Paper and Foam building 28mm

Hi Chaps,

Well this week saw an epic battle where my immune system kicked the ass of the common cold! Not all plain sailing as my reaction was to cease all activities for a day or two to help the old white blood cells out.

Still I managed to almost complete this small block of maisonette style housing. This was constructed out of foam board and a printed paper brick pattern. The internet has various patterns out there and my library charges 25p for a colour print out so this was an affordable construction. The "final fix" of doors has yet to go on but I have for now run out of steam (or is that patience?) with it.

So there it is...room entry for zombie games is now an option though I may buy some mdf buildings to fill out a table. I am hoping that some TV dishes, wires and trash will help to give it a lived in look....now I just have to source some ping pong balls to cut the satellite dishes out of!

The figures are the only two I have had the strength to paint, they are both Warlord plastics and the detail was sharp....they were also easy to put together which is always a bonus.

Thanks for popping by. Keep blogging.

The Assault Group Security Team 1

Hi Chaps,

This has been a busy week with lots of gluing and cutting but not a lot of finished goods. A row of British/US type flats are almost complete and a dozen or so plastic zombies are undercoated but not yet started. I suppose this hobby just has periods where things are just a work in progress.

Anyway a team of Security men did get completed and I think they will be useful in many different scenarios. The Assault Group are an excellent company and these are amongst their best sculpts, please forgive my lack of photography skills....once the lottery has been won a camera with white balance will be one my first purchases.

Warlord Games sent me a new set of cards in English which is remarkably fast....they must have been posted first class the day after I emailed them....so well done Warlord and thank you for the Survival guide that you included with the cards.

Hopefully my next post will have the new building and some new figures in it. I don't know why but this building seems to have taken forever but at least I can practice my miniature FIBUA skills in miniature. FIBUA stands for "Fighting in built up area's" but is probably called something less threatening now like clean and sweep.....

Keep blogging Chaps your ideas are gold to me.

The Assault Group and Project Z arrive.

Hi Chaps,

Today was a good day. My family are thriving, no bad news and my postie arrived carrying lots of goodies.

The Assault Group order arrived and contained a lot of well packed minis as well as a bonus mini which will find lots of use as an officer of some sort in a militia or poorly trained army unit. As always the quality of The Assault Group is just outstanding-Brian Ansell (?) I think was the sculptor of these and they remind me of Mark Copplestone who is also amazing...I am really pleased with this order and they will be the first to be painted.

As you can see the figures were quickly spruced up and based ready for a black undercoat. The close protection team look really nice with very dynamic poses as do the militia with pistols, excellent figures.

The next parcel contained Warlord Games "Project Z" which I admit I bought because it was cheap, indeed this is a massive bargain as you get the game and a box of figures of your choice for £30...free delivery!

My extra box had to be zombies but I do expect that I will take advantage of Warlords 3 for 2 offer on their boxes and invest in female survivors, modern infantry and yet more zombies. A small problem has occurred with this order as there were no rules (I downloaded these) and the cards were in French! The Game Sequence sheet was in English....anyway as I have no wish to employ my poor schoolboy French into my hobby time I have informed Warlord Games-I will update you as too what happens.

Surprisingly the rules for this game are very clever. I prefer traditional dice but having read through my downloaded, printed out set I think these are well worth a try and are an option to the Total AR:SE set that I have had for some time. I do hope that Warlord continue to support this game as the quality of the figures and rules are better than anything I have seen in this hobby before.

As is probably the case with most war gamers I can see my own interpretation of the rules being used already, as yet I have not watched the vids on youtube but for the cost of this game you cannot go wrong (unless you get French cards LOL).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUkPcam9aks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOVpBbZTCjc

Well keep gaming and blogging Chaps, great times for men and women who like playing games with soldiers.

Workstation.

Hi Chaps,

Just a quick update because as yet no figures have arrived-infact no postman at all yesterday! Regularly now we miss a day of post due to a shortage of staff/bad management/alignment of the planets-universal service has already gone it seems!

Well rant about the postal service over I decided to fiddle about with my work station (that should really be playstation) to create more room and just make my life easier. The models on the shelves just happen to be the latest ones that need a little more attention in the form of air con units and satellite dishes then they will disappear into the cupboard.

Books everywhere! I like to read but then cannot part with a decent book but a cull will have to take place which will be a dramatic experience, I am sure that you Chaps face a similar dilemma? Indeed today some of my earlier buildings will be broken up to create some space...for more buildings. Also a 3 foot square board should make an appearance for a lick of paint, it is surprising what jobs one can find when one's figures are in transit.

Keep blogging Chaps I am going stir crazy and need to see what you have been painting.

Toy Cars repainted for 28mm

Hi Chaps,

Almost a crisis in my painting world as I have run out of figures to splash paint onto! (OK if I am being honest I have 20 Darkest Africa waiting and around 30 Space Marines but I am not in the mood).

So with no little dudes to paint I am resorting to car boot 1/48 1/50 1/55 scale toy cars to repaint so that they will match my tabletop men and buildings. I feel that without a repaint they just never match the scenery nor the table itself-they are just too shiny looking!

Anyway this is the process that my toys go through to look more like the rest of my collection-to be fair a couple of my cars are nearly as old as I am! I always purchase them from car boots or from ebay at ridiculously cheap prices...£1 or £2 pounds and when you examine the casts they are actually little precision works of art.

First step above is to drill out the rivets holding the major parts together...

Give a caustic soda bath to anything that needs a lot of paint removed. I have ignored the chassis on these trucks and just lightly sanded the paint to give the black spray some grip...

Undercoat everything matt black (or white if you want a pale top colour).

Apply your main hobby colours and weather the vehicles a lot if you are representing Africa/Middle East or Asia. I saw a lot of hand painted cars and trucks out there so you really cannot make any mistakes....brown was a major choice for home painters...why is anyone's guess!

So that is it until my TAG figures and Warlord Zombie game arrives. If you want to give this a go Lesney Superkings seem to work for 28mm, I have a Unimog on the way and a Securitas truck (to be used as a SWAT team truck) soon to arrive. Corgi's larger vehicles work well and I am searching for their Transit van from the 70's!

A lot of these models will be older than the readers of this blog...

Thanks for popping by and keep blogging you are all excellent.

Starting to paint

Hi Chaps,

I am sure that at some time we have all had that loss of enthusiasm that causes us to abandon our painting stations from time to time? It happens to me a couple of times a year but I leave my paints in the rack because I know that at some point a trigger will snap me back into painting mode.

A similar thing just happened...though I cannot really say why I wanted to paint moderns again...maybe the Spectre miniatures website? Anyway I am still working on a cheap way of fabricating satellite dishes, air con units (molding seems to be the only option on this one) and radio relay masts.....

Foam buildings are being churned out at the rate of 3 a week but I really only want to show them on my gaming table which of course needs vegetation!

One of mine (and I am sure yours too) habits is to return to manufacturers that have provided good service previously and I always seem to look at Grubby Tanks. His technicals are effective and very cheap at £9 for vehicle and two crew....I love these casts which are easy to paint and arrive within a day or two-Grubby Tanks are excellent.

Fine scale modelers may want to look away at my techniques for securing wheels-the blue tac is still on there and cannot be seen, the super glue does the rest.

"The Crew" so far-the rest will be made up of TAG (The Assault Group) when they arrive. Actually this was a big order from me at over £50 (wooo I hear you cry...sadly no one gets rich off my orders)...

Chap below is a Reaper Bones plastic "Horace Action Jackson" who may appear in future Zombie games but for the moment has been promoted from pimp to Warlord!

Empress miniatures also feature in my little world and they are lovely to paint, there is far more detail on them than I can do justice too but they still look effective-I may try to take less close up pics!

Another Empress figure, I think he was in the SAS pack but now he is freelancing on my four foot square board.

Same guy in a dump...

Cheap foam board is a great way to fill a table, the gate is from Warbases....the actual base is a table mat that cost about 20p which is cheaper than mdf and saves the hassle of cutting.

Another contractor. The detail on these little guys is just amazing.

Well thanks for looking. I now have a little campaign started with the background story printed out which gives every little contact a reason. I have no idea how this will develop but it should be fun and mostly out of my hands.

Keep blogging guys!