"Khurasan previews Felid jetbikes " Topic

We are very pleased to preview our latest addition to the Felid range, the jetbike squadrons of Hostage Barons' Sons.

Felid society is a combination of feudalism and tribalism, and in the olden days, before the great reptiles descended from the heavens, Barons were a farthing for a dozen.  Any powerful warrior who dominated a group could proclaim himself a baron, and generally did so.  In order to gain some control over this chaos and establish their dominance over conquered underbarons, the great barons would require that a defeated underbaron send his eldest son to the household of the great baron, to be raised from a cub in the great baron's hut.  While this hostage could be, and sometimes was, killed if the underbaron revolted, the real purpose for the policy was more subtle -- to bind the young felid to his overlord, to associate the young underbaron-to-be with the greater house.  

In this the custom was remarkably successful, and the young barons were reckless berserkers on the battlefield, eager to come to grips with the enemy and prove their loyalty to their adoptive overlord.  And even here the hostage-taking had its advantages, for those excessively reckless heroes who gave their lives would not go on to inherit their father's underbarony -- only those who tempered their rage with wisdom would live to see themselves installed in power armour, as the underbaron of their tribe.

When the Garn conquered the Felids they immediately saw the benefit of these Hostage Barons' Sons as a fast strike force, and developed a light flying platform for their use in probing and flanking attacks.  The light vehicle was designated the Leopard and could mount either two rapidfire heavy energy weapons or a missile launcher that carried two anti-material and two high explosive missiles.  The energy weapon mount was eventually retrofitted with multiple blades as the Garn noted, with a mixture of annoyance and amusement, the tendency of the Hostage Barons' Sons to fly their Leopards straight through enemy ground troops.  The blades both facilitate this form of attack and minimise the damage to the jetbike, as the blades are designed to give way if the pressure on the mount is too great.

Squadrons are typically three riders, the Hostage Baron's Son and two Prideguard sergeants from the overbaron's household, who are tasked with keeping the underbaron's son out of trouble. One of the sergeants usually flies a Leopard with the missile rack, as the baron's son typically cannot be bothered with firing missiles when there are targets to dive upon and engage at close quarters.  Indeed, enemy jetbike squadrons that attempt to engage Felid Leopard squadrons in a duel usually come out of the battle dazed and bloodied with wrecked bikes -- that is, if they come out of the battle at all.

Each pack has the hostage baron's son and his two slightly nervous and frustrated sergeant bodyguards, three Leopard jetbikes, three energy weapon inserts and one missile rack insert, and three small flying bases.  The pack is entirely pewter.  They should be released in a few days, along with the redo of the Lion.  The bike was designed by the mighty John Bear Ross and this set was painted by that winged hussar of the modern age, Chris Yaro.  Stay tuned, Felid commanders!

Those are simply awesome!

oh my freakin gawd
fantastic
must have 12

Darn it! I don't have money right now to start collecting Felids! [Grumble, grumble…checks wallet]

;)

Thundercats Hooooooo!

Awesome. I may have to get some Felids just so I can have these whizzing about.

G.

Quite nice, both paint jobs and sculpts.

Must have them. I MUST!

I like the cat faces. Make me think Thundercats. In fact the new 2011 Thundertank toy with some modification might make a good Felid Super Heavy or Dropship. Has the same aesthetic.

link

Very nice indeed!

I think I will pick these up as merc scouts for my other armies! Yes!

Superb!!!!

an order will be going in! got to get some of these to add to the Felid enclave here in Kabul! :)

Man! Those are nice. :)

Wow! Love them!

So so so so sweeeeeeeet – the painting detail on the son is brilliant – sure this is not a three up or have you moved into 28mm overnight?

Cannot spend money, can not spend, can not, can?

Very nice – they capture the look and feel of the original models so well.

Great work
Andrew

Main site: blog.kings-sleep.me.uk

Is it me or are these begging to be painted up in Voltron colors? Pretty cool though, Felids are coming up on my to do list.

These are grRREEAAATTT!

well.. so much for my moratorium on mini purchases.

Very nice work! Any price point yet Jon?

Jeff

OMG

Those look very nice!

I like both the gun and missile armed variants. The latter will be good for striking armored vehicles from the flanks and rear.

Would love to see some slightly modified ones, without the cats, and/or cat-bike faces, for human/alien use. Just a slight modification to the front of the bike should do it.

First of all let me say that this is a cool release and that the miniatures are well done and overall pleasing.

I have to admit love/hate the cat faces. They are a cool bit of character and remind me of Thundercats and other 80's cartoons, but seem a bit out of place against the rest of the range.

I imagine that if the Felids were going to slap cat faces on things they would have started with their helmets, which do not have cat visages.

The good news is that anyone who really doesn't like it that much can easily hide it through painting and maybe a little conversion.

-Eli

Those are awesome!

Mike

A joy to sculpt. Glad to see them in production.

Best,
JBR

These are awesome.

I cant afford that stuff! Stop making it! aaarrrrggghhhh must resist. At least you have not released that drop ship I will not be abkle to resist that one at all.

Owen

Very, very nice!

now your just getting ridiculous…..ridiculously awesome.

Love 'em. Is that the lighter body armour we've been asking for on those riders perhaps? ;) Felid Scout-class body armour of some sort.

Very very nice !
I am still not convicted that it will find place on my battlefield but models are great.

Emu2020

In our modern (postmodern :) times there are people that change their bikes into aliens or predators.. But that don't make them converting tanks :P

I dont see a problem with Felid jetbikers liking riding giant cats of legend / glorious past of first Felid King Kittiemagne
or something similar.

Not to mention sounds that Felid chicks make when they see cat shaped chopper :>

Street racers and bike enthusiasts modding their bikes is a heck of a lot different than the government deciding to design the Humvee with a dragon-shaped front hood.

All of that said, the Felids are not earthlings and perhaps thisis their version of the Tigershark paint jobs we had/have on plains and helos.

As I said, it's a love/hate thing for me. Part of my brain thinks it's cool, the other part gets overly logical and says it doesn't fit the rest of their stuff :).

-Eli

OK. Like the bikes mostly. Gonna have to get rid of the the faces and the blades…. Faces, Hate em, Blades look awkward, rest of the bike is great.

Are the riders separate? I hope so!

Now those will make great 'Hells Angels'….

Don't get me wrong the face is the only thing I don't like about these.

I am gonna get some.

I'm not a fan of the faces, but like eli says, it's easy to convert away from. I much appreciate that the bikes can easily look like either grav or thrust vectored jet.

The bikes overall are incredible. They're beautifully designed-- absolutely awesome.

(To return to a topic from another thread) what makes an alien vehicle alien isn't as much the design aesthetic as it is the unique social and strategic context that drives a unique and alien role for the vehicle. Jon's done a great job setting that context and using it to derive a really, really cool vehicle. This wouldn't make any sense at all from a modern human force, but viewed as a felid vehicle it makes perfect sense and is a great addition to the force.

These will DEFINITELY find their way into my felid force.

The paint job on those bikes reminds me of Battlecat…

Did they happen to ride green feline mounts into battle and these bikes are designed to evoke those traditional mounts?

The Hostage Sons' idea just gives me an excuse to start another two Felid companies/households. So, at least two packs of these lovely things will find their way to me. They've also officially made me a fan of hover/jet/speeder bikes. Something I previously didn't care too much for. (I'm a wheels and tracks fellow.)

…and I'll form the head!

The models just scream WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! don't they?

Is it me or have their feet changes to human-analogue?

OK im in… I havent got any 15mm Sci Fi yet, so I'll be starting from scratch. But these are too nice. Please make it obvious on TMP when these are actually available to buy

I don't like the seemingly useless "Tiger Face" on the front of the bike.

What function does it serve? Was that the best option from an engineering standard?

Why not just have a surface where they could paint on a tiger/feline face?

To anyone critical/unsure of the "Tiger Face" on the front, talk to the Garn, they developed it apparently.

Nice models John, well done!
Regards, TC.

Does Khurasan have this (and other) background information on their alien species published or posted anywhere?

Love the models, although I was considering building a Kzinti force using their Felids.

Peter C
Sword and Sandal Gaming Blog
link

The Felids are my "Kzinti substitutes" in my Skirmish games. I use my Top Gun Marketing Grav Armor with them. These will go nicely!

Love the bikes. Haven't got any felids yet. But I'm going to order some. Yes,these are going to be my Kzinti.

A jetbike with a face is just plain silly. Thank goodness we humans don't do things like that.

I don't like the seemingly useless "Tiger Face" on the front of the bike.

What function does it serve? Was that the best option from an engineering standard?

Why not just have a surface where they could paint on a tiger/feline face?

Yes, faces on military hardware are so pointless.

OT – I love the A-10 picture. Many years ago during a Boy Scout trip to a military base, we witnessed an A-10 firing it's cannon on the bombing and strafing range. It came up just above the trees, then opened up. Scared the crap out of us. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end.

I love these bikes. Finally something in 15mm sci-fi that isn't 'hard', which is one reason why 15mm sci-fi bores me to no end. Nice imagination.

Khurasan strikes again. I just love their imagination and fun/cool factor.