Tuesday 12 June 2012

My Next Project

As I said in my last post i've had an idea for my next army list, and also my next project now the Monkeys are done and dusted. It began when thinking about what to take to Blog Wars 4 - I wanted to take a cool theme army made up of different films - i.e an Ecto-1 Chimera, a colonial marines squad from Aliens, and A-team squad etc etc. However I couldnt think of enough to fill out the list. I did think of loads I could do with a specific theme force though - namely the Aliens Colonial Marines. Aliens is one of my favourite films of all time and I'm a big fan of the franchise in general. I've wanted to make an Aliens themed force for a while now, so I think this will be my next big project. I'm going to use Imperial Guard as the basis for the army, as they are by far the most obvious choice with the Cadians/Catachans providing an excellent base for converting marines. I've written the following list as the basis for the project:

HQ

Company Command Squad
Company Commander + Boltgun, Power Weapon - Warrant Officer Ripley
Veteran, Heavy Flamer - Captain Dallas
Veteran, Vox Caster - Executive Officer Kane
Veteran, Medi Pack - Engineer ParkerVeteran, Plasma Gun - Engineer Brett
Officer of the Fleet - Carter Burke 
Bodyguard - Jones
Bodyguard - Spike

Valkyrie Assault Carrier - Sulaco Dropship

This squad is based on the crew of the Nostromo from Alien - Ripley obviously has to be the commander of this army and I think the original cast are the best choice for her squad. I've also included two bodyguards in the shape of Jones the cat (Alien/Aliens) and Spike the dog (Alien 3) and i'm planning to get cool models to represent them. I've added Burke to this squad as an Officer of the Fleet as I feel Burke needs a place in the army and this is the only way he'd fit - the role represents his links to Weyland Yutani and the rest of the USM fleet. The Dropship will be a customised/converted Valkyrie and I've gven it to this squad as the mobility will help them take control of the battlefield.
I've already found some pretty cool models to represent Ripley/Burke from GrippingBeast



Also I think the Signee  from Hasslefree would make an awesome Ripley


 Techpriest Engineers

Techpriest Engineer - Bishop
Techpriest Engineer - Ash

It seemed a natural choice to make the two "Artificial Persons" from Alien & Aliens Techpriests. Also The Servo-Arm represents the strenght of the synthetics and fits in quite well thematically. I can't quite decide wether i'm going to model Bishop and Ash undamaged, or wether I'll go for the decapitated / cut in half look.

Troops

Veteran Squad

Gunnery Sergeant Harker - Private Drake
Veteran, Heavy Flamer, Voxcaster - Sergeant AponeVeteran, Flamer - Corporal Dietrich
Veteran, Flamer - Private Wierzbowski
Veteran, Autocannon - PFC Vasquez
Veteran, Autocannon - Private Crowe
Veteran, Shotgun - Corporal Hicks
Veteran, Lasgun - PFC Hudson
Veteran, Lasgun - Private Frost
Veteran, Lasgun -  Lieutenant Gorman

Chimera - APC

Obviously this squad is based on the kick ass United States Colonial Marines from Aliens. I've tried to arm them as close to the film as possible, and will be converting/painting the models up to be as close as possible to the actual characters. I'm using Gunnery Sergeant Harker, as I feel his relentless Heavy Bolter is a perfect match to Drake's Smartgun - for similar reasons i've paired Vasquez up with Crowe to form a heavy weapons team so I can give a Smargun to her. I'll be adding quite a lot of details to this squad, such as helmet cameras, and ammo bag for Frost and motion scanners for Hudson and Hicks, and am looking forward to spending time finding the right parts for the conversions. The only issue I might have is finding the right models to represent Dietrich and Vasquez as femal marines are quite hard to come by. I'm also looking forward to customising a chimera to make it look like the iconic APC. Instead of Lasguns, I'll be getting the Pulse Rifles from Hassleferee to make the marines look just like the film


Veteran Squad

Sergeant Bastonne - Johner
Veteran, Heavy Flamer - Elgyn
Veteran, Grenade Launcher - Hillard
Veteran, Plasma gun  - Distephano
Veteran, Shotgun - Vriess
Veteran, Lasgun - Christie
Veteran, Lasgun - Call
Veteran, Lasgun - Purvis
Veteran, Lasgun - General Perez
Veteran, Lasgun - Dr. Wrenn

Valkyrie Assault Carrier - The Betty

This squad represents the characters from Alien Ressurection. Again I'll be modelling these as close to the film as possible, including trying to find a Rasta model to represent Christie - possibly Gideon from Foundry Miniatures "Doc Fridays Yardies"


I'm also going to try and build a wheelchair for Vriess, usign the chair from the Sentinel kit and some wheels from...somewhere lol and again custom convert a Valkyrie to represent the Betty - maybe using some Tau Devilfish parts as those modles look a bit more futuristic. Bastonne as Johner felt like a good choice to represent the no-nonsense tough guy from the film.

Penal Legion

Penal Custodian - Andrews
Penal Legionnaire - Clemens
Penal Legionnaire - Aaron
Penal Legionnaire - Dillon
Penal Legionnaire - Golic
Penal Legionnaire - Boggs
Penal Legionnaire - Rains
Penal Legionnaire - David
Penal Legionnaire - Murphy
Penal Legionnaire - Morse

Obviously this squad is perfect to represent the inmates from the Fiorina 'Fury' 161, foundry facility from Alien 3. There are some awesome penal legion conversion parts from VictoriaLamb which i'm hoping to use to help me customise these models.


Conscripts

20x Conscripts - Colonists of  LV-426

Although not really named in the film, the colonists of LV-426 seem like a really fun conversion/modelling project and I like the idea of finding all sorts of sci-fi civillian miniatures. Obvioulsy this unit will include Newt, Timmy and their parents, some miners and staff of the colony and maybe a converted "mary" (the woman who the marines find cocooned in the processing station) again GrippingBeast and Hasslefree have some cool miniatures I'd like to use for this unit:
Newt (Billie Hasslefree):


The Jorden family (Civilians Gripping Beast):


Elites

Stormtrooper Squad

Stormtrooper Sergeant + Hotshot Lasgun - Weyland Yutani Commando
Stormtrooper + Plasma gun - Weyland Yutani Commando
Stormtrooper + Plasmagun - Weyland Yutani Commando
6x Stormtroopers _ Hotshot Lasguns - Weyland Yutani Commando

This unit is based on the Weyland Yutani Commandos from the end of Alien 3


I think the GW Karskin models will do a pretty good job to represent these soldiers, so i'll be happy to use the models "out of the box" either them or the Forge World Cadian Hostile Envirionment troops

Karskin Squad:

Cadian Troops:


Fast Attack

Armoured Sentinel Squadron

3x Armoured Sentinels, Searchlight, Lascannon - Exosuit Cargo Loaders


You couldn't have an Aliens themed army without a couple of Cargo Loaders! I'm going to have to scrath build these as nothing available even closely resembles this awesome machine. I've had a go at building one already, as close to this as possible, and I'm pretty happy with the results - my custom cargo loader is currently a WIP but i'll upload pics as soon as I can so you can see what I've done. I'm using the majority of parts from the Sentinel kit, but also bits from the Dreadknight kit, plastic tubing and some Chimera Dozerblades.

Heavy Support

Deathstrike Missile Launcher

"I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure" - Ellen Ripley, Aliens

In honour of this classic quote, I've added in the Imperial Guard equivalent of a Nuke from orbit - the Deathstrike Missile Launcher. This bad boy fits in perfectly thematically and I love the look of the Games Workshop model. Also I think the rules are pretty sweet and am looking forward to putting my opponent on the clock :P



 So thats the list, and my project outline - hopefully I'll have this all ready by Blog Wars 4, but if not I think it'll still be a really fun project to complete and i'll be very happy to try it out when it is eventually finished.
Please feel free to comment, as any improvements or changes or conversion ideas would be welcome!




2 comments:

  1. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like. Like.

    I'm gonna get started on making a few test-xenomorphs.

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  2. lol Cheers dude! btw have a look at the Chapterhouse site - they have a nice range of Xenos heads for conversions

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