Unproductive? Maybe not.

Hi folks,

It's been a few weeks since my last update on the blog, and I do try not to leave it too long without posting something. No progress to speak of painting wise, once the AHPC challenge ended my painting mojo just went with it. I think this might be linked to it being my 3rd week in the house and 2nd week of full time working from home. I spend all day at my painting desk, and when it comes to evening time I'm struggling to pick up a brush.

Things I have done, however, include setting up a table in one of my spare rooms just to take some pictures of bits and bobs. I've since moved the setup as I wasn't getting a lot of light in it's initial placement, but I've not done anything else with it since.

I also spent a fair amount of time working on an article for the Flames of War site. I'm not sure if it will see publication as it was pretty heavy going - basically trying to focus a little bit on Anti-Tank unit markings and where the M10's attached to a formation might come from and what markings they should/might have.

On a whim last week, I dug out my old BFG ships, which have been languishing for some time. I sorted a few bits out and sprayed them last weekend, but beyond that have done nothing. I also bought a few bits for them off eBay, specifically some 3rd party ships in the same style. These came with spare prows, which I had the bright idea of using to fix up some 'reclaimed' Imperial hulls (which had been badly converted into Ork ships).

On a side note, if anyone has any Ork ships for this game they would like rid of, give me a shout!

The new ship - an merchant cruiser for my Rogue Trader fleet, along with the reclaimed hulls using extra prows and other spares. These will be based on 'Lathe-class Monitor Cruisers' - effectively light cruisers designed for long term exploration operations.  

You can see the state of the recovered hulls from the two at the front. I've ordered another of the merchant cruisers to do as a pure merchant ship, which will also give me the prows to sort out the other two hulks. 

This took a little work, which I actually really enjoyed.

The light carrier (rear left) needed some bitty work to replace a backwards launch bay and add some other parts, but was otherwise a simple clean up and then a fix for the engine area (detailed below).

The right rear ship took more work. The upper hull was so badly damaged I ended up turning the whole ship upside down. I swapped the gun bays to be correctly orientated (there is a narrow top and a thicker bottom, with the ship now being upside down, these were then wrong). I added a bridge in front of the previously ventral (now dorsal) fin. This was clipped out from a Chaos cruiser bridge I'd spare. The 'conversion' to Ork ships had included the crude cutting out of the middle of each engine area to add in a 'fin'. I replaced this fin with a section taken from the previously cut up Chaos bridge, to add a rear detail. Obviously a warm place to be on the ship, but it works visually. I'm planning to do the same with the other two hulls.

I may do some green stuff work when all four are done, just to tidy them up a bit, prior to spraying.

I also prepped and primed a unit of 10mm Camel riders and a unit of spearmen for my For Joshua project. I based some of the Orc's I'd been given by John, but ran out of bases so had to order more. Post seems to be slowing down, as it took a fair while for the bases to arrive, despite being posted fairly locally. In fact, I had several day's worth of mail arrive at once.

When these arrived, I started work on bases for all the stuff still on the shelf. I used 3 packs of 50mm by 100mm bases, along with a load of dice cell packs to make up 30 bases. I now need to paint these brown before I can start putting figures on them. Then they will need sanding and static grass. However, I am pleased to have made a start and I'm hopeful I can start showing peoples contributions again soon. I know there is more stuff coming, but appreciate international post (and getting to the post office) are all issues just now.

I also dug out the 15mm armoured cars which had been in the works prior to Joshua's death last year. These have been checked and a few broken off bits glued on, and they are now back in the painting queue. I'd like to make progress with these this year, but want to break the back of the planned 10mm stuff first.

I ordered the paints I think I will need for my Cruel Seas ships, which is another thing to do when I find my mojo again.

I've also started a new chapter of my ongoing DnD campaign, allowing my players to start with level 1 characters as a bit of a side game while their main characters do some town building. And now, based on the BFG ships, I'm thinking of also running a Rogue Trader game. Given no-one can go anywhere, seems the perfect time to run some games.

And lastly, I am taking part in a play by mail/social media 'Wild West' game being run by DaveD. Seems to be working out so far... more on this later!

So looking over all of this, while I've not been painting it's not like I have been idle - just not productive with the hairy sticks. I've still an article to do for the AHPC challenge, showing off all I've done over the 6 months. I've held off as I'd like to get a picture of some of the stuff I was also given during the challenge, but I may do that separately. As an aside, my 10mm human force hasn't been posted to my blog, which I also still need to do! It was nominated for 'challengers choice' and can be voted on here. To be honest, I thought my diorama I did for Dave was my best work of the challenge, but I am honoured to have been nominated.

That's it for now - hope everyone is staying sane and safe. If anyone wants a hobby chat, drop me a line - always happy to arrange a google hangout just to chew the fat.

James

Finished!: 15mm Carts and scatter terrain

Hi folks,

I've been in full on prep mode this week, with my big game planned for Sunday. Lots of terrain stuff and documents to prepare, plans to make and models to sort out.

I've still a load of stuff I'd like to do, but I'm rapidly running out of time now so will just have to be happy with what I'll have ready!

This week, my entries for the challenge were a load of 'French' village vehicles from Irregular. Some carts of various sizes, a civilian truck and a car type thing:

I also finished off the last of my graveyard:

And update my older graveyard bases to have flowers and tufts as well.

I also (finally) did something with some irregular shaped MDF bases I had, which I have planned to use for small forests/stands of trees:

And finally I got some more the those little timecast gardens painted:

I've also drawn a sketch map of what the terrain will look like (ish) on the table, sorted out my forces for both sides, thought about special rules I will be using, typed up a briefing document and made sure I have unit stats ready... It's been hectic. Tonight I based a load of trees, finished painting some building additions made from MDF buildings I cut in half to allow me to put lean to's/extensions on houses, finished some more gardens off, painted a tank commander on one of my Croc's which I hadn't put a figure on... the list is endless!

Pics and such will follow the game on Sunday!

Finished!: 15mm Battlefront SS Nebelwerfers + Terrain

Hi folks,

Another busy week! For the Saturday bonus themed round ('Childhood') I went with some of my first SS infantry figures - 'children' from 12th SS Panzer Division:

As ever, you can vote for me by visiting the page here and looking for the voting panel on the right hand side (you'll need to turn desktop view on if your viewing via a phone or table, by clicking the link at the very bottom of the blog page I have linked).

These are standard Heer figures from Battlefront, who don't seem to make SS crew for their Nebelwerfers. I added green stuff to their helmets to make them the 'covered' SS style, and turned their normal jackets into the SS style ones by cutting off the shoulder straps.

I then painted a mish mash of SS camo on them. Plane Tree, Oak Leaf and Pea Dot:

Obviously, at 15mm scale as soon as your more than a foot from the models you can't see any of this, but I made an attempt anyway! I also went for a more camo'd launcher as well, rather than the usual yellow shade on my Heer launchers.

For my mid week entry, I focused on terrain for Sundays 'big' game, while working on the Nebs.

Some more 15mm buildings - theses are the more basic ones I had lying around. They look better painted up and will fit in with the rest of the town. The only downside is they have no 'levels' other than the roof coming off:

And some 15mm gravestones for my churchyard:

The grave stones came from Blotz and from a Ebay seller who does resin graveyard bits, such as the tombs and monuments. I mixed the lots together to give me some variety. I also decided to add some tufts just to match in more with my unit bases. Hopefully these look OK on the table! I've a few more to finish off.

This week I'm working on some village scatter terrain, prep for Sundays game and have not long since finished proof reading my sisters next book!

4Ground 15mm Church and buildings, plus random Lancaster!

Hi folks,

I had intended this week to get on with some actual 15mm models but found myself at a loose end and making a start on my 15mm 4Ground Parish Church. For those of you not familiar with this model here's what it's supposed to look like:

Picture not mine - taken from the 4ground website and used without permission for reference purposes!

One of the reasons it took me so long to decide to get this model is that it's not quite what I was looking for to suit my Normandy theme. The main issue had been the nature of the damage (far too clean looking, no rubble and the back end of the main building just missing) and the tower (both the massive hole in the tower and the fact it was not a steeple - which seems to be more common in Normandy).

Having done some work on the normal 4Ground ruined buildings, I thought I could remedy the 'clean' issue, and I had some ideas with what I could do with the tower. My original plan was to take the top off and have the remains of a steeple 'crashed' down on the ground.

So, I started building the model, and when I got to the tower I bravely (read - not so bravely) started hacking up this expensive birthday gift from my wife... This is what I ended up with. Ignore the (very) dirty paint water!

Along the way, the cunning plan had changed. I decided that making the fallen steeple would be a tad difficult, and that the nature of the hole in the tower would probably have meant the upper layers would have 'slid' down the building.

I assembled the tower as per the instructions using a small amount of PVA and blue tack. I then marked out the shapes I needed to cut. I then took the sections I needed to cut apart again. I used a fine tooth saw to cut the parts before gluing the whole thing together again.

At the base of the tower, I got my clippers, the remains of the sprues and a load of glue, and set to work.

Gradually the look I was aiming for took shape:

Until I eventually had the type of damage and rubble I was looking for:

I've still a bit of work to do on this - I can seem some areas that will need painting and the likes - mainly to tie the colours together in the rubble and the rest of the building to my other buildings. But I'm pretty pleased. The tower could be a bit better, but I think at first glance it resembles a collapsed steeple. The rubble pile at the base of the tower could possibly do with being a bit bigger, but really it works as is. Once I get some paint on I'll see how I feel as to whether it needs expanding. As ever guys, your input is sought. I think when you spend a lot of time thinking and working on something you can lose a bit of perspective!

As you can see from the final picture above, the rubble piles are wherever possible removable - for transport and model deployment reasons. The damage to the tower is fixed in place, although the tower itself still splits down into multiple levels.

Having taken a whack at the church, I moved onto the other two ruined 4ground buildings I've had on the shelf since the last bit of work. I did take a few more pictures as I went with the first one, so hopefully this will be a useful insight into what I'm doing.

Starting with the built model, I use clipped off building sprue to make the base. In this case, I should probably have gone for multiple sections rather than one big one.

Things to watch for here:

1) that the thing your adding on (assuming you want it to be removable) is not glued to the model.
2) that you think about how your adding sections. In this case, this additional area actually has to 'slide' into place rather than being lifted up or down.
3) try to have a think about where the rubble would have fallen
4) do you need to 'replace' any missing sections of the building. In this case, a wall is missing which I've added back in.

Once the base is assembled, I use bits of sprue glued down with superglue to hold all the bits together. Just watch for warping, which I encountered slightly here.

Then, I start layering up the depth I want. Initially this is done with offcuts. I try to think how the rubble will sit. I also added some height to this one by adding a remaining corner.

For floor areas, I start by laying a piece of sprue down that fits the area. I then start layering up the beams and areas that will have rubble. You can see this a bit better below. If you plan on making this removable, just be careful with the glue. From time to time make sure that you can still take everything apart and that it all fits together again as well. Again, I'm thinking about the look of the whole thing, and how a 'naturally' ruined building would look.

Next up, I start adding more depth. I've been using cork chip for this. You can see the bags in some of the pictures. The bigger bits I use for the base layer. PVA works but is slow to dry. Superglue also works, but you need to be quick.

For a lot of this, I coated the area I wanted to cover in thick superglue then just poured over the cork 'rubble'. Leave it to dry, shake off the loose stuff and do it again till you have the depth you want.

As you can see, all removable!

Once I've gotten the basic shape down, I add clipped up bits of sprue to lay on top of the rubble and look like beams, wall sections and bits of roof.

I then take the quite fine (brick like?) cork chips and apply using PVA as the base. I literally just dab PVA onto the areas I want to have the finer rubble and then shake the chips onto the model. This is normally done in a tub, so the chips can be reused if they don't stick.

This building needs a little more work - one of the things I did this morning was just build up the wall between the rubble piles a little so that it makes sense height wise. It also helped blend the colours in.

The last building is still a work in progress. I was a bit stuck with this one as the base model is one I have already 'ruined' so I had to do it differently. This time I built up the missing walls to use as a frame work, and just added a lot of rubble and a collapsed floor:

I'm not planning to build the rubble up any higher, just to detail it with beams and fine cork, and make sure lots of roof looks to have fallen onto the upper level and the rubble pile! Fingers crossed it works out.

So, I'm getting close to having this batch finished - I need to order more materials before starting the next lot. Those with be the buildings I purchased from Lee, which all need the same treatment for their damaged sections.

The sad cost of Liberation:

In an odd twist, I was drawn to the window on Friday night due to an altercation in my (otherwise very quiet) street. Some sort of road rage related incident was happening. While watching events, aero engines could be heard, and from behind the neighbours roof comes a Lancaster at pretty low level!

I had a proper split second of thinking 'that Hercules is Looooooh my god' before shouting 'it's a Bloody Lancaster!!!' (I may have disturbed the altercation by shouting 'It's a  Bloody Lancaster!!!' as the living room windows were open)

I scrambled to get my phone camera up and managed to get some shots as the aircraft flew away:

My wife was suitably mortified... apparently people would know I was watching the argument and think I was taking pictures of them. I couldn't care less, I saw THE only current flying Lanc from my own window!

The pictures don't do justice as to how low it was - it seemed like only a couple of hundred feet. it was heading from our left to right, but towards us as well, if that makes sense. I think it had been taking part in the airshow at Sunderland.

A little while later, something small and fast with a single prop engine went over in the opposite direction, but high and at a distance so I couldn't tell the type. I'd like to think it was a Hurri or Spit!

Exciting times! (Oh, and Police arrived a short while later. I think it was an argument over right of way and some bashed wing mirrors, resulting in someones face getting bashed and someone else being arrested. The assaulted mans daughter ran out with no trousers on and had to be bodily carried back inside by her husband... But the Lanc was much more interesting!)