Leaf it out

The fourth 28mm horse I’ve painted is this British officer from Great War Miniatures who only on being based revealed himself to be crookedly mounted. This makes his nationally questionable and suggests he might be a fifth-columnist. It’s a one piece cast so the poor saddle skills aren’t of my making. Aside from from that it’s a pleasant figure which I wanted to make more of so I added a couple of hounds. I don’t remember whose dogs those are, but they suit well.

I also wanted to try the leaf scatter on the base rather than flock. I’ve rarely seen it used by gamers but it’s all the rage with military modellers. It’s quite difficult to use, the tub has plenty of woody surplus which has to be picked out before application, and being irregular is awkward to lay in any thickness.

Although suitable for both World Wars I’ll also be using this charactor in VBCW as Hercules Grytpype-Thynne  a caddish officer with an eye on villainy disguised by high rank and aided by a pocket full of gorillas.

Pull the Udder One

A short post with some poor photos of the Warlord Games dead livestock which I enjoyed painting as the Ayrshire breed, spurred on by them re-releasing them while I still had an unopened blister packet from the original release.

When I first saw these I thought they were a must have. The first dead cattle I recall seeing in a war film were those in Saving Private Ryan during the radar station scene. I’m not certain that was a cinematic first, but it’s what they reminded me of, well that and how many animals get slaughtered during war without much notice.

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.

 

Red Dwarves

Here’s another example of the boy Slug’s painting which is not only a neat paintjob but also a record for the fastest painting of a Salute purchase. As many Salute devotees know it’s easy to buy some metal and still have it safely stored when the next one rolls around. These Russian dwarves made by Akula are part of the World War one fantasy genre which is rapidly gaining interest. Their quality is quite marvelous both in sculpt and cast, these were created by Bob Olley a true miniature maestro and cast by Grffin and I challenge you to find a cast line let alone any flash.

Slug really enjoyed painting these, namely because they were so easy to paint. Most have great coats and the heads come seperately. A quick google brought up a decent uniform reference, even though you could quite legitimately get away with pink, purple and gold lamé. He’d not painted a single dwarf before so enjoyed how much less there is to work on. You can see these in their bare flesh, and perhaps even buy some yourself, here.

Trench Afoot

Gutted as I was to realise I’d already used the pun “Last Ditch Effort” I’m happy with this new secnic which I’ve just completed. It’s not only a handy piece but it proved to me how our humble Slug Industries sandbags and planking actually knock together to make a decent model without the hours I’d have spent in the past by hand making every single piece.

It also gave me an opportunity to use modrock, a bag of which I’d bought around a decade ago but never even opened. It’s a great material, gloriously messy with a hint of mudpies making the endeavour an even deeper recession into child-like joy. To start with I glued the sandbags in place, then used scrap foamboard to make formers for the ground. I wanted the look of earth which had been dug up and piled just a couple of months before, so quite smooth, howvere if you wanted more craggy a style that would be possible too. I overcoated it with Woodland Scenics plaster, or wotsit hydrocalifornia as they insist on calling it. It was great fun and I recommend it for that reason alone, anything more is a plus eh?

Then it was a bash of colour prior to flocking. I used three types, short dark for the undercoat, longer on top with a few added sprinkles of a flowery flock. The planking was stuck in place, plus a few crates, an oil drum and some single sandbages which we’ve not released yet and the piece was complete. It comes alive with a few figures, these all Uncle Crouchie’s BEF range now available from the ever regal Warlord Games.

Finally the hour spents cutting the seams on all those sandbags and the grain on the planking has proved itself worthwhile now on with the slaughter!

Last Ditch Effort

Regular browsers of this humble blog made have noticed just how quiet it’s been recently and for that I can only apologise as I have been busy as a hive of bees making masters to cast from. I really don’t want to corrupt the purity of this blog by trying to sell you things at every turn, but I will share what I’m working on purely from a willingness to illuminate fellow gamers and other chums. Pompous sermon over – so on with the serious business of gaming waffle.

Above is what was meant to be a simple aid for my modelling which set me on the slippery slope of all things trench.  Twenty-five seamed sandbags which I made from Greenstuff seemed enough to be able to make sandbag bits for the rest of my life… how wrong I was.

Making a wall from 64 individual pieces can limit the fun factor so I made a master, which then had to be properly filled, to cast from.

But then I also needed ends to cap the tessellated walls.

Now having created the opportunity of endless sandbag walls I realised how I didn’t fancy making miles of planking for walkways. So two sections of 40mm wide and one of 35mm, the larger for main trenches, the smaller for access trenches. Both bigger than the actuality, but this is for gaming.

That did involve looks of shaping and scribing totalling over a hundred feet. The calculation being made while facing the tedium of actually doing it.

They paint up rather well, these are just propped up rather than a finished piece hence the gaps, but it gives an idea of the finished product. These are available from us via the blatantly commercial place.

We are Legion

My local game show organised by the folk at Red Knight (ex-snipers nest) has really grown in just four years, so I thought I’d share the flyer with you here in the hope of attracting you to it. Our maainland European chums might consider a visit too, as it’s just a few miles up the coast from Dover.

The Magnificent Eight

I haven’t played with horse mounted figures for decades so when we saw some Great War Miniatures WWI British Cavalry up for grabs at a very reasonable price at Red Knight Wargames it was very tempting. Once I’d suggested to the boy Slug how this might make an excellent cavalry squad for the BUF in our VBCW games his eyes lit up and lacking the readies his grovelling began.

He’s done a reasonable job, but it took me more effort to get him to get the damned things painted, than it did for him to get me to pay for them. The result is a trifle underworked but lovely figures none the less.

Of course being cavalry there’s a lot more work to them than the usual infantry and these were the Slug’s first ever.

I imagine he might bring himself to be happy with them once they’re on the table and scaring the bejesus out of the enemy.

Poster Boy

Every now and again you stumble across an image which is screaming out to be used in a gaming context, so imagine my hearty whooping when I tripped over the one above which, with the addition of a little text makes an excellent recruitment poster, either for WWI or the ever wonderful VBCW. To use simply save the image above and for 28mm use print it out at around 10% size for a suitably high resolution version to plaster your model building walls with, or even print them out larger and wallpaper your favourite room in the house with them.

Wargames Show Report

It was off to the Marlowe Academy today for the annual gaming show for the benefit of the Royal British Legion which took place for the first time in this modern and spacious building. Plenty of free parking, free cups of tea and coffee and a mere two quid to gain entry.  It was healthily attended and had a wide variety of games including WW1 and WW2 in various scales, modern and some fantasy too plus a handful of traders. Red Knight Wargames have put this show on for a good few years now, and slowly but surely it gets better and better so well done them!

Now you might have noticed how gamers are often regarded by non-gamers as a form of geeky lunatic, a stereotype often extended to mad extremes such as those playing WW2 Germans being de facto Nazis and other ironic delights from the historically challenged. The oddest thing about this show was how it took place in a public building with other activities taking place, but when the clock came to 11.00 the only folk standing in silence for two minutes were those at the gaming event.

The photos I took are literally thrown together below, reflecting how a good time was had by all. If any of them are your club, etc,  feel free to grab them and use them on your sites, etc, without any copyright concerns or any of that nonsense.