Crashed Rocketship Terrain Board part five

With the construction completed and the board under-coated I now had to think about what colour the board should be. My first plan was for a Martian red board, similar in fact to the bases of my Space 1889/Aeronef miniatures. I checked through holiday brochures for trips to America and studied photos of the Grand Canyon and Arizona Desert but felt that the red rocketship would be lost against such a bright red and orange base. I checked through modelling magazines and found that most sand coloured boards were to bland, all golden sand with no colour break. In the end I used an article from an old White Dwarf that gave a tutorial on Necron bases and board colours. A dark Flesh base, Vomit Brown midcoat and Bleached Bone highlight.

I picked up a dark brown/red tube acrylic from a cheap art store which matched more closely with Vermin Fur. I was happy with the colour and felt it could be darkened with a black wash. Two coats later the Venetian Red base coat was down. It does look a bit stark at this point, but a pretty heavy black ink wash toned it down quite a bit.

Once completely dry I ‘ferreted’ about in my paint box and came up with a cheap coffee brown acrylic paint which I scrubbed onto the red base, ‘by scrubbed I mean, used a large brush with little paint (slightly more than if drybrushing) and heavily brushed or scrubbed the paint onto and into the red/brown base colour.’ The finish looks slightly strange, with lots of the red/brown showing through, but we still have the highlight colour to add.

The highlight was a light cream acrylic, almost an exact match for Bleached Bone. Which was drybrushed on with a 2 inch wide household paint brush.

At this stage I felt that a second highlight was needed and used the cream paint and pure white acrylic to highlight the very tops of the rough texture. It was getting late and I allowed the highlighting coats to dry over night. The next morning I felt the whole colour scheme looked to ‘muddy’, difficult to explain, I just wanted a more vibrant base. I re-painted the cream mid-colour adding some dark grey and again highlighted with first cream and then cream/white.

I was almost there! Much later I tried a painting experiment and loaded my airbrush with the Games Workshop Brown Wash (Gryphonne Sepia - one of the new washes) and a drop of water. I over-sprayed all of the board with a wide nozzle setting and this ‘toned down’ the whole base giving a warm golden tint to the stark drybrushed white. Full of confidence I then loaded the airbrush with the brown and red washes (about 50/50) and this time picked out the flat areas. Later still a brown and black wash (again 50/50) was sprayed into the shadows and around the rocks with a fine nozzle. Before finishing I gave an over-spray of water and wetting agent (washing-up liquid) across the whole base, which ‘blended’ the effects into one another. Now I knew I was getting there! The finish reminded me of an article in the Privateer Press magazine No Quarter, where a desert scheme figure base was painted with a small sponge using the same basic colours.

When dry I added the rocketship to check the effect and I was very pleased, a natural looking base colour but not to glaring. Before cleaning the airbrush I used a straight black wash to ‘glaze’ the rocket engine trough and define the burnt areas, while still wet I brush painted some black and then black/grey acrylic paint onto the centre of the trough. I did not want to over-do this and kept the effect subtle with a very light drybrushing when the washes had dried.

The board is still not finished, but is getting close - in the next post I will detail how I decorated the painted board.

Tony

Birmingham Toy Soldier Show - Oct. 25th

On Sunday 25th October 2009 there will be a Toy Soldier Show at the Clarendon Suite, Edgbaston, Birmingham.

This is not a Wargaming show, but more traditional toy soldier fair with loads of 54mm toy and collector miniatures. I intend dropping by for a couple of hours to browse the displays and see if I can pick up some 40mm figures. This will be the third time I have visited this show and each time I have come away with bargains.

For anyone not familiar with this style of show, it has thousands of plastic figures from all sorts of eras, Ancients - to modern day, fantasy to traditional toys soldiers in lead! The prices can range from a couple of pence per figure up to hundreds of pounds each.

The venue is just of Hagley Road on the way in to Birmingham from junction 3 of the M5 and very family friendly. At different times of the year the same hall houses a Wargaming/gaming show and a comic book convention.

Tony

Flash Gordon - Mudmen

My 100th Flash Gordon labelled post. I just wish it could have been more exciting than a fourth Mudman! This is yet another Reaper Miniatures Earth Elemental - miniature code number 02777, but with a left arm from another miniature and the right arm re-animated. The first photo shows the finished miniature, based on a 40mm round base.

Photo Two shows the modified Earth Elemental (Mudman) next to a stock miniature.

Finally we have all four Mudmen, painted and based, showing the animation I have managed to achieve from the same figure. Painting was simple 'dry-brushing' over a black undercoat, GW washes and some lichen sponged on top. As with earlier posts, I have added some patches of earth to the upper shoulders and head, with static grass to add some colour to these otherwise 'grey' miniatures.

Tony, celebrating 100 up.

Flash Gordon Ethereals

The latest group to be added to my Flash Gordon collection are four Ethereal Guardians or Elders. Most Sci-Fi series have a benevolent ethereal being, think Star Trek, Star Trek TNG, DS9, Voyager, Babylon 5 etc. I envisage the group being parent-like characters, offering sage advice to Flash and Dr. Zarkov while being aloof and not wanting to get involved in day-to-day events (a bit like the Ents in LotR!)

Photo One - shows the completed group of four miniatures, from left to right; An elderly Ethereal, the group leader, a female and the juvenile.

Photos Two to Five - each of the four models in greater detail.

The miniatures are in fact Treemen or Ents from the Mithril Lord of the Rings range. They were purchased on E-bay some time ago and have been painted over a white undercoat with Vallejo Ghost Grey/White and the GW green wash. Each of the models had large and thick bases, that needed to be cut back and reduced in thickness, before being glued on to 40mm round bases. The bases were then built up with Milliput and detailed with small pieces of broken cork and sand.

The models range in height from 45mm tall for the juvenile to 62mm for the leader (foot to top of head).

Photo Six - Graven Images, Flash with the juvenile figure, shown for scale.

Photo Seven - Flash, this time with the leader and female ethereal.

In my attempts to add to my 40mm Flash Gordon collection of figures, I regularly search E-bay for suitable miniatures, these Ents are one of my more unusual additions, but I think they work well, and the true test is whether the miniatures take on a life of their own - as these do.

Tony

Crashed Rocketship Terrain Board part four

I wrapped the rocketship in clingfilm and sellotape to protect it, placed it in the trough and started to build up the wake with DAS and some small shale stones I collected while on holiday in Southern Spain. The stones are beautifully detailed but fragile and so I placed some in to the still soft DAS with PVA glue and with more glue and DAS built up a small mount to the front of the rocketship and along the sides.

When the DAS was dry I coated the whole mound with watered-down PVA glue and sprinkled on some of the fine shale that was at the bottom of the box I had been keeping the stones in, this is the black or very dark grey colouring you see in some of the work-in-progress shots

The sides of the rocketship were blended into the terrain with more DAS.

The trough behind the rocket engines was modelled in a different way. I first spread ready mixed filler along the trough and when partially dry I started to add gouges into the filler both across the trough and along it. The way that the filler broke-up gives a more realistic ‘broken ground’ effect as if the rocketship has really smashed into the ground and the rocket engines have burnt the trough. Very difficult to explain in words, but once again I was happy with the finished effect. Finally I used DAS to further blend-in the rocketship to the terrain, before removing it from the hole and pealing of the clingfilm.

When I was happy with the general terrain I started to smooth out the sides, first coating the sides with watered-down PVA glue and then adding ready mixed filler. I started at the corners and when they were complete I added filler to the central sections and sanded them smooth. More filler and more sanding and the ‘block image’ I was aiming for was completed. These couple of sentences do not even hint at the amount of work this particular exercise took. After a whole weekend (and then some) the sides were flat and smooth. I am not sure if there may not have been an easier way to have done this, one that might have taken less time and a great deal less effort.

The board was now looking complete, but there was still a huge amount of opportunity to detail the terrain. I sprinkled various grades of sand and small stones across the open board, added some small cork bark pieces and even a couple of larger stones, embedded and glued into the base. When finished I airbrushed a watered-down mix of PVA glue over the whole board to seal-in the loose details.

The sides of the board and monolith were brush painted with a mix of PVA glue, Gesso and white acrylic paint, when dry I repeated the process and then lightly sanded the sides smooth. Three coats of watered-down Gesso and PVA glue and the surface of the board was sealed. In the next installment, I will detail how the board was painted.

Tony

Aeronef Eye-Candy

I came across this illustration over on Lead Adventure - see; http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=13480.0 The illustrations are just fantastic, a whole host of inspirational ideas for my next set of scratch-built models. For more information, check out; http://sephodwyrm.deviantart.com/gallery/

The illustrations are by Maxim-Ivan. Very well done Sir.

Tony

Model Display at Droitwich Spa Library

Over the years I have supported my local library with displays of models. My latest exhibition shows the 40mm AWI/ACW models, from start to finish - from left to right; Illustrations and the in-progress kitchen and granary model from the Dudley Digges house, two resin cast buildings (the Guilford log cabin and Workshop) and two painted and finished casting. The open magazine article shows the Grand Manner advert from last months Wargames Illustrated.

The display is at Droitwich Spa Library, Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire until the 12th of October.

It is a bit too soon to judge the reaction as the display has only been in place for a couple of days, but I feel that support (no matter how small) is much appreciated by the library staff and visitors. Some time ago I did a similar display of narrow gauge railway models, inspired by an article in Narrow Lines - the in-house magazine of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association and the reaction was fantastic. For anyone thinking of doing the same, just contact your local library of museum.

There was one other bonus - the library regularly sells off old or damaged books and audio cassettes. I picked up this 12 cassette story book by Bernard Cornwell for £1.00. A bargain, 15 hours of unabridged story for just £1.00!

Tony