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Conquistadors Officially Finished

Sort of….

Still a bit of contrasting flock and bushes to add and then a quick varnish.

And from the side…

I decided to paint up the skulls, some are the remains of the Triffid’s last meal and the rest were placed on the temple.

Still don’t know if there will be room in the tournament due to the size of the room and me having to have the kids. But either way at least I got something else painted.

Tonight’s painting was brought to you by:

https://youtu.be/hEJnMQG9ev8

Motivating myself to paint some Dark Future Vehicles…

And finally I shall leave this with you all.

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Temple Complex Completed

All done…

Well when I say all done, I did contemplate square plinths in the corner to put skulls on. Part of me wants to add plants on the outer wall to add a bit of brighter colour. But this would cause problems with bits getting knocked off.

I can fit two of the smaller pyramids into the same space provided that they sit diagonally front to back.

I decided to see how the pyramid worked with 10mm too. I am happy with the results.

I felt my Amazon’s were a good army for a funky pyramid, well that and they were the only ones I had to hand. 🙄

I gave the whole thing a smack with a ball of silver foil to give it a bit of texture. Not that you can really see it in these photos

For this build the paint was mixed 50/50 with PVA. This helps the craft paint adhere to the polystyrene. I also made up my own Sepia wash with water out of the condenser dryer, some sepia ink and a drop of detergent (I was too lazy to go back out to the shed for the proper stuff).

Guess who shook it vigorously to mix everything together? Three hours later there are still bubbles! Once this was dry a gave it a quick dry brush to lighten it back up again.

I decided against doing it the same colour as the Pyramid as it would look better with a bit of a colour change.

The Dry brush colour is the same as the temple.

Finally, I was going to add a terracotta tile pattern in the plaza, but decided against it as it would be a lot of work for very little gain.

Tomorrow I will probably flock up the troops and then who knows….

Azazel’s monthly challenge is something mechanical…. off the top if my head I have…

6mm Post Apocalyptic vehicles

15mm Flames of War tanks

20mm Dark Future Vehicles.

I may have a blast at some of them (but really should finish the Mongols) 🤔

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Temple Complexes and Triffids

I started on a plaza for my temple tonight.

Sadly I only had one thickness of blue foam, so it is a bit thicker than I wanted. The foam is held together by pins until the PVA dries. I fully intended to do something a bit bigger and a bit more complex. But the stronghold in the game must sit within a six inch square (600 paces) and must be bigger than 2 inches (200 paces). Technically I could have simply shoved the temple down, but it did look a bit weird just on its own. However this looks a bit weird on its own too. I suppose, I realise that Temples didn’t just sit in the open in their own…I really must get a life!

Once the PVA is dry I will attack it with some kitchen foil to add some texture and then get it painted in the same colours

The other thing I managed to do was the Triffid’s appendages…

Its not quite how I wanted it to be, I may repaint the ends as they went a bit brighter than I wanted. I am pleased with the way it looks, just not the colour.

Oh and while I remember, after some lovely photos of sunny days out, today it is blowing an absolute hooligan an£ P*ssing it down.

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October update

What I managed to do last month.

A whole host of 10mm Mongols…

And a few more 👍 Medium cavalry this time. This Mongol army is probably four years old. The actual Mongols had subjugated most of Eastern Europe in less time. There are the heavy cavalry and infantry to go, but I needed an army for the HOTT tournament this coming weekend.

Then a HOTT Conquistador army. These were my Birthday present in July 2017 or possibly 2016…they all blur into one 😱

There are also two units of spears and one cannon that were also painted.

technically the 10mm Amazons were finished in October, for the simple reason I didn’t get them finished in September.

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Lurker Bases

I got the Lurker bases almost done…

The question now is… which one joins the army?

The army has had the bases covered in sand. Once this dries I will get some flock on and get them varnished.

Today we went for Sunday Shenanigans to Catfirth seaplane base.

This was built in the dying months of World War One. In fact it was never finished. Three buildings still survive, the rest are long gone.

The three buildings can be seen in pink on the map below.

There is also the magazine and detonator store.

The roof of the magazine has disappeared, not sure when, or what it was made of.

One of the sheds has been used by sheep, the poop was up to the windows… I reckon they have been using it for around 90 years.

Finally for today, an arty shot 😉

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Tenochtitlan in Further Technicolor

I managed a bit more on the temples this evening…

The smaller ones had a terracotta colour added to the top.

I was going to add blood flowing down one set of stairs on the tall one but I have shelved that plan as I don’t want to spoil it.

I also did a few more leaves to go on the Lurker bases.

This is how I did the creeper. The leaves in this instance came from a small ball squashed between finger and thumb.

The one on the right is designed to go on the snake’s base.

Tonight’s work was brought to you by…

Whilst deleting photos I came across this chap.

By time I got the IPad out he had stopped cawing, it was a great photo opportunity, which I missed because I had just fastened it into my bag!

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Tenochtitlan in Technicolor II

First layer of the lighter colour on…

The steps are being left the darker colour as numerous people tromping up and down them would very quickly knock any colour off.

The smaller ones still need the step sides painted as well as another coat or two to make them less patchy.

I fully intended to get more done tonight, but firstly everything aches apart from maybe my ears, as today was office move day, it was meant to be Monday, but others decided that today was better!

Started at 09.00 and got to this level at 16.30. A fridge is a total swine to get up stairs as well as downstairs even with a trolley. What make it worse is that our fridge came upstairs and theirs went downstairs, we suggested we leave them where they were, but sadly the owners wanted their own Fridge!

The reason for the move…. well our two Social Work departments needed to work closer together, so they moved offices to be closer together, sadly not from another part of Shetland or even a different part of town… err no they moved offices in the same building. One floor down and about 20 metres closer, to be fair some of them did move about 40 metres so therefore they are about 10 metres closer. I despair sometimes I really do!

Apologies for the rant!

Second reason was that the kids went to the local Halloween party and finally I was so achey I had a hot bath to try and sort some of the muscles out.

Hopefully I will get the cracked on with tomorrow.

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Tenochtitlan in Technicolor

Well a desert yellow to begin with…

I wanted to seal the MDF so blasted it with my Army Painter spray can. It will become a lighter colour by far. I will also add some red and blue to the levels near the top of the tall pyramid.

I will get round to painting them tomorrow. I am just going to use craft paints on the bulk of them and then get a Matt varnish over the top

The other thing I managed to do was to stick the tank to a square base, I know I had a crappy day at work today, but tonight I realised how crappy.

Tonight I stuck a circular thing onto a square base and tried to work out which way the base and the tank went!

Regarding the tournament, only eight people can attend as it is in the smallest room in the building, this may mean I cannot attend due to having to have the kids that day. My Eldest wants to take part too. Unfortunately my wife is working the same day ☹️.

We shall have to see.

Tomorrow is, as they say, another day!

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Building Tenochtitlan

Well okay maybe not all of it 😉

Here is my big temple. Standing about 8cm tall. The sides are 9cm on each side.

Here it is defended by some Aztec warriors.

A nice size to go with the 15mm figures.

I also built three smaller pyramids (or simple Lizardmen dwellings as they are named on the website). These come in threes, the main one as an individual.

These are about 4cm high and 6cm on the side.

Each of the smaller one has an opening on one face. As seen by the one on the left. They work very well as minor temples too.

They are all made up of concentric squares in two layers with internal supports.

The step sides are then added, these help strengthen the whole thing. I used super glue, but could have used PVA instead. The upside of the super glue is that they were ready to get onto the table in a few minutes.

The thing I really like about these is that due to their construction you don’t get any tab holes showing anywhere. Because of the double layers, the stairs look the right scale.

Now these models don’t have any instructions, but to be honest it took about thirty seconds to work out how they went together.

These came from Dragonfrog games, found here

They both were £6.00 each so in my mind really good value for money. I didn’t have to pay postage as Martin runs his business from Shetland which is rather handy 😁

I suppose I have to now think about what to do colour wise. Part of me wants to leave them as they are and another part wants to make them brighter. Most pictures I have seen of Aztec temples when in use are stuccoed so therefore a creamy white.

In Hordes of the Things the Strongholds (temple) sit on a base 600 paces (15cm) square, with the actual stronghold being 200 paces (5cm) square. So either the big one

It suddenly dawned on me that my Alternative Armies Skull piles fit well on these…

Tomorrow I will work in some form of plaza for the temple to sit on.

The other thing I did tonight was squidge some Greenstuff into lianas and leaves.

The unpainted leaves are to go onto the Triffid base when it is cured. Once dried I will get them painted up.

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HOTT Conquistadors Finished…

Well apart from the obligatory basing ‘not done yet’ comment!

The Leonardo tank and knights finished tonight.

A side view on the knights.

The lances were separate, some twit never thought to check they would fit! It could be the reason that they are bent! The lances are rather long, these haven’t been glued in yet so I could replace them with something a bit shorter if needs be.

I am quite pleased with how these have progressed, roughly ten days start to finish. And if truth be known I painted more than I actually needed as there are two bases of spears, a cannon and a second Lurker done too.

This is my initial army list, it may change as I think about it 😉 I don’t want an über army that is a bit on the extreme side, but the spares allow me to have a think about things.

General/ hero @ 4 points

Behemoth (tank) @ 4points

Blades (sword and buckler men) x 2@2 points

Shooters (crossbows and aquibusiers)x 2 @ 2 points

Beasts (war dogs) @ 2 points

Lurker (snake or Triffid) @ 1 point

Hordes (native allies) x3 @1 point

Total points 24.

Flexibility of the spares (lurking at the back)…

Lurker @ 1point

Cannon @ 3 points

Spears @ 2 points each.

Unpainted are a lot more Spaniards and a lot more Aztecs, so the possibilities are endless 😉, well maybe not as I would have to paint lots more.

Part of me is tempted to get the Aztecs painted up for a second army choice. It is possible, but with only ten days to do it in then I might be pushing my luck. 🤔

What to paint next, is now on my mind??? But first get the bases on these finished, and then onto something new ( probably the hundreds of 10mm Mongols) or an Aztec army. 🙄

Finally my measuring templates came today.