Ground Zero Games 30th Birthday and Burning a Joker

Ah, GZG. Been a fan ever since starting my on and off 15mm sci-fi love affair and painting my first not-Wall-E. Remember him? >> Wall-E!

Well, turns out they turn 30 this year. And they decided to give gifts :)

 GZG: 30th BIRTHDAY OFFER!
As some of you may have realised (I know that a few of you have been with us since the start!), GZG is officially 30 YEARS OLD this year!
The very first products I made and sold under the GZG name were produced in 1985, when people had to find out about my products from small ads in the back of White Dwarf (still an independant gaming mag in those days!) and Military Modelling, and then had to send orders by post with cheques or postal orders - yes, kids, there really WAS gaming around before the Internet….

I can't recall exactly what date in 1985 I actually began selling stuff - so July, being the middle of the year, seems as good a time as any - plus my own birthday is also in July, making it a good month to celebrate this milestone (sadly my own is considerably more than GZG's 30 years….).

I was planning to run an offer just for the month of July - but as the Armed Forces Day falls just at the end of June, I decided that I may as well start the Birthday Offer today, a few days early, so that those of you who wish to order this weekend can take advantage of the offer as well as contributing towards my AFD charity donation as detailed above.

So, even though it is GZG's and my birthday, I'm giving YOU the gifts! As it's GZG's 30th, every order totalling £30 or more* which I receive between now and midnight on Friday 31st July will have a generous GZG 30th BIRTHDAY GIFT PACKET of free extras included with the ordered goods! This will be along the same lines as my regular pre-Christmas special promotion - a "goodie bag" of free minis picked by me, that are relevant to the sort of items you have actually ordered - so if you order FT ships, you'll get extra free ship minis, if you order 15mm then you'll get 15mm freebies, and of course mixed orders will get mixed freebie bags! Just like the Christmas offer of course, the bigger your order the more freebies you'll get.....  ;-)
Please don't be cheeky and ask for specific items - it's a gift, after all - but those of you who have received our Christmas goodie bags will know that I do my best to supply interesting things that are actually useful in your games - those of you who have had the Christmas offers will also know that you will get much more value in your freebies bag than you would if I simply offered a % discount - plus you'll have the fun of the surprise!
* I'm keeping the qualifying value extra-simple for this time - if the final total of your order, the amount you actually pay INCLUDING postage and VAT where applicable, is £30 or over - then it qualifies for the 30th Birthday Freebies offer!  :-)
There you go - help to celebrate 30 YEARS of GZG products, and get some great FREE stuff - what could be better?

Thanks for reading,
Jon (GZG), 26/6/15.

On top of that, for this weekend only, they donate 20% off the order value to charity

ARMED FORCES DAY CHARITY DONATION:
This weekend (27th/28th June) GZG are once again supporting the UK ARMED FORCES DAY (www.armedforcesday.org.uk) - as I have done for the last two years, I will be donating 20% of the value of all orders received through the webstore during this weekend (from midnight on Friday 26th to midnight on Sunday 28th) to be divided between a selection of UK military charities - last year I split the donation between Help For Heroes (www.helpforheroes.org.uk), the Combat Stress Appeal (http://www.combatstress.org.uk/) and a much smaller charity but a particular favourite of mine, Hounds For Heroes (https://houndsforheroes.com/) which trains and provides assistance dogs for injured personnel in both the Armed Forces and the Emergency Services.
So, if you've been thinking about ordering something - do it THIS WEEKEND and help to contribute to some really worthwhile charities!

Though not our Armed Forces, we are allies in NATO and I commend anyone who donates to charity supporting soldiers as I feel they are not appreciated enough by most for the difficult task they do.

So....I burned a Joker. Decided this was a good a time as any to get more droids for my 20mm table while doing the right thing, and having spent nothing for the last 2 months (and being proud of that might I add) but with all of the stress lately i kinda feel like I deserve something. Maybe not the right attitude, but I did it anyway.

What I ordered:

GMM-CYB4 x2 (Germy's 2mm range - the land train front. This will be turned into a large single tracked droid with hoses coming out the back....though it depends a bit on how big (or small!) it actually is! Like a portable AC system, on tracks.

GMM-34 x1 (Another from Germy, Quad Transport Walkers, which I turned into walking power generators before here .... which I will do again but now with hoses attached)

RB-01 x1 (25mm robots - ordered them blind, knowing old style 25mm blends in with 20mm usually without any problems....really curious what these look like!)

MEC-02B x1 (15mm large cargo lifter, as a companion for my smaller lifter from Kurhasan)

 SG15-V13 x3 (GZG's 3 robot pack with a not-Walle-E, a not-R2-D2 and another robot containing doubles of each.....meaning I just expanded my collection with 6 more of each...I'm looking forward to making a few derelict Wall-E's :) )

Getting my mind off things - so why not plan a bit?

With Kim back in the hospital :( and the kids with various family members I'm trying to get my mind off things, and what better way for me then to plan my hobby out.


As things are progressing on my village/city, I think it is time to look ahead for a moment, what I have and want and plan a purchase/trade of miniatures to populate it.


Somalia/AK-47
Since the chopper hunt is in full swing, I'll cast my gaze on troops. Delta's, Rangers and Somali's. aka small (20-25 troops), medium (30-40 troops) and large (50+ troops). For Delta's it will most likely be Liberation, Rangers could be Elhiem and/or Liberation and the Somali's can be from various companies. I'd like to do the D's this year, Rangers and Somalis can come in next year. That is if I find any that is. Vehicle wise I'll focus on Technicals and a crashed Black Hawk. Little Birds would be nice for air support but they are pricey. Kits for the helos and Hobby Den for the vehicles. Since my AK-47 nation will be based on Somalia and Nigeria this gives me another reason to work on it.


Afghanistan
I've got a bag of Liberation Taliban ready, I'm just lacking in civillians (but SandS does great ones). I will not be doing any coalition troops, I'll focus completely on the Taliban/Northern Alliance for the Soviet occupation and up to the current day. Since I have so much ready on hand for this, it should be my nr. 1 priority really. But somehow it isn't. It is not like Taliban are hard to paint or something.


Lebanon
I've collected plenty of books with tons of pictures, and I'm stoked to do this. I'm finding the Hobby Den to be a perfect supplier of suitable vehicles for this one. Will be mostly ones and two's as I don't have any collection of miniatures yet, but love to convert Technicals :)


Iraq
1990's up to now (I will not get back again into the Iran-Iraq war other then air war gaming) and purely aimed at scenery. atm I have no interest in painting miniatures for it.


Sci-Fi
Anything goes. Plenty of bits to make add on parts with, and quite a few near modern troops are suitable for it. No rush though, more a in between bits project due to the lack of real 20mm sci-fi Infantry and armour other then conversions.


Pulp
Fortunately, for Pulp, you don't need many figs, so I'll be picking stuff from the sparesbin mostly. More for fun then anything else, though playing Pulp Alley would be nice with them. And I think I need a few mummies :)


WW2
No plans yet. That might change when the Battlegroup book is released though. Scenic wise can be combined with Pulp. Edging towards the Germans again but I might just do 2 300 point forces once I get back in the painting saddle. Long term.


Most of these projects will be because I'd like to have them, finding opponents for them is unlikely for most other then Afghanistan.