Category: Terrain

Warhammer 40,000 – Big Weekend Game

Last weekend Coronasan and I finally managed to get together for a ‘proper’ game of toy soldiers.

Coronasan has been working hard to get a 6’x4′ gaming table together that is constructed from all of the MDF kits he has designed.

Pringle towers, Pringleless towers, Square towers and base boards, along with a whole heap of scatter terrain and even a dice tower.  Add in the large transporter, that he finished earlier this year, and you have a remarkable and hugely enjoyable table.

Even his Forgeworld Flyer came down off the shelf for this game.

When it’s all laid out this way, it’s enough to make a real impact.

It wasn’t too long though, before he took my mind off the scenery, by deploying a large unit of Grey Knight Terminators. My focus was quickly back on the game as, although my Death Guard are quite resilient, those guys throw out a lot of damage…

My proxy Plague Hulk had to climb its way across most of the table, ever hopeful that an enemy would come into its sights, and into range of its great iron claw.

My right was well protected by these three guys. Between them, they actually managed to clear away all of the first deployment of enemy units, before taking fire from Coronasan’s reinforcements.

The bulk of my basic troopers, along with their support units, had a long, slow trudge across the table though. They don’t run awfully fast with rotten limbs and blubber lolling all over the place.

One cinematic moment was Coronasan’s veteran jump troopers slowly rolling up my centre before being probed to death by my Greater Blight Drone.

In the end it was down to victory points, and I came out on top, although I had lost plenty of my own forces by that time.  My new Death Guard Terminators finally showed up near the end of the game, and managed to push back at the enemy, clearing away most of the final Imperial Resistance.

Final thought for the game… Coronasan and I still, even after this many games, fail to remember the myriad of special rules for each of our armies. Dementia or a boyish excitement that leaves us forgetting everything in our rush to enjoy the moment?

Pirates – We Are NOT Gonna Need A Bigger Boat…

One weekend recently, Coronasan invited me over to his to prep some a boats that have been hanging about in the shed for a while now.  By ‘prep’ he meant ‘chop the bottom off’.  As we are water lining these play mobile ships for use with 28mmFigures.

When I got there I found he had a spare ‘large’ ship that he had no use for and had kindly donated to me.  I say kindly with a little caution as that means I will be obliged to make up a third craft to go with my original two.  Mine now actually look a little small when sat next to this first rate vessel.

After some loud and quite violent looking work with an electric saw, we took some time to sit back and have a cup of tea while we counted our fingers.

Sadly, I now have three rather large projects to add to the ever expanding to do list in the shed.  If I just got on with them though, it would mean I could get a great sense of achievement and success.  Yeah unlikely.  With these three, and a large Millennium Falcon, Coronasan has me sorted for large projects for the next few years I suspect…

 

Not to mention that I might need another 30 pirates to be able to fully crew these lovelies!

Warhammer 40,000 – MDF Industrial ‘Pringle’ Tower

WARNING: lots of very similar pictures…

The Pringle Tower.  Made from a Pringles crisp tube and some MDF.  A perfectly simple idea that can become a piece of scenery quickly and easily.  Coronasan has designed a whole range of Industrial Scenery around this humble crisp tube and expanded that range to include walkways, landing pads and even lighting options for the more technically minded.

Mine is a basic, early production prototype.  It went through a few basic design changes before the final design was settled upon.  Mine has all the basic parts of the final design, but the final kit comes with more guard rails and a couple of terminal points that can be fitted to the central column.

Designed with 28mm miniatures in mind (are GW still claiming their stuff is 28mm these days or is it more 30mm or even 32mm now?).  The floor plans can fit base sizes up to 40mm without too much trouble.

And there is plenty of room up top for objectives to be fought over.

Even my new Death Guard Helbrute can fit on the ledges, although you might argue he would have trouble getting through those hatches…

All in all, a nice simple kit that I should be able to weather up and fit in with my, slowly growing, collection of Sci-Fi scenery.

Warhammer 40,000 – Table Prep, An Old Friend Returns Home And Some Newly Finished Scenery

Last time on the blog I had mentioned I was out in the shed, setting up a playing surface for an up-coming game.  I also said it took me an hour or two to do all this.  In reality the table setup was just a half hour of rummaging in boxes and laying out a mat.

The remainder of the time was spent finishing off some neglected items that could then be used without too much personal embarrassment that they were still only half finished.

One feature of this table setup will be a landing pad (using my new plaza street blocks and stairs) with a flyer upon it.  Said flyer is a Forgeworld Vulture that I originally owned about 8 years ago…  Said flyer has just returned home as the lovely Veganman has been having a clearcut, and offered to sell it back to me. I suspect I may have mentioned to him, more than once, that I should never have sold in the first instance.  It’s nice to have it back in the collection.

The majority of the setup time was spent on the addition of a little flock and paint to these Martian Base Entrances. They have been sat in their silver base colour for longer than I would like to admit, so it is nice that I can actually use them now.

A couple of control panels cover a hole that was for a post box that I chose to use elsewhere.

These are from Antenocitis Workshop and come with little printed screens that can be added to the resin casting.  Nice easy touches that can be added to any wall, or entranceway, in this case…

Warhammer 40,000 – Finishing Touches

It seems an age since I set up a playing surface in the shed and, while I was out there doing just that for an hour or two last week, I decided that I should really try to finish a small job that had been bugging me for a a little while now.

My last GREEN miniature has a glass sided tank on his back.  I have seen some very nicely painted tanks, throughout the Internet, and all glazed with gloss varnish to give that glass like finish.

Mine is not the most realistic of fluid filled efforts but a gloss coat over the top can’t make it worse…  Can it…

Not to bad…

Catches the light nicely and distracts the eye away from some of the terrible painting on the remainder of the model.  So, please remember…  Just keep looking at the shiny bit…

MDF Plinths, Stairways And Plazas

As my current aversion to painting green Space Marines continues to settle, I have moved over (with the help of the good weather) to a side project that won’t side track me for too long. Playing about with a little bit of MDF should allow me to go back to painting GREEN again pretty soon.

Warmer weather, shorter drying times and ultimately just a little too hot to paint anyway (the inside of the shed was up to 49 degrees C when I ventured in last weekend…) As no brush work would be worthwhile, I guess a little trimming and gluing would have to suffice.

A bit of base colour spraying is always possible on warmer days too.  A little bit of weathering may need to follow when I am all done with these builds…

These are TT Combat Venetian street blocks and canal stairs.  The reason I bought a few sets of these recently was to see if I could get a bit of height difference on to the table. Each kit in the range makes up a 25-30mm high plaza square or street section.

As always, MDF is an easy medium to work with, and although not as fancy as some of the textured and 3d resin out there, it remains a staple in the shed as it is robust and fairly easy to store away between games.  I have a larger pack with about 8 more base plazas and streets in it but these had a slight fault on them so I am awaiting replacements for those kits.  When they arrive and get built up I should have enough from this range to allow me to stack smaller sections onto the larger bases, layering up the plazas to create higher and lower areas on the table, eventually…

More MDF Houses

So, a while back I started a new MDF kit. Surprisingly, I managed to get it almost finished in a single evening.  The second kit was ready to start but I never got around to it as I was quickly drawn into something else…  As usual…

These kits look like a lot of bits when you start but they are easier than you would think.  Especially when you remember to paint (or ink in my case) all the parts before you put them together.

They are both now completed to nearly the same stage and I really need to start thinking about how I finally finish them off.

The different kits are made up from many of the same parts. So sections like the roof are effectively interchangeable

I still need to paint the second roof, paint the window frames in a contrasting colour and add a door knob or two.

I should also try to add some weathering as they look a little too clean at this point.  My dirty paint water pot and a small sponge should give me the right level of grime without getting too many brush marks or tide lines.

A Break In The Weather And A Day To Spray

Its not often that we get a day to consider undercoating something in the UK, especially in mid February.  Moisture and temperature can play havoc with spray cans.

This week we did get the window to spray for one afternoon and I took it while I could.

Silver for robots…

Lots of robots…

Silver for some of Coronasan’s MDF Gaslands gates.

(and silver for the Martian underground base entrances…  but I forgot to photograph them in the mad rush to get so many batches out on the BBQ)

And, just to mix things up, black and grey for the MDF house that I started a few weeks ago…

Lets hope I can get some real painting done soon.

A Terrain Day On A Rain Day

Coronasan does not only design Industrial Terrain in MDF.  He has also done a number of other styles for the interested gamer.  One terrain style I don’t have very much of is the Fantasy Medieval type of setting.

That is soon to be remedied as he had donated two new houses to the shed that I have promised to build and paint.

To anyone new to MDF kits these might look quite complex.  In truth they are fairly simple to build.  Lots of pieces, yes, but as you work through them it is often easy to work out where they go without referring to any instructions.

A good job really, as these are pretty much prototypes, so didn’t have any instructions with them.  I only had to make one phone call to the designer when putting the first together.

Two storied and fully usable inside on each floor.

A simple, paint it while building it, approach saved me lots of time and effort. Artists inks, I find, are the easiest things to use on MDF kits. In this case I used a flesh ink a red brick and a cream.  Wood work was subtly darkened using some of GWs Sepia Shade ink.

The roof is yet to be painted as I wanted to darken the underside and also to try out a grey tiles effect on the top.

One down (almost)…  One to go…

Steam Wars – Martian Underground Base Entrances

The builds on these kits were finished, to this stage anyway, back at the start of December.  Due to me having a bad month, along with the usual family commitments that Xmas and the New Year bring along, they haven’t progressed any further so far. I do have all the needed plans and parts ready for when I get a good day to spray a base coat on them. After that they should be quite quick to complete.

These two smaller entrances will suffice as the access points for cephalopods and their slaves.  They are, however, really not a realistic size for allowing access by any Tripods or other vehicles. I therefore need to find, or design something, to represent these entrances in any narrative games we play.

Currently I am open to all ideas but I have played with the idea of a sloped hangar style opening with a set of sliding doors, or a pop up style lift tube (to keep things in line with the ’round’ look of the other scenery items, like my craters).  I need to get a few sketched ideas on to paper and then see what Coronasan can design and cut in MDF…