The name of the Lord is a strong tower:

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe."
 - Proverbs 18:10

Life, work and Kinchlets haven't left much time for other activities of late, but I've been pushing on with a few things here and there.  This is the venerable and much fought over Battlemasters Tower from the MB game of the same name.  

Not sure what I will do with the banner, but that it future Kinch's problem

This was very simple really.  I primed the tower in standard grey and then gave it an undercoat of brown.  I prefer brown for an undercoat for stone because it makes it seem less stark and cold.  I just prefer the effect.  

I have a lot of old citadel paint which is on the way out and I've just fallen in love with AK colours so I won't be buying anymore, so the used up what I had.  The base with a heavy stippling of Russ grey, which is quite blueish, but then a lighter drybrush of Fenrisian grey over the top of that.  I then hit the model with some shades and diluted contrast paints just to add a bit of variety to the colour and tied it all together with a drybrush of Ulthuan Grey. 

Gave the Temu dry brush a go 

I got these for a few quid on Temu and I hadn't tried them before.  They seem to do the business here, particularly I was jamming them into the pots to get the last of the paint out of the bottom. 

The doors were just left in the brown undercoat and I washed them with some brown ink and then painted in some wood grain with Contrast Snakebite leather.  The tower is mostly done, but I'll finish it off this week. 

Also the boy and I were struck down with the same tummy trouble a few weeks ago, something I suspect he brought home from school. 

Regardless, we spent a day on the couch feeling very sorry for ourselves, watching Stranger Things and building this rather handsome COBI (a sort of Polish Lego knockoff) Spitfire, which was a gift from a dear friend of ours.  Time well spent.  It is now happily dangling from the ceiling of the kids room.  I'm wondering if it should be joined by a 109 or a 190 of some kind. 

A Mixed Bag

Something grey and stoney

I am blessed with some truly remarkable and extremely generous friends.  I'm currently running a game of Rangers of Shadowdeep for some pals at the moment and game requires a few ruins for them to explore.  My friend Siskey was kind enough to use his 3D printer to run up a few.  The result were very impressive.  

Something a bit more Mediterranean

I painted these using tan colour as a base and then adding a bit of variety to the stonework with a mixture of brown, greys and other tans.  Interestingly though the two buildings look quite different the only actual difference is that I put a black wash on one and a burnt umber wash on the other.  

I'm quite happy with the results, though I think I prefer the more Mediterranean looking burnt umber wash myself. It's such a change from the usual grey fantasy stone. 

Another view

The top lifts off

Positively Maltese

I've always quite fancied going to Malta. It looks beautiful in pictures and there's lots of history to look at it.  I'd imagine the food it pretty good too.  

Painting these more Mediterranean looking building did put me in mind of Malta.  I think these could do with just one more drybrush as a highlight, but I'm really pleased with them.  

I tried making a couple of washes up from recipes I found on the internet, but when I tested them out on the building they didn't look quite right.  In the end I settled on a mix of Daler Rowney Burnt Umber Ink mixed 50/50 with Matte Medium and the resultant mixture diluted about 50/50 with water.  

The result ran into the pointing of the stonework in a very satisfactory manner and I intend to do the rest of the buildings with it. 

Wargaming with the Kinchlets

The Kinchlets are much taken with space at the moment.  We can recite all the planets in the solar system and have just about figured out the concept of the Universe, Galaxy and Solar System and how each fits inside the other. 

They also wanted to play a game with some of Daddy's toys, so I pulled out the mat and ships from Richard Borg's Space Alert.  The game was simple.  The Kinchlets were given some ships.  They were allowed set them up anyway they liked. They were allowed two shots per turn and could  flick a counter any of their ship at their opponents. Any ship hit was removed.  Each ship could move two hexes before shooting, if they wished.  

The result is a fun, bloody little game that at least gets them used to the business of taking turns and winning and losing.  It's also less likely to drive Daddy to distraction than Snakes & Ladders. 

Strelets Chasseurs tangle with Zvesda Guard Cossacks

I wrote a piece on wargaming in 1/72 and why it is a good idea for the most recent issue of Miniature Wargames.  While taking some shots for the piece, I had a few left over and I thought you might like to see a few.  These are Strelets Chasseurs of the Guard facing off against Zvesda Cossacks of the Guard. 

A bold officer

I really love the animation of the Zvesda figures,  they have a bounce and lightness to them that is hard to find elsewhere.  I really must get some Napoleonics on the table sharpish. 

A Tower on a distant planet - Cheap Sci Fi Terrain

A Robot, a squat and a blind psychic walk into a bar. 

Stop me if you’ve heard this one. 

The Squat is an old Rogue Trader figure, while the psychic is from the Astropolis Kickstarter.  The Robot is a privately produced model that I picked up via the Oldhammer Facebook group and he is just lovely. 

I picked this up in Lidl for about the price of a pint.  At the price it seemed foolish not to.  I actually picked up two.  With Stargrave just around the corner I’m hoping that I’m going to be able to get some science fiction games in. 

Rangers of Shadowdeep has hit just the right kind of role playing game with miniatures feel that I really like.  I’m hopeful that Stargrave will scratch that itch.  I’m aware it’s more of a competitive skirmish game - but Frostgrave is very easily modded into a semi-RPG,  so I’m cautiously optimistic. 

The kit itself went together in about five minutes and actually scales well with 28mm figures.  To be honest, while it's not perfect - it's actually pretty good even without a lick of paint and wouldn't disgrace any tabletop it was on. 

These guys are old Rogue Trader era Space Marine Scouts painted by my pal, Kriztian Takacs.  I popped them up here to get a sense of scale and they seem to fit right in.  Which reminds me, I must do something to dolly up those bases. 

A long shot

In brief, these were an excellent buy for the money and while I might do something with them in future, they look fine to use as is, for the time being.  I might also need to invest in a new backdrop for my figures.  I can't imagine whatever God forsaken planet this is having blue skies with fluffy white clouds very often. 

Take me to church

And that's quite enough from long haired whingers from Greystones.  I've had this DAPOL church kit in stores for quite some time now and I've finally put a brush to it. 

This is obviously a base coat and will need additional work, but I picked up a packet of large brushes in a pound shop recently.  I think they are for makeup. The large brush made short work of the building and I managed to knock it out in twenty minutes. 

Popping smoke II

Having painted one set of two green smoke plumes, I've started on a second set of red smoke plumes.  The first lot were painted goblin green and then highlighted with pure yellow. However I'm not entirely sure what I can use to highlight this without turning it pink. 

These things will probably be used for objective markers and signalling in Black Ops games. 

Dapol Church Part Two

 I finally got round to putting this thing together. The fit was pretty good considering the age of the kit and required little sanding or trimming before gluing. 

I used polystyrene cement rather than superglue which works well for this sort of job. A few of the pieces needed a bit of straightening, but for the most part they fit without too much trouble. 

I have to add crosses, but the plastic crosses that come with the kit are quite delicate.  I might see if I can put something together with brass rod. 

All ready for the Mothers Union, the bell ringers and the Boys Brigade to start bustling around the place.

Who knows when I'll get around to painting it though. 

Dapol Village Church

Time is a scarce resource at present, but I was passing our local model railway shop a few days ago and realised that my village was missing something vital, a village church. This is a plastic kit from Dapol and is I believe an ex-Airfix production.  I had one, about a million years ago, but rather foolishly left it on top of a gas heater with the result that it became rather wonky rather quickly. 

I also recall that storing it in a manner that preserved the crosses was also a problem.  

I swiped this picture from the Dapol website and it looks like a good paint scheme to me, not too dark.  I'm struggling to date this particular example. It looks early Victorian to my eye,but I know nothing of architecture.  It occurs to me that the village should probably also have a non-conformist hall. 

I'm not entirely sure when I'll get a chance to make a run at putting this little beacon of light together, but it has been run through the dishwasher and is sitting on the bedside table with some glue and a craft knife. 

I shall take a leaf out of Luke's book and in patience possess me my soul. 

A series of small walls

...and Tony Robinson nowhere in sight. 

I was over at Capability Savage's recently and saw him working on some new terrain pieces that were really quite clever.  

These are small lengths of wood, cut and glued to a thin wooden base.  They were then covered with a thin coat of textured spray paint. 

 By being careful with his cuts and ensuring that his angles lined up correctly, CS managed to ensure that these walls can be used in any Middle Eastern or African set up in almost any configuration.  A very quick and efficient way of generating a mass of line of sight blocking terrain for modern games like Force on Force. 

Some of Capability Savages blue clad commandos sneaking by 

I suspect poor old Capability Savage was somewhat overcome by paint fumes.  It seems that his usual diet of opiates, Stilton and gin had not prepared him for the poisonous exhalations of the textured spray can he used to make these little beauties.  But I reckon that if one were not to actually inhale the fumes on purpose to "...clear the tubes..." and were to lets say, spray outside in a well ventilated area, one could assemble something very similar in jig time without any ill effect. 

I left shortly after CS called one of his artistic patrons on the telephone to inform them that international finance was a conspiracy run by talking badgers. 

Still, a very clever and speedy means of generating terrain. 

Bunkers by Conflix

And not a golf ball in sight. 

I've been playing Second World War games for years now, but curiously I've never really had much call for bunkers. I have one or two, but I recently found myself needing a couple for a Very British Civil War game. There are bags of great terrain pieces out there and I probably could have run something up myself, but I usually find that my home made terrain is a bit flimsy.

These two pieces are from the Conflix range of terrain pieces.  For less than a tenner, you get a small grey pillpox and a small camouflaged field bunker/fighting position. They come prepainted, though there's nothing stopping you dollying them up if you wish.  

And a view from the side. 

I'm a big believer in keeping the footprint of ones terrain pieces small as it allows you more room to manuevre on the table. These have the footprint of your average cup of tea and do very nicely.

The material is a sort of resin. I wouldn't bounce them off the ground, but they do very well chucked in a box and I haven't had similar terrain pieces chip or shatter despite some pretty rough handling. The resin itself is quite light and I wouldn't say either piece is more than a few ounces. 

Note the hard white resin composition. 

So for less than twenty quid, I have four fortifications for Second World War games that are playable straight out of the box with no additional work required.

Can't say fairer than that.

Buddha

Capability Savage sent me a picture recently. 

I think he's on holiday...

Crimean Vineyards

A work in progress

One of the eternal joys of young Du Gourmands friendship is that he regularly tells you that such and such a thing cannot be done.  This is usually followed by a ridiculous bet.  Considering the trouble he's gotten me into in the past, I should be more careful, but this one is one of the more innocuous examples of the breed. 

We are hoping to play some Crimean games shortly, specifically the Alma.  The village of Bourliouk was to the front of the Allied advance and there were a number of vineyards there that gave some cover to the infantry as they crossed the river.  I was using the Memoir '44 hedgerow rules for them and Du Gourmand told me that I should use the hedgerow terrain pieces that I had already made up.  

I responded I would do nothing of the sort, to which he countered that there was no practical way of representing a vineyard in 1/72 on a wargames table. The result was a bet that I could not produce eight hexes worth of vineyards. Which is why I have been gluing matchsticks to lollypop sticks this evening using a very simple tutorial put out by the Flames of Wars chaps. 

A portrait of Kinch shortly after

The bet in question is for a bottle of wine, as befits the subject matter,  but I had to put some extra conditions on the wager.  You see in the past, young Du Gourmand has arrived at my home bearing a bottle of "Cream of Cork: Anglo-Irish Fortified Wine". 

The British are a fine people blessed with many gifts, wine making is not one of them.  Ireland has many a peculiar genius, but ours are more suited to the consumption rather than to the production. To say that this bottle was the most evil thing that has ever crossed my lips is an understatement.  I don't think I actually managed to finish my glass, nor to be fair, did Du Gourmand.  I keep the remainder in the drinks cabinet as a monument to man's hubris. 

This wine was so bad, I can not actually find a single image of it on the Internet.  It has been struck from the record.  

With that in mind, I've put the following conditions on the bet. It must be red. It must come from France and come in a bottle with a cork in it. 

Even so, I fear that I have only challenged Du Gourmand's ingenuity. 

TIckling along, but I think I'll stay a brunette

Basing trees

Without too much time to bless myself with, I have been trying to find small jobs that I can finish.  With that in mind, I tackled my remaining trees. These were all based (after I secured some more glue sticks) in an afternoon spent with Mrs. Kinch, which was rather fun.

A HO Scale shepherd and his flock

Along with the trees, I found a little box with this chap and his pals in it. A HO scale shepherd and his flock.  I have no idea where these came from, perhaps I bought them, who can say? 

Taking the sheep dog for a walk

I've no idea what I'll use these for, but they're based now and usable.  They'd make good camouflage tokens for Very British Civil Wall or just general set dressing. 

Some of the sheep

Static grass seemed a touch du trops for such a small figure, so I relied on the old Games Workshop early nineties expedient of wood glue and sand, painted green and then dry brushed yellow.  It looks fine. 

Blood in the water

Meanwhile, I'm back at school - which sadly is no where near as amusing as this song. Jurisprudence & Human Rights are proving fun, Equity and Company Law, not so much. 

En avant!

Terrain update

The old reliable Airfix control tower

I'm back from London a week and the Waterloo game was excellent. Truly superb.  But writing a report and sorting out pictures has been somewhat time consuming and between work and returning to college, I've had my hands full.  To relax, I've conducted a bit of a clear out of the War Room and finished off a few things that were within an asses roar of completion. 

To be honest the significance of the numbers is lost on me, but they were in the original kit. 

Now as it happened, my kit was so old that paper components had perished, but Capability Savage ran me up some stickers that look just like the originals. The tower itself I painted last year (or was it the year before? I forget) while ill with pneumonia, but I had not added the stickers. 

In addition, I have mainly been basing trees. 

There's also been a mass outbreak of forestry as I dived into a bag of MDF bases and started basing every tree in sight. This is lovely work, quite undemanding and very relaxing. 

Base. 

Texture. 

Paint. 

Highlight. 

Static grass. 

Rinse, wash, repeat.  

There's something rather zen about the whole process. Who knows, perhaps there are a mob of Buddhist monks somewhere who decided to jack in the whole mandala business and are knocking out trees for wargaming to beat the band. 

Marshes & Hedgerows

The sticky bit

The cat litter has been added to the marsh hexes and the latest step is to daub a goodly quantity of PVA over the litter in order to fix it in place.  This picture was taken about two hours after I added the PVA, so really lash it on.  This fixes the little rocks and so forth in place. 

I'm not absolutely certain about the next step, probably a quick spray of Armour Painter brown and a highlight. We shall see. I may try one test spray first. 

How's my topiary? 

With the marshes well on the way, it was time to get started on the hedgerows. These are my trusty MDF hexes again. I then roughly cut a  small piece of upholstery foam, added a notch in the middle and hot glued it to the hex. I will probably use a soldering iron to shape the foam, add some filler for texture to the hex and then hot glue some clump foliage to the foam.   If I'm feeling particularly adventurous, I may add a tree armature. We shall see.

Though as quick and dirty terrain goes, we're not doing too badly.  These, both the marshes and hedgerows, were done in two forty minute stints while getting myself together after work. 

The offending article

The library on the top floor is now mostly finished. It still needs a radiator and carpet and other things, but the book shelves are up and that's the main thing.  It occured to me while shelving that there are poor souls out there who cannot organise their shelves by conflict. 

How do they live? If it can be called living? 

At the ripe old age of thirty five, I have come to the inescapable conclusion that all change, no matter how small, is for the worse. Also those smallest changes are the worst. 

While I was shelving, I noticed some gaps, books that I've either lost, loaned or given away.  I have decided to slowly, but surely fill out these gaps. So I whipped out my phone and ordered three of the Flashman's I was missing. They arrived yesterday. 

And they've changed the bloody spine by God.  Hanging is too good for them!  It remains to be seen whether these wrecks of books remain readable after this appalling mutilation. 

Marshes

The festering bog as a work in progress

Unexpectedly, I'm free this coming Saturday. This naturally brought to mind the prospect of getting a spot of wargaming in, so a cunning plan was hatched.  As it's rather short notice and there's every possibility that the lads won't be able to make it, I thought that I would try and organise something that required very little prep, but that we hadn't tried before. 

I fixed on the VE Day scenario pack released by Days of Wonder this year.  

Unfortunately, soon after I sent the email, I realised that I hadn't checked to make sure I had sufficient terrain.  Nothing stirs the creative juices like panicked last minute improvisation.

With that in mind, I find myself making some quick and dirty marsh tiles.

Add cat litter for texture

I needed to make something that was robust, didn't take up a lot of room and that looked nice or at least appropriately boggy. I banged the above together in about forty minutes.The bases are my trusty five inch MDF hexes from Jim at Products for wargamers. I have added a layer of pre mixed filler to represent boggy ground. The flat surface of the MDF will be painted as water. Once the filler had dried, I added some dabs of PVA and scattered some cat litter on it to add a bit of texture. 

I was going to add twigs and reeds and things, but what I'll probably do is stick to some static grass and a few dabs of lichen as I don't want to raise the profile of the hexes much as it will make it hard to stack them for storage. 

This is all a bit of improvisation, so we'll see how they turn out. 

Winter Trees

The full effect

Last year, I picked up a white hex mat with snow effects from Hotz Mats. It's a fine mat and as good as any that that company have produced.  But adding my usual trees to it, all of which are deciduous efforts in green and tans, made it look very odd. With that in mind, I decided to experiment with some bare limbed trees. 

This a Woodland Scenic tree armature stuck to an MDF base with some texturing added. This was then painted brown, dry brushed white with some Constables Snow. I gave the armature a drybrush of white as well which brought up the texture.  

Some PVA daubed on the branches

After that I added some dollops of PVA to the branches and the base and dunked the whole lot in a tub of "Snow" from Army Painter. I'm in two minds about this actually.  I think the snow on the ground looks very well, but I'm not sure about the snow on the branches. 

Branches unadorned 

This is an armature with snow on the base and a drybrush of white on the boughs. I was thinking of adding heavier solid blocks of white paint along the tops of the branches.

More like this

Either way, I'll be varnishing the result within an inch of their lives, but I think the paint version might be more resistant to the vicissitudes of campaigning.