Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Palm/Alien Trees for under 25mm

Being "in-between jobs" since May 2007, my entertainment budget is based on what I can sell from my old Games Workshop collection of miniatures. Thus, when push comes to shove, I use a part of the income from that to purchase rules and miniatures and then am left with the need for terrain (I gave away my extensive collection of Geo-Hex, trees, and other items when I first moved across the continent nearly 20 years ago).

As my sons and I are playing in the ATZ campaign, and I intend for us to play other games from Two Hour Wargames, I felt it was time I re-established a selection of terrain for us to use.

I first purchased some felt cut-outs, at a nice and cheap price, which I will use for hills, wooded areas, water, etc., but I also wanted 3D terrain to go with the paper and foamcore buildings we have or will make.

When I came across this article on The Miniatures Page, a few months ago,  I knew that it was time for me to put my intents into action.

I then went to Michaels and purchased, for $1.99, some 30ga. floral wire, as the thicker wire is best saved for 25mm scale trees, in my view.
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This is thin enough to work for 6mm, 10mm, and 15mm trees, but not so thin as to snap when being worked with in a gentle manner.
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I then cut lengths of the wire, approximately 2-4 inches long, with four similarly sized lengths being used as the trunk and branches, with another length of about 10 inches, which I wrapped around the other four, to bind them all together and give a better appearance for a "palm" tree.

In the above pic, you can see a few of the assembled trunks and branches, along with the US pennies which are used as bases.
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I then spread the branches and roots a bit, to get an idea of how the would look. The labels pictured here are for file folders and they are approximately 1/2" by 4" in size. I could have gone with a different size, but these work well for the smaller scales and they were free, as I snagged them from my mum (she always has labels in her office).
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Since these labels are smaller than those used in the article at TMP, I didn't want to try to get the thin version of the palm leaves, but went for a representational leaf. You can plainly see that I folded a label over a wire branch and then trim and snip to get the desired appearance. They do not have to be perfect, they are for a general appearance only, not an exact replica of floral life.
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I purposely chose to use four branches, instead of six or eight. This way, I can make more trees, and the more branches means they become more fiddly to make. Sure, they would look more "real", but so what; these are table top terrain pieces. One can easily bend the wire, slightly, to give a bit more life to the individual branches, and to also cover up any mistakes in trimming and snipping.
The lengths that make the branches need to be held together and then the trunking wire tightly wound about them, starting approximately 3/4" from the top. This gives enough room for the labels. Also, leave 1/4-1/2" for the roots at the bottom; if left long, the extra can be snipped off with wire cutters. If too short, there won't be enough wire to prevent the tree from being yanked out of the filler by a falling tree being caught on something.  photo image_zps3cb4b78d.jpg
Next, I covered the pennies in non-shrink filler putty, a common construction item found in any DIY shop. This was followed by inserting the roots of the trees into the putty, firmly, but not forcefully. This serves to secure the tree, and when using a knife to cover the resultant holes, the tree will not come loose. note: The roots need to be spread out some, to grab the filler and to keep the tree upright. Failing to do this will allow the tree to be pulled from the base.
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Feel free to experiment with different tree trunks or branching structures. The above is meant to represent two trees that are so close together as to be one trunk, but have divergent branches. As long as you wrap the one wire around everything, they all will hold together fairly nicely.
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Be prepared to pay a price, in blood, as the wire is prickly enough to puncture the skin. The sting doesn't last long and a tissue sorts the blood easily enough.
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After the filler putty was dry, I painted the trunks, branches, and the underside of the leaves, with the thickest Gesso I could find at Michaels. This was the most costly item of the materials, but a 40% off coupon (they have weekly coupons available online that you can print and use once a day) reduced the price to under $4.00. The Gesso is necessary to keep the paint on the trees, as wire doesn't take paint at all well. Additionally, when applied to the leaves, it strengthens the leaf, making it less susceptible to being torn or bent when dropped (accidental tests confirm this).

Using thinned white glue, I added fine sand to the base, covering the putty, and giving a better texture to the base, allowing for proper painting, and increases the security of the tree on the base.
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The final stage, the painting, went the quickest, as drybrushing is the proper technique, after an undercoat of black. I used two shades of green, one dark and the other light, two more shades of brown for the trunks, and then two shades of earthy colors for the base. The colors are sold under the Americana or Ceramcoat labels at Michaels/Wal-Mart.
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The completed trees, a group of ten out of an eventual forty or so.

Apart from using eight lengths of wire, giving four lower and four upper branches, a useful addition would be to add a drop of superglue at the very top, where the branches extend from the trunk, and then sprinkle some static grass onto the glue. This should be painted dark brown, and gives the tree a more "alive" appearance as the typical palm tree, of those around where I live, are not clean up top, but rather have a "hairy" appearance from the bits and bobs of bark and broken branches. I almost did this for the first batch, but chose not to as it would have delayed finishing these first trees. I may do it in a later batch.

There are many varieties of palm trees, and there are at least three common ones used around here, so nothing has to be exact or true to a particular species. Just make the best use of the materials and time that you have available to you.

You can easily make the trunks and branches while watching your favorite TV show (as I don't watch TV, this was the most tedious part).

All in all, including drying time, these took about four hours to do. I could have gone with a different filler, which would have dried sooner, and I could have used superglue for the sand, but I wasn't in THAT much of a hurry and much of the four hours was spent while my sons were playing with Legos or watching a DVD.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Pendraken arrives

My order of Pendraken ACW (and some samples from other periods) arrived this week. I invested in a few packs of Union troops, to paint up and attempt to sell as units, via this blog.  photo image-14_zpsee3f4cb3.jpg The pic shows a sample of an infantry stand, cavalry stand, and command stand. I chose to go with four infantry figures as two ranks of four crowded the base and would be costly. Six figures, in two ranks would be better, but the ranks would be too open. So four figures, in a ragged single rank should work, for my eyes. Three cavalry figures was too crowded, by far. The command stands only need the two flag bearers, drummer, and commander. Longstreet won't need command stands, but I did not want infantry stands with command figures on them, as I would not be able to use those to make larger regiments for Black Powder. Four figures to a stand means I need 1 1/3 packs of infantry, to make a regiment for Longstreet, and six stands for Black Powder. The bases are 30mm square, which will be standardized for all of my 10mm armies. They will even work for my 6mm Baccus ECW troops, and maybe Napoleonics, if I get them in 6mm.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Hardluck Squadron: A Comic Life AAR

I've not done a battle report (after action report) using Comic Life 2, until now. My laptop is MUCH slower than my desktop (except my desktop is not working atm) so it's a bit of a pain to deal with, graphically. Yet, I still wanted to give it a try, to see what people (my readers) thought of it.

Let me know what you think, please. 

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The Lady Luck was my plane, and it was a very close call, until the very end. I had five fighters try to finish me off, but by evasively flying at tree top level, the German fighters were only able to come at me from above, where my few remaining gunners could deal with them. Three were damaged, but only one enough to drive it off. Only one got any hits into me, but one just splattered the remains of the co-pilot over the parts of the cockpit not already covered in blood, the others were superficial and only removed minor parts of the plane. Even without a bomb sight, my bombardier got 80% hits on target. 

Notice: I exported this at 72dpi, but I did not crack up the quality to max, which I now realize I should have done. Still, leave comments as to whether or not you like this kind of thing.

Friday, February 8, 2013

15mm Humvee, A Review

A pic from Irishserb's Miniatures
I am cheap. Well, my tastes tend towards the expensive, but my wallet dictates otherwise. So, when it came time to acquiring two 15mm Humvees for my All Things Zombie, Final Fade Out campaign, with my sons, I looked for economy and quality, in that order.

While there are a number of manufacturers of 15mm vehicles, most that I have found are overseas, and shipping costs would be dear. Thus, I turned my eye to domestic manufacturers and, almost by accident, ran into Irishserb's Miniatures.

Little did I know, but a fellow blogger, Fran Fran the Irish Man, aka The Angry Lurker, posted his own comments about some of IsM's wares a year ago, but I did not discover this fact until about 3 minutes ago.

I ordered two Humvees, just over a week ago, one with a M240 turret and the other with an M2 turret. The owner, contacted me and stated that the total would be $12, including shipping. Let me tell you, I was already excited by the $5 each cost, but $2 shipping, that's a deal!

I received the items in the mail, yesterday, as you can see here photo image-14_zps5fa3d014.jpg
Each Humvee came, complete, in its own baggy. The third baggy had the parts for the M2 turret and two extra wheels. This meant I got an additional M240 turret as part of the deal, not bad service at all!

I examined the models, looking for the typical resin cast issues. The next pics give an idea of the detail, although the picture quality is not stellar. photo image-14_zps78a2b920.jpg photo image-14_zps0ad35ced.jpg photo image-14_zpsacc15e3f.jpg
In this last pic, see the wheel-wells? There is a little ledge at the base of the vehicle hull, this helps to position the wheel properly as seen here photo image-14_zps61a523f3.jpg

The quality of the vehicles is very good. Apart from one pin hole on one model, which is so small as to almost go unnoticed, and from one of the vehicles having a slight miscast portion at the driver side headlight (which can be dealt with during painting), the overall quality and detail is more than acceptable for 15mm.

Here are the two fully assembled models photo image-14_zpsa29f638f.jpg

Because of the way the hull is constructed, the wheels were not difficult to position properly. I have no problems with the vehicle teetering at all, but you do want to make sure you line up the wheel from the front and rear of the vehicle, so it does not rub against the hull (it would look odd).

The only mildly serious quibbles I would make are:

1) the turrets can be a bit fiddly to assemble as the base of the weapon has little surface area, and the positioning on the turret means the weapon is essentially hanging out on its own, with no additional support from the structure.

It is possible I put it together incorrectly, as I could only go by the photos on the site as the models came sans instructions.

2) The small pieces of the weapons and turrets are going to be hard not to break. While nicely detailed, I would not bring this to a club game, let alone a convention, and I will be very particular even when using them at the kitchen table.

My preference for these pieces would be to have them cast in metal, so that snapping the barrels would be less of a likelihood. I can take some bending, but snapping is right out.

I highly recommend these products from Irishserb. If ever I need more modern vehicles, I will go to him first, and only go elsewhere if he doesn't make what I need.

Once I get these painted, I will post pics here.

Otherwise, color me pleased!




Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Projects for 2013

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I've recently sold off a portion of my Games Workshop miniature collection, including all of my Man O' War, some Epic, and some remaining 40k. (I still have LOTR plastics from the boxed games, a few blisters, and some assorted boxed sets of metals). The influx of cash enabled me to pay off bills, like I mentioned in the last post, but as I've sold even more of my collection off, I was able to spend some dosh on figures (not many, but a few packs of this and that). I am one who needs to plan ahead, in order to keep things straight and avoid making bad purchases (my wallet demands the last bit). Thus, after the figure sell off and going through much of my remaining collection, coupled with the new figures, I am reordering my priorities for this year and next.

 1) Building and painting Union and Confederate armies for Longstreet is a must. If the rules reflect the promotional material at all, then I will be happy with the game. I can possibly earn some extra money by painting up units to sell via this blog.
     A) collecting two armies in 25/28mm is beyond my ability for the foreseeable future. I can do it in 10mm, so Pendraken is the way to go.
     B) basing scheme needs to fit with Longstreet AND Black Powder, so I will experiment with 30mm square bases, with either six or eight figures to a base.
     C) terrain is a problem. I have nothing for 15mm or even 10mm aside from what I am building for ATZ. Going to have to start with felt and slowly build up from there, possibly scratchbuilding everything.

 2) I am really liking Two Hour Wargames' rules. The suitability for solo play will help with when the lads are not with me, and for when I eventually move back to the East Coast.
     A) Rally Round the King: Figure requirements for 400pt armies is quite small. Average is less than 60 figures per army. Going with 10mm Pendraken for most, with gaps filled by Kallistra or someone else, will keep costs down. The game rules are easy enough for the lads and I to play together. What basing scheme? Do I follow DBx or go with 30mm square bases? DBx has the fecking issue with base depth differing amongst unit types. A PITA when ordering bases, but lines of troops may look and feel better than masses of troops for this type of game. Feck! Need to make a decision.
     B) Colonial Adventures: Going to have to go with 15mm here. The breadth of opponents alone requires it as no one has even most of the needed figures in 10mm. Besides, these rules are more large skirmish than big battle, and 10mm would take away from the experience.
     C) Larger Than Life: Small group skirmish, likely less than 20 models in a single game. Set in colonial period, but will move to 25/28mm scale for a narrative feel that cannot be had at 15mm. Must scratchbuild terrain as purchase cost is prohibitive. Lads and I can really dive into this. Empress Miniatures, Wargames Foundry, Wargames Factory, and some manufacturers of pulp miniatures would be best.
      D) Warrior Heroes: Legends : Another 25/28mm skirmish game. I have Games Workshop's Warhammer and Warhammer Quest/Heroquest figures for this. Will use Reaper miniatures for player characters, and the other figures as opponents. Terrain is still an issue, but done right, I can use the same terrain from Larger Than Life. I do need plastic palm trees, though. Can find them cheap online, but the company that sells them for $.15 each charges $33 for shipping on a small order of 20. They can feck themselves, with a chevaux de frise, before I will consider paying for shipping at that price.
     E) All Things Zombie: I need to pick up I, Zombie, still, for the extras not found in Final Fade Out and Haven. The lads are really into this game, but most figure needs are sorted. We need specific Matchbox cars for certain encounters, beyond that, scratchbuilt terrain is the way to go.

3) The small pre-dreadnoughts that the lads and I are building are only really suitable for us to play with at home. However, using Bob Cordrey's examples larger ships, we could put on a nice naval game. Basewood, foamcore, and plasticard are needed. Also need 15mm naval mounted weapons, including pom-poms, machine guns, and maybe a 3pdr or 37mm gun, these are for scratchbuilt colonial wargame ships.

4) Maurice: It is about time that I built armies for this game. Kallistra's AWI range is perfect, and I can also use the armies for Black Powder, if based properly. 30mm square bases might be the way to go, although 40mm x 20mm is popular with many. They are expensive, and shipping isn't cheap either. I need to find a US based supplier whose mark up won't kill me, for smaller orders. Another candidate for selling painted units via this blog.

5) Beneath the Lily Banners: Army is nearly complete, as far as figure acquisition goes. I do need another three boxes of cavalry, but they aren't needed immediately. Campaign is delayed until computer can be repaired as the maps and strategic rules are on the harddrive. Hope the players can wait a little longer. Gives me a chance to take another look at some of the rules, to see if they can be streamlined, at least where character interaction comes in.

6) Need to sell Field of Glory army books, and hopefully the 1st edition rulebook. This project is cancelled due to too much effort required and little gain to be had.

7) 6mm TYW/ECW needs to be completed. The Baccus figures sit in a box, primed, but unpainted. After 8 years, it is time to finish them or sell them. Difficult decision as the period is interesting, but 25mm Warlord figures are appealing. Baccus are great, too, which is why it is hard to decide. They could be used for RRtK, though, but 30mm squares may be a bad basing scheme.

8) My now, near utter, lack of interest in sci-fi gaming is making my life easier. With zero temptation for new Star Wars or Star Trek miniature games, I can rest easy. With nearly all of my BFG ships stolen, the Rogue Trader RpG that I bought is now worthless to me. Cannot play without space combat, really, so I can try to sell the rules and books I have for it.

9) I am still owed 15mm SYW models from a trade this past summer. Whatever I get will be painted and based for Maurice, unless I can make another trade or sell them for Pendraken figures for ACW or Kallistra for AWI.

10) I need to find a way to win the state lottery without paying for tickets. All financial troubles would be at an end. Disappearing from money grubbing relatives would be a new issue, a fair trade for not having to worry about bills, I think.