Scale Creep Submission

So I finally went to the scale-creep dark side and got 1:43 scale vehicles for my minis. It began when I actually measured my resin 28mm vehicles from Atenociti's Workshop and found most of them to be 1:43 instead of 1:50. Shortly thereafter I discovered that Greenlight makes a line of TV and movie cars featuring a lot of 70s and 80s models that I particularly dig.

Here we have a 1987 Dodge Van in NYPD livery from Greenlight. I've oscilated back and forth on how to paint up my resin police cars, the 70s/80s white-over-blue scheme being my favorite but also the most difficult to do... the option to get prepainted cars that just need to be weathered greatly simplifies the equation. Shown with one of the Foundry Street Violence cops.

The A-TEAM is one of my primary influences in wargaming and roleplaying, so having the full array of cars from the show is a goal. Of course I have the GMC Van on order, but Face's Corvette has already arrived, shown here with the Hannibal and Face minis from Foundry's Street violence 'B-Team' pack. Greenlights Hollywood A-TEAM offerings include this, the van, and a Dodge Monaco in military police livery.

I never really watched any of CHARLIE'S ANGELS, in fact I'm fairly certain I've never actually seen an entire episode, but I really like the Jeep CJ5, and this one is plain enough to be a generic car... the California plates will mix well with the A-TEAM, TERMINATOR and KNIGHT RIDER stuff I have planned. If I can find Mindy's blue CJ5 from MORK & MINDY, I will absolutely grab that one too.

KITT in 1:43 is an expensive car to pick up currently... EBay prices run near or in the triple digits. Instead I picked up this '83 Firebird Trans Am from DeAgostini, which was last months offering in the monthly American Car Collection at the book stores here. They are a little pricey, but far cheaper than the alternatives. I will keep an eye out for an actual KITT and KARR in the future.

So I'm now one of those oversized cars guys. Quite the change from ten years ago when I was still using 1:55.

More Intermodal Containers (and more)

Daiso ¥100 shop run while waiting for Emily. 6 more scaffolds, two not-Mini diecasts, nine concrete pipes, 17 intermodal shipping container tins, and two fake beer can tins.

That brings my total to 48 intermodal containers and 12 scaffolds. I'll pick up two more of the maroon or blue ones if I see them, as that will neatly fill up the shelf cubby I have them stashed in.

Should I be concerned that the back of the diecast car packaging says "keep out of reach of children"?

Foundry Street Violence

Spent the last couple of days basing six packs of Foundry Street Violence minis I ordered last month. The order (which was quickly and efficiently dispatched by the Ansells) consisted of:

• Juno's Crew (SV018)
• Sergei's Corporation (SV024)
• Street Cops (SV031)
• The B Team (SV037)
• The Lovemore Detective Agency (SV057)
• Shotgun Cops (SV065)

The minis required a bit of cleaning, which is to be expected of casts from molds as old as these. If memory serves this line started back in the late 90s and should be old enough to legally order a beer now.

Sergei's Corporation and Juno's Crew, two packs I owned years ago but have since lost or damaged enough to make a reorder prudent, are intended to form the nucleaus of an organized crime force. I definitely want some Russian mobsters and both packs should serve as the core of that force; I will have to experiment with using a pen to add tattoos to the minis's necks and hands. Italian mobsters are also something I will field, but I don't think Juno's crew has the look I want for them... more track suits and guts. I'm thinking more like the guys from The Sopranos, Juno's crew is too hip looking to be goombahs - (which is saying something for twenty-plus year old minis).

My included two packs of uniformed police officers, both six-mini packs. I plan to remove the cast on sleeve patches from each of them, as they aren't placed very well on a number of the minis. Given the 8-point caps I will likely paint these up as NYC-style cops... French blue shirts with dark navy trousers, caps and ties. I may make some water slide decals to use as patches. We will see. Twelve uniforms should be all the police I need to field at any one time, particularly if the are augmented by a couple detectives from the Lovemore packs, or SWAT minis from a future order. The Lovemore Detective Agency is, I believe intended to represent a group of P.I.s but a couple of them are very city detective looking, with what appears to be a detective shield clipped to the belt.

The B Team was picked up to go with one of a pair of 1:50 scale A Team vans I picked up years ago. I have no idea what I will do with the second van yet, but better to have two than only one. Perhaps a Punisher battle van.... hmmm. Anyway this pack is decent, but I must say the new not-A-team minis from Crooked Dice may be better... I havent ordered them yet, but the pics look excellent.

About two years ago I started to switch from washer and token bases back to sports base types. Part of the reason for this was the difficulty in mounting minis with sports tabs. Many newer minis featured much slighted ankles that made it challenging to pin on a base that could be firmly glued to the washer or token.

I found that by creating a void in the slotta base, backed by a 20mm washer glued to the underside, I could get a flush mount for minis with cast on bases. The washer adds some nice weight, and the overall height of the mini is nearly identical to the height of the mini on a token. Additionally slotta bases come in a much wider variety of shapes giving me more options for mounted and motorcycle minis. It also gives a vintage 90's feel to my tabletop that I rather like.

Scaffolding from Daiso

Went back to Daiso on Tuesday to look for more shipping containers. They hadn't restocked, but I did notice these racks intended for displaying diecast cars. They are modular, stackable, and have pin and socket connectors to attach them together end-to-end or even in L shapes.

My immediate thought was of the workers scaffolding you often come across in NYC, assembled over the sidewalk. I think if I remove the cross members on the short ends from a couple to use at street level, I can achieve the same effect by stacking and sliding these up on the sidewalk against buildings on the table top.

I only picked up six, the number of brown decked ones that Daiso had on hand. There are black decked ones as well, but I prefer the contrast, and it's that much less I need to paint. I will probably hit up another Daiso tomorrow looking for more of the brown. 

Cheap 20' Shipping Containers

Went to Daiso with my wife this morning to get some garland to redo the wreaths for the door. As we were browsing the home decor section I noticed these tins that were styled after ConEx/Shipping containers. Eyeballing them at the store I realized they were pretty damn close to 28mm. I bought four to take home and check.

Measurments put them at about 1/53, which is a little smaller than the 1/50 I would prefer, but at ¥100 for fully painted containers that I just need to seal and weather... I am more than willing to overlook the slight reduction of size. They come in two basic liveries, ONE - Ocean Network Express (in pink and light grey variants) and CTNRX "Everything you can imagine is real" (in blue, maroon, and dark green variants). The roof of each is actually the lid and is grooved to allow another one to nest on top. I imagine I might be able to make some craft foam inserts to allow them to double as miniature storage as well - probably a small gang/fireteam of four minis to each container.

So after picking my son up from school I went back and bought all of stock they had. Here they are in all their glory. Think I need more...

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UPDATE: On Tuesday I was working in Kanazawa, where there happens to be another Daiso... so I bought all the containers they had as well. I am currently at 31.

Eyehole Brush - you know, a brush... for your eyehole.

Back from a makeup-brushes-for-painting-minis run at the ¥100 store... got me an "eyehole brush".

I'm still not going to paint eyes on my minis... but it's nice to see daily proof of your job security.

Vietnam-era Flying Boxcar

I have two of these Disney Planes Cabbie toys. They are a wonderful compromise on scale for table top use. Shorter wings and thicker fuselage fits in well. One of them will be a mercenary plane based on the seaplan from The Expendables, and the other will be a Vietnam-era transport.

Paint is mostly done (it still needs a red prop warning line on the fuselage), and I began applying decals - from a number of different sheets - today. I need a decent day of low humidity to clear coat and I probably will add a few warning decals still. Cockpit windows, weathering, prop magnets, and landing gear need to be finished up.

Markings and paint scheme are fictional. I decided to do a Marines C-119 painted in a manner similar to the AC-119 gunships with black lowers and "South-East Asian" camouflage upper surfaces. GreenStuff World's decal sheet had an appropriate name, "Rice Pattie [sic] Hattie", that seemed something a Marine aircrew might paint on the aircraft. The scorpion tail marking is from Gnomish Workshop and is a call out to a fictional squadron from a t-shirt I got at Target years ago.