Construction of Nottingham

As promised, I've got a post about how I made the matt and board for Nottingham castle.

It certainly wasn't done in the normal way but it seems to work and be rather effective. As space is at a premium in the 'cupboard' I decided to use the Mars boards I've made and double them for our Robin Hood project. 

The boards are 50mm deep as the Martian canal is this depth so there's plenty of space to play with on the underneath of the boards and as most of the Mars boards are plain it seemed a waste to leave them untouched.

I stared off with a rough layout of the castle parts that had already been done to allow for the positioning of the moat.

Firstly, two cut outs on two sides of the board were cut out to represent the cross section of the moat. Then, the interior of the underneath of the Mars board was built up first with a 30mm layer following the course of the moat and given a rocky texture by basically ripping out small chunks of the foam. On top of this a sheet of6mm acrylic was cut to fit inside the board but with two tabs where the moat crosses the edge of the board.

Then the final top layer of thin foam was cut and shaped to size for both sides of the moat. Before any of this was stuck down the acrylic was painted underneath with a browny green wash and the same wash was applied to the moat bed and sides. After this was dry it was stuck to the bottom foam layer with copious amounts of thick superglue and left to dry for a couple of days. Once dry the top layer was applied in the same way and left to go off.

An extension from the none castle side was made under the water out of styrene sheeting to allow the drawbridge to lower, as the drawbridge can only be a certain size this extension of the ground was needed (it will make sense in a photo later on). 

Once the top was thoroughly stuck it was given a coat of sand but not where the castle sits as it makes it much easier for transporting. When dry, the sand was washed with dark brown ink and drybrushed up to try and match my existing boards.

Here you can see the extension from the ground towards the gate and before the top layer was applied and sand etc added.

Greenery was added here and there and inside the castle walls was painted brown with limited grass in the corners. THe drawbridge was made from balsa and I am in the process of making a couple of small loops that the bridge lowering chains will come through. The drawbridge will remain removeable for ease of transporting.

Below are a few shots of it complete and hopefully very soon I'll be making another board that will extend the castle down one side.

ttfn

Riding through the glen...

I've got some more progress on the Hollywood Hood project that I posted about several months ago.

As this is a long term project (like so many others) I keep coming back to it when the muse descends. Those of you who frequent the LAF will possibly have seen this but here are some of the better photos of different terrain items and figures that have been completed so far. Not much wordage I'm afraid (maybe that's not a bad thing) just pictures to enjoy :-)

Any questions feel free to ask but I'll be doing a post later this month about the castle and how I did the most etc.

ttfn

Just a little more oil...

A smallish post today showing the limited progress on a small project a couple of are doing on LAF. Gladiators!

I must admit, this one took me by surprise when it got mentioned but as always I was collared hook, line and sinker :-)

The rules are a play test list by one of the members of LAF and are proving to be much fun (swing on over to have a proper shufty) with never two matches the same.

My Ludus is owned by Bibulus the Flos (a given name...) and is a small arena in the provinces. The basic board is a lasered plate with 30mm across the flats hexes scored on with a gap between them, these are then covered in sand and painted a suitable sand colour.

The sides are bendy MDF and will be enclosed by the rest of the arena, seating etc. I haven't quite decided on the layout yet for the rest but I'd like to include some other elements, like quarters for the gladiators and some rooms for the lanista... We'll see.

For the moment I only have two members of the Ludus but I'm hoping this is going to change soon. First off is a retarius.

And secondly we have a Thraex.

They are 40mm Battle Honours and although the sculpting certainly isn't the best they will do the job :-)

ttfn

Down in China town

Well, not quite :-)

A nice little commission that's been ongoing for a short while is a set of six Chinese shops from the latter half of the 19th century. I was lucky enough to get a couple of period photos from the client and they gave me the basis to work from.

Made from different layers of acrylic for the frontages and just a simple box construction for the rear they were rather fun to make. I'll be making some more for myself at some point soon when I get back onto doing the Boxer Rebellion.

Here are a selection of photos of what's gone on so far. I'll take some proper shots when they are all complete (and when I've finished my decent backdrop).

The detail fret work is either a simple mesh with various bits cut out for a Chinese feel of lasered acrylic. The roofs are Wills pantiles sheets which work fine until I get my own tile sheet sorted.

Unfortunately the pictures are a bit yellow but hopefully the difference in tone etc will be apparent. I've also altered the sizes ever so slightly to help break up the monotony.

ttfn 

Edo period buildings

Having recently been to Hakodate on Hokkaido got me in the mood to make some Edo period buildings. The town itself is full of Edo history, it being one of the major ports to open up when Japan came back onto the international scene and there are several excellent examples of preserved buildings just waiting  to have models made of them.

First off I started with a simple kura (storehouse) from the period. Brick instead of the usual plaster construction. This, like many of the buildings I will be releasing in the next few months, is in kit form. I haven't got a picture of the kit parts as this one is the first to see if it went together (it did, rather well :-).

It will be a sort of multi media kit as the roof tiles are resin but are cut to shape and already stuck to the roof plate so there isn't any real difficulty.

Like all the kits I produce, the roof is removable.

Just got the windows to shortcut out and it's good to go :-).

The next one I've started is quite possibly the first proper 'department store' in Japan, certainly in Hokkaido. All the goods would have been sold on the ground floor and the upper floor was for storage etc. Again, this will be multi media and will also have a wooden floor attached to a floor plate to give better texture. More pictures over the next week or two as it gets finished.

I've scaled it down since I made this one as it was a little on the large side and a bit impractical for cutting etc.

The figure is from Bac Ninh miniatures who will hopefully be adding to their range very soon. When this happens I'll be able to play something from the Boshin War or Satsuma Rebellion :-)

ttfn

Army painter

Not the product but a little project on the Lead Adventure Forum.

The idea is to paint an army unit a month to try and clear the backlog of unpainted figures (a problem that the vast majority of us suffer).

I think there are about 20 people taking part with many varied armies being done. My choice to start the Games Workshop Dogs of War figures I've had lying around for a good many years. Excellent figures by the Perrys (there are figures by other sculptors but I'm not so interested in them) of pike and crossbow armed units with the galloper gun in support.

At the moment I have done a 'unit' of ten and will continue to do so but I might up it to 15 or even 20 a month as I have a fair few to get through.

First unit as stated and I'm rather pleased with the result, a simple colour scheme and bases. I also have the idea to use them as a free company in our Game of Thrones games.

Leader chappy (obviously).

And the standard bearer. I did think of doing something a bit more special for the banner but realised that I probably wouldn't finish it.

I can't find the picture of all the figures I have to do which might not be a bad thing...

The next ten are primed and I will make a start on them tomorrow.

ttfn

And now the terrain for the figures

Following on from my last post about War of the Roses and Game of Thrones I mentioned that I would post some terrain relating to it. This time has now come (albeit rather later than intended).

The first piece, which is complete, was actually started about 12 years ago I think just after when I finished university. I only finished it a couple of months ago so this makes it the longest running project of mine (so far...).

It was meant as a tower house for my GW Empire force (back when I still used to play GW) but now it will certainly suffice for a holdfast for Game of Thrones and a tower house for the War of the Roses at a push. The details are a bit more on the fantastical side but I think I can get away with it.

The tower is made from card with the walls being 1.5mm mounting card and the bricks from thin, normal card. They were all stuck on individually along with the roof tiles and it was rather therapeutic to do :-)

Nothing special about the painting but I did give it a bit more weathering than normal to give it a windswept look.

The other piece that I'll be doing is a Peel tower. This one is based on Dalton castle on the Furness peninsular (about four miles from my home town) and I believe it's the most southern Peel tower going but I may be wrong.

Just the basics for now but I should be putting the details on at some point over the next week or two.

It's from a cast Wills sheet so there might be a few bubbles in it but they shouldn't be too noticeable.

Both are based on 160mm diameter discs and the idea is to make some simple surrounding walls with a corresponding hole to allow both towers to be swapped round depending on what we decide to play.

The style of the walls (as with most things I need to do) is undecided as of yet but it'll be a choice of wooden palisade or simple stone. Only time will tell :-)

ttfn

And now for some figures

For those of you that front the LAF you'll have seen these before but I thought I would post them here before returning from Japan and carrying on with other projects that I intend to show.

It's a long term War of the Roses/Game of Thrones project that includes terrain and figures alike.  The figures are mainly Perrys as having seen other peoples projects on the same they seem to be the most suitable for both.

The WotR initial retinue is of the fictional character, Sir John Aspley of Guildford. A simple colour scheme of blue and pale green with a white crescent (I later found that I have probably put it on the wrong side of the tunics but never mind...).

This is the retinue as it stands at the moment. The advantage with using Perry figures for both projects is that several of them will be able to be used in both settings (I might even use the WotR figures as a small house from the Reach or some such).

I have a few more undercoated at home and will hopefully put some paint on them this coming week including a converted character for Sir John himself.

The GoT project has been inspired by the TV program and although I'm working my way though the books it does look very good and I like their take on it.

My chosen main house is the Karstarks (mainly as the sigil is fairly easy compared to most) and again they will be mostly Perrys with some conversions (woollen additions and cloaks etc to imply soldiers from the winters north).

The hero is a Gripping Beast Age of Arthur figure with a head, shield and sword hand swap, fairly easy but gives an impression of a different figure all together.

The details on his shield were done with a technical pen and are the same as the banner (I haven't taken a decent shot of his shield yet).

I also wanted to try some different coloured armour so went for black on the banner bearer and my do some more of the same that would work for a household guard or some such.

And what is a project without terrain... The unfortunate thing is that the pictures of said terrain are on my phone but I will sort out a separate post with it in when I return on Wednesday.

Just as a final shot we have all the figures so far, not many I know but they get more :-)

On a final note, bravo to Blogger for allowing the placement of pictures in the post content on the pad :-)

ttfn

Mikasa

A few days ago I got a chance to go and see the battleship Mikasa. A fantastic must for anyone in the Tokyo area (even though it took about and hour in the car to get there, it's easily reached via public transport).

It's in the top three memorial ships in the world with the other two being in Boston (USS Constitution) and Portsmouth (HMS Victory) and is in rather good condition, even though it is buried to the waterline in concrete...

Unfortunately, the shop and guide book (English version) aren't that good considering but there are a English information points around the vessel where you press a button and a chap tells you parts of the history of the ship.

There are also plenty of display boards below deck that have both English and Japanese explanations and you can spend a good hour or so just going through them.

Needless to say, I took plenty of photos (about 350 odd) but the vast majority are for reference and the ones here are the best of the rest. It was surprising to see that they have built a 200 seater cinema in the bows but unfortunately there wasn't anything showing when we were there. There was also plenty of height below decks but with the modern addition of air conditioning and moving through hatch ways I still managed to bang my head four times...

One of the more pleasing things about the Mikasa, apart from the fact that it is an excellent bit of kit, is that is was built in my home town of Barrow-in-Furness and there also might be a possibility that my great grandfather worked on her. Unfortunately there wasn't anyone around to tell :-) There is also a street of the same name and it was only until a couple of years ago that I made the connection between the two :-/

Above is one of the 3" battery guns of which parts are still working and therefore were getting a lot of use by the kids :-) Fortunately it wasn't that busy (being a week day) and there wwe're no tour groups so I was able to get several pictures without anyone in them.

It's had several coats of paint over the years and there are modern additions (air conditioning etc) but you can still almost get a feel of what it might have been like... Almost.

A very enjoyable day out if a bit hot. Needless to say that I will be looking into making a scale version for naval games with the possibility of doing an entire range but a little bit more research into the period and other ships is needed along with popular gaming scales, rules etc.

I'll leave you with a few more pictures of this most excellent battleship :-)

ttfn