Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

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...

A recent post detailed my new South African Border Wars project.  Here's my initial batch of completed vehicles.  They're all from Scotia Grendel.  I bought one of each just to see what they were like and I'm not disappointed in any way.  They're lovely models, just enough detail for the scale, well cast with little clean up needed and at a competitive price.  First up the Angolan/Cubans.  As would be expected all these vehicles are of Soviet origin.   Here we have the South Africans Defence Force (SADF) selection.  Scotia were the only manufacturer I found which did a comprehensive range of South African vehicles in any scale.   These were easy to paint.  Everything was sprayed with Humbrol White, although I ran out and had to brush prime a few with Humbrol White enamel.  The Angolan/Cuban armour was painted in Vallejo Model Colour (VMC) Russian Green, then highlighted with Army Painter (AP) White added to the Russian Gr...

As my multitude of followers (thank to all nine) will know, I’ve been waffling on about doing a small scale, larger scope game for some time now.  I felt I was getting a bit samey with a lot of my collection being for infantry centric platoon sized games with minimal support weapons. After a lot of research and consideration I’d finally narrowed it down to the following: Cold War gone hot; 1967 or 1973 Arab-Israeli Wars; the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War; or the Iran-Iraq Wars.  All of these would give me combined arms action.  Then, when reading the Centurion vs T-55 chapter in the book Battleground, I saw a picture of a South African Oliphant tank (modified Centurion) and down the rabbit hole I went.  On delving deeper into the South African Border Wars it really capitvated me. It gives me the combined arms aspect in spades.  The conflict lasted a long time, therefore the equipment used and nature of the fighting changed and developed.  This gives lots of s...

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...

Over the last few weeks I've added some more French Foreign Legion paratroopers to the Algerian War project.  I took advantage of Elhiem’s pre-Salute sale to fill the gaps in my collection with some supporting troops.  With a couple of exceptions of figures that I didn’t want I think I have the whole range now. First up is this medical party.  These figures add such a nice element of narrative that within days of finishing them off I had based a game around them ( AAR here ).   I added some support in the form of this pair of snipers and a recoilless rifle gunner. And finally the Legion got some heavier support in the form of a 81mm mortar team and a .30 cal medium machine gun team. It may be something like 12 years ago since I painted the first batch of these, before the days where I kept notes.  I tried to match the colours as well as I could but they are a bit different.  I had real trouble trying to match the green of their berets, but when they’re...

I finished off these figures at the end of May.  Four are painted as ALN fellaghas for the Algerian War and one is a Viet-Minh - I'm sure you can guess which.  Apologies for the photos I just couldn't seem to get them right.   They are actually US Marine Raiders Command from Battlezone Miniatures , Sgt Major Miniatures sculpts.  I picked up this pack and some German Panzer-Grenadiers from Steve at Salute.  Whether in person or over email Steve's service is second to none.  Top bloke.   The US Marine Raiders range has proved invaluable and I've used all of the packs in my ALN force.  Those figures in this range that are sculpted as Filipinos with obvious Asian features or clothing I've finished as Viet-Minh for my First Indo-China War project.  As no one makes any specific figures for the  ALN (or for the Algerian War at all come to that) I've had to really look into things and improvise throughout this project.  I think th...