New Hedges

 As we only have a few hedges, about 18 or so in total from Greg's previous post some years back. We have done very little in actually bolstering the amount. This has always been a bit of an issue for laying out a table, as it severely limits us to how we lay out terrain and even how we play. Having been trying to get back into the hobby, I decided to expand on this.

Using the same techniques Greg used previously, I set out to achieve some similar results. The only issue this time round was the felt that was previously used was bought to cover the table's playing boards, which was some spare bits he used to make the hedges and road bits. I did manage to grab some Green felt from a local textile shop, however, it was not the same Green and was thinner in depth. To circumnavigate this, I had to glue two strips together to thicken out the base.

To make the hedges themselves, I used the scouring pads cut to size like previously mentioned in the older post. However, this time, I decided to give each one a paint over to brighten up the pieces. The issue with this was it matched the colour of the base felt.

To help the base stand out from the hedge, I decided to add flock to the base just by simply adding PVA glue to the base and sprinkling flock over each one. This was a little time consuming, especially since I went a little overboard and created 52 pieces total.. I have a few different lengths, some long, some medium and some short ones which are also a little lower in height, mostly just excess that I could use.

Overall I am happy with how they have turned out and I wish to apply the same techniques to our pre-existing ones to bring them more to life. Either way, we now have plenty more terrain to use for both aesthetic appeal and for cover.

Hurricanes

 I have a small Desert Army slowly building up, but recently finished painting up two lovely looking Zvezda 1:144 Hurricane Mk.I planes. Although cheap, they really are lovely looking planes. Personally, I prefer them to the Battlefront equivalent, and would recommend them to anyone looking to add some planes to their forces. The cockpit, aerial and propellers are a very nice touch. Their only draw back are the decals all being the same for each kit.

Side by side are the comparisons between both companies and their models. The BF Hurricane is the Mk.IId. I also appreciate the height of the Zvezda stand, the ability to place it over other models and the fact you can adjust how the model sits on the stand, making for some nice action shots - if you like that sort of thing..

Explosion Smoke Markers

Fannying around and using the idea of smoke markers from Bombardments I made some pretty simple artillery bits. It's made using the fluffy stuff from inside a pillow and the bases were rubber wall protectors / door stoppers turned upside down. Again, I used some footage for ideas on how they should look. Once happy with how they were, I glued them down and hit them with spray paint and left them to dry.

Knocked out Tank Objective Marker

 Using a PSC Sherman II kit, which have horrible tracks to fit together, I made one into a small diorama / objective marker. It was mainly to make use of the model itself as it was no longer going to be an addition to my own army, and to try get myself back into modelling.

Firstly the tank was stuck onto a base and filled out with spak filler for the texture of the terrain.Using some pictures of knocked out tanks and burial sites in N. Africa for ideas, I decided to make small mounds with the filler and placed bits of gravel around them to indicate that bodies had been buried. The crosses were made of wooden hobby sticks and the texture was painted using Vallejo Dark Sand. Lastly sand was added with pva glue to give the base some detail.

For the actual tank itself, a small heated screw driver was pierced into the plastic to try and achieve the effect of rounds hitting and/or knocking out the tank itself. The tank was then painted as how I have painted my Desert Army and a lot of dry brushing on and around the turret and inside the commanders hatch were applied to give the impression inside the tank had a fire and a lot of smoke bellowed out and stained the outside.

I imagined that when the tank had been hit a number of times, the Assistant Driver, Gunner and Loader/Operator had all been killed, whereas the Commander and Driver had escaped, but their status is M.I.A. presumed captured. Below is a picture before the tank was painted to show where the hits were and what I was trying to achieve.

Still alive

Whoa! Long Time Coming!

OMG AN UPDATE!

Its been a long time since I last wrote anything on here, mostly due to the hobby taking a back seat to video games ,movies and television. Since last year its been slow going in terms of painting miniatures and terrain.

Eleven Orks Painted for Gorkamorka

But recently I got some inspiration to paint some Orks from GW Warhammer 40k. About five years ago, A Proper Cuppa bought me a Gorkamorka box set for my birthday, and while we haven't gotten too big into it, I bought a box set of orks from GW to go with the orks in the big box. They look great but look a lot bigger than the Gorkamorka orks, so we used them as orks and the smaller orks as yoofs.

Ork with Heavy Shoota and Rokkit Launcha

I was looking through the box one day and decided to paint an ork for fun. I didn't put the model down till it was finished. I finished the Nob first, and upon completing it, I was so pleased with how easy and effective the paint job was, I decided to complete them all, one at a time. I normally batch paint, and that can get quite tedious, even though its much more efficient. But painting one a time can be a good break from the tedium of batch painting, and its great for small projects like this. Its taken me over two months to paint all of them up, but I took my time and experimented with colours and shading.

Boss Nob with Shoota and Choppa

I've been painting orks for many years and I've only ever painted skin one way, with Citadel paints. With these guys, I decided to use primarily Army Painter paints, and the skin itself painted in multiple layers of green. Starting with Army Painter Green Skin as a base, I layered Army Painter Goblin Green, leaving recesses untouched. Going further, I layered Army Painter Scaly Green, making sure to highlight less and less, with Army Painter Necrotic Flesh being applied lightly. Finally a quick wash of Army Painter Green Tone wash to dull it and shade it, and the flesh is complete.

Three Boyz with Choppas and Sluggas

I decided to have their clothes be black leather, I painted their jackets Army Painter Dark Stone, and highlight their pants the same colour. The metal started off with Army Painter Rough Iron and highlighted Army Painter Gun Metal. Red was simply Army Painter Pure Red, and red metals were highlighted with Army Painter Gun Metal too. Rings, bullets, piercings and horns were either Army Painter Weapon Bronze or Army Painter Gun Metal. All this was washed Army Painter Dark Tone.

Three more Boyz, one with a Stikk Bomb

Leather and boots is primarily Army Painter Oak Brown, with string and rope with one of two colours not from the Army Painter range, Vallejo Khaki. The other colour not from the Army Painter range is Vallejo German Camo Beige, used for the backpack of the heavy gunner. Teeth and nails are all Army Painter Skeleton Bone. All these are washed with Army Painter Soft Tone.

Two Boyz with Shootas

The bases are painted Army Painter Desert Yellow, dry brushed with Army Painter Skeleton Bone and washed with Army Painter Soft Tone. The ring on the base is Army Painter Matt Black and finally some Army Painter Highland Tuft 6mm tufts glued to the base.

Thank you for reading, and hopefully it doesn't take me another six months to get something else painted.

Update

After some time away - after my Daughter spilled water on our laptop and various other family commitments, I'm finally back on a laptop and able to share what I've done. With life being busy, developments in my hobby have been a little bit slow, but I definitely haven't stopped. With the recent surprise Airborne Company as a birthday gift, I have had a number of battles with Lt. Sean Topper (they're currently 3-1 in victories) and am hoping to create a Battle Report in the future. I've slowly been chipping away at building the Army up to a 2,000 point strong force and look forward to playing with them in more battles.

Using some spare bits and pieces lying around, I, with the help of my Daughter have managed to build a single piece of field terrain, mostly just to fill space on the board and to keep myself occupied with the hobby. It was using the same techniques as before, so it was rather easy and quick to build.

Following some ideas for a long grass piece using a faux fur mat, I'm currently in the process of building an abandoned farm. It's slowly coming together, and for my first attempt I'm quite pleased with how it's looking. Definitely a fun experience building it. I'm in the final steps of adding some painted string to simulate rope and feel it works rather well.

Lastly, I'm working on a Hawker Typhoon model for Air Support plus some Heavy Weapons Teams consisting of 6 Pounder AT Guns, 3" and 4" Mortars and Vickers HMG's for my list.