Work in Progress - New Terrain and Scenery Bits.

I've not had a lot of progress with hobby stuff of late, especially painting and larger terrain pieces such as buildings etc. This is mainly due to lack of space and a proper work area / painting desk but hopefully this situation will improve in the near future as some work on the house finally gets under way. This will give me more room to set up a new painting station and get to work on some of the things that have been hanging around for an age...

In the meantime I have had to make do with a temporary spot at the dining table when I can!

Recently picked up a few smaller pieces of scatter terrain and other bits as below....

First up is a batch of resin pieces from TT Combat and their rather nice 'City Scenics' range. The sets include a nice mix of modern flotsam and jetsam such as rubbish bins, mattresses, armchairs, a sofa and large fridge. Casting is pretty good with very little flash etc and the sculpts are a nice addition to any modern city setting. 

Next up are a huge stack of mdf crates and boxes from Gary at Figurebitz via the Book of Face. These are excellent and fabulously cheap to boot! Gary will burn any logo (within reason) into three 'sides' of each box. Of course you can just use the three sides from another set to have the logo on every side. I of course opted for '7TV'.

He currently has two styles of boxes - general cube shaped and a long box. Here we have Frank showing us around the warehouse, albeit none too pleased at the current working conditions...

The mdf forklift is another nice bit of kit from Figurebitz. Picked up a few other things from the range including some rather tasty 'Computer Blocks' that Crooked Dice will soon be stocking.

Next up is some very versatile fencing, this time again from TT Combat.

Last up is a few more sections of 'Mill Wall' from Warbases. I bought a load of this a couple of years back, with a couple of 'Mill Gates' and immediately bought some more but never got around to putting it together. Its pretty plain and basic but potentially really useful.

Frank is from Hasslefree Miniatures.

Buildings!

One of my plans for this year was to concentrate on buildings and terrain. I have been making some progress, more so with purchases to be honest, but I have a few buildings just finished. All are mdf, from Warbases and Sarissa. Love this stuff, you can add plenty more to these if you are so inclined (or better at modelling than me anyway...) but I am happy enough with the result from the kits and a splash or two of paint.

First up the Warbases Church. They were one of the first companies to release an mdf 'English' church and I actually bought this about three years ago!

Lots of greys for the outside - admittedly the look is a little 'blocky' and had I thought more about it I may have put some embossed plastic sheet on the walls. I didn't bother with the solid window inserts.

The roof is the classic 'cardboard slates' look with several dry brushed layers. Quite pleased with how this turned out. For a bit of fun I put some old Dungeon Floor Plans and a couple of internal doors (spares from a 4Ground set) on the inside and it adds a bit of character.

Next is the Sarissa Warehouse / Pump Station. A really simple but nice model - the card window inserts really finish off the look.

The roof is a couple of coats of greys, the walls are Army Painter Desert Yellow, muddied up a bit to try and get that London Brick Yellow look.

For the inside I didn't worry too much about internal detail but did give the walls a basic light grey coat and painted up the 'pump-engine-contraption-thingamy' that comes with the kit.

Lastly is another Warbases kit I bought a few years back that has just sat gathering dust. The kit is pretty basic but you can add as much detail as you wish. It comes with a whole stack of off cuts etc to add as debris.

I covered the first floor with cut and broken coffee stirrers for floorboards. The roofing is embossed plastic sheet from Antenociti.

I put a little more internal detail into this but rather than fill with permanent debris (I want to this to be game friendly) I built up several removable 'rubble' piles. The paintwork was an easy mix of reds, brown, greys etc and some black 'smoke' effects! The ground floor base was just coated with a generous layer of Plasticote textured spray paint.

Still to finish (amongst many others...) are three more Warbases Terraced buildings - getting there, slowly.

More work in progress includes a Corner Pub, a Warehouse, a Radar Station and Terraced buildings by Sarissa, some Plasticville bits, a set of Dust Tactics Quonset Huts, an Ainsty Guard Hut and a host of small scenery and vehicles. Phew!
 

Warbases Timber Stable Block.

I am a little bit obsessed with the host of mdf buildings available these days but I picked up one of the 'Timber Stable Blocks' from Warbases a couple of Salute shows back and never got around to making it. Not having a lot of free time at the moment and wanting something simple and distracting to do, I dug it out and spent a couple of evenings building it.

Above is the first shot after basic construction. Lots of glue and a couple of elastic bands recommended! Initially I was going to try to make the roof removable but to be honest it seemed like more work than it was worth so I just glued the roof in place.

I then took some good card and created the slate roof - it took me ages as I wanted it to look as ramshackle as possible which basically involved hundreds of little scissor cuts! In the end I was fairly pleased with the look and it definitely adds to the building.

I used two coats, one a dry-brush, of Foundry 'Charcoal / Charcoal light' for the roof and I think it was the ideal colour for slate.

I used Foundry 'Musket Stock Brown' for the woodwork and in retrospect this was probably way too dark and 'red'. The etching of the 'woodwork' still shows but the dark colour does nothing to emphasise it.

I used a mix of sand, filler and pva glue for the ground surface and then painted / dry-brushed it using Foundry 'Base Sand' colours and a light dry-brush of white to finish.

The finished building with a mix of flock and a few extra bits of 'wood' (coffee stirrers) attached around the place to give it that 'rickety' look.

I am pleased with the overall result for a couple of evenings work but that reddish brown will probably annoy me. I decided to gift this to Rob for his western town over at Streets of Inconsequence as he needs a few more secondary buildings!

Not a bad bit of kit for £6 - I am sure a better modeller than I could do much more with this...

Buildings.

I am always on the lookout for affordable buildings and have been quite impressed with the recent  trend for mdf 'flat-pack' buildings such as those by 4Ground, Battle Flag, Sarissa Precision and Warbases etc.

Warbases Stable.

Sarissa Precision Citiblock Warehouse.

4Ground Rorkes Drift.

The higher end of the market, using resin and the like, companies such as CJ's Models, Total Battle Minaitures, Architects of War and Grand Manner make amazing models but are just a little too expensive for me. Check out the awesome Dark Ages village below!

Grand Manner Dark Age Village.

Architects of War Jungle Village.

Somewhere in between you can find pmc. games - they have no online store other than ebay so the stock tends to be a little random and there is always the risk of being outbid. Having said that, most items come around again pretty quickly. The buildings are resin, sometimes based on hardboard and best of all they are pre-painted, flocked and textured!

pmc.games Walled Farmhouse.

I picked up the above 'Walled Farmhouse' the other day for about £20.00. The main entrance doors are removable, as are the three cottages and each roof also comes off. This particular building could fit into a variety of genres - I have seen them used in everthing from medieval fantasy to VBCW and WWII.

pmc.games Medieval Village set.

There is a nice selection and you can even pick up a good medieval village mix like the above for £65.00. Of particular interest at the moment, with the Dark Ages (SAGA etc) being flavour of the moment, are their range of thatched cottages, church and roundhouse. At the time of writing they are selling a selection with three varied cottages and the church for £29.99. They also have a growing range of VBCW buildings and some WWII bunkers.

pmc.games large WWII Bunker.

There is now also a new-ish company by the name of Fantascene who make a small range of reasonably priced fantasy / historical buildings that you can even get painted for you! More on them in a previous post.

Fantascene Gothic Mausoleum.

Total System Scenic also do a few bits and pieces for constructing your own buildings.

Total System Scenic 'Low House'.

This post wouldn't be complete without a quick plug for another source for cheap buildings - Dark House Games. They provide a UK source for the 'Plasticville' models. I have already mentioned them before but they are a good source for cheaper plastic modern 'Americana' style buildings.

A selection of Dark House Games 'Plasticville' buildings.

There are of course many other companies who provide building and terrain (Hovels and Monolith spring to mind) but I thought I would compile a few of the more recent ones such as those above.

Monolith Great Hall.

Warlord Games have just released a nice looking 'Ruined Hamlet' so heres hoping they continue with this range.

Warlord / Bolt Action Ruined Hamlet.

Lastly, Gripping Beast do a nice range of Dark Age longhouses and outbuildings, again reasonably priced.

Gripping Beast longhouse.