Last year I scratch built a set of 15mm rectangular windows that were eventually used in the master for the 1930’s building facade.

This evening I’ve just demolded the first resin casts for two varieties of rounded windows that I intend to use for other building facades. Excuse the pink, I just needed a non-white background for the quick photo.

These were surprisingly difficult to master, particularly that arched window. The curves in both windows were made entirely from multiple layers of green stuff with shaping and sanding in between. I probably would have been better off cutting a template from plasticard for the arch and building that up instead.

Now I just need to cast a handful of them and I can start building up a master for a second facade. The plan is to build several styles and heights of facade and cast up an entire suburb for a 15mm urban European table.

Continuing my previous post about trying to master the airbrush I’ve applied some more paint to the Ebob Miniatures Opel Blitz.

I’ve dabbed on Marmite and then oversprayed the original rust colour with Tamiya Dark Yellow (from a can) and then Citadel’s Bleached Bone (through the airbrush). I’ve then waited for it all to dry and scrubbed the truck down with warm water and an old toothbrush. This is the result.

The rust effect is a little ham fisted but I think it’ll work. It’s far too stark now and I need to overspray some dust tone to flatten the whole effect out. That’s assuming I can figure out how to get a decent ‘mist’ effect out of my cheap airbrush. Failing that I wonder if some careful drybrushing would work just as well.

I’ve still got to paint the tires, the cab interior and the back tray as you can see, but that’s probably not more than an evening at the paint station. So I’ll hopefully get around to it this week sometime.

Continuing with the Imperial Guard retrospective here’s a couple of Imperial Guard Sentinels I painted early 2004. Tempus fugit I guess. The Sentinel is another underrated 40k model in my opinion. They’re great little vehicles with a wide range of posing options if you’re happy cutting up the legs and feet.

In fact one Forgeworld kit I’ve always fancied is their Sentinel Powerlifter. Although to be honest looking at it now I believe I could probably scratch build something similar from plasticard and patience. I do have another primed and half assembled Sentinel sitting in the garage too.

Sentinels are also pretty handy on the 40k tabletop. Sure they’re light weight (armor 10) and open topped but they’re a cheap weapons platform that excels in supporting your poor bloody infantry. Particularly if you ditch the worthless multi-laser and go for some of the more powerful weapon options.

The weapons on these two Sentinels were spares from a plastic IG Heavy Weapons boxed set. The laser cannon isn’t that useful being an overpowered single shot BS3 weapon, but the autocannon is a great compromise between stopping power and rate of fire. Even with the Guard’s poor ballistic skill a few autocannnon rounds are likely to hit home before the Sentinel is bought down.

None of the weapons on these Sentinel are actually glued on. I resorted to a crude system of plastic pins to make the weapons interchangeable. I should probably replace those pins with rare earth magnets now I have some in the garage.

I’m sure I’m not the only Imperial Guard Sentinel fan. I recall seeing some photos of an army that had maxed out it’s force org chart with the maximum possible number of Sentinels – nine from memory. I can’t find that link now otherwise I’d include it in the post!

Unfortunately after several GW Asia Pacific prices rises in the last couple of years means the Sentinel model is now $45nz locally. Rather expensive for a model that consists of a single sprue. I do note that Scrap Dragon sell them for approx $31nz ($28au), I think that’s almost what I paid for these Sentinels back in 2004. Tempting!

Jonathan, one of my gaming mates happens to be a graphics designer by trade. He recently put together a brochure (pdf link) for my 15mm war gaming products.

From memory this was originally inspired by ongoing discussions amoungst us about attending one of the various gaming tournaments that are happening in New Zealand in 2007.

Ahem, not that I’ve personally made it to any yet! I’m primarily a hobbyist and secondarily a gamer, and to be honest I’m pretty dreadful at most of the games I play, except possibly Mordheim.

Anyway, thanks for the snazzy brochure Jonathan! I should get some printed and actually start attending tournaments so I can take them along.

I’m also quietly wondering if you’ve ever considered creating a tabletop game and publishing a PDF rulebook since you’ve obviously got the skills required for just such an endeavor.

You can also get in touch with Jonathan if you’re interested in having some freelance graphic design done.

Tabletop Terrain is proud to announce the release of our first 15mm scale building facade for WWII, Vietnam and Modern wargaming, selling for $13.95us per copy.

This detailed, single piece facade measures 14.5cm tall x 9.5cm (5 7/10″ x 3 7/10″) and is designed to represent the frontage of a 1930’s style two story building, with a ground floor cafe or store. Each is carefully cast in Ultracal 30, a high strength gypsum cement from US Gypsum. Please click included images for larger versions.

The facade can be used to represent an intact building, or can be drilled, sanded and cracked to make a bomb blasted ruin as displayed. Doors, windows and the floor level spacing have all been created with 15mm wargaming figures in consideration.

I’ve long admired Osprey Publishing military history books from afar. Recently I took the plunge and ordered a bunch from Amazon.com, mainly to help me paint my Corvus Belli Ancients.

Ironically the first that arrived yesterday is one of the other titles I ordered: Vietnam Firebases 1965–73.

I haven’t had a chance to read the whole soft cover book yet, but it what I have so far has been quite interesting. In 2007 I intend to sculpt some Vietnam era firebase terrain for use with Flashpoint Miniatures 15mm figures and this book will be an excellent reference resource.

This weekend I was messing around in the garage with my three year old son and on a whim I decided to show him the various figures I’ve painted over the years. We had a great time taking them out of their storage containers and ‘fighting’ them. He was fine with them once I explained I preferred it if he didn’t smash them together! I don’t think he knew I owned some painted figures, as he’s more used to seeing my paint station scattered with half assembled or white primed models.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how well some of the paint jobs have stood the test of time so decided to take some snaps now I own a decent digital camera. So here’s a bit of a retrospective in order to try and bolster my flagging modeling spirits – you may have noticed the lack of posts recently.

I originally painted these Imperial Guard vehicles at the end of 2003 and I think they look pretty reasonable, despite the fact I seem to have had some odd preference for applying far too much chestnut ink wash and the decal work is a little shoddy!

The venerable Imperial Guard Basilisk is quite a nice 40k model, or at least it was when it was reasonably priced. Nothing shouts Imperial Guard more than a great big dirty artillery piece. In fact I deliberately left the rather crude gun shield to show off the Basilisk’s gun and breech. Personally I think the model looks better without that vast sheet of plastic glued on.

One down side is the Basilisk model doesn’t come with crew, however I evidently scrounged a couple of old metal Cadians. I suspect they’re actually from the metal kit to convert a Chimera into a Griffon mortar carrier (that’s GW’s spelling not mine).

Dusting off my Imperial Guard makes me want to have a game or two of 40k again, as long as it’s not against the bloody Tau. The latest edition of 40k is actually an improvement in terms of game play, however the Tau have some serious balance issues I believe. I’d say this is almost self evident judging from the number of Tau armies you see around these days.