Making Hills

Since I sold all my wargaming stuff a few years ago, I am starting from scratch.  I decided to take a short break from painting and make a couple of hills using techniques stolen from other blogs.

The hills probably need to be taller and larger.  They are made from 1" foam.  I cut a hardboard base, then hotglued pine bark along one side to make cliffs.  I then cut out foam to the basic shape of the base minus the area where I put the bark.  I glued the foam to the hardboard, and after it dried used a foamcutter to cut an angle along the edge of the hill.

The foamcutter is a new one I recently bought at Hobby Lobby.  It has a straight wire about 5" long that gets hot.  Its nice, you can sculpt with it.  It does cool off a bit making long cuts, but it keeps cutting but a bit slower.

After that was done, I used some little pieces of foam and spackle to fill in the gaps between the pine bark and the foam.  I then used a technique that a local game store owner told me about.  I covered the entire thing with latex tile mastic.  You get a cheap brush, because the brush ain't comin' back from this mission, and load it with water.  Swirl it in the mastic to make it a bit more liquid and then just paint it on the whole thing.  It seals up the foam and makes it easier to paint, and it gives a nice skin to the foam that makes it a bit tougher.  The brushes I got were 99 cents each, and the one I used was completely trashed when I finished.

After that dried, which takes about a day, I glued on a bit of railroad ballast around the top and bottom of the cliff.  I had bought 2 quarts of paint, one darker brown, one lighter brown, from the local hardward store.  I painted the darker color all over the foam and the area where the ballast was, using a 1" brush.  (a better brush than before, this one I will reuse)  Then I painted the bark a very dark gray. 

After that dried I took the lighter brown color (really a light tan) and dry brushed the whole thing, including the rocks.  I then used a little bit of white and light yellow to drybrush all over everything.

The final step was to put some flocking on parts of the hill.  I used to have hills that looked like green lawns.  I have decided I like a more mottled look.

The results are below.  I will probably put some kind of final coat on to fix everything, but its basically done.

Played Black Powder tonight

We did a small game of Black Powder.  Most of the units were foamcore bases with topdown pictures of the troops, courtesy of Jay.  We had two units that I had finished, the rest were foamcore.  We were very pleased with the rules.  We played 7YW, Prussians vs Austrians.  We screwed some stuff up, but we expected that for a first game. 

We pretty much fought to a standstill.   Then we discovered the Brigade morale rule.  :) 

We are planning on trying it was 15mm Napoleonics, because Ken has a ton of them and the basing works.

Nice rules, we plan to play them again.

Black Powder

On June 9, our group is going to try Black Powder.  Now, we have almost no figures for this, save for one battalion.

This was what I had previously based as 2 battalions.  It is now one battalion for Black Powder.

To be able to play, we lucky enough to have a graphic artist who not only has a great game room, but lots of skills as well.  He is making foamcore counters to use for the troops until I get more stuff painted.

I have been reading the rules, and we hope to be able to run a small game for our first try.

I have decided that in the future the Prussians I buy from Front Rank will be the ones without field equipment.  That will make them easier to paint.

I am planning a battle report after the game.

Change in Direction

My original intent with the Seven Years War figures was to base them individually, with the intent of playing the old Charge rules.  I have changed my mind.

I have decided to base the figures for Black Powder, and double the size of the battalions.  That means the Prussian Regiment I painted is now one battalion of 24 figures.  More painting for me, but its going fairly fast and perhaps I can persuade some of my gaming group into painting some 7YW.

I also can play Die Fighting with this basing, which gives me another option for rules.

So, I need buy a lot more figures, not a terribly bad thing. 

My Seven Years War project

My goal for the the 7YW figures is to have a small force for each side that I can use to put on a game.  Each side will have 2 regiments of 2 battalions, each batallion with 12 figures.  In addition, each 2 regiments will have a converged grenadier battalion of 12 figures.

Each side will have 2 medium guns with 4 gunners each.  Also, each side will have 2 heavy cavalry units of 8 figures each.

This will total 120 infantry figures, 32 cavalry figures, 4 guns and 16 gunners.

Of this, I have 24 infantry finished.  I have half a grenadier battalion, 8 gunners and 2 guns almost done.  I have started one Prussian cavalry unit.

I paint in small increments of time, but I paint often.  I will sit down and paint one or two colors on a unit, then go do something else for awhile, then come back and paint a couple of more colors.  My wife has now figured out that when I say I am going to the basement to paint, it does not mean I am gone for the rest of the evening, which she appreciates. 

I hope to be done with all these by the end of July.  We shall see.  In the long run, I may end up doubling the size of all the infantry units.  I am basing them singly, and will use movement trays.  I have a couple of sets of rules I am interested in, and one uses large battalions.

Since I am starting from scratch, having sold all my wargaming paraphernalia a few years ago, I will also be needing a lot of terrain.  I have been looking at other blogs for ideas for that.  Also, I am going to Colorado for a vacation in June.  I plan on taking some garden clippers and looking for sage brush branches to use for tree trunks.  My father did this years ago for a model railroad, and the result was pretty good.  I am planning on making some terrain modules rather than a lot of loose terrain bits.  We will see how that works.

My table top will be an idea Jay (the Baron's Blog) showed me.  You take a cheap plastic tablecloth that has this felt material on the back.  Using regular housepaint, you roll the felt side of the tablecloth with green paint.  Then you come back with a lighter color of green paint and do it again, but lightly so you get a mottled effect.  It looks good, and is cheap.

More pictures when I get the artillery and grenadiers done.

Organizing my painting table

As is usual, my painting table had quickly become overrun with stuff.  Paint bottles, tools, figures, all haphazardly spread around.  My wife noted that I might enjoy the painting more if I, ahem, organized.  Now it should be noted that Zori is incredibly organized.  I, on the other hand, am not.

So, I took her suggestion.  I had an idea for a rack for paints.  We went to the hardware store and bought what I thought were going to be the necessary components.  I went again when I found I needed something else.  Then I realized I had forgotten yet another component.

We had stopped at a Big Lots store, and they had these cheap metal spice racks.  Construction has halted on the painting rack, the cheap spice racks seem to do a bang-up job.

The tools were a simple matter.  We bought some pegboard and pack of small tool holders to fit on the pegboard.

Zori came up with a solution for storing paint brushes.  She had a metal mesh container, in which she put some styrofoam.  You just insert the back of the handle into the styrofoam, and the brushs aren't getting crunched by stuff on the table.

I am currently working on some Prussian artillerists, and the grenadiers for the regiment I previously finished.  In the future I am going to paint the grenadiers at the same time.  I am already painting 24 figures, 6 more is not a big deal.

I ordered the rest of the figures I need for the Prussians and all of the Austrians.  It saved some on postage instead of ordering small amounts.

I thought I would close with a picture of my painting buddy.  I am holding her in the picture I use for my blog, but here she is in all her 18 year old glory.  My cat, Kochka.

First regiment done

This is the first regiment in the Die Fighting project.  It is the 16th Musketeer regiment.  The 6 grenadier figures are still being painted.  The picture came out a bit odd.  I used a satin finish on them, and it seems to have some glare.

I will be starting a medium battery next.  It will be 2 guns and 8 artillerists.

I had not painted for several years.  I blocked in the colors, then painted over it with Minwax tudor stain.  I then did a dullcote and did a little highlighting.  It doesn't show too well, I think I need to be a bit more aggressive about that.  The flags are from Warflags, I am not too crazy about them, but my attempt at hand painting flags was pretty pathetic.