PIG PEN

A farm setting on the gaming table isn't complete without a pig pen, hence my DIY pen.

Dimensions 15 cm x 12 cm.

I decided that the a pen needed to suit both the French Indian War period and World War Two.

The pigs are from Pegusus 1/48 Farm Animals.

I undercoated them with Black primer.

Used wet blending technique to paint the pigs.

VMC Green Ochre 914

VMC Black Grey 862

VMC Iraqui Sand 819

Game colour "Carne Marron Tan"

Washed with a Nuln Oil 
Very light highlight with the respective colours.

The low stone walls are made from MDF as is the base and water trough.

The gate and shelter are made from bamboo skewers.

A coat of PVA was brushed onto the floor of the pen and covered with tiny stones.

The fiber material is rubberised horse hair secured in place with PVA glue.

Painting the model.
The complete model was coated with a Black undercoat.
See  low stone walls link for colours used.

The inner ground was dry brushed with VMC Flat Earth and then a light highlight of VMC Iraqui Sand was applied to selected areas.
A bit of VMC flat Earth was applied to the inner area of the walls to simulate mud.

The opaque white area on the ground is trying to simulate small puddles of water. This was achieved by using  Vallejo Gloss Varnish 70.510 mixed in with a tiny amount of off white and dabbed onto the desired area .

The Rubberised Horse hair was dry brushed with VMC Dark Sand and highlighted with VMC Iraqui Sand.

The wooden items:
Base coat of VMC Chocolate Brown  
Washed with Nuln Oil 
Dry brushed with VMC Beige Brown
Final light dry brush with VMC Middlestone 

 Flock applied  and ready for your Pigs.

 Pig Pen with 28mm Colonial settler for French Indian war period

Pig Pen with 28 mm Late War British Infantry for WW 2.

CHAIN OF COMMAND EVENT AT MOAB 2017

I will be hosting a Chain of Command event at MOAB this year.

( gentlemen's tournament - a excuse to spend 2 days gaming)

Theme: Late War WW 2 in France

Date:30 September - 1st October

Event duration: 2 days

Scale: 1:56 (28mm)

Tables: 5

Games: 2 x games, per day, 3 hour max duration.(with option of a Big CoC game on the afternoon on Sunday)

Players required: 10

Armies needed: 5 Axis  5 Allies 

Event Address:Sylvania Heights Community and Youth Club Box Road, Sylvania. NSW  Australia 


More information is forth coming , soon from the  MOAB organizers, in the mean time enjoy the following videos.

POND

POND

This pond is constructed from Teddy bear fur.

The benefits of using fur is; its  light weight,easily adapts and blends onto any terrain mat
and I can simulate windblown water effect without purchasing expensive commercial water effect products.

28mm figure added for scale.

French Alpine Goat added for interest.

Roughly cut out a e-regular shape of terry bear approximately 30 cm x 26 cm.

Using scissors, trim off the inner portion of the fur outlining the junction between the water,shore and grass.

You don't need to remove all the fur: leave a very short layer of fur in the water area, this  will help add a windblow water effect look to the pond.

Place waxed paper or a plastic sheet underneath the fur pond .
Using a old brush apply a generous layer of PVA glue onto the surface that has been trimmed and allow to dry.(sorry forgot to take a photo of the PVA glue on the fur)
Note the waxed paper/plastic will stop the underside of the pond sticking to the bench,  as the PVA  glue will seep thru the fur as it is drying.
You may need to apply another thin layer of PVA glue if there are too many fur fibers sticking up.

Water:
Once completely dry, paint over the dry PVA  with a Matt Black Acrylic Primer and allow to dry.

Paint over the Matt black Primer with Vallejo Black Green 980  and Flat Earth 983 together

using  wet blending technique to blend the colours together while wet.

You can paint the water more brown or greenish color, your preference, just don't paint it sea blue.

Edges of the pond:
Dry brush the edges of the pond with a very light coat of Vallejo Model Color, Dark Sand  or Iquai Sand.

Water:
Coat the water area with  2 coats of Acrylic Gloss Paint I used Vallejo Gloss Varnish 70.510.

Allow to dry, then use Vallejo Model Color Off White to dry brush some of the edges of the pond and small area around rocks or debris in the water - this dry brushing  should be very light.

Grass area:
Paint the fibers with a Green mix of paint with patches of Flat Earth 983.

Once dry use a old paint brush and apply PVA glue over the fibers and sprinkling  some fine flock.  

Water:
Add a few miscellaneous  bits to the pond for points of interest like rocks or branches.  
Allow to dry, then use Vallejo Model Color Off White to dry brush some of the edges of the pond and small area around rocks or debris in the water - this dry brushing  should be very light.

Last of all, add a Goat and your have your very, light, flexible and adaptable pond. complete with water effects.

I am currently thinking that this maybe a good way to represent rivers. (will have to give it a go and see how it turns out)

GERMAN SNIPER

I am currently in the process of building a Late War German Army for  Chain of Command. The first item I wanted to add to my  Support List is a Sniper team.

 After viewing pictures on the web of German snipers, I came across a unique pose by German sniper Matthaus Hetzenauer. 
I decided to perform plastic surgery on one of my 28mm German Warlords games plastic figures to mimic his pose.

Sniper team on the ruin Church grounds

Close up 

CONVERSION PROCEDURE

Legs:

Carefully remove the legs of a torso with a hobby knife and secure the torso upright with blue tac.

Right Leg: 

Repostion the right leg along the ground and trim to fit the torso.

Using blue tac, temporarily fix the leg in place to assist in getting the right position.

Once you are happy with the position fix in place with model glue. 

Left Leg:

Make a cut above the knee on the leg leg that was removed and position it on the ground so that it is upright in a position to support the left arm.

Note there will be a big gap between this leg and the torso.

To Pack out the gap use bits of white plastic styrene sheet and pack them into the gap and glue in place: you are not trying to replicate the detail of the trousers and leg, all you want to achieve is a solid link between the leg and torso. (later using Green stuff you can complete the gap and sculpture the detail)

Arms:

Locate this item from Warlord games German Grenadiers sprue.

Left arms:

Carefully remove all components of the left arm from the rifle.

This arm will be missing the hand, position the arm to rest on top of left leg and temporarily fix in place with blue tac.

Right arm:

trim the right arm with the rifle to fit hard up against the figures cheek.

Cut a small grove in the left arm so the rifle seats nicely in this slot and temporarily fix in place with blue tac.

Back to left arm:

Select the trim off a hand fro the spure and position it so it is covering the firing hand and rifle and fix in place with modelling glue.

Once set remove all the blue tac from the arms and fix all the components in place with modelling glue. Note large gaps need to be filled using white plastic stryene  sheet as described above.

Allow to dry,mix the two part Green stuff and with the aid of a modelling knife, contour the missing detail adding straps to binoculars and rifles.

Model a scope for the rifle using spare plastic sprue and white plastic styrene sheets.

I mount my figures on thin magnetic sheets with superglue and build up the base with Milliput. 

Undercoating, paint and flock and the Sniper team is ready to be shipped out on the next halftrack to the front line.

Matthaus Hetzenauer notorious for provoking fear amongst  Russian troops on the Eastern Front with 345 Kills.

COLONIAL SETTLERS 28mm

Since viewing the movie "The Last of the Mohicans" many, many years ago, I have been interested in wargaming this period. Thanks to Andy's  posts on his Blog and viewing Athilith's videos, reviewing the rule book "Muskets and Tomahawks"

I got hooked, I am slowing building up my figures but will not start playing the rule set mentioned above as I am currently committed to finishing the WW 2 projects I have started.

These figures are Colonial settlers, 28mm metal figures from Warlord games, I purchased them  in the same order  with a couple of packs of Late War German Infantry. I am currently  waiting for another order of Armed Colonial settlers to arrive.

I must admit, I really enjoyed painting these figures, it was a big change painting with bright
colours as opposed to the dark colours of World War 2 figures.The colour scheme of the figures are based on the pictures on the Warload games site.

Many bloggers have mentioned that they prefer painting Metal as opposed to Plastic figures, I  did not understand why, till I painted these figures and I must agree there is a difference, the detail is more crisp and well defined. 
cheers John

CHAIN OF COMMAND MARKERS part 1

PART 1

SHOCK MARKERS

After using many different markers to track Shock, I have decided to stick with these Shock markers I have made.

Section suffering Shock, 1 point of  Shock for the Bren team and 2 points of Shock for the Rifle team.

First step in constructing the Shock markers is to purchase some cheap red beads from the 2 dollar shop.
Scrounge around the garage and locate some nails with larger heads. Cut off the nail head leaving a small section of the shaft intact.
(thin metal sheet cut in circular shape to fit the tops of the beads maybe substituted for the nails)

Next step, glue the nail heads to both the bottom and top of the bead using super glue, once the glue has dried, prime with a suitable undercoat and paint the nail head with hard wearing red paint.

Final step, is the  construction of the base.
I use  warlord games figure bases and super glue in place 3 x magnets (10mm x 1mm) per base purchased at http://www.back2base-ix.com/rare-earth-magnets.html . Super glue another base on-top of the magnets, superglue one Shock marker in place, flock with fine flock, and allow to dry.  
The last image shows an additional 6 Shock markers that are held in place by the magnetic base along with the one that is superglue in the middle.

 

PINNED AND BROKEN MARKERS

Instead of using 2 markers to indicate a unit PINNED or BROKEN status I decided to combine the two into one, reducing the need for 2 separate markers.

To construct the markers I used A4 size sheet of Black Perspex, using a AUD dollar coin I mark out 6 circles.

The same is done on the Yellow Perspex.

Using a dremel type hand motor roughly cut out the shape.

Notice the shapes are not perfect circles. At this stage lightly sand only one side of both the Yellow and Black Perspex (this is done to increase the bonding of the 2 perspex pieces.

Superglue them together.

Roughly outline a star shape onto the paper covering the perspex.

Using the Dremel type hand motor with a cutting disc, carefully follow the outlines and cut off the unwanted perspex to reveal the star shape. 

Etch the words Pinned and Broken into the perspex again using the hand motor and a fine rose head bur.(or you can leave them as is allowing the colours to indicate the units BROKEN/PINNED status )

Using Vallejo Model colour 70847 Dark Sand paint over the wording, leave for a couple of seconds then wipe off with your finger, which will remove the excess paint leaving the paint in the etching.

Follow the above step but with this side of the marker I used Leadbleacher from Citadel.

completed markers