Anton and I have continued our afternoon WRG sessions here is our latest "messcapade" for your amusement. As a general note these games are seen as opportunities to try out army idea and just generally "getting in a game". We randomly assign each other and army book to work from and run on a standard 1,250 points for each army. Anton had book II for this game and I had Book I.
Having finally finished painting the exterior I shifted gears and started on the interior of the model. Rather than trying to paint and model the interior features directly onto the walls I decided to build them as flat objects that I could simply glue to the walls after painting was completed. Regular readers will likely be aghast at the idea of me carefully measuring things to ensure a tight fit, but I assure you that all the measurements were made by marking directly from the model onto the materials and the ruler served only in the capacity of a straight edge for drawing lines.
The first step was to draw flagstones on the floor of the room that I was working on. The thick soft matte-board is easily indented by a ball-point pen (much like the roller indented the blue board). With the flagstones delineated it was a simple matter to paint over the floor with thinned-down paint so the dark lines showed between stones. This worked even better than I thought it would.
It seems like a thousand years ago that I started painting the individual stones on the surface of this collection of models. A solid week of four hours a day painting little tiny rocks......what in the name of all that is Holy was I thinking? But it is done now. Weathering, highlighting and interiors remain.
As usual I'm not sure just what I will be running but there WILL be a game.
Helion & Co. have gotten a fair few dollars of my hobby budget over the years. Interesting subjects, well presented by knowledgeable authors and printed on top-quality paper made their line-up of books one of my go-to for new or unusual periods. Of late I have been collecting their Century of the Soldier series.
I had a problem with recent purchase and sent an email about correcting the problem. The staff at Helion solved the issue and sent an email the very next day. How refreshing it is to have a company that understands what customer service is supposed to be like. So, Hooray for Helion! They have made a regular customer into a happy proponent of their services. Take a look at their site, they publish a wide array of books covering the 15th Century to the present and pay special attention to areas outside the mainstream.
Mark and I gave this a try last weekend. Jolly good fun, quick to learn and play, no written orders!!! I'm ditching my own rules in favor of these. They have just enough granularity to be satisfying but are not bogged down in masses of record-keeping.
I have tried my hand at a few different patterns of stonework on the Bastle House project. After an exhausting afternoon I decided to "go back to the beginning" ( as Vizzini would say) and spend some time looking at pictures of REAL bastle houses. This was less than entirely helpful.
I took a stab at painting the individual stones different shades of gray. I can't say that I am truly happy with the results. To my eye I allowed too much variation in the colors. Once it is fully dry I am going to hit it with some washes to see if I can tone it down and even-off the tonal variations. At least the thatch is almost right.
If you look at the photo of the real one you can see that the rocks are not al the same color, but mine has too much difference from rock to rock. I might have to re-think my painting program.
Well, not me actually, but the Bastle House complex has shifted tones from deep brown to medium gray. The weather was kind and I managed to get the entire set of buildings sprayed gray in one afternoon. Now comes the really fun part of picking out individual stones in different shades of gray. That might take a bit of time.
Not very exciting, I will admit, but the crucial first coat of paint has been applied to the entire model. Now it looks as if it had been modeled in chocolate ganache! Having found a rattle-can brand that doesn't melt the foam I will be picking up a couple of cans of Rustoleum Flat Protective Enamel. Long time readers will remember the fiasco during the Afghan Hills project that saw an entire 3x3 foot terrain board ruined at the very last stage by some hyperactive solvent getting to the foam (and, strangely, end up on fire in the field behind my house). Careful testing with the Rustoleum product has shown it to be "safe and effective". This product will provide a nice medium gray color that should work well as a base for the many shades to gray that will end up on the stone walls. The first coat of standard household latex paint secures the wallboard compound against moisture and strengthens the foam.
