ANZACS and the return of ‘Them’, ( & Cthulu Kong, Goldylocks etc!))

Looking through the Pulp Figures back catalogue,  I found they did a 2nd set of She Wolves, as I had already painted up pack one for other projects so this was selected.

Helga the leader was done in the classic Black, elwith her pack done in Tropical uniforms other than standard black boots and belts.

Finally I painted up the Nazi’s leaders and Henchman

Schwarzen Eisenhelm, his main scientist Herr Natkas and their 2 henchmen Sgts  Ichbin Nurfermechaniker and Werwaren dieseidioten.

Both Sgts spend most of their time trying to keep their one tank running for the last 29 years., commanded by  the redoubtable Lt Gruber.

( painted some time ago, I have to find a suitable crew figure)

Although they dare not pitch it against more modern armour,  it still is useful for Infantry support and Monster stopping.

(The model is not far off that age, it is a metal cast from the old Cheiftain models crafted by  the redoubtable Ian Crouch.)

Black Sun has a Nazi Faction , relics from a Pre WW2 lost expedition to the Himalayan Mountains. Called  the Deutsche LIG ( Lemurian Untersuchungsgruppe) which are the usual mix of Scientists,  officers  Zombies and Ghouls.

Didn’t fancy that particularly,  I had already dug up the disembodied Brains and Big Ape,but what else, wasn’t particularly struck by the loan Crucible Crush single pack , so looked for Alternatives.

Now I had some Artizan Designs Afrika Korps, which were nice matches for my recent CC and Empress figures.

Why Afika Korps,

1 I had some figures

2 Thought they would have had to have more tropical uniforms, and figured why not use Afika Korps , plus covers uniforms they used in Med.

3I wanted to get from the traditional Zombie types.

4 Quite a few of Artizans figures had masked up faces that fitted my idea.

So the plan was to have standard German Infantry, but obviously most of these guys would be in their 50’s to 60’s with the youngest being 49 if they set out when 19. So how did they keep going.

Using the settings background of secret experiments with old Lemurian tech. Rather than Zombies, reckoned they would have been forced to look for some sort of Immotrality drug .

So let’s ay they succeeded to some of extent, the drug helped in keeping the soldiers Vitality   but in males caused their skin to go grey and wrinkly.  So some troopers have taken it before the side effects became obvious. One benefit though was the effected troops became more able to withstand wounds , and could survive were most normal Humans would die.

On females Vitality was maintained without the skin effects but they did not get the wound ability.

This is so I could then use sone of the Nice pulpy German Figures for Pulp Figures other ranges.

So plan was a squad of not Zombie Germans plus some standard Human German troops.

The Standard German Infantry would be Artizan Afrika Korps from my leftovers from other projects.

The not Zombies would be masked a wrapped up Afrika Korps from a mixture of suitable Artizan figures plus a Sprue of Warlord figures , one of Wargame Illustrated freebies.

This Sprue allowed me to do a few figures with captured American and Soviet wpns , in an attempt to get catch up tech, using suitable are wpn  arms from Wargames Atlantics Operators etc.

So using the Warlord Sprue  did one with the standard German Light Mortar , one with the Mg34 (it is probably better than M60 so suck with it.

Then did 2 with M16 type Rifles  1 with Ak47 and one firing a LAW for some Anti tank.

Now for painting them I wanted to find suitable Speedpaints for the German tropical uniforms.

This turned out to be easier than I thought,  for the Light Afrika Korps uniform I found that Speed Paints Algae Green worked as a close match with its slightly brownish look. For the Sand Uniforms I found Speed Paints Ohcre Clay was a good match.

The brown leather belts was done by darkening Clay Ocre, with SpeedpaintsLHardened Leather..

The wpn conversions were fairly easy  the WA arms generally fitted without problem even the Law.

So that gave me the Nazi Cannon fodder, I already had some weird figures with the Disembodied Brains and Ape,so next it wa Nazi Characters and Leaders.

Having brought all the remaining packs of U.S. Infantry from Crucible Crush, I had to get All the Vietcong/NVA so another order. Now these I felt were the more characterful figures that I came to expect from Pulp Figures.

So let’s start with the Vietcong.

This time there seemed to be more figures suitable for NVA.

I also finally got round to doing some of the Vietcong/NVA heavy wpn teams and some lMG’s to bump up squad fire power.

So I finished my Female Vietcong Anti Air HMg team  2x Vietcong LMG’s and a NVA HMG team.

That will give me enough Vietcong/NVA for a while, apart from a couple more heavy wpn teams. Which has allowed me to concentrate on my Lost  Fiendish Nazi’s faction.

Having done my ANZAC’S, I decided to knuckle down and do some more U.S forces .

So I started with 4 U.S. Marine heroes from Full Metal Jacket, a special set from Empress Miniatures.

I finally decided to buy Crucible Crushs American Infantry sculpted by Pulp Minatures.

I don’t generally need much to buy from Pulp Minatures

So I brought all 3 packs of U.S. Infantry.

And I then finished off 3 odd figures left over from one of Crucible Crush’s U.S. Characters, t2 are obviously from Apcalypse Now. Not sure on 3rd but could be the the Colonel played by Marlon Brando.

Yup nearly old song titles, but with all the rabbit holes completed for noe, plus all the Vietnam vehicles I could finally concentrate on what had started it all ANZAC’S for Black Suns. I had actually built a 2nd Squad of Rubicon’s figures, and completed half of it, so I next completed the squad.

I had brought a couple of packs of Empress Minatures ANZAC’S, for I thought was going to be a command squad, but turns out the 2nd pack of Rifleman was too many, as platoon command was just officer and Radioman.

Despite this I painted up the 6 and really liked the figures, for the sharper detail they gave over Rubicon’s. So it was decided that I would buy 4 more packs of Empress to give me a reinforced Platoon with 2 x Rubicon’s squads and 2x Empress for big games, but for smaller skirmishs use the Empress. The spare Rubicon figures could then be used for gun crew for the 105mm gun I have yet to build.

So now I have Command Element.

For anyone noticing squad 1 has 9 figures and squad 2 11, one of squad 1’s Rifleman got missed for photo.

So I have now Finished the ANZA’CS Infantry + Goal for this project!

Something I’ve been meaning to get for sometime is finally finished.  Another of those models I brought ( of ebay) before xmas and gas been languishing in hobby room for weeks .

Simple paint job, the base was undercoated white, then 2 coats of GW Grey Seer contrast paint.

The Gate and DHD were done in Speedpaint Speedpaints Broadsword Silver with a couple of gabs of Speedpaint Purple Swarm.

The removable puddles was again base coated white, given a coat of Sped Paints Blue Azure , then a light dry brush of white. Then two coats of gloss varnish.

This brings me currently up to date with this projects progress.

I left this model as a separate entry for a couple of reasons other than just update space. One I felt rather pleased on how it turned out as for sone reason I thought it would be fiddly to paint ( it wasn’t).

Secondly I had watched an interesting little You tube video on

O00It describes how this supposedly obsolete anti aircraft vehicle got retrieved from the scrapheap, finding a whole new purpse in Vietnam.

Also it was a model O was never able to represent back in the day as no one did one on 20mm and it was way beyond my cratch building or conversion skills.

Decals are a mixture of spare M48 decals, with the Cavalry swords from the M113’s both from Rubicon.

My final American armour completions were a mix of pre Xmas builds and base coated I  the Form of a 2nd M48 ( of course I did) and an M42 Duster ( I’ll.leave that till.last)    the recently built M113 ACAV and a the newly Purchased M551 Sheridan.

Now I had been holding out for the Rubicon resin kit, but it’s been out of stock for ages so went for the Full Metal models version.

The above is done as an U.S.Marines M48   there are enough decals on Rubicon sheet for 2 different Marin vehicles.

With the M551 I’m not sure if I got the extra armour around the Commanders Copula right as I only had some not particularly detailed pictures either from the model illustrations or real life period photos to work on. The Commander figure is one of the many spare figures from Rubicon kit. This and the subsequent M113 ACAV have been done as members of the 1th Armouted Cavalry Regiment or famed Black Horse Regiment , partly done as there was a nice collection of decals for them stacking up from all the Rubicon M113’S,  but also as a tribute to the late David Drake, Author of the Hammers Slammers series of Sci fi books who served as Intelligence officer in that Regiment.