""Battle Los Angeles" (2011) Film Aliens For 15mm?" Topic

Are these sketches legit concept art for/from the actual film, or just fan art?

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"The infantry caste . . . their average height is about 8'1". While they are taller than humans, they are proportionately thinner. As of the initial invasion, they are estimated to be the most abundant caste"

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If the artwork and height comparisons are legit, how many mm tall would you say would be their more common alien infantry caste?

I also found this pic here:

Thanks,

Dan

My findings. Not 100% proxies, but for now its all what I found.

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or Blue Moon Robot Legion

I would second the Blue Moon Robot Legion i think they are perfect for the job.

I'll buy Laserburn and Bluemoon….. I'll buy all 15mm sci-fi!

Yes. Those are the concepts from the studios.

For 15mm they should be about 20mm. In 28mm they would be about 37mm.

With all the gaps in the body, these would be very difficult to sculpt and cast.

If you were sculpting them for casting you would sculpt the voids filled and lead it to the painting to show the voids. Thisi s the same principle used in sculpting skeletons.

The major issue would be overall bulk. A 15mm version would likely need to be a bit thicker limbed to cast true.

-Eli

Some decent info here:

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If you were sculpting them for casting you would sculpt the voids filled and lead it to the painting to show the voids. Thisi s the same principle used in sculpting skeletons.

That depends the artist and manufacturer. I've sculpted many, many undead over the past few years and can tell you professionally that with the size of the aliens figures, it wouldn't look right. It would be passable in 20mm (15mm scaled), but at 37mm the 28mm fig would look terrible. A better technique might be to cast some of the elements with only one end attached and have the buyer bend them into position. BUT of course that has problems of it's own….

They'd have to be bigger than 20mm too for 15mm scale…from foot to head they'd need to be around 22mm-23mm to fit that two heads taller than a person stature, unless that one guy in the white shirt standing beside it on that little deck is really short.

I've been looking for something to start sculpting though…..any particular demand for these? Making a few changes to the design they'd likely be pretty easy to do.

I was commenting specifically on 15mm as that was the scale specific board it was crossposted to.

In larger scales you can get away with open voids easier because the parts are overall bigger.

I have sculpted one, just to see if I could. It is not the exact alien, but a close enough design incorporating similar themes. No point in sculpting the exact thing.

-Eli

I think with some gel medium applied to loosen up the mechanical look, and a few other simple mods, these would make perfect stand-ins for the alien infantry synths in the movie:

Jon, I think you are right. I've got a few of your other ones with the buzz saws. I may have to try this conversion out.

-Eli

"The infantry caste . . . their average height is about 8'1". While they are taller than humans, they are proportionately thinner. As of the initial invasion, they are estimated to be the most abundant caste"

They'd have to be bigger than 20mm too for 15mm scale…from foot to head they'd need to be around 22mm-23mm to fit that two heads taller than a person stature, unless that one guy in the white shirt standing beside it on that little deck is really short.

A 15mm figure is based on a 6 foot tall man. 1 foot would be 15/6 = 2.5mm. 2.5x8 = 20. Hence the aliens should be 20mm in 15mm scale.

There's where the problem in height lies then. :) We should be assuming the human is between 5'4" and 5'7", not 6 foot tall.

Really, this is getting off the point. They should be bigger than people – nuff said.

Seeing as miniatures do not use true scale and you can only come up with loose aproximations for gaming scales to true scales (15mm = 1/100 or 1/110?) it hard to argue for any precise measurement.

-Eli

Agreed.

Ok then. To make sure they tower over any human figures on the table, I guess we should be looking at candidates that are at least 18mm or taller.

Have we overlooked any potential figures for them among the 20mm, 1/72 or even the smaller 25mm ones?

Dan

I'll post some pics sometime this week of my proxies. I used the Angerona(?) combat armor from the mechwarrior clix game combined with a bead glued on for the head. They work decently and are about a head taller than 15mm peter pig marines. I have also made proxies of the walking guns and the flying drones from mech warrior clix parts.

Ooo, can't wait to see the pics!!!

Dan

Ditto!

-Eli

I use Micropanzer Riavaui troops:

micropanzer.com/mws-2012_003.htm

That link doesn't seem to work.

Guys, what do you think of the upcoming "Brogs" from Rebel Minis?

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Dan

Why would anyone want to play that terrible movie?

Why play the movie? Do people really do that?

Just play the premise!

Dan

We thought about trying 5150 with this setting. Start off with a few squads of aliens and a bunch of soldiers. The first few turns will be brutal for the soldiers. The idea would be to create a random set of survivors and elevate them to star status. The first wave of aliens just keeps moving off the board. The survivors have to regroup and push deeper to an objective with small patrols of aliens spawning. You could also use a bunch of PEFs and roll to see if anything nasty happens.

Do you allow for the troops going in "blind" at first, and then the slow but gradual understanding on how to best combat the aliens?

Or do the human soldiers know what to expect from the get-go?

Dan
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We kinda wrapped that into the Star mechanic. Each soldier would start as rep 4 and the survivors would gain the star mechanic and move to rep 5. We never did sit down to play test it. It might not have been a big enough boost to compensate for the stronger/bigger aliens.

Guys,

Are these close enough or what?

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I think it's a no brainer. I'm getting that infantry for sure. I mean, come on, do the Manth!

Dan

El Wombato:

I agree with you that "Battle LA" was a terrible movie…I for myself appreciated much more 'Skyline' which was born from the efforts of the FX crew working extra hours and 'borrowing' some of the stuff from the former movie's props.

But after all I found 'Starship Troopers' to be a terrible movie as well but I would play its premises on tabletop like there's no tomorrow…;D

Are you kidding me?

Starship Troopers and Battle L.A. were practically emmy award winners compared to Skyline. Skyline was complete garbage. I can accept "They're here to use our water for fuel" much more than "They're here to use our brains like batteries."

Not to mention the other problems….like you don't use drones that way. You don't drop nukes then send in guys without any sort of hazard gear and for that matter and why the bloody hell was that one loser so special that when they tried to use his brain, he was able to control one of them? What was the whole point? I simply cannot accept a movie no reasoning for anything and with characters so awful that you take joy in their deaths rather than thinking "Nooooooo! I liked that character!"

On topic though… Yeah, the Manth are PERFECT for the Battle L.A. aliens. How tall are they? Anyone know?