Whats on the work bench? – Page 11

Brontotherium!

It seems at the moment, I am easily distracted. I have been giving the DeeZee range a bit of an overhaul with a view to perhaps extending it in the New Year. Whilst going through the display models I noticed that the Brontotherium was looking a bit tired and that we didn’t even have a painted example on the web site so I thought that painting a new display model would be a nice little project.

For those that don’t know, a Brontotherium (‘thunder beast’) is an extinct genus of prehistoric odd-toed ungulate mammal of the family Brontotheriidae, an extinct group of rhinoceros-like browsers related to horses. The genus was found in North America during the Late Eocene. Many Brontotherium remains have been found in South Dakota and Nebraska. In the past, specimens exposed by severe rainstorms were found by Native Americans of the Sioux tribe. The Sioux believed these creatures produced thunderstorms when running over the clouds, and called them “thunder horses”. Many of the skeletons found by the Sioux belonged to herds which were killed by volcanic eruptions of the Rocky Mountains, which were volcanically active at the time.

DeeZee Brontotherium Basic paint job!

I decided to paint my Bronto in brown rather than as some references, that show them as grey. I had also decide to use a limited pallet of just three colours, Vallejo Light Brown 70929, Cork Brown 70843 and Iraqi sand 70819. I took the same approach as if I was painting a horse. Once cleaned up and primed with Army Painter Leather brown, I first used a large brush to roughly coat the Bronto with the light brown. To give a bit of definition, I then liberally applied a wash of Army Painter strong tone ink. When the ink was dry, it was just a case of using a large brush to dry brush a succession of coats using lighter shades of the three colours mentioned above. I picked the eyes out in Black and painted the hooves and tail in a dark black brown (70822). It was all done in about 30 minutes!

Brontotherium on base

The next job was to base Bronto. As usual, I attached the model to an MDF base using Vallejo Dark earth textured paste. I also set some rocks into the paste and pressed in some coarse sand for additional texture.

Base Detailed

I then painted the base using my favourite basing paint, Dulux ‘Dehli Bazzaar’. I have mentioned before that I think that it makes sense to use Emulsion paints for basing rather than the more expensive paints that we use to paint the actual models. I had actually got out of the habit and was going through Vallejo Chocolate brown bottles rather quickly until I remembered my own advice!

A tin of emulsion goes a long way!

I am happy to mix Vallejo paints with the emulsion but obviously in small quantities. I this case, I used Iraqi Sand to provide highlights and simply dry brushed over the base coat.

The next job was to detail the base by adding some grass. I wanted some long grass for the Brontotherium to be charging out off. Woodlands scenic make packs of long grass and this seemed ideal.

Field Grass from Woodlands Scenics – Natural Straw.

It was the first time that I had used this type of grass but it worked very well. There is a surprising amount of material in the packet and a little goes a long way! I Just took small clumps, cut them to size and then fixed them to the base using a hot glue gun. PVA would have worked but would have taken longer to dry. I have since found this video from the terrain tutor on you tube which shows an alternative method of producing long grass clumps – I’ve tried it and it works well! I now have a batch ready for another project:

I also used some Woodland Scenics yellow coarse foliage to hide any glue around the base of the long grass and added some Beige coloured Gamers grass tufts.

Brontotherium on finished base

The whole project was surprisingly quick and simple to complete and I now have a new display model for my DeeZee range. If you would like to see the rest of the range, the links, as usual are to be found below the final photo.

Most of the products used in my Blog ( except the Dulux paint!) are available post free to most worldwide locations ( at the time of writing) and can be found here:

DEEZEE MINIATURES

VALLEJO PAINTS AND TEXTURES

WOODLAND SCENICS

MDF BASES

Shine a light!

I continue to bit and bob between one project and another. The problem is there are just too many great games and figures out there! Test of Honour, being a case in point. It’s got an addictive quality to it that keeps pulling me back into it’s world. Before it’s release I had no intention of ever building a Samurai or Japanese army. I now find that I have an increasing collection of both figures and scenery. If I’m not expanding my scenery collection, I’m looking at the next set of miniatures to paint. All of this when I am supposed to be finishing my Napoleonic project…

The latest set from Warlord – just too tempting…

The latest release to catch my attention was the Bandits and Brigands set, the first set that is all new metal models from Warlord. I had intended to get some Samurai Cavalry but the figures in the Bandits set are just superb – possibly the best release of the year! No doubt once I get into painting these, I’ll complete a proper review of the box set but for the time being, lets just say that that I am smitten!

The scenario book that comes with the set includes some night fighting scenarios and the possibility of adding Lanterns to my playing board. Of course, Sarissa make a really nice set of lanterns so I decided to start here. It seemed a shame not to install lights in the lanterns but I was looking for a simple solution. That solution was found at my Granddaughters Halloween party – flickering battery operated tea lanterns! So here’s my progress so far.

Sarissa Lantern Set

The Sarrisa Lantern set includes four lantern that are very straight forward to put together – regardless, I still suggest that you follow the instruction sheet as it will ensure you don’t make any mistakes!

Hole cut into MDF base

The only modification that I needed to make was to cut a hole throught the MDF lantern base as shown. MDF is a fairly soft material, so once I had drilled a pilot hole using a simple hand drill, I used a sharp knife to carve the hole to the size required.

LED Tealights – batteries included

I grabbed a couple of packs of tea lights from the local BM bargain store. The plain ones were just 99p – the posh Halloween ones, twice the price at £1.99 – still a bargain! As it turned out, the cheap ones were the best. My first attempt involved removing the outside of the tea light to see if I could incorprate it into the lantern base.

First attempt – base of tea light removed.

It worked OK but I would have needed to built a new cover around the base and the on/off switch wasn’t quite as easy to use. Whilst fiddling around with the cheaper lights, I found that they actually looked good without the modification. They were a perfect fit. I didn’t even have to glue the Lantern to the tea lights – they simply just sat on the top. I guess you could glue them but I now have the option of using them with or without the lights.

Tea lights added intact!

Although they are standing a bit taller than I first wanted, I thought that the effect was OK and certainly saved time. To cover the tea lights and blend them in, I simply sprayed the whole assembly using a textured spray from B&Q. The MDF takes the spray well as do the tea lights and the result is a stone effect. Just remember to use a piece of masking tape to cover the light bulb when spraying!

Lanterns sprayed with texture spray.

Just to finish things off, I decided lightly dry brush the lanterns with Vallejo Iraqi Sand 70819 and then to add some ‘moss’. This was simply woodlands scenic green scatter stuck on using a watered down PVA glue mix.

Lanterns with moss added!

As you can see from the final pictures I added a bit more moss for effect. I think that these make a nice addition to my scenery box and I will get on and finish the other two lanterns although I might just be tempted to see if I can make the lower profile versions without too much extra effort!

Lanterns on the gaming table

Close up of Lanterns

As usual the links to most of the products used are below – you will have to search out your own tealights & textured spray but a trip to B&M bargains will help! At the time of writing, all products are POST FREE to most worldwide locations.

You can see our range of Test of Honour products and Samurai scenery and accessories here:

SAMURAI

Happy modelling!

Sloop ahoy!

I’ve continued work on my sloop and have surprised myself by nearly finishing it. In fact, it’s got to the stage where I have to remind myself that I am building a piece for the wargames table and not a display model. The thing is that the model is so nice that it is tempting to go overboard ( pun intended) and really detail it – the problem being that it would then be impractical to use because of the rigging and the sails. Regardless, the masts are now in place – I went for a straight forward varnished finish – they will darken over time anyway – and the tiller/rudder is done. I am still working on a name for her – I wont consult the internet for answers, Boaty Mc Boat Face is already taken….

Sloop all rigged and ready for action.

There are a few additions that I will make. For a start, she needs guns and I have four cannon that I am painting. I should have finished them last night but I was distracted by the football on the radio – Tottenham beating Real Madrid 3-1 was too exciting to let me focus on the painting! I’m nearly there though.

Cannon on the painting mat.

The guns are made by Amati and supplied by Expo – we do carry them in our shop and the link is below. I think that they might be a bit on the large size for the Sloop but they look superb and should deter pirates! I decided to paint the gun carriages to match the ships hull, with any metal parts painted black.

The crew!

Just for fun, I’m also going to add a couple of permanent crew figures, a ships cat and a powder monkey! The cat is from the DeeZee small dogs pack and the monkey from North star, although I don’t think that he is now available. Again, there is still some more work to do to finish these off. The only other additions planned are an anchor and a lantern for the mast. When it comes to the crew, I do have a few Sailors and Marines that I can use as you can see from the picture. It might be nice though, to add a new crew that have bases that either match the deck of the Sloop or are clear. I am also tempted by the Footsore figure, John Finch…

Sloop with crew

Close up of the Crew

You can also see from the pictures that the three pieces of scatter scenery for the Caribbean are now complete so I better get writing those rules! As well as the sloop I have also been playing around with some Japanese lanterns for my Test of Honour set up. These are also nearly complete – I’ll put the results up in next weeks blog!

As usual, here are the links to the items used in this weeks blog. The ship is from Games of War and only available direct from their web store:

GAMES OF WAR

The cannon are available here:

SHIPS CANNON AND FITTINGS

Palm trees are here:

PALM TREES AND JUNGLE PLANTS

The cat is available as part of the DeeZee Range:

DEEZEE RANGE

and you can see John Finch here!

JOHN FINCH

At the time of writing, the items are available post free to most worldwide locations.

Whats on the workbench?

You can tell that I am struggling to get anything finished by the title of this weeks blog. It’s been one of those busy fortnights where my painting and modelling has had to take a back seat to the other things in life. Mind you I did manage a Black powder game last Thursday, during which I was comprehensively thrashed by my opponent, Mr Grant. I wished that I had taken pictures of the game just to remind me of how one over confident move can end in disaster.

Cavalry charge!

I had charged a regiment of Cuirassiers with two regiments (a brigade) of British household cavalry. The combat went very badly and both of the British regiments were pushed back leaving the Cuirassiers nicely positioned behind a brigade of three battalions of my British infantry within initiative charge move… The brigade was wiped out as they lost the one sided combat and then failed their morale tests. ‘Game over, man’ as Hicks or Hudson would have said! In future, if I have a cavalry regiment positioned to protect a flank, maybe I’ll think twice before committing it to an attack and leaving the flank so exposed!

Perry’s Ammunition Wagon

So back to the work bench. I had started work on a Perry’s British ammunition wagon. As usual, the sculpting, poses and detail on the model is superb and everything that you would expect from the Perry’s. However, the casting quality was not so good. I expect to do some cleaning up when starting a model but the amount required on this piece was considerable. In fact, after two evenings scraping and filing, the model is still not ready for priming. The annoying thing is that in cleaning up the casting, I have inevitably spoilt some of the lovely detail – the wheels and horses were particularly poor. The up shot was that I have put the wagon aside and started another model. I will get back to it when I’m in the mood for some more filing….

My next project - a small loop fpr naval engagements.

My next project – a small loop for naval engagements.

No such problems with the resin ship that I purchased from the last Partizan show. I have managed to loose the name of the company from whom I bought the model – I will find it and include it in a future blog or edit this one. The model is worth recommending! Once I had washed the model down using soap & water, I primed it with Army painter brown as you can see.

Sloop ahoy!

The next task was to paint her. I used Vallejo paints; Mahogany Brown 70846 for the interior woodwork, 310 Old wood for the deck, Biege 70917 for the upper hull, Off white 70820 for the lower hull and Black 70950 for the trim etc. I gave the interior, including the deck, a wash with army painter dark tone and then dry brushed the deck only with 310 old wood and then a further coat of 50/50 old wood 310/Iraqi Sand. The grating was painted in Chocolate brown and washed in Dark tone. I painted the stern panel in 70961 Sky Blue with Brass trim.

Stern of the Sloop

As you can see, I’ve also painted one of the cannon that will arm her. The cannon is from Arcane Scenery – the link is below. There is still quite a bit of work to do before she is ready for the table. Obviously, the mast, bow sprit and rigging will all need completion but I think that she will make a nice addition to my Caribbean collection. Incidentally, I haven’t got too hung up on how accurate the colours are. Although the sloop (?) will be crewed by the Royal Navy, it seems that even when it comes to such an iconic ship as HMS Victory, there is some controversy as to the actual colour:

RESTORED VICTORY CAUSES CONTORVERSY

So I am not going to be too precious regarding the colour scheme of a fictional boat designed to go on a wargames table! The other dilemma that I have is what to name her – I think I will resist indulging my sense of humour and perhaps steal a name from an Alexander Kent or Patrick O’Brien novel…

The view from the stern

So, the next job will be to fit her out – hopefully, I’ll make a bit more progress now that the clocks are about to go back.

More Jungle Scenery

In between painting the Sloop, I’ve been making three more pieces of scatter scenery for the table using a slightly different variety of palm tree. They are waiting for a coat of paint and some scatter but are nearly complete. If you missed how I make these, check out last weeks blog ‘ Desert Island Discs’. Although you can never really have too much of this sort of thing, I think that this will do me for the time being. I have plans to make some area bases to incorporate these pieces. If it works, I’ll include this in a further blog.

That’s it for now, here’s the usual links. Remember, if you are buying from Arcane Scenery, at the time of writing, postage is free to most worldwide locations!

SHIPS CANNON AND FITTINGS

VALLEJO PAINT & TEXTURES RANGE

PALM TREES AND JUNGLE PLANTS

STOP PRESS! I’ve just remembered the supplier of my boat. the Web site is Games Of War, you can see their excellent range of boats here:

GAMES OF WAR

Cuban War Dogs

My Caribbean project continues with the addition of a set of Cuban Chasseurs with dogs to my collection. These troops, or more accurately mercenaries, were brought across from Cuba by the various combatants in the Caribbean to fight against the rebellions and revolts taking place. The British imported these mercenaries specifically to suppress the Maroon rebellion on Jamaica but I understand that they were also used on Haiti. My references have come from an account in an book by Robert Charles Dallas written in 1803, ‘The History of the Maroons’ that I found online. As well as describing the Cuban Chasseurs, he gives an account of the brutal training regime inflicted on the dogs and how they were used.

Reference: The History of the Maroons.

In 1795 the second Maroon rebellion took place and despite being faced by some 5000 British soldiers and militia, the Maroons held their own and fierce guerrilla warfare led to a stalemate. It is claimed that the introduction of the Cuban Chasseurs and their dogs broke this stalemate and ended the rebellion.

Chasseur and Cuba Bloodhounds

The dogs have been described variously as a cross between Lurchers and Bloodhounds, although it is possible that they were a variety of Great Dane. It could just be that the breed itself wasn’t consistent but it was the training by the Cubans that made the dogs so effective. To paraphrase from the book, ‘These people live with their dogs, from which they are inseperable. At home, the dogs are kept chained and are never unmuzzled but for attack…..The Chasseurs beat their dogs most unmercifully, using the flat side of their machetes. As a result the dogs coat is much harder as is the structure of the dog…’

In the book, there is an account of how during the voyage from Cuba the dogs got loose and tore apart the cattle that were also on board. On page 129, there is also an account of how the dogs were demonstrated to a commander in Jamaica to see how they would react under fire. The dogs were loosed on a small body of troops and despite a volley of musket fire being discharged (presumably blanks) the dogs charged home into the ranks of the soldiers, seizing the muskets in their jaws and causing the commander to run for his carriage to escape, before the handlers brought the dogs under control.

My understanding is that such dogs were used by the Spanish and French troops as well as the British and the Cuban Chasseurs that trained them were held in high regard. They were most effective at fighting against irregular troops in rough ground and helped to avoid ambush.

Trent Miniatures sell a pack of these ‘troops’ so I wanted to add some of them to my collection.

Trent miniatures Cuban Chasseurs

The pack includes two Dog handlers, or Chasseurs and four dogs. As you can see, I’ve cleaned them up and primed them in Army painter Leather brown. Painting was a straight forward task. It is said that the Cubans favoured a red checked shirt, so I have finished one accordingly. Using the picture from the Robert Dallas book as a reference, the other Chasseur is more plainly attired. Similarly, I have gone for a simple finish for the dogs, with one white, one light/orange brown and two Dark Brown.

Painted Chasseurs & dogs

The figures are based using a special ‘sabot’ style tray to enable the dogs to be unleashed during wargaming.

Unleash the dogs!

These bases are not yet available through my shop but if there is sufficient interest, I can have more cut. I finished the bases in my usual style with the Vallejo dark earth texture, woodland scenic scatter and Gamers grass tufts.

I have already used the dogs as a unit in wargaming as I am in the process of developing a set of rules for the Caribbean conflict. We conducted the first play test last week and although much was learnt, there is a long way to go before the rules will be ready.

If you would like to purchase the Cuban Chasseurs and their dogs you can do so by clicking here:

CUBAN CHASSEURS CAR09

Vallejo paints and textures can be found here:

VALLEJO PAINTS

Woodland Scenics Scatter here:

WOODLAND SCENICS

and Gamers grass here:

GAMERS GRASS

All are available post free at the time of writing.

Geisha Spy

I’m still very much enthused by the Test of Honour Game and my only regret at the moment is that I’m not getting enough game time in! However, I still have my Napoleonic project lumbering away and having just finished 18 British Lifeguards with another 6 about to hit the paint board, I fancied painting something different. I remembered that I had yet to paint the limited edition Geisha Spy that was released with the bundle, so I thought I would spend a few nights painting her.

Geisha

I had already done some research on Geishas wearing Kimonos (not the most unpleasant of tasks…) and collected some pictures onto my Pinterest board here:

SAMURAI PINTEREST BOARD

I tend to think about projects in advance and often will put together a reference board way in advance of actually painting the subjects. If you check out the rest of my boards you will guess what my next Napoleonic theme will be if I ever finish my British! I digress, the pictures are very inspiring but way beyond my painting capability. So having given the overall colour scheme some thought, I went with a similar scheme that worked well on my unarmoured samurai. They came as a pair so I thought that I would keep to the same pallet. The picture below sort of captured the look and colour scheme that I was after.

So one evening was spent cleaning up the model, assembling it, filling the gaps that seem to appear around the joins on the hand and priming in a neutral grey, my preferred primer colour. The initial colour blocking was quite straight forward. The model is beautifully cast and molded so it was a very straight forward task to paint. I used all Vallejo Colours. The main kimono was painted in Sand Yellow 70916, the trim, Sky Blue 70961, the Kimono sash, Dark Prussian Blue 70899, Hair, Black 70950 and skin tone was done using Light flesh 70928. I did think about using white for the face but many of the pictures show Geishas with a pale flesh rather than the full white make up and I preferred this. The fan was painted in green…for the time being…

Geisha with first colours blocked on

To add shadows and depth to the kimono, I gave it a wash of thinned down army painter dark tone ink. This helps me to see where the folds in the cloth lie and hence where the shadows would be. I then repainted the Kimono with the sand yellow, leaving some of the darker shadows. I then added some white to the original colour to add some highlights to the top of the folds. I also used a very fine brush to add some dark lines to the deep folds and creases and the borders of the sky blue trim. I used a skin wash to add some shadow to the face but this was watered down until it was practically clear. It just added enough shadow to the face and neck.

Black lining and details to hair ornaments etc added.

I then painted in the eyes – I’m not good at these! The next step was to thin down the black lining and shadows by over painting and to add a bit more detail to the hair ornaments. I also added some highlights to the sky blue Kimono and the sash. The sash was easier to do than I thought. I first dry brushed it to show where the detail was and then carefully painted on the ‘stripes’ in a lighter blue.

Face & eyes done. More highlights added to the trim.

I use the photographs as a way of reviewing my work. It allows me to see the model and pick up on any obvious errors. In the next picture, you can see that I had missed painting part of her sleeve – I couldn’t see this in ‘real life’!

spot the missing paint!

Despite constantly picking up errors and correcting them, there was still something very wrong with the figure. It some how wasn’t working. I asked Rob, a colleague at work what he thought the problem was. It was obvious, the fan was the wrong colour! The green just wasn’t working. We had an interesting discussion on colour theory but the upshot was that I had introduced too many colours onto the model. I over painted the fan in light blue and it instantly looked better.

a new fan!

Once again, using my pinterest boards as a reference, I painted a simple cherry blossom design onto the fan and added a few further highlights to the kimono. I also added her finger nails in Ivory 70918 and touched up any more obvious mistakes.

Nearly there!

The final stage was to add some pink and white to the cherry blossom to the design on the fan and to re base the geisha on a plain MDF base that I had painted to match the Sarissa shrine that I had previously completed. My Geisha Spy was ready for the table!

Geisha spy at the shrine.

The geisha was a most enjoyable model to paint and certainly stretched my painting skills. It made a pleasant change from painting Napoleonic units! Although close up, there are still a few errors and the paint job isn’t as smooth as I would like, she looks great at a distance and is a nice addition to my collection!

If you would like to join the fun with the Test of Honour game we have a full range available in our shop here:

SAMURAI RANGE

All the paints used are also available from our Vallejo range here:

VALLEJO MODEL COLOUR

Incidentally, if you are looking for a specific colour, rather than browse through all the 200+ colours listed, just put the number into the search bar. So sky blue is 70961:

Search result

Finally, at the time of writing, all products, except aerosols, are post free to most world wide locations! I hope that you enjoy your modelling!

Backwards to go Forwards

I’m afraid that my modelling and painting have been very much curtailed this week. I decided that it was time to tidy out the garage, or as it now is, my wargaming room and have a good tidy and cull of some of the ‘rubbish that I have been collecting. I think that ‘collecting’ or hoarding, to be more accurate, is a spliced on gene that most wargamers possess.

Tidying the workshop started with dusting down some of my own models.

Fortunately, Julie, my wife, has been away for a break so I could get on with making a mess whilst sifting through some of my collection of models and spare bits. Quite why I have kept so much of it, I really cant explain. I guess you never know when you are going to need that off cut of Teddy Bear fur to do some thatching on a Dark age building and those bits of balsa are sure to come in useful one day. Some of the stuff is just weird – bits of electrical appliances, widgets from beer cans ( yes, seriously!), even deodorant bottles. I wonder what other modellers keep in their bits boxes, just in case…..

To be fair, I have been building models for some 54 years now! I’ve been through many phases, from radio control Airplanes, Boats and Yachts; Scale plastic models in all scales, Science fiction Modelling – yes, Star wars and Dr who, through to wargaming via 40K and now Historical. So, another clear out was due to make way for the next lot of useful bits that I might acquire! The biggest problem that I have is getting rid of models that I have completed. I just don’t like to sell them. As well as being a record of my hobby, they hold many happy memories. Occasionally, one gets broken beyond repair and ends up in the spares box, but by and large I have kept many of my models – here are just a few of them taken at random.

At-AT diorama

This At-At diorama was built some years ago when I was into my Star Wars phase. I think that the kit is an MPC one produced back in the ’80’s. I have a number of Star Wars dioramas that I have built – Unfortunately Jar Jar Binks cured my of my Star Wars obsession but the latest films have perhaps redeemed the franchise. Here’s a picture of me building the AT-AT with my son – as he is now in his 30’s, you can see that it was a while ago…

Building the AT-AT – home made work board!

I also had a thing about Dr Who. There was a series of models made by a company called Sevans. The models were large scale and took some building as they used a variety of materials. The intention was to build a collection of characters, including the Tardis. I managed three models as below.

Cyberman, Dalek and Ice Warrior

The Dalek was radio controlled and had LED lights in the ‘head’. Unfortunately, the motor interfered with the Radio control so after a few crashes I gave up on it! It did amuse the family though! I may yet get back to this collection. I have a model of Davros in the loft somewhere!

From Science Fiction modelling, it was an easy step to get drawn into wargaming with Games Workshop 40k figures. I was an early adopter of the new ‘Rogue Trader’ rules and figures. However, due to work commitments, I initially did very little gaming but spent much of my time painting and modelling. I do enjoy the process of scratch building, although at the time, a lack of both money and to be fair, availability of the models pushed me in this direction. The cabinet below contains my own scratch built Bane Blade and Variants – all made with recycled plastic card and based on plans in White Dwarf Magazine.

Taleth Heavies – just one part of my Imperial Guard Army!

My last phase of 40K was the Necrons. A shame that I actually got tired of waiting for GW to update the Codex and release new models as I have a huge collection of Necrons – some 7000 ‘old points’ and at the time every variant that they had released. In fact, to introduce some variety into my army, I started to convert and build my own models.

Necron Destroyer variant with ‘drone ‘Scarab.

I still have a soft spot for Necrons and might just add some of the later models to the collection if ever I am bored or fancy a change from painting my historical armies….

Brixham Trawler Valerian

The model above was actually scratch built by my Dad. Its a working scale model ( in that it sails!) of a Brixham Trawler, The Valerian. It is of course very precious to me and a reminder that it was my Dad that got me into the hobby. It’s given me endless hours of pleasure and an escape from every day life and its ups and downs. I profoundly hope that your hobby does the same for you.

Thanks for reading a bit of a self indulgent blog this week. The Man Cave is just about finished so I should get back to painting this week. The aim is to get back to painting Napoleonics – I have a regiment of Lifeguards to finish!

British Life Guards – more to come!

Scenery for Samurai

It’s funny how once you get into a groove, it’s difficult to get out of it, particularly if you are having fun! I had finished all of the original Test of Honour figures as detailed in last weeks blog and my intention was to go back to painting my beloved Napoleonics. I did mention that I fancied painting some buildings but they were going to have to wait. However, having had a couple of really fun games of TOH at the club, I decided to get on with making some scenery.

I had some plastic aquarium plants that my brother had sent me, kicking around the back of my work bench and I had long admired the Sarissa Temple Shrine so I thought that I would make both bits of scenery. It may seem like a strange combination but sometimes two slightly different projects are as fast to do as one. Whilst one piece is drying or setting, you can get on with the other. Having just two projects is about right for me as I don’t loose my concentration!

‘Bamboo grove’ assembled.

The ‘bamboo patch’ was the first on the work bench. I already had an idea how I would make it and stole an idea from John Grant at the club, who uses old DVD or CD’s as his bases for scatter scenery. I’ve got plenty of these kicking around as they were giving out DVD’s with some newspapers in the past. Quite why I thought I would need a documentary on Pilates escapes me now but at last it was going to be used for something useful. So using the label side as the base I partially covered it with milliput, pressed three pebbles that I had grabbed from the garden (I didn’t even bother to wash them!) and just stuck the tall aquarium plants straight into the milliput as shown above. I used some cut down pieces at the edges to taper the height but otherwise, assembly was as straight forward as it looks.

Building the Sarissa Precision Japanese Temple.

Whilst the milliput was setting, I turned my attention to the Sarissa Temple. These laser cut buildings are just superb in my opinion and actually look fantastic whether painted or not. I like to ‘pimp’ them up a bit and in this case I had decided to paint the building and add some tile effect to the roof. Before assembly, I lightly sprayed the back of the interior pieces with black primer. This was just to keep the inside of the building black as I didn’t want the MDF showing through the windows. It’s not a necessary stage but does improve the finished model. If you plan to paint the interior, now would be a good time to do it.

Before I assembled the roof, I used the panels as a cutting guide for the textured plastic sheeting that I was going to use. It is actually ‘O’ Scale or 1/48th scale Spanish Tile textured plastic card from JTT products. It’s thin enough to easily cut with a sharp scalpel and the only thing to bear in mind is to make sure that the tiles are running the right way on the roof, ie. downwards! I then used super glue to attach the sheet to the MDF roof pieces, although a contact adhesive would have been a better option – my tube of Bostick had dried up though, so super glue did the job. I then assembled the roof as per the kit instructions.

Tile sheets glued to the roof.

Once the roof was assembled, I used 1/8th evergreen tube pack 224 to fill the corners. The picture above shows my progress, with the tube blu-tacked into place to test fit before gluing to the tile sheet. I then covered the tube with a strip of single tiles cut from the tile sheeting. At this stage, I used standard polystyrene glue as you can see from the picture. I assembled the rest of the building but did not glue the centre to the platform so that it was easier to varnish. I used the red mahaogany woodstain shown in the picture straight from the can and applied it to the MDF without any preparation. It took around four coats to give me the gloss effect that I was looking for.

Applying the varnish

In the meantime, I got on with painting the building itself. I used a Vallejo yellow ochre although the last coat was a mix of 50:50 Yellow Ochre 70913 with Beige 70917 to lighten the effect as it looked too yellow to me. I painted the door and window with the woodstain and then the timber with Vallejo Mahogany Brown 70846.

yellow ochre applied

In between coats drying I went back to my Bamboo scenery piece and once the milliput had dried, coated the base with Vallejo dark earth Textured paste. It was easy enough to apply using a small spatula and a brush to get in between the plants. Once this was dry, I painted it Vallejo Chocolate Brown 70872 and I was ready to start dry brushing!

Ready to dry brush!

I had sprayed the roof tiles black as I wasn’t keen on the terracotta effect. With hindsight a dark grey would have been a better choice. So it was a case of dry brushing the roof with a mixture of greys and the bamboo base with a chocolate Brown/Iraqi Sand mix.

Dry Brushing complete – well not quite – more grey needed!

The picture above shows the shrine assembled with the posts painted a bright red 70947 to match the Tori Gate that I have previously completed. Once I had taken this photo I decided that I needed to go heavier with the grey as too much black was showing through the roof. I had also painted the base of the house in Chocolate brown ready for some scatter. The bamboo looked OK – some additional grass scatter & texture was needed.

Temple & Bamboo finished

The Picture above shows the two pieces completed. I have added some brown ballast to the temple base and my usual mix of scatter & tufts to the Bamboo scenery. I perhaps will add another highlight to the roof tiles but I think that the lighting in the picture doesn’t show it at it’s best. So, now that these two pieces are complete, I really must get on with my Napoleonic Cavalry brigade. However, the Geisha would look nice as part of the shrine….

I think I have my next TOH project lined up….

The commercial bit.

Most of what I have used is available post free at the time of writing to most worldwide locations from my shop. Some items may go in and out of stock – we only list what we have in stock ready to dispatch- the links take you to the correct sections in my shop but if you are having trouble finding anything drop me a message.

For the range of Sarissa Japanese Buildings and other Samurai items, including the Test of Honour sets click here:

ARCANE SCENERY SAMURAI RANGE

For Glues and Adhesives;

ARCANE SCENERY ADHESIVES RANGE

For milliput

ARCANE SCENERY MILLIPUT

For Texture Paste

VALLEJO TEXTURES

For Vallejo paint

VALLEJO PAINT RANGE

For textured Plasticard

PLASTICARD, PLAIN AND TEXTURED

The woodstain came from Boyes hardware shop and the pebbles from my garden! I’m still trying to source bamboo!

The Last Samurai

No, it’s not a reference to the Tom Cruise film, although I do quite enjoy watching it, but an indication that I have now finished all of the models that came with the original Test of Honour boxed set. Yes, all 35 are complete as well as the limited edition unarmoured figure, that was the first model that I painted. I have to say that given the set was just £35.00, I think that I have already had more than value for money both in terms of modeling and painting time and fun had whilst playing the game. If there are awards for Wargames product of the year, then Test of Honour will get my vote. Now I do have a slightly vested interest, being a retailer of said product but given the number of products that I see, I dont think that it is an unreasonable claim. It certainly takes something special to prise me away from painting and playing Napoleonics! Anyway, enough of the frothing and on to the modelling.

Completed Ashigaru Bowmen -Bow strings attached!

I had completed the 20 Ashigaru figures that came with the set and had been using the metal Samurai that I had painted, the afore mentioned unarmoured samurai and a free figure that came with the ‘Painting War’ Fuedal Japaness issue. I had assembled and painted one of the plastic samurai but I wasn’t happy with the result and had put the final four figures to one side.

My usual Samurai Team. A Limited Edition Samurai from Painting war and one from the set.

That changed when I was browsing through the Test of Honour Facebook site and a couple of posts had given me fresh inspiration. I then happened upon some really nice pictures on Pinterest and the combination of ideas gave me the push to build the last samurai figures in the set. That energy coincided with a bit of free time at the weekend and in record time (for me) I completed the figures.

As there were four Samurai left, I decided to make them into two pairs of similar models. It would make painting easier but I could also either use them in a game as a pair or mix them up. Here’s the models assembled.

Assembled Samurai ready for Priming

I stole the idea of one Samurai holding a severed head. It’s pretty gruesome but will make a ‘talking point’ for the army! I also liked the Samurai with the straight arm draw – again, a pose that I had seen elsewhere. I used a Black colour scheme for the two samurai with the conical helmets and red for the other two so primed them accordingly.

Primed and ready to paint

I used slightly different techniques for each pair of models. For the guys in red, I went straight to the paint and blocked out the main colours. I was using my trusty method of block paint & quickshade to bring out the detail. I wont detail all the colours other than to say I had decided that the background colour scheme would be brown, so there is about five different shades of Vallejo brown used. Once the block painting was done, I painted the models with Dark Tone quick shade to bring out the details in the armour. I’ve also tried to add detail to the plates by dotting them with gold. Close up, this looks a bit messy but from table distance I think it’s OK! While I was in the mood for painting dots, I also added some to the tunic arms as they looked a bit bland.

Red Samurai gold dots on the armour and quick shaded.

For the Black Samurai, I went back to using a dry brush technique to bring out the detail on the armour. I used quite a light grey Vallejo 70990 and tried not to be too heavy with the drying brush. I then used 70901 pastel blue to represent the stitching. Again viewed up close, it looks a bit rough but with my eyes, it was good enough!

Black Samuraio dry brushed & light blue stitching added.

As you can see, I only added the stitch to one of the samurai – the other has a cloak and I thought that this would be enough colour without making it look too ‘busy’.

I used Dark Prussian blue for the tunics and highlighted these with Prussian blue. I had considered using a nice dark purple but I didn’t have this to hand and so went with what I had on the paint rack. I also decided to paint the face masks in Brass just to make these Samurai different from the others that I had done. Once the main colours were done, the figures began to look ready for the table.

Nearly complete

So it was just a case of touching up some of the detail and correcting any obvious errors and then adding some tufts and flowers to the base and the Last Samurai are ready to take to the table.

Samurai charge!

Black Samurai close up

You may have noticed that I don’t usually paint eyes – the exception in this case is the poor guy who has had his head chopped off – it just seemed to emphasise his fate – glaring at his mates who failed to save him!

Red Samurai close up

As well as the figures in the set, I also used some of the spare parts to make some objective markers – I have previously posted these on facebook but it’s worth showing them again.

Objective Markers

So the full Warband looks like this.

Full Samurai War Band!

My next project will be to build a bit more in the way of scenery. However, I’m going to take my time. I have a Tori gate, so the next piece will be the Temple shrine. As for figures, I think that some mounted Samurai will be next followed perhaps by the Peasant bowmen. I really enjoyed building and painting the bowmen in the TOH set so a few more wont hurt and I might just go to town converting them into more dynamic poses now that I am familiar with the kits. That all said, I have seen the next batch of figures that will be released in the TOH collection…..they are simply awesome! So the collection will continue to grow!

Ashigaru Bowmen unit

The commercial bit:

Test of Honour and the current expansion sets are all available from Arcane scenery, along with Cherry trees, Sarissa Scenery and other useful accessories. We also stock vast ranges of paint, glue, basing and scenic materials. At the time of writing it is available (aerosols excepted) post free to most worldwide locations. Click below to go to the Samurai section:

ARCANE SCENERY SAMURAI SECTION

To have a look at my Samurai Pinterest board click here:

SAMURAI PINTEREST BOARD

To keep up to date with new releases, my modelling blog and other projects, like the arcane scenery facebook page here:

ARCANE SCENERY FACEBOOK

To see the rest of my blog entries regarding Samurai and Test of Honour, click here:

SAMURAI BLOG

All of the links should open a new window, so you wont lose this page. Have fun!

Ahoy there matie!

Arcane scenery at Partizan

To be truthful, my modelling and painting progress has been curtailed over the last week or so. The weekend was entirely spent preparing and attending the Partizan show at Newark. Normally, this in itself would be the subject of my blog. However, we were so busy that the only time that I left my stand was to go to the toilet – I’m sure that this is too much information – but the upshot is that I have no pictures of the many great games that were on show. As you can see, I do have some pictures of our stand so you can get an idea of how we looked!

Deezee and the new Woodland Scenics range

Our Aprentice Pete Harris with Julie. Meanwhile in the background, Duncan is laying out Trent Miniatures!

I would like to repeat comments that I have made in previous blogs and on social media. Partizan is my favourite show of the wargames circuit, both as a trader and on the rare occasions when I venture out from the stand, as a customer and enthusiast. The new Venue is superb. Well lit, plenty of space and a decent cafeteria and seating area for refreshments. The show team led by Laurence Baldwin, could not be more friendly and helpful. The show is neatly split into four sections; Traders, Historical Societies, Demonstration games ( look but please don’t touch) and Participation Games (get stuck in).

The Blitzkrieg team, Jake, Gav, Paul & Phil receive their award from Show organiser Laurence. Photo courtesy of Wargames Soldiers & Strategy.

I was delighted for our colleagues at Blitzkrieg Games as they were awarded the prize for the best Participation game. And well deserved it was too. Their table was constantly in use and the highlight of the day was a fiercely contested battle between Father & Son that drew in onlookers through the sheer enthusiasm of the game. A fantastic advert for our hobby. Well done to Paul, Gav, Phil and Jake for creating such an open and inviting game. Watch out for Partizan 2. In the meantime if you would like to see pictures of the day, follow this link across to the official facebook page:

Partizan Wargaming and History Show

So what is the nautical title of my blog all about then? Well, once I had recovered from the exertions at Partizan, I did find time to start some modelling. I had blagged a ‘first cast’ of the new Trent Miniatures ships boat that Duncan is about to launch (Yes, the pun was intended). I still have ambitions to create a Napoleonic Marine landing force, primarily for use in some future Caribbean campaign and when I saw the new release on the Trent stand, next door to ours, I couldn’t help but get yet another boat for my force.

As yet there is no crew available but they will come in time. The boat is also without oars or a mast, again they will be added, either as part of the model or as a separate accessory pack. In the meantime, I just wanted to get one painted. Here’s my progress so far.

The new Ships Boat from Trent

I have gone for a fairly basic paint job. Once I had washed the resin cast, I primed the boat with Army painter Leather brown and when dry, gave the whole boat two liberal coats of Dark tone ink to bring out the grain and detail on the planking. It was then a case of dry brushing with various mixes of Vallejo Golden Brown, New Wood and Old Wood and finishing the details in black, as you can see. Unusually for me, I didn’t really think through how I intend to finish the boat. I was just too eager to get some paint on! So I am now debating with myself as to whether I should add a mast and sail and make it a supply ship (which is my favourite option) or whether to buy or convert a crew and have it as yet another landing party.

I also have vague ideas of converting it to a rocket launching ship. The fact is, I now have the basic hull finished and I can now experiment over the coming bank holiday, weather, Family barbeques and gardening duty permitting…

Painting the Warband

An early May Bank holiday is usually an opportunity to get some painting done as the weather is generally pretty poor. This was not to be the case though. What with gardening, ‘Granddading’, and DIY, I barely managed to get to the painting desk. I have made some progress, though, and my warband is gradually taking shape. I’ve mentioned previously that I have not done any real research into Japanese Samurai other than to look at lots of pictures of other peoples models, casually flicking through my one Samurai book and putting together a Pinterest board of various Samurai images. You can see my board here:

SAMURAI PINTEREST BOARD

There was one colour scheme that caught my eye, the blue and red Ashigaru looked pretty good and so I based my colour scheme on this with a few tweaks.

My warband inspiration!

The picture also helped to clarify how the various armour plates and bits of clothing were supposed to look. There are slight differences between the bowman and the musketman but I now had the general idea as to how they should look. As usual, I would take a few liberties, or as I prefer to think, ‘artistic licence’ when it came to painting the figures – usually to simplify the painting process. I also like my models to look a bit on the ‘bright side’ for the gaming table.

So, having assembled the figures I gave them a priming coat of Army painter black spray. I then used a size 6 brush to drybrush the figures all over. The main purpose of this was to bring out the detail on the figures so that I could see what needed painting and where. The secondary purpose was that the armour was then highlighted and the detail brought to life.

Painting the warband

This was the first batch that I did – you can see that I have also painted the flesh and trousers. I used Vallejo 70992 neutral grey to dry brush these guys.

The bowmen, dry brushed and ready for painting.

The bowmen have been given the same drybrush treatment but this time, I used a lighter grey 70870 medium sea grey to up the contrast. I think that a light blue would also work well and I might try this on the next batch! I painted the flesh with 70927 Dark Flesh, the shirts with 70840 Light Turquoise and the trousers and weapons (spears & bows) with 70957 flat red.

Ashigaru Bowmen with detail added

I then painted the ‘socks’, face scarf, ties on the legs, detail on the bows and arrow feathers in off white 70820 and the arrow shafts in 310 old wood. At this stage most of the block painting is done. However, to give a bit of definition to some areas, I have given the faces a coat of skin wash 72093 and used both army painter strong tone and Dark tone ink . The initial effect is to make things look worse.

Ink washes applied

The ink does help to define the shadows and the next job will be to carefully repaint the same colours but to leave the ink shadows in the recesses. It might sound like a bit of a faff but it does work. That is as far as I have got with the bowmen and obviously I need to finish these off but here are the Spearmen that I have completed.

You can see that by carefully repainting the raised areas on the faces, you get a bit more character with the figures. I have also painted the sandals using 70822 black brown and added some detail to the weapons using Steel 70864 and brass 70801. I’ve also painted the hats 70862 black grey for no other reason than I wanted them to look slightly different to the armour. I’ve used 70817 scarlet and 70961 sky blue to add some highlights to the tunic and trousers. The basing is very rough at the moment. I will be adding some grass tufts and probably some flowers to make them a bit more interesting!

So that is how my warband is shaping up so far. There is still some way to go to have them completed. It doesn’t help that I tend to fuss and go back over models that I thought that I had finished as I learn how to paint the models and review the pictures that I have taken. It is also a different process to the one that I use to paint my Napoleonics. With these small skirmish warbands I like to try and have a go at painting using inks & highlights rather than resorting to quickshade. I think that it is worth the effort though, I hope that they will be well used in battle over the coming months!

If you would like to purchase the Vallejo & Army Painter colours that I have used, you can find them in my shop here:

VALLEJO PAINTS

ARMY PAINTER PAINTS

SAMURAI RANGE

At the time of writing, with the exception of aerosols, all items are available post free to most worldwide locations.

Tori Gate

No, it’s not a headline from the Sun Newspaper regarding a scandal in the Conservative party but the first piece of scenery that I have made for Test of Honour. A very straight forward and easy piece to finish, it is the simple Tori Temple Gate from the Sarissa Precision range.

Made from Laser cut MDF, assembly is very simple using PVA glue. Painting is just as straight forward. There seem to be a lot of questions as to how easy is it to paint MDF. The answer is very easy. I just use the same paints (Vallejo) that I use on my miniatures, unless I am painting a large area. In which case, match pots of emulsion from B&Q (other DIY superstores are available) also work very well.

Completed Tori Temple Gate

So, once I had assembled the gate, I sanded down any obvious mis matches on the pieces to get a smooth surface. I left the main gate separate from the base and just sprayed it with Army Painter red. The first coat will bring out any imperfections and it is easy to remove these with another sand over with fine wet & dry paper. Once this was done I just resprayed it a couple more times to build the colour and that was that. I’m not sure if it’s the right shade of red but it will do for me!

As for the base, this was just as easy. I took a fairly large brush and simply dry brushed it, with out priming, in a Dark Grey. I think that I gave it a couple of coats to cover the wood. This technique ensures that the laser etched detail is not covered. I then repeated the dry brushing with a Medium grey and then again with a lighter grey until I was happy with the effect. I picked out the etched cement between the flag stones using a small brush and a watered down pale grey to get the effect shown above. It was a simple but laborious job to follow the pattern.

Tori gate & warriors

So with my first piece of scenery made the next job was to sort out a playing surface. Of course I could use one of my other mats but I have a cunning plan for Test Of Honour. I think that it is an ideal club night game and my intention is to put together a ‘Pick up Set’ where by I can just grab a couple of boxes of Scenery and figures and head off to the club knowing that everything is there, ready to play. The solution to a playing surface can be found at Aldi at the moment if you are quick! For just £6.99 you can get a 1 metre by 2 Metre green Awning mat. Cut it in half and you have two ideal sized mats for Test of Honour, so if you ‘go halves’ with a mate, you pay just £3.50! Here’s mine:

Aldi Mat

OK, it’s not as glamourous as a Cigar Box mat but then at the price…If you look on the Test of Honour Face book page , I’ll post some pictures of how it looks with scenery and figures on it later. If you follow this link, you can see details of the mat online:

ALDI GRASS CARPET

You will also notice from the pictures I have some trees in Blossom. The story behind these is that I picked up a job lot of trees that were being discontinued by a supplier two years ago to sell on the stand at Salute – just £1.99 for a pack of two. Nobody wanted trees in Blossom and these were left over after the show. I decided that they would look nice on my table and here we are two years later and I cant get Blossom trees at such a price to sell for love or money…. They still look nice on my table though!

So if my playing surface and scenery box is taking shape, how am I doing with the figures. As usual for me, painting is slow but I am getting there. I now have six spearmen done.

My war band takes shape.

The basing isn’t really finished – I need to add some grass tufts or even better flowers but I haven’t quite decided on the final scheme. I am also waiting on some decals to add onto the back banners. They are ready for tonight’s game though. Next up, the archers and I will give a bit more information on how I went about painting my war band.