June Resolution - Week Four

The last week of June Resolution has passed. Overall it wasn't as great a success as I had hoped but I think that was more life getting in the way. I think that given a more stable month, I might have done better.

In the last week of the resolution I only got a few things accomplished. I did manage to convert some more modern weapons onto the last few of the Islanders that needed arming. This was done using blades clipped from older miniatures that were unlikely to get used. A little green stuff to flesh out the axe handles and an approximation of a bone hilt on a Chinese-style sword. Waiting on an order of bases then I can move forward on painting them.

The other project I worked on this last week was painting up some 15mm survivalists for my zombie/post-apocalyptic games. These are all various militia from Peter Pig's AK47 range. Simple, quick and dirty paint jobs done with my withering supply of small brushes.

Also, a bit of a side note here on why no pictures in so long. My digicam is currently out of service for the most part and I am having to borrow camera time from friends. Coordinating that camera access has been tough. I'll get some pics up as soon as I can.

Thanks,

-Eli

June Resolution - Week Three

Another lame week. Doing a little work every day has proven to be much more difficult than it originally seemed it would be. Part of it has to do with the plague that seems to be moving through my household - first myself and then my wife leaving me to be the parent on duty all the time.

Still, I have managed to get a few things done. I have already posted the bit on the conversions for the Islanders. I have had a chance to work on those for a good few hours, so overall, I suppose that counts toward the 15 minutes a day. I have done a lot on the planning front, so maybe that counts for something, though not really the same thing as doing.

I hope this week I am hoping to get some stuff done with some of my terrain but we'll see how that goes.

Trudging on!

-Eli

Gone Native

So, today I found myself starting a fun project during the first half of my shift at work. Yes, while at work. I work in a job that can be very hands free at times and so I sometimes have the luxury of using my hands for other things.

Today, those other things took the form of converting some very Hollywood 28mm African tribals into equally Hollywood Caribbean island dwellers. This project was a start to some pirate gaming that I am hoping to get into in the near future. While I wait for the funds to move forward with the project, I figured it might be fun to do these conversions and make use of some figures languishing in my drawers.

For the most part the conversions consisted of trimming off a number of headdresses and adding new hair. For hair I went with a dreadlocks look that seemed very island to me. On a couple others I did teased out, matted afro-looking hair. The idea I was going for was that the guys were escaped slaves and such gone island native so I wanted to add a few touches of civilizati

To this end I added a few articles of clothing to a couple of them A torn shirt here, a ragged pair of trousers there, even sculpted one guy to be wearing a single boot (thought it would be amusing). One gent got himself a fine tricorn hat and a few others got wide-brimmed floppy hats.

Overall, I am very happy with the figures and am looking forward to painting them, though that may have to wait until I can collect some weapons for them as I am not keen on having them armed just with spears.

More on these later,

-Eli

Terrain Design - Poll Results

Howdy all,

So, the pole has closed and a whopping 26 votes were cast (great showing folks!). It would seem that the vast majority of you either favor removable roofs on buildings or at least see some value in them. I am very surprised by this, to be honest, as I rarely see removable roofs featured in battle reports posted on the net.

I'd like to thank all of you who contributed input along with your votes.

I am not entirely sold on the idea, myself. In past games open terrain has been used extensively. For example, the ruins in Mordheim definitely add extra dimension to the skirmish gaming so I can see how access to the interiors of structures can be appealing. I think I'll give it a whirl, at least in some of the buildings I'm planning, and see how it goes.

Stay tuned and I'll post what I come up with. I already have a few buildings planned that won't be able to have removable roofs do to their quick and dirty construction, but they can be backdrops or something.

Thanks again,

-Eli

Interesting New Africans from Wargames Factory

Hey all,

Cruising through TMP today, I came across the announcement of the new Wargames Factory 28mm Plastic Zulus set. Now, I really have no need of Zulus but when I got to looking at the sculpts and the parts on the sprues I noticed that these figures, while making fine Zulus, are also crafted generically enough that they might make for great Pulp tribals.

Heck, with the right painting and add-on weapons they could be used for Islanders or maybe even the basis for some Stone Age warriors. Being hard plastic, multi-pose kits they are also easily customized and modified. Heck, at 30 warriors for $20 it's almost impossible to pass up!

Might have to check them out.

-Eli

June Resolution - Week Two

So week two wasn't all that great. Between doing overtime at work and a renovation at my apartments that has had all my patio stuff in my living room, I really haven't had the space or time to get much done. I guess you could say that my hobby space/time continuum has been disrupted.

The sum total of what I was able to get done this last week was to begin a set of coastal rocks. These are being built from scraps of styro on CDs. I am hoping to make some nice jagged rocks as obstacles for boats coming ashore and such. I'll post pics when I have more to show.

More soonm

-Eli

New Poll on Terrain Design

As I am planning to start building some new buildings, I thought I'd add a bit of a pole to see what folks do with their own.

The issue whether or not I should both building removable roofs and upper floors for my buildings for my 28mm terrain. I have to admit to being on the fence about this.

On the one hand, it would be cool to be able to actually place figures inside the terrain and have windows and door be usable, but this then requires me to build open windows all around and to make the door hinged or at least open-able.

The other side of the fence tells me that in addition to the extra work, that such things might not even come into play all that often and the extra work might be wasted.

So, vote on the pole and then leave me a bit of input on your experiences. When you have buildings on the board are they there to set the scene more than provide dimension to the battle? Or, are they there to provide another layer to the game? Oooooor, are they something altogether different for you?

Let's hear it folks!

Thanks,

-Eli

Getting The Kids Involved

Hey Everyone,

In many of my posts I comment about parenthood and life as a working parent gamer. You have seen pics of my youngest in a few posts (my oldest hasn't been available or willing in the past) and have read comments about the limitations placed on my time by my duties as a father. But what I haven't talked much about is how I make my hobby time into time spent with them.

Both my girls have an interest in my hobby stuff. Whether it is the RPGs or the minis, they both find them cool and share ideas with me and even play with me from time to time. This is the most obvious way to share hobby time with them. But I have recently found a couple of new ways and will share couple of examples we have come up with over the last few months.

The first way is to find a way for them to help with the painting. For me, this means having my youngest apply black wash to figures. This is a low risk activity for me to let the five year old do. I can mix the wash, give her a brush and she is happy to go to town. If she lays it on a bit thick, I keep a constant eye on her and correct as needed.

Another way has been to get them involved in the terrain building. Every piece of naturally occurring material you see in my terrain projects, with the exception of the pine bark, was supplied by my girls. I have often sent them out to collect sticks and squirrel-chewed pine cones. They also keep their eyes out for things they think will be useful in my stuff. Most recently, they supplied all the course gravelly bits for my rock formations. This last bit has even turned into a way for them to earn a little spending change.

You see the girls gather smaller stones from around the property and then crush them into the gravel themselves. They wear safety goggles and collect the gravel by size and type of rock and sell it to me for $1 for ever 8oz cup they can fill. I get good quality scenic gravel and they get to supplement their allowances while venting a little nervous energy and aggression out on some poor unsuspecting rocks.

It's awesome and it makes me feel a lot less guilty when I spend time working on my stuff.

Take care,

-Eli

June Resolution - Week One

Howdy everyone!

So, it is time for the first week in review of the "June Resolution". If you recall the resolution was to work on hobby craft for at least 15 minutes, ever day of the month of June. How am I doing?
I'll let you decide.

Monday, June 1

15 min painting Hawaiians

Tuesday, June 2

15 min painting Hawaiians

5 min basing Hawaiians

Wednesday, June 3

15 min painting 28mm Pulp figs

20 min black washing 15mm scifi power armor

10 min cleaning/prepping 15mm VSF

Thursday, June 4

60 (est. total) min finishing 4 rocky outcroppings (detailing, painting, flocking)

10 min prepping 15mm VSF

Friday, June 5

15 min finishing fifth rocky outcropping

5 min sealing all rocky outcroppings

Saturday, June 6

Family Day - No hobby craft

So, all told it was a good start to the resolution. I would like to say I got more done, but I finished up the figs I had for my Hawaii project so far and got the rocks done and they look good. I could have done more, but I also had a good time running around with kids on Friday and enjoying some of our nice weather. I would say that it was a balanced week.

-Eli

New Rocky Terrain

Howdy again.

So, day four of the June resolution found me finishing up a terrain project. My gaming group had requested some bigger rocks than what we had been using. I think they were looking for rocks that actually blocked line of site rather than just offering cover for 28mm. What I did was glue a few selected pieces of pine bark, bought at the local garden store, to a few recycled CDs/DVDs. I found a great sale on the bark, so I have a huge bag of it.





That's about as far as I got, initially, but yesterday I took the time to finish them. I added various pieces of crushed stone (provided by a little cottage business of my two daughters) and some fine grain ballast stone from Woodland Scenics. This gave them a very realistic rocky look and feel.




I pained the bark straight on the bark without any undercoat. I think the way the raw wood soaks up the paint unevenly and the brown spots left gives it that aged stone look with all its inconsistencies and pits full of accumulated dirt and soil. For the grey I used a mix of basic craft paint grey with a rather imprecise and sloppy bit of brown added to it and only halfway mixed so that even the paint had some variation in color. I also used a bit of grey on the ballast and some of the natural stone to blend it with the larger rock.



The base of the CD was painted brown with a little ballast thrown in to add a little texture. I was out of grit or I'd have gone for more texture but with all the layers of stone, I figured I could let it go.

Once everything was mostly dry I flocked the whole thing, sometimes adding a brush of fresh paint to areas I wanted to hold more flock. This gives the rocks a mossy, weathered look. A last bit of dry brushing was done on the main rocks to add an extra layer of texture and weathering. On a few of them I had some ballast sticking onto the face of rocks and so I painted these in reds and yellows in an approximation of a few wild flowers or maybe even mushrooms or lichen growing on the structure.

I really like how these turned out and am tempted to make moreof them, even though I'm not sure I'll need any more. Though they were made with 28mm in mind, some of them would make really nice pieces on a 15mm board as well. In fact, some of the holes in the formations might make good spawn points for goblins and other naties in 15mm games as they would easily be large enough to be cave entrances for figs of that size.

Hope you like,

-Eli

June Resolution

Howdy all,

So, we all have that one nagging hobby ghost that jumps out of our closet every so often "booing" us with a sore reminder of how little progress we have made on the radioactive shielding that is our miniatures collection. My ghost is a pretty scary one and I don't even own that much. Anyway, seeing as I can't afford Ghostbusters and this metaphor is already growing stale let me get onto the point.

For the month of June, I am going to set a goal to work on something every day. Now, this may seem a bit on the impossible side and I already have taken into account the days where I may not be able to, but that means some days I'll have to make up for those days. I am not setting any particular goals, just something simple - at least 15 min of hobby time every day. If I get more in, then great. In any case, I'm making progress.

To share with you, how this is all working, I will post a weekly progress report so you can see how well I succeed or fail. If I do well, then I will have to continue this plan and we may very well see a more vibrant blog from me to share with you all.

So, here we go. Night #1 and it's 10:00pm. How much can I get done?

-Eli