Tuesday 23 August 2022

Evil Minions (no, not those ones)

 Inspired years ago by the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. I have always wanted to have an underground volcano base. But first I would have to get some minions.

The great thing about 10mm is that all these silly terrain building dreams can actually be made and the cost of creating the forces is not that much and storage is not such a big issue either.

Here is what I am talking about.

Minions in different coloured uniforms racing to battle.  The underground lair is very open with plenty of space.

First up I needed to get the minions.  I hunted around the Pendraken website until I chanced upon the North Koreans.  They fit perfectly, both in uniform design and in their general background.

The whole team. White for Operations, Red for Engineering, Blue for Transport, and Grey for Security.  A bit of my old 15mm sci-fi terrain and a new NASA launch pad for background.

Engineering in Red are always ready for a fight (ha ha). Even though they will be easy targets.

Transport got to be blue as I did not have any yellow primer. They got two WW2 German DAK staff cars whose drivers wear a cap. Ready to move quickly.

Operations staff. Manning the computers.  To precious to risk in a fire fight so unarmed - if you don't count the nuclear missiles in the background.


Security troops in a unobtrusive grey. Each squad has rifles and a LMG.  Also they get their own car with an automatic cannon in the back for that extra firepower when you need it.
 
All minions need an evil overlord.  Here is Number One and his Number Twos (head of each division), all striking that classic leadership pose!
On the back of the base is a radioman for each division, waiting to transmit orders.


So all I need to do now is create the underground base. Which will take a while as I am painting a whole lot of figures at the moment.
Part of the design process will be to make it multi purpose.  In addition to a launch site I am thinking of a submarine base, underground moon base, nuclear missile site, and post apocalyptic vault. Anyway, it will keep me occupied for a bit planning and then building.

Thanks for reading.


 



25 comments:

  1. Looks great! Nice find on the North Koreans, they fit the bill perfectly. Is the terrain/silo thing mdf?

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    1. Thanks Dave! The Silo thing is poorly painted mdf 😁.

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  2. Excellent. Loved the movie. You will need the little helicopter thingy and if I remember right, a piranha pool. You have to keep it accurate :-)

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    1. I have the tiny helicopter but in 28mm. Piranha pool - excellent idea! Now who sells 10mm fish 😁. Or maybe a few shark fins on top of a pond will give the right idea!

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    2. I have checked the Pendraken site and they don't have any piranhas or sharks. But they do have crocodiles which would also be evil. But better than this, they have Geese! And what would be more evil than a Geese pond. I can just imagine the scene.

      Evil Villain's minions drag James Bond into his office.
      EV " so we finally meet Mr Bond"
      Bond "You will never get away with this Evil Villain!"
      EV "On yes I will! Take him to the pond!"
      Bond sneers "What is there? Sharks or Piranhas? "
      EV "Oh much worse than that Mr Bond, I am Evil Villain, not just a garden variety villain. It is a Geese Pond!"
      Bond "You are evil!"
      EV maniacal laughter as Bond is dragged away,.

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  3. Very creative - I look forward to seeing what you do with the secret base.

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  4. Great work on the miniatures Ben, the different colour uniforms make it easy to identify. Look forward to seeing the base come together.

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    1. Thanks Dave! At first I thought of changing the uniforms to something a bit more boring/sensible but then I thought I should follow what the set & costume designers did as they are much better at this than me.

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  5. OMG OMG that is soooo cool and fun looking. You nailed it. Now all you need is a James Bond or Austin Powers in 10mm. 😀

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    1. Thanks Stew! Yes I will need heroes and young ladies as well I guess 😊 ( Luckily Pendraken do sell the young ladies in 10mm)

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  6. That terrain looks ace. It almost looks as though you've repurposed some kind of styrofoam packaging but then it doesn't as well...is it scratch built? What rules do you use?

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    1. Thanks Dash!. All ideas stolen from others 😊 The computer/control banks are balsa cut to shape with paper printouts of controls stuck on top. Other bits are from the hardware store - electrical bits and the garden irrigation section has a lot of stuff that seems to paint up OK. The launch pad is an MDF kit from TT Combat SciFi X range

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  7. Really cool idea Ben and I am fascinated to read that Pendracken actually make 10mm females...OUTSTANDING! You can't possibly do 007 without Bond girls of both benign and evil varieties! I have always had a hankering for the Crooked Dice female minions in 28mm. I have absolutely no use for them....they would not even fit into my fantasy Pulp World, as it's all Thirties inspired and the minionettes are in Sixties style mini skirts and boots....one day, I will figure out an excuse for purchasing them!

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    1. Thank you! Why not buy the female minions now and work out a reason later 😊.

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  8. Splendid base for your bond villain, lovely looking crew!
    Best Iain

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    1. thanks Iain! Hopefully I will be able to create a bigger base later.

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  9. Very well done Ben, but shouldn’t all evil villains minions wear red coloured tops?

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    1. Only the engineering department 😊 they are responsible for the aircon.

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  10. Looking good. It's been a long time since I got my own spy-fi gear out and onto the table.

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  11. fantastic Ben looks the real deal.

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