Martians and a giveaway

Martian...
I just finished my first squad of Martians from Mantic Games Mars Attacks.

They are a joy to paint. There are some mould lines, but not too bad, and besides, these are squaddies, not single heroes. For the character models, I'll spend more time on the cleaning and prep.
The have all been given a plain grey base for now. Once I get the whole lot painted I will find the most suitable paint to match the game mat and do them all in one go.

...and a giveaway:Paul over at Endtransmission Wargaming (http://mythostransmissions.blogspot.se/2014/12/whats-in-box-what-box.html) is holding a giveaway. Go sign up for a shot at a belate Christmas gift.

FlemCon 2014

It was time again for FlemCon, a local gaming convention that we Scandinavian Lardies have attended since 2010, I think it is. This year we had big plans with one Continuation War game and one Western game. This all fell apart the week before when the guys in charge of the games were both taken ill at the same time. Suddenly it became time for me and Koen to improvise in a big way. 

 I had planned to go to the show carrying a spare rule book and a wide grin and be in charge of pulling in players for the games. Instead I ended up carrying terrain, minis, felt and our official TFL roll-up.

 Arriving on location we were shown our area (the pool table behind the orange drapes) and assured that the coffee cups we were handed would be refilled all day, no questions asked. Suddenly I felt there was hope of survival.

 Our table, a piece of France 1940, with a bunch of gear laid out in front. Special mention to the maroon dice bag from KO'ed Dice Bags and the official Dice Bag Lady tape measure from Dice Bag Lady

 Seen from the other end. A cross-road with some ruined buildings.

 View from the North. Germans enter left, Allies right.

 For some reason, a passing girl decided that the cows should be kissing. Good thing we did not bring sheep as Koen put it.

 Explaining the rules of the Patrol Phase to a bunch of players,two of whom had played with us last year and were eager to play this year.

 End of Patrol Phase.

 French Hotchkiss set up to cover the road while two sections of infantry get ready to take the ruined farm house.

 Co-operation at its finest. One French and one British section ready to move. Sadly, the Jerries beat them to the punch by getting MG34s into the farmhouse...

The official TFL roll up, showing that we are indeed actual Lard Ambassadors.

Sadly, due to lack of manpower, ie people getting sick, called away to other things or having to work, we could only keep the game set up until about 1800 so we never got a decisive result, but I believe the players had a good time and lots of people came by and looked, commented and asked about war gaming. All in all a good result.

Basing horses

As I said last time, I just bought six Riders of Rohan. I love these models, but the fact that their horses only have one hoof touching the base makes them rather fragile.

Here is my solution to that problem:

 Step 1: Fill out the gap between base and hoof with suitable material, I glued some pebbles into place.

 Step 2: Fill all the way with suitable basing material. I use acrylic paste, mixed with some MIG pigment to take away the white shine in case I miss something with the paint later, or if the base gets chipped. 

Step 3:Coat the base with white glue and cover in sand. Suddenly there is a marked difference in stability and the areas where hoofs attach to base materials will be covered in grass or bushes when the model is painted.

Magpie and butterfly in one!

SO, I had a long list of stuff I wanted to paint, lots of it prepped and ready on the table. Veterans of Osgiliath for Dux Gondorum. Mars Attacks Soldiers and Heroes (I'll be buying suitable paint for the Martians this week). Two tanks for GuP. A Jeep for the LRDG project. Some Germans and Paras from CP Models for Market-Garden.

And what happens? I go to the local second-hand store and find a box of Riders of Rohan, still in shrink-wrap, for 100SEK, ie less than half price. And of course...

Well, I've had great fun so far building horses and riders and planning for the base work that will allow me to attach at least one extra hoof, thereby providing stability and strength.

Dear Secret Santa...

I have now been given my vict...recipient for the Secret Santa project. That also means someone will soon be reading this blog looking for ideas. Well, Santa, there should be plenty of ideas to be found by reading previous blog posts, but just in case, here are some ideas:

1, Red Star Miniatures DBP range.

2, CP Models 20mm Germans, Russians, Brits or 28mm "Dr Who" range

3, Perry WW2 or Normans.

4, Anything for Dust Warfare.

5, Baccus 6mm ACW

6, Rapier 6mm ACW

7, Total Battle Miniatures 6mm ACW buildings

8, Timecast 6mm ACW buildings

9, Leven Miniatures 6mm ACW buildings

10, Any 10mm fantasy suitable for Battle of Five Armies

11, http://www.sgtsmess.co.uk/ Continental Cafe set, Stowage, Scenery etc.

12, Conquest Games Normans

13, http://earlywarminiatures.com/ BEF or French

14, Anything for Mantic Games Mars Attacks



And in case your are located on the other side of the world, Santa (although we all know you really live just across the border in Finland), here is my FLGS:

http://alphaspel.se/shop/content/9-Internationalorders

I am sure they will be willing to do a local delivery.

Paper strength

Fellow Swedish gamer and blogger Ptr has been doing a very inspirational series of posts about scratchbuilding scenery. One suggestion he had was using printed patterns to make walls. Since I had a PDF for making a castle (Fat Dragons Winterhawk) I thought I'd give it a try.

This is the bottom 5cm of the outer wall (hence they ivy) mounted on a piece of foam core with a strip of packing paper that Ptr kindly gave me on top as a row of tiles and a strip of flocked cardboard as a base.

Reverse view. This is the next 5cm of the wall so no ivy. 5 cm plus base and tiles is acually a bit high for 28mm. I think I will be doing a lower version that figures will be able shoot over.

I will be making more of these for sure, but in future the base will be plasticard as the white glue that holds the flock warped the cardboard far more than I expected.


Next idea came from Jocke who found some paper terrain intended for Dust and Infinity. First out are two containers.

The figure is from Mantics Mars Attacks game,

Closer view, with a Dust figure. Sorry about the sloppy glue job.

There will be more paper terrain in the future for sure. It is cheap, light, looks good, won't break if you drop it and you won't cry your eyes out if it does break. What's not to like?

Adventures in camouflage land finished

The first set of French troops for the Indo-China project are finished. They took a while to paint but it was an absolutely brilliant painting experience. I will buy more of these figures, that is for sure. The range is only about a dozen skirmishing poses so far, but there are head variants with helmets, bush hats and Bigeard caps. I intend to use this variation to the fullest, and probably find heads from other makers as well.

They are posing in front of a stone wall printed from a PDF set by Fat Dragon Games.

Adventures in camouflage land, WIP3

Did some more stuff, including a pin wash of the webbing and equipment and a regular wash all over. Not the greatest pics this time either, but Winter Is Coming (tm) and daylight is in short supply in Sweden.

Next, I'll try a light drybrush on the uniforms to get them a more worn, faded look and think about more shading and hightlights for the faces. Any other suggestions? Any ideas about the aluminium rifle butts?

No WIP today, the lighting was to gray...

And if you did not get that joke, go here. I continued work on the Paras last night and took some pics but they turned out awful so I won't post any today. Instead, a treat for those of you into 6mm gaming.
Ian is running a giveaway on his blog.
http://walladvantage2.blogspot.se/2014/09/french-review-and-give-away.html
2x£20 up for grabs? What's not to like?

Adventures in camouflage land, WIP2

Work on my French Paras continued over the weekend. This is just such brilliant fun!
Painting these guys has simply been the best painting fun I've had since...painting their Viet Minh opponents a while back. They are more fun than Dust Tactics figures and that is saying a lot, I can assure you!

So, some pics. I am still getting used to the camera on my new Samsung and all of these were taken indoors in lamp-light, but I hope they will at least show the progress made.

 Note that the gaiters and carrying straps are grey because they are not yet painted while the rifle stocks are grey because I am working a way of painting them to reflect the fact that they were made from aluminium.

Any suggestions on how to paint oxidised aluminium are appreciated!

I also based the LRDG that has been sitting untouched on my desk since October last year. The basing material is white acrylic paste mixed with MIG African Earth pigment. I think it is too red for the Libyan desert and will need some paint or wash, but it will be perfect for the DBP figures as the soil in the Viet highlands look close to this.

Adventures in camouflage land, WIP1

Last night, I started painting the camouflage on my French Paras for the Indo-China war. This will be fun, however it turns out!
So, what am I trying to achieve?

Basically, this. Troupes AéroPortées modéle TAP 47

I have tried sorting out the various versions and iterations of the TAP47 and realised that even if I can sort out the differences between them, I will not really be able to reproduce them in 28mm anyway. I will instead settle for trying to make sure that a casual observer will be able to tell if the figure is wearing TAP47 or for example Denison:

Since the French troops in Indo-China used lots of WW2 surplus, both British Denison and USMC camouflage uniforms were present.

So much for the references. On to the pictures of my WIP.

Base coat of Vallejo Carne Muerte, then horizontal green stripes. I used Feldgrau for this test because I had no properly green colour. We'll see how it goes.

Next horizontal and vertical brown stripes and blotches. I used Vallejo Mahogany. 

Gondorians done, Frenchmen started

I actually managed to finish some figures last night (ok, they still need to be varnished) and started on some new ones. The finished guys are Veterans of Osgiliath that I got in a trade a few years ago.

Three down...

I also got started on some French Paratroopers from Red Star for the Indo-China War. These promise to be as much fun to paint as the Viet Minh troops I did a while back. Paul Hicks is a bloody genius! 

 ...three to go as can be seen behind the five French guys.

On the subject of Indo-China, I have just received one board game about Dien Bien Phu and have gotten confirmation that another one is now ready for shipping. There will be reviews of these as soon as I have played them.

Secret Santa time!

It is time again to sign up for Secret Santa, presented by Ian at The Blog With No Name
I took part last year and got a lovely LRDG truck that, I am ashamed to say, is still not built or painted. Maybe I need to get my skates on and finish last years present before this years arrives.

Anyway, go to Ian's blog, read the rules and sign up. It really is great fun!

One small step for Africa, one slightly smaller step for Gondor

I finished two figures for the 28mm North Africa project, one LRDG guy and one DAK. Both are Perry, but the LRDG guy has a Warlord Celt head...or maybe a GB Dark Age one, I can't remember.

I also finished a squad of Gondor Militia for my Dux Gondorum project. More about them on that blog.

Stonehaven Miniatures pop-up terrain

As you may remember, I took part in a kick-starter from Stonehaven Miniatures for a range of pop-up paper terrain. Last week they sent out test-versions of the various designs for us to play with and comment on. The hexes in the final versions will be a foot across, but the ones below are printed at A4 size so just about half that. I have printed and built the first two models, the gazebo and the fort.

Here is what they look like:

 Both hexes, folded in half

Both hexes, held together

 As above, but turned to the side

 Both hexes folded out

 From the side

 Close-up of the gazebo with roof closed

 Gazebo with roof open

Close-up of the fort

 The gazebo, being folded

The fort, being folded

The question follows, of course:if they are paper, will they support miniatures? Yes the will! These test examples are printed in my laser printer onto 170 gsm paper intended for photo albums. As I have no suitable metal figures available, I've used the card deck from Dux Britanniarum The Raiders to demonstrate. This is a standard card deck. Remember, the final product will be bigger and on stronger paper.

 Placed across, the roof does not even bulge

Placed the weak way, the roof bulges but holds

In summary, I am really excited about this. It has been a blast building these and I really look forward to the final, full colour version promised for November. It really will be a battlefield in a box!