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.
