Fantasy Terrain - WIP

I just picked up Warmachine for the first time and am in the process of putting together my Mercenary Pirates Battlegroup. While I'm waiting for things to arrive from distributors, I figured I'd start on some Fantasy Terrain. While building the Bolt Action buildings the most time consuming part was making doors and windows. So with that thought I wanted to streamline the process for the fantasy buildings, and future building projects if this one works. I'm going to try to make resin castings of a couple different styles of doors and windows. I spent the day making some masters out of plastic strip and sheet. After chopping, carving, sanding and gluing I ended up with 5 window designs and 3 doors.

I just need to make a mold box and pour the RTV. The idea is make some simple buildings out of foamcore, glue on some of the castings and with some additional detailing turn out some cool fantasy buildings.

Bolt Action World War II

BOLT ACTION BY WARLORD GAMES

Well it's been awhile but I'm back into building and painting stuff, for now. The latest project I've been working on is for Warlord Games World War II game published by Osprey, Bolt Action. I already completed a small 500 point US Army and played my first game and it's awesome. So hopefully I'll remember to post updates here as I journey into another game...

Warlord Games Plastic US Infantry Box. Excellent figures. Some WIP shots.

Here the US Infantry are done. I just need to take some proper pics and post them. In the background you can see a 1/48 Tamiya Sherman assembled and ready for paint. I also built Tamiya's 1/48 Greyhound.

Final Shots of the Tamiya 1/48 Sherman and Greyhound.

Now, to paint more infantry!

WIP - Saga: Viking Warband

 Some Work In Progress pics of the Viking Warband.

An overall shot of the 4 point warband starting from the back row, left to right: Hearthguard unit, Warlord, Hearthguard unit (the berserkers), Warriors with swords, and warriors with spears. They are all missing shields which will be painted separately. I decided to arm them for easy identification on the table top. The Gripping Beast Hirdmen box went together pretty easy, took me an evening to put together. Only complaint would be the limited amount of poses available in the box.

Close up of the Berserkers, for these I used the Warlord Games Ancient Germans box. Nice action poses and they fit right in size wise with the Gripping Beast plastics. At this point I'm waiting on an order for bases and they'll be ready for paint.

Forged in Battle - WIP

This is where I am currently at on my M8's and Jeeps.

After I finish these off I just need to finish 15 Shermans. I already assembled 10 of the cast hull versions so they are ready to go. I am waiting on Plastic Soldier Company to send me a box of the welded hull Shermans, I want mixed hull types in my force.

Progress on the Wild West Frontier Board

A quick post to show some progress on the Wild West terrain. Decided to add some Rocky bases to scatter around the table for cover.

Easy to make. Cut some 1/8 inch MDF into rounded triangles and squares. Stack some broken up pieces of cork tile, some directly to the mdf and some on top of small hills made out of foam to get some height. After applying thinned white glue to the bases around the cork pieces, scatter some smaller cork pieces to represent rock fall, then apply some medium ballast (on top of the cork rock fall) and finally fine ballast all over. Applying the ground work by going biggest to smallest helps to blend in the large pieces. The cacti are from the plastic Pegasus Hobbies set and the little bushes are The Army Painter battlefield tufts. How easy? I did these pieces in one night while watching my buddies play Malifaux.

WIP - Lilith Crew

Here is what I have been working on recently.

The bases are just cork tiles broken up to look like rocky crags. As you can see, I'm sticking with the new priming method I first used on Seamus' crew. Start with white primer (in this case P3 white primer) then apply a devlan mud wash to pick out the detail, makes the painting process so much easier when you can see all the little details. Check back for some progress pics.

WIP - Copycat Killer

Wanting to complete Seamus' crew, I started on the Copycat Killer, Work In Progress pic below.

Seamus Painting Progress

After cutting, what seems like, hundreds of planks for my Wild West buildings I decided to take a break and start painting Seamus and his crew. Here are some Work In Progress shots of what I've done so far.

I should note that I typically use a Black Primer base coat, so this is a first for me using White Primer. Using Black generally makes it look dark and grimy, which I actually prefer most of the time on my miniatures. But for this set I wanted the clothing to be bright and vibrant. I'm going for flashy Undead hookers...

I also need to get some more units for Seamus to get his SS total to 35. I'm definitely grabbing a Copycat Killer and some Crooked Men as their Shafted ability go really well with the Belles ability to lure enemy models into them.

Terrain Project

Here are some WIP shots of a terrain project I've been working on. I've been making some Wild West frontier terrain to go with my Malifaux stuff. I'm going to have two rows of buildings, maybe one or two stand alone buildings, cactus stands and some sandstone piles to lay out on the table. I figure that's enough terrain to fill Malifaux's rather small 3' x 3' playing area.

The buildings are made of thick mat board, with wood craft sticks glued on for planking. The base is on a piece of foamcore, which helps to elevate the wooden sidewalks. I used Colonel O'truth's dimensions: Walls are 50mm high, Doors are 18mm wide by 35mm high, Windows are 20mm wide by 24 mm high and the entire building being roughly 100mm by 120mm in size. A bit undersized for Malifaux's 32mm scale. But since these buildings don't have any interiors they are basically big LOS blocking terrain pieces that look cool.

Malifaux - Seamus Assembled and Primed

Got my Red Chapel Gang Starter Box all assembled and primed. Now I just have to paint them up!

Scattered around them you can see some Crystalline Counters I found from Three Sages Games. They look like little crystals and are available in a several different colors. I'll be using them to mark status effects during the game. I also picked up a pack of the 30mm bases from Privateer Press today to make some Corpse counters, just need to look for suitable corpses to model on the bases.

Killer Kans

While surfing the Waaagh forums, I came across a post from someone who used the Pegasus Hobbies Chemical Plant kit as the basis for his Killer Kans.

::Pegasus Hobbies Chemical Plant::

The small Chemical tanks looked pretty good as a base for the body, but the one thing I didn't really like was he used the pipes in the kit to make "Bender" style arms and legs which was too retro sci-fi looking to me. So after picking up the Chemical Plant set I just started building really with no plan, I just came up with stuff as I went along.

::Assembled Killer Kan Bodies::

I'm planning to make 2 units of 3 Killer Kans each. The great thing about these Kans is that they are cheap, from one of the Chemical Plant sets you can assemble 12 Killer Kans and have a ton of parts left over. I plan to use the larger tanks for an Ork Mek Town.

::Added Feet and Close Combat Arms::

I was stuck on the legs for them because I wanted to fit them onto 40mm bases and tried making the GW style legs but they ended up being too wide. In the end I went for a Gargant style where the feet just poke out from under the body. I really dig how they look like mini Gargants and it fits in with my idea of Orks being cartoony. The buzz saws were made with an old WHFB plain round shield with plastic triangles glued along its edge.

Malifaux Bases Part 2

Added the layer of Green Stuff over the plastic sidewalk. Now to mount the figures, prime and paint!

Updated with pics of all the finished bases.

Malifaux Bases

I recently picked up Malifaux and wanted to do some themed basing for my Seamus and Red Chapel Crew. With Seamus being a Jack the Ripper type character, it was an easy decision to go with some Cobblestone Street/Sidewalk bases. Here is my first attempt at sculpting cobblestone streets.

Pretty simple really. Just some green putty spread out over the base and cutting in the cobblestones with a sculpting tool. I cut a piece of sheet plastic roughly into a circle and after sanding and checking for a tight fit chopped it roughly in half. After the initial putty layer dries, I plan on adding a thin layer over the plastic "Sidewalk" and cutting in a brick type pattern.