Category: Scenery

Painting Picnic IV – medieval

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 22nd Aug 2026
9 Comments on Painting Picnic IV – medieval

I captioned this latest painting picnic offering as medieval yet of course the building by definition is able to fit into centuries of warfare and wargaming periods.

This tabletop workshop item led me to their website and holy moly August sees them launch Lee and Grant M3’s in 1/72 !!!!!!

I picked up the kit at a late bring and buy tour as I left the May Partizan show around three pm.

It was a tenner – the “walk away with it” price seemed ok and I was buying some magazines from the same guy – he was pricing to shift stuff unlike a guy next to him where the seller was asking far too much – the 1/72 imex stuff was way more expensive than grubby tanks was selling in the show itself off a trade stand.

Clip together simples, no flash, no prep, very sharp moulding – top quality.

It pays to check stuff out and I had quick look online and found my kit building selling at 15-20 quid.

The building is designed to hold gaming miniatures with an easily removable first floor and roof piece

I took a shine to it and the guy extra discounted a bulk buy of old practical wargamer magazines into the deal.

The magazines are great as they all have Mr Ralph Weaver C19th wars articles complete with his glorious artwork in them.

Their website shows far better more grubby versions than mine which looks more like a 21st century makeover 😂

Back to the medieval building I gave it a Vallejo white prime then black undercoat interior plus roof before my craft paints provided the sand all over wood and walls then followed by citadels dark oath flesh contrast for the wood. Naples yellow dry brush for the stone base with coffee highlights did for the building. Roof wise I did a blue, black, red mix rough brushed and then dark grey dry brush with same grey plus white for final very light dry brush.

All done in quick time. Another pleasing result both at speed and to my visual liking.

It’s bit like buses here – expect a long wait for the next one!

Tags 1/56 scale, 28mm plastics, 28mm scale, miniatures painting, painting miniatures, Scenery, season of scenery challenge, wargames, wargaming

Scenery

Painting Picnic I – season of scenery finally gets going..

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 13th Aug 2026
6 Comments on Painting Picnic I – season of scenery finally gets going..

Season of scenery challenge was looking promising until real life again got in the way of an already disrupted year.

I did manage to plan to do some pieces with this early war miniatures small stone bridge being snapped up at Partizan in May in anticipation (that now seems a long time ago).

EWM have both resin and metal items in their comprehensive ranges

I decided to experiment with yellow stone – no not that US thing but the European sandstones which you often see in the Mediterranean but also in Northern Europe where sadly the weather can erode the fine carvings.

I used craft paints with some blending plus house paint sample pots

Only a little bit of dry brushing on the stones and road cobbles was needed to get the look I wanted.

The bridge reminds me a bit of the Bellona bridge I had as a teenager – in fact I had the large and small ones eventually, although they have disappeared long ago.

https://steve-the-wargamer.blogspot.com/2016/12/bellona.html?m=1

The moulding from EWM is first class with no prep needed although you do need to prime the resin – I did not to start with – in a hurry and had to rectify that issue.

I am delighted with the results which may well influence some of my other stone work plans.

Tags Early War Miniatures, painting portrait, Scenery, scenery modelling, season of scenery challenge

Scenery wargaming

Season of Scenery Challenge- part VIII – finale

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 5th Sep 2025
2 Comments on Season of Scenery Challenge- part VIII – finale

A long while ago I had the desire to make some adobe buildings for cowboy skirmishes. However despite having the figures (admittedly only primed) and then my “what a tanker” playing partner getting “what a cowboy”, it still did not look good. Fortunately the challenge rolled up and provided the impetus I needed to get this project over the line – along with some more conventional items. Amazing where “cardboard packaging” can take you!

I have an old card table earmarked for skirmish play. The adobe buildings were just how they came out of the product boxes 😆 I then added some extra roofing with card and tissue paper plus pva. The two right hand regular buildings are from warbases basics range

You can’t beat Dixon 28mm cowboys for style

Lots of yellow ochre – the left hand building has received a dry brush. The packaging designer kindly included a base skirt which was decorated with pva and budgie grit.

Dry brush done and doors and windows (cornflake package) painted and dry brushed

Sunrise – the Mexican is at a disadvantage although he aimed first

A real New Mexico example in Santa Fe. For my quick build models I omitted the exposed logs – maybe next time.

So that’s it, 8 weeks of one hot dry summer and I have massively exceeded my expectations. I completed a lot of items and even though I started even more they are at least started and now have real homes rather than their sales boxes (thanks John the Varnish!)

For the analysts….. completions were

First module of my port,

two adobe buildings,

six earthen defences,

one artillery position

one aircraft base

flexible roads recoloured

two hills now also become a green defensible position

repaired damaged cardboard church

new self coloured HO Germanic church

two warbases Wild West buildings

two very old bellona low relief terraced houses

Two straight drainage ditch pieces

Finishing off stuff and even repairs/reworkings proved very satisfying.

The “starters” all happened to be kits and kicked off my challenge.

Blotz models Bronze Age fortress

Italeri French railway station building

Italeri north Italian church

warbases north German church

At least I have the measure of these pieces not least where and how to store them.

I probably have too many churches now……..

Funny that I did not finish the kits that I started the challenge with – given they were my absolute main targets – instead I started raking out cardboard and home building………

wargaming really is hilarious…..

Thanks Dave.

Tags 1/72, 20-25mm, 28mm, Scenery, scenery modelling, wargames, wargaming, wars of italian unification

Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge part VII low relief housing and a ditch

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 4th Sep 2025
2 Comments on Season of scenery challenge part VII low relief housing and a ditch

Last year I started painting my Low relief housing. I bought two of these terraces back in the 1970’s and somehow these bellona pieces have not fractured into pieces. They are injection moulded and were the “resin prints” of their time.

One terrace in basic coats sat on my first port module

Low relief was popular railway modelling idea taken up by bellona

So I gave them a go and I must say the sculpture is brilliant. They were fun to paint. You can still buy injection moulded models – amera sell them via eBay in the uk. Alas I haven’t seen any terraced buildings.

Two terraces book ended by my hovels Dutch buildings with EWM latex roadways and then the ditch

Natural morning sunlight catches the detail well

In front of them are some early war miniatures road sections (flexible latex) last year I painted them but didn’t like the finish so they were back in the mix for a dry brush.

Finally there is the ditch. Basically more packaging fell into my eye line and I immediately thought – that’s useful. This is new packaging (not from the mountain!) and made the back end of the challenge displacing some other contenders.

They required no preparation.

Galena students burnt umber is rich and oily giving good coverage on this very dense cardboard

The ochre coating was necessary but not too obvious before the brandy cream which was a semi dry application

Very pleased with the low reliefs and also with the roadway while the ditch was an out of the blue late late entry which has exceeded my expectations

I gave the packaging a coat of burnt umber then one of yellow ochre and then brandy cream! dry brush before an autumn variety of Javis static grass. The ditch water was done with Paynes grey tube acrylic and then a shade of paynes grey with some ivory white added as a top coat.

Final shot which shows the early morning in colour somewhere in Rugia plus Mr Varnishes armour! (you know who you are 😊)

Last entry for the scenery challenge is next up

Tags 1/72, 20-25mm, Scenery, wargames, wargaming

Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge part VI bits and bobs

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 3rd Sep 2025
2 Comments on Season of scenery challenge part VI bits and bobs

First up is an Aircraft movement base. It was an unfinished piece from last year I think. Anyway it’s now got some scatter and is ready for some land planes – only trouble is I gave away my reconnaissance spitfire I did in AHPC14 https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/tag/fantasy/and now have just my “scrap heap” rescued spotter float biplane.

Actually the base could pass for a seaweed covered rock……

I need to get some aeroplane production going……

Next up is a complimentary piece for my recent fortifications. It’s an Artillery position fashioned from some corrugated card and unlike my recent port module this one went bananas. But I persevered and it’s finished with some dried tea – the brown granules and greenery.

Javis – shrub mixture added over dried tea leaves.

I richer lighting shows off the simple two coat dry brush of burnt sienna with coffee colour dry brush

Tags basing miniatures, Scenery, wargames, wargaming

Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge part IV port facilities

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 16th Aug 2025
6 Comments on Season of scenery challenge part IV port facilities

This years scenery season has continued to prove fruitful. I have been finally sorting out some key home builds. One is a harbour the other is a 17th century fortress. The common thread was that they must be modular in some way plus their core material is recycled cardboard.

I wanted a distinctly south European style which meant ochre rather than grey would be the key colour.

I used a pva base for some fine sand dressing. It did not adhere everywhere which prompted a “potted roadway” thought. The compacted earth road has been eroded in places. Some judicious shading and job done.

The card stonewall received some dry brush over ochre base over hand drawn stones.

The holes at the bottom – don’t ask 😂

So far this piece and others made of two pieces glue one on top have defied going bananas – I did use weights for the drying step.

And here is the unit with another scenery piece on the go – it was started in the 2024 season but I changed my mind, and it got parked. It too has had a dose of ochre to help it on its way.

Low relief is not so fashionable these days but it has its place at my games table

There are some other irons in the fire. But this will do for now.

Tags Scenery, season of scenery challenge, wargames, wargaming

Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge ptIII – sage advice from John @justneedsvarnish

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 23rd Jul 2025
7 Comments on Season of scenery challenge ptIII – sage advice from John @justneedsvarnish

John@justneedsvarnish over time has kept reminding me that storage cannot be ignored when collecting for wargames. This is even a greater issue when scenery comes into play given it can become a sizeable part of your collection.

So my recent building blitz has a kind of logic.

Over the summer figure painting has dried up just like last year and scenery has come to the fore. This is just as well because the lockdown era seemed to be the time when I fervently collected for my apparent scenery needs but never made any of the kits or used the “recycling”. It was the latter that brought me up short when I looked at my cardboard mountain.

Also I have made some inroads into my figure mountain that led to a right old sort out.

The net result is two scenery drawers created by redistribution of figure boxes/bags/containers.

New homes for scenery – the tall items drawer

New scenery home – the shallow drawer with some washed and bagged figures about to depart. My Italian hilltop town from 2024 scenery challenge (I think) lives in the grey box

I am quite pleased with the result and it will probably lead to a scenery rationalisation at some point now they are all more visible and accessible.

Right now some of my recent builds have simply booked themselves a decent storage spot.

Thanks John.

Tags 1/72, Scenery, season of scenery challenge, wargames, wargaming

Scenery wargaming

Season of Scenery Challenge II – process and creativity

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 19th Jul 2025
11 Comments on Season of Scenery Challenge II – process and creativity

Crikey what’s going on?

Like most wargamers I guess when you stop and reflect upon your hobby, your traits often pop up.

In my case I am more process than creative perhaps more risk averse as well. So that’s the wargaming general who gets his logistics sorted before attacking – and maybe never attacks as a result 😂 queue heap of unpainted figures and of course scenery.

You could of course burrow into all this personality assessment-briggs myers style. Anyway this is a long intro to justify this!

So instead of carefully planning my scenery making I just dug out any thing I could find and started building – note, no painting.

Of course one item is self coloured so it’s done! Dating from the days of the USSR and the DDR it shows there is nothing new under the sun – even back then modellers fed up with the painting step were catered for.

Three years ago I made a tower one summer after discovering Dave Stone’s challenge. Last year it prompted me to trawl my bridges and defences pile to excellent effect. Heck I have even managed to game them!

This year the reaction to July’s starting gun has been a frenzy of building – in fact anything I could find. And especially those “I will make this when I have time to do it justice”.

So I have

An italeri church

An italeri railway station

A warbases church

Two warbases cowboy town buildings

A vero (1980’s) 1/87 scale model railway church ready coloured

A blotz starter pack for 20mm Bronze Age fortress.

No idea when some paint will get sploshed on them……

Thanks Dave 😉