"Khurasan's upcoming Earthdoom line -- the Aranae" Topic

Our upcoming Earthdoom range will have three standalone ranges -- the Terran Corsair armour, the Slen'Darr, who are humanoid but taller due primarily to their long legs, and the terrifying Aranae, who were described by one human as a "fever suffer's hallucination of a sentient spider."

The Terran power armour, powerful enough to make each human trooper a one person city-killer, has already been previewed. Here is the first of the races that have formed a combine to destroy humanity, called TAC -- the Alien Conspiracy. These are the Aranae, senior members of the conspiracy, sentient spideroids who possess sophisticated technology, use powerful beam weapons, and enter combat with both grav APCs and grav tanks.

These are the warrior caste, except the "spider" (as the Terran soldiers call them) to the left is from the command caste and wears the uplink headpatch.

They are carrying the beamer developed especially for this campaign, capable of damaging the tremendously powerful Terran armour at close ranges.

The design for these has just been completed. They will first be released in 15mm scale. In that scale, the big Terran Corsair suits are all done, just have to be painted. The same goes for the Slen'Darr infantry squad, ten poses of infantry in carapace armour.

Next scale will probably be 10mm. I have the corsair suits in that scale too, and have to consider if I want to make the Slendarr or the Aranae in that scale as well as that will be VERY much a test scale for me, so will probably release the second alien race only if there is response to the first.

Then perhaps 28mm scale for everything if people respond to this background.

First sets of 15s should be coming within a month or so, just have to get the Corsairs and Slen'Darr painted. Thanks all.

15mm and 10mm?
Why not skip 10mm and go down to 6mm?

I for one would appreciate 10mm scale

That sound you're all hearing is Robert A. Heinlein cheering in his tomb…

Hurry the Hell up and release these already!

Leland R. Erickson

I think it's a plot for Jon to get my entire bonus check.

Jeff

Those are nice. How large are they? Im thinking about using them with my true 25mm Space Lords figures. Could we get a comparison shot next to a 25mm figure?

Al

"I think it's a plot for Jon to get my entire bonus check."

Resistance is useless. Submit and be assimilated.

Leland R. Erickson

being that they are aliens they are already 15mm, 10mm, 6mm. who says everything in the universe needs to be six ft tall. i think these guys would be bad @$$ as is in a 10mm game.
CW

"being that they are aliens they are already 15mm, 10mm, 6mm. who says everything in the universe needs to be six ft tall. i think these guys would be bad @$$ as is in a 10mm game."

HELLLOOOO!!!!! And in 28mm they're really, really, really NASTY aliens from a high-G planet so they've ungodly molecular density and obscene strength and resilience making them hard as Hell to kill (and a nightmare in hand-to-hand combat!)… anybody beside me remember the Chingers from Bill the Galactic Hero?

You speak true, oh venerable and wise Wombat O'War!

Leland R. Erickson

Heck yea brother!

Heck yea brother!

Wombats do not wield words when Gauss Rifles speak truer!

Leland R. Erickson

very cool, more potential not nids, Khurasan has to be the most productive 15mm mini producer around, if not most productive anyscale mini producer, what a golden age we live in.

I'm confused. Are they not-Tyranids, not-Zerg or not-Starship Trooper bugs?

Oh, they are very definitely not-Starship Troopers the book bugs. Nothing wrong with that I suppose. Look nice enough as CAD designs too.

Oh, they are very definitely "not-Starship Troopers the book bugs". Giving a lot of people what they want. Look nice enough as CAD designs too.

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Allen57 15 Feb 2012 5:13 p.m. PST:

How large are they?

Mums been the word recently regarding the size. Or maybe it depends on who's asking \-:)

Bugs, Mr. Rico! Zillions of 'em!

Where were these Terran suits previewed?

El Wombato,
Here's the link
TMP link

Very nice!

as for 10mm, does anyone make other ranges in 10mm? 6 and 15 yes, but I am no aware of any 10mm ranges for moderns, sci-fi etc. Can anyone enlighten me please?

'Surfer, Pendraken do some:

link

And Warrior:

link

sick sick sick , need some bug spray. :)

In Soviet Russia, bug spray YOU!

Love 'em. Love, love, love 'em.

Aaaaahhhhhh!!!! Kill it with fire!

The mobile infantry are just how I envisaged them.

15mm is enough, all other scales are for the unenligthened only.

Will the Aranae come with separate lower arms? It would be great, if you could include a alternate set of lower arms with claws.

Then thy would be the perfect addition to the Parasichnid bugs.

They do somewhat resemble evolved Parasichnids

If these come out looking as good as the concept I'll be needing zillions of them. :)

-Will

surfer, old mechwarrior clickies and dreampod9 stuff is 10 mm scale ish

Cheers Count and Thor

Will, the prints will be identical to the render.

Some more feedback --

The Aranae are roughly human height.  The models are supposed to represent sentient alien arthropods who have evolved to hold their bodies at least partly erect so as to have at least one set of arms free to manipulate objects and thus use tools.  The resemblance to the Parasachnids probably comes from the fact that I sent the designer images of the Parasachnid legs to show what is possible when legs like these are cast top to bottom!

They also have a set of mantis-like claws which they can use in close combat.

Each model is four parts.

A) left head half -- two different, command head and normal trooper head, includes left mantis-claw upper arm
B) upper body part sans left head half (so right head half, and entire midsection including gun) -- three different
C) right mantis-claw upper arm that plugs unto the head of the upper body part -- three different
D) lower body/legs  -- three different

And all the parts are interchangeable for more pose variation.  Also the upper body attaches to the lower body in such a way that there's a good degree of pivoting possible for even more pose variation.  One side of the head has the entire scaly head-crest (the scales going down the top of the head), and this was done purposefully to hide the join between the left and right head halves.

Having unarmed Aranae will involve having a new series of upper body halves made, and probably a new parts layout, as the central arms (which hold the gun, you can't really see them in the photo) are all now part of a single large mass (gun plus the two arms holding it) for casting purposes -- once they are not part of that single mass anymore they may have to be separate pieces, which I think may be rather fiddly.  However, I would still like to make "worker" Aranae in order to allow Terran raids on the Aranid home worlds, so will have to give that one a serious think (or as serious as my thinking gets, anyway).  

These bugs is smart!  They use space travel and grav vehicles as well as powerful personal weapons.  Don't recall if I previewed their vehicles, may show them soon if not, at least as soon as I get the cleaned-up masters back from the craftsman (he's had them since mid November!).  

Hope to have the 15mm versions of the Aranae printed within a week then maybe can preview the physical pattern masters.

I, for one, welcome our new Arach… er, um, Bu…, er, um, Infestation Overlords.

Jon, will you be making a separate worker caste Arane, or do we just not glue on weapons for those?

Edit: never mind – answered while I was typing/drooling…

Soundsl ike quite the game plan there, Jon. thanks for taking the time to share it with us.

-Eli

Wow, they look fantastic, can't wait to see some painted up!

I say use the Parasachnids as worker caste bugs (ie., close enough for hive government work).

These are outstanding conceptually and in execution. Can't wait to get my vile, evil claws on a few score…

Leland R. Erickson

Wait… four parts on a 15mm, human-sized fig?

Is that for the 15mm stuff?

It sounds tricky, but as somebody who has long thought multi-part minis were a cool idea, I hope these work.

-Eli

That's an idea Leland, or the paras can be their hunting dogs or something.

Looking Good.

That's an idea Leland, or the paras can be their hunting dogs or something.

Or a nymph stage… juvenile (delinquent) Aranae with hormone-fueled raging appetites and near-uncontrollable aggression to match… the adults turn each hatching loose on their enemies to cull out the youngsters who are *smart* enough to hang back and let their more wacked-out siblings get themselves flashcooked by the hardsuited humans.

The smarter ones realize that just charging in recklessly and getting mowed down is a bad idea, fall back, use cunning to get at the tasty treats-in-a-shell otherwise known as humans, to the approval of their adults who later take them under their claws and show them how to use a fusion beam rifle as soon as they're old enough…

Leland R. Erickson

Hmm. For some reason, I can't bring myself to feel anything but apathy for these at the moment. Likely because as much as I like the design(But hate that idea of being so multi-part.), I'm much too focused on finishing stuff I've already started.

Must ask though. Plans for weapons other than that rifle? It's pretty nice, but wouldn't mind seeming some other stuff. Not going to be like most and ask for a SAWs/LMGs and all that crap! They're alien bugs damnit, they should have rifles and maybe some sort of bigger weapon to break that extra hard stuff that rifles just can't get at, but they need very little else.

"That sound you're all hearing is Robert A. Heinlein cheering in his tomb…"

Let's hope Verhoeven doesn't hear it and think it's his praise coming in late. I'm scared to know how a 4th movie to that ruined version of the franchise would turn out. That said. Two new movies coming! One a complete remake and one animated. The animated one being based on Verhoeven's version and done by Shinji Aramaki, which means we can expect some form of power armour. The Powered Armour that showed up in Appleseed and near the end of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex was pretty cool.

Also, if anyone hasn't seen it yet, the Anime Uchu No Senshi is a must see. Six episodes and the opening credits even say they were made in honour of Heinlein. link If someone direct copied the power armour from that anime as a 15mm model or made a decently close design, I know I'd buy up 50+ in a single order and probably more before I was half finished painting the previous order…. Because it's what I do.

Excellent looking aliens. I'll buy them in 15mm and 10mm. I'll do the same for the TerraForce MBS "Corsair" once they are released.

I find 15mm is great for skirmish games. But I prefer 10mm for really, really big games.

In particular I think the kind of battles fought in this war would be conducive to 10mm gaming -- relatively small numbers of elite and extremely well-equipped human power-armoured soldiers using their superior mobility to whittle down hordes of spideroids, who have to embark in their vehicles in order to keep up. The Aranid MBT would be more than a match for a single Corsair trooper but could be destroyed by multiple Corsairs without Aranid infantry support. Makes for interesting tactical choices.

As the lesser of the two alien invading races, the Slen'Darr are attacking human colonies, where there are only a handful of Corsair units, and they try to use clever tactics to pull a Little Big Horn on the human forces.

Shut up and take my money.

I know you are busy releasing lots of awesome models, but is there any news on the Aranae?

They got as far as master castings but have hit a snag. They may reappear soon in surprising form however!

I like the sound of 'surprising form' coming from khurasan…

Is the scale-down to 10mm still in the works? The 15's are great, but given how large the Corsair suits are, and the amount of maneuvering space you would want to represent on the table, I could really see the benefits.

I must have patience. Release the darn Aranae alright already!!!!!!!

28mm please! Not just the Aranae, the Terrans and the skinn…er Slen-Darr as well! I will buy tons of them…

Ah yes, but 15mm is the one true scale. All other scales are mere pretenders.

Or something like that. I got into 15mm reluctantly; my buddy wanted to play FOW. A few years later, I really like the scale. Now that I am here, I intend to stay.

I can't wait for these big beautiful spiders.

Pfft… 20mm is the one true scale.