Command Team

Another of GZG's little-seen packs, the generic command team SG15-G01.


I've painted them to match my OUDF troops, GW goblin green uniforms with Humbrol Matt 186 brown boots, belts & holsters, all washed with a Vallejo sepia ink wash.

The pack contains 2 each of 4 different figures - officer, tech, bodyguard and a sitting comms officer (not yet painted as first I'll need to build a seat and comm station for him!).

The officer does remind me of a certain Colonel D Dare of the Interplanetary Space Fleet!

Long Time, No Posts

I haven't had a chance to post anything new for a while now - very slow internet connection at the local library that I use, it can take me 20 minutes just to read a couple of e-mails! In addition, my duties as a Scout leader have left me without so much spare time; we've been off on a few camps recently, raft-building by the river Tas, out running around the woods, cooking over open fires (I've never seen a burger look that black and charred before!).

I shall be leaping into the 21st Century next Monday when I get broadband at home, so should be able to start posting more regularly, especially as the end of the Scouting term is coming up.

I have lots of little projects on the go, hopefully I'll actually finish some of them so I have some nice little pictures to pop on the blog too.

Stay tuned for the next exciting developments in the world of Mini Metal Mayhem...

Time to get technical

Another find from the local charity shop - a crew cab pickup which just cried out "technical" as soon as I saw it!


I drilled out the rivet holding the chassis and body shell together, which in turn enabled me to get the axles out. A couple of minutes with a pair of pliers got the axles straight (you can see in the photograph that the wheels were a bit wonky to start with), then I filed & sanded the body shell.


A couple of coats of Humbrol matt white spray gave a good basic finish. Vallejo black ink gave some depth to the grilles below the windscreen and the gaps round the doors. Inscribe military sand acrylic was daubed over the whole model including chassis, then wiped off with my thumb, leaving a dusty coloured residue in all the right places. A bit of scratching with my thumbnail cut through the paint to the metal, giving some reasonably realistic paint chipping around the edges of the pickup bed.


Headlights are GW mithril silver, brake lights GW red gore. Seats are Vallejo beastly brown with a wash of black ink (not that you can really see them in these photographs). Hubcaps received a quick coat of GW chainmail & mithril silver where required.


A suitable addition to my collection, for use as either background scenery or as a technical (once I get a weapon mount for the back) in either Ambush Alley or low-tech sci-fi battles.

Quite satisfactory for 20 pence and an hours painting!

Mortar support

My OUDF forces are sadly lacking in support weapons, so I have some GZG RAM mortars to give them a little extra firepower.

The plan is to mount them on bases with their support crew. I though they might make useful artilley pieces in 1/300th scale too.

Afghan Houses part 2

Works progresses on the Afghan houses...

The one on the far right with 3 arched doorways will be some sort of meeting house (for far off sci-fi adventures) or mosque (for modern Asian/Middle-Eastern games). It will have a domed roof - once I've added enough layers of papier mache over the plastic ball former that I'm using!


They've been painted with a thick & gloopy mixture of PVA and filler, cheap white poster paint and Windsor & Newton burnt umber acrylic added for colour. It gets painted on thickly, then stippled to give some texture.

A large 3-storey building will be the centre of the settlement.

A few people for scale...

NSL Jager Light Infantry review

I've been painting a few lesser-known Ground Zero Games figures recently, some of which you may see on Jon's newly-opened web store.

First up, we have some NSL Jagers - SG15-N02. Click for larger images!

As usual for GZG figures, they were quick and easy to clean up, with very little in the way of flash or mould-lines. As one of the older 15mm infantry packs, it consists of 1 squad leader, 1 SAW gunner, 1 missile launcher, 2 "advancing" riflemen and 3 "advancing/firing" riflemen.

All are wearing long field jackets, chunky boots and the sort of jodhpurs that Terry Pratchett would describe as "trousers that look like they have a rabbit in each pocket". They have quite tall, peaked helmets which appear to have built-in comms, and their jackets incorporate some sort of back protection with a few technical gubbins attached.

Being of the older GZG style, the figures are on the shorter side of 15mm, and are quite chubby in comparison to more recent figures such as GZG's own UNSC or other companies such as Critical Mass Games. Their faces are slightly podgy, but I've seen plenty of motorcyclists who look just the same with their helmets on, so perhaps that is deliberate! Small arms are nicely detailed, though the one carried by the officer looks smaller than those carried by the riflemen This might just be an optical illusion - his left hand is quite large, so his gun might just look small in comparison.

I opted for a 2-tone grey scheme. Trousers and the front part of the helmet are base coated in GW blue-grey, jacket and the back of the helmet in Vallejo Cold Grey. After a Vallejo black ink wash, they received a drybrush of the base colours, followed by highlights. The blue grey received a GW Space Wolf grey highlight, the cold grey received a Vallejo stonewall grey highlight. Flesh is Vallejo dwarf flesh, GW flesh wash, Vallejo dwarf flesh again, then Vallejo elf flesh highlights. Hair was painted in various browns and sandy colours with brown or back washes followed by appropriate highlighting. Small arms, boots, the helmet peak and earpieces are all Humbrol 55 matt black with a Humbrol 32 dark grey drybrush to show the detail. If I were painting them again, I'd probably add some contrasting piping down the trouser leg too, but I wanted to keep these basic so they'd show up the detail in the figures on the web store. Thank you to Jon for giving me the chance to paint them for him!

Overall grade for these figures: B - Quite chunky compared to more recent releases, but a nice variety of weapons and poses. Cleanly cast, easy to clean up and plenty of character. With the jodhpurs, they'd make especially good dress-uniform guards for high-ranking officers! As with many of the earlier GZG figures, the lack of other packs of NSL Jagers means that if you wanted to field an army they'd start to look pretty "samey" after a while, but I realise that there is so much for Jon to do that further NSL figures are probably way down the list!

Afghan / Middle Eastern Houses

Inspired by Force on Force and having read Attack State Red and a few other books recently, I've been building a few Afghan style houses. I'm using 5mm foamcore.




I've gone for 25mm high walls. This allows a 20mm high door, plus 10mm square windows, set 10mm above ground level, leaving a 5mm strip along the top to keep it all together.

I've cut one side of the card plus all the foam away at one end of each wall.

This means I get a nice butt-joint on each corner, giving stronger joints and smoother walls - no exposed lines of foam at the edges which will show through the texturing/painting.

The basic buildings assembled - things are starting to take shape...

I'm giving them all a flat roof for now. I've gone for 1, 2 and 3 storey structures. Some have chopped-up matchstick ladders to provide roof access.

Others obviously have internal stairs to the first floor, then a ladder to the top.

Some just have external stairs.

Each storey is separate, allowing me to position people inside and forget about them, thus losing the game because I can't keep track of where everyone is.

Hmm... hang on, I may have to rethink this last part of the plan!