Saturday, September 29, 2012

28mm/1:48 Stowage and Baggage

STOWAGE
 Chieftain Models
 Bolt Action
 Company B
 S and S Models


 Skytrex
  20/SP/A03 Assorted stowage strips (12 items) (pack 1)
  20/SP/A02 Track links pack for up-armouring models
  20/SPA/21 Sherman track links 

  SMRA01 Assorted Crates and Boxes (Metal)
  SMRA03 Coils of Wire (Metal)
  SMRA05 Sacks (Metal)
  SMRA52 Assorted Parcels (metal)
  SMRA53 Assorted Suitcases (metal)


 Legend Productions Korea LF4104
     LF4101 
   
 http://www.underbed.co.uk/reivervehicles.htm

     Tamiya TA32510

 TAMIYA
  Jerry Can Set 1:48 Scale - Kit No.32510
  http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?product_category_id=&product_division_id=&manufacturer_id=8229&product_type_id=all_diorama&code=&scale_id=955&keyword_search=&setPerPage=25&save_search_name=&save_search=
     
 VERLINDEN
  1:48 Cobblestones Building Blocks #2292    

  1:48 88mm Ammo Pak 43 KTiger Jagdpanther 2341
  1:48 Ammo Cases Tank & Artillery #2227
  1:48 G.M.C. 2.5 Ton Truck Cargo Set #2380
  1:48 German Military Vehicle Stowage #2238
  1:48 Marine Sherman Armor & Stowage #2242
  1:48 Tiger I 88mm Ammo #2221    
  1:48 Military Supplies #2215    

 BLACK DOG       http://www.fireflymodels.co.uk
       T48025 German Equipment accessories set 1/48
       T48055 Sd.Kfz. 251/1 Ausf C accessories set
       T48001 BREN CARRIER accessories set
       T48002 CROMWELL accessories set
       T48017 FUEL CANS accessories set
       T48018 TENTAGE+BEDROLLS accessories set
       T48019 TENTAGE+BEDROLLS 2 accessories set
       T48020 TENTAGE+BEDROLLS 3 accessories set
       T48021 TENTAGE+BEDROLLS 4 accessories set
       T48026 British equipment accessories set
       T48028 Sd.Kfz. 222 accessories set

 OLD CROW
     "hull stowage"

 DIXON
  WWP1 Pack of British jerry cans (20)

 TAG
  Brit Backpack x 10 SKU: WEA261 
  Brit Blanket roll x 10 SKU: WEA262 
  Brit Helmet x 10    SKU: WEA260 
  Crates x 10   SKU: WEA068 

 http://thesceneuk.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70_73_62&products_id=478

 GZG 25ACC-03 Stowage Boxes and Cans - ammo boxes, jerrycans,
 Crew personal stowage       GZG-25ACC-01 

 EBOB
  Assorted supplies 6 oil drums, 3 packing crates, 6 petrol cans
  German weapons and equipment


 Scotia Grendel

        http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=59_62

        11906 - Jerry Cans  (12)

        11907 - Vehicle Accessory Pack 1
       Stowage, Pick and Shovel, and Fire Extinguisher,
       Fire Axe

Thursday, September 27, 2012

50 cents dollar store tree

Christmas season brings many treats for the wargamer, when it comes to terrain. My best luck has been with the Cobblestone Corners brand of Christmas decorations, sold by Dollar Tree in the U.S. (manufactured in China).
Tree pack
Last year, they brought us cheap hedges. This year, it's trees - a wide variety of trees, 2 trees per pack, and each pack retails for $1 USD.
Each pack contains a large and a small tree
I cleaned my local store completely out of pine trees (9 packs - 18 trees), and will go back for more.
Forest of trees
I prefer the pine trees because of their simple construction (basically, it's a trimmed brush stuck into a round wooden base).
Sky view of the trees
I don't think I'll have a "shedding" problem with these trees!
Trees are mounted on natural wood bases (shown with 28mm Celts)
To my eye, the trees work fine for 15mm through 28mm scales. They're a trifle big for 6mm/microscale, but not laughably so.
Three varieties of trees
Two other tree varieties in the same line are worth mentioning. One is basically the same tree, except the "brush" has been trimmed into sections, and the bristles are coated with a dark flocking. This tree shed a little in the package, but didn't look like it would shed further on the tabletop.
Flocked trees
Another variety is again based on the brush skeleton, but instead uses what looks like pulverized foam as flocking. Some of the foam hold paint better than others, which gives these trees a green-and-white look. These trees shed quite a bit in the package, and look to me like they'll keep shedding.
Tree flocked with foam bits
There were more trees that I didn't buy, but they were trees with snow. If you have a winter campaign in mind, you should check them out.

TMNT








Item image

teenage Mutant NINJA Turtle DONATELLO Action Keychain

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=teenage+Mutant+NINJA+Turtle+DONATELLO+Action+Keychain&_nkwusc=eenage+Mutant+NINJA+Turtle+DONATELLO+Action+Keychain&_rdc=1

Scratch built anti grav vehicle part 2

 after being painted

Scratch built APC painting WIP

 Just a quick update.  I've got the base paint job done.  Now I just need to add battle damage and a wash then go back in and add the final details.
We have two more of these in the works at the moment and we plan to make a few more.  We even have a tank body we are working on as well as a staff car and a couple trucks.

Scratch built anti grav vehicle!

cratch built anti grav vehicle!

 We built the hulls for a few anti gravity vehicles a couple months ago for our Station 42 War campaign but we shelved them because we thought we might find a better alternative.  Unfortunately we did not find many alternatives that we felt we could afford.  In fact only a few companies make anti grav or hover AFVs in 28mm.  There are a hand full of hover or anti grav tanks but very few APCs and they are almost all quite expensive resin cast models.  To top that off most of those models that are out there are made by small companies in the U.K. and shipping is also quite high.

 My wife made the hulls and added the hatches and windows and plating then I added the details.  I'm calling it a Light Anti Grav Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle or "Lagarev" for short.  It's intended role is somewhere between that of a Humvee and an M113 APC.  It's a lightly armored multi role vehicle not intended for front line combat.  It is however very fast and can carry a variety of support weapons.

 Most Lagarevs are also drone rigged so they can be piloted remotely from a remote base well behind the front lines although the drone drivers and gunners are usually less effective than trained crew this feature allows the Lagarev to deploy troops then return for a pickup without the need for a crew.  It also makes it easier for comrades of wounded troops to provide medical assistance during evacuation rather than be concerned with vehicle operation.

 Here is a shot of the front of the vehicle.  I'm not totally satisfied with this angle.  It doesn't look very interesting but I may add some stowage when I finish painting the model.

 Here is a rear shot.  It's slightly better looking than the front.  I think I'm going to paint the zip tie strips I used for detailing up as light bars rather than adding traditional headlights.

 Here is a shot of the anti grav drive made mostly from disposable razors and zip tie bits.  There is also a piece of plastic canvas between the drives to add some more detail to the bottom of the model.  I figure if I need to flip them on their side to show they are wrecked I don't want just a plan underside.

Here is a shot of the weapon mount with a different weapon.  I have several of these that I got from a set of cheap toy robots.  They are intended to be shoulder mounted on the robots but I like the look of them as automated weapons.

I've considered going in and trying to clean these up with some putty but they kind of are what they are and I need to have the three we have started done by Sunday for a game so it's unlikely I'll do any more detail work.

I'll be painting these in my Hell Knights cammo pattern with markings.  I'm hoping that will make them look a bit nicer.  All in all though I'm pretty happy with the results especially since these are made from scrap cardboard and junk.  They probably cost less than a dollar in materials.

Titania City perhaps?

Titania City perhaps?

I hate to keep posting pics of things I'm going to work on but here are some simple crates I picked up at the Dollar Tree store a couple of days ago.  I think we are going to use them for some of the buildings in Titania City.  They aren't big enough for sky scrapers but they might make good shops and apartment buildings.  Right now we are trying to decide how to make interiors for them to make them playable.  The packing trays on top are ideas for roofs.  These are the same things we used for roofs on Station 42 and a number of other buildings in the setting. I think it will help tie them in with the other projects.

Sci-Fi Terrain bits


 The Station 42 project has all but spiraled out of control which was to be expected.  Instead of doing one big spaceport project we are doing one big spaceport project and a number of other locations around the spaceport creating a mini setting.  I guess this is to be expected and it's kind of a cool thing.  After all the big project is coming along nicely but it's still a 5x12' table so it's not the most practical thing to have regular games on.  Still because of the modular nature of the designs we are working with it is providing us with a lot of use.  One of the things we have been needing to work on though are detail bits.  We have managed to put together a lot of buildings but we don't have a lot of smaller detail bits or furniture for those buildings.  We have some that we have purchased and scratch built but we need more.  The goal is to make these bits as modular as possible too. 

 We have a number of these smaller adobe structures we built out of cork tile we are working on.  We plan to use them for a lot of different locations.  They are very plain however and we were looking to spice them up with some tech bits.  Here is an example of some tech bits made from junk.  We built little platforms that we can slide right up against the building so it will look integrated and be highly modular.  Also we can put these pieces out as stand alone terrain bits.  On larger buildings they can even be set on top. 
 Here are four that I made that have identical construction.  I often use the design principle of unity and variety when thinking about miniatures and terrain. 
 Here is a shot of a number of our adobe buildings with some work in progress modular tech bits as well as some of the other storage/chemical tanks and other smaller terrain bits we have been working on. 
 Stage one of the painting.  I hope to make a large number of these for use with my terrain sets.  I want to make some larger and some smaller sets to add to the versatility of my terrain.  Little projects like these can add a lot of detail without adding a lot of storage problems.  It's easier to make one building with several modular bits than make 10 buildings that only look one way when you set them on the table. 
 Here are some simple wooden tables we made.  All of our buildings open up for play so we need a lot of furniture.  There are several lines of pre-made furniture out there but we are going to need a large volume of furniture so we are going to have to resort to scratch building to fill in the gaps.  These are for a sci-fi setting even though they are wood.  They could represent either nicer actual wood furniture or fake wood furnishings.  That brings up another thing.  Don't discount any fantasy or historic furniture you might have in your collection for Sci-Fi settings.  You can find uses for it because furniture designs have a long life span.

 Another detail I'm working on is signage and billboard advertisements.  I was looking for a way to make them highly modular and easy.  I got the idea to pick up some cheap acrylic photo frames and some plastic trading card sleeves.  I plan to make adds using photoshop and them sliding them into the frames.  I'm going to use different methods to attach them to my buildings and also make some stand along billboards.  Being able to change out the art will make them highly modular. 

Here is a detail shot of the two types of card protectors.  The one of the left came in a pack of 35 for less than $3.00 and the acrylic one was $1.29.  They are designed to hold collector cards like sports cards. 

100 bottle cap barrels


Sometimes we do something completely insane for our games.  This last weekend we put together and finished 100 bottle cap barrels.  Before we had about 35-40 so this will provide us with a lot more scatter terrain for our games which is important because our Station 42 table is 5'x12'.

Our other barrels are all generic so we decided these should have corporate labels as well as warning labels. Cutting out and pasting on the labels was by far the hardest part of the project.  We cut and pasted literally hundreds of them.

You might recognize some of the fictional corporations we used.  Not bad for a weekend project I guess.  These are part of a larger supply depo project we are working on.  Next up will be some other containers and we hope to have some large shipping crates as well.  We already have a lot of labels printed out.

Sample Horrorclix repiants

UNE
Original Jester figure
Repaint
UNE
Original Banewolf figure
Repaint
UNE
UNE
Original candy stripper figure
Repaint
UNE
UNE
Original zombie cop figure
Repaint
UNE
UNE
Original dire wolf figure
Repaint
UNE
UNE
Original blood vampire figure
Repaint
UNE
UNE
Original outpatient figure
Repaint
UNE
UNE
Original runaway figure
Repaint

Space hulk modding

Since I prefer 3D-terrain instead of card-board, I was searching for a 3D-SpaceHulk for years.
I found:

  • Dwarven Forge -deluxe painted ready to play dungeons
  • JR Miniatures - resin dungeons
  • Ainsty now Old Crow Models - resin dungeons
  • Hirst Arts - moulds for making your own dungeon with plaster
  • WorldWorksGames - print out your dungeon on paper
  • Stone Edges - print out on paper
  • Germsworld -print out on paper for free
  • But none of them I considered the perfect system. I want to have the same scale as the 1st Edition floor tiles (30mm) and I want to be able to build the original scenarios.
    So I started my third project: “Building a 3D SpaceHulk”

    Step 1: Floor Tile

    First I created my own floor tile using the original dimensions of 30 x 30 mm. I used the same styrene sheet from Slater’s Plastikard as for my bases (Double Tread 1:50).

    Step 2: The Door

    I like the old door from Ainsty “Tech Tunnel 2” and changed it to a closed bulkhead. The line “Tech Tunnel” was replaced by “Tech Tunnel 4” and the door seemed to be OOP until Ainsty has been taken over by “Old Crow Models”. You find the door now here.
     
    To avoid copyright issues with the recast, I built my own door with a removable bulkhead:
     
    But this makes it tricky to create a mould for the main door.

     
    The bulkhead mould was easy to made. A simple 2 sided mould.

     
    But the main door has to be made with a 3-part mould. This was the first time I made this.

     
    Although some airbubbles are in the bulkhead, I’m very satisfied with the result. Especially because I needed only 4 days at the gaming fair in Stuttgart 2006 to finish 7 casts.

              
     

    Step 3: Designing the Walls

    This will be the most work. The first sketches are made and a lot of ideas in my head.
     

    First I tried some tests with Styrofoam, but after I discovered styrene sheet I switched to this material. It’s easy to handle and it has a smooth surface.
     
    For the outside I used 1mm and 0,5 mm styrene sheet. For the inside I made some examples and decided to use “Evergreen Scale Models” Metal Siding Styrene Sheet No. 4530.
     
    To get the right angle for the door I built a tool, which I used for all modules to glue the walls inside.

    Step 4: Moulding the prototypes

    Time to play the Lego!
     
    Now the first moulding. The 2 bottles save some silicon (Order No.: 03-001A) and make it easier to release later the casted module.

    The first moulds are ready for casting. I was very happy that the prototype was not destroyed, while releasing from the mould. These casts are used to finish the other modules.
     
    For casting I used resin from Rai-Ro (Order No.: 03-036A) which doesn’t damage the silicon mould. [Edit] Because of some quality issues I moved to another resin from Alpina:
    - Order No.: 0534145 “ALPA-Resin 12”
    - Order No.: 8088301 “RZ 30150” - filler Aluminiumhydroxid
    - Order No.: 0534007 “ALPA-COLOUR” black color

     

    Step 5: The rooms

    For the rooms I use for the 9 tiles in the center “Evergreen Scale Models” Sidewalk No. 4515.

    Step 6: End tiles

    The 1st and 2nd Edition includes some end tiles. I decided to create some “iris bulkheads” for this.


    Step 7: All prototypes finished

    Here you can see most of the core prototypes:
     

    Step 8: Moulding the prototypes

    And here you can see the first moulds:

    Corridor 2 tiles, corridor 3 tiles, corridor T and corridor X.
    For the X-corridor I tried a new silicon, which is cheaper, but has not the quality of the green one. It rips very easy, but it is good enough for this project. It’s from “Bethmann-Dental-Discount” and has the order number 2014 (2kg), 2041 (6kg) and 2040 (12kg).
    And finally all moulds are finished:
     (Click on the pic for a bigger view)
    And here you can download the overview of all tiles needed for the missions: Download

    Step 9: Casting all tiles

      I need “only” 6 boxes for all tiles.

    Step 10: Sanding and washing all casted tiles

    To get the right 90 degree angle for the tiles I use an electronic sander.

    I can’t wait longer - I have to make the first setup: Mission 1 (Click on the pics to get a 800x600 view)
     
     
     
    Before priming it is useful to brush all tiles with water and a little bit dish-washing detergent.

    Step 11: Painting

    I plan to use black primer spray from Games Workshop and simply to drybrush the tiles with Boltgun metall.

    I made 3 tests:
    Left: Black primer, Boltgun drybrush
    Middle: Black primer, Grey painted, Boltgun painted, Black inked
    Right: Grey primer, Boltgun painted, Thinned black

     
    I want to add a black/yellow line besides the floor tiles, using white laser water-slip decals. Here you see a test with clear water-slip decals and in reality it’s too dark.
    In the end I (and the SpaceHulk community) vote for the Left color scheme.

    1. Grey Primer (you can also use black GW spray and save step 3)
    2. Black Structure spray for the walls outside
    3. Paint everything black
    4. Drybrush everything silver
    5. Drybrush the floor tiles with Bilious green
    6. Black ink for the floor with the black/yellow line, thinned with water and painting medium
    7. Glossy varnish (give more protection)
    8. GW varnish (to reduce the glossy look)

    Step 12: Felt

    To avoid moving the tiles while playing, each tile get a piece of “felt” underside. In Germany it’s called d-c-fix “Velour Selbstklebefolie”:


    Step 13: Blips and Counters

    Of course a 3D-SpaceHulk needs special blips and counters. At the fair “Spiel 2006” in Essen I bought several green wooden discs (25 x 6 mm, ProductNo P0003c) and white wooden blank dices (ProductNo W0016) from www.spielmaterial.de . Using clear and white laser water-slip decals very nice and useful blips and counters were made: