And also....

Forgot to post this last picture of some unarmed colonists from GZG-you might as well have the full bundle!

Okay, relax now and go and watch the rugby.

My (over) ambitious terrain project and more.....

Hi All. Having made up some terrain pieces on MDF hexagons from Warbases, I was consumed with the idea of making a lot of them to slot together in varying configurations to make complete warboards (not an original idea, I know). Suffice to say, as they are only 70mm across, I would certainly need plenty of them, and my available time doesn't stretch to that. ~Therefore I decided to use them in my original way, as scatter terrain on my aged but trusty 2'X2' Terrain tiles purchased just after the Boer War(!) Furthermore, I have decided not to beat myself up about the standard-I see many blogs with games played on beautiful integrated terrain, and I get disatisfied with my own efforts. From now on though, I'm going to be happy to settle for 'representative' rather than 'realistic'. Life's too short to stress about it. With that in mind, here's a few pictures (dodgy camera work) of some of my most recent dabblings-

 

Top picture-trees from K & M I believe-another purchase from way back. The 'mini mesa' is a cut down polystyrene hexagon from another terrain system and cork rocks. The lower picture has some less convincing trees made from plastic aquarium plants (Spacejacker had a great tip on his blog about adding paint to PVA glue to make it stick to the plastic, but I only had a cursory attempt), and a toxic pool surrounded by cork rocks again. I try and leave just a little margin of untextured surface around the bases to ensure they butt up to each other properly.

Finally, some barrels from The Scene along with some of their barbed wire and a small ruin made from foam card and not a lot else!

Now just some pictures of minis to add-I've painted a reasonable number recently, but not posted any for a while, so they're coming along all in one hit-stay awake, there's only several dozen.....well, that may be an exaggeration.

Some more OUDF with 'boonie' hats to add to my earlier efforts

Oh yes, here are the others....late on parade. Minis from GZG of course.

Cyborgs from The Scene-a simple coat of natural steel (Vallejo70864), black wash, and drybrushed with the steel again. A quick and easy fix, but possibly lacking some imagination. I could have made the effort to paint in some flesh on the head, like the minis on their website, but I'm reasonably happy with these.

 

And here's another with a considerably gaudier paint job. Again, an idea stolen from one of you out there-thanks very much, and I apologise!

My first attempt at Khurasan minis, and I just love these! The colour scheme was one I pinched from Allison over at the Painting Agency, this time with his blessing! They are nowhere near as good as his, but I still love 'em!

And here's a few more. I've got the latest release in the draw waiting their turn, but it will be a while.

And finally, you'll be pleased to know if you've stayed the course, a little GZG Hammers Slammers skimmer, just to round off proceedings.

Sorry you had to have them all in one go, but as we all know, life gets in the way of hobbies!

Thanks to all of you out there for the inspiration and ideas, keep going, or else who will I have to plagiarise? (Not sure if that is spelled correctly, or even if it's in context-it's for stealing writing, innit?)

Armies Army Minis

Morning everyone! The weekend has arrived, and with it a package of minis from Armies Army. It has been interesting following this story, and now I have got the minis in my sticky mitts, I'm glad I did. I haven't taken any pictures as they are available to see on the ArmiesArmy blog, plus which my photography is poor (next time I shall ask my son to take pictures-he's got a posh camera and some ability!). Anyhow, suffice it to say, I'm extremely pleased with the minis,10 to a pack, so just right for a squad in several rule systems as far as I can tell (obviously with some adaption of makeup), comprising of riflemen, SAWs and a rocket launcher. Ideal, as probably has been indicated elsewhere, as a near future force, say post apocalyptic, or something a bit further on but perhaps slightly lo-tech. Personally, I shall include them as a faction in a rebel force-they look suitably hard done by, and out for revenge! I hope to get some paint slapped on asap, as I can't believe they will stay low down in the pecking order of unpainted lead (or pewter or whatever). If you like minis, and we all do, go get some!

OUDF from GZG

Having just finished a few figures, I thought I would just put them up on the blog. I painted them in a different colour scheme previously, favouring the scheme from Mini Metal Mayhem, but I didn't achieve the same effect, so it was a quick bath in acetone, and a re-think. I realise from reading posts from other bloggers that the secret of 15mm mini painting is high contrast, so I'm not sure if this has been sufficiently done. Still, I quite like the colours! These haven't been varnished yet, as I always find that stage diminishes the result. I gloss varnish with a brush, then spray varnish with GW's Purity Seal-anybody got an opinion on that, please? Please excuse the photography-not the wold's best! The shadow in the front is obviously the lens! Finally, a picture of a very simple paint job on one of GZG's VTOL craft. I wanted to get the red/gold sunglasses effect on the windows, but decided I quite liked the gold on its own.

Picure a bit dark again-apologies!

I received an order from The Scene today-3 new minis in the Special Forces Range-a prone sniper, a rifleman with UGL attachment on the weapon, and a figure with a Missile launcher/bazooka type thing. Like all of Mike's minis, very nice indeed! I also bought some of his new buildings-pics when I have painted them to an acceptable standard.

New Greens!

I'm just getting on the bandwagon with Spacejacker and others to promote these new greens from Armies Army. They look well sculpted with good detail and weapons that could pass muster in the near future as well as the far. Let's try and get these minis into production!

Belated Seasons Greetings!

I know, too late, sorry guys. Anyhow, best wishes to all bloggers out there, especially those who have stumbled across my faltering blog. I haven't had much chance to post anything recently due to a  brush with the enemy within-a sneaky little dose of cancer-but that's all done now, hurrah!

Before Christmas, inspired by Spacejacker's excellent post about scenery based on cds, I bought some of GZG's little shacks and shamelessly copied the painting style of the aforementioned. Sorry Spacejacker, but they say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery! I decided against the cds in the end, mostly because the smaller bases (from Warbases) give me a little more flexibility when using a smaller gaming board.

I have finally discovered the benefits of using washes-something I haven't bothered with in the past-and they do help to weather things down successfully. I know this is old hat to most of you, but I'm a relative novice, particularly at this scale.

I particularly enjoyed this one. I don't know if the second rate photography picks it up, but I used an old untidily cast 'dune buggy' from...well it doesn't matter where from, but using Mig pigments, it rusted up quite well! What isn't shown on the picture is the sheets of corrugated iron leaning up against the wreck, rusted up good and proper again!

Here's the last one, complete with a GZG Tech. Rocks made from chunks of cork which to my mind look reasonably convincing.
I have also been making a few pieces of scatter terrain once again using mdf bases from Warbases, but this time on hexagons-I quite like the idea of slotting them neatly together to form some dense areas of rocks, foliage etc.

Once again, rocks made from cork pieces that I bought from Atenociti (I think). It was only about £5 for a good sized tub of chunks of varying size, and a GZG UNSC figure with head conversion. I recently made a big mistake trying to spray matt varnish on to figures, overdid it and now they look like they have a seasonal covering of frost!
So, many thanks to all of you out there who have given me food for thought, especially Spacejacker, the guys at Dropship Horizon, Paul from Mini Metal Mayhem, and all the others whose blogs I follow regularly.

I have a host of new toys arriving in the New Year bought with Christmas swag-buildings from Critical Mass Games, vehicles from Old Crow, minis from Khurasan and the Scene, and a copy of 5150 Star Army-can't wait!

Happy New (Gaming) Year!

At last-a new post!

 First picture is a scratch built abode made from foam card and coated with quick drying Polyfilla. A bit rough, but only a first attempt. Next pictures are the Special Forces range from The Scene-these are pre-varnish pics, because they never seem to be quite as nice once I have gloss then matt varnished them! Very nice figures to paint-plenty of detail and clean castings.

 Here is the 'Arnie' figure from the set-obviously not from Predator (we wouldn't like to upset any franchises!)

 My, I do like powerful guns, and this one will do nicely.......

 .....and grenade launchers-what can I say?

 Here is an Old Crow Gecko with a head conversion figure from GZG, gloss varnished, but not matt. I think I may have made an error by adding the MIG dirt pigment before spraying with matt varnish, but I'll soon find out.

 These two minis are from the Critical Mass Games Mercenaries range (I think). Once again, excellent minis with crisp detail and clean casts. I love the Cyborg figure, and again, big gun!

 Last, but by no means least, some of GZG's most excellent UNSC troopers- Jon produces a fantastic range of 15mm figures and vehicles as we all know and his service is seldom less than fantastic-thanks Jon. I've had a little dabble with some green stuff and wire to alter a couple of these. Some of it is a bit ham-fisted, but I can identify the squad weaponsa little easier. These have had their gloss coat, and are awaiting the matt one, and then the addition of some static grass. I used to use the loose stuff from various manufacturers, but on a bog that I follow (it was the Gruntz blog I think) I came across the 'pre-clumped' stuff from miniNatur, which I bought from Atenociti's

website.

I have been purchasing a lot of things recently, and would recommend all of the above companies for service and quality. I also found a company called SnMStuff, where I got the MIG pigments, and some Vallejo paints. Their service was excellent too, so I must give them a mention, and sorry to any I have missed out! Apologies, this is becoming an awards ceremony!
I must confess to pinching the colour scheme for the UNSC from Spacejacker, from his wonderful blog, and a little from Bug Man's blog. I'm a bit short on imagination, so why not learn from the masters?