Reinforcements

Yesterday, I received Ungrim Ironfist. I think I'll use him as my Battle Standard Bearer as he comes with a back banner.

Today I got 15 Long Drong Pirate Slayers. They came painted. I was worried as I already have 10 painted pirate slayers but they look like they will match up pretty well.

First Warhammer Game In a While

Yesterday, I played my first Warhammer game in over 12 years.
My Slayers against my friend Will's beastmen.
The purpose was to learn the base mechanics of the game (again)
My slayers were slaughtered in true slayer fashion but they took a whole lot of beastmen with them. Pretty fun. Really wish I had some armour saves tho.

Holiday Arrivals

Just got my 25 Painted Dwarf slayers + command and Garagrim Ironfist in the mail.
Things are looking up.
The slayers are painted in a different style them I'm used to but they look great.
I also managed to paint 5 slayers to a basic war-games standard, and everyone else is primed or has flesh painted.

Merry Christmas to all!

Addicted to ebay (Again)

Well, it usually comes in phases.
Just won another bid.
15 Pirate Slayers w/ Long Drong and a musician and standard.
Painted! For the cost of a new box of 10.

All I need is the Goblin Hewer and my army is DONE!

But I'm not gonna worry about that until I get some painting done.

GW Slayers!

So right now I'm working on an All-Slayer dwarf army as found in The Storm of Chaos army book.

Currently I have:
1x Dragon Slayer
2x 15 dwarf strong slayer unit incl. command
10 x Pirate slayers

Ebay has been kind to me this week so heading to my location sometime in the near future is:
1x Ungrim Ironfist
1x Garagrim Ironfist
25 dwarf strong slayer unit incl. command.

I want to add 15 Pirate Slayers incl Long Drong+ command
Malakai Makaisson's Goblin Hewer.

GW Bring and Buy- Part II

Wow, well, I sold almost everything I brought with me.
Made $250.00 [in GW gift certificates :( ]. Spent $15.00
My dwarf slayer army dream is still alive.
All in all, not a bad day.

AND

I introduced 3 friends to the hobby and they all got ridiculous deals.
Now I have 3 friends to play with. LOL.

GW bring and buy

My local GW is having a bring and buy tomorrow. Hopefully I can get rid of 30% of my hobby materials.
The largest item is a Cadian IG army.
Wish me luck.

Where has the time gone?

Well, July and August came and went without posts from me...
I will be more diligent.
Have loads of photos to put on...

Darkest Africa

My Darkest Africa project is underway.
Just got some Askari, explorers and Ruga Ruga.

Time to get the out the black spray paint.

Evilbay

Saw 38 Askari by Wargames Foundry the other day. Buy It Now $40.00. Unknown shipping. Sent seller a message regarding shipping.
Thought about it and decided that even if shipping was $20.00, which would be ridiculously high, that it would still be worth it. Foundry = $23.00/pack for 6 figs. Went to buy them and they were already sold. Then today seller sent me a message with shipping cost of $11.00. Stupid Ebay

Lots on the go.

Been pretty busy the last few weeks with work and such but I've managed to squeeze in a few things.

Started making Arab buildings based on Wolfgirls tutorial on LAF
http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=15132.0

Have 80 Wargames Factory Vikings that I've started to built.

Built my Gondorian Battlecry Trebuchet. That has posed some problems but finally completed.

Pirate Table Paint-Up

This is the table. I started out with a 4'x4' sheet of 1/4 MDF. I cut the sheet down to 3'x3'. Next using a router and a jig, I cut the table into a circular shape. This took about an hour.


Next I put one coat of medium blue spray paint. This took 5 minutes and then I left it outside to dry for an hour.


Another view. Paint is not even so I will need to apply a second coat.


With the second coat. Much more uniform. This step also took 5 minutes and then I again left it outside to dry for an hour.


Here I used a dark blue spray paint and sprayed random dark blue lines and blotches. Another 5 minutes of my time. Only 30 minutes drying time.


I copied the step above but with a white spray paint. The random lines of dark blue and white add a sort of highlight and shade for the ocean. However, they are too dominant looking. I will need to lightly dust the surface with medium blue again.

So far this has taken 1 hour and 20 minutes not including 3 hours of drying time.

More to follow.

Artizan Arabs Update

Ok, another quick update. Pictures to follow.

All primed black, base coat of GW Bolt Gun Metal/Scorched Brown on all rifles. Scorched brown on all leather. Cathan Brown for all the skin.

Next, a wash of Delvan Mud, and assorted highlights and basing

Preparedness

So I glued my 22 Artizan WWI Arab Irregulars(next pulp game)onto pennies and got out my trusty can of black primer.

I had everything laid out and ready and began priming the models.

Well, what do you know, I ran out of primer halfway through.

As it is the Easter long weekend, I have to wait until Tuesday before I can finish.

Luckily this project shouldn't take too long as the troops are wearing black robes.

But the moral of the story is to have a second can on hand just in case.

36" Round Pirate Table

I attended Hot Lead 2010 in Stratford ON, on Mar 27th, 2010. I saw this huge blue table with dozens of miniature pirate ships. It looked interesting but as I was focused on picking up my pulp miniatures for another project I did not give it much thought.

I started thinking about this game on the way home and after some quick searching online, I learned it was called Pirates of the Spanish Main.

A few days later, I attended a local hobby store and began to inquire about the pirate game. I found out that they had the game in stock and were selling the packages for a deeply discounted price $1.00-2.00 per pack instead of $5.00.

Well, you can imagine I was quite happy about this. I could purchase and experiment with a new game system without having to shell out a lot of money.

For those who are unfamiliar with Pirates of the Spanish Main, each game pack consists of 2 ships, an island, a crew card and a treasure card. The miniatures are on plastic cards that can be punched out and assembled.

So I walked out of there with 32 ships, 16 islands and a whole assortment of crew/treasure for approx. $18.00 after tax.

I looked at the island cards and they were decent looking but I wanted some real terrain. At this point I remembered that I had seen this game on one of my bookmarked websites.

http://www.shiftinglands.com/pirates.htm

Unfortunately this website has not been updated for quite a while but the project for making a games table inspired my to do the same.

April Fool

Well, it seems, that while I have started off strong, March was not very productive for my town. I acquired 5 Mexicans armed with rifles but that is it.

When it comes to war-gaming, I have too many great ideas and not enough follow through.

In March, I started a pulp game based on the Mummy, and Pirates of The Spanish Main CSG, and I played some LOTR. I have gotten side-tracked.

I will post more to follow, and probably start putting in some of my other mini adventures.

Crockett Bit and Spur Co & Shed

Two more buildings built by Colin Rush. That brings my total to seven. Plus one more in transit. And 4 resin buildings that I am still tinkering with.

Hopefully, I can get some photos of my town, and posse up in the next week or so.

Moose Jaw Trading Post

Made by Colin Rush

Rattlesnake Saloon

This is the Rattlesnake Saloon built by Colin Rush. It features two removable roofs, two floors and a balcony.

Rules: LOTOW vs. TRWNN

Now that I have some terrain, it's time to look at which set of rules I should use. I already have a bunch of (sadly, unpainted) miniatures. As I am a slow painter, I want to build a posse for a particular set of rules so I only have a few models to paint at a time.

I have been playing GW games since the late 90's,and more recently LOTR so I'm leaning towards LOTOW.

However, it might be fun to learn another set of rules like TRWNN.
I lined up two posses and tried out the rules by my self the other day. They seemed pretty straightforward and I really liked the randomness of turning cards.

For ease of use and comfort, I'll probably end up mainly using LOTOW. So now it's time to start digging through my minis and build two posses.

Comparison pics

The front view of a resin building from Total System Scenic (TSS) and a scratch made building by Colin Rush (CR). Looks like a great match.









A view of the boardwalk. The TSS boardwalks are much narrower and I will need to build it out to match the CR models.







The short side of the (TSS) buildings. A little too short but it adds variety!








The long side is a pretty good match.

Working with Resin

I have never before worked with resin materials, so I did a bit of research on what to do.
Apparently, when casting a resin model, some manufacturers place a mold release agent between the mold and the resin that is poured in. As the name states, this releases the resin casting from the mold.
Before assembly, you should quickly wash the resin pieces in luke-warm water with a bit of soap in it. This removes anything which may prevent your glue from adhering or the undercoat from going on smoothly.


I filled a plastic container with dish detergent and luke-warm water and submerged the pieces for a few seconds.








Then I rinsed each piece and dried them off and then left the pieces to sit for a while to dry further.

Resin buildings

These buildings came from Total System Scenic. Planning on making a gun store, small saloon, barber and maybe another saloon/bar.


The four building frontages.


The four rear pieces. The arched piece requires some conversion.


All the side pieces. There will be two "long" and two "short" buildings.


The shingled roof pieces will go together on the arched piece.

There are some rough edges that need to be sanded down and they all need to be prepped before assembly/painting.

Building #3

This is the Pinkerton National Detection Agency. Also made by Colin Rush

Building #2

This is a hardware store, made by Colin Rush

Set Back

Well, I found some free time to photograph my other two buildings made by the talented Colin Rush, only to find that my camera batteries were dead. The batteries in my tv remotes were the wrong size (AAA) and the AA batteries in my dvd remotes did not have enough power. I guess I'll have to run out and get some and finish the pictures tomorrow.

Building #1

Here is the first building in my town. It is a Dry Goods store. It was made by Colin Rush from CR Models. It is scaled for 28mm models. As you can see the roof is removable. I am still quite impressed by the quality of the work.

Total System Scenics

Just got an email today saying my order has now been shipped.
That means I have 4 single storey buildings coming my way.
Once they arrive I will post a tutorial on working with resins.

Will try to get my existing buildings photographed and put online by Saturday.

Quick Note

On my links page, I have two companies who manufacture Western Terrain.
Arnica Montana and MoonDragons:

MoonDragons is no longer accepting orders and is selling off his remaining inventory.

Arnica Montana's web store is down while they "update the molds and work out the details in our production process." Hopefully they re-open soon.

Just wondering if any body owns terrain from either of these companies and if so, how are they?

That's all for now.

Hopefully, I'll get some pics up of my buildings this week.

R.I.P. Robert B. Parker

While just surfing the web today, I found out that Robert B. Parker, the author of 'Appaloosa'; 'Resolution'; and 'Brimstone': a series of western novels featuring the characters Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, had passed away on January 18th, 2010.

He also wrote 'Gunman's Rhapsody', a story about the famous lawman Wyatt Earp.

I quite enjoyed these novels and was looking forward to many more as they were fast-paced with witty dialogue and well written.

Robert B. Parker was well known for his criminal fiction works, most notably the Spenser series which contained 37 novels.

Welcome

Welcome to my Wild West Town/Miniatures Project.

The purpose of this project is to create a fictional town in the American mid west during the period of 1865 to 1900.

The town will be created using scratch built scenery, custom ordered scenery and store bought(resin)scenery.

The townsfolk will come from a variety of companies who produce 28mm western miniatures.

There will be painting and building guides to follow as well as any other useful information I happen to come across.

Cheers,
John