Wargaming Girl

Sunday, 23 June 2019

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, 18 June 2019

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, 14 June 2019

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.

Sunday, 9 June 2019

Broadside 2019

When I woke up this morning, my brain was wide awake, despite the effects of a bout of insomnia and my alarm going off an hour earlier than normal. Unfortunately, the rest of my body was not so awake - cue one shin bashed on the metal bedframe. I promptly reset the alarm and went back to bed for a while with my injured leg elevated

Finally I got up, had a quick breakfast and made my way out of London to Sittingbourne to attend this year's Broadside show. I arrived shortly after the show had opened, so didn't have to queue for long. After a quick perusal of the flea market, I headed downstairs to the main part of the show.

For those who haven't been, Broadside is a cracking little show run by the Milton Hundred Wargames Club, with a good variety of demo and participation games. For its size, it definitely punches above its weight for the traders it attracts.

I took photos of all the tables before I commenced my shopping - I had a fairly short list of things I definitely wanted to buy and there were a few things I was on the lookout for in case any of the traders had them. I was also open to "ooh - shiny!" items.

During the day I met up with a number of people. Early on I met Bob Cordery and David Crook. When I got downstairs I popped over to the Rejects' game for a quick chat with Evil Postie, Ray and Big Lee and dropped off my backpack with them. A while later I met Clint who gave me a small bag of chocolate fudge.

I also had a couple of good long chats (inside the hall and outside having a smoke) with Dave Stone who runs Wargames Terrain Workshop and is (ir)responsible for the "Death Match" game you'll see in the pics later.

I think that's more than enough of an intro blather, so let's get on with photos.

The Tables*

*not all of the tables were games

Echidna Games - Laserblade