Painted 15mm modern USMC, Rebel Minis & Irishserb mini-review

Trial and error has taken me to the point where I am pretty happy with the paint on my 2009 era USMC in 15mm.  These are modern US infantry from Rebel Miniatures.  Unfortunately Rebel only supplies M240g with these infantry, no M249 saws which make these fireteams inaccurate for any US modern infantry.  The sculpting also leaves some to be desired as the marine with the M203 (far right, all three pics) appears to have his hand pushing into the grenade launcher and there is a significant (and inaccurate) space between his right hand and the weapon's magazine.  Their helmets are also massive and the ear protection almost comes down to their chin.  All in all, I prefer the Peter Pig USMC but their load-out marks them as 2002-4 and I was really hoping to use the Oshkosh MATV.  Then again I could be happy with Irishserb's armored Humvees, as they're beautiful, see the pictures below.

I like to leave the pictures of painted 15mm models small so they are seen at something like the size you would see in reality, but feel free to click on the pictures for each brush stroke and blob of paint in vivid detail.

I also picked up some vehicles for the USMC and some sci-fi forces.  In the pictures below the tan vehicles are from Irishserb and the grey is from Rebel Miniatures.  All are nice models, but the rebel minis vehicles I've received all have the laser texture on them from their rapid-prototype origins while the Irishserb vehicles are clean, smooth and crisp.

French VBL Recce car (left), Rebel Minis MATV Apache (top), Irishserb armored Humvee (bottom)

Marine from Peter Pig

Rebel Minis MATV Comanche (left) to be used as an Oshkosh MATV.

Rebel Minis MATV Comanche (left) to be used as an Oshkosh MATV.

The Apache MATV is a monster.  I think it will go to Mars with my Rebel Minis Earthforce to fight the Sadaheen army in a sci-fi, futuristic repeat of history, only on mars.

Falling out of love with GW

It may have been obvious, looking back.  It's certainly been a long time coming.  I've broken up with GW.  We've had our issues in the past and certainly had an on-again off-again relationship for a while but this seems to be it.  I've moved on and started dating other games.

What I want from a game has changed over time.  Money and time invested are both at a premium, which is where the beauty of 15mm and 20mm miniatures comes in.  An entire platoon with vehicles and support for under $100?  Yes please.  Quick to build and paint?  Smaller playing space and easily made terrain?  Yes to all.  Force on Force, GRUNTZ and Tomorrow's War are all solid looking rules sets, with a good online community if you're in to that sort of thing.

I've joined a blog of like-minded gamers to document the new happenings, so check it out over at http://otherwars.grim-dark.com/ if you like.

Here's a preview of my first article:

Models that can be used in 15mm games

Once I started thinking about 15mm gaming I discovered the vast world of 28mm models out there took on an entirely different light once placed beside a 15mm model.  Robots become mechs and dungeon monsters become city-destroyers.  Today I took a look at Reaper miniatures to see what possibilities they might have for 15mm.

First up are XAIRobots, which work beautifully in 15mm (and 20mm):

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/robot/sku-down/50164

Left to right: 3x Reaper 28mm, Elhiem 20mm, Rebel 15mm.

Reaper also has the old CAV mo...

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