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.

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!

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.