28mm Shogunate Japanese Terrain - Cottage and Small Barn

Hey There,

I've been reading an early draft of Sidney's 'Until the Last Sword is Drawn' along with the newly released 'Hamatsu', and so felt a desperate need to do up some Japanese terrain. 

I've had this kit from 4Ground for YEARS. In fact, I picked it up at SALUTE probably a decade ago and it's been 'seasoning' ever since. Anyway, I girded my loins for the coming struggle, but managed to talk Lady Sarah into helping me (using my Jedi Tom Sawyer spiel), so we had a nice weekend afternoon putting these two buildings together.  :) 

I even managed to get through my part of the assembly process without saying any bad words. Now, that's iron discipline. (Okay, I may have muttered a few, but it was under the table when looking for dropped parts, and I don't think anyone heard...)

Love the Boris hair roof, but it's even better after a good coat of water mixed with PVA. Somebody really should tell him. 

Sigh, I miss 4Ground. Their stuff was sooo well designed. 

Nothing much to say about these as they're pretty basic, but still, they were a joy to build. I may give them a wash and highlight, but really they look pretty serviceable as is, and will be a great addition to the Shogunate Japan collection.

Thanks for popping in!

Curt

From Curt: 28mm Napoleonic Russian Peasants & Cottage (30 points)

I thought I'd squeak this submission in before we leave for the Valentine's weekend (shh, don't let the missus know...). 

Here are six very, very cross Russian peasants for my 1812 French Retreat project. 

The figures are from the Perrys' 28mm Napoleonic range. I kept them in fairly natural earth tones as I think they wouldn't be too flashy, being too busy eking out a life in the frozen steppes of Russia for such frippery. 

I've included a few shots of them seeing off some unwelcome French callers.

I also just completed a Russian cottage from 4Ground. This is a laser-cut MDF kit that comes flat packed and pre-painted. 

I really had a wonderful time putting this together. It took me back to my childhood days when I used to scissor-out and glue together paper farmyard buildings that came in large format scrapbooks (does anyone else remember these?). Anyway, it took me several enjoyable lunch hours at work but I managed to puzzle through it all. It's actually quite an involved little kit, with lots of detail both inside and out, but every piece fit together flawlessly with little fuss or muss. Highly recommended if you have the patience. 

Nice interior detail.

There is one thing I'm not too wild about with these MDF kits and that is the laser burn marks around the edges. When they first came out I could get past it as they were still unique but now when I see them it just screams to me, 'Look, another 'painted' MDF kit with burnt edges'. 

Here is a side of the cottage 'stock' with the burnt laser markings clearly evident...

But it's an easy fix. I took 10 minutes to quickly drybrush the walls with a couple tones of light khaki and light grey to soften the burn marks and I really think it provides a better overall finish, well, to me anyway. 

...and this is with a bit of simple drybrushing.

Next to go will be those 'socket-marks' in the roof and corner joins, but that will be for another day.

Hooray Igor! Get out the vodka, we're eating French tonight...

The cottage notwithstanding, these six pissed-off Russian peasants will give me 30 points to chip me along. (NOTE: I've increased my Challenge Target to 1K which will be a definite stretch for me but I guess that's the purpose of the whole affair.)

Oh, and just as a reminder: Due to me being away for the next couple of days the 'Casualties' Bonus Round has been postponed until next Sunday (this will not affect the date of the 'Favourite Character' Bonus Round, which remains March 2nd).

Have a great weekend everyone!

From AlanD: Challenge Desperado 'Alias' (30 points)

Alan sends in his amazingly creative Challenge Desperado.

From Alan:

When Curt announced that the entrance fee for the competition was to be a figure inspired by a Sam Peckinpah film, I knew I had to have a go at modelling Bob Dylan in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Dylan plays the role of the enigmatic Alias in the film. I say 'plays the role', but essentially Dylan just wanders around from scene to scene, uttering the occasional gnomic observation. However, I am such an inveterate Dylan fan that I choose to overlook the fact that he can't act for crap in the film. I blame poor direction.

The scene I chose to reference occurs when Pat Garrett encounters three of The Kid's sidekicks (including Alias) in a truly grotty saloon/store in some fly-bitten armpit of a town. To keep him out of the way while he intimidates his two friends, Garrett tells Alias to go over to a shelf in the store and read off the labels from the 'airtights' (ie cans). So the scene ends up being quite funny, Garrett having a tense conversation, while in the background we hear Dylan intoning 'beans...spinach...ahh Lima?... tomatoes...spinach and beans...' and so on.

To evoke the scene I used a bookcase from 4-Ground, stocked with sacks and cans made from greenstuff and bits of bamboo skewer. The figure of Alias was based on a desperado from Artizan designs. To try to make him resemble Dylan a bit more, I repositioned his head and used greenstuff to fatten his face a bit, give him more curly hair, give him an upturned collar and have him holding a can of beans, rather than the revolver of the original figure. Alias wears glasses in the scene, which I tried to give the suggestion of with a painted frame.

Anyway, I certainly didn't do a good job of his face, but I'm pleased with it nevertheless. Hope you like it, Curt!

Whoa, this is amazing work Alan. I love how esoteric and creative this vignette is, and your execution of it has been flawless. The modifications to the figure are excellent and I really like how he is positioned away from the viewer which, in turn, beacons your interest even more. 

This is all quite funny as I actually despise Bob Dylan and distinctly remember seeing this film in my 20s and thinking, 'well, cheer up Curt, maybe he'll get shot in the movie...' Now here I am, delighted and chomping at the bit to have him in my figure cabinet! 

'Alias' will give Alan 30 points, including a few extra for the overall realization of this great vignette. Thanks so much Alan!

From AlanD: 28mm Miss Lily and her Girls (15 points)

Alan continues to build upon his Western town of 'Hurricane' with these three lovely ladies.

From Alan:

The population of Hurricane is steadily growing. Inevitably, the girls from Miss Lily's Oasis demanded my attention first, so here they are. Miss Lily is the redhead packing heat; I'm open to suggestions of what to call the other two.

Miss Lily is from the set of armed civilians put out by Great Escape Games, the other two are from Wargames Foundry. Giving them a sandy base didn't seem right, so I fashioned some bases from 4-Ground boardwalks which I think look more the part.

Excellent work Alan! Miss Lily looks to be quite the firecrackers and I really like how you've done their bases to fit with the towns planking/floors.

Hmm, the brunette lass looks to be a Phoebe Parker to me...

These three spirited girls of 'Hurricane' will give Alan 15 points. Well done!

From FranL: 28mm Plains Indians, Tunnelling Machine, Steam Tank, Wagons, Cowgirls and a Bleedin' Rocket (320 points)

From Francis:

This is my last entry and while the challenge has been a blast, it has drained me, well mainly listening to Ray has drained me, he gets a little obsessive!

We have a real mixed bag here and some of it was no internet for two days at home last week and this is especially evident with the V2 rocket, anyway here we go........

We have 19 28mm Foundry Plains Indians for the wild west shenanigans.

We have a 28mm tunnelling machine from Ironclad Miniatures erupting from beneath the earth possibly full of chinese invaders.

Two 28mm MDF wagons from 4Ground plus 2 resin wagon loads specially designed to fit the wagons, these were really well designed kits but very fiddly, you can see were there should be 5 wagon hoops but there are only fecking 4, damn these shovel sized hands!

Two 28mm Ironclad Miniatures Steam Tanks with gatling guns, currently painting some Hinterland Miniatures to go with these.

9 28mm horses from Dixon Miniatures, 6 are Apache and 3 are cowboy, these are primarily scenery.

A mounted and dismounted princess from Hinterland Miniatures with a queen Victoria from Eureka Minis.

Some apache females and scouts from Dixon Miniatures, 7 figures plus 1 horse (I promise there is a figure behind the horse). 

4 28mm female gunfighters from Eureka Minis called The Earp Sisters with Dr.Holly Daye.

This is either a 1/48th or 1/35th scale WW2 V2 rocket which will be used for 28mm Pulp gaming, there is a 28mm Ironclad Miniatures scientist pushing the button beside it and to give an idea of scale!

There is a rumour circulating that next year you're doing the challenge dedicated to the 300 at Thermopylae, just a rumour though Curt! An excellent challenge this year, congratulations my friend.

Ha! 300 Spartans? Now that is an idea... Can you imagine? God's Holy Trousers, I'd be a gibbering mess in the first 3 days.

Funny you should mention 300, I see my blog has just tipped over 300K hits today. Whoa. I would have never guessed when I started this ...

Okay, a tunnelling machine and a steam tank?! (sigh) Whatever. I'm too tired to say a word...

Lovely work Fran. Your submissions never fail to make me smile. That rocket is completely mental btw (your reflection in the window is excellent).

This final submission by my favourite Irishman will garner him a well deserved 320 points. Hey, this almost doubles what your original target was. Great work Francis! 

It has been a pleasure, mon ami. Until next year...