Being Dragged Back into the Grimdark’

A little while since I last posted I have been doing hobby stuff I just hadn’t really done much I thought was worth posting. I’ve recently been trying out painting miniatures in oil paints so hopefully I’ll do a post on that soon. However the last few weeks have seen me get back into one of my first gaming loves warhammer 40K thanks to the, recently released Imperium magazine. I’ve started painting 40K miniatures again and I have to admit I’m loving it so much so I’ve resurrected my old 40K blog as a place to show them.

I know 40K is it not everyone’s cup of tea but if it interests you feel free to pop over and have a look

https://diablocrusade.wordpress.com/

Something a bit different – Sludge

I recently came across a game called Sludge on the internet. In a nutshell Sludge is a post apocalyptic, black powder fantasy game (that covers a few bases). There is a web page here with a fuller explanation here https://relicblade.com/sludge

The background sounded interesting to me but what really appealed was the kit bashing of historical miniatures to make fantasy post apocalyptic miniatures. It looked like so much fun I thought I’d jump in and have a go. First problem was, despite having an extensive bits box, a lack of suitable base miniatures. I eventually found three Foundry Napoleonic infantry men, that had been sent as freebies with my orders over the years, and set about converting them to look more post apocalyptic. A couple of head swaps latter and with some suitably dirty paint jobs and I had these three guys.

These were a fun little distraction, that scratched an itch, and for now that’s enough. I do think with all the plastic kits out there now you could have some real fun with kit bashing Sludge miniatures. So it’s something that has found its way on to, the rather long, things I’d like to do in the future list.

My Wargames room – Part 6

After several weeks of work my wargames room makeover is finally finished and it’s time to show it off.

This is my new gaming table a rather modest 5×4 foot but I’ve added under table storage in the form of a book case for rule books and I modified some racking shelves to store scenery on. I added an edge to help keep my terrain tiles firmly in place. I have made two of the sides adjustable with bolts and sliding brackets because on my last table the measurements where slightly off and the tiles wouldn’t fit perfectly. Now I can place the tiles on the table and clamp them in place.

I’ve also re-designed my painting modelling area to give my more space and to make it easier to find things my wife also added a new feature the sweetie box.

Overall I’m very pleased with how it turned out the lighting is much better, the floor is flat again, the new lay out gives my more space around the gaming table and I don’t think I’ve ever had my hobby so well organised. Now its time to start using my room again the first thing I want to do is finish off the other projects from the painting shelf of shame (who now live in a box of shame as the original painting shelf no long exists).

My Wargames room – Part 5

It’s been almost a month since my last post mostly because I’ve been in full DIY mode and the only painting I’ve been doing is walls and ceiling. Still with the help of number one son over a couple of weekends and with time off work this week my wargames room renovations are taking shape nicely.

The 13 year old chipboard floor has been pulled up and replaced as has the water damaged ceiling. I have new LED lights and I’ve upgrade the electrics and moved some sockets. The walls are and ceiling are now freshly painted. Next weekend should see the new flooring go down and then I can start and building a new gaming table and work bench (for painting and modelling).

Anyway a couple photos of the building site that will be shiny new wargames room soon

Lockdown Weekend Terrain

So the big UK lockdown continues. I’ve actually been working through the lockdown my employer considered me essential staff so I’ve been carrying on. Even so I’ve had a lot more hobby time than normal as there is very little else to do in the evenings and weekends (especially with no PL football). This Easter weekend though my employer has given staff, that are working, an extra two days leave so with six days off I decided to tackle a couple of terrain projects.

First up is a tembe for my darkest Africa project. I cut at the base board yesterday and measure up where I want walls to go. I have two sheets of A4 foam board to try and construct the shell of the building today.

The second project is a 2×2 foot skirmish board for my Realms of Chaos fantasy project. That project has its own blog here if you’re interested in GW fantasy inspired stuff

https://nachtgarten.blogspot.com/

the skirmish board is going to be for a Nurgle inspired wetland/bog/fen/marsh. Yesterday day I got a base board cut and mounted various cork, polystyrene and foam board pieces to create levels. I used my new hot wire cutter and quite frankly wonder how I got be without one all these years. after gluing everything down I let it dry and then started adding filler. to day is a drying day (which should be helped by the hot weather) and tomorrow I  can get started on phase two.

Anyway this is what my efforts yesterday created.

 

 

 

 

A Ngoni Kraal

While building my Ngoni army I thought it might be cool if each army had a bit of themed scenery to go with it. After a little pondering I thought a royal kraal might be cool.

Now I’ll admit I have no idea if the Ngoni still built huts and kraals that resembled those from their original homelands once they settled around lake Nyasa. As they moved North the Ngoni incorporated a number of different ethnic groups in their ranks and, I assume, picked up new techniques and styles of buildings so that their dwellings could have resembled lots of different style . Unfortunately A Google search brought no useful info at all .

I do know that  Ngoni society had names for different groups among them split up between those that came from the original homeland and those that joined latter. It seems that those descended from the original Ndwandwe and Swazi had higher social status than those who joined latter and kings and chiefs could probably draw a lineage back to the original refugees. Given that I took a punt that a Royal kraal would be built using techniques from the orginal homeland to emphizise a kings links to his Ndwandwe roots…..that could of course be absolute rubbish but it was a good enough excuse for me.

So I purchased three resin Zulu huts from Empress Miniatures and started collecting twigs to build a palisade. I had a few left over Zulu civilians and a chief from some packs I had purchased, for making my army baggage train, so I painted them up to populate the kraal. For the palisade I just cut the twigs and hot glued them to lolly sticks and painted them. In the end what I ended up with was this

My Wargames Room

So it’s been a while since I posted anything on here because I haven’t really had anything to share. After my last post I decided it was time to give my hobby space a face lift and so the only painting I’ve been doing is walls recently. I finally finished my new improved wargames room this weekend.

Despite sounding quite grand my wargames room is actually the garage. My house has an odd double length garage and when we moved in 12 years ago the wife kindly agreed I could keep my “toys” in there on condition I shared with the tumble drier. So 12 years ago I put in a raised floor (due to a flooding issue) boarded out the inside of the garage and put in an unfeasible sized wargames table. It served me well as a man cave/hobby space but like most things 12 years old it was looking a bit tired. Here’s a picture of the original room about 6 years ago

Over the twelve years my hobby has changed I paint and model more and game less so I have a lot of painted figures and scenery that needs storing and less need for a 6×4 table that takes up most of the room. So I now have more storage space a 5x4ft gaming table and a purpose built painting area plus some nice new carpet tiles and paint job.

Now that’s done its time to get back to painting some miniatures.

 

 

Eastern Heavy Cavalry Division

Having finished the Eastern companions I was just left with a the general to paint to complete the “Division”. The companions are joined by some low quality Indian cavalry (for now, at least, I took advantage of Newlines Christmas sale to pick up some more local Persian cavalry for this division to paint at some point). So here we have my Eastern successor C-in-C Karanos (the self styled new Alexander) who just like Alexander the Great likes to lead his heavy cavalry from the front and his heavy cavalry

Basing My Way

A few people have commented on my bases so I thought I’d do a small post on how I achieve the look of my bases. There isn’t really anything ground breaking about what I do but it does take a bit of work but I like the final look so I think it’s worth it

Step 1

Glue the miniatures to the base posed in an artistically pleasing way. I started of using Renedra plastic bases which are very nice but I found a supplier of MDF bases in the same size (60mmx40mm) on ebay they are slightly thicker than the plastic ones but you get twice as many for the same cost so I’m switching to those for future units.

Step 2

PVA glue and sand. The sand came from a DIY project in the garden having bought a load in bulk I kept some back dried it out in the airing cupboard and keep it in an a large air tight plastic container and its kept my going for a couple of years. Leave the sand to dry over night.

Step 3

Base coat the base. I use tester pots of household paints for my scenery and bases a £1.00-£1.50 pot is cheaper than using my more expensive acrylic miniature paints. The base coat I’ve been using is a orange brown called Toffee.

Step 4

First dry a heavy dry brush. Again using household paint this time a yellow ochre. The trick is to leave plenty of the base coat visible.

Step 5

The final light dry brush this time with a cream paint again leaving plenty of the last two coats showing through.

Step 6

Flocking. More PVA glue and a sprinkling of loose static flock the shade of green I use is called spring (again purchased of ebay). Leave the flock to dry overnight.

Step 7

Grass tufts. I use three different colours of self adhesive grass tufts in brown, yellow and green which also come in three different sizes. I use a pair of tweezers and to attach them to the bases picking the sizes and colours at random.

Step 8

The last step is to add some small bushes/shrubs using model railway hedge foliage in a dark green I use UHU glue for this step as PVA just soaks in the sponge like foliage.

Cheers Jon

Welcome

Hi and Welcome to my new wargames blog. As the title suggests this is my second blog my first is dedicated to my ever ongoing Warhammer 40,000 project . However, like most gamers, I tend to have many interests and the attention span of a small child so I’ve created this blog as a place to record all my other projects past and present. Mostly this blog will be pictures interspersed with the odd ramble nothing ground breaking but hopeful of some interest to others.

Regards Jon