How to make a: pond

Greetings everyone,

Hope you are all well.

It's (once more) a tutorial post, this one, of how to make a pond for your wargaming tables, easily and most importantly, cheaply.

The Chinese used to say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and for this reason below you will see a photo of the draft sketch,

the materials used for the pond,

and the final result:

You can see the whole 'how-to' video below:

I hope you like it.

Have good Tuesday night everyone! :-)

T.

How to make: Stone Walls

Greetings everyone,

Today I'm going to show you my latest addition to my ever growing collection of terrain pieces (mostly handmade, as most of you that follow this blog already know).

Since I'm a cheap git (my fellow English friends may raise their fingers for my misbehaviour - I heard it in a movie and I liked it), I was trying to come up with a way of making some cheap, durable and respectful (in terms of wargaming feasibility) stone walls for my little men.

I browsed the internet for some ideas, but the answer came through one of my wargaming buddies, Vaggelis, who's trying to entice me into the world of Chain Of Command rules - he didn't try much tbh, since I didn't need much of an effort to indulge myself into something new hobby related thing.

He told me to use PVA, and plastic decorative gravel. Yes, you got that right, some PVA and plastic gravel. Below, you will see how easy it is to make some - good, for the eye at least - stone walls by combining these two, and easy to find materials.

I started from this:

And got into this:

Watch the video and spread the word, spread the word guys, so we can all play!

Have a great Monday evening everyone. :-)

T.

P.S: If you care to see how I made the small barn next to the stone walls, see this post. 

How to make a: Barn

Greetings everyone,

Hope you are all well.

Today I prepared a new video (perhaps it will be my new trend) for a model Barn I made.

It took me a piece of paper to get this:

And prepare this:

As you will see in the video it is somehow versatile, and can be used in various eras, from Middle Ages to WW2.

I hope you like it.

If you have any questions on the method I used for making the model, please do not hesitate to ask.

T.

A Spanish windmill, that will stay in the plain.

For those you have read my previous post, you have seen some halfprepared buildings that were supposed to consist a proper terrain piece for my Peninsular war project. They were in this state for a while, since I was waiting from the post some Wills Scenics sheets (Pantiles) to make their rooftops (when you live outside England, these thigns may take a while...in times like these, I cherish my years in the Albion).

In the end, they've arrived. And I used them. And you can see the result below:

The windmill is movable - in case you have wondered. Also the rooftops are movable also and figures can be placed inside them (no photos I'm afraid).

And some Lobsters for reference.

 I hope you like it.

Have a great Wednesday night everyone!

T.

p.s: It's amazing what you can do with a tube of Pringles (paprika flavoured - my favourite). ;-)

Shovels, sickles and planks of wood

Greetings everyone from Athens, that, for  the time being is rather warm.

Yesterday, while listening to Brazil vs Germany game (what a game!), I finished these three small terrain pieces, that can be used as complementary pieces next to small buildings, barns, stone houses, sheds etc.

The tools (shovels and sickles), were made with needles (the shafts) and thin card (the metal parts - blades and this curvy thing, which I can't grasp it in my memory right now, please bear with me...).

The rest of the woodwork is made by balsa wood and matches.

The sacks, were made by white Milliput, since I couldn't find any decent sacks in the market (and to be honest, I couldn't wait 7-15 days to receive them, by post - I had to finish the pieces yesterday).   :-)

I reckon that with a bit of patience given, it will be fairly easy for you guys to make something like these, in no time (go get some matches and needles)! 

I hope you like them.

Have a good Wednesday night everyone - I'm off to get me some pints o' Guinness!

T.

W.I.P - The rain in Spain...

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well.

It's this period of the time here in Greece, where the weather gets hot and the paints dry fast...it's this time of the year, where one should contemplate of what to do, in order to keep his modelling mojo active. The answer is: Terrain!

Below you see some photos of an ongoing project, for my Napoleonic figures, that will play a part in the Peninsular War skirmishes, that me and my friends are going to play.

I won't tell you what it is, you'll have to find it for yourselves! :-)

So, no fancy looking figures for the night, please bear with me, it's too damn hot to paint.

Have a nice Tuesday night everyone!

T.

Italeri - Set 6095 - British Infantry 1815

I have been busily working on many projects and from time to time I manage to finish some of them.

Entering the world of muskets (French, Confederates) and the Colour Galaxy (did you know that there were other colours besides Field Grey, Field Drab, Olive Drab, Khaki and so on?) a couple of months ago, I painted these two chaps from Italeri's British Infantry 1815 set of figures in their distinctive colours: red and white (alongside with some other colours as well).

Plenty of details to paint meaning that it took me almost two hours to complete them. A tedious task, well worth the result though. I keep telling myself that I'm only going to paint 20-30 figures from this set, just for skirmish games, but, and there's always a but for us, the weak willed modellers...

I hope you like them.

Have a great w/e everyone!

T. 

Les enfants de l' Empereur

Hi everyone!

Hope you all had a pleasant w/e.

A few days ago, I painted some figures from Italeri's #6066 set - French Infantry (Napoleonic).

They are a bit taller and chunkier compared to other figures I've painnted so far, but the detail and historical accuracy are on the high level (for the former I am quite sure, for the latter, I leave that to you).

If you found some mistakes in terms of accuracy, please show some tolerance - I've never painted Les Blues before.

Have a great Monday night everyone!

T.