Posted on by maenoferren22

Morning Zombies

Very little achieved last night as I was sorting out my shed.

I managed to get a wash on the cloaks, a second coat of red on the breeches. I also added some dark green on the command section tunics. I did consider white as befits an elite cuirassier unit but decided on the Russian Green. The other conundrum is the musician. Quite often these had reversed colours to the rest of the unit. I was worried that it would look like a figure from a different regiment.

I have ordered the necessary green paint to do the cloaks for these and the two resin ones. Hopefully it will come soon as I want to crack on and get them finished.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Bedtime Zombies….Again

At least these are Zombie cuirassiers!

Here we have Preserovitch’s Elite cavalry unit who have dismounted to hunt for Ferach stragglers in the Witchlands. I have basically just blocked in the cloak and breeches. I started quite late so I haven’t got as far as I would have liked. In reality the officer would have had a silver-grey greatcoat but I felt if I went down that route the unit cohesion would be lost. I might give him a silver breastplate to allow him to stand out a bit.

I am either going to put a wash on the cloaks or paint them in some grey-green paint. They aren’t as bright as they look here, but I am just not too sure if I like them or not.

The ones in the background are being painted up for my mate’s birthday. I need to find out the colours used on the prepainted ones so I have some hope of matching them in.

I really do like these figures and tried to buy just these from the starter set; instead I have had to wait a bit before I managed to get some.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Undead line Finished

I eventually got these painted…

img_4198

As per normal, they look better in the flesh so to speak. They are in fact highlighted which is not visible at all on most of them 😦

Next up is this merry lot:

 

The Savant Zombies will be first. The ones for my mate have to match into the ones he got painted from Alternative Armies.  I will check with Gavin to see what colours he used ( I have a pretty good idea as I am using the same paints myself).

Mine can be a different colour as I see fit/fancy the look of. Mine are the ones on the circular bases and his are on the square bases.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Lunchtime Crates

Making crates – production line method

 

I decided to do some more crafting this lunchtime. I had sawed lines into a pile of cubes so I brought them in to get them sorted.

I found that the index cards are an ideal thickness as well as having a pile of lines on them. This meant that I would only have to measure the inner widths.

img_4193

The first time I did this, I used a single length of card and then when it ran out I cut some more.

Each cube uses twelve lengths of card… I can get 6 x 20mm out of each piece of index card. Luckily I can also get 5 lengths of 25mm card.

I did a whole card to start with. I cut the strips out and folded each.

 

 

Once they were all folded I measured the required length of each cube face and cut these out.

img_4196

It was then a simple case of adding them to the cubes with PVA. I like this glue to affix the card to the wood as it soaks into the card making it easier to bond them together.

img_4197

Although seeming to be tedious, to begin with it actually meant that I did the four cubes in not much more time than I did two.

I am still to add cross pieces to all of the faces, however, part of me wonders whether I should bother.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Undead line and more purchases

Adding lights into my shed took a bit more time than expected.

I still managed to slap some paint on these tonight. I am not sure you can actually tell in this picture.

My purchases are thus:

The new Savant zombie colour party with sergeant, drummer and standard bearer. The rest of these in the range are resin, these however are white metal.

Below the zombies are a selection of Ferach troops from the Witchland’s campaign. These poor souls are wrapped in blankets and heavy coats to keep out of the cold. I will be painting these up for my mates birthday present.

The one thing I was not expecting was the amount of flash on the flag bearer. This, I can honestly say is a first. It will take a couple of minutes to sort out so there are no issues there. The other two zombies have a bit of a mould line so I think it was a bit of a wobble with this individual figure.

Next up are my toys.

Another four Savant zombies to take my initial squad to ten. I really do like them in their cloaks. If the colour party had been modelled wearing them I might have been tempted to get some (I am still not sure about kettle drums in a skirmish game).

A bit of a clean up is required but it won’t take long.

Next up are another couple of civilians.

An Othari aristocrat and a hobgoblin miser. These are full of character, the Aristo is wafting his, no doubt perfumed, handkerchief whilst the miser is writing something down in his notebook.

I really do like the civilian figures from the various ranges. It is my aim to collect them all.

Last of all was my free pile of carrots 🥕. As I got these models under an offer I received free postage and another set of carrots.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Undead Line

I got a bit more painting done tonight.

These half dozen zombies are all in greatcoats. Instead of giving them a contrasting cuff I decided to leave them as either brown or grey. Bizarrely enough there are three identical pairs. Even though I picked them up at random I have managed to paint one of each pair in brown and the other in grey.

Their flesh tone is skeleton bone at the minute, but once dry I will add various washes. Some greenish and others a more khaki colour. Even though I have been painting lots of zombies and other undead I still haven’t got the hang of painting their flesh.

The greatcoats have yellow epaulettes, mainly to add a bit of a brighter colour, but also because I saw them in the Osprey book on Russian Napoleonic infantry and I quite liked them. I will try and add a number on each, however it may lead to a repaint 😁.

My MDF bases have arrived so I can base up to 100 infantry on the 2p sized base. I managed to find one to base all six of the lot I am painting now.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Finding a real Smuggler’s cave.

We had never heard about this 19th century smugglers cave even though living up here for 12 years. We found out about it today and set off on an expedition to find it.

We eventually did…

In the 19th century the fishermen didn’t own their own boats. The paid for them in the fish they caught. A friend of my wife has done some research and for every one boat registered another four were smuggling. The crews would go out in their sixareens to the fishing. This was a deadly job and a fair few tragedies happened around these shores. In July 1881 58 men were lost from Gloup when 10 boats foundered in an unexpected storm. Basically every able bodied man from the village was lost.

These clinker built boats would head out up to 40 miles off shore and then return. Some would stop off in Foula, an island off Shetland, sell or trade some of their fish for brandy and then head into their secret locations. They would Drop off the brandy and then head home. They would either return for it later or some of their accomplices would do it for them.

This cave was one such secret location. One end opens directly to the sea and is not visible from the nearby village of Hamnavoe. The other entrance is about 100 metres away and is well hidden amongst a jumble of rocks.

On the way back the kids just had to jump off every available rock…

We had an awesome afternoon out exploring somewhere around 7 miles from where we live.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Objective Markers

I decided to get these finished tonight.

I am really happy with how they came out. All of the items are GW plastic components saved up over the years.

I still think my favourite is this one.

It tells a sad little tale of someone being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Poor soul was having a rest behind the chest when a cannon ball spilt him in half.

Next up is another mini diorama

What information does the book hold or what lurks in the chest behind the wheel.

Here we have a scroll left on a barrel. Is it an important communication or simply a list of items sold at market. Perhaps the barrel contains something of value or is a booby trap to confound the unwary.

Finally is the way to Bogenwald…

This is a bit of a wierd one. When I started this blog I wanted a name for it. Rather than my name I thought I would come up with something a bit different. In my Wierd war campaign many years ago the heroes had to infiltrate a secret base near the town of Bogenwald. The name evidently stuck as it came to me when contemplating a title. Roll on a few months and as I am mooching around in my bits box I come across the sign showing the way to Bogenwald, oh and Schwartzhelm too.

To be honest I think I need to do a bit more work on the drum. It wasn’t the easiest thing to paint as there was very little detail.

Because of these my painting of figures has dropped behind tonight.

I managed to add a wash to the greatcoats and that is about it.

I hope to get them a lot further on tomorrow night.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Longship

I had a break from painting uniforms…

I built this for a friend of mine. It was pretty much already painted and 90% built. I only really had to make a sail and raise the mast. As it was missing the steer board I scratch built one out of offcuts of MDF.

The kit comes with some MDF shields and oars as well.

I want the mast to be removable and was struggling to vote up with a concept to release the ropes. It suddenly dawned on me to use a nautical device. So I nipped back into the bin and pulled out some more scrap and made some belaying pins.

The mast was made out of three sheets of kitchen roll trimmed to size and toughened with PVA. The rigging etc is made from my linen thread from my leatherwork box.

All in all I am happy with the build. The manufacturer is Dark Ops really not a bad model for £14. The only thing I added was the sail and the rigging.

I didn’t get much done painting wise apart from base coating some more objective markers and a rather large wild boar.

I also went off gallivanting to a beach nearby as it was such a lovely day.

Posted on by maenoferren22

Visthowla Legion

My big werewolf is finished.

I only have one of the set. There are 6 different ones with interchangeable heads and arms. I rather liked him so he was an impulse purchase. My original plan was to have him as a big werewolf for the forces of the Star wraith. However when I looked into it (and to be honest the Vistula legion was Polish – doh) I should have realised this unit was on the side of the Ferach.

Never mind he is a really funky figure, a bit of a grizzled veteran of many a campaign. He will certainly add a bit of a punch to the Ferach forces. He painted up nicely. I did toy with the idea of painting him in the blue and yellow of the Vistula legion but decided to stick (sort of) to the colour scheme on the Alternative Armies Website.

This basically being blue tunic with purple collar and cuffs. A red Czapka with gold braid and white breeches.

When I say he is a big werewolf, I mean he is indeed a big werewolf.

He towers above the Ferach stretcher bearer.

The other thing I managed to finish tonight was an objective marker for Flintloque or similar games.

This poor unfortunate sheltered behind the solid protection of the chest only to have his legs taken off by a cannon ball. Time and the depredations of carrion eaters have left him in a sorry state.

As it is for Flintloque the body may in fact be a trapped zombie protecting the chest. The only way to find out is to open the chest and see what it contains. Pay chest or perhaps an officer’s stock of best brandy. More than likely it will be nothing more than the records of the quartermaster.

Next up will be half a dozen Zombie line.

It looks like they have already found an officer!