Fields of gold...

...the build.

Now this was supposed to be a quick build to add a little depth to the gaming table, the wheat field adding cover, but at the same time slowing the advance of any miniatures travelling through it.  Having purchased a coir mat a month or so a go I finally got around to cutting an A4 sized section and et voilà, a wheat field.  The mat had a flexible rubber backing and so was, in effect done, but it looked like, well, a door mat!

A quick image search of the inter web threw up some rather lovely examples of crafted fields and one I particular liked*, showed a field that was partially cleared. In a fit of enthusiasm I decided that I would replicate this and set about the task in hand. First job was to locate a sheet of plasticard that I knew that I had kicking around, then made the edges look a little less regular, bevelling them with my trusty Dremel. I then simply hacked off smaller sections of the mat and placed these on the base. 

*Sorry I don't have a credit, but thank you for the inspiration!

The example I had seen had, what looked like, a path running through the middle of the field, so I tried something similar, but when placing my chunks of field onto the plastic base, I noticed that the height was far too regular for my liking and so starting to try and cut various sections down.  What followed saw an incredible lack of common sense as I reached initially for the dremel - idiot, then a tiny pair of scissors - again idiot, before finally stumbling on the most obvious of tools - the scalpel!  A fresh blade and I was scything through the wheat, perhaps a little too quickly as I managed to knick my finger at one point.**  Undeterred, I manfully continued with the job in hand discovering, again by accident that by rolling the pieces of mat up I could get the blade of the scalpel further into the field without the risk of further injury! 

**The 'Saintly Mrs. Awdry' made some comment about Poldark not needing a plaster when using his scythe, this was studiously ignored!

The field sections were then simply P.V.A. glued to the plasticard and then the area was give a liberal coating of texture gel and a couple of stones for added detail.

A useful byproduct of all this harvesting were handfuls of shorn matting, which I bagged for later use. I'm thinking loose stalks of wheat scattered on the cleared areas? The base is going to take a while to dry, but hopefully there will be a painting update before too long.

Paintable Saturday#140

Now I promise not to keep banging on about the long summer holidays and just how much hobby time I will have through July, mostly because I have just seen the 'Saintly Mrs. Awdry's' to-do list and it already looks exhausting, if not yet exhaustive!  That said the summer holiday is often a time when I try to catch up with all those larger projects that are left gathering dust during the winter months.  To that end this post is a statement of intent, rather than a prescriptive list and revolves around hosting a game of Witchfinder General, hopefully at the start of August.

I have earmarked a couple of miniatures that have been lurking around the periphery of the paint table for far too long now, particularly these two from the 'Warlord Games' Fire & Brimstone set.  They were supposed to have been an entry for last winter's 'VI Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge' and I even got as far as painting their faces, before the deadline came and went.

What I really want to get done are some terrain pieces to make progress across the the tabletop a little more challenging for the forces of evil.  I have made a start on my wheat field and hope to commence 'Operation Hedgerow' before too long!  Some additional livestock and another Witchfinder, this time in the guise of Salome Kohn from 'Hasslefree Miniatures' should be more than enough to keep me out of mischief.  If I can throw in a couple of games of Zombicide-Black Plague I shall be a happy chap indeed!

This little piggy.

The briefest of posts today to showcase a new villager for my ‘Witchfinder General’ project, the pig herd!  This rather charming sculpt is my first experience of ‘Midlam Miniatures’ and I have to say that they are rather lovely to work with.

Requiring next to nothing in the way of preparation and not overly fussy in detail she was painted very quickly, ready to take her turn toiling on the land.  Perhaps a little smaller than I am used to, especially next to the ‘Redoubt Enterprises’ miniatures, she still holds enough character to make a welcomed addition to the collection.

Her drift of sows are from the aforementioned ‘Redoubt Enterprises’ and those of you who kept a keen eye on proceedings in the ‘VI Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge’ will recognise them from my ‘Risk-taker’ entry, where they were part of a loosely formed idea to pay homage to the celluloid gems that are the ‘Mad Max’ franchise.  They have simply had the bases repainted from a dusty desert to a more fertile field.

Boing!

Firstly an apology as I have been incredibly busy a work this week and so have not had a chance to peruse the many splendid weblogs that I enjoy, hopefully things should get a little easier next week!  That said, I was determined to meet the deadline for the 'Forgotten Heroes' month and present here my completed 'Bouncing Boy'.

Having put him together last week, 'Bouncing Boy' finally got an undercoat and away we went with the painting.  To try and get the stretched Lycra look, I dusted off the airbrush and reached for the brightest blue I could find - in this case Army Painter Crystal Blue.  A couple of layers later and the bulk of the painting was done, just a case of picking out some details to bring the whole thing to 'life'.

So in true superhero fashion, I have managed to compete the project just in the nick of time.  All that remains is to thank Jez of 'Carrion Crow's Buffet' and Roger of 'Rantings from under the War-games table' and all the other contributors whose ingenious ideas and efforts have combined perfectly to produce such a wonderful monthly distraction! 

Bouncing Boy has lift off!

Spurred on by the many kind words of encouragement, I am pleased to report that my contribution to ‘Forgotten Heroes’ is back on track; ‘Bouncing Boy’ is slowly, but surely, starting to take shape! Having already identified the ping pong ball as the structure on which the character was to be built, I started with the ubiquitous utility belt, in this case a strip of foil from a ‘Pringles’ tube*. To this was added a few likely looking pouches from a handy sprue that was in this year’s ‘Salute’ goody bag. 

*Be warned though, once you ‘pop’, you just can’t stop!

Whilst I was harvesting the pouches, it struck me that the legs, or at least part of them, might work for ‘Bouncing Boy’ and so out came the side snips again, now I don’t know exactly what a Maelstrom's Edge Epiran Handler** is, but I am grateful for his sacrifice in this project!

**Apparently from the Battle for Zycanthus box by 'Spiral Arm Studios'.

Arms proved a little more difficult to source as I wasn’t sure about the pulse rifle attached to the Epiran Handler's hand, but as luck would have it the ‘Victrix Limited’ Napoleonic Highlanders sprue offered up a couple of alternatives that fitted the bill perfectly. I decided to keep the buttons on the cuff, they are probably not called buttons and I may just have committed an awful Napoleonic faux pas, as they added a little more interest to what was, in effect, a ball!  

So it was now all about finding a suitable head, but I was right out of youthful molecular scientists!   I could muster the odd grizzled Viking, or a helmeted GI, but I was struggling for the right look for my Charles Foster Taine.  In a fit of desperation, I took a more left field approach approach and attached an unmarried Zulu warriors head left over from the the 'Cetshwayo Challenge'.  I was thinking that there was, arguably, an air of youth to the sculpt and that headband could certainly add something to the costume!

Given 'Bouncing Boy's' unique skill of being able to inflate into a round shape that could bounce and ricochet off walls without harm, it seemed like a good idea to incorporate a flight stand.  I also managed to unearth a suitably futuristic base topper as well, so all is nearly complete.  I hoping to get some undercoat on him tonight and then, if all goes according to plan, try and get the bulk of the painting done over the weekend; I may yet make the deadline! 

Forgotten Heroes...

...still a work in progress.

Now let's be honest, there hasn't really been much progress at all.  The frenetic pace that comes as the end of the academic year looms into sight has rather scuppered my plans to resurrect 'Bouncing Boy' from 'forgotten' to  'occasionally talked about'.  The irony of this sad tale is that I chose this character because I thought that it would be simple and quick to do! 

There has been some movement and I have collected, what I hope will be, the composite parts required to finish the job.  Included in these are a selection of spherical objects to form the main body.  The beads, my first choice, are clearly too small and the ping pong ball feels a little big, but I think that I am going to go with it anyway, if for no other reason than comedy value; my only concern with this choice is that I have a nagging thought that ping pong balls don't react well to superglue?  I will let you know!

To further compound the ignominy of my current project there has been some truly wonderful progress made by my fellow contributors, which has all been documented on the official site and I would encourage to stop wasting time reading this drivel and go and see what should be happening!  Hopefully, once I have ticked off a few chores this morning, there might be a little more to show later in  the week. 

Forgotten Heroes - the official site! 

Barrage Miniatures Stable

I recently took possession of some rather fine pieces from 'Barrage Miniatures', courtesy of Tamsin ‘The Wargaming Girl’s' 500,000 page view giveaway.  Thank you Tamsin, not only for the incredibly generous prize, but for also introducing me to the fabulous person that is Alf of 'Barrage Miniatures'.  Although aware of 'Barrage Miniatures', perhaps most recently through the work of the sublimely talented Curtis Campbell Esq. (see his Church and River boat), I hadn’t had cause to place an order, but now armed with a hugely generous €40 voucher I was certainly taking a little more interest in what they had to offer.  

Having dismissed the rather splendid river borne flotilla, although I still have a hankering to game the Vietnam War at some point*, my eyes fell upon a medieval stable and some curious cobblestone roads, although I wasn’t entirely sure how I would use the cobbles so only opted for a square, thinking that I could add to it at a later date if necessary.

*I blame the glut of 1980s straight to video features for this, essential viewing for young Master Awdry.

Now at this point I should say a little more about Alf.  From the earliest exchanges of emails to acknowledge the vouchers, Alf has been an absolute delight to deal with.  His enthusiasm and generosity has been unparalleled and I cannot recall when I had so much fun purchasing something, now admittedly I wasn’t spending my money which probably helps, but I really cannot praise this chap highly enough.  He even refunded the money for the cobblestone square because he wasn’t happy to charge for what was, in essence, a sample!

Back to the Stable and this four piece resin structure really does look the part, there is some evidence of air bubbles in the cast, but these are few and far between, easily filled and do not spoil the look of the piece.  At this stage, I am still debating whether to leave the roof section as a separate piece to allow easy access.  The sculpting was such that it rather painted itself, and I took most of my inspiration from the company’s website.

Finally then the cobbles.  This was really interesting piece of terrain as it is cast using a flexible resin material that is utterly indestructible.  Although when I ordered it I wasn’t sure what I was going to use it for, there was a notion that it might form a town square, particularly for my 'Witchfinder General' rules.  So pleased was I with this pre-painted sample that I have subsequently ordered another three pieces to make a more substantial square and who knows, there may still be cobbles appearing at some stage in Gotham City!

So Once again a big thank you to Tamsin whose generosity of spirit led to me scooping the prize in the giveaway, but also another thank you must go to Alf, whose joie de vivre has once again reminded me that this most wholesome of hobbies is populated by some truly wonderful people.