Housing Little Dudes and Plans for the Future

 So with the WWII Soviets out of the way, I decided to finish up a long-delayed project. Behold:


These are a pair of 15mm Middle Eastern buildings from JR Miniatures. They're made out of resin. I picked these up at a sale at Hobby Bunker last July and I primed them up thinking this would be a quick job. For some reason, the white spray primer I was using didn't really want to adhere to the resin very well and it started sloughing off almost immediately. I asked around for advice and then forgot about them for a while.

 I recently finished up the Soviets and I was tired of looking at those shabby buildings so I decided to knock them out. My buddies recommended automobile primer so I picked up a can of that and it worked like a charm. It put down a nice even coat I was able to paint right over. While you can't see it easily, the roofs are all removable and there are "wooden floors" on the second story of each building. However, I didn't do enough prior test fitting and one they're in, they're really tricky to get out. I think they're pretty much going to stay assembled like that.

 With those buildings finished, I don't have anything new to hand. I do have some left-over Soviet figures but not enough to put together any real sort of unit unless I pull from that bin of plastic soldiers I have and I'm loathe to do that. The warlord plastics are just too fiddly. Maybe one of the guys at the shop will take pity on me, but I haven't really hit the table with what I have so I don't know that I want more guys until I can see where the gaps are ("mostly in your generalship", yes, yes).

 In a vague order of importance here's what I'm thinking about next:

• Terrain: So yeah, I just finished up the two buildings, but I really need some more stuff if I want to do urban games (Fallujah, Sadr City, etc.). I'm thinking about getting some more stuff from Game Craft Miniautres. They've got some great modern Middle Eastern buildings in 15mm and they use laser cut MDF which is generally cheaper than the resin stuff. I'd also need some walls, roads and ground cover and I'd be pretty much set to go. It'd be a quick project, but it's a little unglamorous.
• Transport: I need some additional boxes to carry around my figures, especially my 15mm vehicles. For those, I'll need something like those battle bags that Warhammer guys carry around. Those bags of cut foam are surprisingly pricey and while I want them for transport/storage, it's pretty much the most unglamorous thing ever.
• 15mm Sci-Fi: I have one professionally painted force but I need someone for them to fight against. Ideally I'd like at least one other human force and one other alien force. I'm kind of interested in the stuff being put out by Critical Mass Games. I'm probably going to kick myself for not getting behind their Kickstarter, but I'm more interested in their aliens than their new mercenary force.
• 15mm Africa: I also need to flesh out my paltry modern-day Africa troops. Again, I need both Government troops and rebels (although they're often one and the same). The go-to company here is Peter Pig.
• 28mm WWII Marines: Yup, I've already got a force for Bolt Action WWII games. Nope, I haven't even used them yet. Yup, I'm trying to stick to 15mm as my preferred scale. I still want some Marines. What I really want is to get them professionally done up and kit-bashed a bit so that all the marines are wearing Hawaiian shirts, the .50 cal MG team has surfboards sticking up behind them, the Captain is holding a tiki mug -- sort of "McHale's Navy" batch of Marines. A screwball bunch who you can't feel proud about beating but feel humiliated when they beat you. The problem here is that there aren't many people making figures (a big surprise to me). Warlord Games is, and they're even making them in metal, but they're treating them like plastic so heads/arms/gear is all separated out and you have to glue it all together and give me a break. Plus, to really do it up like I want I'd have to send them out and that's more money on top of it all.
• Flying Monkeys! So I have enjoyed painting up some 25mm fantasy figures and there's a charming bunch out for Fantacide by Alien Dungeon. In this case, it's flying Monkeys. Who could resist an army of flying monkeys all wearing little fezes? Not I. However, going through the Alien Dungeon website, I got alerted to a new project they'll be Kickstarting soon...
• All Quiet on the Martian Front: This is basically War of the Worlds II where the Martians re-invade Earth in the early 1900's. The tripods range fast and furious until the humans can fight back with clunky tanks and big guns. The rules (from what I've seen so far) are a little iffy but the models are in 15mm and they're just delightful. The real problem here is that the campaign hasn't started so I don't know what to budget (and it'll be in UK pounds not good cheap US dollars) and then it'll be a year before they show up...so it's not something to really keep me going...but I am really attracted to project.

All of this assumes I shouldn't save my money for more utilitarian needs. Or maybe I should play more with the stuff I've already got...although that argues for the Terrain and the Transport items listed above. Ah well, we'll see.