"Sci-Fi Vehicles: Mix-and-Match?" Topic

Do you prefer to use sci-fi vehicle models in the factions the manufacturers designed them for, or do you mix-and-match models in your forces?

I use whatever I think looks cool and am not driven by slavish adherence to listed ideals :)

I agree with Insomniac

I too, agree with Insomniac. I enjoy what looks cool.

Yep I am pretty much with Insomniac on this. However I do have my Khurasan NovaRepliks tanks and infantry as worked up as a NeoSoviet futuristic force just because why not it certainly was designed with that look in mind. Other than that I have mixed things and tend to find designs that fit the world and scenarios I am attempting to play.

I am with Insomniac.
#1. What looks good
#2. I have seen so many problems with vehicle scale over the years I always refer back to #1 anyway.

Whatever works with/enhanced the aesthetic. They're MY toys.

Mix and match.

Mix and Match usually. Especially with my big 28mm Mech Games, we have a setting of our own creation and we use models from Macross, Kryomek, Robogear, Battletech, and others. Almost all of our clubs sci-fi forces (infantry and vehicles) in 28mm are cobbled from a variety of sources based on what we think looks good together, fits our idea of the factions fluff or just what was available cheaply.

However, when I'm playing alpha strike with my rebased mechwarrior minis I do prefer to use them for the faction they are painted as.

Make nice toys,do not tell me how to play with them. Simple as that.

I don't necessarily adhere to rigid vehicle lists, but I do prefer vehicles from the same faction looking consistent so I avoid a mish-mash of vehicles that appear too varied in aesthetic.

But I guess it also depends on the army. No two vehicles in a rag tag Mad Max or ork army would probably look the same.

Anything goes on my table :-)

Rule of Cool for the most part, though I do play Heavy Gear with the minis for the appropriate factions.

If the model looks good, I use it with a faction where I've decided to use that particular aesthetic style.

I even have some 28mm models that I use in 15mm for really big things. You think the Confrontation Titan Dragon is big next to a 28mm figure? Put it next to a 15mm mini.

Well have to say i am a mixture of the two above choices and leave it there. :-)

Grimm

What a question, Bill?!! THIS! IS! SCI-FI!

Anything goes.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Do you prefer to use sci-fi vehicle models in the factions the manufacturers designed them for, or do you mix-and-match models in your forces?

We mix and match not only vehicles from different factions but troops and vehicles from different manufacturers. And since this is sci-fi scales sometimes get matched if the result looks good (this is especially true of mechs which can go from being a mech to a robot or a robot to mech).

We'll use AT-43 vehicles with 40K infantry or whatever else we feel like. This sometimes entails repainting pre-painted troops but that's easy to do. We've also used repainted "toy" vehicles and mechs with wargame figures. The result is as good as anything we've bought from miniature wargame companies.

As long the final result looks good we'll use troops and vehicles from any source.

What Leland said…

John T

While I agree with the general mix and match preference, I find that in keeping to a similar aesthetic I often group different factions from one manufacturer together. For example, I used vehicles from the old Adler Dark Star range, but both Ventauran and Federation, to produce a Grav force I was happy with.

Buy what I like and use it where I think it looks good.

The manufacturers did what, now?

I think I rather slavishly adhere to mix and match, to look good. : )

Imperial Tanks by Stan Johansen, support sleds by Force XXI:

Keith F.

Anything goes, I say!

Parts is parts, vehicles is vehicles…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

I tend to keep things together, if the vehicle ranges are big enough. My forces are:

Asian People's Alliance – Khurasan Red Faction/Critcal Mass Mercenaries

South American Confederation – GZG Tracked/Wheeled/Khurasan T-90s.

Euro-Socialist Pact – Armies Army/Khurasan Federal (Russian/German)

North American Coalition – Old Crow

Some vehicles just don't look right in the same force (eg: Old Crow and GZG). Sheer model size and or design parameters will determine, at least to me, what looks good together and what does not.

Unless deliberately collecting for a certain game with certain miniatures, then mine are a hopeless scramble; taking a leaf out of real life, in which certain armies will use a German attack helicopter, French and American multirole helicopters, a larger American transport helicopter, American tanks, Canadian APCs, Australian IMVs and locally-produced softskins based on a British design, supported by German trucks, with a mixture of Belgian, Austrian and American weapons, I'd have to say I just stick in whatever fits together. My recent projects include space-opera colonies in two scales, which aren't military at all and therefore only have similar vehicles because a model became popular; because it's the cheapest one possible and the underwriters of the colony are among the cheapest companies ever floated; or because they use standard template constructs; or maybe they just got a good deal on a fleet purchase. Consequently, I have a handful of GZG minis, and plan to buy some more from Khurasan, both of which have so far served my basic troop needs, and I am buying Japanese plastic giant robots to add. The problem with that is that even at 1/144 scale the robots tend to be very large, and the ones that suited best, the civilian mecha from Combat Mecha Xabungle (due to their being plant equipment rather than military vehicles) are no longer available. Still, I continue to do so. I usually find something irredeemably non-awesome in every miniatures range, and mecha is usually it. The excuse that more awesome mecha are less realistic is not sustainable due to the fact that they are most commonly not very realistic, just less visually appealing.
There is also the fact that some ranges are discontinued before I get a chance to collect too many. I have many years of Epic collecting, most of the minis were obsolete and OOP even before Epic 40k or Armageddon; almost as soon as I actually got myself an account on the GW store and started buying them, Epic was suddenly cancelled. Ditto with Aeronautica Imperialis. So one has no choice but to hopelessly scramble the things.