Dystopia: Wastlands and Empires "Sweet Rides!"

I picked up some Pixar "Cars" movie cars today for my post apocalyptic project.  I considered some more regular die cast cars for the project but that would mean using either 1:43 scale or 1:64 scale which are too big and too small respectively.  The "Cars" toys seem to be right in the middle of those scales and they look pretty good next to 28mm miniatures.  Price wise they are not too bad.  They run 3-6 dollars each which is reasonable.  O course I plan to go all kinds of Mad Max on these things and add armored plates and weapons as well as bits to stowage to make them look appropriate for the desolate wastelands of the near future.    

Dystopia: Wastelands and Empires a possible project for 2015

I'm thinking about starting up a new Post Apocalyptic project for 2015 called "Dystopia: Wastelands and Empires".  Like my Solar Empires project I plan to use this setting for both miniature games and roleplaying.  Also like that setting the focus will be primarily human.  I already have a number of miniatures suitable for the setting in my collection but I'm sure I will buy more as the project progresses.

Setting Summery:  At the end of the 21st century an already collapsing society tipped over the verge after a brief nuclear exchange between the New Soviet Union and the North American Republic.  This nuclear war, though small in scale, ruined much of the Earth's already damaged echo system and caused major changes in terms of political power.  After several chaotic years most nations ceased to exist and instead larger metropolitan areas formed independent city states creating large domed structures to keep out pollution and radiation.  Life for citizens of the domed cities was fairly pleasant although tightly controlled by government and corporate forces.  Life outside the domes was anything but pleasant.  In the places that human life could still be sustained anarchy reigned.  Most survivors banded together to create tribes or gangs for mutual protection.  A few un-domed city states cropped up but they were far less sophisticated than their richer counterparts but most of the tribes lived a nomadic scavenging what they could off the bones of the past and constantly fighting others for their very survival.  Life continues the same to this day in the year 2142.
 

More Space Pirates: Ghost Legion Dogs and Bulldog AFV

 I'm working on some more pirates for the Solar Empires setting.  These are Ghost Legion "Dogs" (veteran pirates troopers).  The Ghost Legion are a newer pirate band who were part of the Star Guards mercenary company but turned to piracy after the "4 Vesta Incident" of 3028.  As such they still use a lot of former Star Guard equipment and weapons.  I've converted these guys from Reaper IMEF troopers with some Games Workshop heads from various Warhammer Fantasy sets.

This is a Bulldog Rover Armored Fighting Vehicle.  These antique transports were designed hundreds of years ago by the Terran Federation when they controlled the moons and planets in most of the outer solar system.  The Bulldogs were designed for long term missions over any terrain in hostile environments.  They are completely environmentally sealed and use a fusion engine that can operate for years without refueling.
Ironically designed to defend early settlements against space pirates they are now commonly used by pirate bands.

This vehicle is a Matchbox "On A Mission" toy called the "Battle Blaster".  Even though it is very large I thought it worked fairly well as a heavy rover.    

A new Solar Empires Project.

 I'm working on a new Solar Empires blog that will serve as a source book for the setting.  In addition to setting background information I will also be including No Limits army list and Savage Worlds stats for the forces and vehicles for the setting.

 I've got the blog up but I'm not yet ready to promote it.  I want to get a lot more content up on the page before I start promoting the page.  The entire site will be organized by using the page feature of Blogger to create index pages that will like individual blog post under that topic.

 There will be a page for Forces of the Solar Empires which will list every individual force we are working on then link content relevant to those forces as I publish it.  In this way it will be a living source book.  I am doing this not only to keep things straight for myself my players but also because there has been enough interest in the setting that anyone who might be interested can use that information for their own games.  

 I've started by photographing the various vehicles we have assembled for the various armies and I have begun posting background information and stats for them.  We are also working on some original artwork to illustrate the setting background information.

 Unlike a lot of current 28mm science fiction settings many of the vehicles and mecha in Solar Empires are used by multiple factions.  In this way the setting is much more like the Classic Battletech setting and different from the Warhammer 40,000 setting where even different Imperial forces use different vehicles and equipment.  Some types of equipment may be used only by one faction but quite a bit of it is used by several operators.  Each equipment, mecha, and vehicle entry will have an allowed operators list so that any force on that list may use the equipment in question.

 One thing I want to point out is that nearly all of the hobby related Solar Empires content will remain on this blog.  Any time we scratch build something or make terrain for the setting or paint something I want to publish that content will still go up on this blog.  The new blog will just be for setting specific information.  

Also we will be keeping up the System News Network blog for In character news related game reports and other news related content.
It seems a little odd to have so many blogs dealing with Solar Empires content but I think this is the best way to handle all the content we are generating for the setting.
We have been working now for several years to make Solar Empires a fully realized hard science fiction setting and we have generated a lot of content but we also realize not everyone who comes to this blog wants to read post after post about the various details of the setting.  They just want to see game reports and hobby related content.  That is why we are organizing things this way.

The Start of a Jovian Empire Household Army

I've started putting together a Jovian Household Army for my Solar Empires Setting.  The bulk of the Jovian military forces are made up of the various Household Armies each of which are commanded by powerful Jovian Nobles to protect the Empire and their own holdings.

I've constructed this squad of troopers to represent typical Household Footmen.  I used Wargames Factory Shock Troopers for the base figures then augmented them with Neo Brit Trencher Heads from Maxmini.  I also used Trencher backpacks and Comm Backpacks from Secret Weapon Miniatures.  They are based on 1/8x1 inch steel washers.  I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out.

The small mechs are a pair of Jovian Battlesuits usually piloted by lesser Jovian Knights.  They are M.A.R.S. HEROES toy robots I picked up at Dollar General.  The same brand I have made all my other battlesuits out of.  These however are sold individually.  

I'm not sure when I am going to get around to painting this force.  Right now I'm working on Pirates but I hope to get them on the table soon.

Miniatures I would like to see.

Someone who is better at sculpting than I am needs to make this happen.  That is all.  

Scrap Dog Raiders Finished!

I finished up the first squad of Scrap Dog raiders today.  I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  The bases are similar to my Bloodborn pirates which is good because I play to combine my pirate crews together to make a bigger army for larger games.
I've got another 14 of these guys to paint and a light mech for the force as well so I better get on it.  I also created a No Limits army list this week for my pirate forces so hopefully we will see a pirate army in the field soon.    

Scrap Dog Raiders almost finished.

Just wanted to post these guys again.  I'm almost finished with this squad.  Just basing and a few details to go.