Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

In preparation for my first game of Midgard, which was to be a Punic Wars battle, I wanted to add a bit more interest to my table.  I'd be using my Savannah battle mat, but as the battle was to be set in Iberia, I wanted to add some patches of grass. My Punic Wars collection is 10mm so I wanted the patches to sit low on the table.  I did look at cutting up a fleece blanket but that seemed a lot of effort.  I'd still have to add colour to it and it wouldn't sit that flat.  My little 10mm warriors would look like they were wading through the jungle!  I thought about returning to one of my favourite materials, old credit cards, but I didn't need much stability in these bases.  It was then that I thought of using gaffa tape. I had the remnants of an old roll sitting around so I cut a section off and shaped it.  It's so sticky that you do have to use decent sharp scissors.  Once I'd cut out the sections I dipped them in a container of sand to see how w...

September has been busy all round including hobby wise.  I'm very pleased with what I've done and enthused with my ongoing projects.   Completed The end of the month saw the release of  A War Transformed, the Osprey rules for a "folk horror" First World War game.  I liked the look of this since it's announcement and it's encouraged me to revisit the Germans that I'd built in 2021 ( here  and  here ) and make some improvements which you can see here . I finally finished off the 15mm Landsknecht pikemen and halberdiers.  Lovely little fellas full of character there's lots more pics here . I completed two batches of Victrix Unarmoured Romans.  I enjoyed doing the first batch so much that I'd started on the second batch as the last coat of varnish was drying on the first.  More pics of them here and here .  To make the 6mm Seven Years War game that I played look a bit more interesting I knocked out some quick roads.  Details a...

I've been hankering after playing a 6mm Seven Years War game for a while but wanted to add some roads to make the table more interesting.  After scratching my head, looking online and playing about with card and paper nothing was really working.  I then thought of using sandpaper.  A quick look in the garage and play about showed this would be too stiff and brittle.  But in the same drawer nestled the perfect thing.  I think it's wet and dry paper, it's got a fabric back with a fine sand paper textured top.   We've had it 20 years or more when we did a repair on an old car and it wasn't going to get used again.   It took no time to cut this into 2cm width lengths with normal scissors (don't use a pair you care about)!  Then it was painting time. First off I used the ever reliable Dulux colour matched to Vallejo Model Colour Leather Brown as the base coat as I do for the majority of my bases.  Being emulsion this takes no time to dry...

After reading Death Zones by Simon Pasternak I started working on an Ambush Alley scenario set in Belarus during 1943.  It soon became apparent that I needed terrain to better represent the swampy regions of the forests that cover the area. I did some YouTube browsing and saw some impressive builds.  However, I wanted something simple, that I could make from existing material.  Automatically that ruled out using resin to represent water.  As an alternative I did think of using a clear plastic to add some gloss but wasn't that convinced with how it would look.   The solution came when searching through my archived stash and  I found some old gloss Humbrol acrylics.  I bought these in the late 1980s to paint a leather jacket and incredibly they're still viable.  I opened them all up and mixed a gloopy dark green colour in situ on the plastic card I was going to use.  After leaving to dry I was pleased with how glossy it was and how well it...

A busy and successful hobby month, consequently this is quite a long update.  I got some units finished, played a couple of games and even got some terrain work done.   Completed This month I've completed the following:   A regiment of 10mm Hobgoblins for my Chaos Dwarf army.  You can see them here . A regiment of 10mm Ogre Leadbelchers for my Ogre Kingdoms army which you can see here .   I did some work on making my terrain more usable specifically for a game of Burrows & Badgers.  I made some veg beds out of old credit cards and based all my Renendra wattle fencing.  I'll try and do a post when time permits.  In progress The following are on the table as February draws to a close: A regiment of 36 10mm Gnoblars for my Ogre Kingdoms Warmaster Revolution army.  I've just got the details to do on these and they'll be finished early in March.   I cleaned up and primed my last unit of 10mm Chaos Dwarf Axemen and a un...