TFL paint test

I'm planning to use the Gruntz rules to run some skirmishes inspired by the old GDW 2300AD hard science fiction RPG (soon to be re-published by Mongoose using their verion of the Traveller rules).

The action will mainly take place on Aurore, the hot, dry, dusty world invaded by the brutal and very, very alien Kafers. One of the principle colonies on the planet is a corporate backed bootstrap called Tanstaafl (There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). The main defensive force for the colony are the Tanstaafl Free Legion mercenary company, the TFL, and their rapid response TFL Ranger RAMROD teams. I've been looking for some suitable miniatures for them for a while. I was going to use some of 15mm.co.uk's Laserburn mercenaries, but they just didn't have the right feel for me.

Eventually I settled on Ground Zero Games Oceanic Union Defence Force, or OUDF. They have a mix of helmeted, bare headed and bush hat equipped troops, and with a few headswaps from the GZG head sprues, I could field quite a mixed force. I ordered 5 packs, giving me enough to make up four Gruntz squads plus some figures to make up specialist teams and leaders.

I've run up a test batch of figures this weekend to see how they look with the chosen paint scheme:



Chap no. 2 from the right with the baseball cap is the headswap.

The colours are all Tamiya, which is unusual for me, as I usually use Games Workshop. I've been using Tamiya with my airbrush and really liked the coverage, so I thought I'd give them a go for more traditional painting. The base colour is XF 59 Desert Yellow, which I airbrushed on. The body armour is XF 68 Nato Brown and the camo spots are XF 72 JDSF Brown and 65 Field Grey - which looks like Olive Drab to me. The hats are the same Field Grey (err... green) and the puches are the JDSF Brown. Helmets and packs are XF24 and XF 53 Mid and Dark Grey and the weapons are XF 63 German Grey, but look just like the XF53 Dark Grey. Boots are bits of weapons are XF1 Flat Black and the skin is XF 15 Flesh. The skin got a GW skin wash and then everything got a 50/50 Devlan mud and water wash.

They are based on 15mm round wooden bases from Warbases, but I haven't done any groundwork on them yet.

I'm pretty pleased with how they've come out. I may skip the camo spots on the fatigues, as you can't really see them at this scale, especially with the Devlan Mud wash, but overall I think they have the right feel for the rough and ready TFL.