Project Graveyard WIP 3

I've combined two evening's work together since there wasn't much progress on account of waiting for the glue to dry.

A layer of masking tape is taped over the entire piece, leaving only the steps and dug grave exposed, and then a layer of white glue is spread over the entire surface.

My usual 'spice mix' of sand and gravel is poured over the insert. When dry, flagstones made from thin card is glued to the path.

The front gate section is removed to show the interior better.

I am still not sure what colour to paint the ground; my usual basing colour is too red and warm for what I am planning to convey here, so I am thinking either a black prime followed by a dark brown and then a drybrush of brown mixed with grey, or to go black and grey.

I won't be able to work on this tomorrow, but I will have all of Friday to prime and paint the pieces, and hopefully put the finishing touches on this project on Saturday.

Project Graveyard WIP 2

Having purchased some mounting board, I went on with phase 2 of the project: the bases.

I glued the rails/frame for the fences onto a mounting board and cut the base out, then sealed the edges with masking tape with disguise the various layers and the joints of the plastic strips.

For the actual cemetery ground itself I decided to make a separate removable board. This once again gives me some flexibility - I can easily model a new landscape if I didn't like my first attempt, or make new inserts for different terrain types.

Once I cut out an insert of the appropriate size, I sketched the basic layout with pencil - a flagstoned path leading to the crypt, with a central dirt track leading to the sides, dividing the interior into four plots.

I used foamcore to build up the height of each plot. In one plot I cut out an open grave. The sides of the foamcore plots are cut at a bevel, and the pieces glued to their assigned places. I didn't have to be very precise because I plan to use masking tape to smooth out the contours.

The baseboard, insert, and sketched layout. Note the open grave and cut for steps.

The parts assembled. A base is added to the crypt and steps added to the cut in the slope.

Now I must wait overnight for the glue to dry before going on the phase 3: terraining.

Project Graveyard WIP 1

I've been sitting on the graveyard project for quite a while, but this afternoon I was suddenly seized with the Halloween spirit and decided to start work on it.

Now a big part of the delay was my indecision over what size to make the piece. After some discussion with fg, we decided to make it modular, usable with both the fence set I got, as well as the PMC walled compound piece.

After toying with a few ideas, I decided on mounting the fence sections on a sort of a rail system, made by the versatile plasticard and plastistrips I had lying around. This will allow me to take the fence down for storage, as well as substitute "ruined" sections of the side walls as required by the scenario.

I also made the decision to cut the fence down to a shorter length, which would make the base board of the piece smaller and thus less prone to warping. The resulting piece is just a little bigger than an A4 size, which is easy to store and use. In one corner you can see the crypt I bought from Thomarillion, a plaster piece.

Later this week I hope to work on the base board itself - a piece of mounting board with some undulation provided by foamcore, with a central path leading from the gate to the crypt in one corner, and other plots for the gravestones that fg has, plus a creepy dead tree for the other corner.

Armed and not too dangerous

While I wait for the 15mm figures from Martin, I painted up some armed peasant, a project inspired by Matt.

The three command figures are Perry plastics, the men Crusader Miniatures 'Peasants and Pilgrims' pack, and the women and children I frankly can't remember now. I bought them mainly to use them in Strandhogg skirmishes, but with the addition of a leader, standard and musician, you can convert almost any 20mm square-based group of figures into a Warhammer unit. In this case I can use them as an Empire Free Company unit.

Inspired by Matt, I too decided to convert a few of the figures to make them look more varied - you get 2 of each pose in the Crusader pack. The first guy on the left was given a wooden shield from the Perry sprue, and the second guy had his sword replaced by a length of toothpick. I think he is the toughest guy in the bunch because who else would go into battle with just a stout stick?

The fourth guy had his axe converted into a flail using the end of a morning star handle and two links of chain from a GW beastmen sprue - rather than to use a real chain, I decided a rigid length of plastic chain was easier to work with.

The last guy had his spearhead swapped for a polearm head from a Perry sprue. I don't think there is a farm implement that looks like that, but it seems to work.

All the figures were spray-primed red-brown and then painted in earth tones. I chose a (very) limited palette to give them a sense of cohesion.

I think this is one group of figures I wouldn't mind adding to. Now when does Foundry have its sale?

Character-Building

With my Space Marines completed and the Attalid Pergamenes yet to arrive, I have a time slot between projects that is too short for me to start on any of my outstanding ones (several one-dozen 28mm figures jobs lined up), yet I do not want to stop painting for fear of losing momentum.

What do you do in times like this? You build characters.

The beastman is a Resina Planet Khaos Gor. After looking at a few options, I decided to add some putty onto his legs to disguise that fact that he has scrawny ones. Then for good measure I threw in a piece of driftwood I found on the beach at Foca (of the Phokians fame) in front of them, stained with Devlan Mud.

The female dwarf is from Scibor, a gift from fg. Her shield is unfortunately miscasted, but let's just call it battle-damage. I replaced her rather cartoony sword with a mace from a Perry WOTR box. I think I will call her Mathilde.

These two characters will join my small beastmen warband and my rather bigger dwarf hold.

St Teilo's Church

A while back I traded some figures with Matt. Since I didn't want any of the figures he had on hand, I took him up on an offer of a scratch-built building.

After browsing through the pictures of some historical buildings he took on his blog, I asked for a church building based on St Teilo's Church, pictures of which I have posted below:

We decided on a single-hall structure, and Matt went off to work...

Two months later, I picked up the church from the local post office, and what I saw was simply stunning. I'll let the photos do most of the talking. I've posed it inside a walled enclosure I bought off ebay and the trees I recently bought.

A wounded knight seeks sanctuary at a church

The gate swings open, and he is greeted by the friar and a lay follower of the church

The porch is removable. Note also the Celtic Cross made by Matt

The door swings open...

Matt has recreated the interior of the church too!

"Lie down upon this table and rest, my good sir."

The bell in the belfry actually swings!

I don't think anyone could have made a better trade than this one. :)

Added: Matt's post on this building here.

Class Photo

It took about twenty years, but here they are now.

All 2000 points of them, and every one of them painted by myself.

There are the women of the scout squad, the three tactical squads with flamer/meltagun and heavy weapon, and sergeants with melee weapons, the assault squad accompanied by the chaplain, the terminator squad with flamer and assault cannon, the Thunderfire Cannon with Techmarine, the dreadnought, and the command squad with the Captain, standard bearer, apothecary, champion, sergeant, and veteran.

The core of this force started almost twenty years ago with just 15 figures in three squads which I meant vaguely for some sci-fi skirmish game. When Thomas and Adrian started painting their 40K armies last year, I decided to refurbish my force and well, one unit led to another and pretty soon I was gunning for a full 2000 point army, thanks to fg who supplied me with many of the figures.

It's perhaps a testament to GW's staying power that one can still easily buy figures for a line that is in fact 25 years old.

Now to take a break and get ready for my 15mm Attalid Pergamenes and perhaps finally learn the Impetus rules...

Added: The army by daylight.

The luck of the Irish, or the Emperor's foreign regiments

After I received the Vistula Legion, I noted that I had room for just four more bases of infantry in the box I use to store my Napoleonic infantry. I toyed with the idea of getting four bases of Italian infantry to bolster my foreign regiment presence...

Then while looking for flocking materials on Sunday I uncovered the 15mm Napoleonic figures I painted years ago when we were doing Republique - all three units of infantry took part in the Battle of Fuentes d'Onoro. I soaked the bases in water, plucked the figures off, and then re-glued them four-to-a-base and I have four bases of infantry and one of cavalry. A lick of paint similar to that used by the ebay seller (Medium Flesh - go figure), some flocking, and they are ready.

So here they are, the Polish (infantry bought painted, now with their own colours), the Regiment Irlandais, the Legion du Midi, and the Legion Hanoverienne.

Welcome back to the fold, boys. Now let's go bash some Brits and Austrians!

Tehnolog Walls

The Tehnolog cannon and orcs came with two ruined walls and connecting corners which are modular in that they allow more walls to be added.

I glued the walls to a piece of mounting board with the sides sealed by masking tape (this is a really important step, I think), and then added a floor made from another piece of mounting board in the inside. I chopped up the sprue and added some bits of plasticard and dowels and glued them to the base as rubble, followed by a scatter of gravel and then sand.

Once everything is dry, I sprayed the whole thing black.

The plan was to spray the black-coated model with my can of grey primer afterwards and then give the whole thing a wash. However, due to its age the grey primer came out of the nozzle a little gooey, and gave a textured paint effect, which was not unpleasing.

When the spray paint is dry to the touch, I painted the steel windows and exposed steel beams in black again and then steel. Finally, I gave the steel structures a wash of Devlan Mud, allowing the excess to pool and stain the surrounding concrete, and then give the rest of the structure a thin wash of Badab Black.

I really like the heft of these walls, and of course the cannon is a delight. Perhaps I should get another box, this time with different figures; at 54mm, they are not really what I need, but I suppose I can always use them as statues.

Rolling Thunder

"Cannon, see that Eldar Farseer there? F**k him and everyone near him"

With no game this weekend, I managed to get some of the toys I received this week painted.

First up is the "counts as" Thunderfire Cannon, with a Devastator sergeant posing as a Techmarine. I chose to give him the hand-held device in one hand, and a powerfist in the other since Techmarines have servo-arms which give them close-combat bonus, and because the arm looks cool, especially when pointing. The kneeling pose is also very "gunner", which adds to the whole look.

I didn't have any specific shoulder insignia decal for him, so I superimposed a skull - the symbol of my boys - on a red sunburst pattern that came in the Dark Angels Devastator decal sheet, on the basis that it looks sort of like gears.

For the cannon itself I decided to pattern it after WW1 field guns - all painted in one colour. Most of the pictures I found on google are either black-and-white (duh!), and the colour ones are mostly museum pieces or abandoned guns in advanced stages of decay. I thought about weathering the gun to show chips and rust, but then I decided that as Marines, they would probably take better care of their equipment - after all, we are not orks. So I sprayed the whole thing green, painted in some of the missed spots, then washed it liberally with Badab Black, allowing pooling specially in the spokes of the wheels. Some "beading" occurred on some areas, which gave the appearance of oxidation. A brush of medium green highlighted the edges, and some black on the muzzle suggested soot.

The wheels appeared to be single pieces of metal with no separate tyres, so I drybrushed grey on the area that would contact the ground, and then silver to suggest bare metal showing through worn off paint. Since my marines are based on rocky rather than muddy ground, I did not add any mud stains.

The finished model looks plain; unfortunately there are no flat areas to apply the chapter symbol and there is a stark absence of skulls - not like my boys at all...

All in all I am pleased with the model. I am now working on the walls that came in the box too. If Rick does decide to build an Imperial Guard army based on Warzone figures, a few of these wouldn't be amiss.

More Toys

Two more packages bring in more toys for this week.

Shown here are a few of the 40 trees I bought from an ebay seller treefella.1. When I saw his poplars on sale I contacted him and basically bought as many trees as he could fit into a standard postage box. I got a total of 20 poplars and 20 deciduous trees (at one pound and a pound fifty respectively). Four of the trees broke off their bases in transit, but it should be an easy job to fix them back with a blob of epoxy each.

Posing between the trees is a unit of Duchy of Warsaw infantry I bought in an arms race with Rick, who is recruiting some 500 Austrians to try to throw off the French yoke. They have now been given their regimental colours by the Emperor (having a colour printer at home really helps), and I have repainted their eagle silver instead of gold which the painter has erroneously done.

With these two lots in, I am down to just one item awaiting delivery.

Time to get down to the serious business of painting.

Toy Overload!

Two packages arrived in the mail today for me, and fg handed me some more Space Marines to round up my force while I passed him some LOTR figures wahj passed to me earlier. It's all good.

Anyway, this is what I got today:

First up are these 15mm AB French Napoleonic infantry in pre-1806 uniforms. I got them because they were the only non-Legere unit DPS had on their ebay store at the moment and I wanted to buy a unit on impulse. Unfortunately they missed my request on basing the skirmishers on standard bases. No matter - they still look capital and will add variety to my force.

Then there are these 54mm plastic figures from the Russian company that makes Robogear. They come in semi-hard plastic and look quite good. I've posed them next ti my Perry WOTR infantry and on 40mm bases for comparison.

And then there's the one I've been really looking forward to: the cannon that came with the orcs.

I've planned to use it as a Thunderfire Cannon with the tracks from a Robogear vehicle, but looking at the whole package now I am inclined to paint it as is. I've also asked fg for his Devastator Squad Sergeant to use as a Techmarine because I don't really like the over-the-top way those guys look. I really like his pose and his gear, which give the impression of an artillery spotter, and the cannon looks suitable Gothic Sci-fi.

Lots of painting ahead of me...

Perfect Ten

Say what you like about Games Workshop, but I think they got it right when they designed the Terminator.

There is just something so determined in the face of a Terminator that says: it can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with... it doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear, and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.

Some Terminators just want to watch xenos-infested worlds burn.

In fact, I don't care much for the more animated poses as seen in the new Space Hulk and the Dark Vengeance set; to me, the square "in your face" look is a classic and you shouldn't tamper with a classic.

And say what you want about the Army Painter technique, but I got the other five Terminators that I need to round my squad up to a ten completed in two days with the Army Painter spray paint and a wash of Badab Black.

And if I thought a squad of five looked menacing, a squad of ten looked... at least twice as menacing!

Next up, fifteen Space Marines, hopefully done in a jiffy with Army Painter spray once more.

I'll be back... with pictures once I'm done.

I think it was the dismount

I must say I faced a lot of inertia getting these guys done, but here they are.

I had to cut the left hands off at above the wrists and re-attach them at a different angle to make them look natural, so it was quite a laborious process. I cut a lot of corners when painting them because I was rather fatigued when I got to that part.

Still, I've got a special scenario planned for them the next time we play Strandhogg.

With the pistoliers done, my next target is to round up my Space Marines to a 2000 pts force, and quickly so because the next big thing (well, one of the next big things at any rate) is to paint up some 15mm figures for our Macedonian War project.

Impetus cavalry movement tray

I made a few movement trays for out Impetus armies as we have decided to stick with the standard DBX basing for flexibility.

While I chose the standard 2 x 2 configuration for my infantry units, for my cavalry I decided to go for a 1-2 configuration to save on the number of figures needed and also to give that "wedge" look.

You can just about make out the pieces of plasticard I used to create the niche for the front base. The space can be used for little dioramic touches like broken weapons and shields, or rocks and tree stumps.

Triple weekend

We had a bit of a party atmosphere this evening as all seven of us were able to make it for the session. Cocktails, beer, cakes and chips, War movies playing in the background... it's all good.

I had to split my main table into two and mobilise my coffee table to accommodate three games.

On the larger part of the main table Adrian and Thomas played their first game of 40K 6th Edition.

Thomas' Blood angels

Adrian's Eldars

 On the coffee table fg and wahj learned Impetus by playing.

wahj's Cathaginians bear down on wahj's Romans

On the smaller part of the main table Rick and Martin replayed the Battle of Corunna (the Rio del Burgo and Corunna Bay conveniently dividing the table from the giant (28mm) aliens and superhumans battling it out with outlandish gear.

The French push the British off Monte Mero

I spent most of the time helping Rick and Martin with the rules.

Corunna was fought on a rather narrow frontage, which scaled to a mere 2 feet in Age of Eagles scale.

As in the historical battle, the rough ground meant that the French cavalry didn't do much (in this case they did not move at all after the first turn), and it came down to an infantry fight.

Rather than to fight over Elvina as their historical counterparts did, Rick sent two of his divisions to his left to outflank the British position on Monte Mero, while Martin sent his reserves to counter the move. After much to-ing and fro-ing, the French had advanced much further than they historically did, but the British still held their own and held the road leading towards Corunna.

I think we are growing to enjoy AoE, and fg and wahj didn't think that badly of Impetus, so I guess we can settle on the rules bit and get down with the business and painting and playing from now on. There was a question of whether we should move into WW2... let's see, guys... let's see.

Some more impetus

The Impetus project is picking up momentum and Martin just sent out an order for almost 50 packs of Xyston figures.

I know I pledged not to start a new period, but my contribution to this project is limited to an allied Greek contingent of DBA size, so it's not really a breach...

Anyway, we all plan to base our figures on DBX basing and use some sort of movement trays instead of going for the full Impetus mini-diorama, tempting though that may be. I made a test tray out of my remaining plasticard, and when I opened my cupboard to get a few bases of my Hittites to test the fit, found this:

A model of a Greek temple wahj left at my place, I believe. It's probably a bit small in scale ("The centre has to be at least... three times bigger than this"), but it should do fine as a decoration if not an actual terrain piece to fight over.

Meanwhile, Martin found a piece of classical ruins terrain that I gave him a long time ago... Things are just falling into pieces, aren't they?