Painting Tutorial: Tabletop Workshop Stable 28mm

This is the latest video I have uploaded to YouTube, at the request of a subscriber, showing how I paint my medieval buildings. I hope that viewers might find it helpful.

Review: Tabletop Workshop's 28mm Medieval Barn

The last of my Tabletop Workshop reviews for now. I still have a Stable in the post, and I might look at getting the double storey buildings in time. The more I look at the foundation line of the buildings, the more I am convinced that they need an MDF base and some filler to hide that line of stones along the base. Some shrubby things would also make the buildings look a little more natural. But this is all time dependent. 

Review: Tabletop Workshop 28mm Medieval Chapel

Another kit review. A couple more to go from Tabletop Workshop. I hope this helps prospective buyers of said terrain make an informed decision. 

Review: Tabletop Workshops 28mm Medieval Cottage

I did a video review of this kit that I purchased from Northstar Figures. There are several more videos to come as I review more of the kits. I hope this will prove helpful to those in the market for terrain. 

Playing with the Citadel Wood

I finished the Imperial Navy Marine landing party the other day. They are all varnished and waiting to be photographed, but sadly I haven't had a chance to photograph them properly. Photographing miniatures can be a real challenge. If the weather is fine, natural light from the sun usually does the trick, but this is England. Indoors things get complicated, even with a good light source shadows can ruin your shots, no matter how good your camera. One solution is to build a lightbox, but space is an issue for me and frankly I haven't had the time to make one. Furthermore, to take really nice pictures a tripod is ideal, and I don't have one. I am hoping this weekend, in between felling a pine tree in my garden, to sort out my rig and take some pictures. I'll post my how-to and where I learnt about it all when it is done.

In the meantime, I have been basing my 15mm WWII Russians, again I'll knock up a tutorial showing a step by step when I get an opportunity. I wasn't keen on the first technique I employed, so I decided to try a little something different and am happy with the result. Again, I'll do a post on it as soon as I can.

I've also got the terrain bug again, and with the Marines done I can start thinking about my scenarios for them. Terrain is a must for me, so I got started on a Citadel Wood I bought a while back. It really deserves a post in its own right, but here is what I've done on the base us far:

So there, proof I am still ticking along. I have the weekend off so I hope to get some photographing done so that these posts aren't just wordy.

Carry on.

Review: 4Ground Anglo-Danish Hovel

The other day a few things came in the post from Gripping Beast. Amongst the Saga dice and Northern Fury was a little something I thought to purchase as a test case, an Anglo-Danish Hovel produced by 4Ground. For the price of £9.50 I got a little kit to assemble, which requires no painting at all. For many gamers terrain is often the weakest part of their collection. Considering our Sisyphean lead piles, we seldom devote much time to trees and buildings to make our bare green tabletops look pretty. And even when per-made terrain is available, it usually requires painting, and again, the queue is already there so many a table is graced with grey building and tress. There are some places where one can buy pre-painted terrain, but it tends to be rather expensive, or just utter rubbish. The gold standard appears to be GrandManner, but it is hardly for the budget conscious, especially the pre-painted options.

This 4Ground hovel is a happy medium, for about £10 I got a piece of terrain that requires almost no assembly to look really good, it's not going to win an contests, but certainly the tabletop will be neatly complemented by its presence. I have taken some pictures to document the construction which I hope will give a sense of the easy of assembly.

The instruction sheet was clear and easy to follow. 

The bits of building.

Everything neatly slots together.

Having assembled and glued the outer walls, I did the interior walls. Here it is drying.

There are many little details, even interior details, that make this kit good for skirmish gaming.

Here the door, fir pit and roof are drying, no issues at all.

The thatching, probably my favourite part of the kit.

Here it is after a combing through with thinned PVA glue as per instructions.

Fin!

I built this kit over a three day period, allowing for glue to dry mainly. However, I would say that the actual labour involved only really amounted to half-an-hour, and I am very satisfied with the results. I have subsequently had a look at the 4Ground website, and am already tempted by some of their other kits, like the Roman Limes tower. Although I wonder how the kits hold up in larger form. One major bonus is the fact that these kits aren't as heavy as their resin counterparts, and also less liable to fracturing. I can't wait to take this little hovel for a spin!

Summary:

The good: Lightweight, cheap and easy to assemble. The instructions are also good and help the construction process. It also looks good with little effort.

The bad: I don't really have gripes, but if I had to find something I would say that some of the smaller parts can be a little flimsy, but that is simply the nature of thinly cut MDF.

Verdict: I would highly recommend this type of terrain as a time and money efficient means of starting a terrain collection. I plan to get more of it.

Dwarf Miners, Celtic Test Models and a Ploughed Field

As the twitter feed shows, the first battalion of the French Old Guard Grenadiers are now almost complete, the Colonel just needs to be done, and he shouldn't take too long given the painting method I am using. However, in the meantime, here is a completed unit of Dwarf Miners. I don't think the unit is legal, but frankly at this point it doesn't really matter too much. Even the smallest detachment of little men needs a big man to lead them into battle, so the next chap to grace the painting table is a Thane to lead the Karak Azul Militia into battle, at the same time I am going to get their trusty cannon done for a little added firepower. Hopefully, once these are done I can goad friend Taff into doing battle with his Khorne army. 

Without further ado, here are some pictures:

I'll be honest, I am not the biggest fan of these figures, but they do a credible job, and being single piece figures they paint up pretty swiftly. I still don't have the Dwarf army book, but I did take the plunge yesterday and bought the Island of Blood starter box, for the rulebook. I am not sure if I will do much with the figures, especially the Elves, but the Skaven Rat Ogres and characters will be good for Mordheim at least. I am looking to perhaps start a small Mordheim campaign as a means of getting some gaming done with an irregular schedule. 

In addition to the Dwarfs and French, I have been doing other bits and pieces, such as Battlefleet Gothic Imperial cruisers, which are so simple to slot in between waiting for paint to dry they don't detract too much from the main effort. Again, Gothic is a game I really enjoy far more than Warhamer or 40k, and requires far less on the table to have an enjoyable game. These bits and pieces appear on the twitter feed as they do not warrant a blog post, yet. I have also been painting some Foundry Celts for the Northern Frontiers project, at this stage I am still toying with painting techniques. 

Here are two elements of Celts. I stuck to relatively simple clothing patterns as barbarian filler isn't worth the effort of painting checks, something which I don't feel comfortable doing anyway. The element on the left has been painted using a three stage shade, base, highlight method; the element on the right the dip method. Honestly, I think that the dipped figures are good enough, as well as being swifter. That said, the paint jobs are compatible, so there is no harm in perhaps lavishing more time on the nobles and dipping the rank-and-file. Thoughts?

Here is also a picture of the lot together, including the ploughed field I made:

More to come. Be sure to follow the blog on Twitter at twitter.com/ZenMiniPainting for little updates and random pictures.