S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Lost to the Zone

[commissarmoody]

Looking forward to seeing it. Take lots of photos.

[Wyrmalla]

Tonight's big update then. Rocks.



Que two paragraph spiel about the complex process of making some scatter terrain...

I made those thinks in like an hour. I was rushing them so much that I was using a lamp to dry the paint. At one point I held the plastic to the light for so long that it started to warp pretty badly. I gazed at my open window and considered that yeah, that was probably enough ventilation and I wouldn't be dead soon...

On a side note though, I tried my hand at making some bushes. They're just cut up bits of paperclips twisted about a bit and glued together with clumps of that flocky stuff glued on the ends. They look decent enough, but will break easily if under pressure unfortunately. =/

As for the game... Hmn, will following suite from previous ones I spend so much time talking during them that I can't take pictures. However here's the pre-battle shots of the table at least.






We ran the scenario twice actually, with both players swapping sides. Both times the Duty squad won out over the Bandits and stole away the artifact, though the second time was much closer than the first. The main issue was the placement of the artifact however (...which I pointed out, but couldn't change it), so you could technically have ran up the board and off the table by turn three easily.

Somehow we made it to turn eight in the second game though. What did that mean? Well zombies appeared on the table on turn six and moved towards the Stalkers. By turn eight a blowout hit and killed the remaining Stalkers. By that point Duty were down to two guys and the remaining five Bandits were encroaching on the Duty escape vehicle. The Bandit leader made for the van and engaged in melee with the sniper standing beside it. Meanwhile the Duty leader, with the artifact, dived into the vehicle. As the zombies moved in on one side and the bandits on the other (with his comrade fighting just outside the door) he gunned the engine and made it away. Moments later all the other Stalkers were turned to paste by the Blowout.

...He could have slammed the door into the bandit boss and allowed his comrade to leap in. He didn't though.

Heh, and the game only lasted so long as the Duty player thought he just needed to make it off the board edge, not to the vehicle. My response when he tried that? "What, you going to just walk back home?"

So aye, points from tonight's discussion? OK relevent points? Hmn, might have a go at a DayZ style general store (as posted earlier in this thread). I think one more cottage will be enough for a village table. Hell if you add another building into the current setup it'd be full. Having more than I'd need for one game allows for things to be mixed and matched however (I didn't use the Hind or swamps this week for instance and instead had something which resembled a village much more).

[Brummie Thug]

Scatter terrain is looking good. I'm having a bash myself at the moment so taking notes on those rocks Nice report it sounds like it was fun both times.

[Constable Bertrand]

Looks very chernobyl to me!   

[Wyrmalla]

I need a brown swampy/forestry mat for my tables. Those green boards are just yuck. That and I want to replace the desert one which I use for Fallout as its too thin and I have to literally tape it to the table otherwise it curls up. ¬¬

Looking at that table adds more things to my "to do" list. Having my own trees would be nice, particularly ones specific to the region too (as if I'm going to spend the money I may as well be accurate). I'm still kicking myself for not buying those bare tree armatures (by Woodland Scenics IIRC, hmn, wonder if they have a UK distributor) before a particular model shop shut down. They would have done for Chernobyl's Red Forest and Fallout.

I have a set of dirt track roads sitting here. The issue with them as I'd like to use them for both S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Fallout. As the club already has its own roads they're probably destined for Fallout however. I'll need to see if the seller from the show I picked them up off a few months ago will be at the one I'm going to in a few weeks and maybe pick up some more.

That or I just make some myself...

I'm wondering as well if making some dirt track/gravel paths would be a good idea? Something to go alongside a road or flanked by fences in the middle of a field. Nothing to go overboard with, but they'd do for a village (the more developed ones would use the pavement sections which I use with my Fallout stuff).

Righto. Today I think I'll be planning out whether a DayZ supermarket (below) will be viable (compare it to the houses in the background. One of those is on an A4 sized base. This thing would probably be on two of those). Eugh, I literally just bought some new storage containers for all my terrain (currently the stuff I'm not using is piled up in a corner...). I put the Stalker stuff I was going to use in my usual one last night and it barely fit. If I want to add a super market and add another cottage to that set I may need to start taking two boxes along to my club... Damn, it'll be even worse once I finish the large buildings which are destined for Fallout (heh, due to appear here in a half finished state around Christmas 2017).

[Constable Bertrand]

Leave the supermarket, go for the small town corner store instead

Cheers
Matt.

[Wyrmalla]

Another piece of armour for the military patrolling the wilds of the Zone. A Ukrainian BMP-2.




This one's fairly out of the box.All I did to this was all the flag coming out of the back. Its a 1/56 (I think) resin kit from an unknown manufacturer. My friend picked it, a Warrior and like 40 troops up at a show for £30, and I nabbed the Russians off of him. I went for a fictional camo scheme with it and the odd ad-hoc piece of insignia to it.

Were I to find another of these then I'd cover it in stowage and bother with the little details like smoke launchers. With these I just wanted to paint the thing as I've had it for months now just sitting there. I guess this is something that's been pulled out the mothballs, given a new lick of paint by whatever mechanic was on hand and been sent out on patrol (the military certainly loses a lot of soldiers during the course of the game, and its not as if they were well funded to begin with anyhow).

Pictured with it is another of those Eureka Miniatures Soviet soldiers in an NBC suit.



He'll be with the Loners. I doubt that the military's that hard up that its still issuing thirty year old suits. Uh, though I could google if current Eastern European countries are in fact still using these somehow...

[.:Gunslinger:.]

Hi Wyrmalla,

great once again! Too bad though that you don't know the manufacturer of that tank...I'm looking for a BMp/BTR to wreck and weather to achieve the fitting look.

The Eureka Stalker is great! I love the colors you have used, it looks like straight from the Zone-perfect!

I'm going to use Eureka miniatures for my project, especially these guys in NBC suits, but also the 1980's mechanized soviet infantry (for loners) aswell as USMC force recon for the more advanced stalker factions like Duty and Freedom. Obviously they will be converted giving them gasmasks and generally enhancing the 'zone'-look

I ordered the minis last week, can't wait for them to arrive and get this project going...

Thanks again for the inspiration!

Cheers Marc

[Wyrmalla]

You can pick up resin ones easily enough, there's a list of manufacturers in the Cold War forum, though the £30 price tag is a bit much for a wreck. However if you're looking for plastic kits search for Kitech ...and damn what was that other company? ...Well just put in something like "T-55 1/48th" on Ebay and they'll crop up. What was I saying? Aye there's a few Asian companies who make 1/48th scale remote control kits which you can pick up on Ebay easily enough which look to be of decent quality. That and Siberia Miniatures carry die-casts of Russian vehicles, though again the price tag may be a bit much to use them as wrecks (luckily I picked up a load of Soviet cars for £1 each, damn, no trucks though).

Aye I have a few of those mechanized infantry as loners and bandits too, just with greenstuff over them. With the two factions I'd hazard to use the NATO soldiers for Freedom and Russian ones for Duty, though of course you can mix and match. I just mean in my own case that's what I'm aiming for as those world powers are the major backers of each of those factions. Of course Stalkers just use whatever they can get a hold of, though if they happen to get arms shipments coming in every now and then from certain countries or some of their number are former soldiers with their own preferences, then their gear may be a little biased.

Though yeah, just stick on a gas mask and a load of useless gear and call it job's a good 'un. Its only the colour of the camo which matters really.

Are you making any terrain to go along with your stuff or just using whatever forest/urban stuff that you have handy?

[Wyrmalla]

Another WIP.



This one's called the Big Game Hunter.

On that subject though I can picture rich folks or professional hunters going to the Zone to bag some dangerous game. Hell people get off on shooting wild boars, try having a Chimera's head mounted on your wall (such trophies do appear in the games...). Though similarly I bet a few go there to kill Snorks and zombies to take home for their walls too... Rub enough hands at the Cordon and you can take anything out of the Zone.

[Wyrmalla]

Musing over in the Cold War/Modern board about vehicles. I'm pondering if I can convert one of these into the military version?





It looks to me that some changes could be made to bring it up to scratch. The roof on the civilian version is flat, but its also lower than the original, so I could just build the accurate one on top of that. The rear sides would be a case of filling in the civilian doors and removing that cloth cover, but still doable. Besides that then it'd just be adding the bumper, which I'm not too sure about scratch building, but maybe I can just find another vehicle to nab a similar looking one off of.

Thoughts though? Heh, though this reminds me that I have a Ukrainian Humvee to finish too.

Edit: aye and in other news I have two trenchcoat wearing bandits and that hunter (who's gained a gas mask) being painted right now. ...Though yes, my thoughts are somewhat drifting to the ultra modern stuff because of that thread. =/

And as I search in the wonderful world of old Russian diecasts I find de agostini (the same company who make all the Russian diecasts) did in fact make a military version. Pity then that its even harder to find than the civilian version. I bet there's some discount store in Russian right now where the walls are packed with these things going for pennies each. ¬¬

[kidterminal]

I'll bet.

[Wyrmalla]

More fun with buying Russian diecasts.

Did you know that if you logon to Ebay as an Eu user it doesn't show items from the Russian Federation? If you don't however... Aye I found loads of those Gaz Tigrs from Russian traders like I said in that last post. However in among them (and for some reason filtered from Eu searches) was a Ukrainian one ...who under the countries excluded to sell to was Ukraine.

I've picked up one from that seller, we'll just have to see if it ever turns up, or if it'll be like my last order from Brother Vinni and it'll be late by a few weeks and covered in a "searched by customs for weapons/drugs" stamps. =P

Damn, I would have loved to have just bought these diecasts when they originally came out with the magazine. Then again presumably didn't sell amazing given that I was picking up a load of those cars for a pound each a few years ago.

Hey look, a picture of a Gaz Tigr in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. setting. ...Weirdly with an American gun. Hmn, those look like Ukrainian markings too. Meh, fanart.

[commissarmoody]

Looking forward to seeing how the GAZ turn out. If they are decent I might order some myself.

[Wyrmalla]

If it ever turns up...

Here's the listings on Ebay for Gaz Tigrs:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xgaz+tiger+1%2F43.TRS0&_nkw=gaz+tiger+1%2F43&_sacat=0

There's the military variant and the humvee style civilian one available. However I don't see actual military ones in the style in most common use, rather its supply versions with cloth rears and ambulances. The ambulance one that I picked up will need a bumper added, but it looks like a hell of a lot less work than the civilian one which I was originally going to buy. I don't know if I'll add the roof hatch with pintle gun, though I guess we'll see what I feel like at the time (I do have a spare DShK machine gun spare at least, not that that's what's used as a pintle mount, but its good enough to use for that humvee I'm working on).

Ooh, I think I aught to do a comparison shot between the Ukrainian Humvee and the Gaz Tigr at some point.