Desert Wadi, Part Two

Hello There! I have had some time to continue with the desert wadi. The first part is here.

While the first wadi section was faced with the larger rock casts from Woodland Scenics, I decided to start another section and as one side was very low I started to use the smaller casts. I also took the larger casts and cut them down to a more manageable depth.

I cut the hard casts with a straight metal edge of a steel ruler and a Stanley knife or craft blade. I scored a guide line across the back of the cast, so I did not damage the rock detail on the front of the casting.

Once the guide line is a few millimetres deep I could either snap the casting at the weak point or, if the casting was very thick, take a general building saw to the back of the casting and continue to cut the casting completely though. 

After the styrofoam was cut to size, using a Stanley knife, and then glued in place using expanding foam, I fixed the rock face casting in place using tile adhesive. In places I have had to used expanding foam again to keep the castings in place.

In the instructions for using the expanding foam, apart from wearing gloves, it recommends spraying the area to be glued with a water spray. As my sprayer decided to stop working I simply brush painted the water onto both surfaces.  

As can be seen here the expanding foam has spread up over the castings. This can be easily removed once it has set. I trim the excess foam so it is level with the top of the casting so I can lay tile adhesive over it.

Here you can see one of the numerous joints between each casting. These can be covered or disguised with further tile adhesive or trimming any excess expanding foam and gluing the surface covering of stones, sand and sawdust over any unsightly gaps. 

Here you can see the castings, from the rear, extending over the styrofoam sides. I found it beneficial to retain the ragged edge and build up the styrofoam to match it.

Here is the first wadi section, I started a few months ago. I have painted the surface with yellow ochre, thinned with water and extra PVA added. Before the first coat has dried I added thinned blotches of raw umber, burnt umber and burnt sienna. This makes the desert colour irregular and more realistic.

The final painting is a heavy dry brush of Iraqui sand, or equivalent, and the various dry brushes of Iraqui sand and white.

This is some of the detail of the first wadi tile, but still requires a dry brush.

Here you can see the checks to make sure that the two terrain sections line up.

This is one side.

And here is the other.

I will post the next step for this project soon.

FIASCO, Wargames Show 'Loot'

Hello There! After looking through my posts I realised I had not described the items I had purchased at FIASCO.

In an attempt to resist the 'OOOOH! Shiney!' syndrome, which is the downfall of so many wargamers, I had a fixed idea of what I might buy if I saw it for sale, in the show.

I have used a few combinations of enamel paints, to represent old worn wood. I normally paint scored plastistrut and then add various coats of thinned enamel washes. With enamel paints, you have to clean the brushes with white spirit. This not only knocks hell out of your brushes, (so I have a set of designated brushes that I only use for enamels), but it gives off a lot of spirit odour, which is not healthy for you!

I visited the Great Escape Games stand and found these on the stall. I had asked about these two sets at the Partizan show and he had not yet received them in his stock. A few weeks down the line and here they are!

I will do a further post on these when I have tried them out.

I purchased some latex roads from Early War Miniatures, at the last Partizan show, and the dry grouns if to go on them to provide a gritty finish to the roads.

This company has been very helpful to me in the past. There website is here.

I usually browse the Stonewall Miniatures stand, when I see them at a show. This time I was able to purchase some figures for some planned and current projects. Above are 20mm figure packs of Indian troops in the desert, LRDG crews and WWII NW Europe British.

As the work on the cabin nears completion then I can start to change the composition of the 20mm Rapid Fire units I have at present.

This will include increasing the company sizes from 6/8 figures to 8/10 figures. Also the squadron size of tanks will be increased from 3 to 4.

Cemetary, 10mm

Hello there! I completed this recently, for a wargaming friend. He uses a number of 10mm size buildings for his games using 15mm figures. This smaller building footprint makes it more practicable and more fitting for the ground scale used in many different rule sets on the market.

Considering that this was only about four inches square this little model was packed with detail. I placed the head stones against the wall, along one side, so that figures could be placed inside the surrounding wall.

Desert Terrain Drop on Items Part Two

Hello there! With a few days off work I have been able to make some progress with some projects.

I originally used loose Cotswold Buff Chippings, spread randomly over the games table. This made it a bit of a chore to tidy up afterwards and players simply moved them out of the way when it suited them. Probably not something that happened while under fire!

When I introduced a game rule that they could not be moved, it proved very unpopular and slowed the game up a lot.

With rocks fixed to drop on bases they can also be used  as hard cover as well.  

 

These have all been painted, in yellow ochre, washed in watered down raw umber and burnt umber and dry brushed in various mixed shades of yellow ochre, and buff titanium. These are all artists paints and they allow you to keep your terrain a consistent colour and shade. Especially useful as I have been adding to my terrain stash over a number of years.

The Buff Titanium is very close to Iraqui sand from the Vallejo Model Colour range. I have previously made my own stock of this colour by mixing Raw Umber, White and Yellow Ochre to suit. I also add neat PVA for extra grip, (as I use this to dry brush the desert terrain before varnishing), so it holds the sawdust surface of the terrain together and hardens the surface up.

 

I have also added a slight shade of pale pink and red to the terrain, as it matched the the larger rocks above.

Here are some SHQ British Mediterranean infantry to give you and idea of the size of these drop on items. I do need to dry brush the infantry bases again!

I may add to these at a later date but have enough for a game, at the moment.

Latest shelving for the wargames Cabin

Hello There! This last week, I have managed to make more progress in the wargames cabin. This has meant I am able to provide some storage for the, (Ah Hem!), rather large amount of scenery and wargaming paraphernalia, that I have made over the years!

I had a load of modular scenery, which was stored in really useful boxes. It occurred to me that while everything was already on trays I could construct a set of racking which could hold the metal trays that I already had. After a load of drilling and painting I came up with this.

As the trays are heavy, I placed a support at the rear of the rack.

Next up a similar set of shelves that could hold some of the smaller desert terrain tiles. Thankfully they fitted snugly together in one corner of the cabin.

With these now packed away in the corner, I can now get back to completing the last amount of painting to complete the desert terrain and the drop on items to suit.

Ancient/Old Style Haystacks

Hello There! Now that I have ceased trading, in my small business, I have had the opportunity to transfer some of the completed scenery to my collection. 

I made the original masters for these. I had seen many resin examples of haystacks and none seemed to be historically accurate. After a little searching I came up with these.

This partial haystack is based on a thin sheet of plywood, painted, washed, dry brushed and flocked.

This s a complete haystack. treated the same as the partial haystack above and can be dotted around the battlefield to break up the open areas on the board.

I have a few unpainted items and plan to add to these painted versions soon.

Battle of Quatre Bras 16 June 1815

Hello there! I have started to catch up on some of the games I have attended at the New Buckenham Historical wargames Club.

The original buildings at Quatre Bras, are now sadly demolished. I visited the site in 2016 and the area was boarded off but I managed to get some photos of the buildings before they were lost.

These are 3D printed buildings.

There were plenty of extra figures on the table.

The Waterloo Panorama has these figures on it. These are Perry Sculpts.

This was a very enjoyable game with many club members in attendance.

There are further pictures on the New Buckenham Historical wargamers Facebook page here.