About Me

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London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
A mythical beast - a female wargamer! I got back into wargaming in the summer of 2011 after a very, very long break and haven't looked back since. I must admit that I seem to be more of a painter/collector than a gamer, but do hope to correct that at some point in the near future. My gaming interests span the ages, from the "Biblical" era all the way through to the far future. I enjoy games of all sizes, from a handful of figures up to major battles (see my megalomaniacally sized Choson Korean and Russian Seven Years War armies).

Sunday, 24 September 2017

Sunday Workbench 24 September

So, time for another Sunday update on what I've got going on. Since last weekend I've had two of my orders delivered:

From Timecast:


These arrived yesterday; more Ming and Koreans. There are still a couple of packs to come from this order (and one from the previous order).

From Everest Models (EBay seller):


A veritable forest of twisted wire/foam trees and plastic palms.


Painting

I've almost finished the Ming cavalry - since taking the pic below I've given them a ~Klear/ink coat. Tomorrow I'll airbrush them with matt varnish then do satin and gloss varnish where appropriate. I should be able to get the initial basing stages done as well.






Prepping

I've done the initial prep on all 8 packs that arrived - snipping off excess metal and smoothing the bases with a rough file. I've also managed to fully prep half of them. Two bags (Korean infantry, Ming crossbowmen) have been washed, dried and stuck onto painting sticks.



Another two bags (Ming infantry) are currently being washed. The rest will get prepped during the week.


Playing With Trees

The twisted wire of the cheap EBay trees looked a bit obvious so I decided that they needed something to disguise that. I'd seen people using brown acrylic caulk for various things and thought that would be perfect. Sadly, none of the DIY stores in my area stock it, only white. So I bought a tube of that to play with (at £1 it's worth trying).

I took a few of the trees and experimented a bit. Acrylic caulk is paintable, but that would mean an extra step. However, I wasn't sure how easily it would go onto the wire neat or whether I might need to thin it a little with water. I also wanted to test whether it would mix with acrylic ink.

I tested one tree with neat caulk. It was difficult to apply, so I thinned the caulk with a little water. That went on a bit easier, but I think I needed a touch more water. The third tree I added a few drops of brown ink to the caulk - that thinned it just enough, and the colour mixed in nicely.

Here are the results of my quick tests:

Untreated, neat caulk, slightly-thinned caulk, thinned and inked caulk

The neat and slightly thinned white caulk didn't really cover the twisted wires, unlike the slightly more thinned and ink-coloured mix.

Untreated, thinned and inked caulk

So, a useful experiment. I now know that the caulk will mix with acrylic ink and that it needs to be thinned a bit to apply easily. I've also worked out that I need to spread out the wire branches a bit more before applying the caulk mix.

I'll also be titivating the foliage at some point with flock and sealing with PVA to prevent shedding. I'm not sure how I'll need to work out how to do that with the fruit trees to stop the flock getting onto the fruits - maybe a dab of oil to stop the glue adhering?
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10 comments:

  1. Norm24 September 2017 at 22:31

    When doing trees, I needed to resort to a hot glue gun to get the initial foliage structure on, then a spraying of thinned PVA from the Woodland Scenic spray gun and finally when all is dry, a blast of hair spray.

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  2. Justin Penwith24 September 2017 at 22:47

    I've used Gesso, thickly applied, to cover wire tree trunks. There's still a semblance of wire, but it's not too bad. Also, it is far less messy and takes paint well.

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    Replies
    1. Justin Penwith24 September 2017 at 22:48

      Also, I believe Kallistra sells metal bases for wire trees. You might want to give them a shot.

      Delete
  3. marinergrim25 September 2017 at 08:22

    All very busy as ever. But also looking very good.

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  4. Anonymous25 September 2017 at 10:36

    Thanks for the link to everestmodels over on eBay. I used to get such trees as you've bought from Pendraken, but Leon stopped stocking them so I was left looking for a new supplier. Cheers

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  5. Millsy25 September 2017 at 11:02

    Interesting stuff with the trees. Good outcome by the look of it!

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  6. TamsinP25 September 2017 at 22:28

    @ Norm - these trees already have clump foliage glued on; I'm aiming to tart them up a bit with flock. Once I've done that I was going to spray with PVA to fix them, but might add hairspray after that - thanks for the suggestion :)

    @ Justin - I'd heard about using gesso, but wanted something with a bit more coverage. The caulk is no more messy than gesso and went on easily enough with a brush :)

    @ Paul - cheers! Back to being busy, which is good :)

    @ Roy - you're welcome; there are plenty of suppliers like them on Ebay. Just search for model trees :)

    @ Millsy - we'll have to see how it goes when I do a full batch :)

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  7. BigLee26 September 2017 at 09:22

    Like the look of the Ming Cavalry. I look forward to the finished items.

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  8. Curt26 September 2017 at 20:27

    I like those trees! And the Ming cavalry are fabulous (great colours!).

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  9. Steve-the-Wargamer27 September 2017 at 12:04

    For the trunks how about this stuff?

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/RED-WALL-PLUG-300mm-6mm/dp/B004KHYBAY/ref=pd_bxgy_201_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YZQE7N2W5YC2NZ5XWP0Q

    ..just cut the required length, slip it over the trunk, and paint?

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