After taking last week off, club members have struggled out of the holiday slump with details of what they have been working on (there’s actually a lot going on but the club members are being hopeless at taking pictures!)
First up Marcus’ son has been trying a bit of miniature painting. We think these sci-fi troopers are a very good start.
Next up Marcus is going to teach a bit of dry brushing
Then Sean surprised us with pictures of his 6mm Viking raiders. These most definitely look the part, even more so when we learnt the ships are actually paper models.
Vikings on Tour!
And lastly for this week, I’ve done some more work on the pieces of plasterboard I acquired (ahem) with a wash of black paint to give that real ruined look.
First of the painted ruin pieces
Hopefully the club will continue coming up with projects in 2021.
Sometimes I do worry about us miniature wargamers. Faced with the challenges of everyday life, their outlook can be slightly different to the non-hobbyist.
Recently there was a crashing sound and on investigation the utility room ceiling was no more. There were plaster board fragments everywhere. Dealing with reality first I cleaned the area up and started looking for someone to repair the damage.
Remains of the Ceiling and Collected Detritus
Not the sort of expense I wanted (but quite fitting given how 2020 was), however during the clean up operation I kept picking up bits of rubble and thinking how the chunks of plaster reminded me of concrete.
Proof of Concept
Before you could say “how much!” to the plasterer, I’d put together a proof of concept to turn the plaster fragments, into rubble for my 28mm troopers to fight over.
But I paused at this point when someone pointed out that old plasterboard could contain Asbestos! Well regardless of using the plasterboard for scenery I still had to tidy up my utility room. So I sent a sample off to be tested which came back as negative. So please do be cautious if you’re thinking of doing a similar project as this.
The plaster board rubble was very weak and dusty so I used a genuine DIY tip and painted the plaster with a watered down PVA glue solution to seal it. This made the plaster more like concrete and stopped it from crumbling while being handled.
Glue Gun to Stick it Together then more PVA
A lot of the rubble still had all the layers attached to it which I left in place to make it even more authentic looking. In the pictures I’ve done nothing but glue the pieces together and coated everything in a second layer of PVA glue.
These pieces have become very solid and are still very light, as light as resin would be. As you can imagine I have quite a lot of material to work with and so will be returning to the blog with an update on building an entire destroyed settlement.
Phil takes us down memory lane with his introduction to toy soldiers.
We’ve been feeling rather nostalgic here at the club recently – swapping stories of our early wargaming experiences and lamenting the numerous model and toy soldier shops that have fallen by the wayside.
Many of our tales seem to start with the phrase “I had a lot of Airfix soldiers when I was a child” and I was certainly no exception to this. I had loads of them – WW1, WW2, Cowboys, Indians and ACW. The HO/OO Assault sets and the 1/32 Combat Packs with the firing pillboxes.
But it is the four boxes of 1/32 Napoleonic soldiers that stand out from the rest for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, they were all painted. I was given them for my 8th or 9th birthday but before then my mother had spent hours painting them. They were all lined up on the dining table waiting for when I woke up that day.
Second, I kept the boxes. I’m not sure if it was a conscious decision, but I do remember from an early age being impressed with the artwork on them – probably the best toy soldier boxes ever designed. They’re a bit dog-eared, paint marked and have a few other dubious stains, but they all managed to survive for well over forty years.
A house move last year suddenly presented me with a lot more wall space for hanging pictures. So, I decided to dig out the boxes and give them a better life than languishing in the loft. A quick trip to my local picture framing shop and they now have pride of place on my dining room wall. A permanent reminder of those halcyon days.
And the little chaps themselves? They are still here – battered and missing paint but still ready to serve king or emperor as appropriate.
During this holiday period we still have a bit of progress being made by club members.
John continues building up his Zona Alpha city with some more progress on the warehouse.
A roof and windows next for the warehouse
But John has also teased us with the beginning of construction on a mill/ironworks.
The beginning of the iron works
Feeling like I should also be making stuff, I’ve turned to that icon of art and crafts, the egg box.
Finally doing something with an egg box
Despite looking like some sort of sci-fi power station I’ve never bothered to use egg boxes for fear that on the tabletop they still look like egg boxes. But having used this one over the holiday period I felt I should see what I can do. It was a box of 15 eggs so avoids the dozen/half dozen look. But lets see what I can do with it.
And finally Steve has almost finished his new Dwarven army most likely to be used with the Dragon Rampant rules.
Just a couple of units to go
That’s it for 2020’s WIP Wednesdays. Let’s see what 2021 projects the club members can come up with.
This week Steve puts us all to shame with his continued hobby output.
First up he has already finished painting up his dwarves and heavy support in the form of a giant bear.
He’s behind you!
And out of the blue he has also found time to make himself a neat dice box. Bought for just £2 from the shop ‘The Works’, Steve created some compartments and a tray insert.
You can never have enough dice.
Next up John’s Zona Alfa city continues to expand with the start of a new warehouse. I’m sure this will look as good as the previous office block.
A warehouse for the Zona Alfa city
And finally I’ve started the plastering stage for my 15mm Tudor style buildings for Wars of the Roses games. As per my normal method they are made from EVA foam with the wood beams cut from coffee stirrers.
Tudor buildings soon to echo with the clash of swords and arrows
I thought I’d go for bathroom sealant to plaster in between the beams but it’s a nightmare so will need a rethink as I have seven buildings to do.
Given the current lockdown status we may well have another WIP post next week.
The club is definitely slowing down production as we approach the Christmas Holidays. And quite right given this year, although I suspect a few hobby related presents might see a resurgence in the new year.
First up Mark has made more progress with his Panzers.
More panzers get the camouflage treatment
And out of the blue mark also mentioned starting to slap some paint on a hundred years war project.
The English start to assemble
Steve shared this picture of a dwarven force on the painting table, but there was no mention of last weeks 6mm sci-fi force. After saying he had nothing to paint it seems Steve is queuing the projects up.
Meanwhile I’ve been busy using some old rock style clay I had for rubble piles. After using the hot glue gun to stick them together I coated the whole thing with PVA glue.
Air Drying Clay, left to dry and broken up for industrial style rubble
I’ve also resurrected my old 10mm dungeon to finally finish the project.
One half of the 10mm Dungeon
Slightly embarrassing that this project was started 17 years ago! Still made some progress at last.
Jeremey adds more ‘real’ trees to make a Petrified Forest.
After building my large spooky dead tree , well I say building but it was more like nature built it and I just based it. I also took a dozen or so other cuttings from the dead bush to use as trees in a Dead or Petrified Forest.
Additional dead branches to act as trees
I started by basing these in exactly the same way as the large tree I did. A round wooden base appropriate to the size of the stick with a metal washer stuck on top to provide some weight. I’ve started to add weight to a lot of my terrain projects. It helps to stop taller pieces from being constantly knocked over during games.
Using the hot glue gun I then stuck a piece of the dead bush to each base and covered the whole base with the coloured bathroom sealant mix. If you saw my other post about the large tree you will remember I mixed far too much of the sealant, so it was useful to have these additional trees to base.
Just a bit of dry brushing and some flock
Once the base material had dried I dry brushed it with two other lighter brown colours to give some contrast. While I had the paint brushes out I also used a watered down solution of brown ink wash to go over all the freshly snapped of parts to make the wood look like it had been broken for a long while. The appearance of fresh sap wood is a dead give away, just ask any experienced tracker … ahem I then added a bit of flock and a few grass tuffs for good measure.
The cheapest dead forest you will see this year
Here is a wider shot of the whole forest complete with a unit on patrol. I’ve put them on my lighter desert mat but they go just as well on the grass one and I have some darker brown mat pieces to put the trees on to define an area of forest in games. Although I will also put these on my swamp mat as they look just the part for those areas you see in fantasy films were rising water as killed the trees, sort of the forest of doom or swamp of despair.
It was troopers and gaming aids for this Wednesday.
Steve finally managed to get around to rebasing some troopers, as Steve himself says “A while ago I decided to strip and re-paint some EM4 plastic colonial marines. I also cut away the old guns and bought some replacements.
EM4 Plastic Troopers with Weapon Swaps
John L has also been painting troopers in the form of a group of Spetsnaz he actually won in a Zona Alfa competition.
Footsore America Spetsnaz
And finally this week Tony F has created for himself some stat trackers for Lord of the Rings.
Lord of the Rings Stat Trackers
Tony explains these far better than I could: “I’ve made some gaming aids for Lord of the Rings games; these are stats trackers to record the special abilities of heroes and commanders using small D6. The original was 3D printed and then I’ve made moulds and cast them up in resin. The lettering and army badges are raised to make them easy to paint. I’ve painted some in appropriate colours for each army, and I’ve painted the ‘W’ for Wounds in red to differentiate it from the ‘W’ for Will (the other stats are Might and Fate).”
It will be interesting to see how these work. Tony is still looking at how to add the heroes name to the tracker.
I’ll be the first to admit, I treat my paintbrushes very badly. I buy cheap and hammer them until they are no longer usable. It’s a bad habit that I really need to change.
Then while glancing through YouTube I came across a video on repairing brushes on a a Channel called Midwinter Minis and thought I should really give that a go. Fellow club members had mentioned ways to clean brushes before but I needed something for poorly treated ones.
The first surprise was in digging out all my paint brushes I discovered no less than 57! This is what they looked like.
The Used and Abused of the Paintbrush World
The method for cleaning was very simple, first was to apply some washing up liquid. While doing this stage I started off just swishing the paintbrush in the liquid but then found myself massaging the liquid into the brush more which seemed to work better.
Washing Up Liquid then Hot Water and Vinegar, Finally Drying on a Cloth
Then the brushes are put into boiling water that contains vinegar to wash off the soap. Finally to then dry the brush by drawing it across a cloth. While doing this I rotated the brush to help a new point form.
Before and After Using this Technique
I took a before and after photo of a selection of my brushes to see if this cleaning method made any difference. As you can see I had a degree of success with this. I managed to get a good point on quite a few of the brushes while for others it made absolutely no difference.
I’m being somewhat unfair with the flat brush in the middle as it did clean up nicely, but there were still lots of bristles that didn’t straighten.
Rescued at least Half of my Brushes
The end result was at least half of my brushes improving back to a point or close to. The technique did also suggest using a hair wax to get a point but I didn’t have any of that (or hair!), but I might revisit that idea at some point.
Here’s hoping cleaning my brushes will restore my lost painting mojo at the moment.
Another Wednesday and the club has picked up the pace again.
First up Steve has a real mixed bag, starting off with some dinosaurs originally intended for a Valley of Gwanji type game. Then we have some Templars.
Templars for Outremer
and finally after bemoaning a lack of miniatures to paint Steve presented the start of a new 6mm sci-fi force from Brigade Models.
New 6mm army on the way
Next we have Marcus making some progress on some more Dreadball miniatures.
Nemion Spheres team
In a rare display of what’s on his workbench Phil shows us the start of a rather substantial burial mound in the works.
The start of a huge burial mound
Any finally a bit more paint daubing from Andy on his assortment of Dark Ages miniatures.
Bit of colour for the Dark Ages
Good to see progress continuing and new projects starting. Which reminds me I need to get back to that dungeon I’ve been putting off for 17 years!
Firstly, they were all painted. I was given them for my 8th or 9th birthday but before then my mother had spent hours painting them. They were all lined up on the dining table waiting for when I woke up that day.
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