Ok, now I’ve got a garage full of RTV rubber and resin I’m looking to create some more masters so I can create some FOW terrain. Here’s a handy tutorial from ‘Digital Dioramas’ regarding making those good old sandbags.

The rest of the Digital Dioramas site is definitely worth checking out as well. There’s some stellar work up there from serious historical modellers.

WW2 Model Maker is another excellent historical modelling site btw.

Here’s the ‘before’ photo on the FOW troops I’m planning to paint this month. That’s two half finished 5 man Infantry bases from last month, a half painted 25pdr gun and team, a half painted Stuart ‘Honey’ light tank, 3 unpainted small Infantry bases (Command, Boyes and Mortar teams) and two unpainted 6pdr Portees and gun teams.

This is an interesting article about making a game table from an interior door! Naturally TradeMe is the place to go for interior doors in Auckland.

The Pityak Competition deadline is tomorrow midnight. I work Sundays so here’s what I’ve completed this month. I painted three vehicles - a Humber AC, a White Scout Car and a Stuart ‘Honey’ which differs a little from what I’d planned.

I also painted seven bases of Infantry (3 small, 4 large) which is actually two more than I planned to do. Not a bad effort considering I lost a week because we were out of the house. Imho the paint jobs aren’t that great, but they’re perfectly workable for the tabletop.

My purchase for July is a single $14.95 blister of two resin 15cwt Trucks for the 25pdr Artillery unit. These trucks transport the unit’s command and staff teams. In July I plan to paint at least 5 more Infantry bases which will complete the first Rifle Platoon and start the second. I might do a little modelling work to try and build a scene for the two HQ teams as well. Vehicle wise I’ll finish the third Stuart ‘Honey’, two 6pdr Portees and teams as well as finish a half painted 25pdr team I have. So my July will be:

Purchase: $14 = 1 x BR432 (15cwt Trucks) @ $14.
+$8 under budget.

Week 1

- 2 Infantry bases.
- 1 Stuart ‘Honey’ tank.

Week 2

- 1 6pdr Portee and team.
- 1 Infantry base.

Week 3

- 1 25pdr and team.
- 1 Infantry base.

Week 4

- 1 6pdr Portee and team
- 1 Infantry base.

Hmmm, once again that looks a little daunting.

Spent $149NZ this afternoon at TopMark and picked up another 22.5kg pail of Ultracal 30, 550gms of Ultrasil RTV and 500gms of EasyCast Polyurethane Resin.

Once again I received excellent service and I really can’t recommend TopMark enough! They’re well informed about their products, provide material data sheets and have finished examples to examine - very handy when one doesn’t know the difference between a Shore D 75 resin and a Shore D 65 resin*. The nice lady serving me actually asked what I was planning to use the products for and didn’t seem surprised to learn I was a hobbyist and a tabletop wargamer (not something I like to admit to anybody). Evidently they cater to a lot of hobbyists and artists as well as professionals in SFX, marketing and advertising.

So now I have enough plaster to finish the Mordheim Table tiles. Once they’re done I want to put together some master molds for FOW terrain I can cast either in resin or plaster. I’d like a set of blast craters that can be used for ‘difficult ground’, some kind of 15mm sandbag rows for marking ‘dug in’ teams as well as making terrain and a set of modular molds to assemble North African buildings from. Crikey, I’d best start thinking about masters.

* Shore D is a measure of hardness. Shore D 65 is apparently a similar hardness to skateboard wheels which is fine for 28mm, 15mm resin casting.

I have three games of FOW under my belt so far and it’s become rather clear that while my Rifle Company does ok against other Infantry based forces they’re definitely lacking a little in the anti-tank area. So I’ve dropped the Recon Universal Carriers (nice models but probably pretty useless on the tabletop) and full strengthed my 17/25 ‘Pheasant’ anti-tank gun unit as well as added the single allowed PIAT to a Rifle platoon. Not entirely historical for the NZers, but certainly a more robust gaming force.

This is the new force I’ll be trying to purchase and paint up before December.

Lovely work from US Games-Workshop! What Imperial Guard 40k player hasn’t thought about doing this.