Into the woods

I am sick with flu.

Having that 'can't concentrate/can't sleep' bullshit.

So I wasted a little time trying to finishing up the box of unfinished scenery that has been unfinished since I didn't finish it.

This is about half of the fucking things.  Lots to still do on these, but playable quality now.  By the time I am finished there will be fruit, flowers and shrooms, hidden animals and stuff like that.

My second deathworld cactus.  Needs paintjob fixed up.

Get well me.

Yes, other me.

Getting my ass to mars

A brief break in the weather game me the chance I needed to spray stuff.  I then attacked my Blanchitsu playset with big brush work.  All it needs now is a few hours of detail work, picking out and shading individual parts.  Tedious work.

To get this far required a spray prime of black, then chestnut brown.

First layer of rust was thinned bestial brown thinned slightly.  This was highlighted with Macharius orange.

Steel was stippled here and there.

Vmc pale green grey formed the basis of the paint layer.  This was stippled with peppermint.

Black craft paint was then brushed on for oil, fire damage and deep shadows.

The martian surface was brushed with red oxide artist acrylic paint.  Deep crimson and hookers green artist acrylic added the sump oil and blood like stains.

Lots to do, but a pretty effective first pass.

Wargame table time!

Well I am excited.  Are you excited?
Today I picked up a three by four foot lightweight mdf board and 18mm battens to make me the first panel of my full size wargame board!

I managed to assemble the frame pretty quickly.  In hindsight 18mm may be too thin to prevent warping entirely, but it will do for now.  Any larger and I wouldn't be able to stack it against the wall neatly behind the bookshelf. I may have to add a few more cross braces.

I am thinking I will paint the underside white to make it seem airy and light.  Or bkack and white to look like a japanese screen.

I intend to paint it deep sickly green then gloss the crapola out of it.  Gloss modpodge and ink will then be used to texture ripples in the top.

This new board is the basis for my  Skulldred photography board- and will also be used for demos at events like Cancon/PAX/MOAB.

Once this is done I will fashion some islands in various sizes which can each have different looks- muddy trench, city, flocked field, necromunda hive, leafy forrest... whatever I feel like.  The gaps between the islands form rivers.  Infinitely configurable water/toxic sludge features!

Undead assault here I come!

Undead Assault on maths

Its time to start planning my tower... so I did a quick bit of finking and used the measurements of the minis in the picture to extrapolate rough proportions for my keep.  9x14 should do the trick, though I may adjust this for playablity... after all, my models are on 30mm bases... so they will have to have room to stand.  My cunning plan is to make the upper floor of the keep to take the bases, then work down the front wall down to the sally port, then do the front where the bridge connects.

Extrapolating lengths based on known variables.... kinda.

I have yet to get me some of those pillars, but already have the sally port and front door, so the bridge will have to be stage 2.  I am thinking about taking a mould of these and casting these in resin simply to reduce the weight and allow me to make the doors open-able for gaming.  I will go with the authentic models to start with, then explore this avenue later.


For the table, I am planning something a bit special.  Instead of digging down for the river, I am planning on building up from it.  The gaming table boards will be entirely made up of glossy, murkey green water.  The ground sections will be individual island modules that are placed ontop of the water.  I ordered a tub of magnetic responsive paint- basically enamel house paint with micro iron balls in it.  I am going to try this as a layer below the glossy water effect and see if I can get magnets to adhere to it.  That way any islands I place on will stay put!  I am planning on doing this with a dungeon board as well.

The keep, cliff face and sally port will all be one module, the bridge will connect to this with magnets.  The stone archway, mushrooms and hill will be seperate peices mounted on MDF, and these will sit on the islands.  I have already started the giant mushrooms using wire on heavy washers and magic sculpt.  The caps are shaped over citadel paint tubs.

The major change I will be making is the ground texture.  To be honest I always thought the one John used looks jarring and ugly.  After painting the Undead leader with the exact matching colors on his base... yeah... uhg.  Not really going to make me happy unless I do something more modern and natural.  I will be using a mix of mosses, flock and leaf scatter for a more natural look- keeping towards the catachan / camo greens I used to use a lot on my bases.

The stonework is a concern to me.  I will be making my keep from foamcore, so that expanded foam cell look will have to be sculpted on- perhaps with a thin layer of magic sculpt.  I may have to carve it from EPS now I think about it.  I may just modernise it a bit with pencil carved eps and give it a slightly different, more detailed look- as, even as a kid... it always looked like foam packaging to me.  Not sure yet.  What are your thoughts?

Frugal fruits of the foamy forrest: Making foliage for a couple of bucks

You know those times when your standing in the hobby store and you have that tub of scenic material and you know you really, really need it for your project but you just can't shake that little voice in your head that says 'Well gee willikers Mister, that's just a load of shredded foam they painted green - and by-golly thats just some sawdust dyed yellow.'  Yeah.  My inner monologue sounds like a 1950's TV kid.  Wanna make something of it?

I wanted to make something of it.  I wanted to make my own.  And golly gosh, gee... I did.

50c of cheapass gamer

 So armed with a discount store electric coffee grinder, some tubes of students acrylic and a bit of foam discarded from one of the many evicted backpackers furniture piles commonly found on any street curb in Bondi beach, I tackled my greatest challenge yet.  Make an unending supply of foliage material for the price of a single bag from my hobby store.  Coffee grinder included.

Step 1:  Rip up the foam into chunks.  Pop it in the blender and give it a few whizzes to get it into inch sized bits.

Step 2:  Take a screw lid pot, stuff in a little foam and add water.  Squeeze and stir in enough cheap craft paints to make about twenty citadel pots worth up.  Use the foam chunks to be your color guide- it will lighten up a tad, but not much.  Alternatively buy a can of house paint from the store- you can get their little computer to match a sample you already have.

Step 3:  Lay out a protective sheet of plastic in a warm, sunlit place.  Put some newspaper down on top of that.  Make sure there are no breezes or pets in your chosen location.

Step 4:  Stir in the foam chunks a handful at a time using an old kitchen utensil that has holes in it (a strainer is ideal).  Press the chunks against the sides to take out most of the paint without discoloring, then lift the batch onto the paper.  You want the paint to thickly coat the foam, so that it hardens when it sets.

Step 5:  Screw the paint lid down and store away for your next session.  Clean your tools, then go off and do something less boring instead.  Leave the foam for at least 24 hours to dry.  You can try using a hair dryer to speed up the process, but only if you want green paint and tiny bits of foam everywhere in your house.

Step 6: The foam should be crunchy dry now.  Grab that old grinder and pop the pieces back in for another whizz.  Now its crunchy, the blades will make a much finer job of shredding it up.  Make a few batches up of different sizes and mix them together for your final batch to add some natural variety.

Do not use the grinder for coffee now.  Well, hell, I am not going to stop you... its a free world after all (and if not free, certainly a lot cheaper world with this technique).  The coffee would taste like Starbucks if you did.  Always switch off a grinder before poking around inside it, even with a utensil, and never blame wargaming bloggers for dismemberment.