2mm Sci-Fi

A look now, at something a bit different, namely the 2mm Sci-Fi on offer from Irregular Miniatures. I came at these from the point of view of providing some alternative Alien forces for the Land Dreadnoughts/Weird WWI project, as distinct from the excellent Martians available from Brigade Models.

If Bug-Eyed Martians are from the Red Planet, then these guys had to be green, so I went with a Venusian theme.

So what to use? - Well, Irregular provide three 'types' in their range: Human - a developed tech with vehicles that appear to be hover or GEV propelled; Alien, which are equipped with coils to either side that are suggestive of some sort of magnetic repulsion drive, and finally Yobbo - a low tech option - perhaps a Colonists/Rebels/Rim World style group of vehicles that have a combination of tracks and wheels.

Not all of these concepts are necessarily successful, and there are some odd imbalances; the Human SPG is very small, and their Transport resembles an Intergalactic slipper! The Yobbo APC is quite frankly bizarre in appearance.....having said all that, though, the SPG makes a good hover scout, and the APC has an 'organic' feel which might fit in somewhere.

You can see the following below:

Top Left: IKSF2 Human SPG, Top Middle: IKSF8, Alien SPG, Top Right: IKSF19, Yobbo APC

Bottom Left: IKSF5, Human Scout Vehicle, Bottom Middle: IKSF4: Human Transport, Bottom Right: IKSF1: Human MBT.

My choice was to go with the Alien SPG/APC combo, which is a very neatly designed mini, the SPG being obviously an augmented/up-gunned version of the APC. You can see a column of Venusian forces made up of these in the first photo above.

Somehow, though, something was missing, as I wanted to represent further Alien races, and although I had my eye on some of the great range of micro-SF designed by Germy and available through GZG,

http://www.gtns.co.uk/store1/commerce.cgi

and will be taking advantage of the walkers, tripods and mecha-infantry available there, I wanted vehicles to serve as Heavy units, or even 'Ogre' style behemoths amongst their 2mm cousins. This led me to the 6mm armour available from Brigade:

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/Frames/SF300/index.html

I think by now, I had gone beyond just the Weird WWI aspect, and my butterfly mind had warped forward to the possibilities available for future wars, with an advanced 'Terran' element competing amongst various alien races.

A short list of the types that I felt scaled well alongside 2mm ones appear in the photo below:

At extreme left, we have the PACFED Minigwal Fast Attack Vehicle, SF300-709,

Middle Rear: SAC Buffel Wheeled APC, SF300-603,

Rear Right: Neo-Sov Laska Tankette, SF300-1209,

and next to the Minigwal, the German Baldur Light Tank, SF300-300.

As I'm sure you can see, these don't look so out of place next to the 2mm from Irregular.

Buffel APC, Alien SPG, Human MBT:

With Baldur Light Tank:

With Minigwal:

-and finally, with an 'Ogre' -style behemoth: the Chinese Zhu-De Support Tank, SF300-501a:

Of course, the real litmus test, was how well these choices would stack up against the

Sci-Fi Infantry from Irregular, on the left, IKSF23 Inf in Power Armour, and on the right, IKSF24 Support Weapons:

with Neo-Sov Tankette (turret weapon is not yet mounted on this by the way):

Tankette and Baldur together:

To my eye, these all seemed to fit pretty well, and so these and a few others then, should give the option of providing forces that are balanced between heavier and lighter elements, and have a common theme of vehicle type, whether hover, GEV, wheeled or tracked across the board.

Finally, then a couple of close ups of those Venusians which might appear either at the turn of the twentieth century, or a millenia later: an attack unit of SPG and APCs:

Next, the very satisfying IKSF7, Alien MBT, which for a green race, has a suitable 'toad'-like look about it:

Swiftly followed by a final highlight from the Irregular range, IKSF28, Biped Walkers. These and their quadraped counterparts obviously wear their design heritage on their sleeve (Thank you Mr Lucas!), and the front of the sculpt is a bit lop-sided in close-up, but overall, they are really cute. I think these will form the light unit of another Alien race:

More participants will have their photographic turn in coming posts, but next time on this subject, I'll be looking at Air Support to be provided by the plastic spaceships available from EM-4: (Scroll down to the bottom of the page)

http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Science_Fiction.html

So keep watching the Skies!