Showing posts with label 28mm. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 28mm. Show all posts

Tuesday 14 February 2023

K and M Trees for LotR



If you're playing a game you need scenery and IMO trees, usually quite a few.

I'm known for always overdoing it, so I've done 20.


One of the complaints people make in the game is that the basing for scenry is so thick the models teter and fall over if the are half way on a terrain piece. So I used Hexs from Kallistra they are 2mm wide made from plastic, I've had no issues glueing terrain on. The weight of the trees will make a triple Hex bend ifyou hold it at one end,  but so would a 12"/30cm ruler if you put a lead weight at one end.

Basing material sorted I then chose the trees, these I bought in 2008/9 for the demo game Hands up! that i took to shows. They've been in and out of boxes and still look good, sure they shed but keep then in the samebox and glue what drops off abck on, I've done this once in 14 years. The trees are from K&M

Trees however you can get them from Kallistra too. 

Note the length of metal below the provided trunk, cut it off at the length you want, vary it and alter the height of the tree, then using super glu screw the metal trunk into the base.



Both companies provide bases into which you can insert the trees, I prefer the metal pewter one (added weight).


Now use plastic filler caulk, whatever to sculpt the trunk don't be tidy be messy, start with the provided trunk widening it, cover the twisted wire and finish off over th ebase as shown.
I use a pointed palette knife, wet it to stop it sticking.

When dry I painted with varying shades of brown, from Burnt Umber to a lighter shade. Later when basing I finished off with a light dry brush of Iraqi Sand.

Once painted I glued the tree to the hex, if doing a triple hex remember to position them to allow foot soldiers through or tight to stop them.


To texture it I then spread filler on the hex, when dry I painted a mix of PVA & paint with a litle water, then drenched with sand. 

When that was dry another coat of my mix, to fix the sand.
When that dries I paint with XV-88 then dry brush with Iraqi sand.

Trees have leaves under them and I used some dry Birch tree masts I'd picked last autumn, unless you are in charge of the kitchen, a more dangerous option might be dried herbs from that kitchen. I fixed these in place with a spray of cheap hairlaquer, but will try a PVA/water spray next time

 I prefer not to cover the whole base with flock I flocked about 50% using static grass and then added flower clumps.


The other advantage of hexs is that you can push them together to get larger woods.



Tuesday 1 October 2019

Industrial Scenery

Yet again old scenery damaged by time and mouse, plus a little too much moisture in the shed.
Larger pieces of MDF warp.

Originally built almost 20 years ago these tired pieces needed help, which I gave them about 8 years ago.

I'd used pringle boxes for the cylinder shapes, foam board for square building or folded cereal packet cardboard, heavy duty black power cable for the pipes, (bends and keeps shape), square chicken/pet mesh for the fencing, Camembert cheese containers for the large disc shaped containers, lumps of polystyrene, the polystyrene packaging from a new shower pump and finally some of you will see the polystyrene insert from a GW £5 models box, broken and leaking as two sump pools.
(£5 now that is an old GW price for 5 models!)

If it ain't fixed down in my house it ends up as scenery!




Time to rebuild, I decided to rebase in smaller elements but keeping to a multiple of x" so that I could pack them densely together if I chose.








First salvage what you can.


I did so want to salvage the boards too, but their warp was such that I felt I was creating work, so in the bin it went.






As we all know more is better so whilst refreshing the old I decided to build in some more, I was revisiting 40k 4th ed at the time and also had in mind club requirements for infinity player.

New bases all multiples of the small square at the front. It allows you to fit them all together should you wish.



All the salvaged materials re-based.





I use builders caulk all the time. It's a glue, a filler can be sanded and using a wet finger can be smoothed easily.






New ruins using thick corrugated cardboard, masking tape joins the corners, Caulk fills the corrugations in the cardboard.













PVC plumbing pipes for the chimneys.


I've cut polystyrene discs and surrounded with thin card to replace the old Camembert containers. Their thin wood surround was not salvageable and I didn't want to wait whilst I bought more cheese.

What to add for variety? Take a look at some industrial complex photos, especially chemical/petroleum.


Plastic balls from a ball pool stuck onto sections of towel roll tubes.




All painted up and in use.

The Infinity players in our club love the quantity of cover provided.


Mixed in with some of my alien trees

Tuesday 17 October 2017

Giant Cactus 28 mm

An old one the idea dates back to 40k 4th edition with dangerous jungle plants

Using a polystyrene egg, I glued it onto a base using builders caulk, ('No Nails' melts the polystyrene).

Cocktail sticks are then pushed into the sides, and then cloves were pushed into the top for the flowers.


Wednesday 20 September 2017

Chaos Altar (Jungle trees) 28 mm

So what to do with the ball at the centre of the aquatic moss ball or indeed the spikes from the same ball?

Sometimes you just see potential in a piece of scrap add two stones, place the spikes correctly then thread your pentagon in place.

The prayer flags are just strips of paper printed with gobbledygook, reduced in size and then cut out, ink washed and then cut at the bottom to look frayed.

There were some interesting cracks in the stones, a little red paint in them and we are oozing blood.



Jungle terrain


Some years ago I decided to create some scenery for 40k, we are talking 3rd-4th edition.
At the time the rules on LOS were more liberally understood the area of terrain was considered to be the jungle edge and you could only see 2" in, anything beyond that or behind the scenery base was out of LOS. Later versions of 40k played if you could see it you could shoot it. Scenery therefore had to be more substantial if you wanted it to block LOS.

After a hiatus in gaming of two years I came back to my scenery and found it has been mouse chewed and soiled. (it had been stored in an outdoor shed) apparently there was no room in the house.

The original layout had been three pieces of terrain that worked individually or could be grouped to make one large piece. I'd done this by cutting the bases out of a single piece of 6mm mdf using a jigsaw.

No the picture isn't washed out, but the flock had come off  and it looked tired. In addition I had learnt new skills. So it was time for a full refurbishment.

When I first created them the supply of scenery items was from a florist supplier, this warehouse had occasional sales and I accessed my materials there.

I've since discovered plastic aquarium plants, although one of their biggest faults is a lack of height, However I worked out a way to get height, I also used plastic xmas tree branches.

Using a painting brush I removed the dust and debris, cleaned it up best I could. I then applied PVA where I wanted rough stone areas and then sprayed black undercoat over the entire model to sterilize it. Dry brushed the stones with two shades of grey in two stages, then applied PVA and flocked those 'grass' areas I wanted.

The aquatic plants usually come attached to a mat, a ball or individually based on 'stones'. I avoid the individual pieces as they are more expensive. If you look closely you can see the plastic is assembled using small spikes onto which the individual elements are pushed, I gently pull these apart with the intent to reassemble the elements onto a kebab stick or dowel.

First I drill a hole into the base where I want the 'tree/bush' cut a length of kebab stick and glue it in the hole if you get the drill size right it's a tight fit, a quick wash of brown for the dowel and then I push on the plant material, adding further pieces separating them as I see fit to produce my tree.










By using different plants you can produce quite a variety.

In some instance the dowel mab no more than 10mm high in others 60 mm.

Sometimes the elements break off or like the xmas tree elements have no hole to thread so I drill holes to size and glue in with PVA or 'No Nails'.

The stone slabs in the picture are simple squares cut from a cereal box.




If you do enough you can create quite an interestingly terrained tabletop. Of course it's up to you to decide if LOS is stopped by terrain pieces or not, but with enough as shown below, you can use actual LOS











Tuesday 19 September 2017

Alien Trees 28 mm

What sort of tree would you expect to find on Larisa third world of Betelgeuse 3?  I don't know either as I've not been yet, but I'd be surprised if they were like Earth's or indeed the ones below.
However I've never seen serious attempts at alien trees so thought I'd give it a go.


First off you need the inspiration and I saw it at 'Homebase' a dried floral bouquet.

The heads of the 'flowers' were obviously 'made' in some way and looked 'alien'.


I had previously made trees using wire and string and resorted to the same idea, odd numbers of wire were twisted together, spread out at the bottom so I could stand/glue the tree to a base.



Why odd numbers? Look around you, nature rarely has an even number of petals, leaves etc and even will always look wrong.

I started from the trunk and wrapped the string around the wire until I had the desired width and then tied it off at the end, I was going to cut it off neatly but saw the potential of dangling roots so left it long.



 I then wrapped string along the main trunk thickening at the bottom then coated it all with PVA to hold the string in place. I rather liked the effect and didn't want to hide it under caulk.



I'd earlier cut out some MDF, same shaped bases I'd left over from before. I used a router to make depressions for pools on the bases.

Placing any stone and grit with PVA I then undercoated the whole black.

Following the alien theme and being an Iron Warriors player I decided this might be a Chaos planet or one slowly converting.
Certainly it was scorched so I left the undercoat in place, dry brushing the rocks/grit grey, then added patches of PVA for scorched grass flock.  I dry brushed the trunks grey and then dry brushed the balls white to lighten the subsequent red and highlighted with orange. The end effect was darker than I liked but worked.

The pools were painted red then I poured PVA over and left it to dry, cheap water effect.
For some reason unknown now I wanted extra contrast so put on some snow flock.



For a 28 mm Cedar of Lebanon look here

Sunday 30 July 2017

Trees - Cedar of Lebanon 28 mm


Nothing quite like trees for getting us all going. For some of us the search to get the right good looking trees that fit, comes second only to that of getting the perfect rule set.

I've made a few over the years as I have failed to see how some of the offerings we used to get were at all compatible with 28 mm figures.
After all trees aren't two or three times bigger, they soar above us and nothings looks dafter than four inch trees (100 mm) alongside twelve inch  buildings (300 mm).
So much so that in 28 mm you will rarely see trees and building on the same table.







I was playing around with the idea of doing something different rather than a bristle brush offering and came up with this.

Two 28 mm LOTR figures are on the base and you can see the size. However I'm still not happy as I feel the trunk should be twice the size, so the model can hide behind it, but it's close.

In the second photo the same tree, revamped this year, some 8 years later and it begins to look like my objective. This is from a
Frostgrave shot with a Reaper mini and an even older LOTR figure Boromir, hate to think how old that is.

The trunk is still too narrow as I revamped the foliage rather than the trunk.



For those interested in construction.

Get some lengths of wire and twist them together.
I believe I started with six, twisting them from about two inches, using a vice and pliers. Where I wanted the first branch I separated out one piece of wire and twisted the remaining five strands, repeat for second and third, e.t.c., until you have two strands left. Normally you cut all the strands off at the point you want a branch to stop especially if you are doing a dead tree.(longer at the bottom, shorter at the top),
This time I made a giant loop of each strand.

The base of the wire strands were then splayed out to allow the tree to stand, whilst I left them at about two to three inches you can leave them longer and twist them to look like roots. I decided to 'glue' this to an old CD, windows 95 OS I believe, maybe I should have used an old 'Evergreens' cd.

I glued it using the same brown mastic that you might use on dark brown hardwood as it would save me painting it later. When set I then applied additional mastic to the trunk of the tree and branches smoothing up and down the trunk and along the branches to get a bark effect.
[NOTE, keep a small pot of water nearby and wet your fingers as you 'sculpt' the mastic this will stop it sticking to your fingers, also ensure you have tissues to wipe your fingers on after you are done in order to keep your partner happy.]

You can thicken the mastic up as mush as you want, either by wrapping string around the trunk first or by applying more mastic when the first is dry. A happy side effect is that when dry you can bend the branches or trunk to any shape you want as demonstrated by these two photos.

I then got some wire wool and partially threaded the loop through this gluing it in place and roughly positioning the branches horizontally. Lots more glue was the sprayed over the wire wool both on top and below the branches and then I drenched it with flock.

When I revisited the project I added more, better quality flock to top and underneath of branches, let it dry and sprayed and flocked again.
I then applied a sand/pva paste to the CD and when dry, dry brushed before flocking.
[Today I'd use brown wood filler].

I think the tree looks right with the buildings.





Of course today you can get excellent trees from 4ground, but at £24 for three trees?

So DIY still appeals to me as I can get the height I want too..

But 4grounds offerings are stunning.



If you want to see my take on a Si-Fi then look here Alien Trees 28 mm.

Saturday 29 July 2017

40k AAR Iron Warriors v Sisters of Battle 2nd June 2003

More nonsense from 2nd June 2003

40k was the only game back then, with occasional forays into WHFB.

Chaos Champion Dranask Wolfsbane, my alter Ego, with CSM and Dreadnaught in support.


Denis Jackman as club Competitions secretary had organised a 40k tournament and in it I have previously beaten 'F's Space Wolves but have just lost to Paul Douglas' Sisters of Battle. Although I read a rule sometime later that could have changed the game and saved a unit of mine. I did wonder at the time if I might have won under those different circumstance. Probably not Paul is a very able player still...............

I can balance that by remembering the time my Vanquisher's cannon targeted Denis' Harlequins under it's blast marker, dodge that!

Trying to make my battle report different I came up with the idea of doing a transmission, probably saw somthing similar in White Dwarf.


To Kommissar Jackman

The following transmissions have been picked up by our fleet as it approached the planet ‘Lost Founding’ in order to reinforce the Adeptus Sororitas who were attempting to recover an item of immense religious value upon the planet that had recently been wrestled from the Space Wolves.

+ + + +  To the omnipotent most fearful Abbadon from Daemon Prince Janrasuk commander World Eaters. + + + + Force Omega-delta sent on your orders to hold the positions won by us and the Iron Warriors of Dranask Wolf's Bane have begun to arrive. Prince Jahyovik informs us he has sufficient forces to relive our position  he ………..  + + +  ….. . .. .as instructed we advance in pursuit of the Emperor’s lackeys.  The wolves can be but a few days ahead of us.  *** Blood for the blood God!   + + + + +

- - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - -
.
+ + + +  Force Omega-delta to Abbadon warp disturbance delaying  arrival of heavy weapons and other units.  ……………….  . We are in position but await remaining units. + + + +    + + +  Intercepted comms link from Emperor’s brides. + + + +  Moving on our positions. + +  No doubt we will earn more souls for the Gods.  + + + + +  …………………         + + +  …… + + +  Positions under att.. …  Where are those  ………blue squad  incinerated. …..    Assassin  …   predator arrives still waiting remainder    **    + +  …. predator’s daemon disrupted - vehicle lost - - …. berserkers annihilated   …. ..       + + + ..  They are swarming all over us.  Jahyovik has stemmed the flow but is embroiled with these shield maidens. + + + ……….Land raider …arrives with chosen  they will recover blue squad’s bunker.  …+ + * + *+ *  ……  The god’s are deserting us  …. . + + + + chosen annihilated by assassin. Land raider disabled but is literally running down the redemptionists  the field has become a mass of bloodied bodies……….  Land raider self repairs the blood was good . ……….   + + + +  Plague Marines reinforce Jahyovik, they have destroyed second squad of redemptionists  …  .. Land raiders still churning first squad.    + ++ + + … .. ..  Jahyovik destroys Seraphim + + + Plague marines destroyed by lone Canoness… . ..   + + + + +  Jahyovik destroys retributor squad  and Exorcist…     Less than a third of attackers left ..     They are attacking our final position  ………….  + + + Assasinaaahhhgggg.  + + ++ + 

+ + + +  Kravus – Captain of the Wrath of Krondak Despoiler Class  - Have made rendezvous with remnants of fleet over  planet …. ..   they  have effected recovery of only survivor Jahyovik  … .. . . please your … . .. invited them to return to you or engage approaching Imperial fleet ..   outnumbers them 4:1   + + +  presumed as ineffective as they were in protecting the planet  .. .  they are no loss to you but if they take a few ships   … ..eir lives  .. . worthwhile.   as instructed Jahyovik  chained and imprisoned     …………..  …………   pleased  to know  runes have quietened him and cause pain in addit  …… .. ……… he now awaits the pleasure of the Gods. + + +  Unable to effect recovery of Land raider…. .. …  + + + it’s roaming the planet causing destruction + + any units that recover or escape the fires of the Emperor’s wives may rally to it.  + + Ship under attack  from reinforcing Imperial fleets . ……. . . .Planet lost to us . . . ..  +++ + ++   

Transmission ends

I can report that the Adeptus Sororitas not only recovered the artefact but also cleansed the planet of the chaos scum and are currently hunting down the corrupted land raider.

Praise to the Emperor! – the Living God!


Kommissar Foulgar

Friday 28 July 2017

Chaos Warbands 2003

It's a funny old world, having found the previous article I then found the models.

Photo time!

Tim's Head Hunters, the three missing hounds are probably with the wolf riders in the WHFB Orc and Goblin storage box.



My Black Pudding Boys


Why are mine painted and Tim's not? It's 2003 Tim's 13 and I'm trying to encourage him to paint his own, which he is doing, homework, Takewando, scouting and other interests permitting.
I'm a little older after all duties are done, this is my relaxation.

Chaos Warbands - AAR 10th Jan 2003

Another gem from the past. (my opinion)

At Denis Jackman's suggestion the club was running a Chaos Warband campaign GW rules similar to Necromunda as the result of a battle affects the warband's development.

This was my After Action Report.

They Shall Not Pass

Dork Flumas - Black Pudding Boys (Mark Foulds) stood by the small alter he’d created in honour of Khorne a simple pike forced into the ground, the oldest skull, the first he’d taken, now clean of flesh was mounted on the central spike and he’d learned that it stared towards danger. He carefully positioned the misshapen head of the semi-intelligent animal his men had just eaten on the small pile of skulls, which surrounded the base of the spike. One day the pike would be hidden from view and he would be a great warrior.
As Dork turned to leave he caught the movement of the skull as its sightless sockets stared towards the west, quickly gathering his men he charged off to see who was intruding upon his domain.
From his position between the clumps of trees Dork watched the strangers lined up in front of him seventeen in all in a line running North to South. There were two groups of three marauders on the northern flank, five chaos hounds, then the leader on horseback, sunlight glinting of his shield and five Chaos warriors on the southern flank their mutated arms were barbed and fanged like second weapons, formidable opponents.
For a moment he though to let them pass, but knew Khorne would not favour such an act. He sent four of his warriors to the north the enigmatic chosen one holding a position behind them; the second group of four warriors went south whilst he followed, close enough to support either group.

Skull Crusher - Head Hunters (Tim Foulds) was moving east towards the ruined town of Wurldege, it was rumoured that there were men for hire living there. It was imperative that he got there quickly before they left, or worse were hired by someone else. As he moved through the blighted land he sensed the increased magic of sacred ground and moved eagerly forwards, this would be the sort of ground a band would call its own. There was rumour of a small band of men here. For a moment he toyed with the idea of killing their leader so that they would join him, but he knew they would not. Unless he defeated each and every one of them they would reform around one of their own, make him the new champion. He prepared his men putting them in a line himself placed in the centre. They would charge through, each man for himself and regroup at the town. Looking around he gave the signal and the Head Hunters advanced.
Head Hunters Turn one.
The Head hunters marched forwards the marauders towards a small wooded hill, the warriors moving north in front of a small copse, whilst Skull Crusher surrounded by his pack of chaos hounds cut south west to move around and down the southern flank. Skull Crusher didn’t want a protracted fight today he had to get to Wurldege by tomorrow evening.
Black Pudding Boys Turn one
Calling upon the chosen one to move southwards in to the woods to cover the centre, and commanding the Warriors in the north to go into the tree covered hill in front of the marauders. Dork Flumas moved south sending his other warriors into woods from where they could ambush the enemy leader or his chaos hounds.

Head Hunters Turn two
Both groups of marauders charged up the hill into the woods to attack the four chaos warriors who awaited them, The five chaos warriors, mutated arms snapping and flexing rushed into the small copse against the chosen one. Meanwhile Skull Crusher swung north cutting behind his warriors and to the west of the hill where the marauders were slogging it out with the warriors. He smiled grimly, the feint had worked, half the enemy force was out of touch and with luck those warriors would not get a fight today
Being in cover the four chaos warriors attacked the marauders two attacking each group. The flail smartly mashed the brains of one marauder and the mace did equal service in the to the other group. The marauders failed to hurt the warriors and the great weapons failed. One group of marauders decided to leave the battle whilst the others stayed on to fight.
Meanwhile the chosen one flashed his two weapons and neatly decapitated two trees much to the amusement of the chaos warriors who unable to retain their mirth failed to hit the chosen. None the less outnumbered as he was the chosen decided to fall back and tripped whereupon the warriors overran his position and found themselves within strike distance of Dork Flumas.
Black Pudding Boys turn 2
The careless charge of the chaos warriors had brought them within range of the Dork Flumas and his warriors in the southernwoods; who all charged in two reaching the target. Between them they kill one of the invading warriors and suffer no wounds, chaos warriors hold firm and all closed in for the next phase.
On the hill the marauders take down a chaos warriors the heavy weapon knocking him to the ground. Both sides determine to slog it out.
Head Hunters turn 3
Turning in his saddle Skull Crusher watches as his men hold of the enemy warband and gallops on to the east for his rendezvous, his will forcing the chaos hounds to lead in case any more enemy block his way. The two fleeing marauders rally and watch as their fellows are cut down.
The melee of warriors in the centre results in a wound on the leader, but all fight on determined to fight to the end.
Black Pudding Boys turn 3
The three knights on the hill are unable to stop the escape of the mounted group and charge into the rallied marauders who disable one warrior. All are steadfast and fight on.
In the centre the ‘Great Baker God’ affects the melee and nothing happens!
Head Hunters turn 4
Skull Crusher races on towards the board edge and stops 3” away, he had hopped to end the battle but all must fight another round of combat.
The marauders kill another chaos warrior; his companion can’t believe I tand stays to seek revenge.
In the centre the ‘Great Baker God’ still holds sway.
Black Pudding Boys turn 4
Oh shame the two marauders remove the last chaos warrior.
But in the centre Khorne comes to Dork Flumas’ aid and together with his warriors they kill two chaos warriors, the rest sensing failure turn to run but are cut down by the leader and his men.
Head Hunters turn 5
Skull Crusher leaves the eastern table edge and the battle is over.

Black Pudding Boys report.
Well Skull Crusher and his Head Hunters may have won the game but Khorne was not impressed, he didn’t even get his sword out! I had lost four warriors and a chosen and they all recovered though I will be speaking severely to the chaos warriors, being taken down by marauders for Khorne’s sake, as for the chosen, less topiary and more skulls.
A fun battle and it shows how much I need a fast unit. But I gained two favour points and got to roll on the advancement table where I rolled the Mark of Khorne! (Well what else did you expect me to roll????) This gives me frenzy and an extra attack.

Head Hunters report
Gained four favour point and the displeasure of Khorne, when I rolled for recovery I rolled two ones and had to use two favour points up to save two of my chaos warriors. On the other hand my leader rolled on the advancement table and gained +1WS, he must have spent the evening practising!

Conclusion

A number of lessons learned, most importantly that the rules need some clearer interpretation. All of us need to sit down and think about the situations that have occurred and how we have resolved them. Then we need to create house rules that can grow as our games continue. There is a certain element of conflict between using our men as units (regiments) or as skirmishers.


Mark's Black Pudding Boys

Tim's Head Hunters


                          ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reading this now in 2017, I wonder how differently I'd play the game regarding units/skirmishers given the wide range of rules that now exist. 
I believe using the Frostgrave rules concept with each band of men under a captain would work well, the captain able to take four men rather than one.

Friday 21 July 2017

Warmachine

Khador Faction

Back in 2011 I was introduced to this game and I must say I enjoyed it and it's very different mechanics. It makes you think outside of the traditional move, shoot, combat gaming box.
You activate a model/unit and carry out all three actions in any order before moving on to the next.

For instance you have a model engaged in a melee that you can't fire through, activate that model finish combat. Now activate your sharpshooter and take out the model that had hid behind the combat.

Why don't I play the game anymore? It's not played at my club or by my peers.

I had great fun painting the models, cheated by using a red undercoat and played around with snowy bases.
Used an Army Builder red spray to prime the models and after doing all the detail used a red ink to blend the [GW] Blood red touchups



Did buy quite a lot of models but got ruthless and sold most of them, don't play don't need.
Not my normal squirrel like behavior, of burying them somewhere in the house/attic and getting them out to dust before reboxing.

Other images here My Google Warmachine Album

Lizard Men - Lost Children of the Fallen Gods

My first WHF armies way back in 1996 were from the 5th edition box set; Bretonnians and Lizard Men, my son and I had a blast with those mode...