20mm Post Apocalypse and "Dark Days in America" projects

Hello, again!  This blog entry will be about some side projects that I am slowly getting miniatures painted for, but have not really done much towards it otherwise.  Due to my demanding work schedule, I find it very hard to paint my own stuff anymore.  So I have been contracting a UK based painting service to paint my figures, Northumbrian Painting Services.  I have been using them to paint almost all of my 20mm figures.  Everything in the next few blog entries were painted up by them.

The first line up is my 20mm Post Apocalypse (PA) project.  Why 20mm PA?  Well, I already have the figures and I like the whole Mad Max, Road Warrior style stories.  I will be able to use most of these figures as well as my 20mm buildings and some vehicles from the “Anarchy in the UK” & “Dark Days in America” projects without any troubles.  I should only have to have a few vehicles or structures that will not work for one of the other projects.  The PA project should be under 100 figures and vehicles for everything. 

The figures shown below are all out of the Out-Of-Print (OOP) Citadel’s Dark Future (DF) line for the Games Workshop’s (GW) PA car wars game.  They are lovely figures sculpt by Alan Perry.  It is a shame that GW dropped the line (as they do with anything I like from them) and that the Perry’s never did anything more for it (I am still hoping that now that they have their own company that maybe, just maybe…). I have a bunch more of the DF figures that I will be getting painted soon.  Currently, the only companies that make 20mm PA figures that I am aware of are Stan Johansen Miniatures (link) & Aberrant Games (link).  As for PA ‘car wars’ style cars, both companies have some models, but also have bits to convert Matchbox ‘Hot Wheels’ die cast cars into vehicles for the PA theme.  There is also a few other companies, like Jada Toys 1/64^th scale Battlecars (link), which only make ‘car wars’ style PA vehicles.

These next two pictures are of a couple of terrain pieces I picked up on EBay a while back.  I don’t know who makes these or who painted them, but they look nice enough.  I am especially happy that the green car is a right side steering, so it will work fine with my other UK vehicles.

The next set of pictures is for a 1970’s / 80’s US based project, “Dark Days in America”.  This project will be the same as my “Anarchy in the UK” project, but in the USA.   This project, like Anarchy, will be directed towards smaller skirmish actions (squad size – 12 figures or less per side), or possibly a larger action for certain game scenarios. It will take place in a darker version of American history of the 1970’s & early ‘80’s.  The games will be police / criminal actions (bank robberies, etc.), terrorists / insurrection (Symbionese Liberation Army-like groups or Right-Wing Militia groups), riots, and zombies (during their proper time period!)  

I already had many of the figures from years ago and plan to down scale various paper gaming model buildings from the WorldworksGames’Mayhem City line (link) & Microtactix’s Twilight Street line (link) from 28mm to 20mm.  Civilian vehicles are going to be very hard to find, so I am just going to have to accept the fact that this US has a large amount of UK imports.

The first picture is of some criminal elements, most likely bank or armored car robbers.  This group is a mixture of manufacturers.  In the back are three figures from Stan Johansen’s J2022 Terrorists set.  One is armed with a pistol, another with a double barreled shotgun, and the third is carrying a pump action shotgun and a money bag.  In the front row, the two to the left are Hotspurs.  The far right figure is from Platoon 20.  I am happy these miniatures actually look like robbers instead of terrorists or irregular soldiers with webbing or other light kit.  It would be nice to see more of this type of figures for a “Geezers! Shut It!” style game armed with melee weapons (axe handles, knives, etc.)

The next two pictures are US SWAT teams from different time periods.  The first team is for the 1970’s, which I asked to be painted up in the spirit of the old TV show, S.W.A.T. (link)  They are also in similar to the SWAT team in the opening of the 1978 movie, “Dawn of the Dead”(link).  All of the figures are Hotspurs, except for the sniper on the very far left.  I don’t know what company he came from, but I had him for many, many years.  He might be from the long OOP Grenadier ’s Twilight 2000 line from back in the mid ‘80’s.  He fits in perfectly with the Hotspurs for size, style, and uniform. 

Anyway, the figures are heavily based on the original SWAT team from the Los Angeles Police Department from back in the 1970’s (which is what the TV show was based off of too.)  There are six different poses, of which there are five more doubles for the whole team. The sniper is armed with a bolt action rifle with a scope.  Then there are three poses that are armed with M16A1’s automatic rifles with pistols in their holsters.  Next is a figure that is armed with a pump action shotgun and a pistol is his holster.  Finally, the remaining pose is an officer holding a revolver with a tear gas gun slung over his shoulder.  I really like the fact that these guys are very 1970’s in style. 

The original LAPD SWAT was created to be a “true” para-military unit.  The city was convinced that the radical left wing movements or a race riot would breakout into a sort of Hue City battle in LA, so they create the SWAT team to combat this threat and not to carry out arrest or hostage rescues.  Most of the original SWAT members were ex-military and trained to use the sewers to infiltrate and carry out combat operations behind “enemy lines.”  They eventually realized that this would not be the case and got into the police role that they are mostly used for today.  It is keeping with the original intent of the SWAT that plays into my “Dark Days” project.

The next picture is a SWAT team for the 1980’s.  As the role of SWAT was realized that they were for short duration arrests or rescue operations in a contained urban area and not long term urban combat over a vast area, that the weapons and tactics changed.  As one can see with these miniatures, the bulky M16A1 rifle has been replaced with the compacted H&K MP5 submachine gun.  Also gone are the revolvers from the previous set to be replaced with semi-auto pistols.  The SWAT members wear mask and goggles for protection of their face and their identity, as well as to cause a more imposing image to frighten the criminals. They lack the heavy body armor and helmets that would start being available by the mid to late 80’s, and would be a common scene on all SWAT teams by the 90’s. 

All of the figures are Hotspurs.  There are five different poses and four doubles.  Three of the poses have officers armed with the MP5 SMG and pistols.  One of the three is aiming with his pistol instead of his MP5, which is slung over his shoulder.  The fourth pose is an officer holding a pump action shotgun.  The final pose is a sniper with a rifle and scope.

Next up is the some Very Important Persons (VIPs) and their bodyguards.  They could be a high ranking politician and assigned Secret Service / State Police bodyguards, or maybe a corporate CEO and some hired civilian contracting agency.  The bodyguards are armed with semi-auto pistols and Uzi SMG’s.  Again, all of the figures are from Hotspur.

Finally, while they don’t fit in the time frame, they do fit in the mind set.  The following two figures are a pair of FBI agents that travel around the US investigating unusual criminal cases, which sometimes have a tint of the supernatural about them.

“Agent Anderson, take a look at this.”

“What is it this time, Dutch, a werewolf on a cruise ship?”

Both figures are the OOP Citadel’s Dark Future figures.  I did trim off the pony tail on the male figure as there is no way J. Edgar Hoover would allow one of his men to wear a pony tail.

Next blog entry will be over the newly painted figures for the “Anarchy in the UK” project.

Cheers