Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

Background In the old centre of the ruined city of Grozniansk a patrol of Federal Special Forces edge through the rubble.  Their mission is to locate a computer containing vital information that was left in an apartment by a government official.  With the forces of the local militia commander Bashtaev the Grey Wolf operating in the area, will they be able to succeed in their mission and safely extricate themselves from the rubble? The forces The Militia forces are classed as Fanatics and are all armed with Auto rifles (Assault rifles) apart from one armed with an Auto Cannon (LMG).   The Federal Special Forces are also all armed with Auto rifles (Assault rifles) apart from one armed with a sniper rifle.   The full stats for both forces can be found here .  Table Set up I played the game on a mat that measured 23in x 31in.  This is slightly larger than the normal 24in square area for 75pt Space Weirdos games.  However, I ne...

June has been a busy month.  I've been adding to existing projects and getting to a point where they are considered finished, i.e. I have enough forces for both sides to play the games I currently want to play. I've also started on a new project which has got me excited.  It's another long update! Completed The only thing I had on the go when May ended was some plastic zombies.  I finished these off early in June and they can be seen in their gruesomeness here .  Keeping with 20mm and the whole Zona Alfa/neo-Soviet vibe I completed some Elhiem modern Russians and a religious leader.  Lovely figures of which you can see more of here . Following fast on the heels of those fellas I completed some support for the Legion in Algeria, in the form of a .30 cal machine gun team and an 81mm mortar team.  More of these grognards here . The last of the completed bits was for my new project the South African Border Wars.  I ordered and completed a selection of vehi...

It was during the first year of the pandemic that I started to build up a collection inspired by the Zona Alfa rules.  I've always liked the Post-Apocalyptic neo-Soviet look and these rules struck a chord with me.  So that I could use my existing terrain, I decided to do this project in 20mm using figures from the Elhiem Modern ranges.  Most of the figures are great but I've never been happy with the Zombies.  This year I found a seller on eBay knocking out sets of 12 individual figures split out from the Dark Alliance boxes.  It was worth a go so I ordered them. There are 48 figures in a full box, 4 of each type.  I don't want any duplicates in my collection so even though it was more expensive per figure when compared to buying a full box, this worked well for me.  Generally I avoid soft plastic but persevered with these.  I did attempt to remove some of the flash and mould lines, but it was going to be a right bugger to do, so I left it on....

Here's some more figures for Zona Alfa and other games with a neo-Soviet feel. They're all 20mm Elhiem from their Modern range.  The 3 "stalkers" (I dislike that term, conjures up horrible thoughts) are Modern Russians in Gorkas and body armour.  The other figure is described as a "cleric or boss pointing up" who works very nicely as a leader for my Fanatics gang.   Unlike their Zombies the figures from Elhiem’s Modern Russian, Insurgents and Survivors/Gangs ranges are excellent.  They’re crisply detailed and lovely to paint. All of the figures in this project are individually based on pennies.  For 20mm figures I don’t think you can beat pennies either aesthetically or for ease.  They are a perfect size, all uniform, need no prep and stating the obvious you’ll not get cheaper!  I add a layer of Javis urban scatter.  Once dry I add a mix I made up of various sands and gravels of different sizes.  Once this has dried I stick on bits of ol...

On the hobby front May has been a mix of finishing and fiddling about trying things.  At first I thought I hadn’t done much but on review I have, so this is a long one! Completed I started the month making some scatter terrain for swamp/marsh areas:    I then spent some time looking at micro armour, painting up some Heroics & Ros and Butlers' Printed Models samples I've had for years.  I wrote up a comparison which you can see here . Going up a notch in scale to 10mm I painted up the two Pendraken M24s that I bought at Salute.  Lovely little models.  Not sure what I'll do with them though.  And going up to 1/72nd scale I finished off painting the H-21 and H-34 helicopters for the Algerian War project.  I also painted up the 6 helicopter pilots from Elhiem to go in them.    You can see more of them here .  Completing the 'copters got me back into the Algerian War mind set so I knocked out 4 more ALN fighters.  These were act...

A busy and successful hobby month, consequently this is quite a long update.  I got some units finished, played a couple of games and even got some terrain work done.   Completed This month I've completed the following:   A regiment of 10mm Hobgoblins for my Chaos Dwarf army.  You can see them here . A regiment of 10mm Ogre Leadbelchers for my Ogre Kingdoms army which you can see here .   I did some work on making my terrain more usable specifically for a game of Burrows & Badgers.  I made some veg beds out of old credit cards and based all my Renendra wattle fencing.  I'll try and do a post when time permits.  In progress The following are on the table as February draws to a close: A regiment of 36 10mm Gnoblars for my Ogre Kingdoms Warmaster Revolution army.  I've just got the details to do on these and they'll be finished early in March.   I cleaned up and primed my last unit of 10mm Chaos Dwarf Axemen and a un...