A new Realm of Basing

The other day I finally got a chance to work with some of the other sheets of sculpey that I had pressed with the Green Stuff World Texture rollers.  I have already done a few articles on these, but this time I have the new Mosaic tile texture!!

To keep things relatively simple, I am staying with the tried and true cork and sculpey sheet combo.  I begin with breaking up a typical sheet of thin cork, which will support the sculpey.  

As you can see, there are only overhangs in certain spots.  This is done for aesthetic purposes, but also practical gaming concerns.  When I only have a few areas that stick out, it means that figures can still get into base to base contact if necessary.

That extra bit of cork also means that I can show off a little more texture from the sculpey sheets too... not to mention any figure that also has a wider footprint.

The sheets are broken up into smaller pieces, roughly the shape of the cork.  From there, I take a clippers to it and snip off some of the overhang.  An exacto knife can be used to make some broken texture to the edges.

While I love the Celtic texture... I was itching to try the mosaic tile!  I have my own technique for painting these, but having the texture sheets like these will make multibasing armies a lot easier.

Look at the edges of these two bases.  You can see how a little bit of broken texture was carved from the edges with that exacto knife.

The pieces of sculpey are glued in place, and now they are ready for the final stage, which is adding the gravel and sand.

I never toss any of my smaller chunks, as they can be used to fill in splits in the sheets like the base on the left.  They can also be set off to the side of the main piece, to look like a section has broken off, etc.

A collection of mosaic bases ready for sand and gravel too!

If you don't want to have the layer of cork underneath, you can simply make the sculpey sheet thicker.  The one on the right is about twice as thick as the sheet I rolled on the left.

In addition, adding pieces of statuary is one more wonderful element that can be added to these mosaic style bases.

The entire batch has set up, and now the big finish...

A bit of elmer's glue will be used to secure the sand and gravel to the edges.  I have heavy gravel, light, and sand.

The heaviest gravel is placed first, followed by the medium, and then finally the sand.  Not only does this add a touch of realism to these floors, but it strengthens them as well.

 I make sure to glue the gravel and sand to the underside of any 'overhangs', where the sculpey sheet is not directly supported by the cork.

The extra firm grey sculpey is a lot stronger than the regular white sculpey, but it is always best to provide that extra bit of strength.

A new set of bases complete, and ready for painting!!!!

Stay tuned for more on the painting... and then maybe we will put minis on them!!

The Hero

While I have been working on all my standard French infantry figures, the Senegalese are among the most important.  As we have now played a few games, it has become clear that you need at least one unit that can get into a building and dig out some enemy buggers.

This is one of the few elite options for doing so.  Right now I only have a standard unit of ten, but it would be nice to have the option of larger units or to have two of them.

The uniforms are very similar to the usual French infantry overcoat, but the backpack and other gear are a little different.

It might be fun to get some of the Perry Brothers desert theme WW1 versions and try those out!

So here we have the second Senegalese completed!  The rest are in progress, and you will be seeing them all right here... stay tuned!

The Nations go to War!

Now that I have gotten some of the Bosses and heavy support completed for the Dark Nation, I wanted to contrast them with their former bretheren... the Warrior Nation

I have The Wendigo heavy support from the Dark Nation on the right, while the Great Elk, brims with the natural energies of the Great Spirit.

Great heroes of the Warrior Nation such as Geronimo and Sitting Bull face off against Big Horn and Avacano.  Right away, you can see that the Dark Nation have chosen to adopt the weapons of The Enemy, powered by the hated RJ-1027 power source.

Use of such a power source corrupts completely.  Each of the characters from the Dark Nation shows this corruption in one form or another.

Sitting Bull and Big Horn square off in these images.  

Geronimo will never use the RJ powered weaponry, choosing his own claws and his courage instead.  This is seen as foolhardy by the Dark Nation.  To turn the weapon of The Enemy against him can only mean ultimate victory!

It's not just great warriors, heroes and beasts that have turned against on another.  Yes, even the braves and scalpers have become divided.

This conflict will likely grow far worse, and far more deadly!  Stay tuned to find out what happens...

Fire and Chaos

This 30mm scale figure is part of the Demigods Awakening line.  Like nearly every figure in the line, multiple options are available for weapons, etc.

On some of the figures, I have seen as many as 3 different options just for one weapon arm!

I had to go with the shield option on this figure, because I really liked the design.  It was not too complex, but the shapes were nicely defined, and that made it so easy to paint!

That kind of shard detail has made all of these Demigods figures very enjoyable to paint.  When you have to fight certain parts of a figure that lack such detail, the fun factor drops dramatically!

When you do have detail like this, your attention can be focused more in interesting effects and subtle color changes.

Lately I have started placing grass and foliage tufts near sources of light, in order to put a bit of OSL on them.  I have been very pleased with the extra touch something like that adds!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hand-Painted-Miniature-Role-Play-Chaos-Lord-Paladin-Fighter-D-D-Unreleased-/322174432931?

The Sorceress Club

Since group shots are always interesting, I thought I would snap a few of the Sandra Garrity sorceress club!

It's very exclusive, of course.  You must have a fancy cloak, a staff... or at least a glowing dragon spell!

These ladies are all on the original "broccoli bases", which have been covered up with tree bark, oxide paste... sand and gravel.

I tried to keep all of the colors in the same 'family', with variations on the purples, teals, blues, and so on.

The foliage tufts are from Hangar 18 and Gamer's Grass.  Happy 4th of July!!!

The Experiments Continue...

While this is not actually a Bolt Action vehicle, this was an experiment for future German vehicle projects.  This is actually a 20mm, 1/72 scale tank hunter.

I wanted to see how some of my foliage might work in the future on a larger scale vehicle.  I have some Panzer 4's which will get a few different color schemes.

One of these will be a later war type of chia pet scheme.  When I do the "real" tank, there are other types of foliage which I will use on other areas of the tank.  These would be individual leaves that have clustered and piled into areas between the armor skirts, and other horizontal surfaces.

I employed some Secret Weapon weathering powders on this vehicle.  In fact, almost 80% of the surface is covered in them!  I could not find my usual spray on Testors Dullcoate to seal all these pigments, so I had to turn to a last ditch alternative.

I have a few containers of Secret Weapon pigment fixer, which is designed to seal those powders in place.  However, I had only used this material while applying the pigments simultaneously.  In this case, I would be applying it like a wash over the whole thing.  I wasn't sure what would happen... would I literally wipe away the powders that I had been applying, or streak them, etc.?  We would find out.

As it turned out, it went perfectly.  None of the powders were wiped away, and no crazy sheen was created.  Also, the pigment didn't change at all, another concern that I had.

That is a very important piece of knowledge for all the future vehicles and even infantry which I have planned for the future.  

The coin next to the vehicle reveals that this tank must be 1/72 scale.  It was one of the toy tanks that I had discovered at Little Wars last month.  I thought it was just the right kind of experimental subject, and it worked out that way.

So, stay tuned for future blog posts on those German Tanks!!