AVP: 2nd Colonial Marine Support Squad - work in progress

I started working on my second Marine Support Squad. This time with M90 Miniguns. The bodies are from North Star LLC's range of figures, the Miniguns (modified) from Warlord Games' limited run "Terminator Genisys Resistance Command Squad" box made from resin.

AVP: the Kickstarter journey is (finally) over - last missing parts arrived today

Thanks to a new lady working for Prodos (Archon, or whatever they call themselves now), I finally got the last missing items sent to me. Izabela made it finally possible to bring this "adventure" to a positive end.

Since she told me the "alternative Heads & Weapons" are never going to be made, I would have been left with a total of £5 worth of my Kickstarter pledge that just won't get fulfilled at all. Now, I don't think so, Prodos!

Contacting her turned out to be the by far most positive moment in my history of dealing with that company. Not only did I receive a reply to my email in less then 10 minutes after sending it - no, she also directly suggested ideas on how we can resolve the problem. I was going to buy from their webstore (that never created a problem, period!) again, since I needed some more things for all three factions. She said she would without further delay put into that parcel an alternative item worth £5. I decided to pick some more of the fancy dice with Alien symbols from the first edition.

Two days later I got a tracking number from both, the webstore's email AND from Izabela herself. She said the parcel was on its way and that I hopefully am happy with the freebies. Wait - freebies? She offered help on any further questions or querries I should ever have and wished me a good day.

Today the parcel arrived (two days en route from Poland to Germany). I got all I ordered plus my free exchange item (dice set) and my "freebies" turned out to be a full set of cards in German language for AVP 2.0 to replace the ones I got in the kickstarter PLUS some for the newly arrived items.

Years after the initial KS campaign I finally can close this topic for good and concentrate on the enjoyable part of the hobby: assembling and painting and gaming!

By the way, on a sidenote: the apology from Michal that I had in written in my second parcel last year contained a personal voucher code that offered -25% off ANY item purchased in their webstore. It still worked this year since I never used it. So this last shipment was really cheap for what I got:

1x more Predator Hellhound pack (got three now),
1x more Alien Royal Guard (got three now),
1x more Marine Sentry Guns pack (got two now),
1x Predator Youngbloods (my first),
1x Alien Queen (my first)
1x Alien Dice Set (instead of the pledged for "alternative Heads&Weapons).

Prodos announced during the German "Essen Spiel 2017" toy fair that multi-part Colonial Marines aren't far away and unicast figures from the 2.0 core set's miniatures will hit the shelves soon, too.

AVP: more Alien Warriors

Nothing special today, but there are 10 more Warriors joining the hive :-) ... Cause, you can't have enough of them.

AVP: Unleashed - Machiko Noguchi, the human Predator

I finished my Machiko Noguchi miniature that was built by a talented man in NL (thanks, Bauke!). Turned out quite nicely.
If I want to field her with the human faction in "Unleashed" I will need some Colonists. Maybe in the future, we'll see.

AVP: Unleashed - a little preview (new models arrived)

Some new models have arrived at my house this week. More specifically a Predator Drone (as seen in Predators), two Colonial Marines Sergeants, a custom-built Machiko Noguchi human Predator and Predastore's "Victory Hunter", who will be turned into a "Tracker".

Predastore of Swiss is selling custom sculpts and until a few months ago still had a large range of not-Predators in their webstore. Nowadays you still might find some in retail stores or on ebay.

The Predator Drone is a custom sculpt from a nice chap who made his own and was able to recast it a few times. I got my hands on one of the copies.

Machiko Noguchi was built by a friend and I will paint her. The miniature is based upon Valerie Duval from Prodos' Warzone range and got kit-bashed with the Female Predator figure and some other parts to create the not yet released (if Prodos ever will!) Machiko. The character had a series of novels and comic books dedicated to her adventures.

The Sergeants are the standard version that was available to order during the KS campaign.

AVP: more Alien Stalkers

After my first painted Alien Stalkers for AvP (painted ~ February), I finally got around finishing another set of 10. Now there is only the unicast, single-piece Stalkers from AVP 2.0 left to do. 😀

AvP: Unleashed - USCM Missile Support Squad done

...and finally, all of them together:

AvP: Unleashed - USCM Missile Support Squad received two more grunts

Good progress was being made through the recent days and my Missile Support Squad is finally finished. Apart from the two missile launchers I was showing you a few days ago, two more Marines have now been added. AVP: Unleashed asks for a minimum squad size of five models, so I was wondering what to do with them. I could have gone with just two random grunts, but that isn't really something special, is it?
Going through my spare parts I was fishing two more of North Star's "not" Colonial Marines out of a plastic bag. Looking at them, I found out they were supposed to carry shoulder-slung M240 incinerator units and therefore had a shoulder-strap sculpted on them already. My two missile launcher toting Marines each do only carry the actual launchers with a rocket tube, but no spare ammo. So, the idea was born that the two latest additions will be carrying more missiles in tubes over their shoulders. The idea came from modern day US Marine Corps' SMAW units.

Even though both of the latest models are having the same body, I used different arms on them and different heads. One carries a Motion tracker, too. Playing around with Anvil Industries' muzzle flashes, I decided to add one to a pulse rifle. It came out so good, there is going to be more of them!

The base toppers are as usual also from Anvil Industries. Note the pack of cigarettes on the one base, a really nice detail!

The missile tubes are without the launching module. Just like it is done in modern day squads, the parts for such heavy weapons are distributed throughout the squad members, so everybody carries about equal weight. I added protection caps to both ends of the tubes, so it doesn't get damaged when the squad is moving around. In my imagination, the caps would be pulled off, the tube then locked into the launcher module and can then be fired. The protection caps in fact are even being made of 1/72 scale end pieces of a M-47 Dragon ATGW launcher. The tubes themselves are Q-tips cut to fit the the correct length of my Missile Launcher Marines' weapon modules As you can see, some heavy engineering went into these chaps. 😂

AvP: Unleashed - USCM Support Weapons M-6B Rocket Launchers

Prodos hasn't released any other Colonial Marines as those included in core game (KS version and retail, as well as version 2.0 with single piece miniatures) so far. In the rulebook for "Unleashed" the Marines are given the option to field support squads. The options come straight from the 2001 PC game "Alien VS Predator 2".

These can either consist of M-90 Minigun or M-6B Rocket Launcher toting personnel. Since there is no appropriate miniatures for either of the options yet I had to kitbash a little.

With the Terminator Genisys Resistance boxed set I got myself 16 miniatures that aren't exactly Colonial Marines, but they got some nice poses and can easily be converted. I used two of the bodies and the missile launcher parts, put some green stuff in place to sculpt a more appropriate looking M3 Body Armor and placed a few plastic strips here and there to get the look I wanted. Then I did a head swap with some North Star Models LLC Colonial Marines.

The M-6B Rocket Launcher looks a little like a modern day FIM-92 Stinger MANPAD, so the parts from the Terminator Genisys Resistance boxed set were fitting nicely.

M-6B Rocket Launcher article on the AVP wiki

The base toppers are once again from Anvil Industries. I can't stress enough how superb there resin parts are! I use GW texture paint to blend the resin in with the base' surface.

AvP: Unleashed - Sergeant #1 finished

My Sergeant from North Star Models LLC is finished. He was a test model for the paint scheme. Not 100% satisfied yet, but with more practise it's going to be better on the next miniatures. The sculpt on this one is a bit rought (face!) but otherwise I kind of like these figures. The Pulse Rifle with open grenade launcher breach looks weird. The other Marines' rifles have closed ones, just like you would expect a M41A to look like. 😎

AvP: Unleashed Major "Dutch" Schaefer finished

Major "Dutch" Schaefer finished and based. I only need to apply matt varnish.

AvP: Unleashed "Dutch" work in progress

Painting has continued. Still not entirely finished of course. A few more highlights here and there and a base to be added. 😎 Muzzle Flash by Anvil Industries (small). I've kept the bionic arm in a dirty, worn-out Vietnam era helicopter greenish-grey. What is your opinion?