Terrain Tuesday #21

Would you believe that the last Terrain Tuesday was in Dec 2016?   Yes, you probably would.

That's why I don't begrudge spending time off the 30Minis challenge to get my terrain juices flowing [Urgh!].

Last week I popped into Poundland and bought one of their Topiary Balls...

It cost £1.00

It was the work of minutes to strip it to its component parts....

A Sphere of Doom at the ball's core

Said component parts were a reasonably sized pile...

After that it was a matter of getting the hot-glue gun and some spare bases in order to make some scatter terrain.

All in all, a decent result from half-an-hour's work on a day I couldn't face anything more involved.

Terrain Tuesday #20

It's been a little while since I did a round-up of purchases from charity shops.  So here goes...

First up is a bottle of stuff I picked up a couple of months ago.  I'm sure it'll come in for basing (or I may have to make a pile of coal a la 'Railway Children')

The next I picked up last week.  I don't know if they're ornaments or the remains of a chess set, but with a little dry-brushing they will make monumental statuary.

And last Friday I hit the Pulp jackpot when the shop I went into had a half a shelf devoted to Egyptian bits and pieces! 

And while we're on Pulp, how about the greatest Pulp Hero of all time?  Not terrain, but it came from a charity shop.

Where can I get Snowy in a space suit?

And not from a charity shop, but terrain, are these skull beads which came from China via eBay and arrived just before Halloween.  They're a tad out of scale for normal use - but what is Pulp and Lost World without giants and giant apes?!  Thanks to Martin Cooke for the tip (he got the red ones and put them to good use).

Terrain Tuesday #19

It's 'fun-with-coffee-stirrers' week this time.  Otherwise known and 'super-glue-fingers-together-Sunday'.  Some quick-and-dirty terrain.

I think the photos speak for themselves...

A bridge

Some walkways

The off-cuts make signposts.  A little under-sized, but as it'll be the work of moments to make more, I'm not too bothered...

Lastly, I don't think I shared the following recent charity shop find.  Any suggestions (other than kindling)?

Terrain Tuesday #18

A small amount of progress on the wedding cake columns.  They are hollow so I started by putting some 2mm foam sheet on the top (or, as you'll see from the photo, mistakingly on the bottom of a couple).  They're now undercoated, awaiting painting.

The other four proved quite useful in ventilating my constantly-overheating laptop.

On Sunday I went along to the Hereward Wargames Show in Peterborough.  As I was busy on the Diplomatist Books stall, I didn't get around to taking many photos or getting enough details to write the day up.  Although only in it's second year, it's already ground by at least a third, and was a very good day.  Hopefully someone else will post about it, but I haven't seen anything yet.

Anyway, I bought some terrain loot at the Tabletop Sale.

Sorry for the blurriness

The building and bases (two bags for a pound - much cheaper than my usual option of using 2p pieces) came from a chap who's name I should know, and seems to do most of his trade on FaceBook.  The house was £6.00, which I consider very good value.

I may share more loot tomorrow (unless I make a Dr Who Wednesday post).

Terrain Tuesday #17

OK, as you'll remember my first goal for the month is it get rid of some of the half-done terrain that's lying around.

The Viking(ish) buildings were 90% finished, but there was some snagging that needed doing.  It's now done.  As I wrote in the last Terrain Tuesday (back on 31 May!).  This was a project that I enjoyed  a lot.  The test pieces having worked out, I'll be making some more buildings along the same line.  Having watched a tv programme on Viking settlements in Iceland and Newfoundland, I also want to have a go at some turf houses.  Watch this space...

Next up were adventures in dry-brushing.  

You may remember the Big Stone Head...

Well, he has kin...

Looking at them now, they don't seem to go together, but I assure you they came out of the same box!

Then there was this evil bugger, who I picked up in a charity shop...

And going back to stone heads, I've picked up a pack of Ristul's Extraordinary Market stone faces basing kit to add features to my terrain.  I do like Ristul's bits and bobs - though most are a little too High Fantasy for me.  You may, however, remember I have their cursed treasure.

Is it me, or do some of them look a lot like Benedict Cumberbatch?

Terrain Tuesday #16

I mentioned yesterday that we'd been without Internet access for most of the Bank Holiday Weekend.  I didn't mean to suggest that this was a bad thing!  Although it was very frustrating, it meant that I sat down and did some hobby stuff.

Warbases

Last week I decided that my Chiefs and Heroes needed 35mm bases to make them stand out.  Now, One Does Not Simply Go to the Warbases website and buy a pack of bases.  

No WIP pictures of these as they go together so simply.

I added planks to the wall and a flannel thatch.  I'm not sure about the former (see later).  For the photo I hung a shield above the door to make it all a little less Brown.  But again I'm not sure.  I may paint the door or walls or both a different colour.

The next item is a combination of the Celtic cross and a casualty marker to make a turn counter.*  I did toy with the idea of giving it the full Dark Age colour scheme, but decided that leaving it grey was much less work meant that I could use it in different settings.

 *"These go to twelve"

Warbases seem to add new lines every five minutes.  I am very interested with the news that came out yesterday that they'll be adding a range of  ruins suitable for Frostgrave, I'll be getting some of them, I think.

I got the Grub Hut to see how easy Warbases' buildings were to put together.  The answer is that they are a doddle.  I'd certainly buy more of them, but probably dispense with adding unnecessary planking.

Another reason for buying them was to compare them with what I could do myself...

Scratch Building

I recently bought a batch of business cards and post cards for Diplomatist Books.  Like most people, when I get something through the post, my immediate thought is that the packaging looks really nifty.

A lad who's going places...

A look on the web provided some inspirational pictures.

The addition of some bamboo skewers and sandy paste was a lot easier than planks and resulted in a tidier look.

No, it's not finished.

Not sure of the pitch of the roof - but nevertheless a useful building (perhaps as a cricket pavillion!).

Adventures in Dry-Brushing

While dry-brushing the Celtic cross, I took a couple of other items from the terrain queue.

Remember this?

Getting there...

Then there is one of the runestones I got from Fenris at Dicini 2014.   Again, I should have gone with the original paint scheme, but I bottled it.

For a modern carver of rune- and image-stones (in glorious colour!) see here.

Random blocks