Early May Update

By sneaking some time here and there every few days I have managed to make some progress on a few more bits of terrain.

These 3d printed soviet concrete roads were from Modern Miniatures EU during a sale (there is a common theme with when I buy stuff!) Two variants and they print up pretty quickly. I primed them with Colour Forge Standard Grey, gave them a dry brush with Vallejo castle grey (didn't do much to be honest) and then a dry brush with Vallejo Blue Grey and that really worked well - or did to my eye. I will probably keep to the latter only next time to save time and see if it gives the same result!

I then went in with my standard basing mix, and some tufts. A range of 10mm ones from WWScenics, and some generic 4mm ones that I cannot remember where they came from and just form part of my tuft pile. I'm really happy with how these came out - I think they work well as abandoned roads in the zone.

I finished up some dirt road junctions to match the last batch (seen primed last time!)

I also merged a concrete road with a straight dirt road to get a cross roads, and started painting that after priming in grey.

And base-coated the downed helicopter in gunship green (seemed fitting and easy) and then painted on some markings - all made up!

It then got a good dousing in brown wash, with some areas of rust and grime/slime added too.

Using some 3mm mdf, cut into smaller shapes, I've started to create some pine tree scatter. Adding some small chunks of foam, and then covering in a watered down pva/filler mix. I've got some 3d printed tree stumps (free from thingiverse but can't remember which one I nabbed), I imported it into Tinkercad and cut a 3mm cylindrical hole down the centre where the trees can be seated. I think I will glue them in place to stop them falling out but will test how well they hold in without the glue as the ability to remove individual trees could be handy.

I think they will need some more filler or something to level them off and make the slopes more gentle. Potentially a use for modelling compound or similar.

I added some flock and basing mix to the Witches, Witchfiinder, SOE Ladies and Zombies. I really like the basing mix, the addition of coco fiber and rocks breaks up the flock and gives a more interesting finish. I'll need to experiment with the peninsular flock mix to add some more interest to that.

Eureka Miniatures witches and witchfinder

Bad Squiddo Games SOE Ladies

Kitbashed plastic sprue zombies

And finally after a long time sitting half done, I pushed through finishing off a 3d printed guard house (own design in tinkercad, with some additional scatter elements of resin, 3d prints and sprues.

And a 3d printed sentry hut and road block / check point. Both suit WW2 and were made specifically for 0200 but could do a job in other places.

Finding the rhythm

A progress report, across a variety of items.

First up I knocked together some figures using the Stargrave & Wargames Atlantic sprues to make some generic raiders for Scrapjacks. They can act as bandits, raiders or scavengers as needed by the scenario.

I printed out some robots from thingiverse for more opponents for Scrapjacks, lovely easy prints on the A1 mini, and primed in grey (Colour Forge Primer) and I will work out some paint scheme for them. 

I also found a large Eradicator robot on thingiverse from Dutch mogul which is designed to print on FDM and does so very well. This will be one of the Alpha Tier "monsters" for Scrapjacks.

I managed to finish up a few figures for a variety of games. Some napoleonic soldier zombies for Silver Bayonet, some civilians for Devilry Afoot, and some for Fear of the Dark.

The zombies are kitbashes from perry and warlord napoleonics and mantic zombies. Using some tips from Peachy on changing the angle of the legs and heads to imply that zombified deadness. 

The Devilry Afoot figures are from Eureka games - three witches and a witchfinder. Ideally for the setting. I have a number of Flags of War border wars figures that will also be part of the game - setting it in the borders (of Scotland and England) for a bit of a more local feel!

The last three are Bad Squiddo Games from their resistance figures section - I backed a kickstarter ages ago and have not used the figures but these will suit nicely for Fear of the Dark, which while more 1920s the aesthetic is not far off and shunting it to 1930s will still sit ok.

I finished up some dirt roads, 3d prints from Gamescape3d when they had a huge sale on their items. The roads are great and really easy to get finished up for the table. I primed them in a brown hycote spray paint which does most of the work.

Then some drybrushing with a lighter brown (I think an umber or sienna type) followed by an ochre yellow drybrush, tan/beige drybrush and finally picking out the stones only with Deck Tan from Vallejo. The process is really quick and you can smash through a set in no time. Once dried I then added my own base-ready mixture down the sides with some PVA to hold it, and then once that too had dried, a liberal coat of matt spray varnish. 

In a similar vein, and actually while I was doing the roads, I finished off some low stone walls. Exact same painting process except the primer was black and probably done a year or so ago! Yes sometimes these things get a wee delay. The flocking was my peninsular mix, which is a brighter green with some brown undertones. 

Finally some printing and priming of a few models: some snakes for Warriors of Athena which I can't remember where I found the STLs for - either thingiverse or Makersworld I believe - free at any rate!

And then some giant rats, free stls from EC3D (thingiverse and Myminifactory) made specifically for FDM printers - these print beautifully, I scaled them up by about 200% or so to make them giant rats for Zona Alfa or Scrapjacks as vermin hordes.

And finally a bit of modern terrain - probably for Zona Alfa but could work for Haywire too or What a Cartel. A downed Huey helicopter - from Hartolia Miniatures on Myminifactory, another victim of the massive sale at the turn of the year! I only used one section of the printed out base, and lobbed it onto some 3mm MDF, added some polystyrene to level it off around the edges, sculpted it a little then coated in filler and PVA mix. Once that had dried out I applied some neat PVA on thick and spread a sand and tile grout mix over it, let it dry overnight and shook off the excess. Then added some larger rocks, with smaller ones (basically sieved sharp sand) around them and a bunch of PVA to hold them. Then it all got a soaking in a very watered down PVA. Once dried, base coated in burnt umber and then the same process as the roads above.

 

Well that lasted.....

 A long time since the last post on here, although not as long as before! A run down of the various bits and pieces I am working on.

I've finished the bulk of the German Fallschirmjager for 1940s or early war, still have some Jump Off Points, Replen points (although I need to read the Chain of Command V2 rules more closely for that) and some supports to sort out. I've got their opponents - French Motorcycle troops from Crusader miniatures - so will get them based and ready for painting soon.

I picked up Scrapjacks from Patrick Todoroff as it looked like a fun game and something that would be possible to tinker with solo or with a mate. If I find one of those.

I used mainly Stargrave sprues and some Wargames Atlantic ones (the cannon fodder ones) to make my 'Jacks. Using greenstuff to make them look like they had spacey helmets on. You only need four figures for the main characters.

I also picked up the 12x12 images of the Modular Habitation Units or MHUs. They come as 12x12 images or on PDF. I split up the images into 6 (supposedly) 6x4 images, which meant I could get them printed fro free via Snapfish and their 50 free 6x4 images per month via their app. Postage came to around £4.

From there I pieced them together and used some vinyl self-adhesive floor tiles as the backing. I had the floor tiles lying around from having picked them up cheap in B&M a few years back for a space hulk project (Note to self- may need to get some images of that and add them to this blog).

A Self adhesive vinyl floor tile, approximately 2ft by 1ft.

The tiles were about 1 foot by 2 foot so I got 2 MHUs out of each and by luck I had three tiles total so the full 6 MHUs were sorted! Yay!

I split the tiles in half to give two 1ft square peices for each of the three larger tiles.

It was an easy and quick job, peel off the paper cover to reveal the adhesive side, carefully place down the six photos, aligning them as best I could. I did find here that either the image slicer or Snapfish had cut out about 5mm in the centre join of the images. I only noticed that after I had made a few of the MHUs already so there is a slight discrepancy in the tiles but not enough to cause me any lost sleep.

Peeling off the adhesive backing paper and sticking on the first of 6 photos (6x4) onto the tile.

Once they were stuck on I gave the surface a serious shellacking with spray varnish. If it was going to be heavy use I may have used a brush on yacht varnish but I reckon this will work for now.

The completed MHU tile

Two tiles side by side and coated in spray matt varnish

The next stage is painting up some scatter terrain for the MHUs and some opponents. I am using the leftovers from the same sprues to come up with some raiders/scavengers/bandits, and 3d printing a load of free STLs for the robots or droids.

The Fractured Isles

 The Fractured Isles

I have a 17th/18th century Imaginations project that has been bubbling or maybe simmering below the surface, by which I mean mainly in my head with no actual physical progress.

My setting is geographically the British Isles and Ireland but as the title suggests, not united in any way. Instead we have multiple smaller confederations, principalities, duchies and kingdoms similar to early anglo-saxon england but with some aspects of the holy roman empire. Or so it goes in my head. It's all very loose and very made up!

I've mainly been working on the mapping. I found a hex map of the area in the hexographer app some time ago, although the time period was dark ages or early medievel. The hexes were approximately 6miles across according to the author/artist. 

I used the .hxm file and opened it in notepad to grab the terrain information for each hex, then manipulated it to the correct layout (number of columns of hexes) and used conditional formatting to colour the map. I used a mirror image to generate tile income and an income table to generate the Annual Income for each territory by assigning each hex or square now it was in excel, an owner.

This allowed me to generate an indicative annual income for each of the territories in the Isles. From that I made some assumptions about military spending in this world of mine. 

Raising Troops

From income I can then define a proportion which is used for the military, and work out the split between the different arms. Say 40% of the total income is diverted to the military, and that amount is split between Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, and Engineers including other specialists.

I've assigned costs on upkeep and raising of regiments for the four main arms, although engineers are a bit specialist so i will handle them seperately. Think on it now I probably need to account for Naval spend which could well be 50% of the total military expenditure given the nature of the isles. I'll need to rework the sums but the principle holds.

From what I've read in "The art of warfare in the age of Marlborough" by David Chandler, cavalry were around 20-30% of the total force. In addition there appears to be an average of 1.6 guns or artillery per 1000 men. So I can set an amount of infantry and determine the amount of cavalry and artillery as a result. Allowing me to adjust the infantry figure to get the upkeep within the indicative annual military expenditure. Well minus naval spend which will need some more research!

Initial Plans

The idea is to use Sharp Practice to play out small level encounters and narrative missions, and either Maurice or shot, steel and stone for the higher level actions.

First off I'm planning on zooming in for a smaller sub-campaign which will involve the Grand Duchy of Saxonia, the Kingdom of Dumnonia and maybe Cymru, Anglia and Mercia. For that I added a larger hex to the above map and translated the "dominant" terrain to a blank sheet of A4 with a hex printed on. This will allow me to cover a wider area with ease. The area is centred on the area of the map where Saxonia borders Anglia, Mercia, Cymru and Dumnonia. That felt like a fertile area for dispute and controversy.

In the Warlord Games sprue sale I grabbed 5 sprues of Marlborough wars infantry sprues and 2 of cavalry, alongside two or three of the pike and shot cavalry, which I figure should work alright. Imaginations after all. The 5 sprues of infantry will give me about 50 figures or two forces of 24 figures each plus a Leader. I also picked up to metal figures on horse, which will be the big man for each side. 

These will form the core of two forces. One for the Grand Duchy of Saxonia - a regiment of infantry raised by Colonel Henri von Hyde. I'm still pondering the uniforms but a light or sky blue coats and yellow cuffs for the Saxonia force is a high contender. 

The other force will be from Anglia i think, a larger and perhaps more belligerent neighbour to the north. Not sure what coat colours I will use for them. Possibly a light grey.

I have worked out the leaders of the territories and some characteristics for them based on d100 rolls. This will give a basis for higher level diplomacy if it should be required. I will also work out their goals and desires, and vices or weaknesses.

I initially had Hibernia (geographically Ireland) as a single entity, and then decided I would split it up into some provinces as I did have it as a confederation, so I split it into the provinces of Ireland (may rename them at some point) and included Meath for more variety as there is no Ulster - it's part being taken by Dalriada which has a foothold in the geographical western Scotland.

I'll leave it there. I plan to cover this more, using this blog as a project tracker and place to put down my thoughts on the project.

What's on deck

 Here is what I have sitting on the painting line - a variety of projects, and stages.

Fallschirmjager, 28mm, mix of Wargames Foundry, Perry Miniatures and Warlord Games. Almost done with the base coat of these, the cluster at the front still need black bits painted (boots, webbing/yoke, belts, occasional pouch, water bottle strap). All of them need gunmetal on the weapons. Then will need a once over to check for any missed bits and touch those up. I'm going to try speedpaint Warrior Flesh on the flesh areas which have already had one thin coat of Army Painter Goblin Skin, hopefully that will give some depth and shading to the skin areas. If not a flesh wash on top and then some highlights. I'll try one figure with army painter military shader wash and see how it copes with the Luftwaffe blue.

This illustration was my inspiration/target for these figures, I like the blue helmet and contrast with green uniforms (easier than camouflage!). I also wanted an early war force. I played one game from the Too Fat Lardies Blitzkrieg book at Deep Fried Lard a few years back (run by the greatly missed Derek Hodge), and it was such good fun. It was with his 15mm figures and both the scale and feel of early war was a huge draw. So much that I painted up some 15mm armies (British Paras and Germans for Kampfgruppe Von Luck) but that is another story and project.

Next on the bench are some Warhammer Fantasy figures that someone passed on to me a while back. They had been given to their son but never touched and he found out I enjoyed "painting little men" from my wife so gave them to me. These are the first test figures, and I'll need to ramp up into batch painting to get full units ready. The idea is to knock up some armies for Midgard. These are basically done. I need to add some gloss varnish to the gems (really can't paint them well) and then sort out basing for them, probably relatively simple basing, I might try make a simple basing mixture for these. Some find coloured sand, aquarium rocks and then flock and see how that looks.  

Then some kitbashed zombies for Silver Bayonet, a mix of Warlord Games, Perry Miniatures and Victrix Miniatures along with some Mantic zombie bits to help sell them as zombies! Need to finish off the base colours and then give them a grungy wash - dark/black, brown and green mixed up I think. 

Finally the figures from Flags of War for Devilry Afoot. I'm a bit hesitant on these as I haven't worked out a proper colour scheme for the characters. I'll probably use the painted examples on the Flags of War site as inspiration and tailor each to the colours I have handy, and of course my very limited painting ability.

And that is it for now. I have more sitting around primed or awaiting a wash but these are the ones to hand. There are 16 Romano-British Spearmen waiting for a wash to give them some depth, and then flocking.