Chinese fireworks factory

For todays diversion we have a Chinese fireworks factory that was commissioned by a very nice chap from the LAF.

The brief was quite basic, just a compound with a couple of buildings and a broken wall with firework stand as fill-ins and a damaged section as if the fireworks had gone off prematurely. I got the inspiration for the layout from an old Boxer rebellion photo and the rest just sort of fell into place. The basic construction was out of 5mm perspex with various windows and doors laser cut out.

The layout changed somewhat from the initial design but the client was fine with this and once the basic construction was finished the details were added.

As it is supposed to be a factory I thought they would probably test the fireworks on site so I made a small 'launch' platform with a rather crude launcher on it (with of course a fire work standing by). Other details included the damaged wall to the rear, the idea being that an accident had blown part of the wall, roof away and a round door with round windows for the entrance (a suitable Chinese feel).

The other main detail was the firework stands that fill the gap in the wall, one of which had to be a large pot of sulphur on a fire (the one on the right).

Once all the parts were done it was on to the painting. Normal creamy coloured walls were the order of the day but for a change I decided to paint the roof red (red glazed tiles as opposed to grey glazed tiles). The groundwork was painted as normal and the floor of the compound was a warm grey. All the base colours were painted first and then the shading and highlighting was done after to bring the colours more together.

 I felt a fair bit of weathering was called for and dirtied down several places with inks and pastels. The explosion damage to the rear needed a lot of weathering  but this was done after the normal shading, highlighting and weathering was done.The firework stands were painted as normal with the only real weathering on the sulphur pot and fire (which isn't lit). There are also signs above the doors in Chinese and they say, in size order from small to large, Powder Store, Warehouse and Testing Room. The sign above the main entrance says 'Wei Lo Bang, The best Fireworks.

I'll leave you with some more beauty shots
ttfn

Slowly bringing in the New Year...

Bit of a slow start for me this year. Not work wise, as that's been very busy (along with commission work) but just getting used to there being a New Year. Didn't seem to sink in that much.

Any way, for the first post of the year I've got a little diorama/terrain piece and some more for the SALUTE table.

This piece was for a very nice chap called Brian who is great to work for as he has an idea and then lets me get on with it using my expertise in the subject.

It was for a smallish addition to some of the other terrain I've done for him (see photos below) and is a yadoya, or inn, on a small separate base with an attached garden.

Most houses etc in small towns and villages (right up to the largest ones) would have a small garden or enclosure out the back. This would be used for perhaps a small garden, storage area (the unpainted building in the photo is a small kura or storehouse) or sometimes just a semi private place away from the bustle of the main street.

Construction was quite simple, a yadoya was taken from my stock and put in place at the front of the base, a fence was first sketched in place and then later permanently attached. it needed to be worked out first for the even placement of the uprights.

A small storehouse (or kura) was made next based on the same sort of design as the one in the catalogue but smaller and this was placed at the rear.A small well was built also and put towards the rear as this sees to have been the case more often than not. An outside toilet was also added to the side of the inn.

Once all the parts were in place the base was sanded as normal and then painted in the same way that all the Japanese terrain is done.

You can see the layout of the piece in the photo. The bases measures approximately 150mm x 250mm.

A couple of trees were added to give a bit more character and the well had a small rope with a weight attached. a few growies were added around the base to break up the ground colour.

Doing this piece has added to an idea for my SALUTE board by utilizing the same idea for smaller, individual 'boards' that have one or two buildings on and can lead to greater variety in the future.

As you can see it is a very versatile set up with plenty of options, especially with more building bases. The one on the right is for Wayland Games as I am making their Bushido board for SALUTE (more posts on that soon). The one to the rear is Brians and the one at the front is mine for my SALUTE table.

For now I'll leave you with a few different shots of the original building base.

ttfn

More samurai terrain

For today I've only got one thing to show, and it is a rural hillside graveyard which will be used for next years SALUTE board.

The basic shape was roughed out of yellow insulation foam and cork bark (where would we be without this!) which was placed randomly to look nice and to create a smaller profile that another hill wouldn't.

The base is 6mm MDF with a slight chamfer on it and everything was stuck together with a  hot glue gun (probably the best option for doing this sort of terrain.

The hill and ground were then sanded as per normal and then inked with watered down Windsor and Newton Peat ink.The rocks were also inked and one of the many good things about cork bark is the variety of colour that it has.

The graves were already stuck in place (but only undercoated) so a little care was needed in sanding around them but it didn't matter so much for the ink as it will add to the overall effect. (the black circle is a pen mark for the torii but I decided to leave it off).

The next stage was to drybrush the whole area and this was done with cheap artists acrylics and a rather large but soft brush. I generally go up in three colours of lightening tones for the drybrushing as it helps to bring the details and contours out, the rocks were drybrushed with varying greys and then some areas were washed over with a greeny/brown ink.

The groundwork was done as normal, using three different types of flocking, one was fine and is for normal open ground. Another is small grade sponge foam (differing colours) and the third is a special mix that I use for treed areas.

Trees can be added or removed quite easily as during the initial construction process I placed tubes at random intervals all over the hillside and kept them free or debris so the trees (which all have bare wire 'trunks') can be put in any order or type that I have from the box..

The graves were painted individually in different shades of warm greys and the names of who is buried there were written on with a fine line technical pen.

That's about it from me, I'll leave you with some more beauty shots :-)
ttfn

Starting for SALUTE 2012

Well, I've been getting bits and pieces done for a while now but now I've started in earnest.

This years samurai board will consist of the outskirts of a town, a fair few hills, a bit of a river, some of the terrain that has already appeared on here (namely the roadside shrine) and if I have time a corner yamashiro, tall but compact.

The town will be sized down in reference to the ground scale (what I mean here will become clear in time) but most of the elements will be present.

Every Japanese town of the period would have samurai mansions and residences as part of their makeup. I've chosen the easy way out for this table and I'm only going to show the outer walls/ancillary buildings.

Basically, the town would have the richer, more influential people (generally samurai or high court officials etc) towards the centre and the poorer, merchant types towards the suburbs (merchants were treated as a lower class of person in the period) including the retainers etc. This of course wasn't a hard and fast rule but quite common.

I'm going for a mix of the different areas with the higher class buildings on one edge of the boards and the lower class buildings encroaching into the board itself.

For the buildings shown they are just about done apart from the tiles roofs on the entrance and long storehouse. This will be done this week.

I will also be doing some plans of the table layout to help me along the way and when done I'll post them up here.

For the actual town I will be making urban boards (again, shown on here when done) and I hope to have a few vignettes in various places to give character.

For most of the normal buildings I'll be using items from my catalogue but there will be a few special ones thrown in to break it up a bit. The table itself will be 12x6 and the fight will be happening along the length instead of the width. The idea being that the attacking troops will be coming in from the mountains and the defending troops coming through the town. All will be made clear later :-)

ttfn

28mm Victorian modular warehouse

Two posts in one weekend, I must be going mad...

I've been working this out for a few weeks now and here is the result, a modular Victorian warehouse kit that's all ready to go (unassembled of course). As you can see form the picture to the right all the bits are there and come ready primed.

Included in the kit are the parts as follows. Front, back and side walls, roof plates and struts (including guide lines for the placement of tiles), a floor plate that sits inside the walls, door and windows (spare windows) and a sheet of tiles (enough for one roof).

The walls are designed so that they will join 'seemlessly' together and the window/door recesses have a slight ledge all the way round to support the said windows/door.

It is possible to make a larger version using two kits and I will post a little post on that in the near future.

The brick and door detail is recessed so there will be no lack of detail once it's painted. I do recommend using a spray basecoat and then normal drybrushing on top to get the desired effect.

The photo to the right shows the scored detailing a bit closer so you get an idea.

I have plans for different types of windows and doors in the near future that can be bought as a separate bundle and there will be other expansions also.

I will also be making lots of other types of building to go with this one and most of them will be able to be made together in some way (wall swaps, extensions etc).

The painted version I did quickly last night just to show the detail in a better light. Obviously this one is typical brick red but have a look in Google images for 'Victorian brick colours' to get an idea of the tones and hues available.

I will eventually be doing one in 'London stock' which is the yellowy/cream colour found in London and the surrounding area. Of course the roof can be left removable so as to have interior access and the door/windows can be left loose (or blu-tacked in place) to allow for the simulation of damage etc.

This is available now but won't be on the website for a while yet so if you fancy one then just e-mail me :-)

Well, that's all for now, I have a gaming weekend of games, food, beer and madness to get ready for next week :-D

ttfn

28mm Yamashiro is ready

The modular yamashiro is finally ready to sell and it will be going on the website next week.

First off is the gateway, nice and simple as mentioned in a post below. This section is 150mm long like the straight sections already available and is about 100mm high. The gap under the gatehouse is approx 45mm.

The next two sections are both 60 degree corners, one internal and one external. I have started on the masters for 30 degree corners but these won't be ready for a while yet.

One of the options that will be on the website proper is a set of one gateway, two external corners and two straight sections. There will also be an expansion of more straights and internal corners but that yet to be finalised.

The set option is shown on the left and although it won't fit flush with a table edge I don't think this will be a problem.

The buildings in the yamashiro section will also be available in a set and there are more waiting in the wings to be finished off.

I also have plans for a few other sections which I think I mentioned in a previous post but I'll mention them again.

There will be a integrated wall building (used either as a store room or barracks), a corner tower but the size is no where near decided yet. There will also be a small tenshu or keep and a slightly larger barrack building.

I'm also thinking of an openwork watchtower but that's a fair way off yet.

ttfn

More ashigaru for Caesar?!?

Just a small post today of my second Hail Caesar samurai forces.

These boys are Sanada clan and there are five bases for my typical unit frontage but not all of them have four figures on. The figures lend themselves to have a bit of disorganisation and so several of the bases only have three figures on them.

I'm thinking I might employ this more often as it would save a little bit on figures and give them a more 'authentic' look.

The banner was hand painted again along with the mon on the jingasa. I left the sashimono blank as this seemed to be the case for quite a few ashigaru units (well, according to a couple of Japanese books I've got).I will, at some point, set up a decent photography area in my room as my camera skills leave a lot to be desired :-/ However, in the mean time, these will have to do.

I've got the next unit primed and mounted for painted but I probably won't touch them for a while as I've got a few commissions to get cracking on with.


ttfn

Hail Caesar samurai.

Well, samurai and ashigaru.

I've finally finished my first proper unit for Hail Caesar (as opposed to re-basing existing figures).

The clan is Myoshi which, along with Sanada, are going to be my main clans for the time being. There are so many that it does become difficult to pick between them.
There are five bases in total and I think that will be the norm for nagai-yari ashigaru (pikes). For the teppo and yumi (arquebus and bow) armed troops I'll be doing four bases with a smaller amount of command.

I still have the nobori to do (two off) and I'm torn between hand painting or printing and touching up.

I'm also working on a divisional command base for my Sanada (already got one for the Myoshi, see an earlier post).

I have enough troops for a small division (two pike and one arquebus) and when I get them back I'll be re-basing them all and then, then I'll be able to have a game. Still got to sort out the tweaks for the rules which I'll get round to over the next few weeks or so.

Below are some pictures of existing figures that I'll leave you with to enjoy :-)

ttfn