Wednesday 24 April 2013

Ainsty Castings Graveyard

As mentioned in a previous post I bought the rather excellent Cemetery set from Ainsty Castings at Salute. For £40 you get an awful lot of resin including walls, pathways, gates a small mausoleum and of course tombs and gravestones. The first photo shows the kit as it came out of the box.





Because I wanted this as a static piece of terrain I decided to mount the whole lot on a single board. With a 2cm border from the walls the total layout is circa 40cm x 35cm.

Unfortunately the camera wasn’t around when I started this project so I’ll my best to explain how I got up to the second photo. Having measured up the dimensions of the outer walls I cut out a board from some off cuts of hardboard. I personally find this material extremely versatile and it is very cheap. Provided you paint both the top and bottom in a decent acrylic warping is kept to a minimum. I then washed all the acrylic pieces in warm, soapy water before spraying them in a black or brown primer.

Once dry the all of the items were glued onto the board using ‘Hard as Nails glue’ and left to dry for 24 hours. This stuff glues anything and ends up rock hard. For some folks this might seem foolhardy but I couldn’t be bothered in placing the gravestones each battle and this way they are less likely to be lost. The only pieces not to be glued in place were the mausoleum and a plinth. I intend to use the latter for a statue in my town. By not gluing in the mausoleum I can use this in alternative settings and it keeps the height profiler of the overall piece down to under 5cm.

Next up I painted white glue on the whole board carefully avoiding the resin features. Then placing the board on a large sheet of newspaper I liberally covered the whole thing in medium grain ballast. Again this was left to dry.

Shaking off the loose ballast I then scraped off any debris that had stuck itself to the resins features. This ground cover was then painted black to both hold the ballast in place and to form the base colour before dry brushing.

Here you can see the affect so far....




Next up I started to dry brush the ground in browns – working from dark to light. Much of the ground will be covered in static grass but this forms a great under base where it pokes through.




With the ground painted I turned my attention to the walls, buildings and other stonework. Again these were drybrushed in greys. Dark through to light.




Nearly there...

I wanted the area to be very green - so a liberal dose of white glue on top of the brown earth followed by copious amounts of static grass.





A few extra bits of clump foliage adds a useful contrast to the bright green grass.

With the gates glued on were done.







I am delighted with this terrain feature and I am sure that it will work across most of my genres....in the meantime a couple of photos

Firstly some sad folks in the 18th century


Last Respects


Bert the Grave Digger


and it can even be a 'pet cemetary'



 featuring - Basil the wargaming Hamster !!

(no animals were hurt in these shots !)




Salute Shopping

As mentioned in the previous post I came away from Salute with three large bags of wargaming goodness. I am very chuffed with my purchases and wanted to share these with you...

Top purchase - the farm set from EM4 - for a reduced proce of £65 you get four buildings - beautifully painted. The roofs come off the doors open what more can I say...very very very happy !






Every town needs a graveyard and Ainsty Castings produce a ready made version - all this for £40. The resin casts are brilliant. Can't wait to paint this.


As promised I picked up the two other boats from Ainsty - the merchantmen and sloop. These are somewhat smaller than the big man o war but they look great !


Finally got my Saga dice - on a deal



I wanted a styatue in the town and some time ago I setlled on as bronze stag - this could be used across periods and genres with no problem. I found this fabulous version on the Foundry stand. Its antlers need cleaning up but it is a beauty.


I finally managed to pick up the bases for my irregular troops & Indiansd for the French Indian Wars. These came from Warbases and worked out at just over £1 per base.


Whilst on the Warbase stand I noticved thay were selling doors, windows etc...check these guys out not only does the product look great its also great value - £1 for three doors, 12 windows etc



With Vikings on the agenda in the not too distant future I thougt I had better buy some Monks - these were found on the Redoubt stand.



And finally I came across this company AW Minatures selling a new range of infantry for the French Infantry War. I'd never heard or seen them before but the castings looked pretty good and for £20 I bought 20 British Infantry. If they paint up well I shall be going back.

From a scale perspective they are very similar in size to Redoubt. 

Sunday 14 April 2013

Hadrians Wall Adventure - Day 1 - The Trip North

We set off from south west London leaving a sad Mrs Shed and headed north into the city. London Underground as usual did its best to prevent us from getting to Euston. We finally reached the London terminus to be advised that our train was now running almost an hour late!

The station was full of drunk Manchester fans and several families heading north. We finally boarded the crowded train along a very smelly tramp who insisted on spilling an entire carton of coleslaw by the toilets? Fortunately this vagabond removed himself at Preston.

Carlisle is an interesting town. It's shopping area is much like any other regional town. However it's nightlife I suspect involves several pints of lager, a Stanley knife, a pair of dodgy heels and a pneumatic girlfriend, heavily tattooed and orange.

Having walked across town, we ate close to our guest house and have turned in early for the night.






Saturday 13 April 2013

Hadrians Wall - Fulfilling a Lifetimes ambition

As of tomorrow I head up North to Carlisle to begin the best part of a 80 mile trek along Hadrians Wall.

Joined by my 12 year old son we are marching in the footstep of the Legions so many years ago. With a fascination for all things history and miltary this has long been a lifes ambition.

With a bit a bit of fair weather we might even enjoy ourselves !

If local Wifi permits I ll post a short daily blog to keep you up to date on progress and then I'll add the photos at the end of the week. We will be back in London on Friday just in time for Salute..


Wish us luck and first post hopefully tomorrow !!


Eric

Shed Wars Hoody - Am I brave enough ?


Can I be brave enough to wear it at Salute?

From Front


From Rear

Tuesday 9 April 2013

The Residents of Dreads Haven

Ahoy me hearties....

Last night I set up the small village of Dread’s Haven, today the inhabitants come out to play.



The Town Crier




Night Watchman (wuith light effects)


The Garrison Parade



Farming with Pigs



Dairy Farm




Feeding Hens



The blind man - with black spot...


Drovers


Chattering Ladies



A drink outside the 'Dog & Mackeral'


Fisticuffs by the docks



Pursuit along the wharf



Loading the boats



Siting the Guns





Painting the Lady in Red



Preparing to set sail




The Squire discussing peasants and pheasants



A duel on the sands


Sheep artound the Dwartfs Fingers (old prehistoric ruin)


 

Smugglers Bay

Monday 8 April 2013

Dread's Haven, a den of thieves, smugglers & cut-throats

As was mentioned in a previous post I managed to secure a number of Conflix buildings at a recent show. I felt these would be great for a Pirate town on the shores of Cornwall (similar to Moonfleet ?)
So tonight the town begins to take shape.
Over the next few evenings I’ll begin to populate the shorefront with livestock, townsfolk, militia, trades goods and of course Pirates.
For now imagine all is calm...