A Town in Ruins

Phase two of the ruined buildings continues with the addition of sand and gravel to the piles of bricks around the outer edges of each structure.  Once again, this is as much about adding some strength as it is visual.

I worked my way all around each building.  Another extra touch could be a larger pile of brick/debris in a doorway, blocking the path of troops.  This would give even more character to the building, making it tougher to get inside, but also a touch easier to defend!

To make the partial upper floors, I cut some pieces of the thin foam to size, which would then be covered with wood texture.

I had some balsa wood, which was cut into strips of various widths.

While I worked on the individual floors, the buildings themselves could dry and cure.  You can see that I have positioned the first floor section on one of them.

I didn't get too crazy with the placement of the floor boards.  Yes, I could have gotten more fancy, but they are supposed to be more rural structures, which have also been pretty well blasted apart! :-)

Also, I took some broken boards (probably the remains of roof joists), and placed those on the floor.  I tried to make interesting piles, but kept them as low profile as possible so that miniatures would not have a hard time standing on them.

I repeated this process on the ground floor as well.  Since this covered more area, you can see that I tried to make more board sections.  However, this part of the building is going to be far less visible, so I had to remember not to spend too much time putting in small details which might never be seen.

If you recall from the earlier images, I had wanted to make a blocked entrance.  A pile of boards was a very fast, very effective way to do just that!

Here's a scene with all the buildings and the floor sections.  I modified them slightly once I realized that it would be wise to make them removeable.  Once we tried them out in a test game, that decision proved to be exactly right!

I have a series of images showing them with a touch of paint, together with some road sections which were made at the same time.  Hopefully these articles will prove to be handy for you!

Houses in a Hurry

Just like I needed the Lorriane transports in a rush... and the 105mm howitzer... a host of terrain was needed for our weekend test of Bolt Action.

While Dan was providing the intact buildings and forests, we needed ruined buildings and roads.  This post will focus on the buildings.

The supplies are very simple.  Thin pink foam, glue, and oxide paste!

The first step was to take some measurements and generate some simple building shapes.  These were designed to reflect the structures that Dan was providing.  My original building was 'intact', which meant that I could make ruins of various levels of destruction. :-)

I cut out each wall, making sure to vary the heights as much as possible.  This creates interesting sight lines, and even makes some parts of the buildings more vulnerable than others, or less desirable for firing positions.

Since they are ruined, I wanted to show how they might have gotten that way.  I might still add some "small arms fire" divots, but the larger shell holes were the most important.  I was even tempted to make some major blast holes in the wall for additional firing points.

Four walls ready to go!  As you will see, it's important to make the heights line up.

To glue them together, I used a bit of Elmer's glue, and some blue painter's tape.  The tape would hold things in place as the glue dried.  I could cover the tape with oxide paste, which was going to be applied for texture anyway.

You can see the walls set up nicely.  These will be very strong for the comparatively delicate construction.

This view makes it clear how there will be multiple exposed levels.  Only one portion of the building will have the second floor available for firing positions.

To add some quick detail to the outer walls, I cut up strips of the leftover pink foam into small bricks.  These would double as reinforcement of the walls too.  I used some oxide paste and glue to give myself a decent material for attaching the bricks.

I tried to place them as randomly as possible, even creating small piles where I could.  Eventually I want to make larger piles, which could be placed outside the buildings for infantry to use as cover, or even to hinder movement.

Stay tuned for more scratch built super cheap items!!!!

Slogging through the mud

Prior to my next battle of Flames of War, I realized that I was going to need two things.  Heavy duty (and mobile) anti-air support, and mobility for my infantry!

I thought that a solution presented itself in the form of the Lorraine Carrier.  It is an armored transport, which also has two crew fired AA machine guns!  These can also be used against ground targets.

Since they are two part vehicles, they needed to go on a stand.  As an added bonus, they would look much neater on a road, and I could magnetize the bottom more easily!

For this task, I combined the black lava paste and the usual red oxide.  The black lava provides more structural support for the off road sections, leaving the softer, smoother red oxide paste to create the ruts in the dirt roads.

I also like to mix in some Elmer's glue for a few reasons.  It thins out the paste just a touch, making it easier to apply, and the rocks and gravel tend to stick much more firmly.

You can see that I did the two corners with a few stray pieces of cork, which were covered with the black lava.  The cork pieces would make a good base for a few pieces of tree branches.

This set of images shows the ruts in the road, strategically placed for the carrier... matching the width of the treads.

I had so much fun making these, I am almost tempted to do all of my vehicles this way!  I added the last of my broken artillery wheels off to the sides of the roads.

To speed up the process (yes, time was a MAJOR issue), I mixed a little of the black and red together to 'paint' the undersides of all the transports.

The trees on the side of the road gave the vehicles a sense of size and scale, and created more of a vignette as well.  Once these are painted, and all the rest of the foliage applied, it should be quite a scene!

I have been saving some artificial tree foliage for many years, just for something like this.  It is a little too small for 28mm, which is why it has been set aside for almost 11 years... but it's ideal for 15mm Flames or War scale. :-)

Oh yeah, did I mention that I scratch built all ten of the Lorraine Carriers?  Yes indeed!  Sorry there are no WIP images of them, but I was in a rush.  These are made from junk. Not kidding.

I used left over pieces of pink foam, plasticard, polystyrene tubing, and even paper!

I covered most of the rougher areas of the cut pink foam with the card stock that are in the blisters of every type of miniature that you get these days.  It made a very hand (and free!) building material.

Since super glue melts pink foam, I had to be very careful about what kind of piece was glued to what.  It takes a lot longer for the Elmer's glue to dry, and the super glue does have a much stronger hold.

I will make the trailer sections later when I have the time, for the moment, I did a few trailers, which would house the command stands or other special weapons.

Another concern about the materials used was the potential for warping and tearing them apart with aggressive brush strokes.  This seemed to be just the right time to test out the new Badger Air brush (the basic Patriot)!

It was a good choice, as I didn't damage them at all, and I was able to do my shaded basecoat phase with great speed on all ten of the vehicles.

You will be seeing these in an upcoming battle report, and the finished versions will also appear on these pages.  Stay tuned!!

Ancient History

You have seen me post a few articles on the Green Stuff World texture rollers already, with runes, knotwork designs, and many other very handy basing themes!

This time, you will see an all new texture, a Greek/mosaic tile.

I will be using the extra firm grey sculpey once again.

I used the clear roller to set up the sculpey sheet.  I will be trying out a few thicknesses with this roller.  Normally I use my clay extruder (AKA pasta machine) to roll out a thin sheet, but I also wanted to try out a thicker sheet.

I attempted to make the sheet be as similar in width to the roller, so that I could pick up as much of the fantastic textures as possible.

Depending on how long you make the sheet, the more repeat textures you will get.  Eventually, I want to make some kind of runners to keep the roller moving evenly.  For now, I simply wanted to see what the texture looked like!

This was another sheet that was rolled.  You must remember to either cool the sculpey first, or use the firm variety.  That keeps the roller from 'tearing' the sheet, or carrying it along with the roller.

This piece is about 2.5 times as thick as the previous sheet.

It did make it easier to get a nice deep texture.  Plus, I won't have to put this sheet on to a piece of cork or something similar to give it the extra strength.

Here's a few sheets that I pressed and baked.

As always, bake the sculpey on some kind of ceramic tile!  The metal baking sheets transfer too much heat to the sculpey.

I will try to make you another post with the first bases made with this new texture!  Stay tuned.

A link to Green Stuff World:

http://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/51-textured-rolling-pins

Somua Surge!

This newest armored edition to the Bolt Action French force was very fun to paint!  After painting so many versions of this tank for Flames of War, it was very nice to have the additional details that the 28mm scale (or close proximity) provided.

I have to admit, it was pretty interesting to use the exact same colors on something that was so much bigger!  It certainly made the freehand a lot easier!

I did avail myself of the use of a few Secret Weapon weathering powders on the treads, exhaust pipes and a few other elements.  Using the sealer medium to create a watercolor style wash, I could get the rust and dust to settle into crevices without the need for a spray coating to hold in the goodness.

Since this was larger, the tank commander figure was a real treat to paint!  Darn those one man turret rules!!!  The bane of my existence.

The view from above shows a little of the soot and scorching that was applied to the vents.

The parade ground view!!

One more look... and then perhaps on to the battlefield.  Or perhaps not, if the Char Bis is completed first. ;-)  Stay tuned!

The Lion Heart

This is a figure that I have been itching to show off for a long time.  He is from a line of miniatures created for Demigods Evolution, a strategy board game.

There are a host of fantastic characters, from a variety of races and creatures.

This impressive character is The Protector, for obvious reasons.  I have done a few unboxing posts on these figures, and those illustrate the weapon options that are typically available for each figure.

For example, I could have gone with a shield in each arm, or weapons in both hands.  There are often different weapons for the same arm, creating even more options and choices.

I did something slightly different with the snow on this base.  First, it gave me the opportunity to try out the Gamer's Grass winter shrubs.  Second, I modified the Secret Weapon products that I normally use for snow.

In addition to the usual crushed glass and realistic water mix, I added the white powder which is normally used to create mud mixtures.  This gave the snow an even more brilliant white appearance.  It was helpful on the more thinned down areas on the small branches and even on the figure itself.

I absolutely LOVED the lion motif on this, and the back of the cloak was incredibly fun to paint!

Each character has a significant back story, which I will pass along to you in the next post.  You can see more of the fantastic miniatures on their facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/DemigodsRising/

This image shows you how large he is!  He certainly towers over all his enemies!!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/322133669796?