Rookie Stalkers for Zona Alfa

 

I wanted some Rookie Stalkers for Zona Alfa that could be used as cannon fodder, ah I mean, be mentored by the Veteran Stalkers in my Team Alpha. Scanning around the interwebs I found that 1st Corps make some nice miniatures from their International Security Operations set of miniatures (go here to find them). All I needed as some backpacks from Pig Iron and CheckPoint Miniatures and I was set.

I followed the colour scheme I could see in the three current S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video games and pretty soon I had my four Rookies to take into the Zone. I painted the magazine clips on the AK's in a bright orange colour to offset the rather drab olive greens of their jackets and gave them all jeans to wear, though I can't be certain that is what they are actually dressed like in the video game. Anyway, I think I have been able to match the colours fairly accurately and the orange magazines kind of helps the miniature to pop a bit on the table.

Ok. Almost ready to head off past the Cordon and into the Zone.

Team Alpha for Zona Alfa

This is the core of my first STALKER team, unsurprisingly called Team Alpha, for Zona Alfa. The Crew Leader is the Veteran Stalker, Angus Maclellan (aka Highlander). Former British SAS. Came to the Zone with his best friend after his wife passed away to escape his personal loss and the drudgery of everyday life.

Veteran Stalker and 2IC is Matthew MacCready (aka Bulldog). Angus' best friend and also former British SAS. After leaving the Army he never really could settle down in civilian life. Now, with the death of his best friend's wife, he and Angus have headed to the Zone to make something of themselves.

Hardened Stalker Uri Sidorski (aka Doc). Crimean Russian ex-serviceman who came to the Zone to escape the police back home and now seeks to find his fortune and retire somewhere on the Adriatic Sea coast, perhaps in Greece.

Hardened Stalker Dita Polyakov (aka Seeker). Eastern Ukranian. Escaped the draft by heading to the Zone. Plans to make a fortune and then retire along the Black Sea somewhere "away from it all."

Verteran Stalkers for Zona Alfa

 

My first group of Stalkers have rolled of the painting table. This group of veterans and hardened Stalkers will comprise the core of my Stalker Team for Zona Alfa.

These lads are all from 1st Corps miniatures and are from their International Security Operations line. These four are the SAS / HAC / COT four man patrol 02 group of miniatures. More on who they are and what their stats will be for Zone Alfa in the next blog post. But I thought I would show them off as they cautiously traverse the wilds of the Zone.

Empress Miniatures BTR-70 for Zona Alfa

 

This is the Empress Miniatures 28mm BTR70 (available here). These appear in every S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video game. Given that Zona Alfa takes its inspiration from that franchise (as well as other near post-apocalyptic style settings like METRO 2035 and the METRO games), I had to have at least one as a cool bit of terrain for my Zona Alfa games. So here she is finally painted up and on the table.

Part of an abandoned military convoy.

As you can see above, the turret comes unattached and so can be swivelled as you like. There are also two headlamps and a searchlight to go on the vehicle as well as two guns. I chose to go with just the one gun and not put the searchlight on the very top of the vehicle for ease of storage.

The paint job was simple. I just spray painted the entire model in grey and then applied two different green spray shades over the top of the vehicle and the sides. The wheels were sprayed in grey also and then I lightly sprayed them with an olive-green spray paint to give a dirty look to them. I then washed the model in Agrax Earthshade. Done!

Bloodsuckers for Zona Alfa

 

These attractive beasties are Bloodsuckers from the excellent S.T.A.L.K.E.R. computer game series. Bloodsuckers are charming creatures with rather bad asthma who have a nasty habit of turning invisible when they sense prey, becoming visible only when they attack. Catch them napping though and you can gas the lot of them, so they no longer cause any problems.

These miniatures are from the excellent Patrick Miniatures where you can pick them up either from his store or via eBay.

Fun to play with.

Mind you, they are messy eaters.

And never wash their hands.

But who love a game of hide and seek.

Who's a pretty boy then?

This next brutish thing is some sort of chaos creature from Eureka Miniatures if memory serves me correctly. I decided to add a head to it and greenstuff it in place to make a brutal experiment gone wrong. Something to find in a dark, abandoned secret lab somewhere deep within the Zone.

I wonder what other nasties I can find to inflict on the STALKER teams within the Zone?