Swamp area

Quite awhile ago I started a set of 1x1 boards for SBH and managed to get three plain areas sorted and almost complete.  Deciding that I do need to finish these ASAP and spurred on by Alfriks current work I started a swamp / slope tile as a change.  Based on a 3mm MDF board from Warbases I started by cutting a normal ceiling tile in half and spreading some Evostick glue on the top in a random pattern.  Now this is not the normal thing to do as the glue dissolves the tile but in this case I wanted this (and was using the low fume version) but make sure you open the window or do this in summer outdoors.

Once this had stopped eating away the tile I stuck this bit to the base using wood glue and and covered the other half of the board with pink foam off cuts that I had hot wired to a slope and to fit the white tile.

I first tried polyfiller (flexible) to fill the join but found it evaporated and left a sunken ridge that I could not get rid off – I cheated and used wood filler hence the brown lines below.  I’ve now started painting the sunken area using an earth brown and just waiting for it to dry (hence the shine):

Once dry, I wash with black and dry brush with sea green before using the Woodlands Scenics water compound.  Do not hold you breath though as I am working tomorrow…

Fallen from the wagon already!

Well less than a month into the New Year and I’ve gone and spent some money on figures!

Having had problems even getting a kill with the Skaven / Rat men in SoBH I thought I would branch out and try a couple of other races and a change from 28mm figures by going paper with Kobolds and Elves from OneMonk Miniatures and my home printer.

Talk about poor timing but if it could go wrong it did:

• OneMonk is in the middle of changing layouts and pulled all but a sample from RPG Now etc..  Through TMP though I managed to find the new site that Jim is setting up but due to timing I could not download them.
• The printer decided to drop off the network so even if I could download them I was snookered.

Through the power of E-mail and PayPal Jim kindly sold me the two sets and by spending a fair chunk of my day off I sorted the printer out.

Feeling full of myself I also called in to the local GW store and purchased a small pack of Orcs and Skeletons (old style) giving me 9 figures to paint by Sunday.  Not bad a target except I am at work again tomorrow and taking my son for his second Britain’s Got Talent round in Manchester.

If I can stay awake tonight and tomorrow I’ll post the pictures as the skeletons are just about done and Orcs started.

Now just to work out a combined force – no way am I ditching my Skaven…

What are those mounted things?

Pride goeth before a fall?  I was so happy with solving my base problem I totally forgot to check the mounted sizes - in HOTT they are 30mm deep but in MA they are 25mm so I cannot use the standard HOTT bases and sabot the bases for other games.

Having puzzled over this the only solution I can come up with is to base each figure individually and then create group bases as required for foot and mounted troops - I'll still go for duplicates for heroes / specials though.

Looking at the Magnetic Displays web site Trevor sells magnetic disks for the figures that will allow me to cover the bases in steel sheet and then add a top layer of putty / filler with holes formed around bases that are pulled out when the filler is dry.

How big is a base?

Dreaming about the Inuit HOTT army (given that it is 12C in my room) I’ve been looking through the piles of rules I have to see what else I can play and see if I can base the figures up to suit more than 1 set of rules.  Turns out this is a rather fruitless exercise as you will see…
First the rules:
Demon World – Forget it hex bases only…
HOTT – Plenty of troop types represented by generic types (e.g. Blades) with bases being key for recoil movement but not for troop definition.
AOMAS – Three classes of infantry split by ‘weight’ (e.g. Light / Medium / Heavy) defined by number of troops on the base.
MA – Bases are two standard sizes and play a key role in creating groups.
FR! – Standard bases but no real limit to the number of figures per base.
For example for basic foot troops:

Rules	Width	Depth	Figures
HOTT Blades	40mm	15mm	3 or 4
AOMAS	40mm	20mm	2-3-3
MA	50mm	25mm	4
FR!	40mm	40mm	Not defined

Characters add a whole new problem:

Rules	Width	Depth	Figures
HOTT Dragon	40mm	60mm	1
HOTT Magic	40mm	40mm	1
HOTT God	40mm	30mm	1
AOMAS	25mm	25mm	1
MA	50mm	50mm	1
FR!	40mm	40mm	Not defined

As the above shows – nice selection of sizes to play with but nothing in common with each other and in one case (AOMAS) the actual layout of figures on the base define the class of troops!
So how do I deal with this:

1. Stick to two sets of rules to start with – HOTT and MA
2. By basing on magnetic sheets I can use metal based sabot style bases for the larger requirements.  Have a look at my trees here
3. Characters are so rare / special I can have multiple one of the same figure for minimal cost as required
4. HOTT has the smallest base size so that becomes the standard

Sorted!

Pine Trees

I managed to get into Hull yesterday and visit the new Hobby Craft store near the ice rink. Two floors of bits and pieces if you have never been - lots more than on the web including a good selection of Woodland Scenics / Hornby modelling bits, Games Workshop figures (WH and 40K), Flames of War, wood / plasti-card (top price though) and even a wide selection of 1/72 plastic soldiers - two full aisles of gaming paradise in fact.  This excludes the tools and the rest of the shop by the way!

As for my purchases:

• A set of pines from the WS Realistic Tree set
• A small pack of clear crystals from the bead making section - ice for the HOTT bases
• A couple of foam eggs - these may get used for igloos as the HOTT stronghold but I am leaning to a sod long hut and use these elsewhere
• A small pot of GaleForce 9 winter / dead static grass – just what I have been hunting for for the less snowy HOTT bases.

Opening the tree box today, I was a little disappointed in the tree selection as they state a random mix of 2 1/2 inch to 6 inc on lid but mine are mainly 4 to 6 inch – the smallest is 3 1/2 inch and as I had hoped to use these for 15mm (as well as SBH in 28mm) it looks like I’ll have to try cutting one down at some point.

The kit itself comes in a blister style box with instructions on the bottom that I think is a nice touch – you can see how simple it is before buying the pack or book:

And inside you have a pile of tree sprues and the dense foam used as foliage:

 

Assembly is straight forward:

1) Trim off the base and mould marks

2) Cover in Hob-e-Tac glue and leave to get tacky

3) Rip the big lumps of foam into smaller bits matching the tree size – not in the instructions but I have big lumps (1.5 – 2 inch) in this pack

4) Dunk the tree in the foam and press into shape

5) Sprinkle a little ground colour to tie the trees into the base

6) Let dry for an hour or so and spray with Scenic cement

Points to watch out for:

• The foliage is very dense and lumpy.  I spent more time pulling it apart than sticking it on to the tree.
• The resulting trees are top heavy.  You need to stick the bases on to a surface sheet for added stability or run a pin into the bottom for use on foam.
• The bark is well defined and would be brought out with a grey dry brush.  Issue is the small plugs from the injection moulding process that will show up.  These could be covered with a grass to represent moss.

If you wish for more trees – have a look at the 2mm scale wood I created here.

So my total output for the first model day this year has been a trial of two scenery methods – not bad given it is –2C outside and I’m too cheap to turn the heating on here!