Bam? Boo!

 As I want to get a lot of semi finished stuff done this week, I grabbed the unfinished set of Bamboo, covered the bases with Thyme and will coat them again tomorrow.

Then I grabbed more bases, and realised I am out of the ones I used before so just grabbed whatever I had on hand and just got on with it. I don't often tune out but oh boy I needed all the tuning out for this. 

 

Tomorrow I'll do some more work and hope to have this lot finished by Wednesday.

 

Built a Sarissa ruin as well that I would like to get done this week.

And now my entire house smells like Thyme

Top right is the original lot, I grabbed as many bases as I still had left and just started making more. But I'm running out of long stems of bamboo, but we will see how much more I can make. 

 

What lurks in the Jungle.... is finally bloody finished.

 Last post about these was Feb 2024, but now the lot is finished. The 2 busted ones are more overgrown, and the intact ones I want to be able to use in various surroundings, so I made sure not to go overboard. I think I succeeded.

As planned, these are for 15mm.....but a bit big now that they are done, so into my 28mm Pulp box they go. 

 

 And the tacky original as they came in tacky garish colours at 1 euro a piece back then (these days 1,50 euros each cause of course, inflation)

For 15mm I really need to find one half the size, or have 10 of em printed in resin at the proper size. And do it all over again.....

Bacon Buddies

 Pig pen for Nam and AK-47 (though pork in a Islamic country.....yeah, let's ignore that bit)

15mm pigs from Peter Pig, scrap MDF base, some matches, ribbed card and plastic H0 Faller fencing, cut down a bit to fit in better with 15mm. My first time trying out wet mud and earth paste from AK that I picked up for The Last War. Works like a treat I say. Not much else to say, need to make a few more village items, but maybe better to focus on a few figgies now.

New Junk

 Took the girls to Figz (wargames show) today, just to say hi to some fellow gamers and do a little shopping. It was nice but not very busy as a Belgian Modelling club had their event on the same date, which was a pity. 

The girls had 10 euros each to spend and after milling about the place, trying not to kill eachother or dislocate my shoulder and wrists too much, I picked up a few (well, a lot) of packs of tufts at 50% and also tree stumps etc for Stalker. Then we had to go back to pick up a few packs of.....resin spiders. Ah, those are my girls allright :) (also, going for the 50% off box as well as we talk about the value of money a lot, and spending it wisely. Yes, this hobby ain't the best for it but hey better than drugs, smokes or alcohol)

 At the used kits/toys and bits store I picked up another 1/72 walker tank to use a s a scenic wreck for 15mm, a 1/110 (or 1/120) War Junk that I'll be updating a bit to 1950 standards and see what I need to modify as well to make it more 15mm compatible. Great to plant in a river in Vietnam as well. 

Lot's of bits, tired, cubes from some game that will be painted as wooden crates for 28mm, small 1/72 guard shacks I'll just sand down a few mm to make them 15mm, 2 packs of 1/48 Jersey Barriers for Stalker and other moderns

Back home I crashed hard, my health is not the best atm. When I woke up again I gave the girls dinner (it took me that long to recover) and together we cleaned 2 boxes, and added a note with their ideas for what to make with what spider, what colour, what details. They really want to have a proper go :)

Bamboo test model #1

 Made 10 test bases of bamboo for Nam'68 and am now looking where I can speed up things for reasons of not going completely mental. I'm not stripping the stems, that might be fine for one or 2 bases if you want to use them for photography backgrounds, but not when I want 40-50 bases of these. Same goes for cutting off individual leaves, ain't nobody got time for that, so now looking for a suitable bunch or other workaround for something resembling the shape. Other than that, just dandy.

 

 

Nam'68 Dice, Token and Counter bag

 Finished a little thing to keep it all sorted.

Patch I picked up from a collector, lower half of a old pair of green hiking pants reworked by a local seamstress, a button from a swapmeet and a bit of black marker.

Next up is glueing and revarnishing all of the Tokens onto old wooden Scrabble tiles and also finding my sets of dice I have set aside for the bag.

15mm Car Park?

 Not a dig at Flames of War or anything, but a relaxed afternoon cutting and cleaning bases for the box of 15mm cars I have. Basing these up for AK-47, Nam 68 and Northag. A few of these will be 15mm renditions of earlier 20mm models I made in the past 15 years

Three huts make a village

 Just finished the 2 other huts for 15mm Nam'68 and AK-47. Done and dusted, taking a break for a few days as tomorrow I'll pick up the girls at Kim's place and focus on them....with plenty of hobby time at the dinner table.

These were fun to do. Not every bit is easy to get to with a brush, but the overall look with the added tin roof is just how I like it. 

First up is K505

Second is K504

 

And some shots of all three together.

Might invest in a Community House someday, but first start with the set dressing for this village. Things like a pig sty, a couple of vegetable plots, other stuff I can't think of right now, some clumps of palms and regular trees and bushes.

As (almost) always, everything bought and paid for with my own money ....usually at Sales though!

First of the huts painted (Sarissa Precision K506)

 Online painting night tonight, so grabbed the first hut and primed it at 20:00. Roof was quick as I can do this in my sleep now. Stuck to 2 colours and water. The hut itself though.....

European wood....faded grey. Easy enough. Jungle wood seems to look a lot more vibrant but after looking at half a dozen pics on my phone I just started with a brown wash over the grey primer and try a few things. The end result is what you see now, and I stopped the clock on 22:30. I want to do the other 2 tomorrow, but in less time.

I just realised I seem to have misplaced the stairs....but not sure I actually miss it. If I can find them I'll add them.  

You can find this model for sale here: https://sarissa-precision.com/collections/far-east-15mm/products/smallvillagehouse-low?variant=7994195050540 (but I did add my own roof made of card to it)

 

It currently retails for 11,95 Euros . I Purchased this in November 2023 with my own money, no freebies here. (yes, it took me a year to get it built and painted......we all know how that goes)

Time to build some 15mm huts ( Sarissa Precision K505 )

 Time to start building something a bit more tropical. 90 minutes start to finish, 5 more kits to go (but not tonight). 15mm Sarissa Precision Planked style village house LOW K505 with a added tin sheet roof as this will pull double duty with my AK-47 collection. 

I want to try and build the remaining 5 this week, if I can keep this speed up that is 3 evenings and a bit of time in the weekend. Next week try and paint the lot.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. can wait for a bit, I need to get the energy for that back.

A fresh start....again?

      Well, maybe not a truck....

                                                          

 

 Yes, another fresh start.

Since my last pots a lot, and I really do mean a lot of things have changed. I've moved to another (sleepy) village, have a house now with rooms for the kids, an attic, a garden, my own driveway....and no gaming room.

I made the conscious choice not to invest time, effort and money in a dedicated games room. My girls, bless their little hearts, offered up a room for it so they would share the other one, but that would not be right. They turned 11 a few weeks ago and need their own space, their own privacy and place to just close the door and be themselves. And we have that sorted now, talked with them what they wanted, where and how....and the rooms are lovely (no pics, their space, their privacy)

Moving has been anything but fun (as anyone who ever moved knows all too damned well) and giving everything a a spot while trawling the recycling centers for furniture was .....interesting.

But (besides the odd box of 2) I'm as good as done. The girls settled in, my stresslevel is now at a manaeagble level instead of 120% and my health is....well, still shit, but hey, change.

Right, hobby wise, also change. Switching from from 20mm to 15mm is in process, started selling off stuff. Picked up a 15mm WW2 US Army (by car, not going through the mail again for that). Picked up a used display cabinet and set that up for "motivational purposes", picked up 2 older Billy cabinets for my rules and reference books, and none of this stuff is downstairs.

The only thing left to do is change my hobby/pc desk into a purely pc desk (this one will be replaced for a smaller one) and then I'm done. From now on, the kitchen table is my hobby table for gaming and building and painting. And what a lovely table it is. 100x160, easily extendable to 240. More importantly, forces me to clean up at the end of the evening. See, I'm smartz.

For the next 3 months I've got an open house each tuesday evening for friends to drop in to build and paint stuff and just chat. Motivation for them, motivation for me. Last night Sjors dropped by (no longer a 30 minute drive but 10 minutes by bike), he worked on his book niche display and I managed to clean up a full platoon for Nam68. Sanded all the bases, added notes to the pockets, planned out a few conversions (yes, in 15mm, I'm still me after all), and will need to toss a bunch of coins in the ultrasonic cleaner later today to prep the basing work. 

Miniature planning or crack dealer?

Really looking forward to the (hobby) future now....God knows it's been pretty bad in the last few years. Body is still effed, I can barely make out the models with my left eye, hand hurt and i take more pills daily than the average Raver.....but we can do this!

More, somewhere in the future.