Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

To the right is the remains of the docks and industrial estates. To the left are rows of tenements which housed the dock workers. Aye that's what remains of the railway which supplied the docks, now tarmacked over and used as a cycle path. The whole length of that old railway track from one end of the city to the other (that shot's near the edge of the city, I live five minutes away btw) covered in those things.

See in the US people keep their pigeons on their roofs in cages. Can't really do that in Scotland. Well you can keep them inside the loft (thus the term Pigeon Loft), but unless you happen to be the type who has a baseball bat behind the door and a dog trained to bite at the sign of a stab proof vest, you'll be too wary of the local council finding out that you're misusing their property (being the pigeons are classed as vermin). So when the wife tells you to get those flying rats out of her house (I seriously know one guy who keeps them in a cupboard in his kitchen...) where else do you go? Why out of work at the docks and up the hill to the station.

Aye those are doocots (...I've only heard them pronounced dooket though). Specifically they're for if you want to let your pigeons (doo) out to lure in the guy down the cycle path's pigeons to your doocut and catch them. The inside's hollow with the two area filled with cages for the birds and a trapdoor to let them in and out (with a sort of airlock system made from mesh). Serious business, which is why I mention guys with baseball bats and attack dogs... One hen can go for £20+, so given that inside one of these you could have dozens of those alone, well...

Most of them are either being taken down by the local council or being burned down by idiot teenagers with nothing better to do however. ...Not that the guy down the track from you who you just caught their best bird is usually too happy with you either (some of these things are booby trapped to hell in case of breakins, which is why if people want to get at someone they just burn them down, birds and all...).

Heh, so do you feel informed now? Have I waffled on enough? ...My dad's been into the things all his life, so its fun nowadays when non-locals or kids don't know what they are. They're not exclusive to Glasgow though, so generally anywhere there's a working class you'll find someone flying birds, its just the manner in which they're kept is more of a European thing.

Huh, never would have guessed that. Then again, I live in the US, in the middle of the woods, so it's no real surprise.

Some WIPs which turned up while waiting between rounds of an online game. ...I fething hate online games. ¬¬



The lady on the left'll probably be painted in Duty colours, whilst the other guy'll be in Monolith camo. She started as a Dominatrix (with a LMG), though a headswap and some more clothes fixed that. He's a cowboy model with an added gas mask and ballistic vest.

Nice additions to the collection there! your GS skills are still above mine

Above yours ...but still lazy as hell?

Less talking about pigeon lofts, more models...

Here's the lady Stalker now painted up.



Somehow even whilst wearing a garish red camouflage jacket she's still more practical than the original model. The camo's based on a Russian military firefighter one with some white added to it for added contrast. She's a veteran of the faction so clearly's wearing what the hell she pleases. ...Because a suedo-fetish outfit and a LMG really match.

The Shotgunner's received some paint too.



Now he's a Monolith Stalker in a one piece jumpsuit with a cheap looking ballistics vest over it. The camo here's just white with random speckled colours over it as opposed to an attempt at a real one. As long as I'm using a load of different patterns in the same faction, but the over dominant colours are the same they'll still look unified I guess. ...The issue however is that I'm attempting to have Freedom wear European forest pattern greens, whilst the Military wear more plain colours and Eastern European digital sets with modern gear instead of surplus. ...Though with the military I'd rather go for something more like the actual current Ukrainian uniforms which can be truly Stalker looking in the more informal units. =P

Speaking of modern Ukrainians, here's a Russian soldier too.



What a terrible picture. Meh, I'll be paint more of these guys so another one or two will be along eventually. He's pretty much just your average Russian soldier. I swapped the Empress Miniature's head out for a Warlord Games beanie one and sculpted on a face mask and hood to the back, That's about it. I guess I could keep around enough normal looking Russians to use for modern games, then have the rest of the dozen Empress figures that I have done up a bit weirder looking (though at least some of the other ones that I've painted before are in Russian colours, just not that standard digital pattern seem most often, and I suppose actual units could have a few schemes in use based on supplies, personal taste and command's enforcement).

...Anyway I'm blabbing. There's some more crap shifted from my table. Now its either picking one of my unfinished projects up where I left off or starting something new. =P

Before I go out and buy some paint, here's a quick pair of zombies that I made this morning.



They're, you guessed it, Wargames Factory zombies with a bit of greenstuff on the top. Useful as random enemies, for the aftermath of Blowouts, or to stick in along with the Monolith faction. I'll probably make some more of these when I can find some more spare zombies about. Hmn, maybe an Izlom too if I feel like it.



...Though I truly hate the sounds those things make in the game. ¬¬

The cabin's being painted now too as I'd like to have it done for a game on Tuesday. I'm going for a blue and white paintjob with that, though quickly ran out of paint as that balsa just sucks that stuff up.

One of the models which I made this morning that I've managed to paint.



He started as an armed zombie, but I wound up plunking on some heavy armour and turning him into a bandit looking guy. The armour's based on some really impractical looking plate rig that I saw once, with a bit of Metro 2034 thrown in so it doesn't look quite so standardised.

Base model's a mix of Wargames Factory parts with a bit of greenstuff on top.

That was fast!

Powering through what I made yesterday, here's the last of that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stuff.

Two zombified Stalkers, one a bandit in a trenchcoat, the other a Loner in the common Sunrise Suit (...which for some reason I haven't sculpted so far, despite it appearing so often in the games).



They'll appear as either random enemies, cannon fodder alongside the Monolith faction or in the event of a Blowout where anyone out in the open's brain's turned to mush. Which yes if you aren't aware of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series these aren't your traditional zombies (though those appear too in the form of prisoners experimented upon by the scientists who created the Zone), rather they are created through the mentioned Blowouts, mutant Controllers taking over the Stalker or those Stalkers who attempted to reach the heart of the Zone through the direct route (i.e. a wall of energy known as the "Brain Scorcher / Meat Mincer").

...So the guys who were dumb enough to try and reach the heart of the Zone, but not good enough to draw the Wish Granter's attention. The Monolith faction are those veteran Stalkers who are the opposite, i.e. who didn't get turned into zombies, but were still brain washed to worship the Zone.

Anyway...

The Izlom which I mentioned too.



This is similar to the regular zombies in that it was obviously once a prisoner. Instead though it has long arms and legs ...because ...random. They don't appear in the games, rather they were cut, but do turn up in a few mods rarely. I'd have this as a generic mutant, though they could be seen in scenarios involving the testing laboratories.

All of those are Wargames Factory zombies with some greenstuff bunked on. =P

And another two Zombiefied Stalkers that I slapped together this morning.



I tried one with a gun, but it just looked weird. Guess I'll stick with the unarmed ones till I can work out how to have one looking right (dragging the gun behind itself rather than holding it in two hands may be the solution).

Oh right, its the 100 post extravaganza. Well in the theme of what I posted for the one year anniversary update for my Fallout thread, here, have ...nothing.



Don't say I don't treat you.

I was out in the countryside yesterday picking strawberries. Suffice to say though I oggled enough of the scenery for ideas.

Here's the second of my cottages now painted up.






Painted to a point. I need to fill it with furniture which I'll hopefully pick up at the end of a month at a gaming show.

Making this has taught me a bit about where to go forward when making more buildings. Particularly to add more doors and windows (which are a paint to add unfortunately). Meh, I'll cope.

Rushed through a few bits so that I can use them tonight.

The shed.




And two more zombies.



I started on some stone walls as well.

Well today's super awesome amazing update: Rocks!






Que two paragraph spiel about the complex process of making some scatter terrain...

I made those thinks in like an hour. I was rushing them so much that I was using a lamp to dry the paint. At one point I held the plastic to the light for so long that it started to warp pretty badly. I gazed at my open window and considered that yeah, that was probably enough ventilation and I wouldn't be dead soon...

On a side note though, I tried my hand at making some bushes. They're just cut up bits of paperclips twisted about a bit and glued together with clumps of that flocky stuff glued on the ends. They look decent enough, but will break easily if under pressure unfortunately. =/

As for the game... Hmn, will following suite from previous ones I spend so much time talking during them that I can't take pictures. However here's the pre-battle shots of the table at least.






We ran the scenario twice actually, with both players swapping sides. Both times the Duty squad won out over the Bandits and stole away the artifact, though the second time was much closer than the first. The main issue was the placement of the artifact however (...which I pointed out, but couldn't change it), so you could technically have ran up the board and off the table by turn three easily.

Somehow we made it to turn eight in the second game though. What did that mean? Well zombies appeared on the table on turn six and moved towards the Stalkers. By turn eight a blowout hit and killed the remaining Stalkers. By that point Duty were down to two guys and the remaining five Bandits were encroaching on the Duty escape vehicle. The Bandit leader made for the van and engaged in melee with the sniper standing beside it. Meanwhile the Duty leader, with the artifact, dived into the vehicle. As the zombies moved in on one side and the bandits on the other (with his comrade fighting just outside the door) he gunned the engine and made it away. Moments later all the other Stalkers were turned to paste by the Blowout.

...He could have slammed the door into the bandit boss and allowed his comrade to leap in. He didn't though.

Heh, and the game only lasted so long as the Duty player thought he just needed to make it off the board edge, not to the vehicle. My response when he tried that? "What, you going to just walk back home?"

So aye, points from that night's discussion? OK relevent points? Hmn, might have a go at a DayZ style general store (as posted earlier in this thread). I think one more cottage will be enough for a village table. Hell if you add another building into the current setup it'd be full. Having more than I'd need for one game allows for things to be mixed and matched however (I didn't use the Hind or swamps this week for instance and instead had something which resembled a village much more).

So, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a creepier, weirder FO, and the setting is not as desolate, just abandoned looking. But seems enjoyable per the report.

In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. no nukes went off. Instead some scientists messing about in laboratories secretly built in Chernobyl during the Soviet days conducted an experiment which went awry and created a place where the laws of science aren't always in agreement with each other. What spawned from this even leads to treasure hunters entering the area in search of objects they can sell to the highest bidder outside of the "Zone". As the rest of the world develops new medicines and technology, guys in Nike tracksuits and beat up Kalashnikovs risk their lives in that hazardous environment and kill each other.

But yes, what was that quote from Deus Ex? "Its not the end of the world, but you can see it from here". The world's adapted to the Zone, life carries on, albeit down a different route. Most just care about the money and advances that the Zone offers, and overlook its dangers. Blowouts occur now daily in the Zone, causing the birds to fall from the sky and anyone outside of cover to die. With every Blowout the Zone increases its size. Mutants have been ranging outside of the traditional cordon around the area, and the military, underfunded and stretched thin as it is, can't contain them all. The governments of the world are fine to let Ukraine become a back water as they fight proxy wars over the Zone (the two major factions, Duty and Freedom, are largely backed by the Russians and Nato conversely if you read between the lines). ...And that's not to mention the appearance of Russian spetnaz units, a large presence of American soldiers under the guise of "mercenaries" or most recently the Chinese.

Its an interesting setting if you're into the post-apocalyptic genre with a bit of a twist. The Zone looks post-apocalyptic, but the rest of the world carries on as usual. Men drive around in Mad Max style vehicles and fight mutants, as women in New York walk about in mink style coats made from the skins of the deadlier creatures. Sadly the developers went under, though they did resurface and make the Metro 2033 series (which has similar themes, but is straight post-apocalyptic). I think Bethesda bought the rights to the series however, whether or not they do anything with them is yet to be seen, though if they do then hopefully they'll maintain their feeling and gameplay style (this thread's titled "lost to the Zone" because they're about the most common words you'll read in that game ...being that they pop up every time you die).

Shall I waffle on some more? Heh, nah. I'm painting a Ukrainian military BTR-2 right now. Just deciding if I want it to look like one in service right now or from before the Russian invasion (the current ones have different identifiers and typically more graffiti given there's a lot of militia units fighting). I have a thing for adding non-standard markings so I'll probably add a few, but not go too overboard.

Sounds like a interesting setting,

Because I chose the most opportune times to post crap here, here have some pictures at one o'clock in the morning.

Another piece of armour for the military patrolling the wilds of the Zone. A Ukrainian BMP-2.




This one's fairly out of the box.All I did to this was all the flag coming out of the back. Its a 1/56 (I think) resin kit from an unknown manufacturer. My friend picked it, a Warrior and like 40 troops up at a show for £30, and I nabbed the Russians off of him. I went for a fictional camo scheme with it and the odd ad-hoc piece of insignia to it.

Were I to find another of these then I'd cover it in stowage and bother with the little details like smoke launchers. With these I just wanted to paint the thing as I've had it for months now just sitting there. I guess this is something that's been pulled out the mothballs, given a new lick of paint by whatever mechanic was on hand and been sent out on patrol (the military certainly loses a lot of soldiers during the course of the game, and its not as if they were well funded to begin with anyhow).

Pictured with it is another of those Eureka Miniatures Soviet soldiers in an NBC suit.



He'll be with the Loners. I doubt that the military's that hard up that its still issuing thirty year old suits. Uh, though I could google if current Eastern European countries are in fact still using these somehow...

Nice, is still just 8:17PM here on my side of the pond.

Nice and gritty BMP-2, I had a kit of one once.

Full NBC geared trooper, he is ready for anything

That blue building is fantastic.

Quite like the shed as well. That's a spot-on horror-movie shed, right there.

I was up to other crap today, but knocked this one out pretty quickly to keep up appearances.



Another of those Crooked Dice Daredevil miniatures (I used one to make a mercenary for Fallout). This one's a hunter, out in the Zone hunting some dangerous game. I can certainly imagine people going to the Zone to hunt its mutants. Hell people get off on having a deer mounted on the wall, try plugging a Chimera. ...Or a Snork, Burer or Zombie. Ah, if that's your thing. The guards at the Cordon allow a lot to be smuggled out, they may turn their noses up, but enough cash in their pockets and they'd look the other way at certain "trophies"...

She's probably good as is. I was going for your stereotypical British hunter type, but I'll paint her up to have a bit of camo on her to keep in with the modern setting.

Camo pants with leather jacket?

Brown camo trousers with an outfit which is mostly brown besides those. Wee bits of green to keep it from being samey. =P

She has a gasmask now too. I'm painting two bandits in trenchcoats as well, but have had too much stuff to do these past few days to manage anything. The Humvee's about ready to be painted as well.

Today, at the behest of justifying buying a Russian Gaz Tigr jeep and realizing that I still had this thing to paint, I thought I'd have a go at finishing it.




So, for the Stalker setting, here's the Humvee variant currently in most common use by the Ukrainian military (they operate a few different types however. That is to say that they were using their own versions years before the Americans gave them a load for free, though the media seems to think otherwise...). Its painted up and using the decals in a manner seen early on in the war with Russia, but since then I think they've moved onto using a blank green colour scheme with the white stripes which denote loyalist vehicles (though its not as if the other side are using Humvees...).

I'll use this alongside the military faction as a patrol vehicle, as opposed to the APCs which I currently have. Its not really elaborated on in the games (though I can't speak for the semi-canon books as they aren't in English) whether Ukraine was aligned with NATO or Russia, or anywhere in between. I'd imagine still though that they would operate gear similar to how they do in the real world, with a mix of upgraded Cold War Soviet stuff alongside foreign kit (such as these modified Humvees). Though speaking of that I have a Russian Gaz Tigr jeep (their version of the Humvee) coming, so they just might be using these two vehicles together, a rather odd sight indeed considering the state of the real world right now...

The model's a 1/43rd scale Victoria diecast. I removed the cab and made a new one out of plasticard (as seen in the WIP which I posted ages ago). I added new bumpers along with a few other details that people familiar with the vehicles will probably notice. Notably however this is armed with a DShK machine gun (which is weird to see given these are usually armed with Western guns), which isn't what the real world ones are armed with, but you try and find a loose Russian LMG in 28mm (saying that I have seen one of these with a turret mounting twin DHsKs, so the Ukrainians at least have them in their armoury). 1/43rd isn't my preferred scale for 28mm, hell its about as large as you can get and still work with, but its about all I could find that isn't a big hunk of resin that I can't do anything with conversion wise (unless I want to spend all day chipping away at it).

There that is then. I'm happy to have it as its a rather unusual looking vehicle. Besides that it was fun to have a go at scratch building it, along with the other Humvee that I have destined to use with my Brotherhood of Steel. I have one more Humvee left over and I'm sort of pondering turning that into another Ukrainian one, though this time being another of their variants (particularly one of their more recent ones which looks like they originated as supply vehicles, but have been reworked a bit and pushed into front line service). We'll see. Till next time at least.

More WIPs.

Two Ukrainian soldiers made from Wargames Factory WWII soldiers. The heads are by Crooked Dice.



I'm thinking that I use these for Ukrainians over the models that I currently have. I'll still use those, but these guys are more your professional soldiers than ones wearing obsolete or patch together gear (well in the context of the look I'm going for, in the games soldiers wear armour above and beyond these guys). As a bonus they'll do for modern games too (which I have plenty of militia units for, not so much full timers).

And a female Stalker of undetermined faction (probably Duty, red camo hoodie, black Nike jeans).



She's one of Wargames Factory's Female Survivors, in what best I could to fix their weird "man spreading" poses. She's has an AKSU hanging behind that RPG as well (for some reason people give their support troopers just the big gun, but ah, what're they supposed to do when not firing that...). The gas mask's unintentionally styled after one from the Borderlands games.

And now with some of the WIPs that I've posted here painted.

Two bandits in trench coats. These are similar to the other models in trench coats that I have, being made from some Soviets in summer dress with a bit of greenstuff on them.



The two soldiers are now painted too. I went for British DPM camo and desert vests. They're a bit more modern looking than the ones which appear in the games (well, the standard guys, not the Spetsnaz), though the cancelled sequel seemed to have less of a sci-fi look, as would I also like to be able to use these for modern games as well at some point possibly. Wargames Factory WWII soldiers with reposing and sculpted on armour as usual. =P




And as I had this handy I thought I'd paint up an Alsatian. IIRC its a North Star husky that I removed the harness from.

good work using the pics as guides for the Modern Ukraine forces and their AK-74's


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Although the WGF does use the AK-47.

Yeah, but in 28mm the differences between the guns are hardly noticeable unless you look real close (the different muzzles and hand guards being the most noticeable). Not that at a glance you could probably tell which gun was which in real life either if they both were polymer and used the same magazines.



I do hate though how pop-culture calls every AK an AK-47, or even includes AK-47s (or rather AKMs) over the AK-74. Whilst the AK-47 was encountered in Asia in the 50s-60s, it was phased out for the AKM pretty quickly. The AKM's the gun that saw plenty of use by militias and the like, but then even those were supplanted by AK-74s. ...Its just a gripe of mine how the 47 appears so often. Hell the 74 was supposed to have been thrown to the third world rebels by the truck loads years ago, but the Russians were too cheap to replace the thing (instead they give what was supposed to be their service rifle to their special forces...). Though the same thing could be said of the US still using ARs, and well if you're giving a gun to some conscript from the sticks there's not much less complex than an AK. =P

*rant over.

I was looking for a T-72 tank there to give to my military to finish off their armoured element. After finding some initial kits (by Academy) it hit me that I may as well have just bought kid's toys because the detail was that lousy. The next ones up from those though were £28, and well, if I want to spend that much I may as well just buy resin casts. There's a show on the 1st of next month coming up, so I'll maybe have a look out there for one. Frankly any of the T series tanks would probably do if I bothered to modernise them (Ukraine, which before the current war had one of its major industries being recycling old Soviet tanks, uses a startling array of modernised Soviet gear. Que images of T-34 and IS tanks in service in 2015...). The issue is though that every time that I look at a T-55 I want to turn it into an Achzarit, and well that'd be a slippery slope into starting an IDF project (...there's so many 1/48th scale Merkava kits out there).

Well, 1/48 vehicles are a growing area of model kits, partly to save space, and they do fit closer to 28mm scale as opposed to the 1/35 scale modern tanks that are monsters in scale to the miniature scene

And yet if you want anything other than WWII German stuff, you're screwed in 1/48th scale. =P

Talking about 28mm though, I was surprised to see this turn up this morning ...without a gak ton of "searched by customs for bombs/drugs/illegal immigrants" stickers.



Aye that Gaz Tigr which I ordered has appeared. I think that I said I'd do a side by side shot of it with a Humvee, so there you go. Its a bit unfair to compare the two vehicles though as the Russian vehicle's current generation, whereas the Americans are replacing their Humvees (the Tigr dwarfs the Humvee a bit, but put it alongside a Cougar and its the other way around).

This'll probably be for my Empress Russians as opposed to being painted with Ukrainian markings as I already have a few vehicles for them. So I can still use it for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (either used by the actual Russians, or supplied to one of the factions. God damn it. Now I have to buy another of these and paint it with Duty markings!), though it'll also do for modern games as well. To that end I'll still be looking for other Eastern European military vehicles as well in case I play a modern game and need something to oppose the Ukrainian armour which I currently have (which is easier said than done seeing as how difficult it is to find modern stuff in 28mm...).