Podcasts #79 and #80

 I've just noticed that I forgot to post the link for episode 79 when it was published two weeks ago. As episode 80 was published last Friday, you can have two links for one in this post.

Episode #79

In which we discuss:

•  our first impressions of ADLG V4;
•  the problems involved with getting terrain making ideas off Twitter;
• why making your own rocks from clay gives better results than just picking up random stones off the ground

Episode #80

Just a short one this week, you will be pleased/disappointed to hear. In this episode:

• I get high on herbs in the hillsides;
• Peter discovers that red is the new gold;
• Tim discovers that Winsor & Newton spray varnish is a good replacement for Testors Dullcote

Paint Table Saturday 29 May

 I'm getting there with the trees. On Thursday I basecoated the trunks and branches with various brown shades. I didn't do anything yesterday as I was out shopping for most of the day, but today saw some real progress. All of them have now been drybrushed and I have also painted the coconuts on the coconut palms and some emerging leaves at the tops of the chunky-trunk palms .

I have also spent a while sorting out the palm foliage. It actually took a good few hours - for some of the palms there are 4 or 5 separate pieces per tree! I've put the foliage for the chunky-trunk palms onto the peg boards ready for spraying.

I'm not entirely happy with the cheapo deciduous and conifer trees as they are. Adding the acrylic caulk was a pain in the proverbial (as was painting them). I'll use the ones I've done, but will probably put them in the middle of clumps so they aren't so visible. With one type, I found that the armature hadn't been properly prepped and branches were attached to each other (not by glue - this was how they were cast).

I grabbed the rest of the trees from those batches and removed the foliage (soak in hot soapy water for a while to soften the glue and then pluck the clumps off). I then snipped the not-properly-prepped armatures to free the branches. This is what I ended up with:

Today (in between bouts of drybrushing palm trees) I decided to see what other plastic armature trees I had lurking about. I found a few different batches, and removed the foliage from them:

One type from this set needed snipping:

Tomorrow I will probably be dunking the foliage on the non-palm trees I have just painted to seal the flock in. I'll have to jury-rig something to hold them while the excess drips off. Hopefully I will also be able to make a start on spraying the palm and jungle plant foliage pieces - the weather for the next few days looks good on that front.

Shopping

Various internet orders have arrived over the last couple of days.

Charlie Foxtrot Models

Lots of MDF terrain bases!

Each set densely covers about 18" x 18", so that should give me enough for 3 foot square.

They very helpfully engrave one piece in each set with the set number.

Pond bases. I'm not sure if I'll use the acrylic inserts with these; I'll probably use water effects instead. The top "ring" is separate, which is quite handy as you can put it onto any large base; I'm surprised that nobody has suggested selling them separately.

Warbases

Some 25mm bases, some "washers/rings" for 25mm bases and some regiment trays. The regiment trays will be for holding bases of kunai grass and other vegetation which I intend to be removable. The rings will be added to larger bases where I want to be able to remove some vegetation to allow figures to be placed in terrain. You see, there is some method in my madness.. Only some, mind you!

Rails of Sheffield

Another Woodland Scenics rock mould and some Noch/Gaugemaster fine leaves.

Yesterday's Shopping Trip

More Woodland Scenics rock moulds, some oil paints and thinners, a rigger brush, AP Goblin Green spray and some thick wire for foam cutting. I plan to try the thick wire with one of my cheapo foam cutters to see how well it works for gouging. Missing from the photo are some pack of texture foam from 4D Modelshop and some 10mm styrofoam sheets. Oh, and a copy of Stargrave...

Now that I have all these rock moulds, I should think about using them to make some plaster rocks. That can probably wait until I've made some more progress on the jungle terrain.

Wednesday Workbench 26 May

 

The past few days have been quite busy and productive, but it has all been little bits of prep work and a couple of tests. 

I've grabbed out a goodly amount of aquarium foliage. I'm going to need to spray prime them, which would be quite fiddly to do, so I decided to make some "spike boards" to hold the bits during spraying. They'll also get used for spraying the fronds of plastic palm trees.

These were quite simple to make. I used the MDF backing board from 8" x 10" picture frames (bought in Poundland), drew out a grid and then drilled holes where the lines intersect. I then cut some cocktial sticks in half and the tips off some bamboo skewers. After applying a dab of wood glue to the holes on the underside, the spikes were knocked through with a small hammer. I then left them to cure on a sheet of siliconised baking paper.

On Monday I prepped two more large brushes worth of kunai grass bunches:

That should give me plenty to begin work with, and I still have two more brushes to snip bunches from.

Yesterday I decided to do some test bases to work out the best method of attaching the bunches. I quickly realised that superglue was a non-starter. I then tried hot glue:

It works, but it's very messy. Covering the hot glue will also be an issue later on. My next idea was to use brown acrylic caulk:

This actually worked. I had thought that the bunches would start to fall over, but they all stayed upright. The bond is also quite strong. 

I've also been working on trees over the past few days. On Sunday I decided to try removing the mould-lines from the trunks of the palm trees. My initial efforts using heat worked to a degree, but with the quantity I had to do I really didn't think the toxic fumes were a good idea. I then tried the mould-line scraper I'd bought from Warlord Games at one of the shows (I think it was Colours 2019) and it was perfect for the job - I'd previously tried it on plastic and metal figures and hadn't been terribly impressed.

As well as the various palm trees, I also dragged a bunch of other tree types out of various storage boxes. They are all cheapo trees bought via Ebay and Amazon, so will need a bit of work to make them look decent (to which end I have just ordered some Noch/Gaugemaster fine leaves).

I took this photo before removing the fronds from two sets of palm trees, here are actually a few more which aren't in the photo:

This evening I've been applying a slightly thinned mix of brown frame sealant and PVA to the trunks and branches:

That mix should act as a primer layer for later painting (and avoids the need to spray prime them). The trunks (and branches) will get painted with various shades of brown, followed by drybrushing in a variety of colours.

The existing foliage on the  leafy trees will then get a quick dunk in thinned PVA to help secure it followed by another quick dunk and a dip into some coarse foam flock to ensure all of the tips are covered. Later on they'll get hit with varnish followed by a sprinkle of the Noch fine leaves and a final coat of varnish to seal everything. 

I do have some more palm trees, some bamboo and some banana plants on order from various Ebay sellers.

It does look as though I should be quite busy for the next few weeks. At some point I ought to think about buying a suitable gaming mat to use as the "jungle" floor, ideally one which can be used for non-jungle terrain as well.

Finished: The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Something

 

OK, not quite finished - I still need to add some jungle vegetation, but I thought I'd take some photos of the hills before I do that.

Rocks and Grass

Last night I decided that I would carve and foil some more rocks:

The extras

The whole lot

I think I might have more than I need. Oh, well, never mind...

I've also cut one more brushload of kunai grass:

The first lot I cut were from a different type of brush and didn't produce quite as many clumps. I am going through quite a bit of superglue doing these - I'll have to restock tomorrow as I probably only have enough to do one more brush.

Paint Table Saturday 22 May

 

Since my post on Wednesday, things have progressed slowly but surely with the hills. I have decided that these will be for my jungle terrain. Here are some photos showing them at different stages of progress:

Mixed herbs and "jungle turf mix" added

Close up

Herbs and turf fixed with dilute mix of PVA and brown paint...

...which helps dull down the vibrant greens of the turf

They were then sealed with two coats of scenic cement (~10% matte medium plus flow aid), leaving them to dry for a few hours between.

Static grass added

I'm still deciding what jungle vegetation to add to these. I don't want to add too much so that they can be used for more open areas. 

I will need to get some of my extensive stock of aquarium plants prepped. As I'm going to be doing that, I might as well get enough done for some proper jungle bases. I'll also need to prep a load of palm trees and some normal trees as well.

While I was thinking of that, I also thought to check what terrain bases I have in stock. Realising I didn't have that many, I placed an order with Charlie Foxtrot Models. I also placed an order with Sarissa Precision for a colonial building and one of their terrain tiles packs (the latter will be good for palm and rubber plantations where the trees will be in straight lines).

This afternoon, while the glue for the static grass was drying, I decided to make some rocks from XPS offcuts. After carving the basic shapes with my hot-wire cutter, I textured the rocks with balls of scrunched up aluminium foil:

I'm not sure if those will be enough, but I've got plenty more offcuts that I can use.

In addition to all of that, I chose to make a start on (actually, resume) a mini-project for my jungle terrain - kunai grass. A long, long time ago I had stained a bunch of cheap brushes various shades of green and then left them to dry. After which I just put them to one side, mostly because I couldn't work out how best to go about using them.

Biting the bullet, I decided to try one idea I'd had at some point in the past couple of years. Rather surprisingly it worked. The process is as follows:

1. Grab a small bunch of brush fibres and bend them out from the rest
2. Snip them near the base with scissors
3. Dip the ends in superglue then into water
4. Put the clump to set on a sheet of siliconised baking paper (or a silicone mat if you have one)
5. Leave the clumps for about 30 minutes, then remove them from the baking paper/mat

That's one brush down, five still to do. Once they have all been snipped into small clumps I can use a mix of different coloured clumps to make up larger patches on bases.