Haven't Given Up On The Lead

It has been a bit since I have posted anything about my miniatures projects. I have not been overly motivated to put brush to metal of late but I have been working on some things. The most active painting project has been the 2mm Land Ironclads stuff, but even that has been set aside. Another project was some troops for my VSF imagi-nation of Elistonia. I've included a few WIP pics to show you how these are going -

Rough color blocking showing the sorts of color being used. Elistonia is not a huge nation so expensive dyes are reserved for caps and officer's uniforms.

Packs, bread bags and simple bedrolls are carried by each Elistonian soldier.

The collected sum of what I have painted in 2mm for my Martian city-states. Approximately 360 citizen warriors, 240 household warriors, 69 tribal cavalry, 26 household cavalry, 15 sniper/scouts, 3 armored rumat brehr with cannon howdah, 3 unarmored rumat brehr each carrying 2 martian jezzails.

Martian infantry. The household warriors in the front were painted with more metallic color to show their better armor. They are also placed in closer order between the two lines to show better discipline. The two lines represent the Martian tactic of using "cutters" and "shooters" together.

A bit blurry but this picture shows the green of the Martian mounts under the yellowish skin and metallic armor and weapons of the Martians. These MArtians are painted as tribal warriors, recruited from the area around the city itself and are not well  armored. The household cavalry that I did have more metallic color on them and their mounts to show their better equipment. They are also based in lines as opposed to these tribal warriors who fight in loose wedges.

2mm Tribal Martians for Land Ironclads

I finally had a chance to go through the contents of the army pack I ordered from Irregular Miniatures. Because there are no dedicated Martian figs in the Irregular line, I ordered an Earthly army that seemed like it would fit the feel of a Martian force. My original plan had been to do the army of a Martian city-state but the contents of the army were decidedly less organized so I decided to build a tribal coalition of wilder Martian nomads and such.

Everything in the pic, with the exception of the front cavalry block, came in the army pack and comprises a pretty decent size force. The infantry, beasts, and cav are mounted on 20x40mm bases with the artillery mounted on 20x30mm bases.

I won't go into too many details just yet. That can wait until they are painted, but this should be a fun project.

Take care,

-Eli

Latest Martian Settlement WIP

So, after seeing my WIP pics of the earlier Martian settlements, Rob over at ArmChairGeneral asked me if I would do one (or more) for him. As I was wanting to keep building, I figured why not.

Up until then, all my pieces had been built on pretty linear flat rocks, so I decided to make this one a little more three-dimensional. I also wanted to build somethign bigger than I had so far. Taking a large tear-off of cork tile I then layered up several more pieces near the center of the piece. This came me a central hill jutting up from the city below.

The picture to the right depicts the city in the early layout. It shows the cluster of larger, metropolitan buildings at the top of the city, including what has become a characteristic of my Martians settlements - the tower spire. Below the hill, in the foreground is a rather haphazard cluster of buildings that will make up the lower class section of the city.

The picture below shows the city about 90% through the construction process. You can see the walls and towers in place, showing that this city may have once been fortified all around, but having since let the defenses give way to more living space. To the far left of the pic you will see a large temple structure with a massive dome that marks this city as one of particular importance to Martian religion. It sit atop a raised rocky outcropping of its own and the structure crowds to make use of every inch of space atop that rock. You can see the more haphazard commoner street to the right. Some of the roof tops of the larger buildings have penthouses or patio structures on them.

I still have to figure out how to paint this one. Once again I got carried away with construction and created some terribly tight spaces to try to get a brush into. I really need to paint the buildings then glue them in.

Enjoy,

-Eli

2mm Irregular Arrivals

My gaming buddy Iken and I have been gearing up to make a serious go at Land Ironclads and in doing so we place a big order for 2mm troops from Irregular Miniatures. In all, we ordered three army packs, a supply pack, and a few odds and ends planes, elephants and such.

I will note that while I like doing business with Nic at Eureka, I really couldn't justify ordering the Irregular stuff from him. The cost for the figs, even after exchange rate, come to about 15% more and Irregular only charged us 10% shipping instead of the regular 15% that both they and Eureka charge (because the order was only 2mm stuff). They shipped the order on the 1st and it got here today on the 9th. Fast shipping across the pond.

Only the elephants and one of the army packs is mine but I'm only building one force and Iken is building two. We will be sharing the supply pack but I'm not sure if we are just doing generic supply bases or if we are going to divy them out to specific armies. I haven't been able ot handle the minis yet as they were shipped to his house, but I must admit that I may have ordered the wrong army but I am sure it'll get used nonetheless.

I ordered the Afghan Army pack as I thought it would have a different feel to it than the various European army packs, but it looks, at least from the glimpse in the picture, like the mix of figures may be a bit TOO different. I'll reserve final judgement but I may end up having to make a Martian tribal coalition instead of a citystate army. Iken is planning to front me some of his cav as his alien army he is making doesn't use them. The elphants are going to be converted into Martian beasts but more on that later. I am going to be doing some of the most microscale conversions I've ever done to try to get my 2mm to look like a VSF Martian army ala Space 1889/John Carter.

Stay tuned for more updates!

-Eli

More Martian Settlements

this could be arranged along canals as narrow, canal-side settlements. The picture to the left gives you a look at the simple but effectivestreet orien

The Martian settlements project has been highly experimental but incredibly fun. I have been trying to find more and interesting ways to do them. This is one of those.

What you see is a table edge section of city with a fortifiefied city gate, towers and wall. This would be perfect to set up at the of the table so there is a bit of local color without having it be center stage. This is also the first piece that I tried using accent colors on, giving several of the buildings a crimson stripe as well as the towers and gate.

Future plans for this and other pieces like it include additional table edge sections or possibly modulare city interior pieces that will allow me to create cities of various sizes. Another thought is that pieces like this could be used along canals. The picture to the left show the orientation including a curious back alley.

Hope you like!

-Eli

Martian Settlements For Land Ironclads/Aeronef

Sooooo,

It seems that I have been away from miniatures for a bit. Not true.

Since losing my digital camera, as lame as it was, I have been a bit gunshy about trying to post on miniatures projects because I coul;dn't seem to get any good pics. I have since had some luck taking decent WIP pics with my camera phone, so I thought I'd start to post some stuff that I've been working on.

The first thing I'd like to share is a WIP of some town/city terrain I have been doing for use with Wessex Games' Land Ironclads and Aeronef games. The general scale of these games is 1/1200 or thereabouts though the infantry figures used are generally 2mm which is more like 1/900 but any smaller an they may as well be cardboard counters. So, I took some scrap balsa, some cork tile and got to work.

These are actually quite simple to make. Tear off an area of tile to form the roacky outcropping upon which the Martians have built thei settlements. The cut various sized bits of balsa and get to work laying out your settlement plan. I decided to keep them relatively simple and work mainly with simple rectangles for the most part. The three that are pictured above were the first three I did and show a modest township as well as a two smaller locales that might work well for some sorts of monasteries, villas, etc.

After they are aseembled, they are sprayed black and then painted with a combination of rusty red earth tones for the ground, an off-white color for the buildings and simple black for the doors and windows. I thought about painting the doorways another color but really it just blurred the details and at this scale, I just needed the hint of door and windows. In some places, where hte balsa didn't cut right and left some rough edges, I painted the pieces like ruined buildings showing a mix of the white-wash and natural red Martian mud.

In a future post, I'll show off some additional work I've been doing with this project, but I hope you like the results so far.

Thanks,

-Eli

Land Ironclads - WIP Snapshot

Nothing much to report just yet, but I had an urge to tinker with some more scratchbuilt Land Ironclads and this is what I came up with. It's essentially a really big gun, like a cut-down Verne cannon that rolls along on it's own tracks. I have been tinkering with this concept since I used the carriages for these guns for one of my other LI designs.

I'll post more on it later, but hope the crappy snapshot will tide you over.

BTW, the little dots in the middle are some 2mm skirmishing infantry that will do a good job of representing teams of gunners waiting for the weapon to need reloading. The minis are based on the standard 2mm minis base and cannot be removed, but that shouldn't pose too great a problem as I can stform or something. they were standing on a platform or something.

Anyhow, hope you enjoy this sneak peak.

Take care,

-Eli

Land Ironclads - The Force Thus Far

So, camera crisis averted by the timely purchase of a new memory card, I can now press on. I still suffer from an outdated camera but it can get the point across. Shown below are the fronts of the two types of Land Ironclads I have built as well as three bases of the Steam Colossi as well as a couple of bases of unfinished 2mm infantry to show scale.




So far, I have left them devoid of markings until I decide what sort of nationality I want to make them.

Hope you like,

-Eli

Steam Colossi for Land Ironclads

I have been trudging along with my Land Ironclads conversions, cobbling a force together from bits and pieces that I had laying about in one box or another. This is not a front-line project for me just yet, but I find several (perhaps too many) old 6mm Battletech power armor minis that just begged consideration.

Most of them were not overly well-suited to conversion to VSF, but the Grey Death Legion power armor looks like it will do nicely. These figures have a very static pose, domed helmets and a jump pack on their back, which at that scale looks much like a pair of boilers. The minis come in three versions, each armed with a different weapon - Gatling gun, large-barreled gun (laser I think), and some short-barreled thing that looks like flamer (B-tech loved its flamers).

I think with the addition of a funnel between the dome of their rocket packs and a nice coat of gun metal paint they should make for quite nice walking terrors.

Note: There was supposed to be a pic with this post, but my memory card for my camera is AWOL. I'll get some pics up ASAP. Thanks for your patience.

Land Ironclad Conversion WIP - Part 2

Since I first decided to try my hand at some homebrew land ironclads, I have been finding myself coming up with more and more projects ideas for the game. In addition to finishing the two that I had already started and posted about, I have also found another two of a different design to put together.

The original two have had all their parts assembled and put together. I decided to use 15mm Sherman tank road wheels for the two smaller secondary turrets I wanted to place toward the rear of the hull of the vehicles. I drilled small holes in them and inserted cut pieces of thin wire for the barrels. These glued to the hull nicely and should hold well once painted. For the main guns, I simply glued the guns to the hull. This is not the most elegant of methods but it should ensure a hold that will stand up to play.

As for the two others of a new design, these were made from parts off of two different types of old Ral Partha tanks. These had originally been purchased for one project or another but never were used. After knocking them apart with a heavy object (man that superglue set hard), I found that the tracks off of one mated up to the body of the other made for nice retro look with a boxy hull. A tower at one end of the hull made the perfect place to put the primary turret (made from a 1/72 tank road wheel). I fleshed out the look by adding a 15mm oil drum for a funnel and some wire barrels in the turret and the design was done. This one was easier than the first but it used fewer parts that went together much more solidly.

At this point, I am down to just the basing and painting of the land ironclads. I am also working on some bipedal "steam soldiers" and some infantry blocks , but will cover those in a future post. When they are all done, I hope to show them all off together in one grand picture.

Take care,

-Eli

Land Ironclad Conversion WIP

It was inevitable that I would end up picking up "Land Ironclads" from Wessex. I already have their "Aeronef" game and the idea of being able to play land battles in the same setting or, even better, combining aerial units and land units into combined battle was too much to pass up. So now I have both.

After reading through the rules and looking around the Internet to see what other folks were doing with the game, I decided that a lot of the fun in this game would be drawn from coming up with crazy contraptions and land ironclads. True, there are some great models being done by Brigade Models but I wanted to cobble together some of my own. I am pretty happy with what I have come up with so far and thought I'd pause in the mad scramble to take some WIP pics. Forgive the quality of the pics, my camera is a relic.

Side view. Note that the large turret is at the front of the land ironclad.

The basic design starts with the carriage for a 15mm WW2 German SiG 33 Infantry Gun. I had a few laying around and the spoked wheels and heavy construction of the carriage looked like they would work nicely. This provided the basic frame of the ironclad, but it needed some sort of drive and for this I decided to use a couple of 15mm WW2 German "Goliath" remote bombs. These were attached to the SiG carriage simply glue and a spacer made out of a 15mm Sherman tank road wheel. The final chassis was level and looked suitably VSF.


Top view. Note: there is no visible superstructure as the land ironclad is an enclosed design and already elevated.

With the chassis completed, I needed a hull. For this I scoured my available junk and was almost about to pause of the night and consign myself to having to custom build something. Fortunately, I came across an old, incomplete Aircraft Carrier model of unknown scale laying around. I looked over the parts and found two extended pillbox type pieces. Though hollow, they looked like they would mate up with the chassis well and the hollow part would be on the underside and really invisible unless you looked for it. This gave the land ironclad a very nice hull design.

At this point I have completed two identical vehicles of this type. I decided that, if I was going to use a chance-find piece, it would do me well to make as many of the model as I could. I am in the process of fleshing out the design right now. I added some 15mm oil drums for funnels and some road wheels from a plastic 1/72 LeClerc tank as the main turret. I am planning on adding two smaller secondary turrets at the rear but am still deciding on what to make them from. The main turret will get guns made from plastic rod.

I am very happy with how these are coming together and am looking forward to completing them. I decided to take a break and cool down before I rushed in and cut corners out of my zeal to get the things done. I am very much liking how the gun carriages worked out and may have to try some other designs made from the same or similar carriages. Perhaps I'll rig up some heavier models using the cleated wheels of some of the WW1 guns.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my WIP.

Thanks,

-Eli