Trees, and time for close ups!

As I continue with my Donnybrook project, along side this I'm also working on building and painting/modelling wargaming terrain and scenery - playing catch up after butterflying between projects for the last 20 years, and not really getting anywhere in all that time! Last summer, I built my terrain boards, I've been working on some buildings, and 'fluff' (see the last post), and finally, I've got round to making and basing up some trees, items which  are just about essential on many wargaming  tables, in one form or another.

Somewhere in Spain.....this is more a 'Birch' type tree, with lighter foliage and bark.

 

Inspired by an excellent article in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy, I bought some plastic tree frames made by Woodland Scenics, and some of their foliage clump packs - Medium green and light green shades. The tree frames were cleaned up, and flash scraped off, then the tree limbs and branches were twisted into place. I then painted the tree sprues up using the Wargames Foundry Granite No.31 triad, or WF Granite No 31 c shade, which were then drybrushed with pale grey up to white, for a more 'silver birch' type tree.   The trees were glued to 60mm circular bases, from Warbases, and based up in my usual manner, leaving off the static grass and foliage, and given a coat of matt varnish.

The first of the two trees, with a Foundry Rifleman painted up as a bugler of the 5/6oth Royal American Rifles for scale

Next came the fun bit! Gluing on the foliage took a while - selecting clumps, and sticking them on with super glue, but the process is worth it! These clumps were 'sealed' with diluted PVA, to prevent the loosest of pieces from falling off, and when the glue was dry, I then applied the final grass and base foliage. The ultimate question is, is it worth it? Well, each tree (and so far I've made 3 of these out of a pack of twelve) has taken about 3 hours to make. But they have cost just over £2 each to make, and for unique trees, I don't think this is too bad.

Frenchies lurking somewhere in the trees!

 

Along side these bits of timber, there's also a Games Workshop 'style' tree, that I bought at the Derby show last autumn. This has been based up in the same manner, and adds a bit of variety. I've also had a try at making my own trees, out of twisted wire, but these aren't finished yet, and are for a future post.

My 'Silver Birch' type tree, and the GW tree.

I've also been messing about with lighting and my camera phone, trying out close-ups and so forth. I think some of these have worked, so watch this space for future pics of Donnybrook stuff! I'm now at the point where I can finish off my NMA faction Musketeers, so see you soon!



I think the fusilier on the right realised the camera was pointing at him! French infantry advance.... a future project....

Donnybrook Diaries.....making ground!

Hello again - It's been a while, but I've gone to ground because......I've been making ground! Well, terrain to be specific. About three months of the last year has been taken up by making terrain boards; an afternoon here, a couple of hours there, it all adds up. But now, after twenty or so years of being interested in this hobby, I'm now the proud owner of two large terrain boards, that give me a war gaming table measuring 4 feet by 4 feet.

The boards are made out of MDF board, with timber battens along the edges, then this was filled in with polystyrene sheet. Inspiration came from many sources, but was especially drawn from Gary Chalk's excellent series of articles in Wargames Illustrated, way back in the dim and distant past. Lots of sand and PVA glue, filler, a polystyrene hot wire cutter, varnish, emulsion paint mixed up at my local DIY store to match commercially bought model paint, towelling (inspired by Dave Andrews' beautiful terrain boards), static grass, reeds and bushes from various modelling shops.....the list goes on, in terms of what I have used. But the end results have been worth it. The bridge is from Hovels, and is a permanent
fixture.

 Ideas for the layout of the roads and the river, have come specifically from Clarence Harrison's excellent Quindia Studios website. Clarence has a guide on there about making his own terrain boards, and I wanted to make mine flexible, and adaptable, just like his. Although the bridge is fixed, I can use this particular board from the Mediaeval period, right up to the present day, which suits me just fine. I will eventually do another river board, which will feature a wooden bridge, which I will use for all my pre-Mediaeval games, but that is a way into the future. I like the idea of having a fixed bridge, as for me, the look of war gaming terrain is almost as important as the flexibility, and this just looks 'right'. There is also a ford located further down stream, which I'm sure will be used in some of my games.

 The colours of the board have been mixed to match GW's Steel Legion Drab as a base coat, then the 'Sand' no. 10 triad, from Wargames Foundry. This has a mid-tone to it, allowing terrain ranging from Europe, north and south, all the way to the United States, to be portrayed. Eventually over the next few years, I'll be building up collections for the American War of Independence, ACW, Peninsular War, as well as continuing with my Donnybrook ECW project, amongst others. So here I've got a random selection of buildings - Spanish and European - on display, and my first completed bases for my League of Augsburg period French force. That will be making a bigger appearance next year, but this year's aim is to complete my Donnybrook forces. I'll leave you with a few more snaps of the boards, as now it's time to crack on with some actual figure painting! These boards have taken up a LOT of time over the last few months, but I'm just a tad happy with them. It's definitely been worth it. Next year will see a 'hill' board being made (I'll play with the hot wire cutter again!), but for now, it's on to the important business of figure painting. See you far sooner than last time!

Donnybrook Diaries.....Part 4

Hello all. Just over a week ago, I started on my 'Donnybrook Diaries', and I wanted to let people know about the progress since the last post. Well, not so much painting, but lots of 'admin' type of stuff going on!

 

Here's a couple of bases that a friend cut out for me on a bench saw, then I sanded them down. They are for some Hudson & Allen Highland buildings, that I picked up at the Vapnartak Wargaming show, a few years ago. The models are available from the US, via Vatican Enterprises. http://www.wargamescenics.com/products.html

Here you can see them glued on to the bases with the hot glue gun, and looking mighty fine as well! I can't wait to paint these up, and they'll fit in with the Highland/Scottish theatre for my games very nicely. Last Saturday saw the family popping over to the 'Hammerhead' show, at the Newark Showground. It was the first time the event was held there, moving from its traditional location of Kelham Hall, and having visited both venues, I have to say I quite liked the new location. Apart from the fact that it was a little crowded, the whole atmosphere of the show was very pleasant, and I picked up one or two bits and bobs.......Dave Thomas saw some of my money, and I bought the last of my Scots forces - some mounted dragoons, and some more musketeers and pikemen - and this now means that both of my Donnybrook factions are complete, ready to be painted. Good times indeed! I also bought some barrels from Ainsty Castings, for scenery purposes, some more round bases from Warbases, and a whole bucket load of dice from Coritani....... realising that I was desperately short of D12's, D10's and D8's.....kinda essential for Donnybrook!! I got a little bit anal over these, and purchased enough of each dice, both in red AND blue, different coloursfor each side. Think the other half was very bemused by this.......

 

 

Here are the buildings all based up, ready for some paint.

 

 I've also slapped on some more paint onto the New Model Army pikemen, as you can see, so hopefully they'll be on their way soon.

 

Finally, I had a go at making a trial 'Reload' marker, following on from the success of the activation cards. A 4 cm diameter circular base from Warbases, with 'Reload' printed onto the same background as the cards, then covered over with Sellotape and stuck onto the base. This was then covered in the usual sand and PVA glue mix, painted up and flocked with static grass. The finishing touch was some off-white soft toy stuffing to act as smoke. I quite like this, so I'll make some more for each 'firing' unit in my Donnybrook factions ( including characters), and also some 'Shaken' markers as well, maybe with casualty figures, or abandoned equipment on them. Again, maybe a touch too much, but I like 'em! I can also use these for other rules sets. Right, I'm off..... until my next post. By the way...... it involved unpainted figures and dodgy half finished crude terrain, but I've had my first games of Donnybrook!!!....... don't tell anyone else, and I might just share my thoughts next time.....let's just say I had fun!!

Walls!! (and not a sausage in sight......)

As promised, some pictures of the wall section I have recently made. It's about 5 inches (12cm) long, and made entirely of cardboard, on a plasticard base. I was inspired by an article in Wargames Illustrated ( I forget which issue, but it was the one with the Crimean War theme), which featured the amazing work of Dave Andrews. Dave has a name 'well known' in the wargaming world, not just for his work at Games Workshop, but for painting, model making and sculpting with more 'historical' subjects. Dave's work has always inspired me, right from my first view of his figures and terrain in the 'Shieldwall' supplement for the Warhammer Ancient Battles rules. I'd always liked his work and especially his terrain - including the walls - and I've often wondered how to make them. Up until now, I've either used brick walls from Hovels, or resin walls I've picked up from conventions, then repainted. But a close up view of the walls made for Dave's Crimean War table, showcasing the new range of Crimean figures from Great War Miniatures, suggested that I could make them out of cardboard. So armed with some sharp scissors, a load of cardboard off-cuts, and some PVA glue, I set to.

 

The card is quite thick, just over 2mm, and each piece is about 12 mm long by 7-8mm wide. I then cut off random angles at the corners, and then layered them up on the plasticard base, (about 5 rows) supergluing the first layer to the plastic. I then used pieces slightly wider and curved at the top as coping stones, glued at slightly different angles, to show wear and age. When this whole construction was dry, I coated the wall in a slightly watered down PVA and sand mix, to add a bit of texture, and then let that dry as well. The painting was done using Games Workshop's Scorched Brown (I'm not sure what the new name is after the recent alteration to their paint range) as a base coat, liberally applied to all the niches, crevices and corners; then a range of creams and buffs and browns, gradually getting lighter. I'll post up the exact colours (mainly Foundry paints) another time, when I get my card index back (see previous posts!....) The base is sand and PVA, painted with my usual combination of GW paints, then static grass, Woodland Scenics bushes, and grass tufts courtesy of Antenociti's Workshop. A balsa wood fence post, painted up with dark greys (sun bleached wood), completes the whole thing. I eventually hope to make a few more of these sections, as despite using over 100 'stones' of card, and taking almost 2 hours to do, it's been well worth it. Hopefully even the maestro Dave Andrews would approve! Until next time, tootly pip!! ( Swiss on the paint rack tonight - watch this space.....)

 

Peninsular Architecture.. and some voltigeurs!

Here are some of my French Napoleonics again - this time with added Voltigeurs! Two of the chaps have been done so far, and the next two have been started, but have been packed away with the house cleaning mentioned in my last post etc. Hopefully they will be done soon! When I have them all done, I'll post some more details on paints used and colour schemes etc, but safe to say it's a mix of Foundry and Games Workshop colours. Figures are Foundry (naturally!), and the buildings are from Hovels 'Spanish' or Peninsular War range.The two buildings are H11 Double three storey house with ornate balcony (without the balcony!) and H13 Taverna with arched porch. You might spot some cut up bits of the door mat that makes up the wheatfield, that I've added to the stable interior at the back of the Taverna. This was mixed in with PVA glue and added on to the floor of the building. The paint scheme for the buildings eludes me at the moment, as I have packed away my card files, but I have to say as a wargamer, make a record of paints or combinations of colours you use! It's saved me much heartache over the years, as I can refer back to colour mixes that I've tried. Only problem is, that like much of my stuff, it's temporarily in storage!

On another note, I've started on my Impetus armies - work on some Swiss Handgunners began on Monday night. Hopefully next time, I'll have some pics! See you soon!!

 

 

Back again!

Well, it's been a while - a scarily long time to be honest, and the plan to update this blog every two weeks or so has fallen very definitely by the wayside! 'Real life' (TM), redundancy threats, and car accidents have transpired to stop some painting progress, but hopefully we're back on track now, and the job is safe, we have a new car, and the holidays are here! Things haven't been totally quiet though, with scenery being the focus over the last few weeks. I've also started work on the Comte de Tescaux' Regiment - with their off -white, blue and red uniforms. The test figure for this regiment is on the left.
First up though, is a Hudson and Allen barn, which I picked up a few years ago at the Vapnartak show in York. Sharp-eyed viewers might remember it from earlier posts. Eagle-eyed viewers will spot that I didn't show the base off in earlier posts, for the simple reason that it wasn't done! Now it is, and it can be shown in it's full glory. Also on view are some of the dry stone walls from Coritani miniatures, which I've collected at both the Derby and Partizan shows over the last year or so.
My recipe for basing is fairly simple - after the standard diluted PVA glue and sand/small gravel mix, it's all painted using Games Workshop paints. I start off with Scorched Brown as a base coat, then dry brush up in successive layers Dark Flesh, Bestial Brown, Bubonic Brown, then a final drybrush of Bleached Bone. This is a recipe I picked up a few years ago in White Dwarf, and it works well. All my figure bases for 'European' theatres are painted like this, and the edges of figure and building bases are painted with GW Graveyard Earth. Rocks are either left in their 'drybrushed' state or are painted a mix of greys, washed with GW Badab Black wash, then dry brushed up with Foundry's Arctic Grey 33A tone. The walls started off already pre-static grassed when I bought them, so this was stripped off with warm water and a scourer - be gentle! Then they were undercoated in black, then drybrushed up in the follwing order - GW Adeptus Battlegrey, Codex Grey, and finally Fortress Grey. Static grass is added using patches of diluted PVA glue, then some grass tufts from Antenociti's Workshop - summer I think - and bushes using Woodland Scenics clumps. All spot on!

I've also discovered a new technique for painting wood as well - moving away from the traditional brown, to a more faded and sun-bleached grey colour. Shown in my rather out of focus scratch-built barn, this consists of a black undercoat, followed by a drybrush of Foundry's Granite 31A shade, then 31B, and finally a drybrush of Rawhide 11B. For a bleached look, finish off with a final brush of Rawhide 11C. I washed the 'wood' with GW Badab Black again in small quantities, and 'greened up' the structure with Foundry's French Dragoon Green 70. However this process is in reverse, starting with the 'C' shade higher up the building's foundations, then a layer drybrushed on of the 'B' tone, finishing with the 'darker ' (ie. damper) 'A' tone.

The building on the right - with the Regimental Ensign of the Comte de Tescaux's Regiment and his Colonel arguing about dispositions - is the first piece of Mauritzanian 'Real estate', representing the Toll House cum Border checkpoint. It also doubles up nicely as a roadside tavern - hence the table with roast chicken and tankards outside! The building and walls were picked up at Partizan in Newark this May, and are from Hovels.
The walls are actually from the 20mm 'Battleground' range - a suggetion from the very helpful chap on the Hovels' stall - and they work very nicely too, with slightly smaller, more in-scale bricks. My recipe for brickwork was also a bit experimental, but finished off being a GW Scorched Brown basecoat, with drybrushed layers of Foundry Brick Red 59A, then Madder Red 60A (in small patches), then Brick Red 59B, and finally Mediterranean Flesh 125A and GW Dwarf Flesh in small patches. Wash with GW Ogryn Flesh and Badab Black in small patches, and 'green' up using the above technique with the Dragoon Green! Simples! The plaster on the building is the Foundry Butter Fudge 55 pallette, and the roof is the 32 Slate Grey pallette. I've made the building and the surroundings 'modular', so the tavern can be used in isolation or with the barn and walls together.




The Roast chicken and table/chair set also come from Hovels as well - it's these little things that add to the whole feel of the piece. The final picture is of my first wheat field - more on that, and the next instalment of the Comte de Tescaux's next time - which hopefully won't be so long! I may also have progress on the Mauritzanian Guard Regiment too! Until next time!