A long time ago... Episode 1

My Episode 1 ;-)

I've been a fan of the original Star Wars trilogy for many, many years and I've always dabbled in it with wargaming but with the imminent release of what promises to be a film harking back to the original trilogy I thought it would be a good opportunity to do some gaming and modelling...

 The chosen figures are the Wizards of the Coast bendy plastics. Not the best figures to sort out but they have a good selection and with a quick ink wash and some highlights they are relatively easy to get ready for the table.

My initial idea is to have a selection of figures for each 'themed' table, and these will be desert, space (hanger bay decking etc) generic green and possibly snow (got to do something with the Snowtroopers).

I currently only have one Stormtrooper photographed half way decently as I'm in the middle of making my own light box (more on which in another post when it's complete) but we'll start with him and move onto the terrain and ships.

He was given a quick going over with a scalpel to try a remove the mould lines (a thankless task) and then washed with GW brown ink (can't remember the name) and then the white was picked out with normal white paint, built up in a couple of layers to get the right white.

I think I might lighten the base a bit though :-/

Obviously I'm starting off with Tatooine for the first set of figures and terrain, you have to keep these things in order ;-)

Next up is a moisture vaporator built from bits and bobs that I've been hoarding over the years (I started out making models of spaceships, both kit and scratchbuilt, the wargaming is a more recent addition to my hobby exploits).

Simple off white paint job with some suitable weathering and it's done.

I'll probably have to build a few of these but I went and started a building a small building which made it's way into a spares shop; Sooson's Spares to be exact. The name isn't from anything but it sounded suitably Star Wars esc.

10mm foamcore for the basic build on a base of hardboard. The texture is a mix of whatever I had to hand at the time and will possibly change from building to building as I run out of the original.

The 'spares' are just left over bits from the years that have finally found a use.

Painting was quite simple, I found a spray can that works well for a base coat and after a wash with GW chestnut ink (yet another stupid name I can't remember), a heavy drybrush of white and some choice weathering it seemed to fit the bill. I've only done the roof for now but it won't be long until the rest is done.

Next on the list for terrain was a landing pad. This will eventually get a building and walls to surround it but the opportunity was there to make it now, so I went for it. Again, a simple spray job and some heavy weathering using pastels, inks and sponged paint and it's done.

I've been using the same two figures for scale shots and they have now been named as Tag and Bink as a nod to one of the more tongue in cheek Star Wars comics. They will be appearing at regular intervals along the way.

I'll leave it there for now but the next post will have a couple of complete vehicles in it...

Stay tuned :-)

ttfn

Lower class samurai house complete

Aha! This took a while but it's done and I must say, I'm fairly pleased with the results.

The start of the building this is linked here

The roof was a difficult choice. First it was going to be thatch but finding a suitable way of doing the thatch was still causing me problems so then I thought about doing a tile and wood roof but that didn't really fit with the 'style' of building so it was back to the thatch. I finally found a suitable material in Japan and got to work.

The roof construction was a 1.5mm card construction then a 5mm blue foam build with rounded edges with the material on top. This was then given a liberal coat of 'browned' wood glue and left to dry. Several ink washes and light drybrushes later it didn't turn out too bad.

There was also a little led 'tea light' stuck in the roof to allow the appearance of occupation which should hopefully be apparent in the bottom two pictures.

Having got a feel for the construction I think I'll be making a bigger and more complex compound in the near future.

ttfn

Castle Blackwolf - Part the first

Well, this is going to be quite the model when it's done. I was asked to make a castle as a commission and for some bizarre reason I decided to make it from individual bricks...

Of course, the option to use styrene sheeting was available but to be honest I really don't like sorting out the corners, whether internal or external and bricks seemed to be the next best solution.

It started with a loose brief, something akin to a Scottish tower house but with an element of whimsy and fantasy thrown in to fit a certain base size. The castle of Eilean Donan was my first port of call and once the plan (shown below) was approved it was time to start building.

I had a plan but building up from that was done as the build went on, it seemed the easiest way to do things. For the vast majority of builds I have an idea in my minds-eye of what the finished thing will look like and for the most part this was no different. The only thing to be decided were the details as I came to them.

Starting from the bottom the main structure was bulked out starting with the 'plan' and then adding the upper sections later.

And just to prove these are individual bricks, here's the tub that gets added to continually...

They are cut from 10mm blue insulation foam and are approximately 2.5mm x 5mm x 10mm and are glued with wood glue

Below is the main body blocked out with 10mm blue foam, windows yet to be cut in when I decide where to put them.

Below are a selection of shots showing the different parts of the castle that are being built on, obviously more to follow at a later date but I won't be doing regular updates on this until it's ready to paint in the middle of next month.

ttfn

Some more WWI trenches (picture heavy)

I've been sorting out through my pictures and found a few more of the trench commission for many years ago.

The first piece was for a blown out house with not much left that had been fortified a little bit. The walls were a lasered frame covered on both sides by thick card to represent the plaster, the card was made slightly bigger than the lasered piece to allow for individual bricks to be placed on top of the walls.

Following on from this are a few more pictures of more generic pieces.

ttfn