Hobby Bingo 2021.

Recently the Mrs looked at me rather strangely when I mentioned that myself and Chris we're going to start playing bingo together.

No I don't mean at a bingo hall with someone calling out numbers, I mean hobby bingo again. As the January issue of White Dwarf includes a new grid to play on.

Snuck into the back page in the "Bunker" section of the magazine.

We've decided to go for it and see who can complete the most grids over the course of the year, something to do to make 2021 less like 2020 and keep us motivated to paint.

(I know I've neglected this blog for a month and a half, work is always hectic coming closer to Christmas, especially as we are having a fleet change at the depot I work at).

Anyway, we've set a few rules upon ourselves:

• Duplicate units are limited to one per month to count for January, (so if you paint three tactical squads, they only count as one 10+ box).
• Afterwards, duplicate units are limited to one per week (not that I'm think we can actually paint a unit in under as week, but it's a nice goal to aim for).
• Already started models are fine to count for your first grid.
• You must complete a full grid, then start on a second grid, keeping a tally of the points earned month to month.
• You are NOT limited to just GW models. Any miniatures regardless of manufacturer can be used. (We'll discuss different scales other then 28/32mm if/when they come up).

At the end of 2021, we'll tally up the totals and determine who the winner for the year is.

Hopefully this will put a dent in the "Pile of Potential" and allow me to actually get round to some projects I've been mulling over but stalled on because of the backlog of GW in my hobby space.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

Marneus Calgar - Issue 1.

 Recently, unless you've been living under a rock you'll have know that Games Workshop have been starting to diversify with their IP.

Warhammer animation is something I am looking forward to if the Trailers are anything to go by.

One collaboration which I didn't see coming though was with Marvel for a 40k comic.

Yes it's about Ultramarines. Yes they are the poster boys of 40k. But let's get past the fact that most of us don't have any interest in Marneus Calgar and realise that this is actually quite good. I was expecting some horrific "woke" (for lack of a better term) explanation of the 41st Millennium and for their to be Talking Animal People in the sodding thing, but Fantasy Flight Games got there first with their RPG systems.

Instead we got that start to a fairly decent (if generic) origin story for one of the most famous Space Marines in the universe.

I like the art, especially this piece:

Although that Chaplain should be up there with him breaking heads, not skulking towards the back.

I'm hoping that they introduce character like Tigurius and Agemman, as they had a fair bit to do with Guilliman returning (Tigurius helping and Agemman trying to hinder) but that's wishful thinking.

I'm not a big comic book fan to be honest, so I won't be collecting all however many parts they release of this. I was just pleasantly surprised to see it produced so well compared to some other media GW has collaborated with through the years.

I'll leave you with one of my favourite pieces of artwork from this, the "coming next" teaser:

Until next time...

 - Lewis

Orktober, Part 4 - Da Slugga Boyz and Nobz.

 

Grubnatz brought his choppa down on the helm of the first space marine he came to, but the marine sidestepped and the weapon glanced off of his shoulder guard. In return the Space Marine raised his Bolt Pistol and blew a big chunk out of Grubnatz shoulder which hurt like mad.

He roared in pain and stuck back, punching the Space Marine square in the helmet and throwing him back, he hefted his Choppa above his head and brought it crashing down with all his strength on the Space Marines neck, slicing down into his torso.

Grubnatz slammed a boot on the Space Marine who was face up in the mud and levered his Choppa free. He turned and started blasting into the back of another Space Marine which his boyz were having trouble with. Shots ricochetted wildy and the Space Marine fought on, until he crumpled suddenly as a shot hit something important. In an instant Grubnatz boyz were laying the boot in to make sure it was dead.

A louder, deeper roar of “WAAAGH!” announced the arrival of Da Necksnapperz, a mob of Nobz who were killing everything which wasn't a greenskin in sight. Grubnatz was impressed as he watched the Nobz demolishing Space Marines. Power Klaws crushed, 'Eavy Choppa's swung, Slugga's blasted. Nothing it seemed could stop them. Some Space Marines in extra fancy armour counter-charged the brutes and the fight devolved once more.

Brutal, bloody mindedness faced down experience and training. Bodies flew on both sides as warriors were cut down and killed. The Space Marines managed to take down three of the Nobz in quick succession, but they had made a fatal flaw. The Nobz were amongst them now, all thoughts of a wider battle forgotten in the thrill of hand to hand.

One Space Marine was smashed to the ground by a backhanded swipe of a gigantic green hand and the kicked into the mud before being hacked at by a brutal two handed Chain-Choppa. Another dodged backwards from a Choppa swing, only to have the jaws of a Power Klaw rammed through his midrift and be lifted from his feet. The Nob fired his Slugga a few times before hurling the corpse of the Space Marine backwards in the rest of the unit.

Even Space Marines have their limits and this was it, in an instant several of their veterans were dead and the line was buckling. With their usual efficiency and training the order was given to retreat and acted upon, but it was too late, as the Boyz were right with them. One of the Nobz grabbed a passing Ammo-Runt and proceeded to use the unfortunate slave as a maul and beat a Space Marine Sergeant's helmet with before ripping it off with the head still inside.

Grubnatz arm was beginning to stiffen up from the wound he suffered earlier, but his blood sang with the joy of violence so he hardly noticed. He fired his Slugga wildly, loving the solid kick of the thing everytime it fired. When it was empty he threw it at the Dreadnaught, which was busy tearing apart the last of Ruzgob's mob. Grubnatz roared with laughter and charged after the retreating Space Marines – This was the life!

*****

This is part 4, the final part of Orktober for 2020.

As I said in part 2 of this series, I had a lack of enthusiasm for the hobby at the beginning of thee month, meaning that I wouldn't have gotten the Killa Kanz or the vehicle finished in time so I switched to the 'Ard Boyz as detailed in part 3.

With a major painting spree on the go, I grabbed a half painted unit of five Ork Nobz, 'Da Necksnapperz' in the above fiction and finished those off.

A good selection of varying weapons, including a Power Klaw and an 'Eavy Choppa. I would have liked to add a Kombi-Skorcha to the mob, so that they can hit something on the way to hitting things!

This last Nob is a unit and a half, he's an older metal miniature from the 3rd edition release which I used a pair of Choppas on instead of the usual Choppa and Slugga, makes him double 'Ard.

I also finished the twenty strong mob of Slugga Boyz, Ruzgob's Mob in the fiction.

Which finished off the main units I wanted to get done this month.

I also found the time paint up a cheeky Mek-Boy.

He is an old model from 2nd Edition 40k and the Gorkamorka era, released as a Spanna-Boy. I'm using him as a Mek-Boy, I'm planning on using several of these Boyz converted to make them different to each other as a Mek bodyguard unit for a Big Mek, like we used to be able to take in 3rd edition.

So with Orktober 2020 finished now, here is as photo of all the models I've gotten painted this month:

Fifty seven models in total (as the ammo-runt for the Nobz was already painted). That's not a bad haul if I say so myself.

Finally before I wrap up this post, calling in our local GW earlier, I was set to buy the Black Library novel of Thanquol and Boneripper (furriest crazy supervillain ever), when I spotted this:

I'll post a review once I read this, but just from the blurb of the back it seems fun.

I have an idea of what my next series of projects will be, but we'll see when I start posting them.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

Orktober, Part 3 - Da 'Ard Boyz.

 

“WAAAGH!” came the guttural roar from dozens of throats, rising in volume as more and more Orks joined in the warcry.

Raggedly the line of greenskins charged forwards, gathering momentum and bodies as they went until an almost unstoppable for had built up. Weapons were hefted and swung in anticipation, Boyz howled with glee and loosed off sporadic shots from their guns as they ran forwards.

The surviving Space Marines didn't turn away or back into cover, Gargrub and Ruzgob had both fought Space Marines before so didn't expect them too really. Instead the superhuman warriors levelled their Bolt Rifles and began firing into the packed mass charging them, coolly reloading and opening fire again.

“Dey're good dis lot, must be coz dey're green” Ruzgob shouted over the din as they charged.

“Dey'ze not proper green, so not as good as an Ork” Grubnatz retorted, over the clinking of the armour dangling from his body.

From somewhere Boss Grubnatz had shouldered his way through the middle of both Gargrub and Ruzgob's mobs with his 'Ard Boyz in tow. Their bulkier armoured forms crunching and clanging as metal banged against metal and bullets scrapped along.

A ricochet tumbled over the Ork next to Gargrub as he tried to outdo the hulking 'Ard Boyz. No Ork liked to be shown up by other mobs, especially skum like Grubnatz.

Boyz were blown apart left and right, but the mass kept on going. Gargrub was thrilled to see that a couple of the so called 'Ard Boyz, with all their extra armour protection were thrown from their feet by the bolt shells.

As they were about to impact on the Space Marines line, another explosion tore a huge chunk of the already ruined wall away and portions careened into the mobs. The huge silhouette of a Space Marine Dreadnaught lurched from the smoking crater, it's cannon blazing and scything through a mob to their left.

Without pause the Dreadnaught charged into Ruzgob's mob and almost disarpeared as Orks threw themselves at it, banging and clashing with their weapons upon it's armoured hull. The Space Marines charged to support their Dreadnaught and in an instant the whole courtyard had dissolved into a giant swirling melee.

This was the time Orks lived for – the adrenaline pumping, blood roaring, thrill of hand to hand combat. Grubnatz was in the thick of it, having long since lost Gargrub and Ruzgob, not that he cared. His boyz were with him in the fight and that was all that mattered right now.

He swung about with his Power Klaw, one of the Space Marines ducking his swing and slamming him off balance. Another Marine swung in with a combat blade, but lost his arm to a well placed choppa swing from one of the 'Ard Boyz, Grubnatz regained his footing and snatched up the Space Marine around the torso.

The claws clamped shut and held fast for a moment, the titanic forces of the pistons of the weapon fighting against the hardened ceramite of the Space Marines armour. Then there was a crack as the Power Klaw's force won out and the Space Marine came apart messily. Grubnatz laughed and hurled the potions of the unfortunate Space Marine to the floor before charging again.

*****

 Hello, welcome to Part three of Orktober.

This time, I've finished up a mob of 10 'Ardboyz. These are Slugga Boyz who have scavenged, stolen, half-inched metal plates to fashion crude armour out of.

I used a pair of mismatched shoulder pads on each Ork and tried to use the torsos which included armour panels sculpted on.

Eventually I want to add some proper Ork check patterns to their shoulders and the rokkit in the launcher.

Likewise I want to add back-banners to all the varying Nobz throughout the force, but I've run out of steel rod to make the frames from, the plates themselves are made out of plasticard trimmed to shape and rivitz added...because as all Orks know, 'Rivitz fix anything!'.

I have another Orktober post in the works, which will be the last one for this year's Orktober.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

Orktober, Part 2 - Da Weirdboy.

 Gargrub led his mob in a crouched run through the rubble, shots snarled over their heads and impacted on the wall ahead, once there he led his boyz to join up with Ruztoof's mob.

“Got kicked around like a beaten squig?” Ruztoof shouted over the background roar of more missiles firing.

“Dinna see you up there for wormfood!” Gargrub retorted, grinning around his elongated fangs.

“You were too busy runnin', like a runt!” Ruztoof replied, then kicked a passing grot a good five meters. It was an impressive kick, but Gargrub wasn't going to admit that, no Ork would.

Further exchanges were cut short by the first Space Marines pushing through the gaps in the wall they had just vacated, sprays of bolter fire accompanying them as they advanced.
Gargrub was about to initiate the charge when he clutched the side of his head.
Green sparks surged all around them assembled boyz arcing between them and being pulled towards the pile of rubble behind them.

Another Ork was climbing awkwardly up the rubble, the green energy siphoning off the massed orks around and funnelling straight towards this individual.
Leather cloak whipping around him, Skabgutz hauled himself forwards, one eye squeezed shut in paint and the other a bulging red orb with spirals of power surrounding the dilated pupil.

Gargrub groaned and elbowed Ruztoof in the ribs, indicating for him to look behind them at the Wierdboy.

Skabgutz pulled himself up to his full height, empowered by the Waaagh! Energy all around him. Bolt shells detonated harmlessly in a green haze a few feet in front of him as he stood in the open. Boyz sporadically fired their Slugga pistols at the space marines, but they were all keeping a wary eye on the strange Snakebite Ork standing above them.

“Word iz that too much energy and he'll blow up, like a Bom” Gargrub shouted to Ruztoof.

“I'm off if he twitches wrong, I'd rather fight the Marine-Boyz then get blown up by him” Ruztoof replied.

'Too right' thought Gargrub as he eyed Skabgutz suspiciously. Every Ork knew that there was something just wrong about using the wierdboy's powers, but if they killed stuff, who was he to argue.

At that point, Skabgutz leant forward and opened his jaw impossibly wide. He vomited a bright green tendril of energy which took the shape of an Ork skull and shot towards the nearest Space Marines who were forming up.

As it impacted them, it exploded in a bright white flash, causing everyone present to shield their eyes from the glare. When they could see again, the carnage was impressive. The wall was splashed with bright red blood, and armoured bodies were strewn around it, but more Space Marines were pushing through.

Skabgutz, swayed and belched loudly, apparently satisfied with his work. He hefted his staff and screamed a primal sound at the top of his lungs.

It was a sound taken up by every Ork in the battle at once and signalled that the real fight was beginning...

WAAAGH!

*****

Hello, well the month of October/Orktober has been progressing, unfortunately my progress on this project hasn't.
A combination of work, changing shifts and changing Covid restrictions has all led to a lack of enthusiasm for actually partaking in the hobby.

But, persevere I did, and now having a few days off work, might see a chance to recover from working nights and get some projects completed which have been slowing me down as they never seemed to make any progress.

Due to the above, I've decided to modify my Orktober list, as I am not such a fast worker that I'll get an entire scratch built tank completed in less the a week.

So whilst the Slugga Boyz are about halfway completed, I also took the opportunity to get in a "quick win" project and repaint part of my Weirdboy.

This rather friendly looking chap was a Deathskull Weirdboy with blue robes and a lot of gun metal.

I decided I liked the idea of the Goffs keeping a pet "Snakebite" who they'd captured somewhere along the way and the Warboss had realised how useful he was.

A quick repaint of Mournfang Brown, followed by a drybrush of Baneblade Brown and a wash of Agrax Earthshade on the robes led me to a nice weathered leather effect, perfect for the feral Boyz of the Snakebite Klan.

I also repainted some of the metallics to a warm copper colour, as in some of the older concept artwork from around the 4th edition codex, there was rumours of Weirdboyz using copper as a grounding point if their powers got out of control, so that their heads wouldn't explode!

This was just a 'quick win' to get a model finished and restart motivation (quick wins are all important I think). Like I said the Slugga Boyz (Ruztoof's mob) are about halfway finished, and I'm going to attempt to get a mob of 'Ardboyz (Slugga Boyz who have scavenged metal from places and hammered it to fit them as armour) if not finished by the end of the month, at least a good portion of the way there.

With that I'll leave you with the face only a mother (or fungus in the case of Orks) could love...

WAAAGH!

 - Lewis

Orktober, Part 1 - Da Shoota Boyz.

 

With an ear-splitting roar a series of rockets flashed overhead on trails of dirty smoke. Boss Gargrub looked up following the smoke trails, before squinting over the ruined wall at the Space Marines deploying from their transports below them on the hill.

Sporadic incoming fire ricochetted madly off the wall as he hawked a great green glob of phlegm and spat towards the marines before turning to look over at his mob, hunkered down as they were behind cover. They were all glibly bragging about how many Marine-Boyz they would kill whilst snapping magazines into their shootas, or sharpening choppas and teeth ready for when the fight became close and personal.

He nodded to himself in satisfaction that they had gotten the best position, ahead of the rest of the warband and therefore would get the most of the fighting to come. He cursed them all for being “slackers” and “no good yoofs” and then kicked them into better firing positions. No more then two or three Orks to a hole to shoot from, “An' no chargin' without my say so!”

The last of his Shoota Boyz were just getting into position when the Space Marines opened fire with their bolt rifles and started to gouge chunks from the already ruined wall. A piece of rebar sheared off and bounced off Gargrub's armour as he jumped to his feet and began blazing away with his shoota. He could hear shouts and the deafening roar of shoota fire erupt along the line as the Orks began to fire back en mass, but he reckoned he'd gotten off the first shot!

Bright flashes of flame erupted from the muzzles of their guns and shell casings spewed everywhere, Ammo-Grot slaves trying not to fall whilst attempting to pass fresh ammo to the boyz, who were still excitedly firing away down the hill.

Gargrub found himself smashed to the floor, rubble raining down in small chunks. His ears rang as he shook his head trying to clear it. There had been a huge flash and then a roar he remembered, 'Dey must 'ave used a rokkit' he thought to himself as he slowly rolled back onto his feet.

All around him boyz were picking themselves up. Many were wounded, some didn't get back up. One was incautious enough to stand next the freshly blasted hole in the wall and was torn apart by bolt fire.

'Stoopid Zogger' Gargrub thought to himself, 'The Marine-Boyz must be getting close now, time to back off a bit for the plan'. Warboss Rustgob had beaten it into their heads earlier, that they needed to move back from the edge of the hill to bring the Marines into a trap. Gargrub didn't get why, but they were working for a Blood Axe sneaky git, so went along with the rest of the warband.

He kicked his dazed boyz into motion and led them back through the rubble piles to the other side of the courtyard behind them...

*****

The first point of my Orktober project is now complete. I have managed to finish off the ten Shoota Boyz I wanted to begin with, which rounds out the mob to become twenty strong (I had already finished off the first ten models some time ago).

 I used the same scheme as I have done throughout all my ork projects, no matter how much time passes between additions to the army.
They begin with an orange basecoat over a white primer to get the brightness, this is the then drybrushed Tin Bitz and then Leadbelcher, there is some gold added to the odd gun barrel and ammunition where it is visisble.
Goff clothing is started with Mechanicus Standard Grey and then layerd over with Black.
The green skin is simplya coat of Warpstone Glow over white primer.
Thendetails such as Teeth, Claws and Wrappings are picked out in various bones and browns for the strapping and belts.
Finally, everything gets a liberal coat of Earthshade before fnal base painting.

And when they are all placed together for the entire mob, I am really happy with how you ca't tell which are the freshly painted "yoofs" and which are the old skarboyz in the mob.

 

Up next I'm going to being basecoating the Slugga Boyz mob, and beging construction on a Lungbursta Gun-Wagon type vehicle for which I have been putting together a "Big Bag O'Bitz" for.

Until next time...

  - Lewis

Urban Terrain, drybrushing is hell.

 

Greetings, this is the third part of the build of these first scatter terrain pieces (I swear I will get round to fnishing the Municipal Building and the Bar I started).

 Part One and Part Two are here for the building process.

This third part is after the last details were added, and the floorboards were blended into the "Bolt Hole" piece. I also added some final drybrushing in a further grey colour and some black on around the upper windowframe of the wall, to simulate where soot had built up as if the building had been on fire and that was the last standing part of it...until a shell drops and blows that bit to smithereens, but I digress.

Here is an overview of all four piece's together:

They really came together well, here's a photo of the two rubble piles, with some Imperial Fists for scale:

The smaller of the two comes roughly to the Primaris Marines waist and the larger obscures the miniature, except for the very top of their helmets and backpacks...or the back-banner in the case of the Sergeant.

The "Bolt Hole":

You can see the darker areas where I drybrushed to make the soot effect. I nicknamed this piece as the Bolt Hole because I originally had in mind gaming using Terminator:Genysis models (more on that in a later post) with this and based the idea a lot on the Future War look with the piles of rubble and randombits of wall left standing which the resistance are using for cover. Adding to this the oil drum (which could, rather dangerously, be used for a firepit) and the fact that I added boards over the window made it seem like an old hideout type place.

Finally, the telegraph pole which I need to finish the detailing for, but is functionally complete:

I took pains to add some black drybrushing towards the top half of the pole, as in real telepgraph poles (at least in the UK) there is often a tar which is applied to the poles, this helps stop the wood rotting, considering our famously wet weather here and was something I wanted to add.

I do have to modelling up the connection box and wiring to add to the piece, as well as finish the camper van for the flat area, but it is usable as it stands.

I'm going to focus on my Orktober project for the time being this month, and work up some more terrain once I've gotten the greenskins sorted I think.

Until next time....

 

  - Lewis

Urban Terrain - LET'S GET READY TO RUBBLE!

Hello again, in Part 1 when last we left our terrain making efforts, I had just glued the former pieces of polystyrene (and been told off because one of the cats managed to snag a small piece without me knowing and was playing with it downstairs in the hallway!).

So this time I will be adding the actual terrain to the pieces and working them up to the beginning of the paint stage.

We'll start by grabbing out the bag of Modelling Compound from Geek Gaming.

This stuff is great to work with, it's a PVA, plaster and paper mix which forms up with three parts compound to one part water, goes on like papier-mâche, and is workable about twenty minutes or so after you lay it down.  Reasonably priced for a kilogram bag, it'swell worth it simply for the ease of use (I am not affiliated with Geek Gaming, just like their products).  

 

Anyway, once a good layer was down, I had to smooth it off to provide a nice key for the next stage to glue to the modelling compound once it had dried. In the words of Luke when he's been advertising/using this stuff in his Terrain videos, "Get your fingers wet and get in there!".

 

This is what I ended up with:

 Looking a lot more natural, rather then bubbly polystyrene all over the place.
The front corner of the bar hasn't been worked up, as this spills outside the walls where they have been broken down, so I'm going to add that section once the interior is finished and the walls glued in place.

I forgot to take a photo of the next step, but it basically involves a thick lyer of PVA glue and then some smashed sheets of plaster which I cast up in my own baking trays (not the ones from the kitchen) glued on as larger pieces of rubble/concrete.

Once this is dry, I start to add various smaller rubble sizes:

 

I have a tub of builders sharp sand, a big tub of smoother sand and a tub of cat litter (clean obviously, I'm not going to be practicing chemical warfare on my gaming table). 

Again, with a liberally thick layer of PVA we end up with this:

 

 

 I stopped work on the Bar at this time as I was having to work on the kitchen side, and there wasn't room for all my terrain AND to keep the room functioning in it's primary capacity. 

Once I had the extra sizes and layers of smaller rubble down, I decided to try out a layer of Mod Podge mixed with grey paint as a sealant/primer coat:

Unfortunately, near disaster struck.

The Mod Podge mixture held fast over a lot of the smaller rubble and created this wierd, honeycomb texture is the only way I could describe it:

 See how it has smoothed off a fair bit of the rubble and sand but left holes in the surface...not ideal when I wanted this sort of texture like on my Municipal Building:

 

Not a major problem though, as once they'd all dried properly, I threw down some more PVA and sand, then gave them a primer coat witha  rattle can of grey paint:

 The standing windowframe and wall got some texture through using baking powder around this time, probably before the rattle can if i'm honest but I can't remember:

 Just some cheap own-brand baking powder, sprinkled over PVA which was smeared over the building wall by my finger to ensure good coverage.

I then thought about adding some boards to the base of this piece as well, seeing as there were floorboards on the ground and some had been used to block off the window, I figured there would be some more littered around the piece

 

Fortunatley, before the 2020 pandemic began and everywhere was open and running as normal, I had steadily been grabbing a handful of coffee stirrers everytime I bought a cup of tea from the cafe next to our depot where I work. I have a tub full of these which are very useful for modelling projects.

I guess I'll have to buy a pack of them off eBay unless things go back to normal anytime soon...which I can't see happening.

 

Before I added them to the piece though, I started painting and made a black wash using Black Emulsion tester pot and water with a couple of drops of washing up liquid added, this breaks the surface tension of the water and allows it to seep down through the various cracks and textures. (I didn't add this to the Mod Podge and that may have been the error there).

Then a couple of drybrushes up through different shades of grey emulsion testers I picked up specifically for this project.

A few spots of colour on the oil drums and the interior wall and windowframe of the pieces left me with these:

Finally, adding some sand to the ends of the floorboards and painting them up to match the base piece gave me this effect on the "Bolt Hole" as I am calling this piece:

 These are coming along well, and in my next post about them, I'll add some finished photo's along with some miniatures added to give a sense of scale to the pieces.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

Urban Terrain, let's make some more.

 So, at the beginning of the year (February if i'm not mistaken) I bought a load of MDf and supplies to build a ruined city for 40k/Bolt Action/Any other 20th century on forwards game in 28mm.

I began building a municipal/government building type piece and sort of got sidetracked...this happens a lot I find. One of the main things has been the whole pandemic situation as I originally thought what was the point as I wouldn't be able to get it over to my friend's house where we have a table set up, and won't be able to use it, etc...blah blah blah, I procrastinated because I was using the pandemic as an excuse.

I thought it was about time to actually get the lead out and make some progress with this project, especially if I actually want to use the bleeding stuff and not have it sat around taking up space. The fact that I'll be able to use it for slo games until I can get over to his house and drop it off has spurred me on a little.

So, I gathered supplies, warned the family that there may be some polystyrene loose and set to...

Well...

 

After I'd spent half-hour looking for my terrain knife I did, the "tidy-away-fairy" visited when I upgraded my display cabinets, and my knife had been put away "somewhere safe", yes, somewhere so safe even I couldn't find it!

Anyway:

The usual suspects for terrain, MDF bases which I had precut and snaded the sides down on. Some cardboard and roof insulation polystyrene. I managed to bag a load of this which was going spare from another friend who was moving house and had tons laid around not being used. 

I began with a couple of smaller scatter pieces, which I plan to just be cover or LoS blocking rubble piles:

I think the hardest part of the first ten minutes of building was trying to not let polystyene balls fly everywhere as I was cutting it up.

Preservering on, I becan a smaller ruined piece:

 

This smaller piece is kind of whats left of a majorly bombed building and a sniper hole all in one I imagined.
The floor started out as a piece of underfloor insulation which I carved with a pencil to make the floorboard texture (too bad most of it got covered up later one). The window panel is from an MDF building which was left over from the municipal building I already started. 

It's based off of this photo from somewhere in Germany in 1945:

With the singular standing area and the crashed ruins around it, the polystyrene was placed to this end but I didn't want this piece to be as big as the previous attempt. It's more of a smaller piece of scatter terrain which could block LoS if needed to a specialist or provde cover to an infantry unit moving through.
The resin oil drum was added along with the boards over the windows to give the impressions that it has been used at some point as an ad-hoc fort/command camp.

Having liked the texture made by the underfoor insulation, I decided to attempt a larger piece and began with this:

This piece will end up as another major ruined building, so after the floor was finished, I snapped off some polystyrene to create the rubble piles just as in the municipal building, I pushed these more towards the corners to create spaces for miniatures to be placed later on. I also ripped off the celophane of another MDF kit I had picked up, the Wild West Furniture pack from TT-Combat. I only built the bar for this piece yet, but the tables and chairs will be added once this piece reaches a better state to add them:

With things in place, I turned to the outside a little and had ordered some 1cm square Balsa wood sticks, with a little cutting to create an indent, I managed to create the impression of concrete support pillars on the corners.

I placed everything together to get an idea how it was shaping up, but left the buildings removable as yet for ease of modelling the interior:

Finally, I began work on the final piece for this batch.

One thing I have always wanted to see on ruined city boards, ut which are often impracticle, are things like streetlights and telegraph poles. They are everywhere ad here in the UK are a distinctive part of any town or village you pass through.

Not worried about practicalities on the tabletop I set to work with some 1cm dowel rods I picked up from the DIY shop. These were cut to eight inch lengths, this was based on looking out of my house window at the one across the green where I live. The telepgraph poles here are just taller then the rooflines of the houses oppsite mine which are two storey tall semi-detached. 

With a guestimate at the roofline of a two-story MDF ruin I had in my hand I landed at eight inches roughly, which seemed right so I went with it. I'm going to work up the flat juntion boxes which the ones round here have using some plasticard layering and then I'm thinking of using garden wire for the actual cables. Yes most of this stuffis oversize in diameter, the doweling certainly is, but it's a tradeoff between looking right and durability on the tabletop which I am going for here.

I am toying with the idea of using some magnets to mke wires which are still attached to the ruins, but I feel that they may get in the way of gameplay too much..
Finally I decided to add a crashed vehicle to this piece. I've been collecting a few of the Roadsterz 1/48 toy cars as and when I can find them at a reasonable price (not going to pay premium pounds for something I am going to smash with a hammer!).

A quick root in the supply drawer and this camper van was selected:

Two minutes with a screwdriver to take it to pieces and then a hammer to wreck the front ennd and it was nearly ready to go. As an afterthought I decided to add a couple of 3D printed damaged fuel barrels I bought off eBay at the beginning of this project.

Next post I'll be adding the Scenic compound to make everything smooth and then starting to texture these pieces.

Until next time...

 - Lewis