Lower Fickleham In the Sun

Finally managed to squeeze in taking some pictures of the boards with the village and other terrain laid out on them. It ended up a lot sparser than I thought. I'm going to need more hedges and trees (can never have too many hedges or trees in the collection really) and also some more fields to fill it out.  

I just made a couple of additions to the boards since I last "finished" them. I wasn't real happy with the way the roads blended into the rest of the boards so I added some sand and paste as dirt in the gutters and along the edges. I also used some used and dried green tea leaves as leaves in spots of the gutters and added some patchy static grass on the edges.The cliff board also got some sandy texture and static grass around the rock faces.

Closer look at the improved roads.

I considered adding more grass but I think I want to keep the boards relatively simple and then make several flexible caulk pieces to go over them. These will be fields, rocky terrain, woods and such. I'm hoping it will give me more options overall. I'm still not real happy with the poor fit of the boards together and the unsightly join line. Hopefully the use of overlay pieces will disguise these as well. If I ever make more board sections I'll have to be more careful to get more exact edges but for now I at least have something to play a game on. 

Lower Fickleham Vigilance Committee

These five were part of my latest entry for the Painting Challenge. I'm separating out my Martian drone as a shameless way to boost my blog post count.

I need to touch up the edges of those bases.

All five are from a Khurasan miniatures modern zombie pack featuring some hikers, a zombie dog, and some locals. I've previously painted one of the villagers up and this time finished up the other five. I'm not sure what I can do with the hikers as they are both obviously modern with puffy jackets and shorts. The dog will probably get used at some point as he should be a quick paintjob.

 

I went with a muted earth tone scheme in an attempt to make them fit in more as Victorian citizens. The woman had an scandalously short dress on ( ankles and even calves were clearly visible) so I made it a decent length with some putty and then added an apron so she could be painted up as a domestic. I'm not really sure if a woman of that era would wear a coat like the one she has so I figured I 'd paint it up like a canvas slicker she grabbed in her haste to run out into the streets.

"That sweater is so ugly I might just shoot you!"

The second figure I had doubts with was the gentleman in a sweater. My research didn't really turn up if tartan sweaters were made at that time but that's the effect I went for. I think it came out looking more like an ugly Christmas sweater. I probably should have gone with the fisherman sweater that I put on the other guy but I didn't want them to all look like they just wandered up from the dock. This is one of those strange times in miniature painting where a lack of knowledge of historical haberdashery has led to some suboptimal painting choices. He'd also probably look better if I had added a hat.

"Run for it!"

Worcote Hall

As the year comes to its end I've finally finished the last of the buildings for Lower Fickleham. Not to mean that I don't intend to continue to make new buildings for the town just that this is the last of the original Crescent Root buildings. Saving the best for last, or at least the largest, we have Worcote Hall. Probably some old manse of minor nobility. I imagine that he was the first one to plaster up all of those walls in the new Continental style and the rest of the town followed suit. Now everyone is sort of regretting the decision and the rendering is chipping away here and there.

I followed the same paint scheme as the rest of the town but kept the building slightly cleaner. I left the windows dark as I really couldn't find any good examples of country homes with bright paint on them. I think it gives it a very somber appearance anyways. I also tried my hand at adding some ivy to the back.

Building Plans

 
More new buildings in Lower Fickleham, a cottage with walled garden and two more outbuildings. (I'm a big fan of outbuildings.) This is the penultimate group of the ones I bought. I still have the largest of them, the manor, on the worktable but it should be done fairly soon as well as I pretty much have my painting technique down on them.

The AirCaptain looks around a small cottage he is thinking of renting.

It does have a nice enclosed garden and a small shed in the back.

The other outbuilding hangs precariously over the edge of town.

I want to continue to expand the town and I'm currently trying to figure out exactly how I want to go about it. I have a laundry list of ideas, most of which I'm going to need to scratchbuild so it might take some time to get through it. I'd like to start making some more urban and industrial style buildings. These would allow me to stretch Lower Fickleham into the suburbs of a city or at least give me a transition into one.

With the possible entertainment of a domestic squabble in the back alley?

In the short term I'm going to try to knock out some smaller projects for the town. I have some ideas for stone walls, plowed fields, and wheat fields to try to dress up the surroundings. I'd also like to make some smaller pieces to throw around and add some life. Maybe some market stalls or something similar. I also want to make some gas streetlights but I'm still on the lookout for some parts to construct them out of.

Just another sleepy day in Lower Fickleham.

Lower Fickleham Expansion Continues





I finished up three more buildings for the village. I changed up the colors from the first set a bit so that when they are all together there is a bit of variation. I went with some browner slate for the roofs and more of a grey color to the rendering on the walls. I painted the stone/brick work the same way as before but the mortar ended up a little to bright for me. Not sure how that happened but I put an extra brown wash on it and it looks better now.



The smaller stables building. Or at least I assume that's what it is.

As I mentioned before these are all resins buildings from Crescent Root Studios. They also sell them painted but I opted to paint them myself. I wholly recommend them as they are really nice casts. I understand they are doing some laser cut MDF buildings as well although only in 28mm for now. If they put out some 15mm buildings I'll probably get them as well.

The Durand home ...

And from the other side.

My only reservation has nothing to do with the buildings but the fact that they are really intended for WWII Normandy, or at least they look like they should be in Carentan to me. (On a side note I've been rewatching Band of Brothers so maybe that's influencing me.) I'd like to make some brick and stone buildings without the render on them for a more English look to them. Of course I'm basing all of that purely on my personal perceptions of what period buildings should be. I haven't really been able to turn up much research on whether most common man's homes had render applied to them or not. Although I have found out that the mortar was usually grey as it was made with industrial ash mostly, and I guess the render would probably be similar.  

Either way I still have a small home with walled garden, two more outbuildings, and a  large manor house/ inn to go before I worry about making my own.

Lower Fickleham as it stands at the moment.

It Takes a Village

I finished up the two buildings and the two smaller outbuildings. They took a little longer than I expected as I was trying out a couple of new things and of course that meant doing a fair amount of repainting. But that is all part of the learning process.

The next ones should be a little quicker, which is good cause I still have a box full of them to do.

Construction Continues at Lower Fickleham

I finished off the road tile this weekend but have been a bit lazy about taking pictures of it. I'm sure part of this is due to being less than happy with how it came out. A couple problems cropped up while working on it as I noted in the last post but I think on the next one I can correct some of them.
 

British forces spread out to inspect the new roadway.

A local businessman and wife look on in despair at the state of the local thoroughfare.

The toolmarks from the stamps are still too evident but I think a redesign of my stamps and a little bit more care will solve that problem. The bigger one is the cracking and warping. Patching them didn't really work that well. I'm going to try going back to DAS clay as I've had better luck with it in the past. Maybe a few smaller sections that I can glue on will work as well. I'll try to do some smaller scale experiments and see how it works out.


"Shameful lack of maintenance!"

I've also started painting the buildings and as is my habit I like to name all of my terrain projects. After wandering through some random name generators I've settled on Lower Fickleham. I don't know if there will be a Greater (Upper?) Fickleham more than likely it will be some old ruins or maybe a castle. Either way I need to get what I have painted first before worrying to much about that.



There is another one in process as well but the picture I took was so out of focus I didn't include it.