Updates...

No posts for a while, work has been busy. But there is some thigns going on behind the scenes. The most obvious is that I'm playing around with some of the new layout options available on blogger.com.

On the gaming front though, I've started another couple of terrain boards to bring my total up to four, which would give me enough to play a full game of Warmachine.

That's about it really, Guitar Hero, work and kids has taken the rest of my time lately. I'll post pics when there's more to see.

Well, it's been a while since I added anything here, but I guess moving jobs will do that. Lately I've been slowly getting back into things (can I do it any other way? I think not). I'm now trying to enjoy the process of painting more, rather than trying to bash out the next unit for an army.

So far, it's working. I've painted a solitary figure from the WarGods range, and enjoyed it so much that I splashed out on a few more. I'm not sure I want to get into another game system, but rather enjoy painting the figures. So I ordered a collection of interesting models that won't all work together on the same side.

Anyway, here's the pictures of the final model. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out... It's a Heru priestess - the Heru are a strong, fierce and noble people. I've always loved the deep red and off white combination, and I think it's really worked well here.

These next pictures are of a work in progress from the Confrontation range. It's a Paladin of Alahan. The detail on the figure is gorgeous, and a bastard to paint. Still, I like the way the blueish armour has turned out, even if it doesn't show up well in the photos.

Trees, nasty trees!

I've always meant to try making some of my own trees. It turns out that, at least so far, it's pretty easy. The photos here are the result of a bit over half an hour's work. And it's the easy kind of work, the kind that you can do in front of the TV.

I found some cheap wire at a $2 shop, probably enough for about five to eight trees. Using pliers, I cut it about 16-18 lengths, each about 50-55cm long. They get folded in half, giving you almost 40 strands. Hold all the strands where they were bent in the middle and twist to form a loop. This will eventually be the root system.

Holding the loop, split the strands roughly in two and twist together until you have about 6-8 cm twisted. Then choose eight strands to split off the first branch. Twist these strands together, so that they come out more or less horizontal. After about 3-4 cm of twisting, split them again, and continue in this way until you're left with individual strands.

Now go back to the rest of the strands which are forming the main trunk, and continue twisting. After another few centimetres, branch out eight more strands. Continue doing this until you run out of strands. I then cut the individual strands to length.

Finally, we form the roots. Separate out about four or five strands from the loop at the bottom. Twist them together for a bit so and then cut the bottom of the loop to form two roots. Use the pliers to twist the strands of each rot together. Repeat this process until all of the loop has been turned into roots.

Now just sit back and admire your work, possibly tweaking here and there to taste or to make the tree stand upright!

The next step will be to make a base for the trees and apply some bark. There's two options for the bark, one is ready made papier mache and the other is filler (spackle) mixed with PVA glue. Hopefully by the next time I post here I'll have made up my mind!

Two boards finished for the cause...

So the boards are finally done. I can play small games, Confrontation for example or perhaps 350 points Warmachine games. I'll try to get another couple of boards made soon for larger Warmachine and the like. I'm pretty happy with the construction and painting side of things, the flocking is OK but I think I need to figure out how to mix the colours a bit better.

Here's a couple of different layouts:

And some close ups...

Flocked!

My daughter and I managed to get the first of the terrain boards flocked yesterday afternoon. In case we don't get the second one done this weekend, I figured I'd post some pictures now. The first picture shows the variety of colours used. It turns out I forgot to use the main colour flock that I've used on other terrain pieces. I guess I'll have to "fix it in post" as they say.

To add the flock, I mixed up a 50/50 mix (doesn't need to be too exact) of PVA and water. Adding a drop or two of dish washing liquid helps to break the surface tension, allowing the glow to spread better and helps to avoid sharp edges where the glue stops. I applied the glue one complete section at a time. While it is possible to work in smaller stages, I always have trouble avoiding an obvious edge between such areas.

To start with, different colours / sizes of flock where added by taking small quantities in your fingers and scattering it in patches. Once this is done, the main flock colour is added over any remaining exposed glue. And left overnight. Just resist the urge to shake off the excess any earlier.

So time has passed, and in the morning tip the board up to shake off the excess flock - there'll be a lot of it. Tap the back of the board to dislodge even more. Once you're done, the excess can all be gathered up and put into a separate "mixed" collection of flock. On the next board I'll use this as my main colour. The photo below shows the board as it is now. I've added one of my other terrain pieces to a) show how they're used with this terrain, and b) show how I got the wrong colour flock :(

To deal to the second problem, I plan to add patches of more glue on top of the flock that's there, using the right colour this time. We'll see how it works. At that stage I also intend to add some static grass and longer grass to finish it of...

So much for step by step...

OK, so I got a bit carried away last night. Rather than taking step by step photos of each layer of paint, I just went ahead and pretty much finished the painting in one hit. There's a moral here - never let your best intentions get in the way of getting the job done :)

Anyhow, I finished lightening the colour on the main terrain, up through Raw Sienna to a colour nicely described as "Popcorn". I'm not completely happy with the colour progression, although it is similar to what I do for my bases. Next up, I hit all the rocks with a couple of greys to make them stand out a bit. This includes all the small stones scattered around the board. It helps to break the ground up a bit. It doesn't matter if you get some of the ground surface surrounding the stones either. In fact I think it looks better this way.

Finally the road got some colour, using the same set of colours used on the rest of the ground, working the brush primarily along the road, not across it. In the first photo below, you can see some of the colours I've been using in the bottom right hand corner.

It looks better with paint...

I've started to get some paint on my terrain boards, and it's amazing how much difference it makes. First up was a solid coat of black all over. For this kind of work I'm using standard acrylic paints, the kind that come in a squeeze tube for about NZ$4 from most book stores. If I was really keen, I'd use acrylic house paint instead - really durable but I just can't justify the expense at the moment.

The black I mixed up in a small jar, roughly a 1:1 mix of black paint and water, with some PVA glue added in to provide some additional strength. Watering the paint helps it to get into all the nooks and crannies. Later colours won't be watered down. Use a cheap 1" brush and layer it on. Once you're done, you'll probably need a smaller brush to get in at some parts of the rocks.

It'll probably need a good day to dry, and once it's done, you may find you'll need some touch ups. Next up was a coat of Burnt Sienna - just a few drops of water added to this one, and it's dry brushed pretty thickly onto all of the board. It should mostly cover the black, but still leave a bit showing. I did the rocks and road with this colour too. The picture shows what it looks like at this stage, where I've just started to add the next colour, Burnt Umber, to everything except the roads and rocks, which will receive a different colour build up.

Hopefully tonight I'll get another colour or two on it...

Texture and patience

Work has kept me busy the last few weeks, but I have been able to make some progress. The terrain boards are starting to look promising now...

In the last entry, the board's structure had been built, and the foam glued in place. Next I took some off cuts of foam and cut them into very gentle slopes. The main thing is to leave plenty of flat spaces to add separate hills / buildings, woods or whatever. We're just wanting a little bit of elevation to break things up.

These were glued in place, and then, where I wanted rocky outcrops, pieces of bark (from our garden) were added in place. Don't worry if this looks a bit rough at this stage, the next step will take care of the gaps between foam and bark.

My next step was to put the roads in place. This was done using filler (I believe it's called "spackle" elsewhere). It's just a form of plaster, which can be scooped onto the roads using an old knife or putty knife, and spread roughly in place. Then a damp brush is used to smooth it further, brushing in the direction of the roads. This gives a nice mud / cart track texture.

Also use the filler to take care of any gaps between the wood and foam, and to fill in the gaps between bark and foam hills. The picture below shows both of these steps. One piece of advice here. I made the mistake of not applying enough filler to the cracks between foam and wood. It really is worth your while to fill each and every crack. If the foam sits above the wooden frame anywhere, use a sharp knife to trim it back into line. That way the sand / flock we apply later will take much better.

Here's the boards finished to this stage...

Once the filler has had plenty of time to dry, the next stage was adding some texture to the surface. I used PVA or Wood glue with just a drop of water in it to help it flow. With an old 1 inch brush, completely cover an area - I left the roads uncovered. Next I sprinkle over a mixture of small stones and sand. I even mixed in some old coffee grounds. The main thing was to start with the bigger stuff, and finish with the finer sand, completely covering the boards. If you've got young kids, this is a great step for them to help with, as can be seen in the photo below. Wait for a few minutes then tip the boards on their side to shake off the excess. Once things are properly dry, tip the boards up and gently hit the back of them to dislodge even more of the sand. It's better that it comes off now, rather than later.

If you're lucky, that's it. I wasn't - I'm learning as I go - so I had to go back over the boards filling in sections that needed a bit more. Once all this is set, and you've knocked off excess, then mix up a 50/50 mix of water and PVA, and add a drop or two of dish washing liquid. Coat it fairly liberally over the entire board. This serves two purposes. First it helps the stand to stick better, and secondly it coats any foam that's still exposed. That's important, as next time I'll be spray painting the boards, which will melt any exposed foam! The dish washing liquid breaks the surface tension, and helps the glue flowinto the gaps.

Now I just have to wait for it all to dry - which given the weather today may take some time.

New Year's resolutions

At this time of year, it's natural to reflect on what's been and what lies ahead. In the last few months of last year, I tried to set myself some realistic goals. Some I achieved, and others I didn't, but the thing is, it's all progress.

So to help kick off the year, I've tried to set a few goals that are realistic rather than ambitious and in a year's time we'll see how I've got on. So, in no particular order, I plan to :

• Curtail my Warmachine spending, and have all my Khadoran Warmachine figures assembled, based and primed.
• Play games of Warmachine with fully painted armies, even if that means not playing "killer combos", concentrating more on the experience of the game than the result.
• Assemble and paint a small (!) Confrontation army. Once again, aim for fully painted games where possible.
• Finish my two terrain boards that I've started. Rather than trying to get everything right first time, I want to get them done, and think of them as a learning experience rather than a quest for perfection.
• Dabble with WWII gaming. I've always been keen, and even have a largish collection of Flames of War figures. I've just never got any game time in. So I'll aim to try out Flames of War as well as I Ain't Been Shot Mum! and Nuts! The last two of these are interesting rule sets that are far from main stream but have received some rave reviews for their interesting mechanics.

Time will tell how successful I'll be this year, it'll be fun to find out!

Foam fitting

No that's not my holiday reading list! The books provide plenty of weight to hold down styrofoam while it's being glued in place. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself...

With all the lovely weather, and Christmas holidays, I'm making some progress with my terrain boards. After having to go and purchase a counter-sink drill bit because I keep loosing them, I was ready to put the finishing touches on the "construction" part of my terrain boards. The counter sink drill bit allowed me to put screws in the sides of the framing that wouldn't protrude at all - ensuring that two boards can sit nice and close together.

Once this was done, I took my styrofoam outside and cut it to shape. It's part of the process that I could do while watching the kids outside. My daughter was building snowmen in the sand pit. An idea she got from Hi-5. When you don't get snow in summer, you have to improvise.

So the foam was cut to size, being careful to always use a sharp blade. When you're blade is sharp, it's easy to cut through the foam with three or four cuts. With a dulled blade though, you'll end up tearing chunks of the foam off. A steel ruler is a must here to, I can't emphasise that enough.

Having cut the pieces to size they were test fitted, and needed a bit of trimming. Once I was happy with the fit they got glued in place, weighted down to help them stick - see the photo above. After the glue had had a chance to dry, I found a shady spot and drew out the roads I wanted. As a note, I'm not putting any hills or anything on these boards, they can be added as separate pieces on top, like this one I did earlier.

Here's the various combinations I can make with just the two boards. The key to placing roads is to ensure that roads on any board will match up with any other. The simple way to do this is to always have roads leaving the centre of the board. I've done this in part, but I also chose a second exit option for the roads. It means that not all road sections will meet up with each other, but the modelling options become a little more interesting.

The next stage will be to cover the boards with some texture - most likely sand. It'll either be glued in place or mixed with paint and applied that way. At this stage I'll no doubt add some extra texture to the board, a few rocks perhaps, or some coarser sand/rocks, just for a bit more variety.

Get Modular (or Sectional)

One of the Holy Grails which I've always been chasing is a table top that matches the quality of a fully painted army. Now I know that I don't often field fully painted armies, but some of my friends do, and I'm getting better at it.

The obvious solution is to fully model a table of terrain, lavishing all the attention to detail you desire on it. The problem here is that playing on the same terrain over and over again can get a bit repetitive, and we're looking to get the creative juices flowing here, not dry them up.

An answer is to build a set of terrain tiles (often called modular or sectional boards) that can be combined in multiple ways, thus creating a variety of playing options. These boards can be of any size, although common sizes are 2 x 4 feet or 2 x 2 feet. Much of my inspiration has come from the excellent series of articles here. Confrontaion is played in a 2 x 4 foot space, so I'm just building two tiles to start.

Any way, I'll deal with the mechanics of arranging these boards later, I mainly wanted to put up some pictures of my early progress. I'm building 2 x 2 foot boards, or 600 x 600mm. Actually they're 590 x 590mm as the MDF I'm using isn't quite a perfect 600mm. The base is 3mm MDF and for the framing I'm using MDF strips (which I didn't know existed until I scrounged around at the local hardware superstore). The strips are exactly 40mm wide, rather than the more approximate widths you typically get with dressed timber.

40mm is the magic number, as I'll be "filling" each board with high density polystyrene (styrofoam it's called here). It's sold for insulation, and is typically blue or pink in colour. So what we'll end up with is a timber framing for strength and durability, and a foam inner for modelling options - cutting out rivers, rises and gullies and so on. The early boards will be fairly simple, mainly flat affairs with roads on them. Extra terrain such as hills, forests and buildings (see below) can be placed on top for further variety. Later boards will be a bit more adventurous.

Happy New Year!

So it's a new year, and what's changed? I'm still a slow painter, and I still struggle to get around to painting at all. Despite that though, I am making progress. My painted Khdaor army for Warmachine now numbers around 24 fully painted models. This time last year it was more like 3.

I've played in a couple of local tournaments, the last one netted me a respectable second (thanks in large part to Sorscha), and I'm beginning to think I'm getting better at thinking tactically too.

I've also been introduced to the wonderful world of Confrontation too. Small armies, good painting encouraged, smaller than usual battlefields (2 x 4 feet) and beautiful miniatures too.