Apache Longbow gunship

Hello guys,

Last week, I finished a Heroics and Ross 1/300 Apache Longbow. Not counting the assembly, it didn't take me long to get it painted as it only involved painting it greenish, washing it with black, painting it again, putting some black somewhere and some blue somewhere else.

I have to thank Clint again for picking one up for me - THANK YOU!

This model was my first foray into 1/300 and I did not enjoy it. The model came in several pieces and while there were no instructions added, the build was straight forward enough. The good thing was, it had a choice of 4x4 hellfire rockets or a 2x4 of the former and two canister of rockets. As the latter were a pain to attach, I went with the first choice. It also looks cooler.

Assembly was a pain. Nothing fit together, I tried making something work, but just too much work was needed to give it a nice round shapes where they had to be (for example, look just above the wheels. Do you see a large rectangle? You shouldn't.) I did forgot to attach the nose chain gun, so that's my fault, as well as breaking the tail wheel. That was a nice little detail.

Never mind the horrible photo background, I am ashamed. Another thing that I noticed is the symmetry - or the lack of it. Compare the engines below and trust me, it looks worse in real life from up close. But from a table distance, the aircraft looks just as great as it should. It also costs 2 pounds (compared to GHQ's 6,50!). It also shows that it's hand sculpted (I presume), which is always nice.

I put it on a random 25mm square base, nothing much to say about it. Attached it with a piece of wire.
It will be used to mark a presence of an air-support on the map, so having it nice and tiny is perfect.

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

East Street Games Survivor and Zombie

Hi guys,

I will skip the apologetic introduction and I will dive right in - Few weeks back I received a nice parcel from the good man Clint of  Anything but a one! fame. (Thanks again!)

Among other things he sent me were these two miniatures of a female survivor in a living and zombified form. They are from a newish company called East Street Games for their Zombie Apocalypse game called Bullets and Brains.

Unfortunately the page offers very little information at this point and I would wish to at least see the sculpts, but Clint has posted a lengthy AAR in his April posts...actually, just click Here and then check the newer posts for parts 2 and 3.

As far as the miniature goes, the sculpt is fantastic. I have an abundance of survivors with firearms, so seeing one with a melee weapon was a welcoming change. The survivor is not cluttered with the detail, but the jacket, for example, was nicely detailed, so it pains up nice and fast. This is just a personal preference, but I like it as it feels a lot like a gaming piece and doesn't give me nightmares when I am painting it.

I more or less copied the paints from the web page, but I went with Khaki shorts as and a hat as I felt the jacket was blue enough. I kept the same paints for both of them and the zombie was given the pale and purple treatment that I found I like the most for the zombies and undead in general.

 For zombie, things are more or less the same. It doesn't have the typical shambling stance I like, but it looks like it barely stands upright, so this is "zombie enough" for me. It is full of little details, little cuts, little gun shot wounds, I could swear I saw one eyeball dangling out and there are even some blisters. One of the legs shows some bone, so there was a lot of diversity on it. The only thing that struck me was the gun shot wound on the hat. Not that I mind it, as it looks good, but as we like to associate dead zombies with blown up heads, this makes it a Living Living Dead.

I apologise for bad photos, I blame it on the weather!

This is it for today, and I'll post again next week, if all goes as planned!

Mathyoo

Technicals - part 1

Hello guys,

Before I start, I have to apologise yet again for the lack of activity and for missing so many of your blog posts. I am working on something else at the moment and the days often pass so fast I completely forget about the hobby. I will try to do better in the following week and check on some of the things I've missed!


When I was in London in March I scored a good day in Poundland and bought three police pickups for a pound!

They are horrible, but at 33,334 pence a piece, they will be just fine. I was desperate for some to give my insurgents much needed vehicle support.

I have no plan as to how I want them to look (except one MIGHT be up armoured and both would probably have machine guns), so I will see how they turn out as they go. I do not want them armed with an AA guns as my games are all up close and personal and those mounts would need some kind of minimum range as the gun is mean to be firing in the skies.

First thing I needed done was clear the stickers and it was a real pain. I tried all sorts of things and glue residue wouldn't come off. In the end, I covered it in dirt and then used an eraser to help me clean it - that worked really well.

As they come without windows and I didn't want to go through the trouble of converting and painting drivers, I decided to make glass. It was a pretty easy work, measured by the eyes. I glued plasticard on with superglue and then I sealed it with an old greenstuff that I can't use for my miniatures anymore.

Don't hold your breath for the next step (I've built those 2 weeks ago and still nothing was added!), but in the mean time, feel free to suggest the weaponry. I was thinking giving them two machine guns of some sorts (One medium as I have a model and one heavy that I could sculpt), to make them even with my Hummvees, but some sort of cannon would also look good on them!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

New terrain!

Hello guys,

Deciding I lack houses I could use in both urban and rural settings, I decided to build two smallish box houses that could fit in both SA and Modern setting.

They were recycled from my "urban terrain tiles" I built years ago for my zombie town and never really used all that much - I only had them for 3x3 and they started wrapping.

 The design is simple and meant for an easy and fast building. I used slightly larger bases so I could add a bit of a yard to each of them. They have no roofs as I found out roofs to be a lot of hassle for little gain. They aren't used during game, but they do look lovely at the beginning.

 One has a broken fence and the other one a laundry rope, other than that they are both pretty bland. I was aiming for even whiter colour with only a hint of yellow/blue, but I am quite satisfied with them as they are.

I decided against cutting holes for windows and doors as they aren't REALLY needed and as they don't have separate rooms, windows look weird (as they do on my older terrain).

Also, if the two are put together there is a lovely alley formed in between:

In other news, I started working on two technicals for rebels and I hope to play a game soon - I have so many soldiers painted now I'd love to use them some more!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

JTAC

 Hello guys,

It took me a bit longer than it should, but I finally have a JTAC prepared. Joint terminal attack controller, simply put, is a guy that calls in air strikes. All the communication between him and the pilot is always in English, no matter the nationality of either or both of them.

They receive a lot of attention here lately as SAF is trying to establish a regional training centre for JTAC in Slovenia. This is interesting, I suppose, as we don't have an Air Force as such, but just an "Air component" within the Army...and even those units are armed with Pilatus PC-9M Hudournik ("Swift", the bird) airplanes.

 While they look like something that might have taken part in the Battle for Britain, Pilatus planes are apparently one of the best training aircraft you can get. Slovenia bought them early after the independence to train its future fighter pilots on them and when it was realised that jets are costly, they were simply armed. While they are used as such on practices for media, these planes can obviously not intercept an airbus and our skies are currently protected by Hungarian or Italian jets. Needless to say, there's plenty jokes going around about how we don't need jets as they "can't make a U turn without leaving the airspace".

To make me feel better,  I have to let everyone know that a "guns only" dogfight between a Slovene in Pilatus and American in F-16 took place few years back which the former won with 2:0. So if nothing else, these planes are good enough to keep the know-how and pilots trained. On the other case, taking the tanks out of operational use is making us lose the tankers and their experience.

So, from a gaming point of view, JTAC is a guy with a radio and I converted him from one. He can be used as a basic radioman, JTAC, Artillery observer etc.

 I was quite gutted to find out I have misplaced the original antennae. It was really nicely done and I KNOW I put it somewhere to make sure it wouldn't get lost. So, I replaced it with a piece of solid wire. It's not as nice but at least it won't break easily.

I also scraped off his M4 and, as his main job is to direct airplanes and not fire his rifle, put an F2000 on his backpack, while giving him binoculars. My first idea was to let him have a touch screen computer with a map on it, but working on that would be a bit complicated and had to satisfy myself with a locally produced binoculars with a laser pointer.

To make him stand out at least a bit, his vest was painted in khaki. I wish his helmet was not covered with a cloth, but as that would include way too much work, I just went with it as it is.

I hope to use him in larger games to call in some airstrikes and I am now trying to find a nice 1:144 aircraft or even a helicopter. I am sure the International forces on Evergreen Island have an Apache or two laying around!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Combat Medic

Hey guys,

moving on with the modern, I have a medic for you.

As in what can be seen, conversion work has been limited to gun swap, but it took a lot of carving to cut away the gun that was moulded to the body with most of its length.

He carries a large backpack that looks a lot like the new ones that Army purchased a year or so back, so I painted it tan and I am quite satisfied with it. It is accurate and it gives the miniature a nice contrast.

On the other hand, I got lazy and just painted a red cross on a white field on his right arm, which I believe should have some blue in it to be correct.

I could not make a good cross on the backpack even after three tries, so I gave up on it. If anyone is interested, the white is actually sandy and red is "red leather" to make it blend in a bit more.

One (and the only) thing that bothered me with this miniature was that it was apparently left unfinished! It lacks an upper arm pocket on the left arm. I can see how a thing like this can be missed out, but it bothered me to no end. As I painted it in my "hobby halt" season, I just opted for painting the insignia on it, instead of trying to sculpt a pocket.

I can not wait to play another game, where I will make sure to have someone extracted...and I need to play another game where a bomb disposal unit does something - sounds like I have a plan already!


This is it for today and I still have a JTAC left - I am saving him for the last as he was customised a bit more, but as usual - nothing went quite as planned!

Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

The Children of the Sea Serpent: Chapter 1

The good guys.

The bad guys. One of them quite impatient.

My name is  Dr. Oscar Webb. My irrational fear of the sea and any other large body of water, for that matter, has not always accompanied me.

It was not until an interesting incident back in the twenties that I started shivering at the sheer tought of the water. For...you see...something lurks in the darkness of the depth. Something so terrifying, I risk fainting just by writing about it...as you can probably see from my shaky handwriting.

It is best I start at the beginning. Years ago, I was recruited into a top secret governmental agency, called Threshold. I would imagine you have not yet heard of it. Agency has been working in the shadows for hundreds of years, some say its roots go back to the mad emperor Nero of Rome, but I digress.

I was with the agency for a long time and have grown accustomed to dealing with queer things and beings, yes, beings, that do not belong to this world. But nothing could have prepared me for what I have encountered in those days of Autumn 1924.

It was me, my  good friend Stan Hastings and a scholar Artemis Seaton (who possesses certain...gifts) that were sent on a mission in a scarcely populated coastal area in New England. Reports of blood-freezing chanting and daemonic rituals were coming to the Agency more and more frequently. It was a routine mission, find out more about the possible cult and its practice and break it...little did we know, that we were already late.

It was a cold, misty morning, when we went on a foot patrol around the area and we closed in on a worm eaten old barn in the middle of the forest. We heard human voices - or so we thought - and closed in with weapons drawn.

We tried to remain unnoticed for as long as possible and took cover behind the barn. We could heard human sounds...no doubt of that, but there were also sounds that you would not be expecting to hear on the shores. What are we to deal with on this god forsaken place?

There was no time to think - it was time to act! Helped by Artemis, Stan climbed in the barn to outflank the godless worshipers, while I rushed around the corner, putting my faith in Diana, my family shot gun. I emptied both barrels in the direction of a villain and made sure he would see another day. Artemis was following closely behind me.

Inside the barn, Stan was under light pistol fire, but managed to keep his skin whole. I would be worried about Stan more, hadn't I been approach by a being of such a repulsive look, even horror writers would faint! The slippery scaly humanoid rushed at me and I did my best to protect myself - the rest is lost to my memory as I was bested in the fight.

This story continues as it was told by trusty Artemis and Stan. Stan was of quick wits and charged the imposing figure he thought was a leader of the group. He was locked in a fight with the cultist, but was unable to secure a definite victory against the evil doer.  In the mean time, that awful fish-man hybrid shambled towards Artemis, whose wits were so strained, he missed the creature at point blank with his pistol and then fell tho his attack in close combat.

Stan could still not overpower the leader of the party and henchman decided to intervene. Afraid he might hit his leader, he joined in the brawl and did not fire from the distance. This decision turned out to be his undoing, as Stan hacked through him with ease. This small victory apparently motivated Stan to focus and he finally settled the dispute with the cultist.  He wasted no time and rushed around the corner to meet the devil that dealt such a great amount of pain to his friends. He emptied a clip, but did not manage to hit the shambling young man, who turned towards Stan but failed to reach him and engage in a close combat. While Stan always preferred to dance to the song of swords than orchestra of powder, a rusty old cleaver that that pitied creature dragged behind it made him think twice and he instead decided to keep some distance and rather fill the abnormality with lead.

After two carefully aimed shots, the being dropped dead on the spot and Stan rushed to get me and Artemis to hospital, where is it I woke up.

The mission was costly for our little team, as poor Artemis lost all his trust in the fire arms and pledged never to use them again - they are inaccurate and not worth the bother, he claims! As for me...oh god...that forsaken beast has swung its blade all over my face and the result is beyond imaginable. I dread seeing myself in mirror - how can I ever let my loved ones see me like this?


Post-game thoughts:

While it has its cons (First version at least), Strange Aeons is by far the most fun I have playing games. Fast and simple and if I play alone nobody hears me adding the sound effects!

To be completely fair, I replayed the scenario, as after first game all three agents were removed from play without causing any damage whatsoever. Henchman with the Tommy gun was killing them without too much trouble - the profile is strong by itself and it had all the best rolls! According to the injury roles, one died and the other one was horribly crippled, so I decided to cheat a bit and call it a practice game, as I haven't played in months.

Artemis suffers from Ballistophobia and will need to preform a test before he can fire a weapon, while Oscar is now hideous, which means every human that comes into base to base contact with him, will have to throw a resolve check.