Hills For Sale

Just wanted to give you an example of the hills I am making and selling both through here and at Lancaster Board and Sword.

Here is a few of the selection of hills I'm producing. As you can imagine there is not going to be a fixed shape or size as these are handmade.

Once these are completed then I will be bulk building a few outcrops and linear terrain. This first selection of hills is my desert range - although they also fit in quite nicely with my Southern Italy/Sicily based Fallschirmjager.

The minis you see are from Warlord games and are a range of plastic and metal miniatures. There seems to be a good range of places that they can stand - an issue with a lot of hills I have witnessed.

If you have any requests for either a listed product or something you'd like on commission then please contact me here.

North West Nerd Gaming Supplies

Just to show all the new things I have had a go at this year. I'm also officially putting myself out there for commission and scenery work.

Rommel Updates

I've not had much opportunity to get out to game recently but I'm really motivated to be modelling at the moment. As such I've decided to make myself a Rommel playkit which can be transported easily including scenery, baseboard and minis. I've no pictures for you today so you'll have to use your imagination for now.

I picked Rommel as the grid format reduces things I need to transport as well as meaning that I have a Rommel setup for the future without having to mark it out each time. I have decided to have a play at making desert scenery which I hope to make available soon at Board and Sword and online. There are also a large amount of scenarios on Sam Mustafa's website for the desert.

For the board I have taken two 2'x4' sheets of mdf and hinged them together. I then marked 4" squares across them and I've painted these using various shades of sand from tester pots. I may need to remark my grid, for most scenarios I won't need the entirety of the board but its a good space that I can always cover in a green cloth to play Bolt action etc upon.

For hills I have made some small tokens using polystyrene and filler. I finished by coating in my black paint and PVA mix, overbrushing yellow and sprinkling with sand. I also made a few with rock faces (having a play with cork boulders for first time).

I lied - I found a picture

For minis, I am going to be using some counters for now - however I cam looking at getting some armies made up using either 6mm or 3mm - whichever is the more cost effective. I'd love suggestions on this - specifically for desert usage as I am going to continue using my 10mm collection for NWE and Eastern front.

So hopefully I'm going to catalogue everything I have made this year over next couple of days. If anyone likes what they then see and would like some then contact me and I can see what I can do. If you live in North Lancashire then we can arrange to meet up and you can see my samples in the flesh.

Playing with Resin

Its been a while thanks to changes at home, new job and lack of computer (phone won't upload photos). However I've been doing bits here and there, and having recently been introduced to Luke's APS videos on youtube, I've had inspiration to try a few new things.

Having done a few outcrops using polystyrene and filler, I thought I'd give water effects a go. I couldn't find the two tube stuff in my local pound shops so ended up going to B&Q and getting some 2 part resin by Diall. It was a bit more expensive and I wouldn't recommend it but it was ok for a one off.

You get 2 tubes (one the resin and the other the hardener) as well as a small tray and stirring stick.

I wouldn't use the tray again mind, its too shallow to be able to stir it well and I could not get rid of the air bubbles.

The test piece I made was a small pond using polystyrene as an outcrop, sticks and prodigious amounts of hot glue for the shape and then fillered. I completed the texturing completely before applying the resin.

As I mixed the resin it did produce a silvery quality which others have mentioned so I was fairly happy it had activated but the bubbles as stated would not go.

This picture makes it look worse than it is and I will add another pour to fill it a little more.

I wanted to try the resin neat to see how it would work but I will add a little nail polish remover next time to allow it to run a bit better - it took a while to find its level by which point it had dried. 

Its currently at home drying so I'll update you all tonight or tomorrow morning to let you know how it goes.

Everything That's Happened

I've more models to show including the Prussian Army of Frederick the Great as well as a few more Frostgrave minis. These will be on here soon along with the below village tiles when completed.

In the meanwhile I haven't played many wargames but myself and JT have a got a new boardgame couple in HanDan. Been playing a few goodies which we haven't been able to just between us such as Battlestar Galactica - bit of a brain spin for JT. Game of Thrones as gone down well and the mechanics are good - only issue is that by trying to stay true to the books/series - its made an uneven game.

Finally last night we had a quick run through of Lobositz - removing a few models and shrinking the battlefield. AE played Austrians and DB assisted me running the Prussians. It was like hitting my head against a brick wall - sunken roads are really powerful and Alex just kept subbing units in whenever I caused a minor breakthrough. The historical set up shouldn't be so bad as I'd shrunk the battlefield significantly which allowed the Austrians to gather tight and be a very difficult force to break.

One query I have for anyone who's done V&B for Seven Years War - is most cavalry supposed to be Linear or massed - they seemed really weak last night - other than the Austrian Horse Grenadiers who destroyed everything in front of them.

To come, more pictures, hopefully a game of Rommel next week and some more board game adventures!

Terrain Tiles

So having discussed a super secret project with my friend DW, we have discussed the potential to make a large quantity of terrain tiles (once its announced I will be letting you all know exactly what is going on!). With a back and forth about what he wants etc I have come up with following pros and cons etc.

Table Setup: 6' x 4' with modular terrain (standard table size)

2 feet square vs 1 feet square:

• 1' is obviously more flexible in terms of arranging your terrain in different layouts. 
• 2' gives you more flexibility as to where your terrain leaves the table. You always want it to be the same place on each tile so they match up and gives you the flexibility of deployment. In a 1' tile you should probably put the leave points in the middle especially if cutting down as the strength of the tile will be compromised. Whilst on a 2' tile you could put it at 6", 8" or 12" (the middle) away from the edge). Having said that you would still need to leave at midpoints to achieve maximum flexibility.
• Cost; 1 2' tile is a lot cheaper than 4 1' tiles.
• Edges; when building if you have a full woodshop you can make edge guards out of wood - obviously this is cheaper when making 2' tiles as less edges. I don't have the capacity to do this so I just put the polystyrene up to the edge and papier mache. The only problem is that this creates some shrinkage away from the bases and therefore slight gaps when putting tiles together. This is an increased problem when you have more, smaller tiles.
• Storage; may be easier to store 1' tiles, there again 2' tiles have less edges so less chance of damage. This really depends on what your storage is like.
• Weight;  obviously the 2' tile is heavier (and bulkier) so more difficult to move around the space. However this means they should be less susceptible to movement on table.

Looking at all this I'd advise 2 feet squares. I would also only put terrain to cross board edges when there is a physical depression (trench tiles, rivers, gorges etc).

The only other feature that would cross board edges would be large hills - either with set crossing points or as a terrace (cliff) - I think this could lead to some really fun designs with waterfalls.

Significant hills should probably be terraced (With smoother edges) - this makes it a lot easier to join edges across boards as well as reducing issues with figures falling over and for rules which use heights is a lot more quantifiable.

Other terrain we can build to sit on top of this could be other linear features such as roads, fences etc or area templates (woods).

With regards to depth of the tile it would be the depth of the wood base and then about 1" of polystyrene.

Frostgrave Scenery Update

Months ago when I ordered my bases for my Seven Years War and WW2 things I also ordered some larger bases to make scenery for 28mm (ruins), mostly for Frostgrave. I'm experimenting with these at moment but I've already decided that I definitely want to make a few more. This is where I'm up to so far:

This one will have a reasonably significant bit of flooring in the far taller corner.

The black painted one in the background is the one shown previously but painted with its undercoat.

Part Painted Thug for scale

The walls are stuck with lots and lots of PVA - I'm not bothered about drips as I'm going to texture the bases anyway.

Pringles!

This one will have to be well painted to cover the bright colours - but then it isn't as thick anyway so probably needs it anyway for some rigidity. This one is going to have 2 partial floors (just enough to stand on) and some remnants of stairs (using lollipop sticks).

This final one is at a slightly later stage with filler added to texture and represent rubble. It also has a partial floor (with a small window to shoot from).

I want to make a few more unique buildings: religious building, fountains, pillars,

I also have played a couple of games of X-Wing with the missus. Was enjoyed; quick start game was stupidly quick and the second with full rules (and boosting up to 32 points) was really long with Luke combined with R2-D2 being seemingly impossible to shoot down. Going to buy another ship each: probably a Y-Wing and a TIE Interceptor to add to the fun - unless others have better suggestions?

Update (August 2016)

So I've painted all sorts of bits and bobs but aren't really massively moving forward with any. Really need to pick just one and paint that. Having said that - I've no actual planned games in near future so I guess its more about enjoyment at the moment.

To give you an idea of how disorganised my painting is at the moment I have painted the following in the last few weeks.

• Soviet 10mm Armour
• Soviet Heavy Mortars and HMGs
• German 10mm Armour
• 2 Prussian SYW Cavalry Regiments
• My Gronn Flamme Warband for Frostgrave

1st Prussian Hussars

Both my seven years war cavalry and my warband still need their based doing as I'm undecided how to do them (hence why their pictures have "snow" bases presently. As such their official posts will come when these are done.

And now I have got back to scenery. I've got plans for a few different things for my Frostgrave terrains and once I really get into it I'm going to start mass manufacture to sell a few I think. Here's my first (single storey) ruin's walls.

I will also be making towers, columns, archways, wells and larger buildings until I can cover a table. I'm going to make them fairly generic so that I can use them for other periods (Stalingrad perhaps or Skirmishes in Hue for my Tour of Darkness campaign).

What Is Next?

Following D&D last Friday, I'm now trying to work out what is next. I have a few bits I could do both for myself as well as to clear some space.

• Finish WW2 Germans that I have
• Paint up my 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade.
• 6mm Prussian 7YW
• Falklands War Paratroopers
• Vietnam War
• Frostgrave
• Dystopian Wars Prussian Forces (Will be for sale)
• Masses of 1/72 Plastic Napoleonics (For Sale)
• Mass of Plastic WW2 Kits
• 20" Square Trench Tile for 28mm

So what do people think? I want to clear space especially of the stuff at my parents house and raise enough cash to complete my own forces and put towards a few other bits. So if anyone has any of this on a wishlist let me know as well as any other projects you don't have time to complete especially scenery. This also applies to other models or crafting projects as well as research for orbats.

Similarly if anyone has a good idea of how I can advertise myself then advise would be gratefully received.

British WW2 Gliders

So finally getting around to indexing my current troops.

Gliders

First of all here are my scratch built gliders for my British Airborne Division. Just a few matchsticks glued together, cut to shape make the glider itself.

Horsas

Painted all in black then the top half was painted in dark green. This was followed with the brown before the white stripes were added. Finally I retouched up the black and added the black stripes on the white.

Hamilcar

The models I feel are effective if not perfectly accurate. I use these for gaming with my 10mm models, although they are probably closer to 6mm or even smaller. I will eventually post the orbat but for more information on the Horsa and Hamilcar Gliders please click on the names.

Next time; 1st Brigade