Timecasting Couch

No this isn’t some sordid tale of Timecast’s interview technique for sculptors. However it’s rare to be able to mention wargaming and Hollywood in the same sentence, and even rarer for it to involve wild gossiping, or goss as many like to call it, as if the suffix “ip” delayed the retelling by too much time to be practical. Some perfectly scaled little bird did mention to me that those wonderful Timecast folk have a very interesting little project underway as part of a Hollywood production which is highly secret.

For those who don’t already know Timecast has a reputation amongst gamers verging on the god like, if they were an Indian company they’d already be a Hindi god, if they were Israeli they’d likely be a Hassidic cult who only ever spoke to wargamers. So there’s no surprise in hearing how they’ve a massive commission for an anonymous film company, rather there’s an unbridled joy- part religious wargaming zeal, part nationalistic pride in the Yanks picking a British company, plus a hint of economic hand rubbing in considering just how much cash they’re likely bringing into the country.

Nosey gamers wanting to know more are going to have to go peek through their letterbox or gaze into their windows as it’s all very hush-hush, plus they’ve just twelve days left to meet their deadline. However one glorious detail does reveal how they’re still very much gents of the old school. They’re pulling out all the stops with an eye to finishing early, not in chasing some cash bonus, rather they’re hoping to get a game on the piece…

Well done Timecast!

Giant Haystacks

Recently I had a few goodies from Mike Angel which included three haystacks. The moment I saw them the scenic above sprang into my head. I also had some of those wire brush trees and I decided to use one of those, but only after tarting it up a bit as they’re all a bit samey. I did this by cutting a few chunks out of it to give it a less regular shape, liberally covering it with PVA glue and then reflocking it so it looked more like… well, a tree.

The fields were done as I’ve shown before, with the addition of working out where I wanted the haystacks to be and drawing pencil circles around then before applying the wheat stuble. For the hedging I decided to go for a more realistic hedgerow with a mix of everything, plus a small path running down one side. It’s a tidy little scenic, and yes you can fit a vehicle or troop base between the haystacks.

Shermantastic

Not quite the mass production which won the war but a couple more Shermans were delivered, above a simple drive through bushes base. Might need some extra cargo but playable as is.

Regular readers might remember last week I finished a base of Germans advancing through a field of long grass, it was quite an easy effect so this week I decided to try similar for a tank, and it worked rather well. The only difference in the technique is to layer the grass which the tank chassis has flattened lower than the untouched grass either side.

I’ve also made an effort to make the grass at the rear really muddied up. You’ve only got to spend about a minute in the company of a tank in mud to notice just what a mud-slinger it is. This finish reflects that.

Fortify yourself

There are few things I won’t attempt to scratchbuild myself, one of those rarities are dragon’s teeth. I don’t know what it is about them but on the few times I’ve decided to have a bash I’ve always found something else to do instead. Luckily for me Mike over at Angel Barracks makes them so I decided to buy a few, some painted to get an idea of his skills and some unpainted so I could have a close look at the casting job. Above you can see the large zig zag ones which are a bargain at £2.75 painted or £1.75 unpainted, and at 155mm long and 25mm deep they’re a sizeable addition to anyone’s scenics. Quite by chance their width is just slightly (3mm) wider than a lot of my standard building bases, including the last bunker I built. So they’ll fit in perfectly.

I also ordered these haystacks, which are a lovely little detail which most gamers don’t have and at 30p painted or 20p unpainted won’t break the bank. I’ve already started on a scenic which will feature these so check back in the next week or so and see what they inspired.

Gun but not forgotten

A pair of German anti-tank guns, using GHQ guns and Adler crew. Despite the larger size of the Adler figures I really like the poses they come in, plus their famous larger heads really help you identify units from a distance, solving a problem many suggest 6mm suffers. It’s only now I notice I haven’t painted the end of the barrels, but then I was concentrating on the spent shells and the boxed ammo, a pair of nice details included in Adler packs.

Likewise with this pair of British anti-tank guns.Luckily I keep a paintbrush with me at all times, so they’ll be finished by the time you read this.

Quite a good side shot of them, showing how you can enjoy different layouts of crew, whereas the GHQ ones are a single identical cast piece.

Commanding View

A couple of command bases for the excellent Blitz Krieg Commander now, above a Panther of unknown make, a GHQ Steyer-Daimler, with a mix of GHQ and Adler figures. The tank commander has been adapted, his helmet filed to look like a beret.

Here a GHQ Churchill and jeep, GHQ and Adler figures, and a tiny map laid out on the bonnet of the jeep. The map is a nice touch I think, and easy to do so long as you don’t start with a piece of paper that small. Instead use a larger piece, and paint the map in one corner, this makes it easy to handle, when you’re happy with it cut it to size and glue into place.

Base, how low can you go?

At 6mm the answer is pretty damn low indeed. Now for people already into wargaming basing is well known, often defined as a necessity by some rule sets,  so many people choose to do it while others don’t. However if you’re new to wargaming, or looking to get into it then basing isn’t something you might ever have considered. So here I’ll show you how to base, as well as mention in passing why I do; Firstly with 6mm figures, not basing them makes them almost impossible to use, difficult to store and easy to lose. Vehicles are different and a lot of players prefer the more realistic look of them unbased, even if storage is a trifle more difficult. For my current WWII project I spent many months fiddling around with pieces of paper to work out what would work for me, I settled on a single standard size of 35mm square.

Above are the first three stages of all my bases. First the pre-cut standard base in hard plastic, second the bottom of the base with a self-adhesive magnet attached, and third the top cross-hatched with a scalpel to put a texture to it and allow grip for anything I might put on it. On these I’m going to mount Adler mortars in mortar pits.

The bases have been sprayed green around the edges, the mortars glued into place and a small rim of Miliput pressed down around them to form the foundation of the mortar pit.

A small sausage of Miliput is rolled, and then piece by piece each sandbag is cut from it and stuck on the base. A lot of folk don’t believe I do most of my sandbags and masonry walls using this technique, so here’s the photographic evidence.

For these rough field pits two layers of sandbags are enough. With the spare miliput I’ve put a little irregular texture around the edges, this will provide more grip for additional texture.

Of course it’s at this point I realise I’ve done it a little wrong. It would have made more sense to make the pit and then attach the mortars, because now I’ve some quite fiddly painting to do on them. So I decide the next two will be bigger, look more prepared and be a little roomier. I used a penny to score a rough circle and then repeated the Miliput stages above. I’ll also make the german one smarter to reflect the German trait of extreme organisation.

One of the great qualities of Miliput is how it will harden under water. So I’ve painted them before they’ve hardened, the ones on the left where trickier because the crews were already in while the ones on the right were, rather obviously, much easier.

The second British mortar crews have been glued into place, the ground around them textured, a dark wash applied to the bags and ground. When that was all dried I’ve added flock, bushes and then static grass. One of the features of these Adler pieces is they’re cast as semi-circles, one half having bipod and one of the crew, the other tube, baseplate, and the other two crew. This means they can be easily painted, before being fitted so closely together.

The two German Mortars finished, for the remaining ones I have I’ll base them just on grass. For defensive mortars I’ll use these, and aside from meeting the basic requirements of bases they do look like their very own mini-diorama.

You hum it and I’ll play along

Ladies and Gentlemen I reveal to you the very latest development in scratch building lunacy, the world’s one, only and soon to be internationally famous 6mm Piano. Now this is revealled in it’s unfinished state, so no sarcastic comments about the lack of a decent wash nor how the pedals haven’t been painted yet please, as it’s a development of earth shattering importance. There will follow some more photos once it’s finally finished, hopefully not as blurred as this one which sorely tested the limits of my camera.

Before you flood me with a lot of cries of “Why?” let me explain just how and why it came to even be considered. Remember the scene in Saving Private Ryan where they come across a French family trapped on the first floor of a ruined building? There’s a piano in it isn’t there? Don’t feel the need to check, you can trust me on this simple detail. Well as you do when watching an old favourite, me and the boy Slug were discussing various points and he asked me “Why is there a piano in the street?“, “Well son,” I replied “when civilians flee from what’s an impending warzone they tend to try and save whatever’s important to them, but when the firing starts they tend to realise that saving Grannie’s beloved piano isn’t all that important.” – “Fair enough” thought he and that was the end of it, or so I thought.

Fast forward a few months and we’d been looking at all the outstanding reports on gaming conventions on the web, with their wealth of photos. After all the initial Ooooohs and Ahhhhs I started to bemoan the lack of seemingly pointless detail us 6mm devotees find ourselves subjected to. So while the heathen larger scales enjoy wheelbarrows, spare wheels, furniture and the like, we have almost zero to add that touch of humanity to our layouts. It was at this point Slug challenged me to make some, and even went so far as to demand I make a piano; “Like in Saving Private Ryan!” – so viola here it bleeding well is.

The moral of this story is, watch out what you wish for especially in front of your son.

Double Dutch

A delightful pair of Timecast buildings which I’ve spent quite a while getting right as they’re a couple of beauties. Firstly that penny isn’t part of it, it’s just I know some folk have trouble imagining the 6mm scale so for them here’s an idea, a penny and a cent are around the same size, and even one of those Euro coins is the same size although I’ve no idea which one. For the scale savvy that’s a GHQ jeep, and it shows how perfectly on scale the buildings are. This pair are rather obviously the same model twice, based on the No14 Zwarteweg where General Urquhart hid in the attic at the invitation of the Derken family for some of Operation Market Garden. Every detail is pretty sharp, although a couple of windows have lost a little detail, and once I’d based them I also realised they sat with a slight slope to them. Now these are minor details which insane spods such as me, and very probably you dear reader, notice mainly because we spend hours working on these models. It’s not a problem and typically we expect such minor flaws, however I have to reiterate how minor they are, one to be fair to the fellow gamer but also because Timecast are similarily mad when it comes to their range and the quality of it. Once before on a forum I mentioned a couple of bubbles and a missing corner to one of their castings and within nano-seconds one of the Timecast team was there replying how if any model wasn’t up to the expected quality they’re gladly replace it, etc. Now marvelous as that kind of offer is, especially when it’s in addition to their excellent quality, it’s not needed. Timecast products remain top-notch, tiny flaws are easily addressed, so if you’re one of the Timecast quality control cavalry don’t feel my comment is anything other than a simple observation. One thing I did want to do with this base was to make it urban, but passable hence the paving in the middle. I finally found a reasonable paving slab texture plasticard, so made use of that as you can see. Usually for fencing I like it rough and tend to hand plank the whole thing to get a nice rough and ready kind of fencing. Of course this isn’t really suitable for the tidy Dutch suburbs, so instead I’ve cut strips of plasticard and scored the planking effect to them. These have been painted green and superglued into place. However I left the rear fences until last, this allowed more room to put the lawns and the plants in. The hardest part was the painting. Getting the colour scheme correct was important to me, so a brief look at A Bridge Too Far helped. There’s lots of white detailing which for some odd reason I always fine the most difficult to get right. I’m happy with the finished piece, just hope I never find my command pieces hiding there, although once photographed under two lamps and a flash it does reveal the occassional blemish, which I’ll blame on the Flemish.

A place in the country

Another beauty from the Timecast range finally makes it to the usable in a game stage, but as per bleeding usual what looks to me a near perfect piece reveals my painting flaws only after having been photographed.

This is a sizable building as the GHQ Panzer IV shows, sits on it’s own little hillock which is fine by me as I do like irregular surfaces on bases. Two sides have the not-very-good Javis hedging, which I’ve hacked to look more rural and reflocked. The other side has some of the excellent Irregular Miniatures metal fencing, while the front has a couple of those cheapo Chinese trees and well vegetated ditches using the offcuts from the Javis hedges.

Until you notice it you can barely tell how large the front door to this is, it’s more 10mm than 6mm but works none-the-less for it.

Here’s the reverse, with the delightful detail of three stone piles supporting the rear of the building. One thing I did notice is how this would make a great conversion for anyone seeking a watermill, the back wall seems to be almost screaming out for a scratch built water wheel.