More flannel thatch....

That's the Warbases hut done, barring a slight haircut and maybe a touch of glue, for today's hobby streak. (Interesting question: does writing a battle report count separately from fighting the battle? :D)

It appears you can get two roofs that size (buildings about 3' x '5') out of one cheap Morrisons flannel (£1), and some spray cans and a tube of UHU/Bostik general purpose glue. I'm quite happy with that. I will be interested to try a similar approach but spraying teddybear fur dark brown and then desert yellow. Except I'm all but out of PVA spray :D

Even more on the Warbases hut..,

Decided it needed some timbers, as it looked a bit bare without. Raided the collection of odd leftover bit of MDF sprue and coffee stirrers... (The end timbers are attached to the roof, in case you're wondering.)

I'm actually in the middle of doing the thatched roof for this building, but waiting for paint to dry, so thought I'd do the catchup post. Would have blogged this yesterday, but got waylaid by a blonde and a box of Hotel Chocolat, yer honour :D

Also, a fun toy arrived from Amazon, of which more later...

Another this'n'that day....

...but the 'that' will please some folks.

Having a couple of large rooms for hobby space I'n trying to keep them tidy, so a chunk of lunch was spent packing up after Campaign and digging out the vacuum cleaner :D Oh, and admiring the Warbases tower.

However, this evening I have done some work and thinking on the Dux Britanniarum Compendium, so it's not all maintenance...

Finally the watch tower gets a roof.

Insane day today, but I did get time to thatch and paint the watch tower roof - teddy bear fur, industrial grade wood glue and AP Desert Yellow.

Not perfect, but it'll do. A little bit of teasing and straightening to follow, and maybe a drybrush, but its a start.

More on the Warbases watchtower

Just a quick round of what's pretty much the usual for Dark Ages buildings. Artists filler on the walls, white undercoat, light wash with dilute off-white, paint the wood using Vallejo concrete as a first step.

Roof is also done barring teddy bear fur thatch, but I forget to put it on before I took the photo.

More layers on the wood to do, and the thatch, then it's basing and we're done. Basing may be a little interesting, and I may wait till I've done the promontory it's going to be standing on.

Quietly chuffed that the Omaha Beach boards are in the Terrain Tutor's top 6 from Salute.

Starting on a watchtower

Been a bit of a busy day today, what with getting James down to London for a BMus degree audition. I also have the bunged-up and sneezing stage of something which may or may not be yet another bloody cold, so the plan to record the last 20 mins of the podcast has been shelved, hopefully only till tomorrow, as I'm trying to reduce my *atchoo* editing *sniff* work*snuffle*load. Besides, I soud bubged up. :D

I did though make a start on the Warbases watchtower: after all you have to have something to put on the promontory. It's one of their fairly early kits, IIRC, and they've got better at making things fit without needing multiple elastic bands and clamps now :D Still. Nice simple design, which I will tart up with filler, coffee stirrers and paint as part of the process.

And that's the Warbases Mansio done...

...barring basing, which I need a bit of a think about, as I now have a cluster of buildings (the Mansio and its outbuildings, plus the Warbases ruined villa and outbuilding) that I'm debating whether to base as one group or two.

Wall texture is PVA + ballast as before. Definitely (for those who followed the interactions with Warbases on Twitter) easier with the instructions, although I would recommend when it comes to putting the four walls and base together, using something that sets faster than PVA :D

Some more goodies from those nice folks at Warbases

The thud of a parcel on the mat, and that unmistakable aroma of freshly-lasered MDF...

Today we have:

• several 2 x 1 1p trays for skirmishers
• several 3 x 2 1p trays ditto
• several more 4 x 2 1p trays for line infantry
• a couple of 10 figure 1p trays for mobs
• some 4 x 1 x 40mm pill trays for cxvalry

All nicely pre-drilled for 5mm x 2mm neodymium magnets (also supplied). In addition:

• a bag of 40mm pill bases
• the horses for the SP2 wagons I forgot last time

As ever, a huge tip of the hat to Martin and Diane, who are awesome and put up with me adding things, asking for customisations and changing my mind far more than I would! :D.

Warbases' stag

The stag I used in the Dux Brit scenario on Monday was from Warbases - actually the second, picked up at Hammerhead to replace the first that lost an antler when our postman shoved it through the letterbox - as ever, thanks to Martin and Diane for excellent customer support.

Nice easy paint job: I decided to go for a slightly dappled grey/white, rather than full on mythic snow-white/albino. Black Army Painter spray undercoat, followed by a second coat, this time of Uniform Grey, sprayed relatively lightly from about a foot away, and then a third of white from even further away.

Army Painter soft tone wash, allow to dry, fairly heavy dry brush with white. Antlers are Uniform Grey with Skeleton Bone tips.

Base is Tamiya dark earth texture paint, and some Javis grass and Army Painter tufts. 

Too Fat Lardies/Warbases 28mm Garden kits

Lots of fun stuff in the run up to Salute: two of my favourite companies have teamed up to produce some rather nice scenery bits in 28mm.

What can I say? Looks great! Sign me up.

Warbases animals

(Via Andrew @ Loki's Great Hall, who has them all nicely painted up on his site).

Martin mentioned these at Hammerhead, while we were admiring their upcoming 15mm Pegasus Bridge - and I have to say they look for the most part really tasty. If you're into Dux Britanniarum or similar especially, the cows and sheep are going to be perfect.

So, coming out at Salute they have:

• 2 Highland cattle (with a calf)
• 4 Soay sheep (a nice period-authentic ancient breed)
• 2 Shire horses - I'm not 100% convinced about the head sculpts on these, and my wife (who as you may recall is a vet) says one looks like a Shire, but the other looks more like a 54mm Shetland :(
• 3 Anglo-Nubian goats
• a bloodhound
• a British Bulldog, apparently called Churchill (oh, yes yes yes yes yes...)

Guess some of those better go on the shopping list! The cattle and sheep look superb.