Building some houses

Just before I went on a caravanning holiday with the family around the UK, I made these houses to populate my modular board.

They're both lasercut mdf sets that I picked up for a good price and decided that I should take a break from completing my Nurgle Army (before I burnt out with that project) and sit down with my son and construct and improve these. So we did the assembly together with lots of pva, elastic bands to keep things in place and some coffee.

After assembly my boy decided that one of the buildings should be a shop - we conferred on an Armoury and we then searched my bits box for details to adorn the building. I also wanted to pimp up the kit, the mdf buildings lack detail but more importantly texture. So some polyfilla was added to the walls, cardboard tiles were added and some sand for mossy areas too.

The function of the second building was definitely decided by me. Whilst rummaging around for bits for the previous model, I found a naked dancing girl from Hasslefree and though it would be a perfect sign for a medieval "club". This was placed just above the entrance door. The same texturing and detailing process also took place on this building. 

And then we went onto the painting. Both were undercoated black and then grey from above. Lots of washes of cheap acrylic paint later, followed by some drybrushing and finally some weathering and the buildings were done! As always it was the painting of all the beams that took the most time.

Back to the painting of some miniatures next...

 

My Barbarian Warband

Here's my warband, completed. In the studio:

Roaming around a town:

Fighting renowned adversaries:

And discussing the necessity of indiscriminate killing:

The End.

Roi's Dwarf Warband

Apologies for my poor, convoluted and self-absorbed story-telling skills in the build up to this, but I quite enjoyed fleshing out my characters as I painted them, and it gave me a bit of much needed motivation to not be distracted by other new and shiny ideas/models. When I physically had the model in my hand, the paintbrush in the other, I started to think about who this lump of lead could become, both in terms of colour choices and character. The decision to paint a beard blonde or ginger was as important as to whether he may be ragged or in uniform. Of course the decisions to paint them in any particular way was reflected in their backstory, or at least I hope that was articulated to a degree.

Well here is the warband off to fight in Mordheim or Frostgrave. A load of painted Citadel lead, with a movement tray (just in case this ever makes that leap from a single unit/warband, to an entire army. I dare say it's happened before...

Frostgrave Bestiary Challenge: Boar and Snow Leopard

The Snow Leopard, incongruous away from the melted snow, approaches the static and serene boar

Circling around the boar, the snow leopard ruminates whether it can take the bristly beast down. 

It decides to approach from the rear, avoiding those pointy tusks, but realises quickly that it's rear end is worse.

The snow leopard gets too close and as swift as you like, the boar turns, grunts and chases the snow leopard away. Perhaps an easier meal awaits back in the Frozen City

Black Scorpion Miniatures NPCs

I've been building a fair bit of fantasy scenery recently and I always feel that the buildings are missing something until they have miniatures added to them. The buildings provide a context for a narrative, but the models will create it and of course the most common way for a story to unfold is when a battle or skirmish unfolds amongst the scenery; the fighters going for it against the backdrop of a battlefield. But I also like to include a few npc's in there too, either mixed up with the fighting, or setting a scene before a skirmish or adventure starts.

So I did a bit of shopping and found these lovely npc characters from Black Scorpion Miniatures Tombsone civilian range. I was most keen on the barkeep, patron and blacksmith to populate my (nearly complete) coaching inn and forge, but the doctor character may also provide some ideas for a future project..

They are gorgeous resin sculpts and a real pleasure to paint. I painted the blacksmith and the barkeep first, both with deliberately drab colours and then switched up my paint palette to some more vibrant colours for the patron and the doctor:

I'm now plotting an-depth photo shoot. Be patient...

Scratch-building modular tiles - a tutorial

A very delayed follow up to all of those readers who were interested in how I made my first scratchbuilt modular tile, I've created a step-by-step photo tutorial for your enjoyment!

First up, materials you'll need.

• Wooden base. I used some MDF cut into squares of 60cm squared.
• Extruded polystyrene. (I bought a massive pack of it from an online retailer - there are lots on ebay). 2 different thicknesses if possible, one for the base board and one thinner one for the raised paths.
• Outdoor varnish
• No More Nails
• Hot Glue Gun
• Flat head screwdriver
• Cocktail sticks
• Stanley Knife
• Circular cutter (optional)
• Textured plasticard (optional)
• Ball of tin foil
• Pen
• Black, grey, white, green and brown acrylic paint (or house paint)
• Scatter foliage (I use birch leaves and some grass tufts).
• PVA. Thick and dilute

Step 1.

Cut your baseboard to the right dimensions (often your DIY store will do this for you). Then varnish your board on both sides. This helps prevent warping as a moisture barrier.

Step 2. 

Cut your extruded polystyrene to size with your stanley knife. No More Nails it to your baseboard. It will take some time to dry, but will eventually adhere.

Step 3. 

Using your previously drawn out designs as a guide, cut out the required shapes from the thinner polystyrene sheets. Glue gun them down.

Step 4. 

Collect your engraving tools; flat head screwdriver, knife, cocktail sticks and punches. [Edit: having completed this laborious stage, I have now invested in some Greenstuff World textured rolling pins - I will try them out and post the results here....] 

Press down with one of the punches to create a gutter along the street edge.

Start scoring lines to illustrate the outline of the street.

Cut small incisions at right angles to begin your curb/gutter edge.

Apply a range of pressures to your flathead screwdriver to indent a random selection of individual cobbles. This creates a great variety of raised and lowered areas that is accentuated by the painting stage.

Use a cocktail stick to widen the score marks and create a less clinical line. 

Step 5. 

For the manhole covers I used some textured plasticard and cut them with a circular cutter.

Pressed them into position so as to create an indent.

Glue gun them down and create circular cobblestones around them.

Step 6.

I wanted to create a roundabout in the center of the junction (eventually there will be a fountain/statue to go in the middle). For this I again used my circular cutter, widening the distance for each circle.

Again using the cocktail stick to widen the incisions.

Step 7.

This is the time consuming bit.... Score horizontal lines across your street sections.

Use your screwdriver or a cocktail stick to create cobble shapes

And then use your screwdriver to assert pressure on random cobbles to lower them. This is probably the most important step in creating a realistic piece of street terrain as it adds a great texture that is emphasised during the painting stage. It takes time, but of course creates much better results.

Step 8.

With the road sections complete, move onto the paved areas. I use a biro for this to engrave a random collection of paving stones. Again I'm hopeful that the Greenstuff textured roller will speed this stage up no end.

Step 9. 

Using a ball of crumpled up tin foil, roll it over the surface applying different pressures to texture up all the work you have done so far.

The making is now complete, onto some painting (this bit is really quick).

Step 10.

I use some house paint that I picked up for next to nothing; who'd want this grey on their walls? The unmixed paint is my mid tone, so stage one is to mix it with some black acrylic and some water to create a dark base coat.

Don't worry if you cant' mix up exactly the same tone, in fact I'd encourage you to use a variety of dark tones for your base colour.

Leave it to dry and you should have something like this:

Drybrush the fuck out of it. First coat should be your mid-tone, ie straight out of the pot. When dry add at least two lighter drybrushes by adding larger quantities of white to your mid-tone. Careful not to get too much on your brush.

Until you have something that looks like this. You can see that I haven't consistently applied the lightest drybrushes, they are down the center of the street and in "patches" on the pavement. It just breaks up the shapes and areas.

Finally, apply some washes. A bit of green and a bit of brown and varying amounts of water to create a wash. I always start off very dilute and then use slightly bolder colours as I progress:

Until you have something like this. I tend to apply my less dilute and bolder colours to specific areas (gutters, corners etc) where you are more likely to get a build up of dirt and moss (which is basically what these colours represent).

Step 11. 

Applying some details. I rusted up the manhole covers with some oranges and browns and then used some thick pva glue to apply scatter such as the bird seeds. I've also experimented in using dilute pva in a spray bottle to help keep any errant leaves fixed. I also added a few self-adhesive tufts of grass to the areas where I would expect them to grow (corners and edges mainly).

And joined together with my first board and populated with a few pieces of scenery.