Major Ballsup's Hobby Shed

The trees have been dipped in PVA, the detailing and painting of the trunks is complete, we're finally onto basing.   All based and ready for texturing Apart from using smaller size bases (30, 32 and 40mm) and gluing rather than drilling holes to attach the trees, the  bases for the Noch ones were done in the same way as in Phase 1 (details  here and here ).  I only used a couple of bigger two tree bases this time.  I also deliberately left eight trees unbased.  The moulded on roots of the Noch trees mean they'll stand reasonably well if carefully placed.  This gives greater flexibility to mix them in with the larger trees from Phase 1 and change the trees about on the multi bases.  Large bases with texture added With additional flexibility in mind, while I had everything out I removed a couple of the trees from the Phase 1 three tree bases.  As they were screwed in this was a simple job.  I made a few extra single bases for these leaving a few of the larger trees free to be ad

Last week has seen some comings and goings. I finally decided to sell the 100 or so Venexia 15mm Italian Wars figures that I bought on a whim in January.  I listed them on eBay Tuesday afternoon and when I got up Wednesday morning they'd already sold.  That left me with no figures, yes 0 figures to paint, a position I haven't been in for 23 years or so.  I must admit although I like to operate on a very manageable ie. one or two months worth of figures to paint, this had gone too far and I was left feeling slightly out of sorts weird as that may sound. Thankfully this uneasy situation didn't last long as on Friday my order from Newline Designs arrived. 24 regular Sikh infantry, 24 Sepoys and four British infantry to be used as skirmishers.   That'll keep me going nicely until I go on holiday in a couple of weeks and for a bit when I get back.   Why did I sell the Italian Wars figures?  I don't have a lead mountain so I’d had plenty of opportunities in the nine month

I always listened to music when painting but during the extended time at home I've turned more and more to podcasts and YouTube.  Perhaps since my social contact has been so reduced it's a need that is being fulfilled.  I'm amazed at how much wargames stuff is out there.   I'm playing catch up but I'm especially fond of The Yarkshire Gamer aka. Ken Reilly's output.  All of his updates are interesting and the marathon Reet Big Wargames Podcasts where he interviews people from the hobby are particularly worth catching.   Ken sounds like the sort of chap that you could have a great chat and a nice cup of tea with (it'd have to be Yarkshire mind) or probably something a bit stronger.  Although his main thing is great big battles with 28mm figures and a number of players (which through various reasons is almost the polar opposite of  where I'm at), his collection is inspirational and his enthusiasm and warmth shine through.   Anyway one thing that got me thi

I had to wait a full 2 days for all the trees to thoroughly dry from stage 1 .  It seemed to have work as very little flock was now being shed when I handled the trees. The next stage was to improve on the tree trunks which was smooth shiny plastic and didn't look good.  The trees did have quite well done roots and as any horticulturist or arborist knows it's the roots that are important... Before (L) with Green Stuff applied (R) I used the same method as before.  Mix up some Green Stuff, pull it into thin layers and wrap this round the trunks pressing it down until the trunk was covered to the top of the roots.  It was then a case of randomly making marks on the putty to simulate a tree trunk's fissures.  This was a relatively quick but not so painless process as I found by the time I'd done all 25 my finger tips were aching from working the putty into place!  All 25 with putty and texture applied I let these dry a full day and then painted  them using the same sludgey

A recurring subject for discussion among wargamers is "The Lead Mountain". You know that never diminishing pile of unpainted figures that grows ever larger with each new project.  For some it's a source of pride for others a source of anguish.   I used to have a lead mountain. Actually it was a large box full of Flames of War and Warmachine and other things I can't now remember that sat in the loft. It bothered me. I don't really know why as they didn't need feeding or caring for and weren't doing any harm. I think it may have been some strange conscience thing going on where I felt I couldn't buy any more without finishing what I had.  And  there's always something shinier and more interesting out there isn't there?   There was also an element of almost fear in wondering where I was going to get the time to paint all that stuff. That was a long time ago. I sorted out the stuff that I really wanted to do from the stuff that would have been nice

Here's the pack of 20mm Newline Designs Sikh Wars Sikh Generals that I've just finished. Until my next Newline order arrives I don't have any more figures to paint.  And completing these brings my total to the year to 200 figures completed.  I saved these until last so that I could spend a bit more time on them and bring out the details.  I really like the figures but I'm not too keen on the horses.  The unbarded horse is a lovely sculpt and the detailing on the barding is great, but they look a bit small to me.   As they are character figures I tried something a bit different going for oval bases.  I think they've worked alright, Well it's all learning.  

Waiting for an order of figures to arrive has opened a window to start the next phase of The Great Tree Project.  To recap, I have a lot of different trees in various boxes around the house and this year I was determined to improve the look of them and make them easier to use for gaming.  I made a good start and that's been documented here and here . The next batch is a bag of 25 Noch Gaugemaster mixed size trees.   These were bought from Hunstanton Models , a glorious bricks and mortar model railway/model shop in Norfolk.  These shops are such a rare gem that whenever we go away I always look to see if there's a hobby shop to visit.  Hunstanton Models with obligatory old fella The trees had shed a lot of flock, perhaps because they'd been in their bag for 2 years,  I didn't want this going everywhere so first job was to sort this out.  A bit of Googling brought up that soaking in a PVA/water mix should fix it.  I tried brushing this on but it didn't seem very effic

After making all that jungle terrain I was itching to use it.  In true style rather than  play a French Indo-China game which had been the original driver for making it, I gave my 15mm Burma WW2 figures a run out.  The figures are all Battlefront with a  few Eureka Japanese  which I added earlier this year.  The M3 Lee is also Battlefront, which along with the Vickers MG team had originally been painted for the Western Desert, but got a jungle paint job in spring  I also got a chance to use the Japanese and British dice I'd made.  All set up to play I settled at 800 points per side or thereabouts. I used the Meeting Engagement scenario from the rule book which was six turns and as I didn't roll a six at the end it didn't go to the extra turn.  End of turn one every order die drawn Bolt Action works well enough for solo play.  I'm still learning all the nuances and adding notes to my quick reference sheet.  Most importantly I enjoy playing it.   The IJA wait in ambush T

After the last few weeks of being "up the jungle" it was a nice change to get back to painting figures.  These are Warlord Games Winter German infantry with Wargames Atlantic WW1 Stormtroopers heads.  I've always liked the Dieselpunk look so I decided to give them gasmask heads.  They needed a bit of Milliput to fill the gaps but it wasn’t too fiddly and I'm pleased with the result.    Ready for priming I'm glad I didn't buy more than a single sprue. Not because they're bad figures (far from it). Its because I wanted early war figures and there's too much late war weaponry such as STG 44s, Panzerfausts etc. which means you are very limited with poses, especially as I found the torso and arms are not that interchangeable. There's a definite best fit much more pronounced than on other Warlord sets I've made.  By trying to make the set as versatile as possible I feel that Warlord have made a set that doesn't enable you to even complete a squad

As mentioned here  I've started to use an artificial turf mat as a terrain mat for games. As bought the mat was 100cm by 200cm which is far too big for our tiny dining table.  I cut it down to two pieces of 100cm x 80cm (80cm being the width of the table ) and 100cm x 120cm.  I'm undecided as to whether to cut the second piece to size at the moment.   It already had some variance in the greens and a bit of texture but nowhere near enough. Over the August Bank Holiday weekend I spent a couple of hours working on the smaller piece with some cheap acrylic craft paints and some hobby acrylic trying to get an effect suitable for jungle games. It's better but I think still needs work.  It'll do for the moment as I want to play a game but I can see me coming back to it when I get some inspiration.  I'm trying to decide what to do for the larger piece.  I really need something for more arid  places, specifically for Italy/Spain and for the North West Frontier.  The question

I'm catching up with updates as things have been very busy work wise. Here's the last batch of jungle scatter bases that I completed Bank Holiday weekend. I already had the bases prepared as I'd done these in the first batch . I followed the same methods for these.  That now gives me about 30 scatter bases which with palm and other trees is enough for a game of Bolt Action French Indo-China War in 20mm or Burma or Pacific WW2 in 15mm. I only have a small table so these should be enough to fill it. If not I have plenty of materials left to make some more although I'd rather not as I may have a touch of jungle fever now.