Wednesday Workbench 16 June - Including Some Finished Bits

 

That's what is currently on the workbench. I've since done a little bit more work on them:

I realised after I'd started adding herbs to the bases that I'd forgotten to drybrush the texture gunk I'd added. The drybrush colour looks a bit stark right now, but should become muted as various washes and glazes are applied.

I've now added texture gunk to the kunai grass bases. Tomorrow I will be painting and drybrushing that, then adding some 10mm static grass. These kunai grass bases will be removable from larger bases.

Finished Bits

Having done a test of edging the bases with turf mix, I think that bases done that way would be fine for scatter in clearings, but it doesn't really work for secondary jungle pieces. I'll probably do a few more scatter bases like that, but for the most part will stick with the herbs for edging the bases.

Note To Self: wear gloves when adding the scrub & PVA mix to avoid this:

I keep forgetting that my scrub mix includes Javis scenics, which use dyes that leach when wet.

I think I will add some static grass around the dungy when I am doing some other pieces - it's not worth getting the kit out to do just this one item.

These barrows will eventually be added to the base of one of the plantation buildings.

The barrows and outhouse are from Warbases.

Foam Fun

Do you recall the first test batch that I combined with the craft paint tests from the second batch? Well, it eventually dried fully, but it hadn't really clumped so I decided to blitz it down using a cheap coffee grinder. I then sieved the result to separate the finely ground foam from the coarser bits. Looking at the two tubs above, it seems that the coarser bits were from the middle of the foam pieces and hadn't absorbed much paint during the mixing. They're a decent crumb size now, so I might try using them for another test batch.

About a week ago I had chunked and blended the foam from another 3 car wash sponges. Having seen the results of the first few test batches, I took a look at the foam again and realised that I would need to blitz them down smaller.

They went from filling a 9L RUB to a 7L RUB.

The test batches using kitchen scourer foam (and grey figure tray foam) finally dried out. 

Tamsin's Tips: Don't try drying batches out in plastic containers - the top layer will foram a crust that seals in the rest which then can't dry.

They have clumped quite well, the bits which were originally on top at least. I suspect that the longer the paint/glue mix takes to dry, the less it will clump.

Twenty Double (Not Face) Palms

I got these forty palm trees painted:

These palms will be used as filler for primary jungle and possibly for swamp bases.

"Yes, Sir, We Have No Bananas..."

Well, not yet perhaps, but we soon will have.  The first eight banana plant "trunks" are ready for priming:

I'm still debating whether to bother with priming the leaves for these; I might try simply drybrushing them. If that doesn't work out, then priming them won't take too long.

Arrival of Goodies

First off, some (more) aquarium plants arrived that I'd ordered off Ebay and Amazon:

When I unpacked the mat on the left, I realised that I'd accidentally closed the wrong tab - I'd intended to order the dwarf version which are 4cm tall rather than 15cm! I've now ordered the correct ones.

The middle batch were some nice dwarf ferns. I might order another mat of these.

Edit: As a couple of people have asked in the comments, here's the link to those ferns on Ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/233962787972

Update - it seems that they are now sold out on Ebay - using this Google search term you should be able to find some aquarium suppliers with it in stock: Aqua One Ecoscape Mat fern

I also got a slightly heavy parcel from Timecast today:

It contained these:

They are the reinforcements for my Choson Korean and Ming Chinese armies.

AHPC Day 89 - Twenty-Sixth Submission - Small Buildings

My twenty-sixth entry has been posted this evening; some 10mm and 15mm scale buildings from Timecast: [link]

10mm European buildings

15mm Middle Eastern buildings

I haven't started painting anything else yet, so this isn't a "Wednesday Workbench" post. I do have a couple of things out on the table to paint though, but you'll probably need to wait until Friday or Saturday to see them.


Correction - I made a mistake! The European buildings are 6mm and the adobe buildings are 10mm!

Salute 2017

Well, I've been home for a few hours, taken pics of my loot, uploaded and resized all the pics I took, put (most) things away and had a bit of a relax watching TV so I guess it's time to do my Salute post.

I got into the ExCel centre and joined the queue at about 0950 and finally got into the hall at about 1020. I'm not sure how they did the letting in last year (I was in early on a press pass) but it was so much better two years ago where they let in one rank at a time. This year you had to snake back and forward before finally getting in - I must have walked close to a mile doing that.

There seemed to be more open space (and seating areas) this year which is no bad thing. I'm not sure if that was down to a somewhat larger hall or if there were less traders. I think it may have been a combination of the two.

I didn't take many pics of games this year. Overall I was less impressed with the games than on previous occasions, but there were a few stunning tables. Of course, there were a couple that I spotted and thought I'd go back and take pics later but managed to forget. There also seemed to be a big increase in the number of small demo game tables associated with companies.


Pics of Games

Fort Mosquito

Fort Mosquito

Fort Mosquito

Fort Mosquito

Fort Mosquito

Tribal, Primeval and Eureka's "Mad Maximillian" cars

Big Red Bat's "Raphia" game

Gaslands

Gaslands

VBCW naval game

VBCW naval game

VBCW naval game

Bloggers' Meet

At 1pm various bloggers gathered by the painting comp display for the now traditional meetup. There were less of us this year than last, but still a good crowd ad it was nice to catch up with folks in person.

I've posted both pics because both cut off someone at opposite ends. In the pic are Legatus, Alastair, Postie, The Wilde Goose, (someone at the back - Dave?), Big Lee's Padawan, Big Lee, Big Red Bat, moi, Fantorical Simon, (someone), Carl Packham, (someone), Ray/Badger/Sandbagger, Provost Marshall, Michael Awdry, Al.
Eric the Shed was also there, but isn't in the pics for some reason.

Bob Cordery turned up after the photos had been taken and it was good to finally meet and chat with him.

I eventually left at about 3pm and encountered the odd experience of having to queue to get down to the DLR platform. I guess that was down to Customs House station being closed and everybody (not just Salute - there was also the London Marathon registration and a few other shows on) having to use the Prince Regent station.

The Loot

Everything

The Salute goodies

Various odds and ends

These were actually my final purchase of the day. I decided that I want to try out the Honours of War rules, but didn't want to fork out (and spend months/years painting) another 15mm army for the SYW so I opted for some Baccus 6mm. The small blisters are two extra packs of infantry, one of dragoons and one of artillery. That will give me 16 infantry regiments, 6 cuirassier, 8 dragoon, 3 hussar and 6 artillery batteries. I'm going to do them as "imaginations".

From Warbases I got various bases for figures and terrain. Also some small bases and dice frames.

Freebies from Warbases.

I managed to restrain myself at Bad Squiddo Games and left with just the new WW2 Soviet women packs (the deal for these three packs was £30 instead of £34 to buy the packs separately) and didn't buy any of the "gunny peegs" despite serious temptation.

Some more bits for Salutesville, including the "Lady Sarah" for my pulp seamen

Some reinforcements from Essex for my SYW Russians: figures for two combined grenadier regiments and another dragoon regiment - I discovered that I'd somehow missed the Nizhegorodskiy regiment which fought at Palzig and Gross-Jagersdorf.

I picked up my pre-order from Eureka. I'd ordered some Grumpy's Korean artillery (I need to crew figures for medium and heavy guns), some Eureka 18mm SYW command groups (which I'll be painting as gifts for the other contenders in the side duel during the Challenge) and some sample figures to see how they fit with the Essex. The Cossack looks OK, but the infantry are noticeably larger.
I also cooed over the "Mad Maximillian" cars, but then I saw the prices and decided against buying them.

From Timecast I picked up some 6mm black powder era buildings for SYW gaming and some 10mm North African houses to represent a village with my desert terrain.

Last of all is my pre-order from Foundry - a few groups of their 2000AD figures to make crews for Rogue Stars.
Judges - Dredd, Giant, Tech Judge Deex, Psi Judge Anderson, Psi Judge Karyn
Stronty Dogs - Johnny Alpha, Wulf Sternhammer, Middenface McNulty, Durham Red, Torso
ABC Warriors - RoJaws, Hammerstein, Joe Pineapples, Black Blood, Morrigun

I didn't take a pic, but I picked up the new issue of Wargames Illustrated and foresook the 5p change so that I could get their Richard III figure.

All in all a good haul