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.

A Little Bit of Wilderness

Next on my list of projects was to finish off some of the trees that I had started a while ago. This is the first batch done.

I basically stayed with the method I laid down in the earlier post. After the flock mixture dried and hardened I gave the trunks a quick paint job and drybrushed the leaves with a bit of green. Then I painted on some watered down glue across the leaf areas haphazardly and covered the whole thing with some more flock. This ended up giving it a more unified appearance between the different materials. 

A detective takes a stroll through the woods.

 They ended up being more work than I first expected. The technique of bulking them out with the flocking works better on the more tightly packed trees. The flock mixture just doesn't stick that well to branches and so multiple layers have to be built up. Also I'd like it if the leaves were more clustered around the outside of trees with more open branches on the interior, more like actual trees. The trunks ended up a little thick for my liking as well. I have a few more to finish up so I'll probably experiment with them some more and then think about improvements for my next section of forest.

Post Hiatus

So I've been taking a short break from the hobby recently. Mostly a combination of time constraints from work, other commitments, and a vacation and the requisite catching up with life after a vacation.
The time away did give me an opportunity to refocus on what I want to work on though. I have a short list of projects I want to complete and hopefully I'll be able to show each one as I'm done.

Pre-hiatus I was having a hard time getting anything done mostly because I was feeling too lazy to start working. Generally I work while watching TV after dinner which can sometimes be distracting but to be honest it's either then or never. My current plan is to make sure that every time I'm sitting down to watch something (Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3 at the moment) I pick up something to work on. Once I get started it's easier to keep going. It's that initial start that's the most difficult.

In that spirit I was able to finish off this guy.

Malcolm Gosswell always dreamed of winning glory in the skies for Queen and Country. But as you get older you learn that glory rarely pays the bills and while the work might not be as exciting as on a Royal Airship of the Line, the pay with the Moss Hutchinson Shipping Company is a damn sight better. Although with air piracy on the rise Captain Gosswell may very well get some of that excitement after all.

Lost in Space

I was able to finish up painting the new additions to my Chaos force. On Sunday I participated in a special space hulk event for the campaign. My squad of Chosen marines, the aptly named Forsaken, heroically managed to open a door, get shot by laser defenses, were stuck in close combat with some Genestealers, and finally had the chunk of space hulk they were in blasted off by a massive decompression. Currently they are drifting through space but I expect they might show up again in another game.

The whole squad just before embarking for their ill fated trip to the space hulk.



He was previously destined to be a sergeant for my regular Space Marines. Funny how career paths can change.



The guy all the way in the back is an older paint job. You can see that the new ghost parts are much more turquoise. I like that green color better personally.

I also finished my Obliterator. About half way through sculpting I figured out a new method of creating the ectoplasm that I really like. It's simple and basically is just sticking a pin through the putty to pull and shape some holes. I'm not as satisfied with the paint job. I tried some of the new GW paints and wasn't much impressed. I might end up repainting all of his ghostly bits so they better match the rest of the force.





Next up are 1000 point games so I'm going to have to put together an army list and see what else I want to add.

Unit Cards

One of the things I hate about playing games like 40k is flipping through rulebooks looking for information on units. I always liked the unit cards that came with the warmachine models so I decided to do something similar for my 40k force.

I put together a quick template and added pictures of my units I took on one side. I also added a short background blurb. On the other side is the statblock and a short description of pertinent rules. I print the cards out at index card size and stick them into photo sleeves. That way I can write on them with a dry erase marker, put extras into the pockets like psychic power cards or whatever else I need.




The other advantage is since I'm using nonstandard models for my troops they can be used as identification cards for my opponent.

These are my first run of cards. I'm already thinking of changes and additions now that I've used them in a game. I'll definitely add more rules info on them and maybe play with the layout.

Phantom Firepower

I had a lot of fun in the first campaign games and with the new 40k, so I'm looking to expand my force. Next weekend starts the 1000 point level and while I have enough guys right now to reach that I want to add some variety and more long range punch.



Quickly put together from partially assembled guys I had lying around from an old project.

 First, I want to expand out a squad of basic chaos marines. I have three right now and my goal is to get three more done for this weekend so I can switch out a squad of the Wights. I'd like to add a heavy weapon to squad but the codex says you need a 10 man squad for that option. So a plasma gun is as good as it gets for them right now. 


He still needs all of his ghostly ectoplasm sculpted on.




Next I had an idea for making some themed Obliterators. I feel like I'm going to need some ranged firepower at the next point level and these guys should fit the bill nicely. Plus I always liked the concept of guys manifesting the right weapon for the job and it seems like a rather spectral ability so it fits my theme.