Hello Everybody
An item that has been doing the rounds in the media over here:
As you all well know, mines are difficult to find and hazardous to remove. A
lot of methods are being tried to clean up areas infested with them. This
includes dogs trained to sniff out the explosives in
them and alert mine-clearing engineers to their presence.
However, dogs have some severe limitations for this role, especially for 3rd
world countries. They are rather difficult to train to that role, and
expensive to feed and maintain. They do not work well in hot climates. They
are rather easily distracted, so that they have to be led at least twice onver
an area. Dogs also are not good at working with different people, they prefer
a single handler.
A German institute has now found a viable alternative. Rats can smell out
mines just as well as dogs, are easy to train, cheaper to maintain and much
less picky about their surroundings. A species of large African rats has
proven especially useful for the task.
So perhaps GZG might soon produce a PAU engineer leading a pack of
mine-sniffing rats ?
Greetings
Very interesting, Karl. Thanks.
I've seen several 25mm & 15mm 'rat swarms' in various fantasy mini lines.
Lots of rats on one base - just designate them your engineering rats and
go for it!
Reaper has "2353 Rat Swarm (4 Stands)", but they might be too big for
'realistic' SF rats. Reaper do very nice work, anyway. I know Ral Partha did
rat swarms too, but that was in their D&D lines, which seem to have vanished
with RP & TSR being bought out.
[quoted original message omitted]
> On Fri, 29 Mar 2002, K.H.Ranitzsch wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
[...]
> > Reaper has "2353 Rat Swarm (4 Stands)", but they might be too big
There's also always otherworld critters to domesticate. ;-)
G'day,
> Reaper has "2353 Rat Swarm (4 Stands)", but they might be
How big are they? Some species of rat are on the large side.
Cheers
> On Sat, 30 Mar 2002 Beth.Fulton@csiro.au wrote:
> G'day,
http://www.reapermini.com/photos/dh/2353.gif
There's just the rats in the pic, but Reaper tends to be generous with their
mini sizes. (30mm humans are standard from them, and their "15mm" figures are
huge!). They're probably big rats, but without the pack in front of you it's
impossible to say how big!
Big enough to scare housecats? If I had ten bucks to spare I'd order a pack
just for the heck of it, but...
http://www.reapermini.com/photos/dh/2500/2544.jpg
There's also these guys, and I'm guessing they're REALLY big! Big enough to
scare Dobermans... (Reaper 2544 Barrow Rats) Mutant alien rats, in SF terms.
[quoted original message omitted]
G'day,
> I haven't seen a proper species name mentioned in the news
Makes sense, especially if they're from Asia or Africa.
Cheers
> Beth.Fulton@csiro.au wrote:
We have 'em larger than that here in Baltimore. ;-) So maybe
the oversized minis wouldn't be too out of line - esp if they
come from someplace like this (oooooo, Baltimore might get its claim to fame
in the GZG universe by supplying large scout rodents!)
Mk