Homing Spider Droid 15mm

After the test game on the weekend, I was left thinking isn't it a shame I can't get any of the large Spider droids to complete the CIS forces. As the range is made from brittle resin, the idea of a leggy, fragile spider walker is enough to give you a cold sweat.

 However, after trying to find another figure, I stumbled across a line of rubber star wars miniatures. I was delighted to see they made a Homing spider droid so ordered one.

The figures come with cards for the game they were intended for. Some of this information might be useful to me while I'm creating the stats for combat and movement.
 

I was even more delighted when I saw how big the walker is, as it fits perfectly with the scale of the resin figures. Being rubber, it's bulletproof too, so won't snap or break like resin.

The dorsal laser fires a beam over a great range, while the belly gun fires heavy blaster bolts. It's a slow mover so I will give it a 4" movement. Having a beam weapon I will give it a extra attack dice for every 11 and 12 that are rolled. This represents the beam slicing across the terrain, continuing to do damage. It's skill level will be classed as green but it will have six hit points because of it's armour and size. It will also have a weapon range equivalent to that of a tank, so most of the time it won't be getting any penalty for long range.

The long range and the extra attack dice should make this walker a scary sight as it looms over the tree tops.

Finding toys like this makes me realise doing this conflict in 15mm was definitely the right decision. Toys like this and the gunships, also the amount of units on the table, are a strong argument for 15mm. A large spider droid like this would cost a fortune in 28mm...if you could actually get one that is.

As a rule, the large Homing spider droids are normally escorted by their smaller cousins, the Dwarf spider droids. The smaller walkers act as the eyes and ears for the larger, powerful droids. Now I have found a good proxy for these monsters, I can replicate this on the battlefield.

The paint job on the model isn't bad, totally usable as is, but I will give it some washes of green and purple. The hull has a kind of oily sheen which will be nice to do.

To bring it up to spec a bit more with my figures, I've added the tiny antenna that were missing from the rubber toy. These will be painted and blended in.

A very good fit for scale, these things are huge.

The CIS now has some big, heavy walkers to match that of the Republic...well, not quite but almost.

The spider family go to war. I also stuck some bark under one of the feet to make the pose a tiny bit more dynamic. The tiny aerials really give it a bit more detail too and help scale it to the other figures.

Here is a scale shot showing a AAT tank and some B1 droid infantry. I think it's perfect and I can't wait to base it up and get it in the army.

The last nice bonus about the figure, is it comes on a 2mm thick base. This means I can use it as is and it should save me ordering MDF ones. Result!

Clone Wars Have Begun!

Here are some more pictures of my test game of the Clone Wars.

Both CIS and Republic forces push forward through the jungle.

The supply posts need to be secured and the Clones with their heavy walker advance to secure their objective.

The CIS has many droids units on the planet's surface to halt the Republics advance . Droidekas with their repeating blasters and heavy shields make first contact. Their barrage of laser fire cuts into a the walker's tender underbelly. Despite it's heavy armour plating, the AT-TE takes damage.

Clone platoons move up to try and locate the objectives. The jungle is thick and their progress is slowed by the tangle of toxic plants.

A veteran platoon advances behind the cover of their walking behemoth. The walker was now taking the brunt of the whole of the CIS force. Droid battalions with rocket launchers now started to open up. Slowly but surely the great beast started to rack up damage.

To try and stop the torrent of blaster fire, a team of heavy E-Web repeating blasters were rushed forward and set up. The jungle around them was shredded by the sizzling blaster fire.

 

Heavily armoured Super battle droids trudged forward sending their wrist rockets whining through the air. Dwarf spider droids too, with their powerful blaster cannons added to the hail of death.

 Droidekas rolled forward at lightning speed and took up position at one of the supply posts. Their repeating blasters finally proved too much for the crippled walker and it was destroyed.

Although the Clones lost the walker and a unit of elite troopers, the day ended with them holding the most supply posts, so the game went to them.

The droids had inflicted the most damage but had not been able to maintain a hold on what they had grabbed. 

When the veterans of the 501st Legion finally managed to push the Droidekas back, the droids were so badly damaged they couldn't return. As other droid units started to fall back, the clone victory was secured. They had regained their lost supplies but had paid a very heavy price for doing so.

The droid forces had been badly mauled but had not lost a single unit.

ARC Gunship

 Well it arrived, I never thought I'd find one, but luck was with me. This had to come over from America, but it made the journey okay. It's the gunship that will go with my ARC troopers. When I saw this craft and bought it, I quickly got to work creating Captain Fordo and his team to go with it.

I won't indruce my team to it until it is finished and touched up. It will be a big day for them I'm sure.

Unfortunately, the ship didn't come with a stand which is disappointing. On further investigation, it appears there is no socket for one and so I'm thinking it probably didn't have one. The previous owner has drilled holes into the metal base of the ship, so I presume he had it mounted on thin wire at an angle.

 I will fill these in with green stuff when I fill the screw holes.

Here you can see the drill holes for some kind of home made stand. I started looking around on eBay for a flight stand, but realised, a plastic food tub would work just as well.

I fixed up the interior with some doors and lights like the others. These will be painted as green lights to indicate atmosphere.

What a sight! Makes my heart sing, I never thought I'd find a gunship to work with the 15mm scale, let alone the ARC one. The reason I bought a third one was I was going to paint it as the ARC craft, but then I came across one going very cheap. It was destiny.

These plastic tubs work well for flying platforms, I might try to find one that is just clear without the frosting.

They will do though at a pinch.

It's odd that there's no stand with it as it would have been nice to fit in in with the others. Maybe they can all have tub stands.

ETA four minutes...coming in hot!

I will add their ball turrets when they are finished, it's easier to work on them with the guns off.

ARC troopers disembark to deliver some retribution.

Hailfire Droids 15mm

It was actually quite hard to find reference for these tank destroyers. As always with Star wars, sometimes it's the toys that can be the most useful when it comes to reference material.

This toy of the droid is very colourful and doesn't quite match the rusty brown ones from the film. So, I plan to do a mixture of both and see what happens.

I did a fair bit of under painting with the idea of using some GW Contrast paint to shade it.

A close up of the toy taken from a YouTube video. I was surprised to see all the colours being used.

There are quite a few subtle shades on the droid, so I tried some under painting to show these.

I like the idea of the body of the droid being slightly greenish, so I gave the models a green ink wash. Being a fast moving droid with big wheels, I coated the model in a heavy earth wash to weather it. This should tie some of the colours together as well.

 A detail of the patterns that will hopefully come through once the model is painted with Contrast paint.

UPDATE; Done! The tank killers are fully loaded and ready to bring hell to the Clones.

I've included some greens and blues into the browns, hopefully this looks a little more interesting than just brown all over. I've really weathered and chipped the paint work, I figure these large droids are throwing themselves around at great speed. I imagine they will get pretty knocked about bouncing around the terrain.

I painted all four at once so the colours wouldn't vary from model to model.

The eye lenses are in and the droid is now awake!

My ruleset for this conflict has some scary rules for these droids. The first time they fire they get ten attack dice. The second time, they get eight, then drop back to six dice like most tanks. This all seems terrifying, however, they only have four wounds. This makes them fairly brittle compared to the other tanks on the battlefield.

I had another play test of my Clone wars rules last night and it resulted in a very good game. This time I was the game's master with my son playing against a friend.

The droids had the numbers and inflicted heavy casualties on the Republic forces, including bringing down a AT-TE. A team of elite ARC troopers was also destroyed from heavy tank fire.

However the objective of the game was to grab and hold supply posts. This the Clones managed to do by the end and so won the game.

A Clone company with E-Web and walker support. The large walker turned into a fire magnet and was finally brought down. It had thick armour plating but this failed to save it from the storm of blaster and rocket fire.

Everyone had a good time and it was a lot of fun. I think I'm ready to take this to the wargames club now...

UPDATE: The Hailfire Droids are now painted and have got their coat of matte lacquer from Halfords. I now swear by this stuff now... highly recommended by the way.

A battalion of B1 battle droids has also been finished so I can base the two units at the same time.

These are going to be a nightmare on the battlefield with their rocket volleys. I quite like the fact they are droids and not just tanks with crew operating them. These things have a very basic mind of their own. 

The commerce guild created these rolling weapons platforms and they were quickly added to the armies of the CIS when the war broke out.

These B1's are classed as green for their skill level, but have had their hit points increased because of the vast numbers. So a battalion of these droids may not be the best shots but have increased staying power because there are so many. 

To help the look of this, these droids are based four to a base and are in battalions of six bases. Clone troopers are three to a base and are in a platoon of five bases.

Quantity has a quality all of its own...

UPDATE. Another early morning basing session got these guys completed and ready for the battlefield.

Here is an interesting shot, it shows all of the various battle droids next to eachother. I have an idea on how to create a couple more types through conversions. I want to have a go at making some Commando droids but this will prove more difficult than I first thought after looking at the figures. The resin is very brittle when cut which leads to whole pieces shattering.

A Tactical droid gives orders to target the rocket launchers on the walker.

The box is full now with no room to spare. It's time to crack open another one.

A Hailfire droid next to a AAT tank.

Rolling death, these droids can fall back on their scary melee attacks when their missiles are spent.

Super battle droids.

The forces of the Republic.

Droidekas and Spider droids.

ARC troopers

To my relief it turns out the gunships actually for into the shallow boxes! Even their bases do too which is great as I can now keep everything together.

Neat and tidy!