Catching up over the summer

 Hi folks, 

Here I am again. 😄 With travel abroad and camping scuppered due to Covid I had to entertain myself in a different way over the summer holiday. Luckily (?) I'm always virtually drowning in projects and things to do...

So, here are the fruits of this summer's labours:

 

First up: The big one, the Necromunda terrain project (still ongoing, btw). Here's what I built over the past few weeks:

This a collection of all the Necromunda terrain I have built so far.The new additions I built over the summer are (from left to right): The large Synthstill/destiller column, the bucket elevator, the old power reacter (partially hidden behind the nuclear waste silo), and the Necromunda dice tower.

Below you can see the reactor and the dice tower front and centre: These two items are fully 3d printed items, the two other ones are a mix of traditional terrain building techniques and materials and 3d printed parts. I really like the results I can get with this mixed approach.

I had a lot of fun building these and experimenting with new techniques (using a sand/tile grout mix for the basing and texuring of dirt and rust. Using AK interactive streaking grime and generally building in a more free-form and messy approach.)

But ofcourse, this table is nowhere near filled. I built more, but didn't get around to painting it, before work had to start again:

Sets of walkways, as well as a corpse-starch processing plant on a raised platform. (And as I type this, I realise I totally forgot to add my toxic pools to these photos! D'oh!)

 Hopefully I can get these painted over the next few weekends...

And now as to why I didn't get these painted during my vacation...

Ghost of Tsushima was released. And while I don't own a Playstation, seeing the enthusiastic responses from people, as well a playthrough by a friendly streamer got my love for (gaming in) medieval/mythological Japan again. Which prompted me to finally finish a 90mm samurai model I had lingering in paint in progress for months now:

She isn't still 100% finished, as the base still needs grass and tufts etc. added to it.

And I had to 3d print and paint this fun thing, couldn't help myself...

I maybe could have spent some time sanding out the print lines, but it was a spur of the moment thing, and they are a lot less noticeable in real life. I'm just waiting for the oil paint in the recesses to dry, and then I can varnish it and add the cords to wear it.

 

See you all next time!

Just in time for Hanami!

This has been a productive weekend! Also, this post requires a song:

The cherry trees have been finished (I just need to let them dry for a couple of days, and then fixate the flocking). While the flock was out, I also finished up the bamboo bases and the sacred rock.
Here's a FIP (Flock in Progress) picture:

Bright, aren't they? :D

During Hanami, Tamiya-san and Ronin Hasegawa re-enact the impromptu duel that led to their years-long friendship, as Katsunaka the priest and Kageyori the Miko look on from a safe distance.

And a slightly more top-down shot:

That's all of my currently finished Japan-specific scenery, as well as some of my "universal" rocky hills being almost completely obscured by the bamboo groves. I think they might be decent line of sight blockers... ;P

See you next time!

Holy Stone

I had a spare hour, in which to knock out a quick scenery paint job. Here's the results:

The rock is, surprisingly, made from rock... The Shimenawa is sisal, hardened with thinned PVA, the Shide are foil from a tube of foodstuff (mayo or ketchup or somesuch).
Painted up quick, looks the part.
All in all, Easter has been productive.

See you next time!

Oriental flora

Well, the bamboo got finished yesterday, but the light was gone already gone so far, I couldn't get decent pictures anymore. So these had to wait until today:

Daimyo Tempura finds his entry into Miso-Ji isn't quite as uncontested as he expected...

Today, as an added bonus, my wife joined me for painting, the first time in years (She used to be a very skilled and enthusiastic painter, but that hobby had fallen somewhat by the wayside for her.) It was really nice to be sat next to her and sharing a favorite activity. I got some progress done on the first batch of my Samurai villagers, but didn't quite get them finished

Also, earlier this week the tiny cherry trees I ordered online finally arrived:

A bit brighter than I had anticipated, but they'll server their purpose just fine! They're about 40mm tall, which works just fine for my purposes. I'll just put these on as inconspicuous bases as possible, so I can plant them wherever I like them to be on the table. Half of this batch will go to Gunbird.

I don't think I'll get these done before Hanami is over, but then again, with these, my samurai can go cherry blossom viewing whenever they want... ;D

See you next time!

Bamboozled!

So, today I assembled and based the remaining stands of bamboo:

 The PVA can dry overnight and paint should occur shortly. :D

As I had a spare base, some time and inspiration left, I decided to build a little extra:

A simple sacred rock. It's about twice as high as a 28mm miniature, so it's suitably impressive on the table.
My usual foamed PVC base, an actual rock, hot glue, basing sand and ballast. With a PVA-drenched length of sisal as Shimenawa and foil from some tube of foodstuff to make the Shide.  I hope to paint it alongside/after the bamboo.  With the trees I already have for (western) wargaming and the Torii I painted recently, I should be able to do a reasonably convincing small Japanese forest/wilderness table. Now I just need to get sufficient minis painted so I can give some rule sets a trial run, Daisho being on the top of that list.

See you next time!

Trial of the Grasses

Well, the trial set of bamboo is done, except for some growies (flock, some small plants, such things)  on the edge of the base:

Looking at this, I'm ready to go into mass production, I think.

I misted the bamboo stalks with some matt varnish and then spray-primed the base in black. Naturally, this hit the lower part of the bamboo as well, but this wouldn't be a problem.
Then I painted the base with Vallejo Burnt Umber and drybrushed German Camouflage Orange, Desert Yellow and finally Iraqui Sand. Again, this hit the lower sections of the bamboo, neatly covering up the primer overspray, as I had planned. There was some minor flaking of the paint on the thinner bamboo stalks, but nothing too noticeable. Finally I roughly hit the bamboo stalks themselves with very watery English Uniform, to get rid of the uniform green colour.
Looks good to me, I'll be cutting bases for the larger bamboo bushes tonight or tomorrow, hopefully I'll have a complete grove by/over Easter.

See you next time!

I want another shrubbery!

And who am I to argue with the Knights who say Ni? :D

My second order of scale bamboo has arrived:

Twice as tall as the batch I already have, plus these have a wire core. I should be able to build a fairly decent bamboo forest now.
That is all, carry on...

Daï-Bakemono, Die!

Today a package arrived to correct a years-old mistake of mine. You see, years ago, I missed out on the chance to buy a brand new box of Rackham Daï-Bakemono.

With the feudal Japan flame rekindled, I went on a search and found a site that still sold them, but in resin. A transaction was made, and today the fruits of that exchange arrived:

3 big 'orrible ogres, together with the goblin samurai that I ordered at the same time (shown in the top of the picture) they will form the command and muscle of my little band of Bakemono. The troops will come from the Goblin Ashigaru command that I did manage to snag some years ago.
The miniatures are great sculpts, full of character and detail. I'm especially pleased to finally get my mitts on the Daï-Bakemone, wonderful figures! A few details are less "Japanese" than I would like, but that is what conversions are for. One of the Goblin Samurai will get a backbanner and a more fancy helmet and will be the commander of the warband, with the other two armored Goblin Samurai becoming his lieutenants.

These may be next on the list, once I finish my villagers and get started on some terrain....

Trimming the bush and skinning the villagers

When Samurai/Feudal Japan reappeared on the radar locally, a few weeks ago, I ordered a set of blossoming Sakura trees ( to share with Gunbird) as well as a set of bamboo. The bamboo arrived earlier on this week, but turned out a bit on the small-ish size:

Sufficient, but not quite imposing enough for the bamboo maze/forest I had in mind. So an extra set of larger bamboo stems was ordered the same night...
While waiting for those to arrive I set about trimming the excess flash off these bamboo stems. I've got a hundred of them to go, so I'm doing it in little batches, clipping a few every time I have a spare few minutes, like when waiting for the teawater to boil, etc.:

 I'm already a quarter of the way through the bag...
Once they are all clean (enough, with this soft plastic, I can't expect to get it perfect, and they're supposed to look good en masse, not being inspected individually up close), I'll start making a test bush, so I can start serious production once the larger stems have arrived. I'm hoping they'll arrive in the next week, so I can do this in a couple of days off I have heading my way.

Today, after a leisurely stroll in the forest, I painted the skin on my first 5 villagers:

The painting is a bit rougher than I would have liked. Apparently, I'm more out of practice than I thought... Still having a little bit of the shakes from a flu earlier this week may also have contributed.
I'm not too worried as they're essentially just set dressing/ objective markers.
The wash on the hats and woven basket are currently drying, maybe I can just finish those before supper?
Hopefully next weekend I can get the most of them dressed.

See you next time!

It takes a child to raise a village

In this case, my son needing someone to assist/supervise him with his homework.  As sitting there, staring at the ceiling until he needed me isn't my thing, I took my cutting mat, some tools and a batch of mini's along:

Luckily (for me, not for him!) he had enough homework that I could also get around to basing them:

So, I have been a good parent, had a nice father-son chat as we both worked on our own things and I gained a batch of mini's ready for primer and (start of) paint tomorrow. Win-win-win!

These are a sort of spontaneous collaboration with Gunbird, as he has enthusiastically started building a samurai village. As we both have an interest in medieval Japan wargaming, I might as well provide the population!

The project is (unsurprisingly, seeing my track record) threatening to escalate a bit though. My original plan was to limit myself to the Gempei War miniatures from The Assault Group, with some supporting mini's from Perry to fill the gaps, but I've already ordered a Koryu Buntai from the Ronin range by Northstar Miniatures, and find myself eyeing other buntai and more "modern" samurai figures from Perry, Kingsford and Northstar... We'll see how far this goes...

See you next time!

I feel like sushi tonight.

Our  DnD Campaign set in mythical Japan has picked up steam again, which has gotten me looking at my medieval Japan references again. At the same time Gunbird started building Japanese houses and a second hand copy of Daisho came along on the LAF. Apparently Samurai are in the air... So why fight it?

Especially as I have a Pappis box full of the belligerent little dudes. :D A couple were already paint in progress and I had a basecoated Torii. As good a point to start (or continue) as any.
Here's the results of a day's painting:

 I tried to get the Torii to look like a simple, weathered, rural one, the design just lent itself to that. No idea where it came from, it was a gift from Gunbird.

And more of a close up of the Samurai themselves:

The mini's are from The Assault Group, Gempei Wars era Samurai.
I've got a few more primered and ready to paint, but those will have to wait for another weekend.
Once my Daish rule set arrives, I'll have a root through my box and assemble a warband/Buntai. I should have some ashigaru as well. And if I have the right mix of weapons and gear, they may even visit Frostgrave?
For now, it's just fun to be doing hobby stuff again and sharing enthusiasm with Gunbird.

See you next time!