Heffalump

I have a problem.  I know I have it, and I still keep doing it.  When placing a mail order, I can't order just one item.  And here is evidence!

I decided I needed a vehicle from Company B for my Afghanistan project.  I went through their catalogue and selected the model I wanted.  I had previously done comparison shopping by looking at other companies on the interwebs to determine that Company B was my vendor of choice. They had what I wanted at the price I was willing to pay.  But I couldn't get just one thing; I convinced myself that I needed more in the order to 'make it worthwhile'.  

Some vendors understand me and play along.  Pulp Figures is a particular offender:  Bob Murch pushes lead like a meth dealer:  "hey, man, if you get 5 packs, I'll throw in the 6th for free, man.  Joo know man, make it 8 packs, I throw in free shipping.  You can't lose."  That's right, you can't lose.  You can't lose nothing but your money, that you're supposed to spend on the kids' shoes, or food for the table.  

But I digress.  As my 'extra' from Company B, I decided to get this lovely heffalump.  It's a one-piece resin cast with a metal mahout.  All it took was a few layers of drybrushing and I've got a nice addition to my 1880's Indian Army.  Jumbo and friend may be part of the baggage train, or they might be in the artillery.  I'll find out in the next game.

Of course, and for reasons I don't really understand, I went with the common convention (aka mistaken idea with little or no basis in reality, see this discussion for more on these) that states that elephants are all grey.  Even though I have first hand knowledge otherwise.  I didn't even need to give the mahout a white breechclout, for goodness' sake!

Shops and craters

As I mentioned in a blog post a few weeks ago, I need more terrain for Afghanistan.  So I went back to the source (aka Matakishi's Tea House) for inspiration!  The result is that I decided to make a few buildings, which will eventually become shops for my little village.  (Trade goods will be coming some time this summer!  Doors, too)

Instead of using foam core as I did for the compounds, this time I picked up cork tiles, and I am sold! Cork tiles are easy to work with, and are already have some built-in texture. The tiles are very easy to cut (unlike foam core) and are easily assembled with white glue.

Comparison shot with one of the compounds and the shipping container.  Hmm, that container is pretty damn big compared to the compound wall.  

Say, compared to this:

But I'll make do with what I have!

I've also made some post-detonation IED markers.  I am very impressed with these markers that I saw on a Lead Adventure Forum post about Zangali (an imagi-nation).  My markers are much simpler and more in line with my rather limited modelling skills!  These are dead easy to make, I squished a few aluminium pie plates (very small ones, butter tart sized), glued them to a base and then added a bit of texture (sand and railway ballast) and paint.

And that's all for now!

Characters

I'm trying to complete my Afghanistan project, but I also have the attention span of a magpie.  I can't resist Pulp Figures, for starters.

This is the Palinquin of the Sinister Dr Koo.  I have no particular purpose in mind for this model, but it's still a fun model to put together.

I got this fellow from Eureka Miniatures a few years ago, finally got some paint on him.  He's from the Pax Limpopo range and is supposed to be a 'civilized' zulu king, but to me he could only be Baron Samedi!

The Istanbul Constabulary from Pulp Figures.  Great for an RPG-type pulp game, exactly like the games that I'm currently not playing.

And finally some RN sailors.  I decided that they should be in blues rather than whites.  Curiously, I couldn't find any examples of an RN officer with a closed collar like that:  all the pictures that google provided had the officer in a tie or with an open collar.  

A shipping container

Another piece of terrain for my Afghanistan project, although obviously useful for any modern setting.  I'd been considering how to scratch build one, but was very pleased to find a set of these at Imperial Hobbies.  I've got another three that I can paint up, but one is enough for now.

The standard 40' shipping container is something that can be found almost anywhere on earth.  I've seen these things in a remote village in the highlands of Haiti (we got to use them for storage).  Loads of them in Afghanistan, of course.

I also picked up a set of the Italari/Warlord Games walls.  No special treatment, just a quick paint job.  

This is what they look like alongside the Pegasus walls I'd picked up before.

Back to Afghanistan!

It has been a while since my last post, so I guess I have some catching up to do!

I have the house to myself for now, so I took advantage of the opportunity to lay out all that I've assembled so far for Afghanistan.  I feel that I've got a good start. I don't think I need any more compounds, but I suppose another one or two would allow me to present a good little town. Maybe a mosque, and something that looks like a police station or government building.  But I definitely feel that I should build up the countryside a bit more, more fields, rocks, definitely some hills.

I've finished up some more Taliban specialists. These are snipers, two on the left with G3 rifles and two on the right with Dragunov rifles.  At least according to Eureka Miniatures!

Also have a couple more LMGs to give Timmy some more firepower.

And finally some casualties.  Originally there were 4 of these but one got recruited to drive a horse cart (lucky fellow!).

Another civilian set from Eureka, this time a pair of goat herders.

Here is a group shot of the insurgent forces to date (you can see the lucky bloke who dodged a bullet driving the cart in the background):

And here are the government forces (Afghan National Police on the left, Afghan Border Police on the right).