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

Some new Quar

Hi Folks,

I recently picked up some new units for my Quar. I decided to pick up a couple Royalist that I can have available for a game. I also picked up a couple more Crusaders that I intend to load up as Veteran / Assault troops.

So enough yapping on to the pics.....


First up is the Upper Barro House Guard. The house guards are rarely far from the royal family. But when needed they fall out to provide support to the troops. They have a distinctive Green and Tan uniform based on the royal colors.

Next is the Upper Barro Royal Marines. A major part of Upper Barros history is steeped in nautical lore. Generations have fished the kelp beds off of the Barro shores. And the Royal Navy protected the rich kelp beds from poachers. Now the Royal Navy works to keep open the flow of supplies to the royal family held up on their island fortress of the southeastern shore of Upper Barro.

 

 

And here they are together on patrol.

  

I also threw together an objective marker for giggles. I used bits from the Quar accessory pack along with some crates I had laying around. You always need something to fight over.

 As always I have a blast when I paint these figures. The detail on the models are fantastic, and the open environment in the game itself lets you really play with ideas and background stories.


More to come,
Scott

I'm still alive.....

Hi Folks,

Yup, I'm still alive. Its funny. I created this blog to give me some inspiration to work on projects in the hopes of posting them on here. The grand irony is I have so many going on, I don't have time to post them. And I'm one of those people that doesn't feel right just posting without something to offer.

So what has been going on. I picked up a huge lot of figs from my friend Tom. I grabbed from him the Battlefront 3rd Canadian box set, plus extras. I also picked up his Germans. It's a mix of HG Division as well as Fallshirmjager. The Jagers will go well with my current lot and fill out a nice sized company with assets. The Canadians will probably end up as generic Brits, or XXX Corps. for Market Garden. I've painted all the vehicles. I just need to take pics.

I ordered another batch of Quar from Zombiesmith. This time it was the Royalists. I wanted to make some additional troops for the SOA skirmish game. I have a couple painted as test figs. I also picked up more of the 15's to fill out my army. I also picked up some of the accessory packs and I am thinking of using some of the rifles and packs for objective markers.

The big thing that has been taking my time is the WW2 hobby. This coming weekend is the Ostfront event that I coordinate with the 272nd Fusiliers. I have recreated the battlefield map from scratch and have been working on scenario ideas with my cohort. Along with that I have been sewing like a fool putting my Oberleutnant uniform. It just dawned on me, I have been to an event every month so far this year..... I must be nuts.

I recently picked up a BC-611 Handy Talky for my displays as well as a Magnetic powered phone. I already have a EE-8 Field phone and these two will make a nice field communications display. If only I could afford a BC-1000 I'd be all set.

I've played some Wings of War which I find is a nice break from reality. Though the gang hates the way I have a tendency to pull all 1's and zeros for damage....

After this weekend, I'll try and get some photos up.

See ya,

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

Busy, Busy, Busy........

Hey Folks,

So lets see whats been going on. Actually quite a bit.

My friend Tom and I just finished our third game of an ongoing Battlefleet Gothic campaign. We have tried to do this for years with other friends, but as we all know getting everyones schedules to match are nigh impossible. However, Tom and I work together and have half days off on Fridays. We got with Travis from our local gaming store and scored Fridays for ourselves to game. So we have actually played 4 games, the first as a primmer to reacquaint ourselves to the rules, and the last three actually as part of the campaign. And as usual I forget to bring my camera. I tried to take some pics with my camera but they were terrible. Next time bring camera! Of the three games we have run the Convoy scenario, Blockade Run, and Cruiser Clash. As to the score, I have amassed 15 renown, with Tom getting 7. If your not familiar with the game, the higher the renown the better your choices become during the game. And the weird thing is you don't have to win the scenario to get renown. But the system is actually quite interesting.

The day after Thanksgiving my friend Dave had his annual game at his house. We played a Sudan game based on the Battle of Ginis. I had a very enjoyable time. Not because my Fuzzies ran ruff-shot over my opponent, but it was a laid back fun time. I controlled the far right wing of the army, and pretty much pushed the British far left back and into the center. By then the British Cavalry was threatening my flank so I had to pull back into a better position. It actually turned into the typical battlefield dance with the battle being fought 90 degrees from how it started. The rules we used were written by a friend of ours called Victoria's Battles. They were available for sale, but the last time I talked with Frank he was redoing the base set to include all the Victorian elements. There are actually 4 different versions of the rules at the moment. This game also lead my friend Tom asking me to build something I will put on the next post.

I've also been putting a bunch of woodland scenic trees together. I must say I'd rather just buy the pre-made trees in the bag. Building them from the kits is a pain in the butt. And it seems to take forever. Maybe its just me.

I've also been working on some stuff for my Quar. Both the 15's and my 28's. That will be coming up in a couple posts too.

Well off to make more stuff. We'll see you in the next post.

Scott

The 19th Borderers grows.....

Hi Folks,

As you know I received a batch of Quar for my birthday. After painting those I needed some more, so.... I ordered some recruits. I purchased the Crusader Command pack, Light MG team as well as the Shotgun team and Mortar team. I have to say I am amazed at the bits of detail on these models. Everywhere you look on them there is something more to find. One of the models I received was the Crusader cook. At the time he wasn't listed on the Zombiesmith site so I was a little surprised when he arrived. Not that I was disappointed, as it is a great figure.

Just a little side note on these figures. These are the first figures I have exclusively done with the "Magic Wash" or "Dip". I have used ink washes before but usually only for 15mm or smaller. The thought of doing larger figures always kind of intimidated me.

So I had been reading up on the various recipes and figured I would give it a try for 28mm. I created a batch of wash using a 1-4 ratio. Meaning, 1 part Future to 4 parts water. I actually created a large batch of the "base" and then parceled it out to smaller containers to try different colors in. The wash I used for these was a black ink base I made from inks I had sitting around. Basically I slowly added black ink and stirred until the wash was a good opaque color.

The figures were block painted in their primary colors. I have Vallejo paints for my WW2 stuff so I used them for these as well. For the most part they are all only 5 colors not including skin and details. I then either dipped or brushed on the wash and let sit to dry. I did notice the brushed on wash didn't "run" as well as the dipped. But the effect is basically the same. Once dry they were sprayed with Krylon Matt spray and based.

So on to the pics.....

Caertan Traddyn
The Light Machine Gun Team. Gunners



Cookie


Pyk Pyk Handler Guffudd
The 19th's unit Musician Karddor and Ryfler Brych

The Mortar Team

Heavy Shotgun Team

And the 19th moves out for another patrol.....

Hope you like,

Thanks
Scott