That MDF Terrain I Mentioned

Apart from weathering and a little bit more work on the bridge, these are done. Some pics of the various bits:

Two back yards - might add flower or vegetables to the open mud areas

Privy roofs had 240 grit sandpaper strips added

The shed roof comes off

I added Warbases tiling strips to the roof; chimney pots were styrene tube

I might add foam-core dividing walls and first floor

240 grit sandpaper added for asphalt road surface; styrene H Beams added

I'm quite impressed by these kits from Warbases and will definitely be adding some more at some point. Not for a while though - I've got lots to paint before I even think of adding more to the queue.


As for the hedges, I was a bit overoptimistic about how long adding the gunk to 83 strips would take. They're all done now though, which just leaves drybrushing the texture, flocking and sealing. That will have to wait until Tuesday though.

Jeepers! Tanks for the hedges!

A busy day at the workbenches today. I started off by setting up outside (having determined that it was better to get that done before it got too warm) and priming the first batch of hedges:

Later this evening I'll add some basing gunk to them. Tomorrow, if all goes well, I'll drybrush the gunk and begin flocking them.

With that done, I cracked on and finished work on the Matilda and Jeeps:

Aussie Matilda II:

I know "Adonis" was a tank name in A squadron of the 1st Australian Armoured Regiment, but don't know if it was in 1 Troop.

Airborne Jeeps:

Now I just need to get the crew figures painted to put in them.


I've also been working on the Warbases terrain. Some of it is finished, but other items need a bit more work, so I'll save those until tomorrow when they should all be done.

Friday Update 28 June

I mentioned in my last-but-one post that I'd been assembling some MDF terrain, but was waiting for a couple of bits to tart some of them up. Those bits arrived earlier this week and have been added. Today I took advantage of the nice weather and went outside to prime them:

These were all from Warbases. The bits I added were some chimney pots (made from 4.8mm styrene tube) to the house roof; some styrene "H" beams on the underside of the bridge and the sides of the ramps; and some 240 grit sandpaper to the road parts of the bridge and the roofs of the outhouses. I will probably work on finishing painting them this weekend and get them assembled.

I'm quite impressed with these. The connector lugs on the house are the same size as the etched brickwork which makes them much less obvious than on some other kits. The brickwork is also of a more realistic size then on most kits I've seen. The one mistake I did make was when I glued the second outhouse down to the base - it was only much later that I realised I'd put it on in the opposite orientation. Oh, well.

As the weather should be even better tomorrow, I expect that I will get the first batch of hedge sections primed as well. And maybe finish them - they'll just need some ground texturing and flocking.

I've also made good progress on the Matilda II and the Jeeps:

The painting is all done and they have had a coat of Klear. Tomorrow I'll add some mud texture, do some more weathering and hit them with a coat of matt varnish.


Finally, some more figures arrived today:

All Paras from Artizan apart from the pack on the bottom right which are Crusader - I bought those to see how they match. They are a little taller than Artizan and Foundry, but otherwise fit well - they are obviously the taller chaps in the unit, maybe volunteers from the Guards.

These extras will allow me to replace the Warlord figures that are currently in my force - the PIAT team, MMG, 3" mortar and 6 pounder.

Hmm, seems like I have some more prepping, basing and priming to do...

Wednesday Workbench and Reading 26 June

And everything is primed! I've decided that tomorrow I will make a start on the tank and Jeeps, then paint up the crew figures. That's mostly just to get them out of the way and to allow me to test the paint scheme for the Paras (apart from the maroon berets - all the Jeep crew figures are in helmets). Once they are done, the SYW Russians will hit the table.


A very well packaged book arrived today from Paul Meekins. So well packaged that you could have driven a tank over it and the book wouldn't have been damaged*. This is it:

I've had a quick flick through and it should be a very interesting read. Although the title suggests that it only covers the Arnhem campaign, it also covers the squadrons earlier and later operations.

Over the last fortnight or so I have built up quite a stack of books to read:

Ermm, yes, that is quite a large stack relating to Operation Market Garden. The other two books are about the Aussies in the Pacific campaigns. "Jungle Cavalry" is about the Independent Companies/Commando Squadrons.

Just to break the monotony of all that factual stuff, I also have these:

The one by "Anonymous" is that 8th and (currently) final book in the Bourbon Kid/Red Mohawk series.

That should be enough to keep me going for a little while.



* some hyperbole may be involved in that statement.

Sunday Workbench 23 June

I've had a productive few days since my last post, today in particular was rather busy. Some more figures have been prepped and stuck on bases. And some figures that I prepped a while ago have also been stuck on painting sticks or bases and the crew figures have had their brass wires inserted into corks as holders for painting.

Today I decided to start adding basing texture to some of the figures. I knew that I didn't want to use the Vallejo "Dark Earth texture" for the Paras, so I decided to make up a batch of my own homebrew version:

It's quite a simple mix: one 300ml tube of brown acrylic frame sealant (£1 from Poundland), 20 spoons of bird sand (£1 for 1kg from Wilko) and a bit of water. I did some tests on a few bases:

L to R: untouched; drybrushed; drybrushed and washed; drybrushed, washed and drybrushed; washed and drybrushed

When the paste had dried (it took about an hour) I did a few tests - you can see the results above. It gives a good texture, dries quick and hard and above all is incredibly cheap (about £1.20 for nearly 500ml; the Vallejo stuff costs £8 for 200ml). The bird sand is quite large grains - for a texture like the Vallejo paste I'd need to use finer sand. For different colours, I could use the white frame sealant and add paint to get the colour I want.

Once that was made, I cracked on with adding texture to bases. Over the space of about 3 hours I got all of these done:

Strontium Dog figures

Warlord, 1st Corps and Foundry Paras

Artizan (and a couple of Warlord) Paras

I've also got some more stuff on my dining table (the only free space available at the moment).

A bit of a mix

Jeeps with antennae added

I've assembled (and gap-filled) the Aussie Matilda II that I bought at Broadside. Various extra figures for my Aussies have been glued onto bases. I've also added antennae to the two jeeps (plastic bristles from a broom). The stuff on the painting sticks are the Choson Korean rocket artillery.

In addition to that, I've glued a lot of SYW Russians onto painting sticks:

These have been moved up the painting queue as there are seven regiments that are needed for our August Bank Holiday refight of Kunersdorf which I don't currently have in my collection. I've taken the decision to paint all nine regiments that I don't have; there are also a few extra figures which I might paint as dismounted dragoons. This will, of course, mean a delay to beginning to paint the Paras (well, I might squeeze in a test figure or two to try out painting schemes).


I've also been assembling some MDF terrain over the past few evenings. I need to get a couple of bits and bobs to finish tarting up a couple of them, so no pics for now.


The coming week promises to be very busy with getting everything primed.

Tuesday Workbench 18 June

You might be surprised to hear that I have finished prepping all of the British Airborne figures I've received to date. I've also assembled the Jeeps and the 6 pounder, as well as gluing most of the figures onto MDF bases. Unfortunately I ran out of 25mm round bases so have had to place an order for more with Warbases. A few other bits might have found their way into the shopping basket. I might also have a few more items to be purchased from Artizan...

So far, I have got the following ready for priming (Artizan unless noted):

Airborne platoon (Warlord PIAT team)
Forward Observation Officer
Medic
Flamethrower team
Vickers MMG team (Warlord)
3" mortar team (Warlord)
6 pounder team, plus NCO (Warlord)
5 other Warlord figures
2 jeeps plus 7 crew/passengers (1st Corps)

Waiting to be based are a few more Warlord figures, the Foundry chaps and the 1st Corps figures. I've decided to paint all of them - the ones I don't need will get sold off.

Before I prime them, I will be adding ground texture to the bases - some of the prone figures haven't been glued down yet as they will be glued on after the texture has been applied.

I'll probably use a couple of the Warlord figures to test my painting scheme out before I paint the rest.

On top of all that, I've assembled the Matilda II and glued (with some assembly) all the new Strontium Dog figures onto plastic bases.

Anyhoos, that's all for now folks!

Friday Update 14 June - Shinies!

Having made some initial purchases on Sunday for a British Airborne platoon for Chain of command, I placed a couple of orders with Artizan (North star) and 1st Corps on Wednesday to fill out the platoon. They both arrived today.

The pack at the bottom right of the photo above was a picking error - instead of a pack of two Para PIAT teams I received a late war British Vickers team.

I decided to take a quick pic to compare a figure from each range:

L to R: Warlord, Foundry, Artizan, 1st Corps

Looking back at a review of the ranges in WSS #74, the 1st Corps figures should be the smallest - clearly that's not the case as they are noticeably taller than the others.

The Foundry and Artizan figures seem to be a very close match; the Warlord figures are a similar height but less chunky although they won't look out of place mixed in with Artizan and Foundry, unlike the 1st Corps figures. For the 1st Corps packs I've ordered it shouldn't be a complete bust as the prone figures won't look as obviously large and the Jeeps will be OK. As that will give me two usable snipers, two 2" mortar teams and two PIAT teams I won't need to order anything else. OK, maybe some more jeeps.