Tuesday 25 September 2012

No more commissions this year

Wow what a year to date, been plenty going on and it threatens to swamp me. As you have probably noticed I'm having trouble finding the time to devote to PaintPigs Blog or the FigvFig Blog for that matter. I'm afraid things are going to stay that way for a while I have been snowed under with home commitments, the new forum and what looks like a never ending list of painting commissions.

To that end I will not be accepting anymore commissions for the year 2012, sorry but that is the way it is, I have more than enough work on the books to see the year out so additional commissions would not be acted on until year 2013!


I will re asses the situation come January however I feel that new commission work will be restricted to Table Top display jobs, for those pieces you want to have stand out on the field of battle and in the cabinet. My hope is that by taking this new approach that I may be able to get some painting done for myself, I can seriously say that my own completed (based and all) figures for 2012 so far does not require me to remove my shoes to keep a count!


Monday 17 September 2012

lace wars, imagi nations and old school

As I mentioned briefly in my last post I have been working on a content management system and forum for those interested in the lace wars, old school gaming, rules tinkering (new and old) and Imagi Nations. If you have an interest in war gaming or painting with figures from the era of Sun King Louis XIV to the American and French Revolutions read on.

 Latest dispatches from the interweb report a new gentleman's club for discussion by those Imagineers much attached to their Electors, Emperors and all manner of Imagined Upstarts. Generous spaces have been set aside for both the Old School and Classic gamer, Authors and Philosophers engaged in the further advancement of the Rules of War and uniform Outfitter's and Sutlers. Historical gamers who insist on lashing of lace on their figures are to be encouraged and very welcome indeed.

our eager staff are always ready to help
Only gentlemen of good standing, polite and courteous should apply, failing that cads and bounders of a polite and courteous disposition may also be permitted to enter providing they be honour bound to behave themselves to a code I and my staff apply strictly.
well dressed bounders may apply
To view and become a member of THE ODD FELLOWS WARGAMING LOUNGE simply click the underlined coloured text.
quartet of odd fellows discuss the latest rules while play testing continues at the table

Thank you for your time.

Saturday 15 September 2012

Terrain Tiles and an Update

Things have been very busy in the pen, commissions are full up till xmas, the guys I game with are putting on an Eylau demo game and we are busy setting up the table and getting the last of the figures painted plus I have been setting up a online news letter come discussion forum for those of us who enjoy 17th-18th century gaming, Imangi Nations, painting and tinkering with classc Old School rules and figures. More on The Odd Fellows Wargaming Lounge later.

I had a busy day last Friday playing around with terrain and suff. Beside mucking about with trees and such for our Eylau table I decided to start work my own terrain and assemble some modular terrain boards that have been lying around the house untouched for far too long.

The boards/modules by Back2Basix are held together by rare earth magnets and have a natty system for incorporating different sizes both in area and height and come with a disc with full video intructions.


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Anything that involves static grass has now bee moved to the shed, no good having it floating around the house when doing commission painting, my skanky cockatiel's are bad enough and as for cats fur, as the Breaker said "rule 303!" 

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All the pieces are laser cut and fit very precisely, first of the edges need a bead strip glued to the back of them to prevent the magnets from pushing through and then the edges are glued to the top (playing surface), the pic's show the boards upside down for fixing the edging. Modules shown are 100 x 300mm.

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Weighting the boards while the glue dries, this is a modular system and accommodates boards of a mix of different lengths and widths very simply, as you can see 100mm 150mm and 300mm. The modules shown are 300 x 300mm if I was to use them with 100mm or 150mm I would simply need to glue in magnets into the holes provided.

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300 x 300 x 32mm module with static grass, now for decorations

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These boards will be for easy going (might provide cover for prone troops) so I don't need much in the way of terrain features just enough to break up the blandness. I cleaned off the static grass and with white glue and gesso painted on the bare backing sprinkled over some sharp sand and some small pieces of blue metal (gravel) and then wait for the glue to dry.

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I have made up a slurry of gesso and white glue and dribbled it over the loose sand that wasn't in contact with the base and keep repeating the whole process until it looks right. In this instance I want the bare earth patches to look like boney ground with the last remnants of weathered rock so they must appear higher than the static grass rather than lower, the larger bits of gravel have smaller pieces placed around them an in some instances sand up and also over the sides. I simply use gesso to glue the gravel in place.

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Bit of maintenance while I wait for the glue to dry sufficiently

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Sand and gravel painted and with a bit bit of tuft, creeper and flower decoration added, might slop a bit of ink over the outcrops to add a bit of depth

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General overview, next I will clean up around the outcrops and work some variation into the static grass possibly make a few low laying shrubs or bracken and then onto the 300 x 100mm modules. These pic's were taken outside hence the change in colour from those under the fluro lights