Weather delays

Probably for one of the first times ever there is a weather related delay in miniature painting and reviewing. The heatwave in the US this week (and in my area, the week before) has put a bit of a hold on my ability to work on miniatures (when super glue starts boiling in the bottle and paint dries as it pours it becomes very difficult to get much building or painting done).

I will also be attending a security conference this month which between preparations and attending will take up most of what would be my normal productive (miniatures) time. I do have a few items for my USCMC project ready to be written up so I will try to put up something so that I can keep semi regular updates going.

My latest QRF order arrived (cleverly packed in an old Purina box) containing what should be the last models required for the USA Stryker Platoon and the c.2003 USMC for Iraq. Once the weather abates I should have plenty to share.

Scale Creep arrived!

Scale Creep has delivered.

So that's most of my zombies, my first USCMC squad and an assortment of zombie hunting troops with HMMWVs (going to have to find a replacement M2HB or M240 for the M998 Squad Carrier as one of the M1025s came minus it's .50) and a couple of Vietnam-era US 81mm mortar teams that will have their parts sacrificed to make a couple of USCMC M402 Multi-Launch Mortars. Also my copies of Ambush Alley and Ambush Z.


Here are the current USCMC squad, the platoon commander with his advisors, the first mortar team with their M402 and a couple of casualties, behind them you can see two of the GZG Cafferta APCs, including the converted one which still awaits it's replacement turret fittings (soon, I swear!)

Tomorrow should be spent Zombie mounting and trying to make some progress on the AA turret (paper clips are surprisingly useful).

Work continues on the resculpting of the Cafferta's wheel wells, although it has been slowed somewhat by the significant drop in temperature here which has made the kneadite more difficult to work with. after this stage all that should be left will be rebuilding some of the detailing lost during the earlier stages and the construction of the new turret (have to decide on what that will look like).

In terms of the other parts of the USCMC project hopefully my order from Scale Creep will ship tomorrow or Wednesday (still no word on when QRF will ship the orders I placed with them.) The Scale Creep order includes a number of QRF's Unarmed Civillians/Zombies and some of their Modern US range for my second project, World War Z. Between Ambush Alley and Ambush Z I should have enough to tide me over until Tomorrow's War is released.

The Khurasan Miniatures order arrived today and I have to say the casting quality is amazing. There are virtually no visible mold lines on the metal parts and the resin has hardly any flash or distortion. The fit between the resin and metal parts is fantastic as well, with each piece fitting snugly in place.

Now of course comes the question of what I will do with them. Obviously one way or another they will be serving as APCs for my USCMC platoon but, will I leave them as-is or will I do some conversion? If I do any conversion work, what will it be? I'm definitely considering some work on the wheels and wheel wells but should I stop there?
Hopefully I can figure that out this weekend.

That was fast!

Noble Knight has proven themselves to be fast and efficient. The Sci-Fi Supply (now, unfortunately out of business) buildings and Wild Walls kits were in exactly the condition NK had described and an order placed Sunday afternoon arrived late this morning (a touch under three days which compares favorably to Amazon.UK and the Royal Mail).

The trick now will be to figure out how to deal with the very limited availability of the kits (Fortress Walls, Fortified Towers, control tower) relative to what I will likely need. Unlike a normal resin, pewter or even plastic kit traditional resin casting isn't exactly viable for the unassembled kit (as it is formed styrene sheet) and I'm not sure how well the assembled kit would hold it's shape under normal casting methods. Very tricky.