Discovering the Ark of the Covenant

    I have been sorting through games and miniatures in my basement, deciding what I want to keep and what to sell. In a dusty box on the corner of a shelf, I discovered that I had inherited the lost Ark of the Covenant from a friend's collection.

    Of course, when one finds the lost Ark, and one has recently purchased the Pulp Alley rules, one needs to start putting his DAK pile of potential to use.

    I decided to start with a Warlord Games' Opel Blitz to transport the troops and, naturally, the Ark.

    Assembly began. Once again, I had to make some decisions regarding which parts to paint before gluing the cab and bed together. I also started assembling the passengers.

    Credit where credit is due, the parting of these soldiers for mold making was pretty darned good. There are only minor gaps between a few parts, and the instructions made their placement clear. The legs, arms and weapons have to go in specific places, but there is a variety of heads, and they can be positioned in natural poses.

    I completed the subassemblies, primed them and painted the interior. The truck was then assembled, painted in the base colors and washed with a dark brown stain.

    While that work dried, I turned my attention to the passengers. They were painted in their base colors and washed with the brown stain.

    At this point, I added the highlights to the truck and soldiers and did some preliminary weathering on the model.

    Decals were applied, followed by some additional weathering, mud, dust and rust. The final step was to put the windshield in.

    This was a piece of acetate that resisted being glued to the frame with the recommended styrene plastic cement. I tried superglue on another cutoff piece, but the resulting bond was not secure. In the end, I settled for press fitting the windshield between the steering wheel and the frame of the truck. I'll need to handle it with a bit of care, but I'm calling it done.

    Minor annoyances aside, this was another fun build with several lessons learned and more practice with new techniques. I have about a platoon of infantry left from the DAK starter army box, and I've purchased motorcycles with and without sidecars to add some variety. I'm looking forward to getting these on the table for a few games of Pulp Alley.