Wargames Foundry Apaches

 Yes, that's right. Apaches.  Not my usual sort of painting at all, but I was given these (thanks Bodvoc) so I'd have something to use in games of Fistful of Lead, the original Western version.

These are Wargames Foundry and at one time I had quite a collection of their Old West range.  Back in the 80s Bodvoc and I played a few games of Foundry's The Rules With No Name (still available for free on their website).  I had quite a respectable posse of gunfighters, some Mexicans and several townsfolk.  

I got rid of most of these when my interests shifted, but came back to the genre with the Warhammer Historical Legends of the Old West game.  This time we tried 20mm plastics, of which I have quite a few left.

I have stated before that I am no longer playing historical wargames, well I'm prepared to stretch this a little bit, by including some small scale skirmish games that I feel are more about story telling, and certainly have very little to do with actual history.  For Western games, Willey Games' Fistful of Lead Reloaded should give a very cinematic rather than historic feel.  Certainly our experience with the Galactic Heroes version suggests a lot of fun. 

I'm not sure how many games of FfoLR I'll actually get to play, so I opted for a quick paint job, and that suggested Citadel Contrast paints.  I've seen some very good results with these (T'Other One has some excellent Contrast paint jobs over on his blog).  A good opportunity to practice with an unfamiliar paint.

The minis were prepped in the usual way.  The bases were removed and wire pegs inserted as they will be based on clear acrylic discs.  I had forgotten what a chore this is with metal minis.  The minis were then primed with Vallejo White Surface Primer to which I added a small amount of VGC Khaki and a couple of drops of Vallejo Silk Varnish.

Primed and with skin tones painted

Once the primer had cured I got on with the Contrast painting.  The flesh was painted with Citadel Contrast Guilliman Flesh.  Buff items, such as the buckskin boots were CC Skeleton Horde.  White cloth was CC Apothecary White and I used CC Flesh Tearers Red, Dark Angels Green, Iyanden Yellow,  Leviadon Blue and Space Wolf Grey for other cloth items.  Leather was variously Cygor Brown and Gore-Grunta Fur.

The Apaches with the Contrast paint done

Once all the Contrast paint was dry I went in and added details such as metal work and jewellery using standard Vallejo Game Colors.  I also highlighted some of the areas painted in Contrast paint where I felt they needed a boost, notably all the white areas, the dark blue jacket and the brown leather jacket.

Finally the minis were varnished and based, ready for action.

The results show what I can achieve with Contrast Paints.  I'm generally happy with them, some more than others.  Using the Contrast paint was a learning experience, and they are a fun group of minis to have finished.  I suppose I need some opposition for them now.  I have some Mexican bandits and a few cowboys somewhere, but this is something I'm doing to play in other peoples games, rather than putting on games myself.  I lack any western scenery for one thing*, and I think they'd look odd in Tatooine.

Finally a note about the Contrast Paints themselves.  I've used a selection before, and had bought a few when they came out with the intention of using them on my Trident Realm army (must get back to that).

This is perhaps the first time I've really used them with any great variety though.  I wanted to get a good result from just one coat, though I knew I'd be using more traditional methods to add details such as the various beads and feathers.  Some of the paints were very good, CC Guilliman Flesh and CC Iyanden Yellow, in particular, gave very good results.  Some of the paints looked little different from normal paint, Cygor Brown, Flesh Tearers Red and Leviadon Blue were bad for this.  Adding some extra highlights means the result is fine, but the point was to avoid having to do this.  Some of the paints did what they were supposed to, but the end result wasn't what I wanted.  This may well have been down to my choice of primer.  Perhaps a more grey primer might have been better?

I'll certainly use Contrast paints again, they have their uses.  For large numbers of minis, or when speed is important they may become my 'go to'.  I'll still use my traditional techniques form most of my minis though.

* Well, I could make do.  The dwarven shack might work as a prospector's shack, that is pretty much what it is anyway.  I also have a couple of sets of Whitewash City, PDFs of Western town buildings.  These might make a fun project, techniques pretty much the same as the Townscape buildings we have been doing.  But I neither need nor want a new project at this time, so that would be a long time in the future.

SITC - Building The Metal Hut

So far I've made (but not painted) a wooden shack and a stone cabin.  These are based on two of the buildings used as Gimbrin's Mine in Terror of the Lichemaster.  As I'm using this project as a bit of an experiment to come up with a dwarven style, I thought I'd finish off the set with a metal hut.

This simple hut is building 11 in the TotL pack; the closest I can find in the Townscape set is building 7, The Store (presumably a storehouse rather than a shop).  The only difference is that the Lichemaster building has vertical planking, the Townscape one is horizontal.  As I'm having a metal plate finish, this doesn't matter at all.

The building has a foamcard structure with a roof from delivery envelope card.

The metal hut foamcore, er, core

I wanted to add some extra texture to the hut to make it look like it had been built out of metal plates.  There was a temptation to use corrugated card to give a corrugated sheet look, but I thought that was a bit too modern looking.  Fine for Sci Fi, but this is supposed to be fantasy.  Instead I added thin card strips to cover the corners and around the window and door. I used the outer shiny side of the card upmost, it isn't as absorbent with paint, but has a smoother texture.  

Both the door and the window are recessed into the foamboard, simply cut through the outer layer of card and through the foam.  the foam can be plucked out leaving just the back layer of card. I played around with the door shape, to see if a non-oblong door looked more non human.  The window was just granny grating again, with thin card for a frame.  I decided that looked a bit sparse, so I added more card strips for extra metal beams.

I borrowed a technique from Merijn's dwarven build, using seeds as rivets.  He uses quinoa for various bits on his mine build here, I found some blue poppy seeds that are a bit smaller.  They are very fiddly to apply, but I do like the look.  The pictures show a few applied to the front, I've a lot more to go.

Now all three buildings are built (bar a few rivets) and just waiting to be painted .  I'll get them all done at once, if the weather is dry I may even get the airbrush out again.

Building Tatooine in 20mm Part 3

Last night I had another game of Star Wars Galactic Heroes. It was very much a last minute thing, but I was determined to have more terrain on the table.

I quickly cut some XPS blocks, and even had time to stick some half polystyrene balls onto one of them for domes, but there was an awful lot of pink on the table.

A lot of pink foam, which looks a pale buff or orange in the photo.  This is a much better amount of terrain than the last game.

Today I decided to work on one of them, since the dwarven stone cabin was drying prior to painting.  I've now got it to the stage of needing texture and 'greeblies', then painting.

The arches are cut on the Proxon using a Shifting Lands arch template.  I got one as a freebie when I ordered my Guider Pro. Very useful, though I still need some practice with them. 

Building front

Building back, looking at it I might replace the buttresses with thicker ones.

I'll probably put this away until I've finished the SITC - BH, but I certainly want to get those pink blocks turned into Tatooine terrain.

And then when I've got a box of 20mm terrain done, time to start on the 28mm stuff.

SITC - Building The Stone Cabin

I've had a bit of a change of plan regarding my dwarven buildings for The Second International Townscape Challenge. Initially I planned on making two or three versions of building 8 to try out different styles and finishes.

Having built a wooden version I've now decided to move onto the other buildings from Gimbrin's Mine, building and, and try the different styles on them. 

So the second building is No 6 in the Terror of the Lichemaster pack. I'm going for a stone build, these are dwarves after all. 

As with the wooden shack, I gave the original a 'cabinectomy'. I built the whole structure out of XPS, milled to 5mm thickness. To give the cabin a more dwarven look I added pillars to each corner, these were 10mm square, with the outside corner taken off.  The walls would be butted up against the pillars.

Prior to assembly I recessed areas for the door and windows.  The windows were again granny grating, the door is a piece of balsa, scribed to give a planked effect.  The stonework was measured, pencilled in, then the XPS was cut with a knife, before deepening the mortar lines with a pencil.  The whole lot was textured with a ball of foil, and several of the stones were pressed in to give a slightly less uniform look.

The components for the stone cabin

I tried using tacky glue to assemble the cabin, but the XPS doesn't absorb it well.  I ended up using a glue gun, which did the job nicely.

The cabin assembled

I added a couple of pillars in the middle of the long walls.  To maintain the dwarven look I went for 5mm deep and 1mm wide, with the corners chamfered.  If Peter Jackson has taught us anything, its that dwarves like octagons.

I glued a card roof in place (the usual postage envelope card) and then tiled it with 2mm thick XPS.  I avoided card as I wanted thicker, hefty stone tiles.  I've also avoided the typical slipped and cracked tiles that typify my human builds.  None of that shoddy roofing from dwarves!

The roof actually gave me a lot of trouble.  My first attempt had the tile strips too close together, so there was an unsightly profile.  I ripped them off and started again, and remembered to add a chimney (just a strip of textured XPS).  Spacing the strips out further looked better, but the edged looked scrappy, so I trimmed them in line with the walls and added bargeboards, again, strips of XPS.  If I were doing a fancier dwarf building these would be ideal for some decorative carving.  The ridgeline was more XPS, fashioned to match the bargeboards.

Cabin front awaiting door furniture

Cabin side

Cabin rear

Window side

The cabin has a coat of mod podge to strengthen it, then its on to painting.

As you can see, the cabin is a good size for dwarves, especially once it has a base.  I still need to find some 'greebles' for the ends of the ridge.  I'm sure I can find something on a sprue somewhere.

SITC - Building The Wooden Shack

Merijn has begun his build and posted his progress, and Bodvoc claims to have made "a tentative start", so I've worked on the wooden shack version of  building 8, starting with a foamboard shell.

The walls are reduced in height, you can read why here.  

I realised that I couldn't build it quite as simply as it looked.  That veranda was the problem, the foamboard being as wide as the wooden supports.  If I replace just the pillars with wood then I have issues with the rest of the foamboard, notably the top of the front wall.  So I ended up removing all the veranda from the foamboard core and replacing the relevant timber bits with, well, timber.  At this rate I'll be building complete timber frames in miniature and planking them with balsa or stir sticks.  As you can see from the pictures below, I ended up replacing an angle of foamboard on the side walls, glued onto the side supporting beams.  This made it easier to add the planks later.

Foamboard shell

Frame for veranda, pillars and support beam

Rather than use balsa for the support I'm using sticks from spent fireworks.  As its the beginning of November here there are a lot just lying around.  Well worth collecting for hobby purposes, and one type of stick is 5mm wide, just right for the supports on the shed.  I drilled into the beams to add a couple of half cocktail sticks,  these were then glued and poked into the foamboard shell.  I also drilled and pinned the joints between the pillars and the support beams.

Yes, I know the right hand pillar leans, it has been corrected.

With the veranda pillars sorted it was simply a case of cladding the building.  I used 'granny grating' for the windows and stuck that in place beforehand.  I chose to cut balsa into planks rather than use balsa cut to size and scored or stir sticks as planks.  Looking at it now, it looks a bit shoddy for dwarf-work, and the planks are a bit thin.  If I were to redo this design I'd probably use stir sticks.

I also chose to do planks on the roof.  These needed a little bit of shaving on the upper edge to stop them sticking up at an odd angle.

The shack will eventually have a planked veranda in front, but that will be added as part of the basing.

I'm leaving the painting etc for now, as I want to try the same sized and shaped shack but built in proper dwarven stone.  I'll get the painting done all in one go (probably).

Orctober(ish) - Ripper Suits Finished

At last, I've finished the two Ripper Suits.  I started them here, and you can see some progress here, but then I got bogged down with the edge highlighting and with deciding what to paint detail wise.  It was a compromise between lots of spot colour with the various pipes, dials, buttons etc, and a sensible military approach having no bright colours to stand out on the battlefield.  I couldn't resist some glowing power panels though, on the backpacks and on the ranged weapons.

The two Ripper Suits; impressive war machines

There are a few things I'll do differently next time I paint Ripper Suits, and I have several more, so I suppose I will be revisiting them.  I'll try and build the next pair as differently as possible, and I'll definitely go for the option to have the Ram not extended.  I failed to notice that the extended ram is at an angle.  I'll also investigate reposing the minis, the arms wide pose isn't my favourite.  I have a mental image of the Rainmaker posed on one leg, leaning backwards, with both weapons out forwards.  I don't think that's possible, but I'd like to try. 
I may also try contrast paints on the bulk of the suits to see if I can avoid all that edge highlighting, T'Other One has had some good results using contrast paints on his Deadzone minis.  

The Mauler

The Rainmaker

At this point I usually say how much I enjoyed painting them, well this time, although I didn't hate them, I didn't love them either.  Nothing to do with the material, more to do with certain paint choices I made.

Still, I'm pleased with the end result and I'm looking forward to getting a game in with them, I just need to paint up some more Marauders to go with them.

SITC Planning

While the varnish dries on the Ripper Suits I've been planning my build for the SITC. With the theme being non human I decided to try a dwarven building.  But what makes a building dwarven?

One obvious answer is to base something on the rather nice trio of buildings from Grudge of Drong, a 4th edition Warhammer scenario pack that is loosely based on India during the Raj.  I still have my original card buildings (unbuilt!) as well as an MDF version from Lasercut Architect, who I believe are no longer trading.  If/when I build Grudge of Drong terrain I'll probably go with the MDF stuff as a base, so that doesn't really fit with the ethos of the challenge.

I've also long wanted to do a dwarven forge based on Terrain for Hippos build, but I wondered if there was anything I could adapt from the Townscape. 

The Townscape does contain a quartet of dwarven builds.  Sort of.  In 'Bloodbath at Orc's Drift', building 19, the Half Timbered Cottage is used by the dwarves of Ashak Rise for their illicit gold panning operation.  Likewise, in 'Terror of the Lichemaster', buildings 6,7 and 8 are used by the dwarves at Gimbrin's Mine, along with an impressive wooden aqueduct and a minehead.  Now in every case the buildings are also used by humans (or elves) and are scaled accordingly.

I've always been slightly bothered by this, dwarves should have lower doors and windows and given the makeshift nature (dwarves - makeshift?  Never!) of the huts at Gimbrin's mine they don't need such high rooves.  Could it be as simple as just cutting a few millimetres off the bottom?

To try this theory I made a mock up of one of the buildings from TotL (No 8 in Warhammer Townscape).

Full sized building No. 9 with Mantic dwarf next to window

Dwarf on veranda

Dwarf next to door

Looking at the full sized build it is clearly a small hut.  Both minis are on bases though, and once the building is based that should be accounted for.  The scaling isn't bad actually, though the dwarf is low down to the window, he'd need a box.   

But is is better with a lower building?  to fond out I trimmed 4 mm off the bottom of the building.

Shorter building - window view

and with the door

I much prefer the lower building; the dwarf next to the window looks right, the door is low now, but OK and I can make it a bit taller if necessary.  I can also make the door wider, after all, most fantasy minis of dwarves depict them as wider than humans.

So now I have a plan for a dwarven hut.  I think it no longer looks obviously human, but can I do anything else to 'dwarfify' it?

Since the building is small I plan on trying a couple of builds to see which looks best.  I'm thinking a normal build, wooden plank walls and tiled roof as per the original.  I'll also try a stone version, after all, dwarves are great stonemasons.

If time allows I may even try a metal version, with girders, metal plates and pillars and a metal roof.  I've a feeling this might be too much, but it sounds fun and should certainly look non human.

I will say that I have another motive for this.  I am very slowly building stuff up for my Dragon Rampant version of Bloodbath at Orc's Drift in 15mm, and as I mentioned here I have fond memories of playing the preliminary games simultaneously.  I may well never get to do this again, but if I did, I'd need more than one set of buildings (you can see Kachas Pass here).  The Ashak Rise dwarves could easily use a building like this one, possibly a couple of small huts, so I' plan on replicating this project in 15mm soon, it will be ideal for Gimbrin's Mine as well of course.

The Second International Townscape Challenge

As I put the finishing touches to the Ripper Suits its time to announce (drum roll ish)

The Second International Townscape Challenge - Beyond Human

Bodvoc, Merijin and myself enjoyed the first one, and we've been thinking about a second challenge pretty much as soon as we'd finished.  what should we build?  More Townscape?

Now if you follow Merijin's Another Wargames Blog you'll know that he's finished all the Townscape buildings, so clearly we need to expand the criteria to give him something different to do.  Since all three of us have considerable collections of non human troops, something suitable for the non-humans sounds fun.  It would be nice to keep the same style so the buildings fit in with our existing terrain, but it's for a different race, so I expect to see some very interesting ideas here.

Not only are we extending the criteria, we are hoping to expand the number of contestants. So if you want to have a go, read the contest aims below and drop me an email (contact form at the bottom of the page). 

THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL TOWNSCAPE CHALLENGE – BEYOND HUMAN 

AIM

 To build a Warhammer model in the style of the Townscape appropriate for a non-human race

  
RULES (more sort of guidelines really)

The building may be based on one of the Warhammer Townscape models or may be designed from scratch, providing it fits in with the Townscape style.

Other sources may be used (e.g. the 4^th edition scenario packs, Grudge of Drong etc).

You have until the end of December 2021 to complete the model.

 

You must post one blog post before the end of November demonstrating progress.  Otherwise blog your progress however often you feel appropriate and link to each other’s blogs.

 

The challenge is designed to inspire and encourage.  There is no prize apart from the congratulations of your peers, both within the challenge and on our blogs, and as many pats on the back (self-administered) as is deemed appropriate.

 
 
GOOD LUCK

Warhammer Buildings - A Question of Scaling

Back in 2020 when I was making one of the Warhammer Townscape buildings in a build off with Merlin/Bodvoc I mentioned that I thought that the scale of the PDF was off.  Well I've recently found my original model of the same building.

Both versions of the building

As you can see, the original is smaller.  If you want the details, the main building on the original is 106mm by 106mm and 40mm rising to 80mm high. The more recent version based on the PDF is 122m by 124mm (woops) and 44mm rising to 88mm high.  Not a huge increase, but noticeable.  

From above the size difference is most obvious

Now this doesn't matter, after all, there's no set size to such buildings, and the difference is small enough that minis look OK next to either building.  I suspect that today's minis, at 28mm or even 32mm scale, would make the earlier build look quite small.  

Its interesting to me to revisit such an early build.  I must have made this pretty much as soon as I got Bloodbath at Orc's Drift back in 1985.  I photocopied the original building sheets and simply glued them onto 4mm thick card, thus the doors and windows are in pretty much the right place to match the artwork. The card was liberated from the recycling at work and is strong and very tough to cut, it's lasted over 35 years mostly in none too gentle storage.  Cutting out those doors and windows took ages.  Foamboard may not have the strength, but it's lighter and much easier to work with.  Otherwise, construction is pretty much the same as I do now; balsa timbering, filler/spackle for daub and card strips for roof tiles.

The question now is what to do with it.  The model is sound and needs only a little fixing up.  I'll have to sort those windows out, perhaps by filling them from the back and adding some form of leading, granny grating again I think.  If I'm putting in a bit more effort I'll give the timbering a light sanding as there are lots of bits where I've got the filler on the wood (or I could paint it up as moss?).  The daub could do with a bit more depth, true half timbered buildings have very little difference in level between the dub panels and the timber frame.

While the roof is OK, its a bit battered, and I prefer a bigger overhang (daub walls don't do well in very wet weather; a large roof overhang helps protect them).  To make the building look different I may even remove the roof and start again. A new chimney is a must (or perhaps a smoke hole if  I'm going for early Mock Medieval?), and I'll definitely add a base.

So this can be a project for the near future, once the ripper Suits are finished perhaps, and if this goes well, I've also found my original (unfinished) model of the Tavern.

Orctober - Review

As Orctober ends I thought I'd look back at the month and assess how well it went.

I've long felt that I work well to a goal (mostly), and this really helped me focus my painting for the month.  The lack of any gaming goals over the last 18 months or more made it hard for me to get much done, as demonstrated by my inactivity last year.  

However, if I set myself too strict a goal I find it hard to work as well.  I resent the time spent when I could be doing something else, I notice this particularly if I have a deadline for RPG stuff.

Orctober was pretty much spot on.  I knew I had to paint orcs, but I have so many different orcs to paint that it never felt like a chore, well, apart from all those red eyes.  I managed two complete projects and got a good way on with a third.  If I'd been less ambitious with the 10mm Mordor stuff I may even have completed the Ripper suits, but I've learned that if I leave stuff part done, its not always easy to get back to complete it, there's too much other stuff to do.

All this leads me to think what next?  Ages ago I did themed months, and this generally worked, but the projects tended to be too long to complete in a month.  I do wonder if looser themes with several small projects might work going forward?  Anyway, Ripper Suit completion first, then I already have some Gondorian troops in 10mm to base.  Then, perhaps, some dwarves?