. However, I did get my GZG powerloader mecha done to a decent standard and that's what I sent to the judges! I was happy to see how many great entries there were in the competition, especially as 15mm has traditionally not been a scale known for its great painters. The competition was tough though and I ended up a very close fourth position, just after Dave Pauwel's Heavy Gravtank.

However, Jon had said that he would give out a special prize or two to his favourite entries using models from his range and I, together with Cameron from Cameron's Tiny Little Men, were lucky enough to snag that prize! So not one of the top three winners, but a winner nonetheless. Now I'm eager to see what Jon has in store for me. :)

Gundam transfers to the rescue! Got a sheet last time I visited Japan for use with my Infinity minis.

I'm quite happy with how the mecha turned out, although I would have liked to add some more detailing. An aerial or two, some more detailing on the base etc. Still, I think it will make for a nice centerpiece on the table and something for the Mars rebels to use. In fact, I had this idea for a scenario where the EarthSec forces are raiding a rebel hideout/shanty town and the reb player has to try and get a pilot to the mech before the superior EarthSec forces wipes them out.

The model was a little fiddly to put together (I didn't do this because of the time constraint, but you really should pin basically all of it!) but is a very nice sculpt! As is often the case it looks a lot better in the flesh than on the GZG webstore. Really like the civilian vehicles in the 15mm range and I want to get a bunch more to populate my Mars table - I think stuff like the colonial rover, colonial ranger, powerquad transport and the Bulldog will look great as really worn and dusty everyday workhorses!

My other entry would have been some of the new NSL from GZG painted in the style of the EDF forces from Red Faction Guerilla. I didn't manage to finish them in time, but you should see them here soon enough. Very nice models!

EDIT: Finished a quick proof of concept paint job of one of the NSL infantrymen:

I quite like the tan and terracotta combo as it at least gives him an inkling of camouflage. The EDF troopers I used as a model do have the orange visor like this, but I might change it to something with a bit more contrast. Let me know what you think in the comments!