Martian whimsy

I fancied making something a little more whimsical for Mars... Why not a bandstand and some gardens.

For the bandstand the roof was printed and most of the base and the railings were laser cut. Plastic stonework sheeting was used for the base sides and the steps were cut from xps foam (I think, the brand name is Foamex).

The columns were brass tube with four pieces each. I won't be doing that again as I went through 16 scalpel blades lol. The handrail on the railings was just some half round microstrip.

Painting was fairly simple as I kept most of the parts removable. 

 

The gardens were mainly lasercut (including the topiary hedges which then had growies stuck on them). The plants inside the glasshouses are just various bits and bobs I've had knocking around and the plant pots are available from here 

Painting was kept in the same vein as the rest of my Mars terrain and I'll need to do some high walls to surround it. I've also got a colonial style mansion that's in need of some love to go with it.

 

 

ttfn

'Tango' is not welcome here. Nor is Bill

Another semaphore tower

 But quite different from the last one.

Went for a walk down on Chatley Heath the other week and there's a wonderful semaphore tower from the early 19th century. Not much use in normal games but I thought it would be perfect for Mars. There is a telegraph system on Mars but with Sky Martian raids destroying the lines and the engineers hard pressed to keep up it's a good opportunity to have something with a more reliable form of communication.

We can also use it for our (eventual) games of England Invaded/Battle of Dorking when it gets off the ground. One of the reasons why it hasn't been based (keeping my options open).

 

 

ttfn

 

'Tango' has no permission to take anything from this blog, neither does Bill (even though I reckon they are the same person) or anyone else for that matter.

A pirate skiff!

This was done a while ago for a friend but I've finally gotten round to taking some decent photos of it.

It's a kit bash of a Red Planet Miniatures Sky Martian skiff along with some scratch built elements for the 'Earther' parts. The guns are from HLBSC (who will be putting them upon his new website soon after they disappeared for a bit).

Although there is an English flag on the mast, it's really owned by an independent trading company under the guise of British traders ad hiding behind the might of the British army on Mars :-)

ttfn

BLAM 2018 Sunday VSF game

There has been a sort of tradition that Sunday is VSF day and this year was no exception. As most people leave on the Sunday throughout the day (various trains and planes to catch etc) it was a sort of ‘pick me up’ game with people coming and going as the day went on.

Not too much of a report as the game is part of a long running campaign which can be read on the Red Planet Miniatures blog (although I have several games to put on there to catch up before I post this one).

The basic plot was that a British Officer by the name of Allan Farquarson had been having his wicked way with the Imperial Japanese Princess and tensions between the Japanese and British empires had becomes strained to the point of war.

The Japanese has captured Allan and were holding him in an allied City Martian outpost waiting for a large relief column to come and extract him to earth. The British and their allies; the Germans and Americans, were out to take him back...

Suffice to say, they succeeded.

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What I have recently painted

Something a little different this time and hopefully a regular/irregular feature. Basically it’s what I’ve painted figure wise recently. I don’t get much time for my own stuff at the moment but I do try to squeeze it in here and there so below are a few shots of figures I’ve painted over the past month or two or three with a brief outline of the projects they are for but in no particular order.

An Eldar dreadnaught for an old school project which is mainly concentrating on orks and Imperial guard. The head now has a coat of gloss varnish on it but it's a sod to take decent photos of lol. No reason to have other little forces though :-)

Copplestone/EM4 figures for a small cartel project. I've gone for an eighties feel and hopefully the colours and t-shirt logos convey this. Everyone else in the project has gone for high tech moderns. I tend to get beaten a lot lol.

 Austrian officer from Victrix I think. Austrians were my first Napoleonic force years and years ago (15mm) so it sort of fits to do them again. I do need to buy quite a few more though lol.

Star Wars! It's actually a Pig Iron figure with a Crooked Dice head. I've got a fair few other Pig Iron figures to do and most, if not all need some head work doing. The troopers are the Wizards of the Coast bendy plastics.

These are my own range of Boxer Rebellion Japanese infantry but with Perry plastic pith helmet heads and they are for the Royal Interplanetary Society for my ever expanding Mars project.

These are the GW plastic knights that have had some bits swaps and I think the conversions work fine. The leader is based on the GW Green Knight model with an Elector Count rider who's had arms and a hat conversion.

And finally we have a single knight from Crusader Miniatures painted for a potential Robin Hood project. No idea about the heraldry, I made it up.

ttfn