Rebel Minis Red Guard to Solomani Naval Assault Infantry

It's been a while since we've played Striker II, but the 15mm Red Guard from Rebel Minis have me dusting off the rules book and practising my Solomani Manifesto as they prepare to square off against my Imperial 99th Provisional Marines.

These were easy to paint with good detail and animation. I based mine for Striker II - I found that I can adapt based figs to StarGrunt II using Mark Clambo's StrikerGrunt rules hack.

They are in desperate need for some support troops, not to mention some C3 figures as well.

I went with a dark field grey as a nod to those other famous Confederates - the C.S.A. It doesn't hurt that it also resembles WW2-era Wehrmacht: I don't buy into the Solomani-are-Space-Nazis meme, but it does help to give them a bit of character.

The various light and dark greys were rather monotonous to paint, but I didn't want to mess about with a camouflage pattern.


 
Next is my DLD-era GAIFV (Grav Armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicle).  It looks to me like Dave at DLD was thinking of the Sd.Kfz. 251, also of Wehrmacht fame.

The original model had a sort of duck's bill arrangement under the prow - I tossed those in favour of a milliput fender.

The turret mounts a plasma gun and was purchased from Brigade Models about eight years ago.


 My Assault (Naval) Infantry template postulates that the Solomani don't use marines in the same way as the Imperium does. The ConFed have ship's troops (marines) for shipboard security, but for rapid deployment of heavy combat units, my ConFed uses Naval Infantry in the same manner as the Soviet Union used to do.

Naval Assault Infantry Platoon

Solomani Doctrine may not be as effective as Imperial, but then again, they did come off the worse in the Rim War...Ω

15mm Mine Processing Dome

 Mining is a common feature in Traveller, whether it be lanthanum for jump drives or bauxite for making aluminium. When one wants to create a Traveller war-game scenario involving mercenaries, the seizing of mining sites seems to be an obvious choice.

Below is my centre-piece for Mine #5 - a TL 8 ore precessing dome.  It's a simple conversion from an old Stonewyrks #8803 "Domed Building", which an old friend gave to me while moving house last November. This thing is cast in hydra-stone/gypsum and is quite hefty.

I actually now have two of these, having originally bought mine in the late '90s (at the same time my friend bought his) as a 28mm building. Admittedly, I didn't much care for the size-vs-scale, since at 28mm, it's a pretty small building.

And thus, it languished for nearly two decades.  Until I needed something in 15mm scale.

With 15mm GZG NAC Infantry

The building itself is mostly scale-neutral, except for the doorway, which betrays the 28mm roots.  A simple styrene cap with a GZG building fixture door in 15mm remedies this.

The other issue I have with "ultra-modern/modern-plus" gaming buildings is colour scheme. My initial impulse is to reach for the light grey aerosol can.  In this case, I decided to go with a "Company" look, and a combination of burgundy and bronze was the result. Walmart sells a "Hammered Bronze" DIY spray can which worked very well for the dome.

With 25/28mm door & Black Tree Doctor Who figures

Next step is to paint up some company housing for the miners, and then the real fun starts...Ω