6mm Scenery

I'm in an odd situation where I actually managed to paint a lot of things, it's just that I either lack the motivation to take photos of them, or there isn't enough natural light to do so. This post was not made under natural lighting circumstances, but I thought it was time to do photos again.

Anyway, here's a small review of the 6mm terrain pieces I have been working on for my Schultze-Böhnstadt project. All of them are handmade on the cheap and are based on 2mm plasticard.

A Return to Home Sculpting

 

I continue expanding my 28mm 17th century Eastern European collection. I just placed a hefty order with Warlord Games for that purpose. While they do not specifically carry much besides their Winged Hussars (of which I bought a box), their generic pike&shotte troopers are easy to convert or be used as dollies for more unconventional types.

However, that order has left my wallet a little bit bare, so instead of investing in another heap of lead, I turned to more economic solutions. I still have a lot of Green Stuff and Magic Sculpt, and also a bunch of Oyumaru/Blue Stuff for making press moulds.

I'm in awe of Master Tidmarsh's homecast figure collection, and started thinking along the same lines. However, I don't have a shed or other secluded place where I can tuck casting equipment safely away from pets, so I shall remain with my tried and tested method.

I made a previous post about experimenting with the thing, and learned a few things since:

1) The figure shall be cast without the arms attached.

2) The best end result occurs when you add a bit more resin to the mould than the volume of the casting, but just a little bit more to avoid excessive flash and/or distortion.

3) Applying constant, but not very strong pressure to the mould while curing makes a better result (as the oyumaru itself is a bit flexible).

4) Static poses where the figure can be easily 'cut in half' vertically generally work better.

With that in mind, I made a master sculpt from a Perry HYW archer's body and a Frostgrave crewman's head. All it needed was some filling, sanding, classic Cossack hairdo and a few buttons on the coat.

Now if you look at images of Cossacks, be it art or reenactors, you can see that their dress varies from the plain to the very garish, and I thought it's easier to have a very plain master and dress the figures up later once the basic one is cast.

So that's what I did, I made a pair of moulds and started producing clones of Oleg Basikovich. Fortunately I've got an abundance of spare arms and weapons, so the first four troopers and a sergeant are already complete and await their first lick of paint. As you can see it's rather easy to vary their headgear, add a longer overcoat or lacing etc.

My final goal is to build 2x8 pike-armed Cossacks and 2x8 with muskets, for the latter I'll use spare arms from the Warlord firelocks set. With the two moulds I can produce two to six figures a day, so it's not a far fetched goal at all. I also have some artillery crew and rabble foot in the making.

Later on I'll of course expand the collection with commercially produced figures, but these shall serve well as a core for my army.

The First Cossacks Assembled

I managed to assemble, base and prime the first three Cossacks out of the dozen originally intended. The master is in the center, with a bardiche in hand (a Bloody Miniatures metal Lochaber axe with the hook trimmed off); a pikeman in helmet (with a Bloody Miniatures head swap) is on the left, and a sergeant in a large fur hat, a partisan (Bloody again) and a drawn saber (sculpted along the scabbard) on the right.

The loss of detail with the press mould is minimal now that I cast the lower arms separately, and as you can see with a small variation in weaponry, headgear and/or hand positioning I can avoid all of them looking the same. 

Cossack Test Casting #1

Join me today as I create a two-piece press mould for the Cossack pikeman from the previous post, using Blue Stuff. 

First thing to do is The Coffin. It might look a bit creepy for the poor sod, but the point is to have the two parts of the mould fit as snugly as possible. Press moulds are going to have a lot of flash no matter what, as the material has to go somewhere, so we do this to prevent any excess.

Many people use Lego bricks for The Coffin, but I just superglue this hard foamboard, using the original dimensions of the master as a guide, to a sort of brick shape, with the top open. I also cut a piece that is the size of the aperture, to apply pressure later when both sides of the mould are set in place.

Cossack Pikeman Master Sculpt

 

Here's a short WIP post to show what I'm working on. This is the master for a Cossack warrior, intended to hold a pole weapon, which I will replicate using a two-piece press mould, something I'm quite proficient at by now.

The figure itself uses the body of a Warlord WSS artillerist, and head and arms from the Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago plastic crewmen set. The rest (including moustache and hair) I sculpted with Magic Sculpt, making the original torso a bit bulkier and lengthening the bottom of the overcoat. 

Pike & Shot Renovation Pt.3

A few more specimens of various make march off the painting tray: six Muscovite horsemen, six generic cavalry figures sculpted by me, and a group of angry Scots.

GNW Swedes, part the ten thousandth

I've completed two more units of foot and rebased the Västerbotten unit for my 1/72 Swedes. I also converted/sculpted a unit of horse.

Pirate ketch WIP

Put some work to the wee ship between exams. 

Gluing the sides to the base. The base is plasticard with a cardboard deck over it. The sides are also cardboard. Because they are hollowed, I used pieces of PVA-soaked paper to cover the edges.

TYW Cavalry

The first photoshooting went badly so I rearranged these and photographed again. 25 Revell riders and 2 Croats sculpted by me. Most of the painting had been done before, I just had to highlight the riders, varnish and base them. 

Painted Croats

Here are the two figs I sculpted the last time, painted mostly with the new Vallejo paints. 

Greenstuff Adventures 7. - TYW Croats

I still have a large chunk of greenstuff although I have ordered another 12" on ebay this week. The output is really a matter of practice - I have some methods that work and some that need a lot of change. These figures are more likely in their intended scale, 1/72, than the previous ones which were closer to 25mm. 

What helped was the size of the horses and keeping a Revell horseman close to remind myself of the proportions. 

Greenstuff Adventures 5. - Of trolls and peasants

This post's material is still made for the Inter Arma campaign session I am planning to do the next weekend. These above are two bridge trolls that hide under bridges and scare people. The youger troll mocks travellers and when it's in trouble calls for Troll Momma who then wrecks everything. Such is the life as a troll.

They have some moss on their backs too, the disadvantage of living under bridges. Of course there are many more types of trolls:

"The Trolls. Well, yes. These grotesque creatures see hatred as their main motivation, and of hatred, in ancient Prannonia there's aplenty. So much that trolls become dangerously fat on it. Not as dangerously as Geri the Barbarian, more like the Dangerously, little brother of the Black Plague, which, the dear Readers might or might have not figured out, was a disease, its smyptoms being discolored toenails, then a sudden escalation to a bad sore throat and the urge of rubbing kittens to one's nipples. 

This medical history aside, trolls, evidently, do not like people or each other. Many types of trolls roam the world, for the evolution (invented by Doravinus, one contemporary Breton scientist of Geri the Barbarian, during the examination of little apes) made them cunning and agressive in a thousand potentional ways. There are, for instance, bridge trolls, tax trolls, mediatrolls (this one originates from Greece), but oh there are volcano trolls, magnet trolls, and, as we know from now on, ghost-trolls as well."

Greenstuff Adventures 4 - Big Red Bird

More likely to keep up with the counts and not to browse back months when posting the next one entirely about greenstuff. This bird was an acquisition of my little brothers in a village faire or something similar, it cost a lot and eventually ended up between a pile of other scrap toys and cards with its beak broken. Now when I found it I knew it would have some use so put a beak back on it (this is the greenstuff part), some decor feathers on top of the head, and here it is, a phoenix or whatever you want to call it.

The eyes aren't even close to symmetry so it really does not have a profile, tried to take photos from varied angles.

1st Grenadier Brigade of Frickland

Six stands of line grenadiers (black turnbacks, white breeches, gaiters, mitres) done during the weekend plus the command figs. The mitres are done with chunks of green stuff, they may be a little big but in this scale who cares? 

Just trying to take on my tricorne painting mood and had time to mess with the greenstuff. No further explanation needed.

The foot commander is converted using an infantry fig and a rider's arm with the sword. Both commanders wear the traditional light turquoise vest and some golden pieces to make them stand out. 

What to sculpt next? + Switching to G+?

Christmas times passed, there is still one more battle report to be told and it looks like my New Year's Eve will be busy and presumably very hazy (hope I won't try to get run off by cars or convert an advertising column to Catholicism ~ in case you wonder, that actually happened). 

So the first question is, should I connect the blogger profile with Google+ or not? What are the advantages? I've seen some of my readers switch to that version and need some advice on the matter.

And here are some random ideas what to sculpt next:

• Still thinking of upgrading some Mars 30YW Imperials,
• or converting ACW/late 19th century figures to steampunk (speaking of which, I've completed the Airfix tank and will post photos next week)
• Civilians - 19th century era to be mixed with my ongoing stuff
• Space Troll British Rifles - space trolls in Napoleonic rifle outfits
• Anti-Tank Dolphins (carried in small pools, in case dogs don't work)
• Canadian Mounted Bear Police - because we know, all Canadians are half bears (but at least 30%)
• Dorfainen Yellow Islands native tribes / World in Chaos archipelago headhunters - it's the same, hungry savages not to be disturbed unless armed with superior firepower.

It's planned that I play a game of both SDS and Inter Arma with my JCW Imagi-Nations troopers for fun and see how can I improve the DIY rulebooks. Some serious censorship has already been done to them but they're closer and closer to perfection. You will see in the next report that bad luck really decides battles (this time bad luck was on my side). For later gaming, I think I'll buy some Alban figs first (especially the Sharpe look-alikes) and then maybe some Victrix as I don't need a full box and they sell separate sprues.

Greenstuff adventures 3. - The Deadly Trio! (and some vegetables)

Here we have three mercenaries, sculpted (mostly) by me. They do look dangerous don't they.

Second take on Count Ozgrusowoa von Glutemarknog, born in Sweden and fighting with various weaponry. He's the head of the party and never seems to be short on coins. He once wrestled a dozen badgers.

Greenstuff adventures 2.

I told in the previous post I was in a 30YW painting mood and had this figure unfinished from last weekend. I managed to complete the sculpt and then paint him, he's the fella with the mighty sounding name Ozgrusowoa von Glutemarknog, the Swedish mercenary character I've drawn some time ago.

The sculpting itself isn't so bright especially as it is more out of scale (intended to be 1/72) than the huge Zvezda figs, well I've got two ways around it, either he's tall as a mountain (which I would like) or have another go at sculpting him and take more care to the scale and proportions.

I used a paper skeleton enhanced with stripes of GS on this one, while the earlier sculpts had a single match or pin for a core. This allowed a better pose and a stronger body to work on. While the skeleton was left to cure, I sculpted the sword around a half of a match stick. 

The rest of the progress came when the skeleton was strong enough, first a 'sketch' of the body, then the head. I had to redo the boots twice and I'm still not happy with them enough but the paint fixed them all right. So breeches and boots first, then the buff coat and this was when I added the hands and the weapons in them, along with the sword hanging from the right hip as the man's left handed (like me, what a coincidence). When these were solid I sculpted the belt, the sash, the hair (moustache and goatee were done earlier) and the hat.

Welcome to 'paulalba2004' from Napoleonics in Miniature, thanks for joining.

Greenstuff adventures 1. - The beginnings

Post title could be one of a movie actually. Well, here we are, after receiving the solid pack of greenstuff from Australia, I began sculpting something.
First rule learned through various stages of my painting career (and which I occasionally do not hold up to) was not to rush anything. So, something relatively simple first, then advancing on higher levels, learning which tool is what for etc. Hint: I enjoyed it all along.

#1, after realizing it's not really like playing with plasticine and my huge fingerprints can actually cause a lot of trouble, I came up with this earth golem. Fantasy stuff, yes, supposedly 1/72 scale. Counts as an armored unit, it's hurling a huge rock or ball of dirt with one limb, I've yet to decide if it will have a ranged attack or not.

Here goes a welcome to 'fogsoldiers' from Fog's Soldiers blog, thanks for joining.