So this is more an ideas in progress rather than even a work in progress post.
Packaging Polystyrene blocks kicked this idea off
Having just been on a late Roman figure painting jaunt this summer and despite having numerous castles yet to be built I somehow returned to a theme of Roman city walls “would be nice”. I think it was propelled by the guardsmen diorama where I made a card backdrop.
All sorts of ideas have led to experiments The internet has plenty of gatehouses Colchester’s almost unique 4 arch gateway – I do like the red brick courses……And at the east coast end of Hadrian’s wall but on the south side of the Tyne river is Arbeia
So plenty to inspire and cajole me into trying out some homespun walls. Of course I could just buy off the shelf or made to print ones but it is of course the creativity element that’s being sought here.
I have opted for some crenellations and a ready supply of thick corrugated cardboard is the experiment hereDove grey dry brushed over a light grey and then a very light dusting of dry white on top. The roughness comes from the polystyrene plus some indenting with a cuticle manicure pusher! Then tissue paper glued over with pva followed by the paint regime.
And those brick courses which it turns out were most definitely a later Roman idea which among other things could sustain the wall better during earthquakes!
I decided I would experiment with discrete strips of coursing made from cornflake card
So here is some wall testing for the look of the thing.
First up when I visit York I often liberate a magazine or two from TGJones in Coney street (formerly WHSmith). Now it is also soon to be formerly TGJones as the company has got permission to shut what was York’s main post office which currently relocated, sits inside this store. The rest of the shop sales I am sure relied on post office footfall for a now faded business model. Of course the original grand Edwardian? general post office building is now a giant steakhouse restaurant…..
Anyway it looks like my “walk up and look before buying” days are over and I might need to subscribe. Hmmmm or maybe not?
I did like the fact they carried three magazines and I could just pick the one I liked the most that month. With subscription, which is cheaper, you are locked in for good or ill and three subscriptions of course makes no sense at all.
I might revert to buying up old magazines instead.
Farewell dear friend
“magister militum” Tiny (was a giant of a cat at 6kg!) looks away in disgust as he gets some bad rolling of the dice while reluctantly playing modern stuff.
My favourite cat Tiny (he was the runt of a litter where we got three including the ginger alpha male) sadly died in a road accident. Given he was a big rat hunter and crossed a busy road to his hunting grounds he had used up his nine lives – in his case by the age of nine.
As my constant companion during lockdown and then home working not to mention wargaming, he will be greatly missed. From a Wargames perspective he was the “Magister Militum” to the ginger alpha males “Emperor” as our ginger cat rarely bothered to leave the house let alone the garden or street! Tiny on the other hand was a fighter, kept the street clear and was often reported beating the bounds over a kilometre away by dog walkers and runners I knew.
Farewell to an ever cheerful cat.
Pro cycling still just about delivers
Pro cycling has pretty much blown out its commercial popularity on media, with the demise of the GCN app showing the sports world has moved on.
The days of 100% coverage of the big three tours – de France , Giro and la Vuelta are gone. In their place a lot more studio chat and analysis while focus on geography and historical views from the helicopter are now often faded out in favour of yet another meaningless opinion interview. And the coverage of races is now shrunken even for live showings.
Still I have picked up a few good castles this season while Spanish soil offers the gamer absolutely anything to justify any colour or grass you could want!
Plenty of soil variation A bit like spurn head with nicer climate!Plenty of castles Yep that’s a drawing pin!
A recent trip to Newby Hall, Ripon, North Yorkshire brought me into the world of dolls houses, very much expensive museum pieces these models are quite stunning pieces of work.
Did you spot the castle and boxed soldiers? Much of what was on show was scratch made.
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!
A member of the family having moved home needed a smaller (not 54mm) display of guardsmen.
So I got it into my head the idea to use last years purchase of Airfix 20mm British guards (destined for Fauxterre 1848) to create a small diorama.
I am delighted with the result.
I stole a Ferraro Rocher chocolate box and then knocked up a background – I wanted a context for the sentry boxes so put in an archway entrance.
Technically this is a season of scenery challenge entry
A bit of blue mounting card made the pavement
Then I picked just enough figures for the space – not too crowded.
The set conveniently comes with two sentry boxes and their occupants. You get one bandmaster who is just right – a bit of swagger there?
The band march past my pencil sketched archway – theatrical scenery in the best sense – rough, functional and temporary
The four abreast marching guards sort of suggests the back of a column with the main focus the bandmaster and some bandsmen.
I picked various colours from Vallejo but best of all was their sea green/blue which was just right painted over citadel game colour night blue as an undercoat for the sentry boxes.
In a way this is a tribute to Marvin and all his Christmas Units at Suburban Militarism….
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 potsOnly 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.
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.
So well into first month of scenery season and yep – zero progress….
However my late Romans are moving along nicely and not only have I started rereading some great books but I have added to the book mountain.
Heathers better book – the other one is technically fascinating but hard work. JJ’s trilogy remains my all time Byzantine favourite and of these the first book is brilliant. Hearder’s Italian sprint is just simply an enjoyable read.
I already have some useful material for later Roman armies.
My Byzantine leanings have always caused a problem
However I happened to search for 4/5th century eastern Roman books and lo and behold there was an osprey on provincial forces and specifically units.
The book I found was only available to order……
I took a punt on the western publication instead that came out in 2024.
Initially I was dissatisfied as a quick flick through showed no shield detail discussion in the text or contents.
A second detailed read revealed a more interesting approach in this MAA. The book illustrations are composites of western empire wide discoveries carefully matched to recreate a likely dressed soldier. And the image notes are brief because the whole book is dedicated to the illustrations with its content referenced to the illustrations.
So no generalised text padding – it’s straight in and descriptive. In fact Latin terms are only partially explained with no appendix so you need to get online if they are not tripping off your tongue already.
So I actually like this offering – maybe not for all subjects but it (they) will complement my other books.
2024 publication whose Eastern compliment is due out in August It’s always good to buy loads of flat pack furniture for the season of scenery challenge…….
Trouble is what do you do with the furniture left over……..
I do hope to get going on my scenery but before embarking on scratch build items I think this small bridge might be in order.
My beloved first small stone bridge by Bellona has long gone to scenery heaven along with its larger sibling. So this EWM item caught my eye when I was shopping for Fauxterre 1930 kit.
Last year I started some posting ideas around bits of things which did not really make a post but when combined with others could justify a post in their own right.
After the first two fragments of 2025 things sorted of dried up a bit. Or rather my focus was on specific miniatures or gaming posts.
I am going to have another try this year and ironically the first driver is the same as last years – magazines. And with further irony the second idea mimics fragment 25/2 – books.
However to kick off 2026 fragments I am going to mention painting challenges. These have kind of taken over my painting activities to the extent that three define my painting year.
First up is “paint what you got”. Now this challenge by Dave Stone works for me because it drives me to dig out what I have either half painted or abandoned. It has proved its worth.
This challenge has caused problems in that it got my ideas flowing and instead of reducing the lead mountain I ended up scratch building models during the challenge as the “themes” caught my imagination.
On the positive side I have found a use for those magazine freebies and indulged in my recycled household junk heaps to create spacecraft.
Klim class Intra planetary trader from AHPC15
I also think it propelled me into painting a background for my model displays – retiring the painting pedestal in favour of the painting portrait. In fact I even produced a sci-fi background last year.
Ahpc invariably overruns well into spring so now absorbs about half my painting year!
The third challenge is Dave Stones scenery season which runs over the summer. Or in my case summer into autumn. This has proven a godsend as scenery production was nil and an ever increasing list of kits, models or ideas were tying me up in knots.
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 rangeYou can’t beat Dixon 28mm cowboys for styleLots 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 firstPistol high – who will bite the dust?We may never know 🤠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………
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 moduleLow 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 ditchNatural 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 😊)
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 brushA bit bendy
The Wargaming Erratic 