This Is Not A Test: Super Mutant

 This Super Mutant is from the boardgame The Others - part of Wrath. Never played the game, I just got it for all the kicksass miniatures. After some auctioning off part of the game, I have a ton of free miniatures left. This guy had goat claw originally, so I made him some simple greenstuff military boots. 

This guy is painted with Speed Paint 1.0 and I did a bunch of pre-wash in the recessed areas. 

Since this guy will go into my Zona Alfa and This Is Not A Test game I used The Institute colors on one of his armor plates. The Institute is a faction in many of the the worlds I play. And that force is slowly growing over time. 

The miniature was painted as part of a big guy community challenge, we run those regularly over on the Discord community. You should come check it out. 

I really like how this guy turned out, it shows what speed paint can do pretty well (it's excellent for skin). And it's really nice to have a reason to use some of all those free minis just hanging out in the garage. 

Insurgent Earth: The Institute crew

 This is a crew I've painted for a community competition over on the Stalker7 facebook community, it's a nice place. Patrick Todoroff collects all his different systems in that one group, a brilliant idea not splitting everything up. He also runs fairly regular competitions. 

I found these miniatures in the boxes in the garage. They are from Endure The Stars and The Others, both kickstarters I've gotten cheap and broken even on by selling excess minis. These are for Insurgent Earth, a solo/coop system. 

They are three scientists from The Institute (that's also part on my Zona Alfa lore) and their two military guides. They're painted quickly with speed paint, with only prewashing on the skin parts. The institute has their regular yellow color scheme with blue details and the blue triangle. 

I haven't checked if the group is in anyway rules legal, but it was a nice excuse to use some of those models just living in a box. 

Here they group are with their t.r.o.l.l. suit done for a Zona Alfa competition. 

The conversion work on these was very minimal, it was just adding packs to all the characters and a few belt details. Super easy, but making them more tacticool. 

Why not check out the LinkTree and go see some other hobby SoMe? Linktree here. 

Zona Alfa: Instute Mech

This big clunky mech was painted for a competition over on the Stalker7 facebook community, it's an absolutely amazing group containing all P. Todoroffs different systems. He's great at running competitions and always offers nice prizes as well. 

In order to contribute to that community, I always try and find something to paint for it. This huge robot is from the Reichbusters kickstarter (I won an auction for it really cheaply). Most of it I've sold on (and broke even, so the rest is free for me). 

I added a claw (from Warhammer 40k) but otherwise it's not converted. For The Institute (a faction I made up for zona alfa / Insurgent Earth) the yellow color / blue triangle is used on all of it. 

A quick and easy paint job, tried throuwing on a lot of weathering with washes and drybrushing. 

Patrick Todoroff is doing amazing skirmish games and you should consider getting some of them. They can all be found on Wargames Vault. 

Here's the robot with a team of scientists and their two bodyguards.

If you enjoy all manner of miniature blogging, follow some of the social media. I try to use all of them differently. You can find them on linktree. Also considere giving a look on Guilders: A Life In Shadows, a skirmish campaign game I'm working on. 

Slugde: Shock Troopers and Cannon

Time for some more Sludge. For Sludge I got myself one box of Wargames Atlantic french ww1 troops, because it had so many masked heads. I also got a buch of Napoleonics (for hats) and Perry knights for armor. 

Shock Troopers

Shock Troopers are cool elite troops. They don't have bayonettes, they have melee weapons for storming trenches and can equip greanades. I decided to give them bear skin hats (and masks) to show their elite status. 

They have more armor than regular line infantry. I used Perry knight bodies (armor on torso and legs), but used a knife to could the leg armor into pants. The shock troopers are not fully armored. 

I assebled them with a mix of close combat weapons and carbine rifles. They carry the other set as gear. 

Cloaks added as on all the army with toilet paper / super glue. 

For story in the army, I've made sergeants on the command bases for the Line Infantry. These guys have the same gear as the Shock Troopers, to show that these can be put in command of line infantry. I used the ww1 frech sergent bodies for these (same defence as line infantry, so no armor plating on these). 

I made the hats/helmets/masks. Cut the helmet part of the ww1 head (so only the mask and brim remain). Cut face of a french napoleon soldier. Glue together. 

I went with the same color scheme for these. Yellow, grey, black, red. Heavy wash and drybrush. So all seems dirty, dusty, muddy. 

Artillery

I was gifted two cool little pieces of cannon. 3d resin prints, but not fitting the style of the first guy who got them. So they were passed to me. I made the crew from bits I had. Some ww1 sergeant bodies, some napoleonic bodies (the command frame had a carpenter in apron). Found some suitable bits in the bit box. Small axes, hammers, torch, made that 'clean the cannon' thing from a spear and a bit of greenstuff. Made cannon balls with green stuff and did some hand switching. 

The metal masks, whatever they are, are also from the ww1 french. Don't know what it's meant to be. Haven't seen them in real life. 

Show some love

If you want to try Sludge, then go and check it out from Wargames Vault. Blaster also contains all manner of other cool stuff. 

I post lots of miniature stuff on different platforms (and use them differently), so go drop some likes and follows through Link Tree.

Forbidden Psalm warband

 Back for Horisont Con in May, we tried out Forbidden Psalm (Mörk Borg). It's a crazy random skirmish game with random characters and really deadly. I decided to paint up a warband for it using the mutants from King Games - Dunkeldorf line. 

This was also my first attempt at using Speed Paints. I've learned a lot since then, and I like the colors better now than I did when painting these. I made sure to use every colors in set set across these guys. 

A lot of pople love Mörk Borg and anything realated to it (there's been so many kickstarters with suff). The system and style is not really for me though. But it was decent fun trying out the game. At least it's a bunch a cool painted miniatures. 

You can find Forbidden Psalm here.

As you need a ranged fighter for Forbidden Psalm I did a bit of conversion work on this miniature. Gave him a crossbow, quiver and hand with bolt fro mthe bit box. Easy enough conversion to do, no problem there. The scale fit well. 

Terrain: Barracks

This blog post was originally written as a feature for Uncle Vanyas, an excellent little compendium made for Zona Alfa. If you want to check out a really cool community, head over to Stalker7, Patrick Todoroffs play ground.
----

"Alright kids gather around and listen to old Uncle Vanya. I got another tip for you, a good place to look when you're inside the Zone. The the anomalies started and everything went to shit, all manner of forces moved in here to control and contain it. Both the army and those bloody UN peacekeeping tourists. The all set up FOBs - before knowing what was going on!

Now you can find these FOBs all over the Zone, huge areas filled with those nissen huts, prefab steel barracks - we call the tin coffins around here. The thing is, they're often filled with good stuff. The Zone is filled with them! Sometimes soldier boys leave those FOBs as part of a mission, just leave - might come back and use them later. Cheap to build, so just leave 'em. Might forget or leave common stuff. Sometimes they have to evacuate quickly as anomalies shift or they just all die from some weird stuff.

That's the tin coffins you really wanna find, a base left in a hurry. Just keep your fucking eyes open! You might find NVGs, MREs, boxes of Igolnik rounds - or some weird deadly shit. Had a guy try to light a campfire with scavenged fuel, it turned out the jerry can was filled with Hellslime - blyat, what a mess.

Where to look? Well there's manned bases around the edge and near the checkpoints, but you can find the abandoned ones deep in the Zone. Sure I know a few tin coffin graveyards. Here give me your map, I'll mark out a few."


Let's build some super cheap, scrap material terrain - the well known corrugated steel barracks.

Materials: Oversized tin cans, thick card / mdf, duct tape, masking tape, sand, wood glue, spray paint, cheap acryllics
Tools: Metal shears / grinder, hot glue gun (optional), knife, cheap brushes.


Step 1 - Cutting the can
Get your oversized tin cans. These are the ones they use at the pizza place, deli or restaurants. I found my first in dumpsters at the store and then got some from my pizza guy. Mark them in half and cut them with metal shears (it's a bit tricky at the bottom). You can also use a grinder, it's faster but it's a two man job.


The tin cans will bend when doing this (either way), but it's easy enough to fix, so don't be alarmed when they're out of shape.





Step 2 - Making a base
Time to make some bases. Not much to it. Use mdf, cardboard or whatever else you have lying around. I found some discarded board in my school's arts and craft room.

Make an X on the back of the base with duct tape. Do this on all your terrain, always. The X will add some tension to the base and it prevents a lot of the warping you often get from using wood / pva glue on bases. All my homemade terrain has this X underneath.


Use a sharp knife to angle the base edge, we don't want that steep 3mm edge. Angle it out, nevermind it not being completely even.


Step 3: Gluing it down
Place the half can on the base and draw around it with a pencil. I used a hot glue gun for mine. Contact glue will work as well or PVA (though this is not the best option). If using pva, use a lot, at pressure on the barracks and let it dry completely.


Sand up the edge of the base. Use this time to strengthen the bind, I added lots of glue and sand on the edge of the barracks (inside and out) - to keep it in place. Perhaps add more than one layer. My hard board had some nice texture, using that as concrete in this build.






Part 4: Painting made easy
All my terrain is nearly completed with cheap spray paint. Saves time and is damn quick. Paint the inside and floor grey first. Then use paper to mask the floor and paint the barracks green. Then mask with paper and paint the sand brown. Five minutes and you terrain looks decent.


I wanted one to be a medical bay, so using masking tape I made a square - spray white. Then using smaller pieces of masking tape made out a cross - spray red. Make sure previous layers is completely dry before adding masking tape.




Step 5: It's all in the details
Repair the outline of any stencil with a finer brush and hobby paints. I've also added some details to the barracks with chess piece markings, painted free hand. In Escape from Tarkov the military base buildings have call signs based on chess pieces - making for easy identification. Fun little detail.



We need to blend and tone this spray paint layer. I use a homemade brown wash for all my terrain. Cheap brown and black acryllics, dishwash soap (a few drops), water and PVA. Splash the entire thing in it, a few layers. Flick that paint brush as well for some stains.


Lastly add whatever static grass and tufts you want to the base.

Showcase
All finished up! Here's some quick to build, super cheap terrain pieces that'll fill out a lot of space on your board. This build is easy to make for other settings as well. I plan on making both a couple of all white red cross ones and some yellow / blue FEMA ones.


If you enjoyed this, please check out my blog: Bloodbeard's Garage for more cheap scrap material builds.


Let's see a couple of stalkers getting into trouble at an abandoned army FOB.