Weasel Town

Posted on February 14, 2023 by grumpyoldtin

I’ve been hankering after making some modular trenches for a while. I started but when I laid them out earlier this week it seems that I do not have nearly enough. Plus I did not have any “kinks” (not sure of the correct terminology) to stop a gunner standing at one end of a trench and taking aim down the entire length.

One of the rule-sets I was reading, “The Last War” talks about a settlement in the wastelands. For some reason it caught my fancy. A tidying up job at the beginning of the year was sorting out my movement trays and I had a whole lot of crude plasticard ones that I had made about twenty years ago. This has left me with a big bag of plasticard. I also have some big sheets of pink insulation foam recovered from some building work nearby.

I wonder…….

I added detailing with resin parts from Ramshackle Games and 3D printed parts from Knucklebones Miniatures. The tin roofs were made from Red Bull cans run through a corrugator from Green Stuff World. I found out later that this is just a toothpaste squeezer rebranded for twice the price. Painted with household emulsion paint. The rust was done with Green Stuff World Rust paint, which is frankly rubbish and I wanted to use it up.

I thought I had documented the making process, but when I stuck the memory card into the computer there was nothing to be seen.

Tool making

Posted on January 6, 2020 by grumpyoldtin

One project I backed on Kickstarter last year was; Tabletop terrain from XPS foam: Buildings. This is a book detailing the construction of buildings from, yeah you guessed it, XPS foam. I’ve been looking at upping my game on terrain modelling and this book might just help. Laser cutting is good for some things, but you just can’t do curves and organic shapes. But a mixture of both should be the killer combination.

Looking at the images online pecils and pens have been used to form some of the detailing. Being the horder that I am I have loads of bits of metal lying around underemployed. A bit of cutting, a bit of cutting, some dowel rod, a bit of two part epoxy glue and a splash of paint I ended up with these.

Four different sized scribing tools. Slightly wonky (technical term) as I didn’t drill quite perpendicular to the dowel.

Here is a link to the book which will describe it far more eloquently than I could.

Tabletop terrain from XPS foam: Buildings

If this tempts you there still is the option to be a late backer.

Gifts

Posted on October 23, 2019 by grumpyoldtin

On my trip to London I was planning to stay with my old gaming buddy Seb. https://mugodice.wordpress.com/

I really wanted to make something really nice for him to say thankyou for putting me up and for all the wonderful birthday presents he has given me. For some reason I am never organised enough to get a present to him in time for his birthday.

We had both backed the Kickstarter for Open Combat, a skirmish wargame. https://www.secondthunder.com/ But neither of us had played it. I know that for Seb space is at a premium so I decided to make him a portable version. The rules are written for 28mm but the author also suggests that it can be played in 15mm and convert the measurements from inches to centimeters. This means the suggested playing area would be 24 centimeters.

Here I am measuring some canvas to be used for the play area. Obligatory kitten for scale.

Long suffering Wife hemming the edge for me.

Spreading on a mixture of silicon and paint.

I had instructions about how to make the playmat from The Terrain Tutor’s Youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx_aro8CTHw7ZD5H661hC6Q

The flock instructions came from Luke’s APS Youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsmD5774MOQhjYBkXqu3Jdw

The finished box, roughly shoe box sized.

Hills. I went with a stylistic approach which is easier to place figures.

Dice tray removed to reveal figure storage.

The figures came from Alternative Armies. There were some nice ones and a couple of ropey ones. That’s what comes of buying blind I suppose. https://www.alternative-armies.com/

I hope Seb is pleased with this and gets a chance to play.

A little Renaissance fantasy

Posted on September 25, 2019 by grumpyoldtin

A disclaimer: this is totally ripped off from Wargames Illustrated 382 and David Bickley who built the original. You can read his blog here:

http://www.talesfromghq.blogspot.co.uk

I kept coming back to this article and mulling over it. I really don’t have time to get distracted by another project but it was sooo tempting. Late one night I pulled out a piece of paper and started doodling. The next day some graph paper was procured. Too late! Project started!

As Mr. Bickley had produced his model from individual parts I decided to follow along and make mine in modules starting with the front gate.

Upcock

Me being me, there have been a few upcocks in the design, but nothing that a hammer wouldn’t sort out.

The original suppliers who inspired this build are:

http://www.charliefoxtrotmodels.com

http://www.warbases.co.uk

http://www.wargamesbuildings.co.uk

Gone?

Posted on April 19, 2019 by grumpyoldtin

This is the first post of three regarding the Tabletop Knights show in Germany.

This will be about the first display board, Gone?

I saw this image, credit to whoever did this (if you let me know I will credit that person here) and thought, “I want this!” If you are interested I have a Pinterest page devoted to scenery. Look for Nik Green. I highly recommend Pinterest as a resource for keeping ideas from all over the interweb neat and tidy and in one place.

I got the dimensions of a Kill Team board, thirty by twenty two inches, and got two sheets of chipboard cut.

Clamping the sides

Burning the splinters off the cheap wood frame

Trimming the foam for the inserts with my Proxxon

Foam inserts fitted

Playing around with ideas

Track chopped out and starting to detail the edges with strips of cork tile

A Lego wheel being used for detailing

Gravel from Walersee and fine river silt used for detailing

Building before and after painting

Starting to build up the layers

I made a pipeline out of some scrap pipe from a skip and some laser cut supports. I magnetised the feet so it could be removed for transportation.

Everything in situ

Silt! Silt everywhere!

Paint and weathering applied

Tuft mania

And then scatter

I think the scatter needs to be more yellow to match the tufts. Added to this was some water effects. Overall I am very happy with this board. Some minor tweeks as noted are required.

Picture this

Posted on March 5, 2019 by grumpyoldtin

One day I will learn how to take decent photos of my painting. Maybe if I stop gadding about from project to project? One thing that I have seen has been a little photographic scenic corner made by one of the Oldhammer Community. That would be useful and wouldn”t take up too much space. So I set out to make one. This is my work in progress and I’ll post when finished.

Basic shape cut from MDF and steps from foam

Detailing of door using coffee stirrers from your favourite tax avoider

Arial view of lentils, foam blocks and roof tiles

Windows and woodwork. When was this taken?

The Reever’s Arms

Posted on January 19, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

2018 is the year of extracting digit. My old gaming buddy, mugodice.wordpress.com, had wanted an inn for his games a couple of years ago and I had been putting it off.
The brief was that it had to occupy an eight inch square footprint.
So spoiling his birthday suprise here it is.

Wot i lerned dooing my bord

Posted on February 24, 2017 by grumpyoldtin

I learnt quite a few things actually and most, in hindsight, are pretty bleedin’ obvious. I’m not out of the woods yet, by a long way but I thought I might share these nuggets of wisdom with you.
* Do you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve?
* Make a plan
* Do you have an idea of the budget? Does the project realistically fit this budget?
* Screw the plan up, throw it in the bin and start again
* Tell your Wife/SO you love them
* Does your Wife/SO have any idea about what time, money, mess and swearing the project involves?
* Do you?
* Tell your Wife/SO you love them
* Do you have enough materials at hand to complete the project?
* Go and buy what you need
* NOW!
* Revisit plan
* Check plan
* Set yourself a reasonable timescale breaking down jobs into manageable chunks/milestones
* Start building
* Check plans
* Start swearing
* The razor saw/scalpel/hammer is your friend
* Tell your Wife/SO you love them
* Tidy as you go
* It is better to paint any fiddly or hard to reach parts BEFORE assembly
* Photograph as you go. Somebody may learn from your stupid mistakes.
* As you build you’ll get flashes of inspiration for your next project. Write them down. Do not, repeat, do not start this next amazing project until this one is done and dusted.
* Don’t be afraid to ask for people’s advice on dedicated forums.
It’s what the interweb is for.
Actually it’s for porn (Avenue Q)
Or pictures of kittens
* Speaking of which, if the kitten wants to play either put it out or play with it. You cannot work with kitten.
* When doing closeup touching-up don’t keep the paintbrush in your mouth
* Tell your Wife/SO you love them
* Take your time don’t rush. If that extra detail takes five minutes, take those five minutes. The end result is worth it
* Finished! Now collapse in a heap for five minutes
* Where the photon are you going to store it now?

A quick break from the prevarication

Posted on November 14, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

The last couple of weeks have seen me quite busy producing stuff for our local school’s Christmas market.

So I have been making snowflakes, and getting glitter everywhere. Tealight holders, tree decorations, advent countdowns etc.
Just to have a quick break from all this seasonal work I knocked up the artwork for these and cut them this morning.

May I present the Corpse Containment Units. Useful for when dearly departed grandma has a little more life in her than expected.

And yes I’m still prevaricating.

Well I found some plates

Posted on September 11, 2016 by grumpyoldtin

A few years back, when I was at CSM, the canteen was having a clear-out and I came across these plastic plates.

We used them in our greenhouse, back in London, to put plant pots on. But always in the back of my mind I thought they might be useful for something hobby related.
Over here now and getting settled. Time to start unpacking boxes and I came across them. Tick tick tick, hmmmm?

I laser-cut a base and some gubbins to make it a bit more interesting but I seem to have missed out photographing the base painting and the chipping.

Here we are masking the structure to add a white stripe.

Masking the whole structure to avoid overspray.

As you can see my airbrushing was not very successful. Instead of gently building up the layers I blasted away with the end result being this where the paint went under the masking.

This was remedied by adding a line of marker pen.

Adding rust streaks with oil paint.

The finished product. I wanted to provide a quick photo as I’m certain it is going to feature in more photos in the future.
If I can point you in the direction of this blog
http://port-imperiale.blogspot.co.at/
It’s Blogs like this that keep me on my toes.
Now that reminds me…. I’ve got some small flowerpots I picked up at Ikea because they had some plastic grass in them.