A long overdue update

August 2015 was the last time I posted here.... almost 3 years ago!
I finally got the shed to the point (after 4 years!) where everything could be moved into it back at the start of this year.  The layout has continued to evolve, but here are some pictures from the end of my Christmas break after the final push to finally get the pile of boxes out of the spare room in the house and into the shed so that we could accommodate some visiting relatives.

Unfortunately, I managed to get it to a point of near completion a couple of weeks before a massive spike in work that has me travelling a lot.  If only it had an accompanying spike in pay!

One of the big things that I am happiest about though is being able to have a space where I can leave my printer set up.  I haven't had much of a chance over the last 3+ years to set it up and tune it to where I'd like it.  I still don't have the time to get it tuned in properly at the moment, but having the space means I can let it run on jobs without disturbing the house or risking enquiring little fingers.

Before I took off on this most recent trip, I printed one of the ruined houses from 3d-print-terrain's Normandy Range.  This company is the result Jens from Najelwitz Modellbau moving from resin terrain to 3d files.

I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.  It's scaled for 1:72 / 20mm.

I'll need to try to get some paint on it over the next couple of weeks.  Unfortunately I didn't get pictures taken of the rubble piles and ruined internal level that are part of it. 

I'd like to hope that I blog a bit more in the coming months - we'll see....

Further steps

Today the parcel post guy arrived at the door with two packages.

One was some new larger trees from wehonest_cn on eBay (a great source of cheap trees) and also a package from AlwaysModel containing some RedBox Ikko-Ikki for Ronin.

I'm itching to get going; I just need those mdf bases to turn up and we can get this party started!

Western Buildings

Tonight I put together the free demo building from the Hotz Stuff Whitewash City range at Wargame Vault. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  

I was looking at Wild West buildings to put together some Malifaux terrain.

I need to do some more paper terrain.  This was very quick and easy to put together and I love that there is really nothing more to do to get it on the table!.
I will base it properly at some stage I think.
There's a discount on the Hotz stuff at the moment, so I reckon that the Pioneer Set will be purchased later today!

Mark Luther's 6mm Terrain Guide

This one's just a bookmark for me.
I can never find Mark Luther's excellent instructions for how he sets up his beautiful 6mm games.
Here it is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/6mmgaming/sets/72157624232621753/
Definitely worth checking out his other sets for some beautiful looking (and quite fun sounding) games.

Terrain Cloth

Over the weekend I picked up a length of cheap green artic/polar fleece from a habadashery to trial as an overlay for draping over obstacles to create terrain.
Here are some pics of it draped over the CD-based hills I created earlier.  You can click them for larger images.

With some buildings and my ever ready eBay WW2 Americans.  I really need to properly paint these guys!

With the still-no-progress-as-yet Royal Marines for the Falklands.

I recckon it needs some light overspray with a brown and probably another, lighter green.
I do like the way that the "fuzziness" (there's probably a proper technical term for this) fits in well against the 6mm figures for grassy ground cover.

What are your thoughts?

Nice Terrain

Check out the Afghan game boards that Allen from Gamecraft Miniatures has been working on:
http://gamecraftminiatures.com/tac2game/microarmor/blog/?p=246
These look magnificent!
Definite ambush country.....

Left-over Tile Adhesive Hills

Things have been busy at work, so I haven't been able to do any more figure painting.
However this weekend I had to re-tile the toilet at home.  When I was done adhering the tiles, I had some of the tile adhesive left over, so I grabbed a couple of old CDs and built some terrain with the leftovers.

Turned out pretty well.  The vehicles above are from a lot that I purchased on eBay last year. (It's a pretty sad indictment that the only painted vehicles I can quickly lay my hands on are some that I bought painted!!)  The figures in the back are the single base of UK Marines that I've painted to date for the Falklands project.
Two hills and the wadi below.

Nice 6mm Terrain

Up late working on a number of customer proposals for work.
I take little breaks to look at other stuff, took keep me going.
Just found out I't missed a great post on the Ambush Alley Forum for 6mm.
Check it out here:
http://www.ambushalleygames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6155

Not a lot of progress here at the moment.  Just behind my laptop on the desk are this VC conversions I need to finish.....

Irregular Vietnam Village

The other part of my Christmas buy turned up at the start of the week - some Heroics and Ros WW2 Germans.  More on them in a coming post...
Here are some pics I took of the Irregular Minis 6mm Vietnamese Village.  It wasn't until I got it all out of the bag that I realised how much there was!
Here it is with all the various bits:
 
And here I have close-ups of all of the constituent parts.  I particularly like the little wagon.  All pictures (including the one above) should zoom when clicked.

No Update

Sick.
Working.
No Camera.
Check out this inspirational stuff on the AA forum : http://www.ambushalleygames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4095

Plus check out the new 15mm scifi from Blue Moon Manufacturing:
http://www.bluemoonmanufacturing.com/index.php?cat_id=32

Off to die quietly under my desk....

Bamboo huts

I thought I'd have crack at making some bamboo huts for south east asian games.
Here is where it is at, at the moment.

I know the CannonFodder figure is quite out of place, but I couldn't find any on my VC in a hurry.

I made a rough cardboard frame and then covered it with a cut-up bamboo placemat.

After fiddling with hobby knives and other cutting devices, I went out to the shed and grabbed the secateurs. Definitely the way to go for cutting up the placemat.

I haven't put in any doors or windows yet, so I think the secateurs will be called out again. I guess I probably should have put them in before I put the placemat onto the frame....

I'm uncertain on what to use for roofing materials. Should I thatch it, or use a corrugated iron roof? Do a number of both?

Anyone have any suggestions on the roofing material decision?

More Cork

A couple of quick pics of the two buildings and some quick wall sections for the game tomorrow night.

I'm not going to have time to apply the plaster and have it dry, and clean up the  surfaces ahead of the game, so I'll leave them in raw cork for the moment.  Both the buildings and the walls will be plastered eventually - probably next week.
I'l got to do some work around the house tomorrow, but hopefully I can put out another couple of walls ahead of the game.

What ever happened to those cork buildings ?!?

Long term listeners may remember that back here I was working on some buildings using cork.
What ever happened to those?
Well I did get some work done on them.......

There's only two at the moment and here they are:


A closer shot of the one on the left:


I still need to add some staining to the exteriors and probably some posters and/or grafitti

As you can see below, last night I started work on two more:


I'm hoping to get these, and some walls I started, complete in time for a game on Saturday night.
Since it's now Thursday, I'm not sure I'm going to make it!

Inspirational Terrain Blog

I came across this a few days ago:
Take the High Ground
If you've never been there, you should definitely check it out.

This amazing flying boat station has me all fired up about terrain (although I'm sure that the burning will subside before I find time to do anything).

It looks incredible, but he makes it look so easy! I read the descriptions and it all seems so straight forward and simple. Why didn't I think of that? It's all so easy!

I'm sure that when I attempt some of this, things will not go so smoothly......

Cork Buildings Update

15mm Village How-To

A nice how-to for Mid-East/North-Africa villages is up on the Mad About Gaming blog.
I found it quite informative.

I hope to try the same thing this week using cork tile instead of the foamcore.
Two reasons:

1. I don't have any foamcore kicking around. But I do have some cork.
2. I'm hoping that I can get a more dilapidated and "chunky" feel from the cork vs. the smooth lines of cut foamcore.

The plan is that I actually have a game this friday night with a few mates; so I need to be on top of terrain.
If all goes well, there should be some work-in-progress shots over the next few days.

More Good Tables

Whilst on the subject of good looking tables; check out this AAR by Piers (Ambush Alley Games In-House Painter™) on the Ambush Alley Forum : http://www.ambushalleygames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1269
A great table, and a great game of Ambush Alley.

Definitely worth a look!

Amazing Vietnam Table

From a post on the Firebase Coral blog, check out this amazing vietnam table:
http://ilovewargameing.21.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=2140
and more:
http://ilovewargameing.21.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=2139

Its very image intensive. I got terrain overload pretty quickly and just skimmed most.
I've go to go back and pay more attention to the detail.
Wow!

Christmas Loot Part 1

My awesome wife got me "dolls" for Christmas!

First up some 6mm Terrain from Irregular:

Pond with Trees

European Farmhouse set

European Village set

 

 

A big thanks to Nic at Eureka for taking care of her and making her first venture into miniature buying a very positive one!

Eureka Order Part 8 - Miscellaneous

Final segment on my latest Eureka order.
I picked up some items from the 6mm civilian Range.
First up the Bazaar

I got this to use as a size reference for terrain and I also figured it slotted in well with a few scenarios I had in mind.

Secondly I picked up the 20th Century Civilians

These might become hostages in a future game.

And as the last selection from the CIV range I picked up the 20th Century Guerillas

These were destined for AK47, and will probably be used to spruce up command stands.

Finally, just to mix it up a little, I also picked up another miniature from the GZG 6mm range (Dirtside). This time it's a PkZ VII Sturmkampfer infantry walker (apparently).