(Lead) Mountain Musings - "Partially-Painted/Printed Pledge” [IV/IV] March 2025

"The people of Britain must understand we Volgans are your friends." 

With my Partially-Painted/Printed Pledge (PPPP) now entering its final furlong, I thought I would mix things up a bit by moving into some of other scales I tend to pigment from time to time, such as 10mm and 15mm. This  change of direction should get me somewhat closer to my personal challenge's target tally than if I remained rooted to just 28mm - as I'm starting to find myself getting distracted by new 'heroic scale' purchases rather than focusing on finishing old projects - and help me clear up a rather large number of wooden painting sticks peppered with primed miniatures which are currently littering my hobby space.

However, I also want to break the back of my most recent purchases from "Athena Miniatures" at "Beachhead" 2025, and get enough of the company's Apocalypse Survivors tabletop ready so I can actually have a game (of adapted "Silver Bayonet" by "Osprey Games") using them. Having completed an eight-man unit of British NBC soldiers last month, I now need to really focus upon the Soviet invasion force threatening a nuclear bomb-blasted United Kingdom.

"There is only one sentence... Death!"

This will primarily consist of a similarly-sized Soviet NBC unit, along with a set of fourteen members of the Russian Spetsnaz Special Forces, armed with AK47s and an RPGs. In addition, I would like to get a couple of the actual British civilian survivors completed, including a certain shotgun-carrying gentlemen - who I hope will work well as a heavily-bearded proxy for East Londoner Bill Savage in any scenarios based upon the old "2000 A.D." comic strip "Invasion!" I want to game.

To get things off to a fairly strong start, I have already got the varnish and flock on a (fifth) 28mm metal model taken from "Athena Miniatures" AS12 Russian NBC four-sculpt set. This Soviet Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence trooper was initially undercoated using a couple of layers of “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII, before being shaded in "Citadel" Nuln Oil, and dry-brushed using (more) “Vallejo” German Fieldgrey WWII.

February 2025 - "Black Tree Design" quite significantly extends its lead due to interest in "Doctor Who"

To try and break up the monotony of the Communist's rubber suit I then applied a smidgeon of "Vallejo" Neutral Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil to his gloves and overboots. Finally, his respirator, rifle butt and coat buttons were 'picked out' with a little "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and a splash of "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, whilst his firearm and eye lenses were treated to a combination of "Vallejo" Gunmetal and "Citadel" Nuln Oil.

Painting wise, the past four weeks have definitely seen an encouraging increase in my productivity; something which has to be attributed to my impressive progress working through so many (really) old "Doctor Who" models by "Black Tree Design". I'm not sure this particular interest in thirty-year old sculpts will continue for much longer - unless I discover another stash of Sea Devils or Daleks in my backlog. But it has helped reinvigorate my hobby mojo to the point where I'm still very keen to clean away the cobwebs on many an old, long-forgotten project or three...