Additions vignettes

Some of you might have seen these on the LAF but I'm putting them here as well.

They are basically small vignettes with a selection of the additions from my catalogue.

The first one is JA03 and JA09, the cannon and palisades.

And the second utilises JA01, JA05 and JA07 which is the lantern set, the small boats and the luggage set.

I've got the graves on one as well and I'll get some pictures of that later this week :-)

ttfn

 

SALUTE 2014

Firstly a quick note to say OSHIRO modelterrain is back open and I would like to say thank you to all those who passed on their goodwill messages :-)

Secondly, it was Salute last week (for those who didn't know) and I've posted some pictures from my samurai display table. This year I actually won the Best Trader Game award of which I am immensely  pleased :-)

Thirdly, I'll have plenty of new posts in the coming months of new and older projects but for now, here are a selection of Salute pictures.

ttfn

A bit of news

As some of you may know through my website, OSHIRO modelterrain, I am having to take a few months off due to medical problems.

We will be open again in the new year but as a consequence I'm not taking any orders, commission or catalogue for the time being.

This being said, I intend to do several posts on the ever increasing 'Japanese on Mars' project that has being ongoing over on the LAF. Some of you will have seen the work on this project but it will help to post it here as nothing really new will be done for the coming months.

Many thanks

James

Akira style gaming table

Going to Japan you can't help but notice the almost near future style of the cities, with cramped tower blocks vying for space and a host of bright electric signs.

This type of city has inspired me to do my own version for 28mm gaming and to have it in the style of Akira. For those who don't know what Akira is it's basically a near future, almost post apocalyptic vision of Tokyo with biker gangs, government agencies and psychics. The film is quite a mind boggler but it does have a certain appeal (my paltry synopsis really doesn't do it justice at all).

 For this project I'll be keeping more with what modern Japan (specifically Tokyo) looks like but adding futuristic elements to give that near future vibe.

The first I did was to draw up a simple, generic block of flats. These can been seen all over Japan in differing forms and colours. I'm keeping as much as modular as possible to allow for playability and changing the look of the board.

This a quick shot of a primered set of floors but without the ground floor shop, not very clear at the moment...

This is a view with a test coat of paint and limited weathering. The tiles were marked in the lasered grooves with a technical pen

This is a kit that will be for sale in my catalogue within the next week and below is a slightly better shot showing the top floors. The window frames are left out at this stage to allow for the ease of painting.

The ground floor shop had to be generic and I've drawn up several different designs for shop signs that will hopefully not tread on anybody's ip :-) The kit will come with window frames and glazing.

For the gaming table I will also be trying to light as much as possible and below are a couple of pictures of the shop being lit...

One of the features of modern Japan is the very busy, utility based skyline and I hope to achieve that with plenty of these power lines. This one was a test but I will be making a slightly simpler version for casting purposes.

One of the more different structures is the city parking tower which can be found all over the central areas of Japanese cities. An ingenious solution to the ever increasing lack of space, it's basically a tall carousel on which cars are driven on and then rotated for the next free space (that probably doesn't make much sense).

Below are some group shots of the original block of flats with a second one on the go and the parking tower in the middle.

And what Japanese skyline wouldn't be complete without the obligatory red and white comms tower. This will also be in kit form and could be used in many sci-fi settings.

Last but not least I'll be producing an extensive range of small accoutrements and additions to add to the exterior and interior of the buildings, starting with some air con units. I'll be making some bigger ones to go on the roofs and next will be some shop shelves.

Quite an extensive project as you can see but it has been on a back burner for several years now.

More to follow on the actual board itself in a month or so (after my last show of the year) and more on different types of buildings as and when I get a chance to design and build them.

ttfn

Off to Japan

Not quite but I've got a samurai commission to show.

It took a little longer than I would've liked but it turned out well in the end :-)

This arrangement has proven quite popular for commission based works and this time the request was to have removable roofs. I used the original templates from the resin catalogue items but cut them out of slightly thicker material to allow for the impression of a decent wall thickness.

I unfortunately didn't really take any decent wip pictures but if look at some of my previous samurai posts you'll get a good idea of the general construction process.

The only slightly difficult part was making the upper roof on the merchants house due to the fact that the upper floor is just about on the same level as the eave line. A rib construction under the tiles allowing for the low floor solved the problem though.

An additions set (JA01) and a small tree were included to add that little bit extra of lived in detail. Below are a couple more shots along with some detail ones.

ttfn

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