Not a Tankless Task

A great weight has been lifted off the shoulders of the workers at Slug Industries seeing as we’ve finally got our latest, and hopefully greatest, model finished. Not a simple one this, with around forty hours on the build alone, seperate moulds for components, and the hot weather mucking up the paintjob on the first cast, but only after full highlighting. In other words a bit of a pain.

Here’s the first paintjob shortly before a lot of the surfaces simply started to crack. A few attempts at repair later and other cracks and flakes appeared. Casting another and painting that proved to be quicker.

The rear door which shows the riveting quite well.

The armoured radiator, which looks flat although it’s made of semi circular tubing, and the Dambuster style headlights. The idea being that they’re adjustable, so you could set a rang to them and when the merged lights lit up a target it’s at the predeterminde range. Probably worth a +1 on any dice roll – if it’s at night.

The first wheel layout. Ending up putting two extra pairs in after Orkdung over at VBCF quite rightly pointed out how it looked under powered. Figure gives a sense of scale.

 

Tanks for Everything

Biased I am, due to having cast these up,  but I think this is a lovely little tankette perfectly suited for VBCW even though it’s a yet to be released model for Akula’s Armies so meant for WW1 Fantasy.

It’s a seven piece resin kit inspired by French FT light tanks and built by Uncle Crouchie who was the man behind BEF miniatures.

I enjoyed both casting building and painting it but I’m not sure how many might be available so if you’d like one I’d suggest chasing Akula via the link above.

I’m going to have to scrounge another off him myself as I’d like one for my Anarchist band.

 

He Who Dairies

As this post was published the doors have just opened for Salute2012 and if you’re reading this shortly afterwards then you’re probably not lucky enough to be there – unless you’re reading this on some smart device as you line up outside. This humble project is for the Frothy Racers game being run by UncEvl at table GB05, the idea behing the game being a mix of the film Ben Hur and the Wacky Races cartoon. I thought I’d do Benny Hill’s “Ernie” charactor thus bringing a hint of VBCW to it. Above are the basic pieces, a diecast milk cart, a pair of horses which I scrounged off a web chum, and the base lovingly handcrafted by UncEvl himself.

Ernie is an adapted Black Cat Bases Pianist sans stool and piano, to this I added spectacles (even though Benny Hill did the video for the song without them, I thought they where iconic and hence vital), a cap, an apron, and a cash bag.

These painted up rather nicely, and I’m happy to have secured cart horses with proper plough harnesses. Finding the horses was quite difficult as most miniature horses are for cavalry and have tack for riding and saddles.

I did the milk cart in a racing red as this is set to race some quite scary looking vehicles. Knowing how the scariest folk are usually the weakest this is a deliberate ploy to shatter their morale.

Fully painted and based including two crate of silver top and one of gold top.  The yoghurts for her at number 22 are inside, so out of view.

The signs were print outs on to coloured paper, which means no nasty white edges to deal with. They’re not perfect but narcissism must take second place occasionally.

This rear view is what the rest of the field will see most of… I hope.

At a Slug’s Pace

Despite the name our humble Slug Industries keeps producing more gaming goodies at a reasonably fast pace producing as it does a model a month on average. The latest is the Art Deco House above, which I’m glad to have finally finished as it’s been a slight horror show from begining to end. Being designed to fit into our old vacuum chamber with just milimeters to spare was difficult enough, but the original idea was for the windows to be cast thin enough to be poked out, however with such a thin mould wall this proved difficult when combined with the actuality of casting resin a milimeter or less in thickness. After a bit of discussion of this over at GWP the general feeling was how this wasn’t really needed. So I thickened the walls, made new moulds and here’s the result. All that remains is to go and mention it on all the best forums, but I imagine on LAF I’ll suffer some random thread derail which will make it all worthwhile.

We just noticed how our humble Fred wasn’t ever listed on the Slug Industries site so we’ve sorted that out, a surprising oversight especially as we’ve sold quite a few of these.

Once You Poppy You Can’t Stoppy

Due to the poppylarity of my home grown opium here’s a stalk-by-stalk guide to making them yourself. I did talk about making them in the previous post but for our hobby cousins who don’t have English as their first language, like say the Americans, a photo how-to demolishes any linguistic barriers. Above is a pin and you’ll need around one hundred of these for a small field. It’s nickel plated brass which means it won’t rust. They’re made in Poland for the Hemline range and you’ll probably want them in various lengths so your field doesn’t look like a row of Guardsmen on parade. The sequins and beads you’ll need should also be available from your local haberdashers.

Then you have to bend, kink and manipulate the pin to give it a more organic look. You can do this with strong fingers but a small pair of pliers make it both quicker and easier. I did leave a lot straight on my first field, but I think these look better. Be careful though as around one percent of these pins snap, which is also why you do this bending first.

Then slip on a small glass bead, hold it near the sharp end and add a tiny dob of superglue under the pinhead. Slip the bead up to under the pinhead, hold briefly and then onto the next one.

However if you want flowering poppies you glue on a concave sequin before the bead and glue it in place. Again it’s quicker to slip the sequin on, hold it near the sharp end, apply glue and then slip it up the shaft.

Then slip the bead on to the shaft, apply superglue to just under the sequin and put the bead in place.Once dried apply a couple of rings of superglue around the shaft. Typically I do a small one near the top, and a broader one at the bottom. Then apply your flock, preferably a long fibre one. Irregularity is key in replicating nature so don’t worry if some have very little flock and some a lot – if all else fails the sparse ones can always go in the middle of the field.

Repeat the above steps a few times and then you can spray them en masse. The flowering ones will need to have the flowers painted by hand. Bear in mind how Opium poppies are not red like the domesticated variety seen in Europe, They’re typically pale pink. For making into fields I attach thin strips of cork to an MDF base, add filler to make it look more like a field, and then both glue and stab the pins into the cork. Try to vary both the angle and spacing so it look more agriculturally pleasing.

Should you like the look of them, but don’t fancy making them I could be persuaded to make some for you, but they won’t be cheap.

 

About Time Table

Here’s me, the Boy Slug and Captain Stinky at the grand opening of our table, with Blondi as special untertischehund. Well it’s not the grandest of gaming tables, but it’s a start and about time too given how we moved in August.  I’ve decided to base mine on a dining table and one of Daring Dan’s old chums offered up one which was taking up patio space. After a short trip to the city we then had a lovely oak table which was better than our pine table, so the pine table is set to become the basis of the games table. So yes it’s just a table with a game sheet on it at the moment, but soon a large sheet of MDF will be added to complete the illusion.

World’s Biggest Spraybooth

For the modern Luddite lacking an airbrush spraying from a can is a regular reality but breathing in the fumes of both propellant and paint is not the best exercise an ageing gamer can take. So here’s a handy mini-project which will solve your solvent worries by creating the biggest spray booth in the world but with minimum storage requirements.

First find a stick and a flat piece of plasticard, fix the plasticard onto the stick in the style of a fly swat before the invention of the hole. Above I’m about to spray the wheels for a Slug Industries Fred.

Then attach whatever you wish to spray to the pre-hole flyswat. I used blu-tac but other sticky gummy products are available.

Then approach a window and open it.

Then hold the stick end of your new device and stick your arm out of the window. Take care not to fall out of the window.

Then spray away to your heart’s content, while the wind carries away any fumes or excess paint. Why not build one yourself?

Canterbury or Bust!

A quiet morning in Canterbury with the birds chirping unaware of the drama of the coming day.

Although some hushed activity is stirring at some pipe laying works down in the park.

A loudspeaker starts blaring out an over-dramatic speech barely masking the hum of several rowdy engines.

This brings forth brave volunteers to man the city edge against the coming attack.

Shop keepers, clerks, policemen and retired armour majors with a tank in their back garden rally to the cause.

With one disgusiing itself as a water feature in the park.

St Peter’s militia decide to rush the flank in a bid to thwart the BUF’s advance.

Meanwhile the Choir, a Belgian elite led by Tin Tin on a heavy machine gun form up on the centre.

Across the fields another group of BUF advance.

A strange 20th century siege tower follows behind a push down St. Dunstans Street.

Matched by the motorised speed of the other flank.

With the BUF making as much use of the cover available.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s the appearance of SuperFascist in his home made costume, his mum will be furious when she realises he’s used her new curtains for a cloak. Although effectively useless as a combatant his endless sloganeering at loud volume does give the BUF a serious boost to morale.

This boost speeds the advance to the river Stour under the destructive defensive fire of the Anglican League.

Tin Tin observes the massive attack with some trepidation and discusses it with Snowy.

Synchronised hedge breaching becomes the order of the day.

Suddenly the defenders open fire and start seriously damaging both armour and infantry. One light tank destroyed and an armoured car immobilised.

Meanwhile the siege tower is joined by what had appeared to be an old shed. Behind them a squad of FAF have become entangled in a clothes line.

The Anglican commanders feel confident. boosted not least by some medicinal treacle from Boots.

Uneffected by treacle the bridger gets into position and soaks the socks of the lone driver. Vehicles group for the crossing while the dithering AL militia are reduced to delivering condemantion from a damp vicar.

The BUF storm Westgate Tower and start shooting down below.

While Charlie and one of the Boys are severely damaged.

Suddenly Winston Churchill appears at a window with a Thompson machine gun he purchased from nearby Greenfields.  His appearance offers a much needed boost to the defenders.

Suddenly the mysterious pipeworks is revealed to be a fiendish fire throwing device invented by some chap called Levins. The result is massively damaging to the massed attack, and singes even the dampened militia.

A truly terrifying weapon to be at the wrong end of.

The BUF pushing up the centre get decimated by the grenading Choirboys, the rifle fire of the Belgians and Tin Tin on Hmg. the single man left has decided that now would be a great time for a cup of tea.

A long range tank shot silences the Mosley loudspeaker drone.

And confusion starts to slow down the BUF. For the second time today the elite FAF squad gets entangled in a washing line. Perhaps they should have stuck to the fields.

But the BUF on the tower send some firepower into the brave defenders…

…decimating them and even having time to change the flag on the tower, much to the dismay of the people of Canterbury.

They then take a defensive stance against all efforts to repel them.

A militia which has done very little thus far finds itself in position to pour fire at the politician Winston Churchill – killing him in a hail of bullets. A sad loss but it’s not like he’d ever be Prime Minister is it?

Having attrected a fair amount of damage the centre stills holds.

On the flank the BUF failed to get a single man across the bridge, so the AL use it to push back the stalled advance.

A scene of confusion settles over the battlefield as the day comes to an end, even if the play doesn’t.

A good day’s play was had by all. Left to right, Wobbly Steve,  Fascist Child Killer Tony, 6mil Phil, Slug, Daring Dan and front and centre Captain Stinky (proud commander of Tin Tin et al). The chance cards, complete with limited edition typos, from this battle are available here.

Newsagent Provocateur

Many of you may recall the BUF propaganda wagon I made for Red Rich’s superb demo game of VBCW at Salute 2011. Each book or paper was an actual BUF publication shrunk down, printed out and folded to look like it does. So as unexciting as the image below looks here’s your chance to make your own for whatever you’re working on.

These also include a fine poster by a gent on GWP, and something I didn’t get around to using… the Moseley picture discs. I’ve also used these on bases, and hanging on a hook outside an outdoor toilet. There’s also a poster by GWP’s Bungle, which is one of only two posters by other folk I’ve ever used, it’s that brill. They’re totally free and you just have to click on the image above and save or print it.

Dad v Son Paint Off Vote

Back before Christmas we posted a poll to decide which miniatures we should paint for our Dad v Son paint to the death competition. As a fine example of democracy in action we decided to generally ignore the result, which was for us to paint zombie clowns, and do something vaguely similar instead Now this might seem arrogant, but we couldn’t find the pair of zombie clowns plus we saw the new Fenris Games tank zombies. Now we didn’t have any tank zombies, but since playing the Left for Dead games on Xbox we had come to loathe them so what a perfect opportunity to get a couple for both this competition but also for the games table.

Have a look at the offered paint jobs and vote at the bottom.

ZOMBIE A

ZOMBIE A

ZOMBIE A

ZOMBIE A

ZOMBIE A

ZOMBIE B

ZOMBIE B

ZOMBIE B

ZOMBIE B

ZOMBIE B