Ancient / Medieval village church

The finished small village church/chapel, made from poly board with the outer covering of card mostly removed and the exposed foam scribed with lines to create the exposed stone walls.

The doorway was given some more details to the stone work with a cross above the door. This end of the building was also given some remaining render/plaster, which was give a coating of PVA glue and sharp sand texture.

I added two stone buttresses to each side of the church with two narrow slit windows inside of them. I gave the base of the building a good amount of rough rubble scattered at the bottom of the walls to represent the plaster fallen from the walls. Shown next to the church second picture above is a WIP of one of the smaller peasant dwellings. Next up might be some 15mm WSS figures which have finally got some paint on them after only 20+ years on the to paint shelf.

Stay safe, TTFN Airhead.

Ancient / Medieval village painted

First set of buildings painted, just waiting for finishing touches such as barrels and farming implements to be painted. I’m pleased with how the egg box pulp board has taken the paint and worked well with the dry brushing.

Next up will be some more hut and the Church. Pleased with how the thatched roofs have worked out, the green flock helps a lot with the lived in look. Stay safe till next time TTFN Airhead.

Ancient / Medieval village in 28mm scale

I’m currently working on a medieval Lion Rampant project in tandem with my War of the Roses set of armies. So to give the opposing army’s something to fight over I decided to build a fairly generic village of about half a dozen buildings which will work over as wide a historical time period as I can get away with.

I wanted to include a church among the village buildings, and all the buildings will be thatched. In the past I’ve used towelling to create thatched roofing in 15mm scale, so will do the same again.

The big idea this time is egg boxes! For the life of me I can’t remember where I fist saw this idea. I saw someone using egg box pulp board to create flag stones. An idea which I’ve used in my south European 28mm village. This time I’m going to use the egg box card to clad all the buildings to give the rough appearance of wattle and daube walls once painted and with a bit of dry brushing it should work well.

All the woodwork was made using the classic coffee sticks, the buildings are all based on 2mm plywood, as used in dolls house construction. The basic building shape was made out of card first, then clad in egg box pulp board with the rough side facing out. Next onto the painting.

Until then stay safe TTFN Airhead. 

DBA Persian forces in 15mm

Some of my Essex 15mm scale miniatures ancient forces, who have been with me for a very long time and finally have some paint on them. There Greek foes are still on the paint desk waiting for some shield transfers to be ordered for them.

The aim is to have matching double size forces for BBDBA (Big Battle DBA) so 24 elements per army, for the Greek v Persian wars Of the late 6th century BC.

Still have some details to add, but very Happy with how they have come out looking, considering the age of these Essex figures. Quite a few Persians still to do and also the camps for the two sides as well.

Rich from TFL has recently been making a city wall section with some internal buildings in 28mm scale for his Italian Renaissance Forces’s. Which has got me thinking about what I could produce similar in 15mm for these army’s? I’ll keep you posted on developments.

That’s all for the moment, stay safe folks, all the best

Airhead 

Battlefield scatter in 28mm

More battlefield scatter, this time from Badsquiddogames 28mm resin scenic range. Great value and paints up very nicely.

The two mattresses in the bottom picture were made by me from left over green stuff, you always need mattresses for those impromptu street barricades.

That’s all for now, stay safe Airhead.

Finished Dovecote the two versions

 A quick post to show the finished dovecote, in both versions. 

Very happy with how this has turned out. Below the damaged version, complete with dead dove in the roof space.

That’s all for now folks, stay safe, all the best Airhead.

Scatter terrain items in 28mm

I always aim to create some smaller items for my terrain projects which help to bring the table to life. I have always tried to to look at this aspect of table design from the viewpoint of set dressing in the film industry. Not the focus of the terrain, like the building, but the things between and around them which give  life to the environment.

 First up a pumpkin stem, used as a large tree stump, I think I saw this idea on Tony Harwood’s blog, Dampf’s modelling page, a great blog you should check it out.

A roadside shrine, totally made up, involving no research at all. An old Roman 28mm scale figure from the bits box and poly board and egg box for the stonework and slabs.

The village pump, inspired by a painting from the Franco Prussian war by Edouard derailleur. I’ve made it  smaller than the one in the painting, my water trough is in better shape as well.

Last, some Gabions which I’ve had for well over 10 years, and finally they are finished 

Lastly a group picture showing some of the items together.

That’s all for now stay safe, best regards Airhead 

Dovecote tower in 28mm

I’m trying to give my 28mm scale village as broad a historical sweep as possible, and to help with this I decided to produce a dovecote. To give a hint of a medieval past for the village. I was lucky and had two cardboard tubes, one of which fitted snuggly within the other, this fact is what sparked the idea of having two versions of the dovecote, one pre artillery attention and one post. The idea being the top of the dovecote is an ideal location for a sniper, and when your bazooka team takes him out it would be great to reflect the damage to the dovecote.

To start with some images of the dovecote under construction. I used my usual PVA and sand to texture the outer sleeve of the tower and just did the two inner tubes immediately around the top under the roof line. Stone stairs up to the door were created from expanded polystyrene, again covered with PVA and sand after having the stone blocks carved out with a sharp craft knife.

Next stage was looking at adding some additional rubbish to the base to show the debris blown down from the roof. And you really can’t have a dovecote without doves! So I got some green stuff out and had a go at creating some doves from scratch. They came out ok, but realistically they are the size of small turkeys.

The second photo above shows the sabot base positioned on the main tower base with roof timbers from the blown up roof above. More pictures of the completed dovecote in both its versions to follow soon.

Stay safe out there, TTFN all the best Airhead
  

10mm Work in progress early WW1 and Blitzkrieg period WW2

A few quick photos of some Pendraken 10mm figures from my World War 1 & 2 forces, both early war forces from each conflict. My WW2 forces in 10mm stretch from the Blitz in the west through the hypothetical Operation Sea-lion onto Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union. Not happy with the colour of the Russian T28 yet, needs to be darker I think? But not to dark, difficult balancing act at this scale. People say make it brighter to pop on the table.

More baggage and general clutter to go on the vehicles yet, the Marder II’s are the most finished, they were originally bought for my Blitz freeze project way back in December 2009, test terrain was finished by May the following year. Being mid war vehicle’s they may well get a coat of whitewash for the steps.

Keep checking on the Pendraken forum painting competition thread, you never know they might turn up there.

That’s all for now folks, stay safe, TTFN Airhead

South European Peasant small holding

I wanted to have a couple of sets of buildings that can be used in isolation away from the village, one being the hunting lodge and walled garden the second is this peasant small holding consisting of a small house with accompanying shed and semi fenced enclosure.

I think the two geese are from irregular miniatures purchased many moons ago, finally painted and based. Stay safe TTFN all the best Airhead