Palm trees and hedges progressing

 I've worked out how I'm going to mount my palm trees on their bases.  My solution?  Paper clips.

Paperclip wire stands ready for trees.

I've created several curvy shapes with spikes onto which I'll glue the tree trunks.  I've made the bases curvy so that the tree can't swivel in place and fall over.

Very fiddly drilling of the tree trunks.

 After a failed experiment in heating the paper clip and melting it into the tree trunk (tree trunks too narrow and it slips out of the side) I've drilled holes in them instead.

Ready to attach.

 The paper clip extends about 6-7mm (¼ inch) up inside the trunk.  A drop of superglue fixes them in place.

Single and double tree bases.

 After doing the first 4 sets of trees I got tired of all the drilling (very awkward with their thin, bendy trunks) and decided to try a different approach.

CMG Protolene Khanates for scale.

Leaving the connecting section between the trees, I've made some stands which will clip between the two trees.

Tree base mark II.

A quick squeeze with some pliers fixes them in place and then they're ready for gluing to their base.

Far easier!

I've flocked the hedges too.  I might try some that are just drybrushed as suggested by Millsy but the scourers I have look a little too neat without the shredded foam flock.  Now I just need to decide how to do their bases.

Peter Pig US Marine for scale.

CMG Protolene for scale.

CMG Protolene for scale.

Peter Pig US Marine for scale.

A cogitation on vegetation

My wargames tables are a little bare in terms of vegetation.  I have plenty of hard structures (containers, buildings, vehicles), but little soft cover apart from reindeer moss bushes and my hundred plus little conifers (as seen below).  I'm suffering from the same problem as early seasons of the X-Files or Stargate SG1 - all my games appear to be set in Canada!

The ubiquitous coniferous forest.

To remedy this, I'm working on a few projects.  First, some palm trees for my desert scenery.  I found these in the local cake craft shop.  At about 15p each, they're pretty good value and each consists of 2 bendy plastic trees. 

You don't need to be a palm reader to see the future of these trees...

They could have been made for 15mm figures, ideal for my needs!  I'll be mounting them on bases either individually or in their pairs.  I don't think they need any paint, the colours are pretty good as they are.

Just the right scale for 15mm!

 Some hedges will come in handy for my rural temperate terrain and also for some urban settings.  The humble pan scourer will provide the basic structure for these.

You can't go wrong with a pan scourer hedge.

 I'll have 2 sizes, the first being a low hedge to provide limited cover from which to fire.

Small hedges to shoot over.

Larger hedges will provide complete cover and therefore a means for zombies and such like to get nice and close to their targets without being seen and/or shot.

Large hedges to give full cover and hide movement.

I have a bag of fine shredded foam "turf" which should cover the scourers quite well.  My initial hedges are fairly neat but I'll also do some more straggly and unkempt ones for the wilder areas.

Book review - Embedded by Dan Abnett

I recently came across Dan Abnett's 2011 novel "Embedded" in the local library.  I've long been an avid reader of his "Gaunt's Ghosts" WH40K novels so I immediately picked this one up.

It's an excellent read, a real page turner as I find all his books to be.  Some of the characters seem a little lacking in personality compared to the Tanith Ghosts and the ending seems rather abrupt but these are fairly minor niggles.

What really grabbed me was the setting.  It's pretty much bang on the nose in reflecting the GZG "Tuffleyverse" or AAG "Tomorrowverse".  Some troops use a Limb Assist Exo Frame (LEAF) to help support the weight of their M3A Hardlaser (beam) emitter or "piper".  Others are equipped with standard projectile weapons.  The action takes place on the colony world of 86 (not yet important enough to warrant a name) and when the troops take a trip in their hopters out to Eyeburn Junction, you can almost visualise it on the tabletop, a collection of crummy refabs and shacks like those available from Mad Mecha Guy or GZG.  Little patches of chopped up astroturf for the crop fields around it.  A couple of colony hab modules from Antenociti's workshop as the small weather station nearby.

It's the little touches that bring the book alive, things like the mainprotagonist grumbling about the corporate rebranding of "ProFood" who have replaced their old Astronut "Bill Berry" logo with "that shit, bland Rooster Booster thing".

Not quiet up to the usual Dan Abnett standards but still worthy of a B+ I reckon!

Bird feeder storage silos

 I spotted these bird feeders a couple of months ago and immediately recognised their terrain potential.  I've finally given in and bought one to experiment with.  At £1 it wasn't much of a risk!  I envisage them as small storage buildings or "domesteads" in my desert village. 

The feeder is hinged along the back edge.  I was going to try and separate them into individual domes but now I've decided to leave them as strips of 3.  I think they look like chunky concrete foundations which have been poured around prefab domes to anchor them in place.  The domes will be lined with papier mache and painted a dusty sandy colour.  The big suckers easily pull out.  Now what can I use those for?

There's one use for them...

I used a pair of cutters to remove the clips which hold the feeder closed.  A craft knife neatened up the edges of the cut and removed the hinge section on the back edge.

By happy co-incidence, this leaves doorways just the right size for 15mm infantry.  Once the domes are lined with papier mache, I'll leave some open and perhaps used some corrugated plasticard scraps for doors in the others.  They'll be very basic quality workers' habs (some sections might be left open as windows) or storage silos for grain or other foodstuffs.

A word of warning though -  this plastic leaves very sharp edges!

More dungeon adventures with the Scouts...

Sunday was one of our regular Scout Games Days.  Several Scouts of varying ages descended into my latest dungeon.  Warriors includes "Honeydew" the Dwarven Trollslayer (presumably the name is what made him so angry...), "74 Hour Amed" the master of swords (Pratchett readers will realise that this should have been 7 Hour Ahmed!), Mandreu the halfling, "Elfy" the Elf and finally "Majestic Butter Squirrel" the wizard.  Needless to say, much chaotic slayage of monsters ensued, the Scouts proving far easier to lure into traps than the regular crowd from the wargames club!

"Honeydew" the dwarf trollslayer takes on 4 goblins and 2 orcs.

The halfling thief confronts a goblin.

"74 Hour Amed" (should be Ahmed) the master of swords is set upon by a goblin and a skeleton.

Honeydew the trollslayer shortly before he was hacked to pieces and eaten,.

One of several bodies discovered in the dungeon (with useful equipment!)

Dark Elf and wizard prepare to fight a beastman.

The dungeon proved to be so popular that I had to run it twice, so my carefully prepared "Escape from Zombietown" game (using USE ME 15mm.co.uk rules) will have to keep until next time!

Mad Mecha Guy buildings

 I ordered these buildings from Mad Mecha Guy some months ago but they were packed away ready for my Birthday.  The service was fantastic as usual - I received an e-mail the day after I ordered to say that everything had been freshly cut and was about to go in the post.

This will be a fast food takeaway with entrance and exit doors.

I've already reviewed the watch towers (I had a couple of them before the rest were packed away) so here are some photographs of the shop units.  This is just the basic paint job, they're not finished yet, they need some weathering and additional details.  Several flat walls are crying out for some posters or notices and the odd vent or ducting.  They come with 2 designs of roof, tiled and panelled.  I've left them as they came but it would be easy to add extra detail by sticking a sheet of textured plasticard on top.  There are loads of different combinations of walls you can use.

I've smoothed over the interlocking cut corners with filler.  Rather than use water, I've used paints to mix up the filler, this seems to give a better texture for application and sands to a good finish.  I've used Wilko emulsion tester pots which I've found to give excellent coverage.  Each building received a couple of coats of white MDF sealant, then a very gentle sand with a fine grade foam sanding block.  After wiping off the sanding dust (I just use a big, soft brush) I've followed this with a couple of coats of my chosen colour, again sanding between coats.  This gives a nice smooth finish and helps conceal any grainy or fibrous texture from the MDF.

There are a number of other web sites out there with nice examples of painted buildings from MMG, my two favourite so far are Marja's Miniature Adventures and Dropship Horizon.

 

Here are a few of the storage containers I got in the same order.  These are fantastic value, just what I need for filling up table space with large objects to provide cover.  I've assembled some with the doors open, these can act as objectives for certain scenarios.

Armoured Transport part 5

 Progress on my APCs has slowed to a halt while I try (and fail) to find the stencils I was going to try and use for their camo scheme.  In the meantime here are a few pictures of them in their Vallejo reflective green base coat.  They look rather scuffed at the moment, probably need another coat - and they've been gathering dust and bits of fluff for a couple of months now!  Treadplates, tyres and lower hull areas had a splash of brown paint before I roughly applied the green, this has left dirty patches in the nooks and crannies where ingrained dirt will have collected.

APCs on parade.  What a scruffy bunch.

A little bit of stowage added to the back.

Modified Scimitar turret.

Missile pod from Mechwarrior clicky tank.

But wait!  What's that rumbling noise...

Reinforcements arrive.

Yes, it's another 4 APCs plus a load more vehicles, courtesy of e-bay and the local model railway shop. 

Oh dear - another land mine victim?

Time to get the plasticard out for some more conversions!