Minions

Boris was in full flow about his last venture into The Zone...

So we were investigating activity around  Staryy Zavodskoy Rayon. There had been reports of mysterious trucks moving around and lights in the abandoned factories.

It was nearly dusk as we hid from a convoy of heavy 4x4 trucks, and as it got dark we saw lights in one of the factories.

Not torches, but big industrial lights that lit the surroundings. There was lots of noise within the buildings.

We could not get close as there were loads of guards around the factory.

We pulled back, but in the morning it was quiet. We ventured into the factory and it was empty.

No idea who they were, or what they were doing

As discoveries are made in The Zone, corporations, criminal enterprises and states are sending in forces to retrieve artefacts, test equipment and manufacture items under exotic conditions.

They have to be protected, and cheap, expendable minions are considered an economic way to provide that protection.

Generally armed with sub machine guns and battle rifles, they discourage interest, bot human and non-human from paying too much attention. Where the threat is considered higher, they may be issued with heavier weapons.

A guard patrolling the perimeter, armed with a simple SMG.

Crooked Dice Minion with SMG and the SAS Gasmask head.

Another Crooked Dice Minion with SMG and the SAS Gasmask head.

Bodyguards

 

More Points of Interest

 This is one of my original Points of Interest marker.

A Renefra 40mm diameter base with a Crooked Dice Crate and Barrel.

There are another three to finish.

Sarissa 40mm Western Store - work in progress

Sarissa Wild West 40mm store . 

Points Of Interest markers

 As mentioned previously, I am using the Points Of Interest concept from the Zona Alfa expansion for solo gaming in Vietnam. The Points of Interest need markers on the board, and I thought that single fuel drums would be suitably subtle.

The drums are a mix of Debris of War (as used previously here), Crooked Dice and Tamiya 1/48 scale (you might be able to identify the Tamiya one from the the lettering on the lid).

To make them stand out a bit, they have numbers though in general use the numbers are not significant (POI events are generally drawn randomly from a card stack). Warlord German White turret numbers were of a suitable size.

This US Marine will have an eventful life being within three inches of a number of POIs (POIs should be at least six inches apart).

The Sniper! event card was drawn.

Oathmark Odyssey part six: More work In progress

 Small amount of progress on the army front.

The Elite Warriors are at full strength.

Okay, not quite full strength, I only have eight Muscle Cuirass bodies, there are two with Linen Cuirass and different helmets.

I also built two ranks of Hoplites with various headgear.

Zombie Games

 A couple of Zombie games from my cupboard.

No More Room In Hell by Iron Ivan Games.

Skirmish Outbreak by radio Dish Dash.

Sniper! Figure for a POI Event Card

I am working on a solo game using the Zona Alfa rules and the Empress Vietnam (and French Indochina) figures. The Point Of Interest system provides objectives and a degree of randomness suitable for Solo or cooperative play. The cards for Zona Alfa are fine for a post-apocalyptic environment, but lack the flavour of the Vietnam War setting.

Most of the cards are just "re-skins" of existing cards, but one of the scenes from Full Metal Jacket that stuck in my mind was the sniper. So there had to be a sniper figure (I will need a few more later). 

Currently Empress do not do any sniper figures for NVA or VC (other ranges are available, but are at a completely different scale/style/stature).

So I looked through the figures I had and selected the kneeling figure with an SKS carbine. Now a carbine firing an intermediate cartridge is not really the right sort of weapon for a sniper, needs must.

To make the sniper obvious, he needed a 'scope. The Anvil Industries Phase Rifle sprue used to come with a 'scope (now you would have to buy the weapon accessories sprue), so that was added to the SKS after removing the rear sight.

So there he is, one sniper.

Empress Vietnam War - work in progress

 It has been a while since I have really worked on the Empress VietnamWar figures.

I did decide I should base and undercoat all the NVA figures I have (okay, two had been undercoated black but I did not notice them until afterwards).

Here are 21 of them still on the paint board.

I did shuffle figures round so all the Vietnam figures now fit in a small Figures In Comfort two tray case.

You can see the two undercoated in black. There are also some of the Empress Viet Minh figures from their French Indochina range on the bottom two rows.

The second tray is for the USMC figures (when I manage to find somewhere for the - ten - interlopers the ANZACs or Force Recon will take their place).

HLBSCo Spartan APC Work In progress

So after a long wait, and prompted by Empress releasing a re-worked  version of the HLBSCo model (replacing a lot of the resin detail parts - hatches, tools, extinguishers - with white metal ones) I set about assembling the original HLBSCo one.

I started out by drilling 3mm diameter holes in the centre of the locations moulded on the hull side.

The problem is that the raised structures are not in the same location on each side

Note the distance from the hull front.

I ended up having to hand "mill" the hole to get the locating holes to line up with the prongs on the tracheostomy's unit. 

The second and fourth road wheels then needed to be glued in place - and the metal and resin decided that they did not like each other and no amount of superglue would bring them together. One of the road wheels fooled me into thinking it was secured - then fell off and glued itself to the floor.

Eventually I got them all secured (for now), though I am not convinced by the spacing.

I ended up having to sand the hatches flatter (wet and dry on my glass plate came in handy).

The splash plate on the front of the hull is currently only secured at the front, I need to straighten the end above the first road wheel.

Not sure what I am going to do about the lights on the front. originally they were under the splash plate (the swimming skirt ran across the top of it - below is an FV102 Striker ATGW showing the skirt and the original low mount lights). 

When the Spartans no longer were fitted with the skirt the lights (upgraded) were fitted on top - three bins were additionally fitted, one between them and one each out side them. Later one big bin was fitted across the whole width and the lights again mounted underneath.

I drilled the location for the smoke dischargers and bent the pin so they were at what I thought was the correct angle.

I drilled through the centre of the aerial mounting points and used 1mm brass rod for the lower part of the aerial. A piece of plastic tube was used to raise the base a bit.

Rear view showing the stub aerials. The gear basket on the door is still to be added.

I have to add the mud flaps on the front and decide what format lights I am going to use.

And then I will add some gear and possibly camouflage nets.

House of Paper

 Netflix has the first four seasons of the Spanish series Money Heist.

The characters involved in the robbery wear red boiler suits and Dali masks.

No one does the Dali masks in 28mm scale (yet), but Crooked Dice Minions are perfect (though the weapons are a bit old).