Show Boat

One of the unexpected pleasures of Dave Stone's ‘Season of Scenery’ has been rediscovering all those curious little projects that have been quietly gathering dust whilst patiently waiting for their turn upon the painting table. Some are sensible, some are practical, but this, I'm afraid, is neither.  Indeed, for my next contribution I present what can only be described as a complete show boat in every sense of the phrase.

One of the scenarios in The Silver Bayonet, Troll Bridge, requires a boat to be stranded across the river complete with a swivel gun that suitably qualified members of your patrol may attempt to operate. Quite why someone thought mounting artillery aboard a half wrecked boat was an excellent military decision is perhaps a question best left to the author, but this being The Silver Bayonet, where absurdity and Gothic horror have always enjoyed being rather comfortable bedfellows, naturally, I found myself wondering just how theatrical such a piece of scenery could become?

My starting point was a 'Sarissa Precision' excellent MDF Boat Wreck. I had originally purchased the kit whilst entertaining vague ambitions of one day staging a Dracula Comes to Hastings scenario, but alas the project never progressed beyond idle daydreaming.  Happily, the abandoned boat proved to be exactly what this build required.  The kit itself is rather lovely; a weather beaten and decaying fishing boat with exposed ribs, shattered planking and its own scenic base.  It already possessed that wonderfully Gothic atmosphere which The Silver Bayonet seems to thrive upon, the only slight complication was the small matter of mounting the swivel gun.

As the boat lists dramatically to one side, simply placing a cannon inside looked rather precarious. Instead, somewhere during an evening's quiet contemplation or perhaps mild delirium given the stifling heat, the notion occurred to construct a crude firing platform from rough timber planking spanning the damaged hull.  It is, by any objective military standard, utterly preposterous, which naturally meant I had to build it.  The gun itself came from ‘Actual Size Miniatures’, a delightful little resin print that deserved something rather more substantial than simply being glued to the floorboards.  A framework of scored plastic strip became a rough wooden carriage before strips of balsa completed the makeshift deck.  Once that central idea had taken hold, the rest almost seemed to build itself.

Resin barrels were cut it half and sunk into the muddy riverbank. Loose cannonballs and broken planks suggested a hasty abandonment, whilst yet more skulls and debris quietly hinted that the previous crew had met with an end that was less than entirely voluntary.  One of my favourite little additions was the creeping vegetation.  Returning to a favourite technique, I used hairy wool teased apart strand by strand to produce climbing vines before adding clump foliage to create patches of moss clinging to the damp timber. It's a surprisingly simple technique but one that works remarkably well once painted.

There was even an opportunity to revisit my old friend, UV resin.  This time, perhaps mindful of previous adventures, I approached the process with rather more caution, using it sparingly to create puddles, damp patches and little pools trapped amongst the wreckage. A quick flash from the UV torch and suddenly the whole scene acquired that permanently wet appearance that one imagines accompanies anything left beside a gloomy river for too long.

As a finished piece it is gloriously impractical and I suspect it will spend far more time being admired than actually influencing the outcome of a game, but I rather like that and look forward to seeing it on the table.

Risen from the Dead

I shall spare you all the overlong preamble regarding a lack of balance in my life, suffice to say that we are essentially well and I am still pootling about, never quite finishing anything, but enjoying the hobby when, and where I can.  

More recently someone, sadly only known to me as Anonymous, left a comment on my last blog post, Crocodiles in the Jungle (How is this over a year ago?!) simply saying, 

“Please come back Michael! You have been away for far too long.” 

I do miss the interaction with other hobbyists that came with the inception of this most humble of weblogs and I am truly fortunate that some have sought me out across other platforms or quietly sent an email to check on my whereabouts.  This is always a joyous moment and I need to do more to ‘pass it forward’ as it were to others that I have fallen out of touch with, but returning to this particular comment and I have to say that I was really rather touched by it and resolved myself to post something before the end of the year.

The world’s over indulgence with all things Halloween was the perfect incentive for this post.  What better day to post a spooky spectacle and showcase another of my recent distractions, 3D Printing.  This rather splendid mausoleum was a free sample from the incredibly talented Terrabloks, whose projects I have backed on more than one occasion and can gladly testify to the quality of their designs.  For those who take an interest in the technical side of this process, it was printed on my Bambu Lab A1 with a layer height of 0.1 and an infill density of 5%.  The final print has a working door and the roof can be lifted off to access the interior.  

The details are superb and it was fabulous fun to paint, mostly dry brushed and washed.  I based it on a ‘Warbases’ MDF terrain base and added a few other pieces for added atmosphere.  The ghostly resident is a ‘Crooked Dice’ sculpt and I have had far too much fun setting up the photographs using Jon Hodgson’s backdrop books, available through ‘Handiwork Games’, to bring everything together. 

So thank Anonymous for gently nudging me into making this post.  Sadly, I am not sure it will herald a full return to this cosy corner of the blogosphere, but I am not quite ready to give up on '28mm Victorian Warfare' so there is every possibility that I might find myself lurking around all those splendid weblogs that I do so enjoy. 

Crocs and Hippos

 With my mind set on having a waterborne adventure for our game, I turned to the scenarios included in the Congo rule book for inspiration.  Luckily for me there were a number of possibilities that would work, especially if I combined a couple of the scenarios together.  Ultimately this was going to be a chase across the board hampered by pursuing tribesmen and, of course, crocodiles!  I had a number of these ruthless reptiles that needed to be painted, but what I was really after were some waterline variants to patrol the swamps.  So it was that I found myself wrapping 'Wargames Foundry' crocodiles in something called mini-mold from 'TT-Combat'.

This was always going to have a limited success, especially given the low relief of the details on my small crocodiles, but I just need to sell the illusion of this toothsome predator lurking just below the surface of the brackish water.  So once the impression was made, I packed it full of green stuff and et voilà, swimming crocodiles!  

After a little bit of trimming they were affixed to small pill like bases and then painted to match the others in the collection.  I also experimented with some water texture around the edges, but I am not entirely sure this has worked as well as I had hoped and might have proven more effective if I just painted the edges to represent water, which is exactly what I did with the hippos!

"What talk of river horse?" I hear you cry.  Well good reader it would appear that my shame of unpainted soldery has now exploded into the digiverse with the unfathomable need to purchase STL files for 3D printing.  Nothing new in this, but I don't even own a digital printer and yet I have amassed a vast assortment of files that would potentially see me print models from dinosaurs to Dooku all at the click of a button.    'The Dark Templar', a chap that has thoroughly embraced this hobby departure very kindly offered to print some hippopotami as a contribution to the game and so when the beasts arrived in the post, ahead of the big day, I was absolutely thrilled.  I am afraid, I can't tell you what resin was used or even the width of the layers, but I was instantly aware of just how light they were compared to the weight of a metal piece.  The fun, dynamic poses were just what I wanted and immediately set about them with some grey undercoat.  In fact the undercoat was so effective that I only had to pick out a few details and dry brush some scarring to their backs and they were done!  So with characters and menagerie finished, I just had one more piece to add - the swamp! 

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.