Wamp!

 I have mentioned before how The Empire Strikes Back had me transfixed from its opening scene as the adventures from a galaxy far, far away unfolded for a second instalment.  We had had to wait three years for the second film and were eager to drink in all the details and atmosphere of this beloved franchise.  

Within minutes we were transported to the frozen planet of Hoth, a stark contrast to the twin suns of Tatooine, but nonetheless are intrepid hero, Luke Skywalker was been attacked and knocked cold from his Tauntaun!  Of course blink and you miss it, the roaring maw, a clawed arm swiping across the screen, the action unfolded so quickly, I remember being terrified and bemused in equal measure.  What was that?   Without the power of the infoweb at our disposal it took a while to learn of the Wampa, a native species to the frozen wastelands, even longer to hear of the deleted scenes that coloured its legend.  That aside the creature had become a firm favourite and so I am delighted to finally have a miniature version for my Star Wars: Legion collection. 

My Wampa was a gift in the form of 3D print from my good friend the 'Dark Templar'.  This is something that I am keen to try for myself, but so far have only managed to amass lots of files rather than the actual equipment required to magically turn them into physical items.  It would appear that I can horde just about anything!  

Ultimately this was a quick win from the painting point of view.  Essentially it was primed in grey then some initial coats of white built up before picking out the final details with a brush.  The basing followed the same colour scheme as my 'Rebel Veterans' to help tie everything together.  

Once completed, I used my now 'go to' technique for snow which is the AK Terrains Snow Acrylic lightly dusted with the AK Snow Microballoons.  The final flourish was some gore to represent his last meal. 

Wookie Warriors

I wasn't planning a themed month, but I have unearthed some more photographs that have yet to be shared and with today being the 4th May, it just seemed the thing to do.  Chewbacca, Han Solo's co-pilot and long time companion, was always a firm favourite of mine growing up.  It didn't seem to matter that his growls, roars and barks were incomprehensible, we just instinctively knew exactly what he was trying to say.  A gentle giant around those he trusted, we were frequently reminded of a Wookie's propensity for violence,

 "That's 'cause droids don't pull people's arms out of their socket when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that."

 Armed with his trusty bowcaster, this is a classic Chewbacca pose and a much needed character addition for my Star Wars: Legion forces.  I painted the weapon in a flat blue/black colour as a nod to the action figures that I so adored collecting.  Having tinkered around with a suitable colour palette for the fur, I decided to apply a similar treatment to the additional Wookie Warriors that were waiting patiently for their turn under the brush.  Not as happy with these results, but a relief to get them ready for the table. 

Shoot 'n' Skedaddle

Just the briefest of posts to share some of the photographs taken of our game of Shoot 'n' Skedaddle.  Sadly the details are somewhat lost to the ravages of time, but essentially this is a fun, fast paced skirmish game that we played as a three header.  Each player had assembled a posse or gang of characters and charged around the board trying to capture the objectives whilst ducking waves of lead fired from an opposing player.  My understanding that these rules are free to play and can be found here.

An overview of the completed table, something that I found hugely rewarding and just revisiting the build in this series of posts has made me quite keen to add and develop it further.

The smallest room

With the main village buildings for our game of Shoot 'N' Skedaddle completed, and in good time I might add, there was an opportunity to add a little local colour in the form of a few 'extras'.  The first of these pieces was the ubiquitous outhouse, a seemingly ever present motif in the western films of my youth, the crude, hastily constructed structure was often festooned with flies and proved to be the last stand for many an unsuspecting outlaw; one of those silly things that I just had to have a go at building!  After sketching out a rough design, I started to build the basic structure on a 60mm MDF base using scraps of balsa wood into which I etched a plank design.

I couldn't dismiss the idea of having a working door, which started life as a scrap of mountboard, cut to give the impression of reclaimed planks with some additional supporting braces.  With the moon motiff scratched in, a little nod to another 'famous' outhouse, albeit from animated gem that is Shrek, I set about fashioning the hinges.  These were essentially paperclips cut down to size and bent to form the staples fixed into the door frame and then a couple more pieces formed into hooks to attach the door.  Although not the perfect solution, it did work and allowed me to move onto the painting and detailing of the base.

This part was a lot of fun and the bits box unearthed a good selection of miscellania to give some additional colour to the piece with barrels, plastic cacti and even a bucket to put under the seat.  With a slightly troubling level of detail, I even carved a hole into the seat and added to toilet paper using pieces of tissue paper.

Next up was the village well, which I remember from the Magnificent Seven as being the venue for the stirring speech by Horst Buchholz playing the irrepressible Chico.  I was about to start scratch building when I remembered that I had bought a 'Sarissa Precision' fountain from the 'Streets of Rome' range.  I had imagined that this was going to form part of a war torn city for my 'wintery' Russians to fight over, but I had never got around to it, but with a little imagination it may find a use here.

Hastily assembling the kit, it became apparent that the ornate central fountain was a little too much for my sleepy Mexican village and so I decided not to site the central column, instead I offset part of it to one end and added a little 3D printed water pump that had surfaced earlier during my excavation of the bits box.*

*I can't say with any certainty where this piece had come from, but I found an almost identical version here https://shop.winterdyne.co.uk/product/cast-iron-water-pump

It was starting to come together nicely, but I felt that the side detailing was still a tad ornate so out came the wood filler again to give a more worn feel to the piece.  The base was then textured and the whole thing primed for the final stages.  Once painted to match the existing pieces, I filled the fountain base with some Vallejo water effects, lightly coloring the 'water' with a little blue ink.

Now very much on a roll, as it were, I decided to try my hand at another stalwart of the classic Hollywood Western, tumbleweed.  On reflection this wasn't as successful as I had hoped, simply because it is a device that is rather relient on movement, but nonetheless a bit of fun to end the proceedings.  Lengths of sisal string were cut and then the individual strands separated out before dipping in a bath of watered down PVA glue.  Once the crude structures were dried, they were washed in a sepia tone to give a little more depth.  This wasn't as successful as I had hoped as the PVA seemed to repel the ink, but enough colour remained to sell the illusion.  With hindsight, I am wondering if some rubberised horsehair might have been a better solution?

Tumbleweed under construction! 

All in all a hugely enjoyable series of diversions that added some fun talking points to the board.  I am sometimes guilty of forgetting just how much fun scratch building terrain can be, always seemingly looking for the 'perfect fit' kit or model to adorn the board, when actually just adapting some of the shop bought kits can be great fun.  

Cacti

I make no excuses to my over romanticised, some would say naive, approach to the historical periods that interest me.  A perfect example of this would be my wholly sanitised foray into the Wild West inspired by the many Hollywood celluloid spectacles.  A lasting memory of those films was the tall cacti that seemed to dominate the landscape and so I set about to see if I could find some to add to the terrain around my village.  A rudimentary search of the infoweb unearthed a number of potential finds, particularly if I was prepared to 'print' my own, something I hope to get into one day, but at the moment I seem content with purchasing files that sit neglected on the computer, not that different to the unpainted miniatures in the wardrobe of woe.  

There were some Saguaro like models available in either white metal or plastic, but these were proving to be quite costly and were lacking the stature that I was after until, as luck would have it, I stumbled across the following 'how to' on the Western Role Playing & Miniature Games Resource site. 

 

Making Saguaro Cactus Terrain Tutorial

So as to not be accused of plagiarism, I am happy to admit that I followed this wonderfully clear guide pretty much to the letter, so there is little point replicating it here, but I will share some of my 'work in progress photographs' to reiterate just how straightforward it was. 

I used a combination of 6" and 4" nails with aluminium, armature, modelling wire to form the basic structures.  These were then covered in Sculpey, not a material I had used before, but not unlike DAS modeling clay, which might prove to be an cheaper alternative.  Drawing lines into the clay would convey a sense of the cactus structure, but on reflection I rather rushed this stage, perhaps more modelling would have produced more varied and interesting results?  Once baked and cooled they were fixed to some MDF bases and the surfaces built up and textured accordingly.  I indulged in some Buffalo and Longhorn steer skulls from 'Dixon Miniatures' just to sell the piece a little more. 

With time very much against me, I fired up the trusty airbrush and covered them in a rather lurid green that was not nearly dusty enough.  Fortunately some drybrishing helped to get the project back on track, but something still felt as if it was lacking.  

In a bid to give my cacti some more texture I dabbed dots of PVA glue along the trunk and then sprinkled on some fine green turf that I had.  A final flourish was added with a course, red turf used atop to hint at the ripening fruit. 

With the bases painted to match the rest of the miniatures and the liberal application of some brown shrubs and tufts the build was complete.  Thoroughly enjoyable and with that sense of achievement that comes from a successful scratch build.  Huge thanks to Western Role Playing & Miniature Games Resource for pointing the way.

The Village

Just the briefest of posts to showcase the rest of the buildings that were done in readiness for our western adventure using the Shoot N' Skedaddle rules.  All are from 'Sarissa Precision', but not all from the most obvious areas of their collection.  True, the small Adobe houses and the Cantina were certainly from the 'South of the Border' range and very nice they were too.  Quick and easy to put together and painted to match the church.  As with all MDF builds the overly straight edges and joints sometimes spoil the look, but some cheap wood filler worked really well at concealing these whilst also added a pleasing level of texture.

I discovered the destroyed single storey souk building in the North Africa/Colonial section, but just felt that the arches were remisnetct of the architecture form the village that starred in the Magnificent Seven.  By the time it was painted using a similar colour palette to the rest of the buildings it certainly seemed to fit with them.

A chance discovery in the Mediterranean section unearthed this small house.  I simple disposed of the pitched roof, added lashings of wood glue and used reeds instead of vines to create an animal shelter for the villagers.  Whereas the rickety fencing was from the Japan section and catalogued as 'Mountain Village low farm fence'.  They fitted in with the worn down look I was hoping to achieve and seen here in the last picture protecting my 'Warbases' hay stacks.

Looking at back at these photographs, I can see lots of areas that could have been enhanced even further with a bit more time, but with these pieces done, the village was good to go.  As with all my projects what followed can only be described as mission creep and as soon as the photographs are thinned down, I shall share with you where my wild machinations led me next.