Someplace For All My Chickens

Still working on the conversion parts for my Cabal guys. The backpack is coming along but the rifle is causing me problems.

In the mean time I've finished the shed I've been working on. A couple of sloppy mismeasurements led to some extra pieces being tacked on the front and side but overall I think it turned out alright. I'm thinking about making some tiny chickens to scatter about near the coop for pictures and playing.

Next up is the barn and I might also work on the hand-pump at the same time. I'm also thinking about some fencing and some field crops. I might reuse an old technique I discovered with caulking for the crops. I'll have to do some more research on period fencing before I figure out how I'm going to make that yet.

The farmstead is starting to come together.

Repurposing Some SciFi

I've been looking around recently and trying to see what's out there miniature-wise that I could incorporate into my collection. Khurasan Miniatures have been putting out a lot of really nice stuff but they are too futuristic to fit in with the rest of what I have. Then I thought maybe I could make some various bits to steampunk them up more. 

In my opinion the nice thing about steampunk is that any scifi concept should be able to fit in with some tweaks. After all it is called Victorian Science Fiction. I'm not just talking about sticking some gears on it, but some more thoughtful changes. The aesthetic is important as well as making modifications for period appropriate materials, power source, and technology. I have some wiggle room in there for my setting since it already includes some fantasy elements.

  

So first up are some of the Riflethings from the Control Battalions. I think they'd fit in great as soldiers in the Cabal, my evil techno-sorcerer faction. They are getting some backpacks, new rifles, and a little bit of resculpting to the legs. For the rifle and backpack I'm going to make one nicely detailed master and cast it so I can easily convert more guys in the future. I want both to be styled similar to the Cryx Warjacks that I will be using as their warmachines.



Riflethings hanging out near my partially completed shed.

 I'm starting with a basic shape made out of styrene. I'll sculpt details over that. I've also cut the knee pads off of the figures (Victorian soldiers had tougher knees I guess) and the back plate off so that the new backpack goes on smoother. Finally I cut most of the rifle away leaving the stock behind. The supporting hand went with the rifle, I'll sculpt on a new one to hold the new rifle.



First steps of the conversion to Cabal Pawns

Take 'em Out To The Woodshed!

Finished up the woodshed that I've been working on. I have to admit that I'm pretty happy with this one. I based it off of a woodshed at a place I vacationed at up in Maine. Nothing fancy, just some boards knocked together to keep the wood dry and a stump with an axe out front to split it with.

Its mostly basswood strips and the firewood is made out of some sticks from the yard that I split with an x-acto knife. The stump is another chunk of stick and the axe is just a piece of wire stuck in it with the axehead sculpted out of putty. Finally, I finished the ground with some wood filler.

Painting was straight forward, I just wanted it to look well weathered and well used. I've found that I'm relying heavily on dry brushing followed by ink washes and glazes to get the effects I want.

I've also started on the other outbuilding. Still pondering the well as it should probably be a hand pump. Harder for monsters to craw out of that though. Finally, I'm hoping to get back to working on figures this week. I just got a package in the mail and I have some plans for the contents. More on that next time.

Rutger Farmstead

I decided to give a proper name to each terrain project I'm working on just like I've been doing with my miniatures. In this case the house is going to be the centerpiece of the Rutger farmstead (named arbitrarily after one of my favorite actors, Rutger Hauer.) While I'm sure in use I'll mix and match the various pieces it gives me a theme to work with.

 I had a hard time getting a color scheme on it that I was happy with. The walls and roof just kept ending up to close in color. In the end I hit the roof with some ink washes and dry brushed the walls up more to get a good contrast. All part of the learning curve when you start working in a different scale.

I can almost see old man Rutger standing on his front porch smoking a pipe. Maybe this year no giant monsters or robots will come along and wreck his back 40. Guess I need to find an Old Man Rutger figure now too.

Next up for the farmstead is finishing up the woodshed, starting on the barn and I want to make another outbuilding with attached chicken coop. Maybe a well too, need somewhere the gribbly monsters can climb up out of.

Tiny Roofing Man's Blues

If there is one thing this project has taught me it's that I have no desire to become a 15 mm roofer. On a 28 mm building cutting the shingles is tedious but putting them on is actually kinda relaxing and fun. Not so at this scale. Each shingle is too small and fiddly for my sausage fingers to easily manipulate. I'm reduced to pushing them around with a sculpting tool and disliking every moment. I would cut them as strips but again they're so small that cutting them like that is going to be pretty horrible.

My basic technique is to scribe some guidelines on the roof and then glue the shingles on in courses.

I think the next thing architectural detail I'm going to do is make up some shingling strips and cast them in resin. Then I can use those to roof any future buildings. A little more work on the front end should save me a lot of work on the back end.

Finally, all done. The chimney was sculpted over foamcore base to look like field stone.

The back side of the house.

I'm hoping to get the house painted this week and some finished pics up then.

Second takes, Second Year

A couple of setbacks with the terrain pieces. Using balsa and pressing the detail in just isn't working for the roofing. I tried a test piece and didn't like the level of detail or definition. I also tried painting it thinking perhaps some dry brushing would help distinguish it. Unfortunately the base coat soaked into the balsa and swelled it up returning it to virtually flat. Now I'm a little worried about the siding. Nonetheless, I'm pressing on.

I've started doing the shingles with thin card. I was trying to avoid it since cutting out the shingles is very time consuming and I've had bad luck with card warping in the past. After completing only one part I realized I'm being a little too slapdash with them. At this scale I need to cut my shingles more uniform in size then I would for a bigger model. Some of the shingles on there would be 3 feet across in real life!


Up front is the framework for a woodshed. I'm planning on a barn and another outbuilding to complete the farmstead.

On the plus side I've been working on this blog for an entire year now. I'm pleasantly surprised I kept it up all this time and the fact that I'm still interested in continuing it as well. What I'm working on has changed dramatically from what I originally intended but that is part of the hobby I suppose. I tend to get obsessed with something but move on pretty quick. So its surprising  that I've more or less been working on one project since Christmas of last year. I guess this whole steam punk enterprise is just the right combination of things to really get its hooks into me!

A House in the Country

With some trees done I knew I needed something else to go with them. Trees and to a slightly lesser extent rocks are pretty much scale neutral. Next to a 15mm figure a tree might be a mighty oak but the same tree seen with a 28mm figure looks like a scrubby little maple. So I needed two things to make everything work out.

First is something for my trees to stand on. I like magnetizing the trees since it allows them to both be positioned individually and to minimize the base so it looks like its coming straight out of the ground. The downside is you need to make a board specifically for them with metal built into it. So I made a small board mainly for taking photographs. Its sized to fit in my light box and the plan is to try to scale it to 15mm.

The board starts as just some insulation foam with bits of sheet metal glued to it.

Next a layer of spackling to smooth it all out.

Second I need a house. Buildings are the best thing for showing scale. There is a reason Godzilla is always stomping down main street in downtown Tokyo. I wanted my first building to be nice and simple so I can experiment with building techniques and not get bogged down in the details. I decided on a simple clapboard house with an addition and a little porch. I saw a picture of something similar in an American Civil War era photograph and I'm using that as my guide.


Basic structure put together and casting some details.

The basic structure is built out of foam core. I used some of my cast architectural details for the door and windows. I pondered how to do the clapboard siding and decided to use 1/32 balsa wood sheet. I cut it to size and then using a straight edge and a spoon buffer sculpting tool pressed in the board shapes. I glued these on the outside.

Started work on the front porch and laid down some plasti-card to form a base for the roof. The tool up front is the spoon burnisher used to press in the boards.

I'm thinking the roof is going be done similarly. I'm guessing it would either be shakes or slates in reality so I'm going to try to press the pattern into the balsa wood and see how that turns out.