Rumble in the Jungle

Having a 3D-printer working in the background, printing stuff for gaming, has inspired me to start making some jungle bases on mini CDs - those will be used both for Star Wars Legion, Congo, various Pulp games, Victorian Adventures, and my Paleo Diet in Africa project, as well as anything else, I can place in a tropical environment.

The next couple of days I probably shall not have much time to spend on this project (I start my 5-nights work period tonight), but the next phase is slapping some filler  around the plastic plants to hide ugly joints and bases/webbing. I shall focus on getting three of these ready before my next game.

Birthday Presents from the Kids

I got these two IKEA plastic plants for my birthday Monday - they are now destined to get chopped up and used for some jungle terrain. Which I intend to start doing when my current Vikings project is done. Intend.

Dark Ages: Armoured Vikings

I painted nada today - wife and kids are re-decorating the kids' rooms, and it is stressing me out a bit.

Instead, I finished assembling this group (yes, I opted to make eight right away, after all). They will start out as two points of Hearthguard for SAGA, then be expanded to a ten-man unit for God of Battles, and, finally, when I find time to paint some actual hirdmen for Sigurdr, be used as one point of Warriors, while some of the recently painted Warriors will be transferred to an Anglo-Danish warband (in SAGA terms, that is).

Dark Ages: Building Some Provisional Hearthguards

While waiting for some paint to dry, I started getting some mail wearing warriors for my first two points of Hearthguard fnished.

Provisional, as these are going to end up as warriors for a late Viking warband, while the warriors I am painting at the moment are probably ending up as Anglo-Danish fyrd warriors (no armour and helmets), somewhen in the future - but for now, I just want to get six points ready for the table!

GoB: Command Models Progress

I have been feeling a bit shitty the last couple of days, so I have spent most time on the couch, watching TV or movies (and the Handball World Championships, from which our national team exited today, thus marking the worst result for Danish males' handball since 2005 😢😢😢)

Well, this evening, after having supper and walking the dog, I sat down and put some more parts on the three standard bearers and the lone musician for the Skeleton Hordes.

My camera really does not like these models (or the background, maybe), but you can probably see that the models are fully built by now.

I am probably going to add a few bits and bobs to this and that figure, to make them a bit more interesting, but as they are for lowly rabble units, I am not going to town on these.

GoB: Plastic Standards and Musician... Tiny Bit of Progress

I put some filler on - I thought I should better build up the bases, before gluing the arms with the lances on. Drying now, shall probably finish the filler job this evening.

GoB: Change of Plans

Last night, while skyping with a gaming buddy, I realized that I think the metal command models are a bit too much hassle for lowly Skeleton Horde units, and I decided to instead build some plastic models for the units needing some.

Today, I then dug out my skeleton bitz box, and some sprues, and set about prepping three standard bearers and one musician (I found a skeleton arm with a cobra-shaped horn).

"That is too few musicians", I gather you are thinking now, and yes - not every unit will have a musician model, but in formed units it doesn't really matter, because as long as there is one model left besides the Leader and the Standard Bearer, that model of course is the musician (instrument, or not).

Formed shooters of course always take the Marksman, and if they should not have a standard (which would, in my opinion, be a strange choice, as the Musician gives a bonus when moving into contact with the enemy, something shooters should only do in the direst of circumstances), then again the Musician will be present, as long as the unit has three or more models left (and only units that fight to the last model need to be concerned regarding this, anyways).

Should I find parts to make Musicians for the units without one, I shall of course built and paint them, as it is nice to have full command sections, but really not need to have.

Coconut Fibres for my Pile of Shit

A couple of days ago my wife and eldest daughter went to Odense to find some clothes on the January Sale, and I asked them if they could swing by a pet store to look for some coconut fibres.

Dr Zombie of the LAF had told me that he used that material to represent straw and the likes for several purposes, including his Dark Ages dung heaps, which, among others, are some of my main inspiration for making my own. 💩

They came back with this, an expense of only DKK 25, and I can soon get on with my dung project! 👍

There will be plenty of material to use on other projects, and I am now thinking of using some of my newly acquired mini DVDs for a couple of smaller dung heaps, to place in strategic positions around my - hopefully soon built - Dark Ages village. 😉

Two updates about terrain in one day? Yes, I think I am going to spend a lot of Hobby Time this winter and spring on terrain-making, as it is an area I have been leaving wanting for quite some time, and I really want my tables to come a bit more to life.

I am going to need some scatter terrain, too, but as it is something I do not have a lot of stuff for, sadly it will have to be postponed until I have a sizable collection of larger terrain items.

Purchases will be limited to perhaps about DKK 200 per month (and will only be allowed when I have a specific purpose for the stuff in question, so as to not create new backlogs).

I really hope to reduce the amount of stuff I have sitting around unused in boxes, and get a lot of it ready to put on the table(s) instead - after all, that is why I purchased it in the first place 😇

Terrain Bases Galore!

I decided to spend my Hobby Allowance for January on 100 mini DVDs to use as bases for patches of vegetation - for now primarily jungle terrain, but they should also come in handy for other types.

I ordered them yesterday, and they were delivered on my doorstep this morning at 06:45 😎

As soon as I have finished the two Skeleton Hordes I have WIP for God of Battles, I shall make a couple of jungle bases (I think I shall make this into a lot of small partial projects, so as to not get bored by it).

I have an abundance of plastic palm trees and aquarium decoration plants to use for this, so I should be able to get a good 'pulpy' jungle up and running for a small skirmish type table before spring.

I also have my eyes on some plastic aquarium decoration trees that I only discovered recently, but I shall use some of the stuff I have before purchasing any new supplies!

Strange Aeons: FFG Grey Sleeves Sized Card Holder for Solo Play Deck

This Card Shoe/Deck Holder is sized to hold cards in FFG Grey sleeves, and accommodates the Strange Aeons Solo Play Deck as shown in the photos.

This build uses glue and cardboard tabs to keep it together, and is completely devoid of the scotch tape I used to assemble my first Card Shoe for the Star Wars Armada Damage Deck (FFG Yellow Sleeves).

I think I can make a template for a one-piece build, and I expect to do that for my next Deck Holder.

I do not think that I shall find the time to build more of these this side of New Year's Eve, though, but I still may have a few things to post the next couple of days...

My First Pile of Shit

I started making a dung heap for Dark Ages/Medieval/Fantasy settlements today.

Basically, until now it is a CD, some Renedra plastic wattle fences, some styrofoam, a foam scourer, used tea leaves from tea bags, and lots of PVA.

I think I need to add some filler and gravel and maybe some bristles from an old brush or something, to get more coarse structure, before adding even more tea leaves of different kinds...

Any suggestions are welcome!

Dark Ages/Viking Village WIP

Anna and I started building a large longhouse today. I let Anna decide on the type and size, so this is probably going to be the Chieftain's/Hersír's longhouse, while I am going to make some smaller ones of the type with the door in the gable wall.

We are using this drawing as pattern for the house, and in restrospect it would have been easier to use the simpler designs for our first building, but Anna is always very ambitious when it comes to any kind of creative activity.

Star Wars Armada: DIY Card Shoe

I took the holidays as an opportunity to start playing around with making some card shoes for some of my games using cards for several purposes.

I like putting sleeves on my gaming cards to protect them from wear and tear, and that makes the decks rather tall and unstable, and the sleeves add thickness to each card, and the sleeves are somewhat more smooth/slippery than the card themselves, so the stack/deck topples over easily when handled.

My solutiuon for this: Card 'shoes'.!

I had been playing with the idea of getting some pre-made kits for this, but as it were, they do not seem to be commercially available in all those different sizes I would need, so I decided to make some from cardboard - an almost free solution, as I have plenty of sturdy cardboard in store, I just need to add some glue/scotch tape and elbow grease ✌

This, my first 'proto type' was made exclusively from cardboard and scotch tape. It is for Star Wars Armada Damage Cards, and I made it taller than necessary to accommodate a double deck, if I decide to incorporate both Damage Decks form the two starter sets I have.

I applied good old Pythagoras to find the necessary depth of the shoe, and as it turns out, I need to add a little depth to give a few more degrees of dimensional tolerance to the build, but - hey - that is what proto types are for, right? 😎

My next build is for the Strange Aeons Solo Play Deck, as I intend to start delving into that mind of madness very soon (just have to make a nice 2x3 playing mat out of painter's felt, of which I have an abundance from when we  moved to out current home.

Expect to see more of this kind over the next couple of days (plus updates about Christmas Wars and God of Battles - things have been brewing lately, and I should have more to show very soon)!

USUTHU! Four Builds Completed

Despite spending most of the day wheelbarrowing firewood into the shed, I manage dto squeeze a tiny bit of hobby time in.

I got the heads of my four unblooded warriors cleaned up and attached to the bodies - not a lot of progress, but better than nothing.

I do not have much more firewood left to move, but as I am going to work tonight, I am going to sleep most of the day tomorrow, and I really want to get the last pile of wood into safety from the autumn rain, which inevitably will return sooner or later, I sincerely doubt that I shall be able to spare any time for hobby stuff. Then again, I did not expect to get anything done today...

USUTHU! Unblooded Marksmen Coming Along

Just as I thought yesterday, I did not have much hobby time today. I spent all morning with my household accounts, and then I had to bottle a batch of mead.

Around five o'clock I got 6 cubic metres of firewood delivered, and Anna and I went about getting some of it piled up in the shed (I know exactly what I shall have to use tomorrow for...).

I did, however manage to clean up the last body (of four) unblooded warriors, and get the arms cleaned up and attached to all of them. I shall try to get the heads done tomorrow, but, as mentioned, I have a lot of firewood to attend to...

USUTHU! More Warriors in the Pipeline

I have been cleaning up the first three (of four) bodies for the next batch of Zulus. This time I am going to model four unblooded/unmarried warriors with firearms to add some ranged support for the Impi.

I hope to have time for at least getting the arms attached to all four models, but I have a lot of other stuff to attend to tomorrow, so maybe that is a tad too optimistic. Luckily, I still have two married/veteran warriors to work on, and I also primed some other models today, so I shall not run out of stuff to do, even if modelling time must be scrapped tomorrow.

USUTHU! Slow but Steady Progress.

As stated yesterday, I have slapped some filler on the Zulu warriors' bases, and they now only need a final touch, before I can prime them. I also put filler on the bases of a couple of LotR minis, but they will be shown elsewhere at another time.

I think I forgot some mold lines on the rightmost mini's shield extensions (spear and shield top) - I need to remind myself to get those removed before I spray them with primer...

USUTHU! First Sprue Completed

VERY hot today, and I spent some hours inside, away from the sun, working on several hobby projects.

First, I completed building the second pair of unmarried Zulus, and I shall put filler on the bases first thing tomorrow (I have not gotten my act together and made some gloop for basing, yet).

I had to use a shield from an unmarried sprue, as the married sprue contains only three arms with the large isihlangu shields (there is an extra one on the sprue, but no left arm to  hold it, go figure!).

Building Sarissa Old West Buildings.

Yesterday, I announced my recent decision to start collecting mdf-buildings for my gaming purposes, and that I had already purchased and started assembling some Sarissa Prescision Old West models.

Today, I am going to take you through building such a model. I know, most readers of this humble blog could probably easily figure out their own best practise for this, but I'd still like to share my experience.

First step is to remove the parts from the mdf-sheets. The parts are held in place by some tiny 'pegs' or 'tabs' left there in the laser-cutting process. The larger parts can be removed by force quite safely, but the more delicate pieces. like window frames, door frames, and the supports for the porch 'awnings', need a gentlier approach.

I prefer to use my trusty X-Acto to take care of all the little pegs, best done form the backside of the mdf-sheet.

After removing the parts from the mdf-sheets, it is time to remove the leftovers of the pegs. I use a P80 sandpaper, then a P240 to smooth out the surface.

I also sand all edges with the P240; it makes the buildings less clean-cut, and it also provides an instant highlight.

The Sarissa Old West buildings almost all have a flat roof- For some reason, only known to himself, the designer has left the roofs completely devoid of features, apart from the 'slot' that fits over a tab in the back wall. It would have been so much nicer with some texture, but I guess it would be easy to paint it as tar paper.

However, a pitched roof upgrade is available for all the basic 'main street buildings', containing an alternative back wall, two roof supports, the roof, obviously, and a door frame.

For this building, I opted for the upgrade, and I have thought up a little trick for those:

I sand down the tabs holding the roof pieces in place by about half a millimeter.

This means that a shallow recess is left where the tabs are connected - and thus I can use filler to make the otherwise rather unattractive joins disappear.

Using the upgrade kit, I suddenly have TWO door frames, which is rather handy, as you will see quite soon.

I use an old size 1 (or maybe a very worn size 2) brush to apply un-thinnd PVA glue to the backside of the door frames (or any other ornaments)

And then apply them to the outer walls.

AND the extra door frame goes on the inside to mark the door, which will be a boon when gaming. Later, when I add interior details, I shall of course decorate the door adequately.

Window frames are done the same way. Excess glue is wiped off with a wet tissue, alternatively removed with the tip of the X-Acto blade when slightly dry.

What looks like window glass, here, is actually just a newspaper photo...

When the glue on all the ornamenting has dried up properly, it's time to put up th outer walls. The building is all but finished by now.

As you can see in the picture, though, this building is designed with an 'awning' over the porch/sidewalk, so I'll have to attend to that one when the glue is dry.

Apart from the flat, featureless roofs, the design of the awnings is my only real point of criticism; the supports do not have tabs to connect to the roof, and the post holes in the sidewalk are too large for a snug fit, making this last step in the construction process the only slightly frustrating part.

In this picture, you can see what the tiny 'tabs' look like before sanding.

Although in my book a design flaw, it is a minor nuissance, and with a bit of patience - and making sure that the model sits on a flat surface - a nice result can still be obtained.

The finished building can be seen between the other two 'stores' in the picture below. You can also see, that I hadn't figured out the little trick with the roof support tabs when assembling the shack - I shall just have to see what I can do about it when I get around to painting the roof...

That is all for now. I hope this has been useful information for anyone considering to get some of the Sarissa stuff for their Old West setting - I shall not be looking for anything else than mdf when buying buildings in the future, that is for sure!

To MDF or not to MDF...?

I have had some experience with wargaming buildings made from various materials.

Paper (mainly Worldworks and Whitewash City), is cheap, just needs to be printed, cut out, and glued together, is light-weight, and looks OK, especially in numbers. It is also prone to warping due to to air humidity and/or pressure, which is a big problem as I have moved my gaming activites 2/3 of the year into my un-insulated garage attic.

Resin withstands humidity, and makes truly beautiful models, but they require a lot of work; cleaning, filling and painting a large building can be quite daunting. Larger resin models are heavy, and usually not exactly cheap (including postage). Also, most resin buildings have no access to interiors, and are not easily converted.

Plastic (Renedra/Perry), very nice models, but usually slightly undersized, and rarely with accessible interiors (without extensive conversion work). Not overly expensive, but not a lot of choice out there.

So, I wanted:

• a light material
• a sturdy material
• buildings with accessible interior
• fast to build
• large model ranges (for easy variation)

Looking at the level of perfection currently reached by manufacturers of laser-cut mdf building kits, I realized that I probably had found a viable solution. If I had any doubts, THIS wiped them all away.

Recnently, as part of my plans for playing High Moon: Dead Reckoning, I ordered some Old West buildings from Sarissa Precision, and they arrived Saturday.

I almost immediately started putting some of the models together, and I must say, I have not been disappointed.

The parts have been cut so precisely, that the only work I have to do is sanding those very small 'tabs'. left to keep the parts in place in the mdf sheets for packaging, and then glue the buildings together.

In this picture, I have finished the Shack, and have two more buildings under construction (first, window and door frames, plus the ornaments on the facade, are glued in place on the outer walls, then the building is assembled), and I expect to have at least four buildings ready tomorrow.

All roofs are lift off, with full interior access, which opens up a world of opportunities for modelling and gaming.

The best part about these is, I can use them right away, as the 'wood' look is quite fitting for the Old West, but of course I shall want to slap som paint on, especially on the facades and the interiors.