More scenery (spelled correctly, this time)

This is the pegasus model's gothic tower with some extra bits. I've scratch built an extra floor (I know it's not full height - but I was aiming for getting it level) to display the Aqilla. And there are a set of CoD Aqilla doors on the ground floor as well.

This is it from the rear, with a CoD panel to decorate the plasticard ground floor. I'm going to try and come up with a stencil of something suitably imperium of man-ish for the blank walls. You might be able to make out the roof tile plasticard behind the tower; that'll go on the cardboard roof after the rest of it has been based and painted. And more than likely stuck together as well, the floors are still separates. I was thinking of leaving them as such so that the tower could be lowered one floor at a time as it was shot at during games. However the flying butresses, as constructed, knit into the fabric of the tower and I suspect that the extra floor will look least obviously alien to the rest of the building if its done as a whole.

This is the rest of it. You'll note that I've lost a bit and replaced it with foamboard. Ho hum.

An A4 peice of foamboard showing how it buts up against the lugs in the top of the pillars. This will be trimmed down (and the offcuts carefully shaped to fill the narrow gaps at the ends) to fit and then triangular peices cut to support the cardboard roof. I might leave the roof unsecured, so that it can taken off to simulate damage.

Mostly Scenary

Whilst I was clearing up the garage I had all three gaming boards out together (a first !). It looks like being alright for the apocalyptic battle at the climax of the campaign. The middle board is just that - 9mm MDF.

This is the same board with frame and emulsion. Hurrah !

I suspect that this photo is upside down. It's hardboard and chopped up bits of stick (Curtosy of my helpers [the stick, not the chopping up]).

So the hardboard gets a smearing of pollyfilla and the sticks are all artfully arranged. Vostroyan officer for scale. I'll sand (ie coat with PVA and sprinkle with sand, as opposed to sanding down) and paint the pollyfilla, but the stick is good for the tabletop as it is.

This afternoon, after the sportrelief run, I had a look at my pegasus gothic buildings and have begun work on that as well. A sort of church with a separate tower.

Not much in the way of progress

I had intended to get to grips with my airbrush. In the event I ended up spending two and half days tidying up the garage. My wheelie bin is overflowing but I now have shelf space for all that remains.

I have also put the 20x40 frame on the underside of the third 6'x4' board and given it a coat of light grey emulsion.

And collected four LRMBT and three Valks from up north, adding to the plastic crack mountain. Looking at it all is quite daunting.

So I'm off for a curry with my wife.

The end of a bout of frenzied activity

I didn't manage to do any work on these, but thought I'd include them for interest. The fellows with the HB are a viridian MG team. To the right are 1st Ed iggies with shoulder mounted las cannons. I've erroniously mounted them on 40mm bases, rather than 60mm bases. But they arn't going to see competitive use so I'm too worried about that. Also the FW vraksian Hvy Stubber teams are on 40mm bases as well so I might cook up some rule for a half way house HW team movement for these more portable crew served weapons. Any ideas ? Someone already got a house rule for this out there ?

The Vostroyans are ready for the tabletop. The ASL HW teams have a lot of their required paint on, but still need a bit of TLC.Bloodcoat mortar spam; These chaps are also accumilating colours as well, so they might be ready sometime this year. In action the Bloodcoat's indirect fire assets are rounded out by a battery of three quad guns. hurrah !

Bloodcoat auto cannon teams; got on a bit further with these. So things are looking up for the Bloodcoats.

That's more of less it for the time being. I'll be able to do a bit more in March sometime; Hopefully by then the weather will have dried out enough to try out the airbrush. Fingers crossed.

Story telling

Being back in the cabin in the woods for a few days had me pondering; It does have a 'Hansel & Gretel' feel to it at times (dusk, mostly). A lot of ancient (pre industrial) monster tales are of bleak and lonely places, moors and mountains. Places with little shelter and less food; persons stuck out there may well die. ie travellers in swamps might be overcome by marsh gas and drown, giving rise to willow-the-whisp and boggart stories.

By the time Hans Christian Anderson is writing, the balance of population is beginning to shift from rural to urban. So places that their forebears might consider far preferable to moors and mountains - woods and forests (with their ready shelter and opportunities for foraging) become places of fear and apprehension for the new urban population in the same way that the moors and mountains were for persons in times past.

Anyway, this photo is from the stove in the picture above, taken possibly less than a minute later, but with the flash turned off. I was expecting a volcanic palette, but its come out in a sort of Emperor's Children colour scheme.

So now in our modern age, when those with the money are moving back out of the urban centres into more exclusive/suburban areas/outlying villages, it is the turn of the city centres to become the haunt of bogeymen and monsters. Of course these are mostly human now, rather than fey or monstorus.

Amongst the modern bogeymen we could list hoodies, rapists, terrorists and peadophiles. All of which are very present threats to the wider "us" and not really the subject for a quick 'fairy tale', although they do figure in some contemporary novels.

I have no idea what locations/people/monsters will the en vouge bogeymen of the future. Or what horror stories might arise (although '28 days later' and the BBC's 'Chimera' spring to mind).

WH40K presents us with a wide selection of bogeymen; from the obvious 'Nids, 'Crons & 'Orks through the more subtle Eldar and Tau to the elegantly self consuming Inquisition and SM. It does seem as if the poor ol' iggies are the only normal people out there...

Auditing the Contractor this morning

But did a bit more painting last night. Again, apologies for the quality of the pictures. The Vostroyan HW teams are now ready for the tabletop. Their Shako/Bearskin/bonnet/titfa's might get a drybrush with a lighter colour, but they're good to go. The Italiari 1/35th scale sandbags do look a little big if you look and think about it too long. Meh, they could easily be sacks of some foodstuff or other. Managed to get a few colours on the others as well. Note coffee cup to the left. My water pots are to the right. ;)

I pulled the ASL HB teams out of the box to continue their decoration as well. Interesting contrast between the set spray-undercoated black and the ones where the figures were brush undercoated grey. I find the black-undercoated figures tend to be easier to shade (well, who'd have thought that ?) but the base will take a lot more work to bring it up to the tone required. That can wait for the airbrush...

All of the ASL batches appear to have a different coat on their, er, coats. Some a revel paint similar to Kommando Khaki, some Tamiya, some are Kommando Khaki. When the whole lot are done I might go over them with a unifying coat. Almost certainly Kommando Khaki.

A series of boring meetings by day

And painting by night. Back in the cabin, on the second night I'm just about getting back into the, swing of it. Still not 'enjoying' it fully yet, but then I havn't finished anything yet. Which I believe is my great motivator to spur me onto doing more.

So I've undercoated nine Bloodcoat Motar Teams, three Vostroyan HB teams, Three Vostroyan LC teams and Three ASL LC Teams. And have begun basecoating as well. Sorry about the photo quality, but it's moblie phone camera and desk lamp lighting. Here they all are undercoated. I don't know where the watercolour brush came from, but it left bubbles on the figures like you wouldn't believe.

Here are some of them with their base coats going on. You can see the tentacle pink on the teams on the left and the ones with red gore on the right. There's a smattering of green on the mortar teams and a couple of colours on the ASL. Hopefully more tonight. I've brought more or less all of the little men with me to Kent, but if I get these HW Teams done this week, I'll be happy.

Oh, btw, a warm welcome to Soviet Space.