Friends? What’s this you ask? I thought this was about toy soldiers and something-something War on Terror comments..?!
Stay calm, that will come, this week I was planning on writing something, then as often happens in the creative space, I had a different idea…
Names are not mentioned to protect the innocent…😉
In case you weren’t tracking, my whanau and I moved to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2006. A mere 26,000KM trip from the UK leaving behind all of our friends and family. We landed in Auckland in May 06 and a week later drove to Palmy where we met the first of a line of Kiwis that have gone on to become our very close friends. That person and their whanau have reminded close friends to this day, and I have also been fortunate to pick up other close friends in the military along the way.
But that’s a small circle for sure. I don’t recall if it was 2006 or 7 when I wondered into the Palmy hobby store’Heros for Sale’ (long since closed ☹️) and picked up a blister pack of Battlefront MW German Infantry. I took them home, painted them and based them and didn’t think much of it.
A week later I was in the store again and noticed there was a rule book for this game, ‘Flames of War’. So I picked up a copy and Festung Europa, the army list book. I took them home and read through them and especially loved the pictures of painted minis…
On Monday I took that book to work and was reading it at lunch when one of my JNCOs asked me what I was reading. I showed them and they were also interested… So we decided to try a game. He decided to be the Russians and I obviously went for Ze Germans. We built and painted a 600 point force (oh remember those days of points in 100s not 10s…😉) And used to play at lunchtimes at work. This draw some derisory comments from the OC and CSM, but meh, what (literally) did they know…
That guy also went on to become a solid friend.
We then discovered there was a whole tournament scene in NZ and overseas, and for the next decade I hurled myself into almost every event I could get to, which pretty much meant all of them…
I moved from being a very average painter to winning every ‘Best Painted’ trophy at all NZ events and some overseas ones too in Australia and Canada. I then started to contract paint for Battle Front and have my work in many of their source books from the mid 2010s. I always seemed to get the work that the studio staff didn’t want, Zouaves anyone…?! 😜 Then I started a wee business painting other peoples stuff as well.
All through this process I have been fortunate enough to pick up some solid friends, and I do mean solid. These are the types of people who put you up on a coach or spare bed for events, feed you and expose you to their own families. They are also there when you have health issues, are going through a rough patch, and just need a shoulder to literally cry on 🙏
So where am I going with this and what’s the connection here?? Well, without this silly game, I would not have these amazing people in my life, and pat yourselves on the back team, you know who you are. 🙏💟 I am fortunate that these good people have been there for me, especially during the dark times of my PTSD and depression, which brings us back to reality…
Remember last week I mentioned MOPP suits and CBRN and USMC?? Well I did some digging into boxes and came up with some stuff from back in the day. First up is a still sealed M256 Detector Kit. I was issued this from the USMC as a part of my CBRN detection capability. It was a handy box of tricks that would detect a range of nasties! See pic below:
You can see the plastic case the kit comes in, on the left is an opened detection slide with the various chemical and biological compounds that would be used to detect stuff, and on the right a part of the enclosed instructions.
Next up is a page from my CBRN notebook with 1 and 3 Color detector paper that has had a substance splashed onto them to indicate what they would look like in the event of a real attack. I don’t remember WHAT was splashed onto them, but I don’t think it’s harmful..😷
And finally before I get onto minis (remember those..?!) here’s a hand drawn diagram that was given to me by my USMC counterpart. It’s a schematic of a CBRN decontamination station that we would use in a mass-casualty event. You will see it has clean and dirty areas, areas for walking wounded and those on litters etc. This was my reality in 2003 and it’s interesting to see it over 20 years later. We never needed this (See my upcoming blog ‘WMDs, more Wanton Misuse of Democracy than Weapons of Mass Destruction 😑) as the Iraqi CBRN capability was extremely limited, and AFAIK, not used during the 03 period. But still, this was what I was trained for, had been training for, for years, and was prepared to put into place. Happy days…
RIGHT! Back to the plastic crack! Oh hang on, friends… So, you may recall a week or two ago I stated I was no master sculptor of Green Stuff..? Well, fortunately my very good friend IS. And that very good friend just happened to be the person who sculpted most of BFs stuff, including modern stowage…
SO, I did buy one pack of modern stowage at $17.50, but calculated I would need about $300 worth to make my trucks look how they should. Well… My friend just made me a resin mould of the original sculpts, and now using Grey Stuff I can churn out dozens of bits of stowage for next to no cost!!!
The pic below shows the original BF soft-metal product, the new mould and a host of new moulded stowage parts. Not only are they cheaper than the OG ones, the use of Grey Stuff makes them so much sharper and there is almost zero flashing to boot! Result!
- MOPP Suit base - Model Air 71.022 Camo Green
- Desert Helmet Cover base - Val 837 Pale Sand
- MOPP Suit / Desert Helmet Cover light green - Val 886 Green Grey
- MOPP Suit / Desert Helmet Cover brown - Val 871Leather Brown
- Body Armour / Webbing - Model Air 7138 US Sand
- Respirator Haversacks - AK 796 NATO Green
- Shade - BF Skin Shade all over
No comments:
Post a Comment