Soviets In NBC Suits

"That's the Zone for you, come back with swag, it s a miracle; come back alive, success; come back with a patrol bullet in your ass, good luck; and everything else, that's fate."

Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

      I was gifted a few minis by my buddy Jackson earlier this year, and knew they had to be used for my zombie apocalypse ruleset "Inhumane Harvest" and other games like Zona Alfa. Nothing is cooler to me than a faceless freak in a gas mask, especially when those gas masks are historically accurate to a specific period and identifiable. Sadly, I didn't take any work in progress pics really, as I didn't have plans for a blog post then!

    These Soviet soldiers in 80's NBC hazmat suits from Eureka Minis. this overall look and aesthetic is near and dear to my heart, so I got to work getting these five little angels painted up. 

        The first two I painted were treated as test models to get the correct color for the suits. Luckily, soviet NBC gear did come in a variety of subtle color variations, from almost white to mild olive drabs and everything in between. I landed on a nice faded mint green for these guys. I thought a subtle build up of that color wouldn't be too distracting, as I never like seeing a really heavy shadow on something that is pretty light colored and evenly toned fabric in real life. 

    I painted their gas mask bags and other pouches appropriate khakis, using some of my original examples as reference. The metal hardware and gas mask tubes were a black contrast paint with building grey highlights. For the bases, its just sand and building up browns and natural colors with a watered down wash before the final highlight and tufts.

    Here is the full finished squad. I love these models so much. The miniatures are so nice, they're cast well, and their proportions are realistic. I'm a sucker for a good neutral or realistic pose that isn't too over the top or animated, and these fit the bill for that so well. They can fill the role of protagonists as a full Zona Alfa Squad, player characters or unfriendly NPCs in Inhumane Harvest, or really anything in between. The only thing I think I'll change, or I guess it's more of an addition, is to add another guy in a helmet purely for aesthetics. 

Here are some nicer pictures of the squad. 

The pointing man emerges as the clear leader of the crew. Is he menacingly pointing at unarmed potentially infected civilians? Or is he pointing at someone nearby to save?

    Like I said, I really like these models and I'm stoked to throw them on the new 2x2 eastern block apocalypse board I've been working on. Maybe I'll post about that soon! 

-Tyler