Update for the Quar.

As I said in my last blog update, I've added more stuff to my quar.  Some of these were new vehicles.  I purchased a couple more of the Trucks of Yesteryear line off of Ebay. The first truck I made into an ambulance. This is a 1919 Walker Electric Truck. It seemed to fit the look quite nicely. I gave it a repaint to match my Atkinson steam wagon and printed out a couple Red Cross symbols. I just need to make up a couple medic figures to go with it and its off to the field hospital.

The second truck I picked up is a 1922 Foden C-Type Steam Wagon. This truck I didn't paint, as I liked the color of the model. I did give it a coat of matt sealer to make it not so shiny. Unfortunately the coat clouded over on the plastic parts. However it gave it a dirty, gritty look to it, so I figured it was better to leave it alone. The one nice thing about this truck is the canvas canopy is removable. So I can put troops or supplies in the back depending on the scenario.

One of the things I came up with for our games were blood markers. I took red felt, cut them in circles and then cut irregular shapes out of them. We use these to signify when someone is "Out of Action"  or "Killed". When a figure is out of action, we place the figure on top of the blood. If the figure was killed, we place the blood on top.  Or if its a gory death.... Well we just throw a lot of them around......

We have also been getting terrain together for our games. JoAnnes had some neat "Pot Toppers" which worked well for overgrown termite mounds.

I also made a number of bases from some hex blanks I had. In JoAnnes floral department they had some small pine cones that I turned into a cactus like plant. Since we are redoing the new house, I have tons of spackle and joint compound laying around. I covered each hex with stucco texture. Added a few rocks here or there and painted them.

I added some flock then attached the cones. I tried using a new glue I had only used on fabric before. It is called Tacky glue, made by Aleene's. I have to say it worked amazingly well. It certainly works as the name implies. Its very tacky. It almost feels like its partially cured as well. I'm not sure if that is what causes the tackiness or not. But I like how it worked. I globbed some on the base of the cone, and stuck it to the base.  It didn't move from where I placed it. In the past I know using elmers glue, I would have had to prop it in place to keep it from falling over. The tacky glue held every one I put down. No muss, no fuss.

I recently made a new house as well. But I will need to get some pictures to  throw up. But here are some more pics from our last game.





http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c372/Usrivoy/Quar/

Talk soon,
Scott

Carving rocks

My friend Jim gave me some  terrain boards which are too big and bulky for my taste.

So I'm cannibalizing them to make hills and other terrain features which are easier to store.

My friend Dave has asked me to show him how I carve rocks in terrain boards. So I figured I would throw up a quick little tutorial. I'm just using some cut off to show how its done. I will warn you as it does get a little messy.

The basic tools I use are......

• Zip Knife
• Stiff Brass Brush
• Soft Brass Brush

So to make Sandstone or Limestone you start off making horizontal cuts along your foam using the zip knife. You then make a couple vertical or angled cuts against the grain.

 
Using the heavy wire brush you rub it along the horizontal to start removing the foam. Once you have a basic shape you use the softer brush to make the detail. If needed go back to the zip knife to make some more cuts. When you done this is what it should look like.

Once your happy with the look. Its just a matter of painting. I used a yellow ochre base followed by two lighter drybrushes. And this is the final effect.

To make shale or slate, you use the same basic steps but change the direction of the scoring. Your deeper scores will be on an angle with some lighter cuts perpendicular to the deep cuts.

Using the same brush technique as before you score the foam in the direction of the deep cuts. Followed again by the lighter brush to shape the rock. You can always add more cuts to change up the look. Also shale unlike sandstone breaks into small pieces, so run the soft brush on the perpendicular to create small breaks in the foam.

A simple coat of black with a couple drybrushes of grey. And you get.....

The key too is to look for colors that more closely match rock. I've used dark grey for the base color up to slate blue.

The final type is Granite or some other base rock. This is basically done with nothing but the zip knife. Start buy making cuts in every direction along the length of the foam. Some deeper than others.

Once you have your cuts, open the zip knife all the way and rub the blade across the foam. Don't be gentle, but don't snap the foam. ( like I did....) Keep working it until you have an uneven surface. Again, making cuts and rubbing as you go. Finally you end up with.....

I did a quick black prime with a couple drybrushes of grey and light brown.. But you get the idea....

I hope this offers some ideas for you to work on. Its easy to do and gives a nice appearence on terrain when you want a stone face on a mountain or something.

See ya.
Scott

Termite mounds

Hi Folks,

Keeping with the recent rash of terrain projects I've got going, I figured I'd throw up the latest one. My wife and I made a killing the other day at our local Michaels store. Much of the stock was marked at a discount for the holidays plus they have their normal coupons in the local paper. So we headed over and I went on a walkabout. I picked up a number of craft paints for $.79 as well as some odds and ends.

Nurgledeathmonkey over on the Zombiesmith forum posted picuters of some awesome termite mounds he built for his table. Inspiring me, I thought I would give it a go. While I was at Michaels, I saw a number of foam cones in the florist section. They ranged in price from $2 - $4. But with the coupons and stuff I figured I would grab some.

These are the hard white foam with the course texture. They had the green florist foam, but I've never had luck with that stuff. So I grabed a zip knife and began cutting out chunks from the foam. Once I had a rough shape, I sanded down any rough edges left on the foam. Then I just gave it a quick brush off to get any pieces sticking to the cone. Note to self: This stuff is very staticy and will cling to everything......

Once the cones were shaped I took some drywall spackle I had and mixed it with water. I didn't thin it down to much as I needed it to stick to the cones. Think soft toothpaste..... Wearing latex gloves I grabbed a bunch of the spackle in my hand and coated the cone. I didn't try to remove all of the rough texture just coat it. Once the entire piece was coated I set it down to dry. Once they were dry, I did the same paint technique I used on the Jakdul piece. I started with a mustard acrylic paint I had. (similar to German Panzer Yellow.) I then used the Krylon textured paint and sprayed an uneven coat. Once that was dry I drybrushed some buff paint over the top. Here is what they look like with some figures.....

They were fun to make. Not a lot of difficult steps. I plan on making some more now that I have seen how they look. I may get a little more involved in the process as far as how they look. I will also look at smaller sizes as well. These are pretty big even for 28mm.

Hope you like,

Scott

Jakdul

So what do you do when your snowed in. Make desert terrain......

As I said in my last post I enjoyed playing in a Sudan game put on by my friend Dave. During the game my friend Tom asked if I could make a set piece of terrain for an upcoming game he wants to play. He asked if I could create a piece of terrain to represent the Wells of Jakdul.

During the War in the Sudan, Jakdul was a hidden group of wells half way between El Deb and Khartoum. The British would go on to fortify these wells to use as a base for keeping their stores. At the time, the british forces didn't have enough camels to transport both supplies and men. So they would bring some of both half way and return for the rest. Once everything was in place off they would go.

So for constructing Jakdul, Tom had requsted something about 12" around. It just so happened I had a piece of pink foam board that size laying around. Taking that and a bunch of foam chunks I had laying around I began building the base. At the time I also had a can of "Great Foam". So I thought I would try it to see how it would work as a binder and filler for the gaps. In hindsight, I would suggest not using it. Basically the density of the foam is too soft compared to the pink board and is more the consistency of a firm sponge than foam. So after placing the blocks I began carving out the rock structure with a zip knife. Once the structure was carved to what I liked I made a mix of ballast that I glued to the foam.

Once the ballast was dry, I made mistake number two. I painted the whole model with Gesso, thinking it would seal the foam for my next step. I was wrong. But heres what happened. I started spraying the gesso'ed foam with a golden yellow spray paint. I immediately saw the foam was melting. The gesso didn't seal it good enough. So I switched to a similar color acrylic paint I had and covered the whole thing. Once that was dry I hit it with a beige Flek Stone paint. Mistake number three. Even with two separate coats of acrylic paint the foam still melted. Strong stuff I guess. So after that, the detail I carved was gone, but there was different details in its place.

So this was the final effect. It looks good but the resulting shrinkage of the foam opened up all of the seams a bit. I gave it a quick drybrush to make the detail pop a bit as well as distinguish the sandy areas opposed to the rock. I showed Tom who liked it but asked for a little more in the sand area. I made a mix of ballast again and glued it down where the sand would be. I then gave the whole thing a heavy drybrush to lighten it up. I also added some elmers white glue to the water area at the base of the mountain. This is still drying at the time of the picture as you can see the white in the photo. The great thing is it will be clear when totally dry and show the base color underneath.

Overall I'm happy with it. I think it will look good on the table with figures on it. I learned a couple things regarding my construction choices, but all in all, its all good.

Hope you like,
Scott

Trash to something......

As gamers we are always looking for things we can turn into tabletop terrain. It just so happened I found some at work. As I was leaving, my friend Tom picked up some clear plastic forms that were laying in the trash. And as our usual response said "we can make something out of that...."

Tom recently picked up some 15mm Hammers Slammers from Old Crow and GZG. So we have been talking about ideas for terrain. So yesterday I grabbed one and threw some paint on it.

Here is the plastic form as we found it.
I trimmed away the extra crap around the edge and cut off a area that had the plastic rating symbol pressed into it. I sprayed the whole thing black with a can of Krylon Fusion and let dry. I have a bunch of vinyl lying for my vinyl cutter, so I cut thin strips to be used as windows. Painters tape or masking tape would work as well.

I placed them around the form where I thought windows would be. I then sprayed the whole thing with Krylon Stone Texture paint. Just a note, we are used to spraying from 8 to 12" from the target. It works much better if you are 12 to 16" with the stone paint. Once dry I pulled the vinyl off, and the black paint showed through. Here is the finished product.


I finished with some flock and static grass. I then took some pastel chalks I have lying around and did a hard highlite on the edges of the building. I also used some to darkened the ground that shows through the flock. It was quick and dirty, but I think it looks cool. On the next one I will use a bunch of greeblies. Probably a radar dish or something.

Hope you like it.