Sunday 30 August 2015

Building the Docks part 5 - coming together

Can you believe that the last time I posted anything against this build was back in early July when I showed off the factory buildings.

Well I have been fortunate enough to lock myself away for the last 12 hours and have now broken the back of this build.

The start of this build is here
http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/building-docks-part-1.html

or alternatively you can go to the last post #4 here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/building-docks-part-4-industrial-complex.html

Lets start with the factory from Sarissa, I decided to tackle the roof first. This was sprayed black and then dry brushed up brown to rive a dirty effect.

I then cut up an opaque plastic folder to create the paned glass roof - this was then ink washed





The red paint job disappeared quite quickly and the final building ended up grey...with green windows


The roof lifts off to reveal a big interior - empty at the moment


The two big warehouse also got the paint treatment...





As did the factory office...





And the factory power station...



The wooden warehouse also got its first coat of paint...this will have a corrugated iron roof


So its all starting to come together....


Now need to start working on the extra bits - eg a crane (from an old hornby set)




More to come very soon....

part 6 can be found here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/building-docks-part-7-nearly-finished.html










Thursday 27 August 2015

28mm Flying Saucer/ UFO Part 1


With almost four weeks off the hobby thought I would get back into the swing of things with a new build...

Having built my Dalek Army I realised that to truly bring their presence to life on my table would be the creation of a Spaceship - specifically a flying saucer. No doubt this can feature in other games.

This simple project will illustrate how some simple materials can create some wonderful out of world wonders.

So lets start on the materials for part 1...

First up the hull of the craft will be built using 14" plastic hub caps  - I bought a pack of four of these on ebay for £15 (inc postage)



The second acquisition for the dome on the top was this disc from a poundstore - described as a lolly pop stand. It just happened to be the perfect size.

The third part was a £1 garden light from again the same pound store. The top is just perfect for the top part of the saucer.

Finally  - a lot of bamboo BBQ skewers.


In this build I have turned one of the hub caps upside down and stuck cut skewers over the open vents on the hub cap. Once glued (using super glue) they give a great impression of coils running around the inside of the craft. This job took around thirty minutes to do one piece. Both top an bottom of the craft were given the same treatment.

 
 







With the top and bottom complete I needed to join these together to complete the hull..the clips that fix the caps to the car wheel and the underside of the vents match up when the hulls are joined.

To get the two hub caps matched up and joined together I cut some long strips of foam core and glued these inside one of the hub cap rims - once dry I was able to place the top half onto these 'walls' and glue in place.








On the top I glued the lolly pop stand followed by the chrome affect top of the light fitting. This will be topped off with another disc when I find some thing the right size.



Part 2 can be found here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/28mm-flying-saucer-ufo-part-2.html

Friday 21 August 2015

Back from the States...


Good Day Folks
 
Cannot believe that I have not posted on the blog for almost three weeks, since its inception this has been the longest time I have been offline. It has also probably been the longest time that I haven’t rolled a die, lifted a paint brush or even thought about the hobby. It has also been a well-deserved break from work and other real life issues.

For the last three weeks we have been travelling in the States – a long weekend in New York followed by a hot sabbatical in Florida. It was great fun, and we saw so much.


This blog post will just try to encapsulate some of the highlights of the trip.

Perhaps the most memorable and certainly the most emotional was the trip to the 9/11 memorial in New York. That day a few years back will always be etched in my memory. The trip to the memorial brought all these thoughts and emotions flooding back. The museum was a great testament to the heroes of the day the NYPD and the Fire Department and serves the victims of the terror attack in both a sensitive and thought provoking fashion. Both my children were very small at the time but the museum and memorial brought both teenagers to a near tearful state as they were brought back to that horror that unfolded on that awful morning.
 
 

Central New York is a fabulous city, its bright, loud, and delivers a sustained assault on all the senses. From the vistas at the top of the Empire State building through to the waterside views of the Statue of Liberty this is one place that will always stay alive in my memories. O
 
 
 
ther highlights included our visit to one of the wharfside piers where we caught up with the second world  war carrier the USS Intrepid – the ship is vast ! 
 
 
Situated on one end of the deck under a permanent display we confronted our first space shuttle of the trip – the Enterprise. I hadn’t realised that NASA only commissioned six of these  and of these only five ever made it into space. The New York version is the test one they used for test landings and training.
 
 

From New York we headed south to Florida – we had promised the kids that one day we would take them to the parks. The first four days were dedicated to Seaworld and Universal. These were all good fun and despite the inclement seasonal stormy weather a good time was had by all.

From Orlando we picked up a hire car and headed west for some sun and sand in the resort of Clearwater. The only highlight I can report on this part of the trip was discovering that there was a Michael’s in one of the many shopping malls nearby.

For some years I have read all about Michael’s on various US based blogs – this a chain of craft stores. The particular one I visited was vast – think Tesco just filled with stuff for craftmaking. God only knows how they can make any money but if you wanted picture frames, dry flowers or beads you would not be disappointed. From a hobby perspective there were loads of bits that could be useful. Sadly I was lacking inspiration at the time and left empty handed. However I did pop into the pet store next door and found the ‘find’ of the holiday – a massive resin aquatic greek temple – this was so big I had to bring it back as hand luggage and at $40 (£25) was a bargain worth having.

The temple is about 12 inches wide - 18 inches long and 15inches tall - the grey figure shown in a couple of the shots is 28mm
 







 

The temple itself needs some work (namely a repaint and a new base) but it will form a fantastic backdrop to a Jason and the Argonauts game I am planning with Legatus for 2016. More on this in a future post.


A Gator at Lake Kissimme - this is small at around 5ft - they can be as big as fifteen
 

Six days later we left Clearwater and headed back to Orlando for the final five days of our vacation. Yet more parks and rollercoasters this time in the Disney venues but in addition we went out on a swamp boat tour on lake Kissimee (great fun) and visited Cape Kennedy. This is a must for any space nut.

The highlights being the Atlantis shuttle, the Rocket Garden and the enormous Saturn Rocket used for the moon landings...

  

The Atlantis looks much more beaten up than the Enterprise


The Rocket Garden



one end of the Moon Rocket

   All in all a fantastic (albeit very expensive trip) - thank you America for welcoming us...

Back to the real world now...

Part 3 of the Scales of Anubis kicks off Monday !!