Showing posts with label modern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label modern. Show all posts

Sunday 19 February 2017

Terrain boards for Afghanistan

A chance find of ten sample posts of a promising looking paint color at the local hardware store has prompted a weekend of terrain board building for my Afghanistan project. The idea is to build some fairly generic rocky desert boards that I can also for gaming WW1 in the Middle East.

Having tried my hand at terrain mats in the past - and finding attempts to built contours up under mats largely unsatisfactory -  I am going to try using flat terrain boards and add-on terrain for the various features. I'm using 6mm MDF for the base boards.

The paint I found was an acrylic 'suede finish' in a mid grey. It dries with almost a chalky surface. As mentioned, they were a series of unwanted color post being sold off for $1 a can - bargain. I'd never seen this finish before and I could see the potential for this use.
Few people would welcome that color sample as being of interest - rich pickings for a wargamer!
I started with a based coat on lightly sanded MDF and scattered some grit over the top while wet. I just used the sandy colored gravel I have use for landscaping, which you can see on my miniature bases as well - a lifetime supply of basing materials!
Once it dried, I knocked off the larger pieces of gravel with a scraper, leaving the more sandy textured finish. To this I added a second coat of suede paint - and a coat on the underside to overcome warping.

Leaving that to dry well - I then sponged on some yellow ochre craft paint and then dry-brushed with a 'sand' colored acrylic.

I finished the boards with a spray of a clear varnish I had at hand - the result is fairly good for an  unplanned project (which, let's face it, most of mine are!).

I couldn't resist taking a a few pictures of the growing collection of terrain and some of the completed Eureka USMC and Afghani 28mm miniatures. The compound design and technique is thanks to Matakishi. My terrain has a long way to go, but the boards are a huge step up from what I was using!








Monday 10 October 2016

'Yomping' - first 10mm Pendraken Falklands British

For a wargamer that cut his teeth painting medieval armies, turning my hand to Disruptive Pattern Material (DPM) uniforms in 10mm is quite a challenge.

Here are some hastily cobbled together pictures of the first figures off the painting table. That said,  they still need a wash and some highlighting. The yompers are accompanied by what will be a pair of Blues and Royals FV107 Scimitar light tanks.



Wednesday 7 September 2016

New scale and new project: Falklands War in 10mm

I have for some time harboured an interest to start a project around the Falklands War (Guerra de las Malvinas). As a 19 year old I followed the coverage of this conflict on these windswept, bare sub antarctic islands with great interest.

The images of the sinking of the General Belgrano and the Exocet missile strikes on HMS Sheffield  and MV Atlantic Conveyor left a deep impression - as have names like Mt Longdon, Two Sisters and Mount Tumbledown. Of course we can name many more moments when the world watched on in awe of the horror of modern warfare.
Anyway, I've had this project percolating away in the background until I recently happened across the inspirational work of Dougie with his first rate painting and basing of 10mm Pendraken miniatures - not to mention his great work on terrain. See: http://dougieswargamingblog.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/fivecore-company-command-falklands-10mm.html

Dougie's basing is something special too: http://dougieswargamingblog.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/b-company-2para-falklands-1982-in-10mm.html

So, I've got myself a copy of Fivecore Company Command and a bag of Pendraken minis arrived today. Here begins my first 10mm project. There are many challenges ahead not least painting the camouflage uniforms of the British. Stay tuned for more updates.


... and just to follow up on Col's comments below about the Seacat missile systems used during the Falklands, here's a bit of promotional material I tracked down and an interesting link regarding Seacat missile aiming. http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Talk:Sea_Cat