Take The High Ground

Mod Rock - Rocks

2012-01-05T21:42:00.004Z

A project to extend the usability of my soft hills using mod - rock (Gauze bandage impregnated with plaster). The idea is to create a moulded section of terrain which will be shaped to fit the top of the hill. And will be able to be positioned on top of the soft hill and have a small wood or cops on it.

I started with a basic soft hill as made in my post from June 2009 I then covered this with cooking foil and then wrapped it in cling film, this protects the base soft hill model. I then placed the wet mod - Rock over the top in multiple layers and left it to dry. More to follow on this project.

TTFN Airhead

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

2011-12-24T17:41:00.006Z

Happy Christmas to all of you out there in Blog land, and all the best for the new year. Not sure what or who the robbo-santa picture is but I thought it was quite cool and seasonal at the same time. The 1/35th scale model of the "BEEP" a heavier version of the Jeep, is a Christmas present for my Dad, who fought in the Malayan emergency in the early 1950's and learnt to drive on a Beep while in Malaya.

Next year my aim is to up my posting rate on this year, and try for at least 3 posts per month. Lots of plans in my head, its just getting the work bench time to actually produce the stuff that is the issue at the moment. Big ideas/plans for next year are based around 10mm WW1 terrain, early on 1914 style, so no sea of mud and endless trench line. Also going into the micro world of 2-3mm stuff and hoping to produce the battle in a box idea.

All the best from me and the Airhead family, have a good Christmas and all the best for 2012.

TTFN

Airhead

R.I.P Glue Gun

2011-12-12T21:31:00.005Z

My old glue gun has finally given up the ghost, after over 3 years of dedicated service, during which it contributed to the vast majority of the projects on this Blog. So I'm of to find a new one. Its my number one priority at the moment. If you have never used one, go and get one its my number one terrain making tool.

On other fronts very little progress at the moment, thanks to daughters university application on going /uni visits/Job/life in general. But still planning in the spare moments I get. The above sketches of 15mm scale helicopters were done on a Cross Country Train from Southampton central to Birmingham new street, running 50 minutes late last week (train in front of ours ran into a tree). The sketches show me working out how to mount my Israeli gun ships on wire, which is hidden within the terrain on the base. Click on the pictures for bigger versions

WW2 Terrain making in action

2011-11-16T20:43:00.009Z

Found this great picture on the web today, brilliantly realistic looking terrain making from the past. The caption with the photo below.

"Photo by Marjory Collins. A “camouflage class” at New York University, where men and women are preparing for jobs in the Army or in industry by making models from aerial photographs and work out camouflage schemes, 1943."

Still looking into making micro terrain for a 2mm set up based around Bob Corderys great Portable Wargaming rules. I'm hoping to make a completer wargame in a box, with all terrain, soldiers and rules contained within the box. Not sure what sort of box yet, I'm still looking for inspiration in the box area. I have some Irregular miniatures samples of their 2mm range which look ideal for the project. The above photograph perfectly illustrates the type of effect I want to aim for. Great inspiration/reference.

15mm Helicopters 3

2011-10-30T21:29:00.007Z

More progress on the helicopter front, the middle picture shows the start of the Vietnam Loaches with the craft broken down into their component parts, I have rubbed down the fuselages on the right hand side with wet and dry paper ready to undercoat them with grey primer spray. I have also cut out the back doors ready to take a peter pig door gunner with an M60 machine gun. I drilled the door with a power drill and then used the rat tail files in the top picture to finish of the doors.

The bottom picture shows progress on the Israeli gun ships, the painting of the window supports was made a lot easier by using masking tape to mask of the strut areas. It worked quite well. They will deed a bit of tidying up with a brush, but on the hole it worked well.

I'm currently reading "Low level hell" the biography of an Aero scout pilot flying loaches in Vietnam. A great book, packed with incidents and events. Giving lots of inspiration for scenarios for gaming. TTFN Airhead.

15mm Helicopters 2

2011-10-09T20:20:00.007+01:00

Good progress on the Israeli 500MD TOW armed gun ships, They are shown with new tail assemblies made from plastic card replacing the original ones. Also plastic card was used for the small radio aerials along the tail booms. The small stub exhausts are made from cut down sections of cotton bud sticks. Also shown in the top picture is a test Tow pod shown along side the Helos made from two cotton bud tubes with green stuff used to create the casing.

The bottom picture shows one of the main rotter blades in position, with dry brushed on yellow high visibility rotter tips. Quite pleased with how this has turned out so far.

Things I have found out so far from this project, Its very difficult to get the paint I'm using to give a good covering of the body work. Im using a Humbrol enamel paint and it has taken at least 3 coats so far to get a good flat coverage. It would also be much easier to paint the body work If I had taken the models apart first. So for my Vietnam Helicopters I have got some matt Grey enamel spray paint to give them a base coat first. And as they will be having internal detail and crews added they will be taken apart first.

15mm Helicopters

2011-09-30T22:30:00.004+01:00

Final getting around to doing something with my 15mm Helicopter mountain, I spent some time looking for reference pictures on the web and found some nice plastic kit box art for inspiration. Also found a great line drawing of the 500MD/TOW Defender version which I intend to make for my Israelis. Looking at the line drawing you can see that the rotter blades that come with the model are hugely under scale, and the tail construction is different.

The next issue was to find some clear plastic to use for the rotter disc's which will replace the blades that come with the model. Cake was the answer, in the shape of a discount box of meringues from Morris's supermarket. The top of the box looked fine, but when cut out I thought it looked to flimsy. But one the discs were cut out. They were fine. I treated them in the same way as the propeller on the Zero project I produced. Using discs of sand paper to scuff the plastic. Next on the list is to make the pods for the TOW missiles and look at creating the new tail structures.

Sorry for the lack of posts around here, but real life is a tad frantic at the moment and hobby time is on the tight side. OMG I bought the Helicopters last December, how time flys.

A 10mm Roman addition

2011-09-10T22:16:00.002+01:00

A quick and simple addition to my Roman 10mm selection of terrain items, a roughly 10mm scale model of the leaning tower of pisa. Saved from the rubbish bin as the daughter re-decorated her bedroom. I now the towers construction started in 1170, so its not really Roman by any stretch of the imagination, but hay it works for, it looks Roman to me. So that's fine by me. A quick black undercoat and paint job with a round base built up with filler and then flocked.

Back from the med

2011-09-06T21:21:00.006+01:00

So back from sunny Kefalonia to rainy Shropshire, had a great two weeks staying in the west of the island. very relaxing. The only bits of military history related stuff that I spotted was the above gun and monument out side the cost guard post in Argostoli the capital of the island. Not sure who the chap was or what the gun is. Looks WW1 vintage to me, but thats just a blind guess. Also sore another monument on the way into the town which has two small mountain gun/howitzer type things either side of a white marble statue. No picture of that one I'm afraid.

During my relaxing time by the pool/beach I managed to read 5 paper backs, 1 Simon Scarrow "Eagles prophecy", 2 Voices from the battle of Britain/blitz, 3 "Zero History" William Gibson, 4 Conn Iggulden "Lords of the bow" 5 Christian Cameron "Killer of Men"

1) 8 out of 10 good story with some nice action. Ripping yarn. 4 more to go in the series.

2) 5 out of 10 Nothing new £1.75 from a charity shop so no complaints.

3) 9 out of 10 Been waiting for this one for a long time, well worth the wait. He invented the modern world

4) 8 out of 10 £1 from a charity shop, shows the dangers of buying historical fiction on a whim, I loved it, yes I now its historical accuracy is questionable, but I have always had a soft spot for the mongols. Must get the rest.

5) 8 out of 10 Ancient Greece and the Persians, what's not to love, a very few strange modern terms used. Will get the next one set during the battle of Marathon.

One thing that does bug me with Historical fiction is when the publisher changes the cover design of the books half way through the series, it just spoils the look of the book shelf.

I'm planning to finnish of some outstanding terrain projects before Christmas, will also be making a start on the Great Helicopter building project. TTFN

1/100 scale Zero in action

2011-07-29T21:31:00.009+01:00

Taking the idea from the in-flight DFS glider, I adapted it for the Zero by super gluing the underside of the wing to the leaves in 2 positions, and securing it with a bulldog clip and leaving over night, to get a good strong bond. The key to the set up of the base is the two stones used on it to act as counter weights to the aircraft.

Off on summer campaign for a few weeks, so it will be quiet around here for a while, but as sum American chap said once "I shall return" All the best Airhead

Zero 1/100 scale

2011-07-22T22:12:00.010+01:00

An Airfix minikit Zero in 1/100 (15mm) scale for just £2.99 from Model Zone in Birmingham to provide air support for my Japanese forces, its a great little kit which went together very easily. It comes pre painted, but I've added some weathering to the panel lines and gun smoke to the wings.

It comes with a choice of two propellers. I decided to have a go at replacing the blades of the propeller with a disc of clear plastic to give a better impression of the plane in flight. The clear plastic came from my bits box, I cut the blades from the propeller and got my circle cutter out, a great tool well worth investing in. Now this next bit might be common knowledge among aircraft modelers, but I did come up with this just off the top of my head. After cutting out a test disc of plastic. I thought how do I get that comic book effect of the turning propeller, and the idea occurred to use sand paper to scuff the plastic to give the blurred effect. So next I cut a disc of sand paper the same size as the clear plastic disc. Then a disc of masking tap which I used to mask of the parts of the clear plastic to protect it from the sandpaper. Hopefully the pictures above give most of the information you will need to have a go at doing this.

Turn the disc of sandpaper to create the scuffing, one tip would be to make the sandpaper disc bigger than the propeller disc so it's easier to get hold of and turn by hand. I painted the inside of the clear plastic canopy light blue, to get that old school wargames Illustrated Rapid Fire rules articles from the late 80's - 90's look.

A useful exercise for me as I have a lot of helicopters waiting in the wings for this kind of treatment. Next up the zero mounted on its free standing flight base. TTFN

Coastal Battery Finished

2011-07-21T20:43:00.007+01:00

The coastal battery is finished, shown from a number of angles, lots of dry brushing and some static grass to finish it of. The pictures of the back of the bunker show the steal reinforcing rods made from paper clip wire sticking out of the roof of the bunker. With streaks of rust painted on to complete the look. I was tempted to put a propaganda poster on the big flat wall at the back of the bunker, but decided it was better to keep it generic, so I can use it for my British in Malaya or the Italians in the middle east.

Coastal Battery stage 4

2011-07-17T21:29:00.007+01:00

Progress on the coastal battery, the bottom picture shows the first of the three types of paint I use on my ground work (cheep match pots from home base), the top picture shows the fortifications with camouflage applied to the concrete superstructure of the bunker. Just needs some more dry brushing and some flock on the ground and it will be ready to throw back the enemy from the shores of the motherland. Next on the list will be some smaller supporting HMG bunkers and mortar pits to support the big guns. TTFN

Ship shape

2011-07-16T21:44:00.006+01:00

First I must apologies for the rubbish pictures, taken in a rush on Friday morning before work. Found this ship in Poundland for yes just £1. I have plans for building a 15mm scale landing force with landing craft, storm boats and supporting motor torpedo type boats, with some sort of tramp steamer type civilian transport ship. The idea is that the ships will be generic and will be usable for Allied or Axis forces by just changing flags and funnels on the ships. Top picture shows the graphics on the pack, the are several different types of ships, the next one shows all the items striped from the ship. The bottom picture shows the ship hull next to an Airfix pontoon from their Bailey bridge set which will be used to create a landing barge. The is also a 15mm Peter Pig figure on the hull to show scale. So for just one pound I have got a ready to go hull.

Coastal Battery stage 3

2011-07-03T18:31:00.008+01:00

Steady progress on the coastal gun battery, pictures showing the battery with the roof on and also the application of the filler to build up the ground level. I've used a water bottle cap for the observation post on the roof of the battery. Got lots of these in my stock pile of bits and bobs and have been planing to use them for this type of project for ages. So nice to final get one into a live project. Other shots show the pva and sand after application. TTFN

Coastal Battery stage 2

2011-06-28T21:40:00.004+01:00

I've started to fit the bits together for the coastal battery. The pictures show the construction of the gun turret and how the guns can be traversed from left to right, and also illustrates how the two cardboard tubes work inside each other. Two stones from the back garden are used on both side of the bunker and in filled with filler. More updates to follow.

3mm fall of shot markers

2011-06-12T21:03:00.007+01:00

A post on my experimentation in the smaller end of the scale world, I'm looking at creating some fall of shot markers for my intended forces in 3/2mm scale. In a £1.99 packet of pipe cleaners, you get about 75 per pack, I found them in a traditional old tobacconist shop in Birmingham, I have seen some in Hobby craft but they did not look to me like the old traditional pip cleaners I remember my Grandfather using. More like mini toilet brushes. the ones I found have the nice uneven texture, they do come in a number of colours, some off white other more pure white. The top picture has a selection of some of my reference picture grouped together, the bottom 2 show a test explosion, no base work or painting just the bare pipe cleaners, using about 4-5 to create this effect, will experiment further with painting and glue combinations. double click on the pictures for bigger versions.

Coastal gun battery

2011-06-07T22:19:00.005+01:00

So here we have all the bits of the gun battery put together, nothing stuck together yet, so things may change a bit in the final version. The top two pictures show the bunker with the roof of, exposing the workings of the turret, the key thing is to find 2 cardboard tubes that slip into each other, quite close fitting is the best. This will allow the guns to traverse left to right once the roof is glued into position securing the outer tube and leaving the inner one with the guns glued in position free to rotate.

WIP "Can you guess what it is yet"

2011-05-22T21:08:00.002+01:00

First photo of my next project, most of the main elements are here. The two big tubes are a bit of a red herring, only about 40mm in length will be used in the final construction. Just to give you all a bit of a hand, should you need it, check out the link. Some great photos there.

Till next time.

A Big Thanks Dinium

2011-05-13T20:40:00.010+01:00

A big thanks to Dinium for nominating me for the Stylish Blogger Award. Check his blog out, the best painting out there bar none. So here goes nothing then. Seven things about me you would never know without this SBA thing.

1. Carol Decker from T'Pau was in my year at art collage

2. Having a 16 year old daughter keeps my musical tastes current, The xx and Hurts, funny they both sound quite 80's like.

3. Its take me 4 years to nearly finish updating our bathroom, nearly being the key word!

4. In the mad bad 1980's I was in a convoy of 9 stretched limos that took the Advertising agency I was working for at the time to our Christmas staff party, down Regents street and through central London. The rest of the day was a bit of a blur.

5. I'm dyslexic.

6. I'm a cat man, we have a Norwegian forest cat, from Wales, called Pablo.

7. I did a sponsored parachute jump in the 1990's and loved it so much, I got back in the plane and paid for a second jump.

My list of my nominations in no particular order, and I'm sure some of them will have been nominated by others.

Paintingshed Great AWI painting and brilliant 1/300 Napolionics with some very good home grown rules.

troopofshewe More tanks/vehicles than you can shake a stick at. Great painting and weathering.

dampfpanzerwagon Top modeling and buildings with lots of great inspiration.

harness-and-array and je-lay-emprins great blogs both from Painterman with men in tights and sallets,

littletinmen Late Romans & D-Day great painting and lots of information

sidneyroundwood The best WW1 terrain I've ever seen.

The are lots of other blogs that I visit on a regular basis Matakishi's tea house, Tarleton's Quarter, Iron mitten, Carmens fun painty time are all outstanding examples of how to do it and I'm sure have all been nominated.

Fingers crossed that Blogger has recovered from its earlier problems, and this all makes it onto the web.

Barn & DFS 230

2011-05-10T20:46:00.005+01:00

Nearly finished, just need to tidy up the glider bits by painting the edges of the wings and other areas where the scoring of the card cut though and exposed the white card under the printing. I'll also do a bit more dry brushing on the roof tiles and the wooden door and roof beams. I'm pleased with how this has turned out, still undecided how or if to represent the 2 olive trees that have just removed the gliders wings other than the two tree stumps on the main base. 3 more to go and the fleet will be finished. Till next time.

DFS 230 progress pictures

2011-04-29T21:13:00.004+01:00

Some progress pictures of the DFS 230 and stone barn combination. the first picture shows the main base along with the two bases for the severed wing sections which have been covered with PVA glue and sand, along with some small areas of stones. This picture also shows the frame work of the roof of the barn made from cocktail sticks cut down and shaped with a craft knife, to give them a rustic look.

DFS 230's dramatic entrance

2011-04-23T07:34:00.006+01:00

Some quick progress shots of the DFS and stone barn combination, testing out the position of all the elements going onto the base and making sure they all fit on. The idea is that the DFS nose has directly hit the window in the side of the bard and as the building is old the impact has brought down the hole side of the building and half of the roof.

The aim is to get the bulk of the DFS's finished this next week, so fingers crossed. Have a good Easter and lets hope the sun keeps shining.

DFS's dramatic arrival

2011-04-20T20:15:00.005+01:00

Moving along with the DFS production line this time, this is the most involved and complicated of all the glider bases. The idea behind this base is to represent what has happened to one of the attacking German gliders when a 6 is throw for its landing.

Don't ask me why but I just got the idea in my head of Private Godfrey of the Somali land home guard, tripping over while carrying the sections lewis gun to it firing position, letting of a few random rounds, and by shear luck severing the control cables of the doomed DFS 230 swooping over head. It pitches right into a rustic stone building/barn with the nose going through the side window, after having both wings severed by some conveniently positioned olive trees, and as the roof collapses in on to the glider, the doors of the building blow out.

The top picture shows the various elements laid out, the 2 black dots on the CD show the position of the two olive trees. The stone building is built from foam core covered with fine stones from a fish tank, small size and nicely rounded. The roof beams were made from cut down cocktail sticks. as was the door frame and the window lintel. The middle shows the building in more detail.

*Just to say my Private Godfrey is part of my revised version of the renowned fighting unit that was Warmington on Sea home Guard. My version is made up of UK expats who are based in British Somali land but still determined to do their bit for the Empire.

DFS, we have lift of

2011-04-01T21:29:00.007+01:00

Slow but steady progress on the DFS fleet, hindered by work being mad at the moment and a big DIY project on going at home. The pictures above show the flying DFS in position on its base. swooping in over the heads of the startled enemy. Still needs to be painted to cover up the white lines where the card is cut during construction, and to be dust and dirtied it up a bit.

The second from bottom picture shows the end of the wing on the tree top, still open and yet to be glued shut. The bottom picture shows the splint of art board bound to the two wires sticking out of the top of the olive tree and bound into position with masking tape, then covered in PVA glue to hold it firm. The art board splint goes three quarters of the way up the inside of the wing, to prevent the wing sagging over time and make it more resistant to damage.

I had my annual day out at the WMMShow in Wolverhampton in early March and purchase the bulk of my German paratroops from Mr Pig, also got some more Japanese and made a start on my Vietnam forces. Also a box of Valiant late war Germans. So a good start to the year on the Wargaming front. Even if my post count is a bit rubbish so far this year. One the Bathroom is sorted out hopefully thing will pick up latter in the year.

To finish of with a tip for those of you looking for expanded polystyrene to use in your terrain project, my local Home base DIY store is giving away polystyrene for free as you leave the store to use in plant pots. till next time.

DFS production line

2011-03-06T08:47:00.008Z

Slow but steady progress on the DFS front. Thought I should post some update pictures from the factory floor, all of the basic construction of the six gliders is nearly complete, just need to finish of the skids, wing struts and the tail skids, then its onto painting them up.

Top picture shows all of the fleet in repose. Bottom left are the three which will be landed/landing. The middle one will be the in flight model. The other two have the doors open, for disembarkation of the fascist horde.

Second picture shows the base finished for the in-flight DFS 230.

Third picture gives a close up view of the open doors of the two landed models, quite easy to do with a sharp scalpel, just need to be careful when sticking them together.

Fourth picture shows the two crashed gliders A and B. C is a wine foil wing to be used as a crumpled wing on one of these models. Not sure yet what will be the final state of these two. One thought involves a shepherds stone hut coming into contact with the front of one of the gliders. When looking at some reference pictures of crashed DFS's, once the structural integrity is gone, they do seam to resemble a pile of sticks and canvas. So will have to see what I can come up with in that line.

The last picture is a three quarter angle shot of the two crashed gliders, the basic thought with these two, is that one will be survivable to crew and occupants on the throw of a dice and the other not. Well onwards and upwards as they say.

Flying DFS base

2011-02-20T22:19:00.005Z

More work on the base for the flying DFS glider, following on from the picture at the bottom of the last post. Built up the ground with poundland filler and then PVA glue and sand with some strategically positioned granite chipping's as rocks. Then match pot paints in the usual three shades. Progress is being made on the other 5 gliders, but no pictures at the moment.

DFS in flight

2011-02-12T20:28:00.009Z

I have moved onto the next DFS 230 this one is going to be in its final approach to landing, swooping in over the sun bleach terrain of Crete/East/North - Africa. The basic idea came to me after making up the first of my 6 DFS's. The model being made from card is very light. So the idea of showing a glider coming in to land popped into my head. The wing tip of the glider would be show just clipping an olive tree, this is the point where the glider is secured to the base, made from a mini CD.

The first picture shows the tree/grape stem with wire wound around the trunk of the tree and shaped into a loop to be glued to the base.

The second picture shows the tree and wire on the CD base and the small square of card glued into place to cover the hole in the middle of the CD. This picture also shows the wire and grape stem covered in masking tape to create the tree trunk. I cut the masking tape into thin strips, to make it easier to wind them around the trunk.

The next picture shows the wire hot glued onto the CD base.

The 4th picture shows a DFS wing blue-tack into position to give an idea of how the model will be fixed to the base. The two strands of wire sticking out of the top of the olive tree will be inserted into the wing. The last picture shows the base with a selection of sand grit and stones ready to be glued into position.

Finished radio station

2011-02-07T21:25:00.003Z

The Hawaiian camper van is transformed into a WW2 radio station. Radio Il Duce East Africa, or alternatively BBC radio Asmara. The satelight dish is free standing and can be added in to move the bunker a current location in the middle east. The antenna are made from paper clip wire, glued into cotton bud plastic tubes, with a selection of beads to add detail. The satelight dish stands on a based made from a DIY tile spacer.

The first DFS 230 finished

2011-02-06T17:19:00.005Z

The first of my DFS 230's is finished, only five more to go. I've done this one as a strait in landed type with no real customising other than one of the wing earilons in the down position, and also one of the tail flaps down, quite a bit of additional painting onto the base model. Trying to give it the look of a glider that had taken off in a dust storm and just landed in a great cloud of dust and sand. The base is from a mini CD, 80mm in diameter, 4 for a £1 in, yes you guest it, poundland.

DFS / Radio station update

2011-01-24T21:26:00.003Z

Just a quick update on the DFS project and the radio station, the top picture shows the radio station with the first base colour on the ground work and the radio shack in Russian ww2 green base coat. I paint all the ground work on my terrain projects with the same three match pots working from a biscuit brow through to a magnolia white in the top layers.

The picture of the DFS model shows it having its left wing glued on with PVA and some blue tack to keep the wing in place while the glue sets. The picture also shows the flap on the wing has been cut and scored so it can be positioned in the down position.

Communications bunker

2011-01-13T21:13:00.006Z

My last few posts have been focused on the aviation side of my current projects, so this time back to a more terrain based projects. This communications bunker/hut/shed thing? not sure what it should be called really, is built around a camper van which come in a set of three vehicles bought (£1.69p) because it included a OH-6 Loch Helicopter which I can use for my 15mm Vietnam project. See my post from November 26th LINK for a picture of the camper van in all its glory and original packaging. As I said in that post, the van did go in the bin, only for me to fish it out, after having second thoughts.

The ground work was built up with scrap foam board, which was then covered with polyfilla, pva glue, sand and small rocks. The entrance to the bunker has coffee stick duck boards and the supports for the trench walls are made from cut down cable ties, which have some nice detail on, which should dry brush up well. Cut of the top of one of the cable ties and stuck it on the top of the van, to add a bit of detail. The aerials are from paper clip wire in cotton bud tubes.

I'll also build a free standing satellite dish, so it can be used in a WW2 or more modern setting.

FREE - DFS 230 glider

2011-01-11T21:42:00.007Z

My regular reader will know I'm a big fan of free stuff, I down loaded a 15mm scale card model of the German DFS - 230 glider from the Flames of war web site quite some time ago, in fact so long ago that you didn't have to register at the time. If I remember correctly the was also an article about making one from solid balsa wood also on the site.

My WW2 15mm forces will include a German Parachute Sturmregiment, to be bought from Mr Pig at this years Alumwell WMMS show on 13th March, to help support the Italian in their ambitions in East Africa. I've based their organisation on the excellent Rapid Fire rules Maleme airfield pdf info sheet link.

I aim to do quite a bit of additional painting to the models once built, firstly to cover up the white lines on the model where you have to score the card to fold it, I also intent to make some of the six in varies states of crash landing and shot down.

Happy Christmas

2010-12-25T14:57:00.001Z

Just a quick Happy Christmas from all in Airhead land to you all out there on the wwweb. Have a good time and all the best for 2011.

Mission accomplished and then some

2010-12-05T21:37:00.007Z

First things first, I went back to the original B&M bargains store on my way home from work and there were still some of the original packs on the shelfs, so mission accomplished. The following weekend at the Local B&M store to my home, just taking a quick look around and there in front of me was a tube of no less than 5 loach's for the mind blowing cost of £1.99, yup 38p each.

This was just to good to pass up. These models are different in construction to the original three bound for my Air cavalry in Nam. These new ones tail sections are made from plastic and are joined to the metal body work half way to the tail. The is no tail rotter modeled on this version. Also the main rotter blades are quite a bit shorter than on the original models.

The idea with these new ones will be to build an Israeli special forces team including a tank hunting team of MD-5oo. This will involve some re-building of the tail section and the addition of some TOW rocket tubes and optical tracking gear. The two with the Blue glass canopies are destined to meet a more dramatic end in combination with a SA-7.

Nam OH-6 Loach

2010-11-21T09:00:00.008Z

Spending some time in my local B&M bargains store on the look out for targets of wargaming interest and came across this pack of 3 vehicles for the princely sum of £1.69p, and there it was, a Loach OH-6. To good to miss. When I got the pack back home the 2 vehicles went strait in the bin, a note of warning here, I later fished out the camper van from the bin, after the thought that the body work on the back could make a useful pre-fabricated building for my yet to be built fire base.

On closer inspection of the OH-6 the skids had been put on backwards, but I was able to pries apart the 2 half's of the body by putting a small screw driver up the engine jet pipe. This has opened up the option of not only painting the inside of the cockpit but also perhaps using the Peter Pig Hue crew, and put some additional detail in the cockpit.

In the bottom picture I've put a steel ruler in the shot for people who are interested in the exact scale of the model. For people like myself who have a more relaxed attitude to the exact scale of things I've put a Peter Pig 15mm scale 8th army figure in the picture. Looks to me just slightly over scale, but not by much. Next mission is to go and find some more, 2 should do it.

The big Green wood

2010-11-14T21:25:00.006Z

I have finally started to put some foliage onto the polystyrene former that creates the body of the trees. For this I use Woodland Scenics bushes Medium green and Forest green. I start by building up the foliage around the top of the trunks and the cardboard base that the polystyrene former sits on. Then working upwards in a more random way to try and make the two types of foliage create the impression of different types of trees growing together. It seems to be working out quite well at the moment. Its quite time consuming and at the moment I'm lucky to spend more than ten minutes a day on it.

Big Wood construction

2010-11-10T21:29:00.001Z

Just found this picture on my computer which helps to show the construction of my big woods, up to the point at which the polystyrene former is added to the top.

Blast from the past BIG WOOD 3

2010-11-10T21:15:00.005Z

March last year was my last post on the big big woods, so with lightning speed we move on to the next stage. Large blocks of polystyrene are cut down to fit the cardboard outline shape which has been hot glued onto the top of the toilet roll tubes and twig tree trunks. Lots of PVA glue to hold it in place. Once dry I start to shape the polystyrene by hand nibbling it away to create more tree like shapes. One happy with the general outline I then under coat it with black acrylic paint, to help cover up any bits that I miss with the clump foliage.

The machine finished

2010-10-31T19:37:00.005Z

The finished machine, painted and with the base terrain finished, probable part of some grandiose scheme to build a power station in the middle of the desert, but never got past the docks/railway station. Ideal cover for an infantry section. Quite pleased with how this turned out. Got the pack of 4 mini CD's from pound land so three left to use.

Still here

2010-10-31T18:42:00.004Z

Things have been a bit frantic at work for a long time and no sign of things slacking of soon, also in the middle of a big DIY project at home which is eating up most of my time at the moment. So a couple of posts to keep the stats respectable, on the count front. This is an example of how I'm always on the lookout for things I come across to use for my terrain projects. This is the end off a roller blind, the bit that pushes into the end of the metal tube the blind come on. Its mounted onto a small CD base with sand and small rocks and a card and cocktail stick base, its had some additional bits added with the blue tubes coming from cotton buds (q tips). The idea was that it would represent a large pice of industrial machinery that has been left standing for some time and could be used for cover.

3mm Village

2010-09-19T21:54:00.006+01:00

Progress on the 3mm test village using the downloaded pdfs, I painted the ground and dry brushed with a light brown, ran some PVA glue up the roads and ran a small stick up and down to create some ruts in them, it worked quite well. Trees from dried out grape stems and small clumps of foliage. I toned down some of the buildings with some ink washes. The bottom picture shows some 2mm Irregular figures for a scale comparison. The two units close together are cavalry the single units is an infantry stand. Lots of food for thought with this small diversion into 3mm scale. Next up a destroyed village.

Small is beautiful 3mm scale

2010-09-12T21:42:00.005+01:00

While looking at using some 6mm scale buildings to up scale to use with my 10mm FPW/WW1 armies it also struck me that you could take the 1/300 - 6mm scale buildings the other way and reduce them down to 3mm scale to use with my planned German/Russian WW2 armies for the eastern front campaign for 1943. The buildings are based on a 3 inch square piece of art board with some sand PVD's to the base. These buildings were printed onto paper, but for the real thing I'll use card to make them that bit more robust. 2p coin to give some idea of the scale. A big thanks to Ian H & Gupiao & Ludger Fisher for all the great buldings from their web sites. The buildings above are from Gupiao's site but I have Ian H's and Ludgers buildings ready to use. The top picture shows the GHQ 1/300 scale building enlarged to use with 10mm scale figures. The idea for the 3mm forces would be to use the BKC rules and the terrain to be all based on a single base board

ALR Station-WIP

2010-08-30T20:36:00.005+01:00

Some WIP pictures of the ALR station and engine shed, or Asmara Light Railway engine shed number 3, the cinzano advert is from the Rapid Fire web site printed out at a seduced size for 15mm scale, ground work still needs to be painted. Also need to make up some posters and a sign to go on the station building. Also need to put some posts in position to support the station veranda roof.

Free buildings

2010-08-19T20:58:00.006+01:00

I have been interested in 1/300 micro armour since the late 1970's and over the years have had a number of armies, my current area of interest is the 1973 Arab Israeli conflict. While looking at various micro armour website I came to the GHQ figures free down loadable 1/300 card buildings. Not suitable for my middle east based interests but printed out at the right size very useful for my 10mm projects on the Franco Prussian war and early period WW1 armies. The models are based on the Dutch village/town of Borkel en shaft as well as Eindhoven. Ok its not Belgium, but with apologise to any Dutch or Belgian readers I may have, its near enough for my purpose's.

The top picture shows a close up of one of the buildings in the process of being built, once I down loaded the PDF's I copy and pasted the various section of the buildings, so that instead of having just one building per sheet I had a number of the same building on the same sheet. They were then printed out onto A3 sheets of card. You will need to have Adobe acrobat professional to be able to do this. You need to scrol down to the bottom of the page to come to the building pdf's.

Link to buildings

The bits box

2010-08-15T17:51:00.003+01:00

Thought some of you might be interested in the contents of my bits box, I always keep my eyes pealed for anything which I can use for my terrain projects, and having two laddies in the house hold the is never a shortage of shoe boxes to store my raw materials in. Quite a lot of the above stuff is old bottle/coffee cup/peanut butter bottles lids. Also at least four floss holders. The silver stuff in the zip lock bag bottom left is pan scouring pads which are great for making barbed wire in a number of scales.

ALR - WIP

2010-08-12T22:22:00.004+01:00

Just a quick update on the Asmara Light Railway (ALR) station and engine shed, showing the windows cut out of the card mounted graph paper. Above the windows is some card with a dark blue to light blue drift created using coloured pencils. The window frames will now be stuck onto the card. Thus making a much simpler job of creating the windows and no tricky painting around the frames.

Small - rock outcrop

2010-07-29T20:56:00.009+01:00

A selection of pictures showing the construction of a small rock outcrop based on an old CD. The top picture shows the small bit of cardboard used to cover the hole in the middle of the CD, and the small bits of slate picked up from the garden glued into position. The next couple of pictures show the base being built up with poundland filler and PVA glue and sand. Next up the base is undercoated with black matt spray paint, then the final picture shows the small rock outcrop next to one of my bigger hills with its fist coat of paint from one of my trusty match pots. The next stages will be to add some small trees and shrubs and dry grass to the base.

ALR station WIP

2010-07-21T13:37:00.006+01:00

Some WIP pictures of the ALR (Asmara Light Railway) station and engine shed. The bottom two pictures also show an idea I had about making windows, and how to make the process less painful and more symmetrical. I down loaded a free pdf of some graph paper of the Internet and printed it out onto some light card, 160 gsm weight. Then measuring the space on the building where the door and window is to fit, its straight forward to draw them up. I then glue the graph paper onto another sheet of 160 gsm card let it dry then trim out using a new scalpel blade, then glue onto another sheet of card to give the depth to the door and window frames. Not sure if this method has been posted on the web before, I'm sure it must have been somewhere. More pictures to follow as the station and shed are painted. Trusty peter pig 8th army chap in 15mm scale to give some idea of the size of the buildings.

The Tao of my terrain

2010-07-07T11:04:00.005+01:00

No picture in this post! Just some general ramblings about my terrain projects and the thought behind them and some of the guiding principles that direct what I make and how I make it.

I thought it might be an idea to outline the guiding philosophy I use to organise and plan my terrain, I have started with the main constrain of space, I only have an area of 5x4 feet maximum for my terrain to be laid out on, I have a wide range of Historic interests and areas where I intend to build up forces. So the terrain has to be generic enough to be usable in as wide a range of historic and geographic locations as possible.

My first key decision was that the base terrain boards would be flat with no terrain sculpted into or onto them. All the features would have to be free standing and based as individual items. My main reason for this decision was that I could now use both sides of the main 2x2 foot boards, with one side being North European type ground (green) and the other side being Mediterranean/North African (sand) type colouring. so four boards rather than eight.

Along with the main 2x2 foot boards I will also have some 1x2 board which will be used to construct things like Rivers and Coast Lines. When an element of sculpting into the boards is essential.

Taking the basic 2x2 foot board as a starting point I divided the boards into a grid of 3x3 inch squares. So my smallest buildings are on 3x3 inches square base boards, mid size building on 6x6 inch squares and combinations of multiples of 3 inches. The buildings on the 3x3 inch squares are ones which are used in close proximity to other buildings, requiring a close fit. All other buildings or terrain features are based on old CD's, or multiples of.

The next point for me to decide on after the size of the main boards, was the colour of the base boards, both the European and Middle east board use the same basic set of colours. Lime stone with a hint of Cotswold stone. Now I know that the soil in most of south Vietnam is reddish in appearance, but I'm quite happy to go with the soft sand beige colour for my particular part of south Vietnam. This also makes things easier when basing my figures, having just the one basic colour pallet to work with.

I am aiming to produce terrain which is gaming friendly, robust and easily stored, but also attractive to look at, and as accurate as I can make it, within my own requirements. A good example of this is the different elements which are going into my WW2 Italian/British East African provincial capital in 15mm scale. Some but not all of the buildings will also be used in my British Malayan WW2 set up and also in South Vietnamese, and could be used in my colonial ventures as well.

The are some areas where I will produce be-spoke terrain, such as my Blitz Freeze project for E-front winter terrain in 10mm. I also have plans for my WW2 and Ancient naval forces to have specific shore line terrine features created to go with the dark blue clothe that I use for the sea. I have also got a rough outline of some a terrain board to use with a WW2 E-front Kursk type set up in 2mm scale.

Hope you find the above of some interest, back to normal service with some new pictures next time.

Tao

ASMARA to date

2010-06-28T19:40:00.008+01:00

Just a quick update with some pictures of the 15mm scale town as it stands at the moment, next up to finish off is the old town buildings top left and then the naval HQ building bottom right. Then perhaps moving on to the port area with some simple wear-houses. Not bad going for 6 months into the year on this project bearing in mind my diversions into other areas. Just to let you know my version of Asmara is on the coast and does have a port unlike its names sake in modern Eritrea.

ALR - The Red train

2010-06-27T20:54:00.005+01:00

The Asmara Light Railway hits the tracks, the top picture shows a peter pig 8th army infantryman for scale comparison, tried to achieve a well used dusty look to the rolling stock, added a tin foil tarpaulin to the tender. Next on the to do list is a small station and engine shed.

Not bad for £3.49p. Would work equally well for any colonial, wild west or even WW2 set up.

ALR - Asmara light railway

2010-06-20T10:09:00.008+01:00

A great find in a cheap shop in the new street station shopping arcade in Birmingham (gizmo or something like that), only £3.49p, just the right size to go with 15mm figures. Has a very wild west look about it to me. But should be at home as a small colonial era type local rail set up. So the Asmara Light Railway is born. Quite a lot of raised detail in the models, so should paint up quite well with some dry brushing. I'll snip of the winding handle on the right hand side of the train. I'll have to have a think about the track that came with the train and see if it can be used.

Painted Fish Smoking Factory

2010-06-05T21:39:00.006+01:00

I have painted the factory in the same colours as the Fish market, I still need to add some flock to the base and some shrubs, I also need to come up with some sort of sign to go on the building.
Pleased with how to painting has come out. I'll do a group shot of the buildings I've done so fare for the WW2 Italian colonial town that all these buildings are destined for.

Fish smoking factory WIP

2010-06-05T21:12:00.005+01:00

My version of a total made up in my head idea of what a factory for producing smoked fish would look like, no research at all. To go with the fish market. The spark for this idea was a tube of lemon sherbet, which in my youth was closed at the top with a twist of paper. The modern version has a plastic cap. Which gave me the idea of using it for the body of the boiler at the back of the factory. Pipes going into the roof are plastic tubes from cotton buds. The rest of the building was made from a selection of different sorts of card stock.

I've updated my settings on the blog this time, so all comments will be moderated in future.

Fiat petrol station

2010-05-27T18:17:00.008+01:00

The petrol station has finally got some paint on it, still need to tidy up some of the joints, just wipe some filler down them. I used some prints of pre war Italian motoring posters from the web to liven it up a bit. Still need to finish painting the petrol pumps, made from beads and plastic tubes with wire from a paper clip supper glued down the middle to keep it all in place. Worked out well in the end, not an identical copy of the original, but in the spirit of, as they say. Will finish of the painting about 80% there, just need to put a bit more detail in. Original post was back in December last year under plans for 2010, with a link to the real life version of this model. I just love it when a plan works.

Blitz - Freeze Snow 2

2010-05-19T21:05:00.005+01:00

The snowing up of terrain sample two, lots more bits and bobs on this test piece, burnt out house, small stream, shell holes, barbed wire, bunker and bridge. Barbed wire was made from wire pan scrubber, bedded into PVA glue. No white spray paint first on this one. Just strait into applying the snow gunk with a brush direct onto the terrain. The spray white flattened out the contrast in the colour of the terrain on the first test piece. Applying the snow direct onto the terrain keeps the contrast stronger. Works better for me. I may use the white spray paint on some trees in future, before they are positioned on the terrain. This second test confirms the original idea that the terrain will be produced as partially thawed, with areas of snow and areas of thawed ground. Rather than a totally white arctic type layout.

The Fish Market

2010-05-02T22:27:00.008+01:00

A long story - cut short, plastic fish for fish sauce from a Sushi pre packed lunch. It was just crying out to be used in some type of terrain project. Then it come to me in a flash of inspiration, Mussolini's famous attempt at cornering the world pilchards market in the late 1920's with the building of a fleet of ocean going pilchard boats and the construction of a number of on shore facilities to support the fleet, located around the Italian empire, including Fish Markets, Smoking houses and freezing plants. However the wall St crash of 1929 resulted in the bottom falling out of the market, and the infrastructure fell into disrepair.

All of the above may or may not be true, the plastic fish however lives on.

The market was built from foam core card for the concrete base, plastic sprue from an aircraft kit for the cast iron support posts, hot glued into position, card for the roof and the freezer store room, I hand painted the fish advert on the freezer room. Next project is the smoke house, which will involve a tube of lemon sherbet.

Blitz - Freeze Terrain test two mid-way

2010-04-25T21:41:00.006+01:00

A selection of pictures of terrain test two for the Blitz Freeze project, 6 inches square, showing the burnt out house, dugout with sand bags and barbed wire, plowed field. and shell holes. The next stage will be to obscure all the details with snow. The barbed wire was made from pan scouring wire glued on with PVA. The plowed field was PVA glue put on in heavy lines and left to dry. The dugout is sized to take a 1p coin which I use for basing my 10mm figures on.

Blitz Freeze - The Snow

2010-04-16T22:39:00.006+01:00

The original ground test 6 inch square terrain board with the snow added, I first sprayed the board with matt white spray paint, this was not as successful as I had hoped it would be, it tended to flatten out the look of the terrain. I made the snow from a mixture of pound land filler, matt white emulsion paint and PVA glue. This was applied with an old paint brush. This worked quite well, I will play around with the mixture of the paint, filler, PVA combination, after taking these pictures I added quite a bit of dry brushing with dark brown earth colour. When making this terrain tile I got so far and was tempted to give up, but kept going, and in the end it worked out quite well. More pictures to follow.

Blitz Freeze - Ground work test two

2010-04-16T21:50:00.006+01:00

Ground test two, for the Blitz Freeze project. This time with a destroyed house, shell holes, dugout and small river. I'll paint this one with the same base colours as the original board but this time I'll paint on the snow instead of using spray paint. I still need to make some sand bags to go around the dugout, which was cut out to fit a 1p coin which I use for basing my troops. I also want to add some small bushes and hedges.

Small House in 15mm Scale

2010-04-08T22:31:00.004+01:00

A small house based on the free Vietnam building plans from Wargames Illustrated, I've added some window sills and door lintels and also some supporting buttresses. The building is made from 5mm foam core board and the roof is from the usual G.F.Smith colour flute card, but this time cut into strips then stuck to a card board base to create the look of terracotta tiled roof. I just need to liven it up with some signs and posters, check out this link from the Rapid Fire site for some great Italian signs and general posters. Just need to print them out at the right size for 15mm scale.

Blitz Freeze - Ground work

2010-04-07T09:00:00.006+01:00

I've made a start on some test pieces of ground, 6 inches square based on foam board, a quick trip to Wilkinsons and I got three tester pots of their emulsion paints. You can see the pots in the top two pictures. The paint I bought was Java Bean Emulsion, Nutmeg Spice Matt Emulsion, Chocolate Dream Matt Emulsion. All Wilko own brand, 87p per pot. I was a bit worried that the Java Bean would not be matt as the was no mention of Matt on the pot. But after using it it dried perfectly matt. The top picture showes the ground work with small stones and sand and PVA applied. The green flock which was used was quite a bright green when applied but with some dry brushing of the Java Bean it blended in very well. The second picture shows a Pendraken BT7 in 10mm scale, to give some idea of scale. The next step will be to cover it all up with snow!!

Blitz Freeze - Battle of Moscow game

2010-03-26T23:56:00.002Z

While looking for inspiration on the web for my Blitz Freeze project I found a link to this board game by Frank Chadwick, The Battle for Moscow. A great game with all the information, rules, map and counters required.

With any of my projects I always try to approach them from as wide an angle as possible, for example with my British/Italian ww2 project, Battle Front release a Tobruk based board game, which I will use as a basis to build a campaign on. I have also sourced a set of simple Naval rules which I can use to game the Navel aspect's of the campaign.

The Prison

2010-03-26T22:48:00.004Z

A small prison based on one of the free Wargames Illustrated Vietnam building plans from the February issue. Corrugated iron roof from the ever useful G.F.Smith colour flute ribbed card range. I painted the roof olive green, and to add some interest decided to give the roof a hole, so some tarpaulin and some planks and a rock to stop the rain getting in. Also painted PVA glue onto the walls and then in a very controlled way scattered sand on, to give a rough texture to the walls. I think it worked out quite well. It also helped when I dry brushed the paint onto the walls. I have skillfully managed not to photograph the side of the building with the window, but a quick and easy way to put some bars in the window is to push a cocktail stick through the foam core board and trim it of flush to the top of the wall. I just need to do some research on some signs and posters to go on the walls.

And finally a big Hello to Doc Simian my 50th follower.

Blitz Freeze Update

2010-03-25T20:02:00.004Z

Just a quick update on the Blitz Freeze project. I've been some what preoccupied with my North African city building project for most of this year to date. With the heavy snow this winter also having a strange disincentive to do any real work on this project.

However last weekend was my annual day pass out to the WMMS show in Alumwell, Wolverhampton. A great local show in a good venue. Some nice games on show and lots of temptation from the traders, Mr Pig got his usual wedge from me in exchange for some great little light tanks, a type 92 for my Japanese and a Mk IV for the brits, also the rest of my Japanese naval infantry, Home Guard and Nuns. Also from QRF some civilian cars and a Fiat van.

But more to the point Pendraken where there with there ever expanding stand. So I got some Russian BT7's and German Marder II's. I'm planning on adding on lots of extra detailing to the models like jerry cans, rope, boxes and general bits and bobs. The idea is to base all the vehicles, so the next thought was I need to select some colours for the terrain which I can then also use on the vehicle bases. So a quick trip to Wilkinson's has resulted in three match pots to experiment with. will post some pictures when I some test terrain done. Also bought some matt White spray paint, just the trick for a light dusting of snow.

Light industrial unit

2010-03-25T18:56:00.006Z

Finally got round to painting the small nissan hut type industrial work shop, went for blue in the end. With lots of rust on the dented and corroded bits of the corrugated metal front of the work shop. The only thing left it do is to make up a sign to go over the front door, I was thinking along the line off "A.Tupper & sons." Harking back to my 1960's boyhood.

Hospital and Barracks in 15mm

2010-03-15T20:54:00.007Z

Generic hospital and barrack buildings based up and painted with PVA, sand and small pebbles glued onto the art board bases. The windows have also been re-painted, the are nine pains of glass in each window, the two top rows of three pains each were painted light blue, the middle row mid-blue and the bottom row dark blue. The top two rows then had, a very light blue hi-light across the top and down the right hand side, My wife has just requested that she be include in my life, so hallo to all of you out there in Blog land from Mrs Airhead. Now back to the business in hand. The hospital has had a red cross painted on the roof, interrupted by an air raid, resulting in a mishap with a pot of white paint, I think I got the idea from a model railway layout I saw once. Still to make the ladder which was left on the roof. The stones leading to the doors of each hut have been painted white, to keep the top brass happy. Still need to add some flock and small bushes to the bases, but other wise very happy with these have turned out. So a big thanks to Mr Ebob for some great buildings, see the previous post for the link to download the pdf of these buildings.

eBob barracks

2010-03-07T08:15:00.008Z

The ebob miniatures barracks. I printed out the pdf at 50% size, with a peter pig Italian tank in the foreground for scale, working out quite well so fare, I'll base them up on my usual art board base with sand - pva - granite chippings and same small bits of scrub. I'll also dry brush around the base of the walls. I think the key thing to do, to get them to fit in with the rest of the buildings will be to re-paint the windows. At the moment they are black, I'm looking to paint the windows of all my Asmara buildings to go with my coast watch station and Flying boat station.

Having a real problem with photographing stuff at the moment, dark mornings & evenings, when I mostly have time, is making it really difficult. Things are looking up however. Got home on Friday and It was still day light , just.

One houes two roofs

2010-02-24T21:15:00.004Z

Some WIP pictures of one of my Wargames Illustrated Vietnam buildings, jazzed up a bit with the addition of some window lintels and sills and a door into the yard at the back. alternative roof finishes both provided by G.F.smith colour flute ribbed card. Some foam core used to create some buttresses to support the yard wall. Just shows with some simple additions to a basic building shape it can enhance to good effect. I'm making good progress on the old town tessellating buildings. Just need to sit down and make some decisions regarding colour schemes.

15mm scale Work Shop

2010-02-12T23:07:00.006Z

Some work in progress pictures of a small work shop, made from the ever useful toilet roll centre, the roof is covered with masking tape. A tip picked up from the great Lead Adventure Forum. Works very well in creating a typical 1930's tare paper style roof. The front face of the building is made from colour flute paper from GF smith to give the effect of corrugated iron. The building is based on a 3 inch square base, with PVA glue and sand on. The top picture shows the front with the door in place and the corrugated iron distressed with holes and chunks cut out to represent wear and tear.

Free stuff

2010-02-11T21:54:00.002Z

Just a quick update, extolling the virtues of free stuff on the web, prompted by the last issue of Wargames Illustrated and the Vietnam buildings article. Great buildings, with lots of different uses. Link I've built two of the jails so fare and will be using some of the larger buildings to create the sea front of my WW2 Italian colonial town from N/East Africa.

For the barrack buildings on the airfield and Government buildings Ebob miniatures have a great free to down load range of buildings for their 28mm scale POW game, Scroll down the page to the bottom for the POW camp buildings, which make great 15mm scale barrack blocks if printed out at 50% size of the PDF. Link

Petrol station & Start of the old town

2010-01-31T17:31:00.007Z

Some pictures of the petrol station and the start of the Old town based on the sketches from my last post. Finished the tower on the petrol station and the window on the top floor has the frame finished. Started the old town basing all of the buildings on 3 inch square art board bases with a 1.5 inch squares cut out of one corner of each board to make the tessellating "L" shapes, which fit together well. Trying to make each of the buildings unique to a certain extent.

The old town

2010-01-21T22:38:00.007Z

Sketches used to work out the building of the old section of the town, based on the idea of tessellation, prompted by an article from David Bickley on building terrain boards in Wargames Illustrated many moons ago. The idea was to create an complex street pattern of winding streets. The top sketch also outlines the idea that its possible to create slot in sections to go onto the roofs with satellite dishes, air conditioning units etc... to create a modern day look to the town.

Naval HQ WIP

2010-01-21T22:25:00.004Z

Some WIP photos of the Italian Naval HQ building, based on a 3x6 inch art board base. This building will also be used as a casino the British version of the my African colonial town. Different size tubes used to create the rounded sections of the building. Need to work out how to build the alternative lift of sections of the building, to change its use from HQ to Casino. I'm thinking lots of aerials and communication stuff on the HQ roof, and a small plastic fish from a packet of sushi for the casino.

15mm WIP Pertol station

2010-01-12T21:23:00.005Z

A couple of work in progress pictures of the (futurist) Fiat petrol station from Asmara. Based on the article from the Telegraph magazine. (see previous post) The model is based on a 3x6 inch art board card. The top picture shows the front of the station and the bottom picture the back. Still needs lots doing to it. The two small vertical posts either side of the building in the top picture are the start of the petrol pumps.

Thinking about the idea of the WW2 African Italian colonial town, I've decided to make it usable as a British colonial town as well, looking ahead to a possible future campaign set up. I just need to make sure that I make any overtly Italian/British elements, such as public statues, bill boards stand alone elements, free standing. And keep any building graphics slit 50/50 between the Brits and Italians.

B/F Building sketches

2010-01-03T21:33:00.006Z

Some sketches I've made of Russian style buildings for my Blitz Freeze board, the idea will be that the will be doubles of most buildings so they can be replaced once hit by artillery fire or bombing. the top picture shows one of the terrain tiles which would in this case be 6" square. The trick with this terrain will be to get the snow effect to look believable on the buildings and surrounding terrain.

All the best for 2010

Airhead

15mm Scale village

2009-12-28T21:10:00.012Z

Some pictures of the finished building from my 15/10mm scale village with their base boards attached, they worked out quite well, a couple of pictures showing the buildings together along with one of my French infantry battalions from my War of the Spanish succession forces, to give an idea of the actual size of the buildings.

BF / Background Research

2009-12-27T17:11:00.007Z

Despite the last few weeks of snow and ice in the UK, its not an overly familiar type of weather in the UK so I thought it best to do some research and gather some reference to work from. The are still lots of decisions I have to make about the exact type of terrain its going to be. My initial idea is that the terrain will not be white out 6' of snow all over but a time when snow has fallen and is still around in large quantity's but the are areas of clear ground, where the wind has blown the snow away. Most of the landscape picture are from photography blogs. The vehicle reference came mainly from this modeling site the are some really great models in the gallery giving bags of inspiration. I just down loaded the pictures and printed them out and put them into clear plastic pocket folders.

BF/ Blitz Freez - the idea

2009-12-27T16:50:00.007Z

The idea for my blitz freeze terrain and force has been brewing for the past 12 months, the basic idea is to create a 2' square terrain based around a Russian village in the winter of 1941-42. The terrain will be able to be configured in a wide number of permutations and the will have inter changeable section for replacing buildings with shell damaged and destroyed buildings. The picture above shows a scaled down version of the terrain, each of the light blue squares on the white L shaped sections are 3" square in the full version. The idea of this scaled down version is that I'll use it to plan out the terrain and build it up with modelling clay before creating the final thing.

Plans for 2010

2009-12-15T21:45:00.006Z

I've been planning for next years big project for a while know, based around an Italian colonial town some where in North / East Africa for my 15mm British Italian WW2 forces to fight over. Some of the items on the map have already been produced, the oil storage tank's and the flying boat station and the coast whatch tower will be used in this set up. The hills have also been made.

The Elements that go to make up the town will as much as possible be Generic, so I can use them in other locations and times. For example the bungalows will be used in Vietnam as French colonial buildings.

It all started from a picture of an Italian Futurist petrol station in Asmara, as featured in the Telegraph magazine, strange how these things start out. It looked like something out of flash Gordon. I thought I've just got to build that, and the next thing you know I've drawn out the entire town, including modernist 1930's government buildings.

Well that's the plan, and you know what they say about the best laid plans!

More plans and drawings to follow.

Soft hills finished

2009-12-15T21:14:00.008Z

The soft hills are finished with flock added, shown here with some Italian Peter Pig CV35 Tanks in 15mm scale, to give an idea of size. In the bottom picture you can see the cliff section on the bigger base. This type of soft hills would work well with two interlocking sets of hills with matching cliffs, to create a vale, with steep walls. These hills will work equally well with 28mm scale figures for skirmish games.

15mm Village

2009-12-10T21:23:00.005Z

Some progress on the village, with most of the bases completed, just needing painting up. The middle picture shows the tea leaves PVD'd onto the pan scourer hedges. For the less manicured rural hedges I pulled clumps out of the scourers and glued (PVA) additional bits onto the front and back of the scouring pad to give a more uneven wild look to the hedge. The bottom picture shows the Big house in its formal garden, with most of the painting done, just some details work to do.

15mm Hovels Village

2009-11-29T08:55:00.004Z

This post is really thanks to Mike, and results from a question he put in a comment, asking if I was scratch building all of my terrain. So hello Mike, and the short answer is no. Just most of it. But thanks for prompting me to finaly do somthing with these models.

The Hovels buildings in this post were bought way back when Salute was still in Kennsington town all, and I was a young fresh faced designer working in London. They were bought with the idea of using them as the center of a relatively generic village which would fit a wide range of time frames and locations in 15mm scale. The central main one being 15mm Spanish war of succession. That original idea still stands, the only real change over the years has been the huge increase in range and quality of 10mm figure ranges available. This has lead to some of my periods of interest moving from 15mm over to 10mm, due to the size constraints I work within and also cost. More bang for your buck, as our American cousin's would say.

From my point of view although 15mm scale these buildings are fine for using with 10mm stuff as well. The building come from the Hovels European range and the Rural range, the 5 half timbers houses are still less than £4 each, which to me seems very reasonable. They are all going to be based onto 3x3 inch art board bases, with the Big house going onto a 3x6 inch base for its formal gardens to fit onto. With the houses I also bought a selection of stone walls, fences and stocks, I have an idea they were from Hallmark figures, but I could be wrong. So these will be used on the bases as well.

The big house was put onto a foam board base within the walled garden, all the hedging is from pan scouring pads, cut to shape with a scalpel, the gate posts are plastic sprue from an Airfix 1/24th scale Hurricane. A nice hexagonal shape and the balls on top are from the daughter's bede tin. The formal fountain is a spindle from a boots floss dispenser. When hot gluing this to the base the glue started to pull up when I was moving the glue gun away. I had one of those eureka moments and thought, that kind of looks a bit like a fountain, so there it stands. Water feature number one. I'm sure other people must have done the same, but hay I was quite chuffed with the result.

Roman Watch Tower

2009-11-19T09:55:00.007Z

My final 10mm scale Roman post for a time, pictures of the finished watch tower, painted and flocked, based on the ubiquitous free CD base. Palisade made from coffee sticks, tower and roof from ribbed card.

Thinking ahead to the new year, going to have a bit of a re-jig on the old blog, keeping the terrain emphasis, but with a special terrain project I've been thinking about for a while and also posting more of my troops, in a rather pathetic effort at self motivation. I've been so busy building terrain over the past year, that you would be hard pressed to have a small domestic argument with the finished forces I have at my disposal.

Currently ensconced in the snug world of the 18th coffee house, planning out the grounds of my country house. Till next time.

Roman Temple

2009-11-14T19:45:00.004Z

Two pictures showing the finished temple. Not bad for a deodorant lid and a 25p mini cd. The is a circular plinth inside the temple for a statue to go on. The ivy growing up the right hand side of the building is made up from PVA glue and tea leaves in multiple layers. The flagstones in front of the door is a piece of foam board with the tiles cut in freehand with a scalpel.

The Finished Fort

2009-11-07T09:41:00.005Z

The finished fort, using the wall sections with the addition of corner towers. to create the fort. I'm pleased with how this has turned out. Just need to post some pictures of the finished watch tower and the temple and then I will be moving on from Rome for a time. Perhaps into 17/18th century Europe. However in the back of my mind the are still lurking native villages, civilian settlement for outside the fort walls, and to go with the breached section of wall, an alternative centre for the fort with burnt out buildings. So in time I'm sure I'll be back to Romes northan frontier.

The Wall

2009-11-07T09:29:00.002Z

The wall shown in all its 60cm glory, minus the breached section, with marching camp and WIP watch tower in the background. The watch tower and temple are both finished now, just need to photograph them.

10mm Roman Buildings

2009-11-01T08:03:00.008Z

Pictures of the finished Roman buildings designed to go into the centre of the fort. I always try and add in some final details to what ever I'm building to give it that extra bit of life, if that's the right word. A couple of 15mm metal barrels don't look out of scale, and a couple of vines growing up the garden wall of the tribunes villa.

While looking at a website on Roman Scotland Link I come across a great banner for the Ninth Legion. Great inspiration for some Roman Army sign writing on the Barack blocks.

10mm Roman Watch Tower WIP

2009-10-27T22:00:00.010Z

A Roman watch tower is next on my list of terrain for my Early Imperial Roman forces. Again no overly deep research on my part, other than pictures from the book A Gathering of Eagles, about Romes attempts at conquering Scotland, and a quick look on google pictures.

Top picture shows the watch tower in its current state, still needs the roof to the watch cabin, more ground work, the tower and cabin are made from ribbed black card which makes painting that much easier, and helps to create the wood planking effect. The walls are built from coffee stirring sticks and match sticks.

The middle picture shows the soil walls and the base of the watch tower, after being cut from a large block of polystyrene with a craft knife blade. Sand and PVA glue have been put on the tower base and the inside of the walls. You can see on the outside of the walls the soil block effect cut into the walls with the craft knife.

The bottom picture shows the solid block of polystyrene with the wall and tower base marked on with black pen. It also shows the CD it was based on.

Arthur's Oven

2009-10-27T21:33:00.009Z

Arthur's oven was a Roman temple which stood in Scotland until 1743, when it was destroyed to make a dam for a local iron works. Have a look here for further information LINK it was also featured in the book A Gathering of Eagles. The main part of the building is the lid from a roll on deodorant, with the sky light and door cut out with a sharp scalpel blade. The Stone work was cut into the plastic cap again with the sharp scalpel blade. the top photo shows the cap with the stone work marked on with an indelible pen. The bottom picture shows the temple in position on its base cut from poly board, with the stone flag stones cut into the card, its based on a mini CD 80mm across. The small pieces of polystyrene will be painted to represent natural rock outcrops. The painting of the temple is not finished, its much to orange in colour at the moment.

10/15mm Painting stand

2009-10-25T21:25:00.002Z

A simple stand to keep models free standing when drying during painted. A small block of polystyrene stuck to the underside of a jar lid. I usually super glue my 10/15mm models to galvanised nails to paint them.

Roman Fort WIP

2009-10-13T21:32:00.005+01:00

Two photos showing the Roman fort laid out with all elements in place, two of the three smaller corner towers are still to be finished, and the gats house turret needs undercoating (Humbrol Mat black) and painting. The fort buildings have been stuck onto their base and sand has been PVA'd onto it. No stakes in the defensive ditch yet, I decided it would be simpler to paint the ground work first then insert the stakes (cocktail sticks) and PVA them into the ditch banking.

Roman 10mm Wall section

2009-10-13T21:15:00.006+01:00

Three photos of the Roman 10mm scale breached wall section, the bottom picture showing the wall with towers on each end, the larger one for artillery. The top photo shows the use of cocktail sticks for the defencive stakes, only 36p from Morrisons supermarket, and you get a very useful hexagonal plastic container, which is ideal for making pillboxes from. The photos have come out with the wooden walls looking very blue! they are actually grey. The middle photo shows the back of the wall, with the flock glued on in clumps to help with creating the impression that the wall is made from cut sods of soil.

A Sand Bag (A la Lady Bracknell)

2009-09-27T10:13:00.005+01:00

When making the 10mm scale hay stacks I had opened a pack of air drying clay I bought about 6 months ago, to keep the clay fresh I rapped it in cling film and put it into an air tight chines take out box, but the was quite a bit left over, so rather than let it go off and harden. On the spur of the moment I decided to have a go at some sand bags.

The water tower from my 15mm scale flying boat station was designed to have a sand bag bunker on the top. I rolled the clay out into sausages to the right size and then started to cut them up with a scalpel. It then struck me that rather than cutting right throw the clay, all I need to do was put the blade three quarters of the way through. Creating long lines of sand bags still attached to each other. Ready to use in future.

Finished Hay Stacks 10mm

2009-09-27T09:59:00.005+01:00

The finished hay stacks, with the first completed member of my 1914 BEF forces, on his trusty stead. These were made with air drying clay, I found working the clay quite easy, looking at the finished hay stacks the modeling of the straw could have been finer, perhaps should have used an old scalpel blade rather than a cut down match stick. Generally quite please with how they turned out. Added a lead foil cover to one, to give a covered with a tarpaulin effect.

Roman Fort Buildings

2009-09-27T09:47:00.003+01:00

The buildings for inside the Roman fort, made from heavy card, with the roofs made with ribbed card, which I then ran the back of a scalpel across to create the tile effect. No real in depth research do on the buildings other than having a look on the web. The basic painting is done, just need to detail some areas. I'll base the buildings on a lift out base to go in the fort. Still need to build the walled garden for the Tribunes villa.

Roman fort gate

2009-09-21T21:26:00.004+01:00

Progress on the 10mm Roman fort/wall, with the gate section nearing completion. The top picture shows the gate in position. The bottom picture shows the back of the wall with the steps up to the top of the wall, cut from soil sods. PVA'd with sand on.

Roman 10mm fort

2009-09-06T21:57:00.005+01:00

Two pictures of the fort, the top one showing the breached wall section in position, showing the polystyrene and small stones used to create the breach. The three buildings are shown with the basic paint work done. In the foreground is the barracks block with the stables and workshop building behind it. At the top is the legats villa, still needs the wall around the villa. I think all three buildings will be mounted onto a single lift out base board which will sit within the fort.

Roman 10mm fort

2009-09-01T17:31:00.004+01:00

The 4 wall sections in position as the fort with the addition of the new towers, one much bigger than the other three to act as an artillery support platform. The tower on the front right still needs to have its ditch adding. I'm still working on the construction of the gate area. I found Secundus's blog Iron Mitten a great help. Full of lots of Roman inspiration, and some great fortifications.