I took my first steps in the world of 15mm wargaming a year ago, when I painted the first squads of my OutRim Coalition army. I collected and painted several assault troops and support weapons (plasma guns, missile launchers, snipers) since then, so it was time to add the heavy weapons as well.
Luckily, Ground Zero Games has the complete range available for an ORC army. The Heavy Plasma Cannon, the Twin Gauss Autocannon and the Twin Rail-Mortars teams are all in the quality you can expect from GZG: well sculpted minis with lots of details and no mould lines. Every set comes with two heavy weapon teams and reload packs: this time I decided to build and paint one from each and an additional seven troopers as well, who could be the observers – either assigned to the weapon teams or as an element.
I used the same colour scheme that I used for the rest of the army:
- White basecoat, Basilicanum Grey contrast paint and white overbrush for the armour
- GW’s Macarage Blue, Teclis Blue and Temple Guard Blue for the visors and the lenses
- Vallejo metallics and Nuln Oil for the weapons
After glueing the painted and varnished (gloss coat first, covered by a matt layer) minis to the bases, I used Milliput to level the surfaces, and once it dried I applied GW Astrogranite on them. As the last step, I drybrushed the bases with grey tones and with a drop of white, which is the same approach that I used for the rest of the army. Painting these minis was a reasonably simple and quick process that I enjoyed a lot.
Now my OutRim Coalition army has 6 full squads (with NCOs, medics, SAW and support weapons!), 3 heavy weapons teams (with an additional trooper and an observer), 4 snipers and a reserve of 6 troopers. That’s a total headcount of 69 soldiers, so I think I have a proper platoon now, and they look pretty good on the asteroid mat I bought from Deep-Cut Studio.
What’s next? I still couldn’t decide how to paint the vehicles, so at the moment I’m working on various sceneries that will match these troopers and the mat. Watch this space for more updates!