Tag: Scenery

Scenic September

Well back in Spring if you said to me scenery would be centre stage for three months while the miniatures paint brushes holidayed then I would have said no chance.

Yet July, August and September have seen a positive glut of pieces appear from the pit of scenery.

This post is about completions.

First up are my troublesome timber defences. These are very old resin castings. And initially I had painted them in dark and then deep colours with contrast paint. All to no avail. I did not care for any of it.

Finally I went for more neutral browns and slightly washed out. Narrowing the colour range has helped here. I also decided the soil was just that, despite the temptation to grass it.

So these are fresh defences and although I suspect they were sized for early 28mm medieval fantasy i.e. games workshop they are my only ones so will need to do service across the ages.

Next up is a very pleasing Alera destroyed cottage.

I kept it simple with craft paints sienna on the roof, and the wall damage, then stone colour on the walls, dark gray interior and chocolate brown timber. I dry brushed some blast effect around the wall damage but at three feet it’s not there…..

I did not take John at just needs varnish advice about card basing, sloshed one side in craft paint – it curved. Then I sloshed the other side the next day and while still slightly damp got it flat. Short cuts………..

Then of course when I stuck the cottage on plus the static grass it curved again. This time only the free end which with overnight weighting flattened enough.

Moral is – listen to John at just needs varnish

https://justneedsvarnish.wordpress.com

The dreaded curl – I’ll live with that for gaming

One coat craft paint washes used for what will be a very functional piece of scenery

I even used up some unloved static grass

I had planned some rubble or a tree/shrub for the grassed area but for now it will stay plain.

Finally I had reservations about the walls being simply hollow.

Unpainted the hollow walls look jarring and the base was behaving itself at this point….

Then when I painted them the lack of thickness just disappeared.

I wonder what’s next – maybe the miniature brushes are back from their long holidays?

Tags alera models, Scenery, wargames, wargaming

Scenery wargaming

Afterglow: Season of Scenery

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 22nd Sep 2024
9 Comments on Afterglow: Season of Scenery

The July/August scenery challenge proved to be quite productive and it meant some items were still to be completed when the finish line was crossed.

So here are a few that have now made it home so to speak.

This Almera vacform got to see the light of day over the summer but fell by the wayside

One of my walls literally fell off the work bench and got lost for a while

Their website comes with security warnings – well my search did.

I bought my almera items at Porth Madog models

I cut out a card base and despite better advice from John at just needs varnish, I painted it and it curved as you would expect. However I sloshed the other side as well and when it was almost dry I managed to get it just about flat.

The almera cottage involved more cutting than I realised

This set of rails appeared from nowhere and in this case I just used craft brown both diluted and undiluted to get some contrast finished off with some Javis grass

These defences have been put to one side as I got carried away with contrast paint and now plan to change the tone completely – at some point. At least they are no longer just black!

The almera cottage only missing the ruined ceiling – not sure what I might do about the walling recess

The completed almera raised bridge all finished in contrast paints, blue yellow and brown. Quicker than dry brush – good enough to game with

The walls now complete with missing unit – yep I forgot to note the colour (mixed) I used for the terracotta but got there in the end.

This building also got some paint during the challenge

This is an armourfast farmhouse that I coated with bird grit – must get that ridge tile fixed before winter comes

Tags almera mouldings, armourfast kits, Scenery, season of scenery challenge, wargames, wargaming

wargaming

A Plan of Sorts

First up, I normally plan my wargames activities in darkest December during the lull in UK shows.

This summer I began thinking that perhaps the football season cycle is now more attractive?

I tend to stop gaming and painting in spring as the outdoors beckons. This kind of coincides with the football season ending climax in early May.

And as football returns and autumn beckons my thoughts tend to turn towards indoor interests.

Ok so this summer I did do quite a bit of scenery work courtesy of Dave Stones season of scenery challenge.

Plenty of long in the tooth scenery pieces got some attention-this resin one dates from 1970’s according to its makers mark!

https://wargamesculptorsblog.blogspot.com/2024/09/put-one-foot-infront-of-other.html?m=1

That however, seemed to reinforce summer as a break.

So if this is now to be the start of my wargames season what’s on the cards for the next twelve months?

Well firstly probably the plan will fail! With that out of the way what might be done if it succeeds?

Painting wise I feel it will be more mid 19th century forces.

Some more obscure units are likely – Jutland sharpshooters 1848

Also nearly mechanised feels like it will get an outing.

My pontoon bridge but John at just needs varnish provided the armour!

Brief summer spells of interest in ancient and renaissance plus Wild West periods have fizzled out in 2024 and I can’t see that changing into 2025.

I guess one wild card could be sci fi which has gained some traction in recent years.

The painting table is more likely to see guns rather than spears it would seem.

Gaming wise I think it will revolve around campaigns and again currently mid 19th century wins out along with nearly mechanised.

Nothing like a map to get the campaign spirit moving

I hope to go to the Other Partizan which I missed last year especially as I missed Partizan this year. Oh and I should manage two out of Battleground, Fiasco and Recon.

Recon will be the last at Pudsey civic hall as the property is being sold off.

And just maybe online painting/modelling challenges will figure given both AHPC14 and season of scenery have seen my output of painting and making increase and diversify.

Testing out a quick build Italian hilltop town for grid gaming during season of scenery challenge

Purchases wise the war chest has been thin of late more because I have what I need so it follows the figure mountain and scenery pit are full.

Books wise purchases have trailed off since 2023. Although 2034 gave me a surprise. But that’s another post.

If I do buy it is more likely targeted. For example I would like some more Irregular Miniatures bell shako infantry as well as some garibaldi men.

Well that seems like the bones of a plan. We will see……

Happy Wargaming.

Scenery wargaming

Season of Scenery challenge wrap up

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 1st Sep 2024
5 Comments on Season of Scenery challenge wrap up

I managed to squeeze in two more items finishing last night.

First is a laser cut bridge which I always planned to store dismantled. Not sure about its endurance as it only got used once back in 2018! Since when it’s languished at the bottom of my bits and bobs scenery box.

Nice and wide but the rails mean it looks better for 25/28mm

Paint job was coffee followed by the skeleton contrast I used on the pontoon bridge. Quick and effective.

Now it’s painted it might actually see the Wargames table again.

Finally I dug out a more recent purchase. Some warbases? walling. I say dug out – basically you get a set of walls and in my case I found one I missed this morning – twerp more haste less speed springs to mind.

Too busy painting multiple things to spot I had only 9 out of 10 pieces plus two gates

The walls were laser cut assembly and went together fine – coffee base colour plus a mid brown for the tile top and burnt sienna on the base

They were finished with mid brown damaged areas, a terracotta red to the tiling and then a Jarvis grass to the wall base and finally some dried tea.

Finally some of those that got away.

Again they come from the pit of scenery, both by a company based in Northumberland. I bought mine in a fantastic Welsh model shop in Porthmadog.

I bought a bridge and damaged cottage.

They hark back to bellona days…..

The cottage requires you to create some of the damage

The unfinished bridge – maybe next time?

Indeed the bridge will probably stay like this while the erratic in me wanders off.

That was Dave Stone’s season of scenery challenge 2024!

Tags laser cut scenery, Porthmadog model shop, sarissa models, Scenery, vacformed scenery, warbases, wargames, wargaming

Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery challenge: fruitful summer part 2

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 30th Aug 2024
6 Comments on Season of scenery challenge: fruitful summer part 2

Next up I dug out some long abandoned fortifications and decided on a whim to play around with contrast paints on large surfaces.

Some worked domestically didn’t. Mainly because I did not try hard to match the base coats closely.

Still it proved a quick way to get these over the line so to speak.

Two were ancient bellona vacuum formed models

Some contrasts leave a sheen while others don’t – I mix the pot content heavily with a big brush – I accept the waste levels.

Tea dressing is on the right while Jarvis summer grass is on the left. I opted for painted grass on the three timber defences

High street coffee colour paint was the base for top left and bottom models while a craft paint chocolate brown did the job for top right

Chocolate brown did for the bellona top model with an ochre dry brush then a yellow white dry brush

Chocolate brown base coat or ochre for stone then washes of contrast paint. Ancient citadel black and gunmetal did for the cannon

Gulliman flesh did the revetments while seraphim sepia washed out the soil

L to R fireslayer flesh did the timbers over high street coffee plus reikland flesh did for the stone balls then iyandi yellow did the stones and gore grunt fir covered the timbers and barrels in the centre model finally aggros dunes did the right hand base stones and for all green warp lighting was used

One of the bellona models got a dose of tea leaves

I have been playing around with quite a few contrasts by citadel

More tea leaves found their way into the gabions I finished earlier this month

That’s it, I might just squeeze another post in but thanks Dave – your challenge has meant a whole host of finished scenery is now added to my collection. Cheers!

Tags Scenery, season of scenery challenge, wargames, wargaming

Scenery wargaming

Season of Scenery Challenge: Fruitful Summer Part 1

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 29th Aug 2024
4 Comments on Season of Scenery Challenge: Fruitful Summer Part 1

Well this summer has proven to be fruitful when it comes to scenery. Having decided to join the challenge set by Dave Stone it has filled the gap caused by my figure painting brushes legging it on holiday (they are still not back!) while gaming/campaigning has been virtually non existent.

Here are some woodland items I have completed.

They came free with some nicer trees I bought at the VAP bring and buy. The guy threw in this box of trees mostly ex model railway with no basing.

They have laid unloved in a box since early 2023. And then earlier this year during AHPCXIV I decided to have a look at them. I got some old nuts and washers and pendrakens circular bases and soon I had a very odd collection of trees that at least stood up.

Based back in November 2023! You can see the broken tree based up as scrub centre right

Many are on the tall side for my gaming but variety is the spice of life.

The good trees I bought at the time were all one size, and very good they are. These freebies will allow some mixed woodlands to be added.

These were a bargain price at a VAP2023 bring and buy

I put the newly based trees to one side and then they dissappeared.

So I remembered them and dug them out for this summer challenge.

Essentially I have simply added some scatter material. In this case its dried tea. Having completed that task I decided not to shade the tea and so these trees will be trialled with the tea naturally coloured.

I am quite pleased with what was in the end a “quick” win.

Alongside them are a few bases of scrub using some very old rough mdf bases and initially holding just the remains of one of the trees which broke in storage. I added some woodlands scenices scrub and again covered the base in dried tea.

I also added some of this product to bulk out the scrub

Thats it for now.

Tags miniatures painting, Scenery, wargames, wargaming

Scenery wargaming

Season of scenery progress

Post author By lorenzoseventh
Post date 25th Aug 2024
7 Comments on Season of scenery progress

Well having reached a dead stop on the Italian hill town I have progressed some other items.

Renedra gabions have been sat in a box for years probably since 2017!

Likewise the Renedra pontoon bridges – two packs. However the earthwork to the right dates to the 1970’s !!!!!!

Two bellona injection moulded artillery positions I bought back in the 1970’s and somehow could never part with. They’re still not done either…….

Two resin artillery positions date from the late 1970’s with the medieval bombard marked MJB1976?

Primer was brush applied Vallejo white, I don’t spray – hate the activity

High street sample pot by johnstones gave me an ideal base coat to test out contrast paints. The bombard is hiding just behind the pot. At least I have not lost it.

I have quite a few of the browns in the citadel contrast range.

Skeleton horde worked just right for my timber pontoon bridge

Fireslayer flesh worked a treat over an orangey brown for woodwork on artillery position

Warp lightning gave a vibrant cover to some plain green undercoat on the artillery position

Gore grunta fur gave a darker result over the coffee undercoat for these gabions

Well its proved to be a good investment in the scenery season so far.

Not sure what else will get done.

Tags 1/72, 20-25mm, Renedra, Scenery, season of scenery challenge, wargames, wargaming

Scenery wargaming

Across the Weser in ‘67

Stokes at grand duchy of stollen reminded me of the battle of sittangbad with his recent post about wanting to solo game it.

The narrative battle in Charge or how to play wargames was the climax of the book which included a ruleset and some fabulous armies.

The battle was a rearguard action fought to enable valuable stores to be moved across a river via a pontoon bridge in the face of the enemy.

It’s always been a go to scenario for me and not having a suitable bridge I have in the past simply gamed without one or indeed the great river Weser: Off scene so to speak.

Stokes’ post was about creating a suitable bridge for his refight and that neatly fitted into my season of scenery trawl which had dredged up some Renedra pontoon bridges still in their bags from many years ago along with a few unmade gabions by the same company.

Here is Stokes post.

http://grandduchyofstollen.blogspot.com/2024/08/a-bridge-to-future.html?m=1

The book was all in black and white (except for the cover) which is how I always remember the battle.

Mind you the covers even today are compelling!

Tags Charge! or how to play wargames, narrative wargaming, Renedra, Scenery, wargames, wargaming

Scenery wargame rules wargaming

Off Season? or what?

The Football season properly got underway this weekend (although the hard workers were already on their second weekend) after the summer break and it kind of gels with my view of the wargaming calendar year.

My off season is spring and summer. Well yes I know there are lots of wargamers who are of the 24/7 variety and make up the engine room of this fine hobby.

I am much more the peripheral player – wargaming fits in with lots of other activities. In summer I like to get out in the daylight and enjoy the warm rays of sunshine – not too warm though!

So it occurred to me the other day that it was odd that I might post a plan for the year at the turn of the year. Yes thats when many other things get planned and reflected upon – makes sense to do the wargame planning stuff at the same time in those dark months.

The reality is that my transfer season (= all those painting plans or rules/gaming period changes) and this disruption really happens between May and August. And thats because as my painting tails of in Spring my mind starts wandering.

Looking back I have noticed Summer has been quite fruitful for projects going awry and new ideas popping up.

I mentioned earlier those 24/7 wargamers. Well even if I dont paint much in Spring and Summer I do tend to read and that is the devil in my wargaming. Or rather it is the seed point for another idea or ideas.

What has seeded this summer?

Back in early spring I was on a roll (no pun intended!) painting, well inspired by the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIV.

My main project – Schleswig Holstein Wars were well served yet also some new material like a kit airplane – first in decades, retro citadel fantasy figures, gameshow freebies and even a magazine WW2 freebie figure Sci Fi carve up.

And then the finale posting by Karl at AHPCXIV featured a trojan horse. How apt, as it drove the Bronze Age front and square into my wargames thinking.

Soon I had the books out, which rules, which figures to paint, heck which scale? I am the sad possessor of 15mm and 1/72 chariot armies none of which are complete – in the case of 15mm not even started……

25mm subs for those non existent 15mm chariots – in dba cavalry or chariots it matters not!

High water mark of this summers Bronze Age push!

In the end I managed a strip or two of Assyrians undercoated and then opted for my version of 2mm armies. A successful campaign with DBA using a previous mapped world followed and then nothing.

Back to reading again. Suddenly William the chivalrous knight sprung upon me – I got all medieval and then it passed: And so did the book.

The same happened to my wild west thoughts.

The cowboys got as far as the rockery before getting shot to pieces…..

The season of scenery challenge popped up. and I briefly made progress on a long overdue Italian hilltop town.

And then the Pike and Shot 16th century erupted with books on history, rules and uniforms spilling out of cupboards. A whole set of stockpiled figures got cleaned, reading progressed and rules were contemplated. Taking a lead from my Bronze Age moment I created some 0mm, yes 0mm armies for the Italian Wars – France versus Spain. I had intended them for testing rules including Pike and Shot by Warlord but bailed out using Neil Thomas Wargaming an Introduction instead – Pike and Shot Rules. These are easy and simple to use.

A promising start with 0mm scale armies to test a myriad of pike and shot era wargames rules including warlords pike and shot soon petered out….

One wargame later and dust started to gather on the abandoned field – no second game.

The pike and shot did get washed and desprued but alas that was it…..

So you see spring and summer has been properly, my fragmented wargames season. Its not an “off season” or indeed a “low season” but its definitely a season of sorts.

And its still going on………….pretty much what you would expect from a wargaming erratic I guess.