On Painting Averlanders

If there exists a circle of hell intended for the wargamers, I believe one of the more common tortures involves painting yellow over black undercoat. 'Nuff said.

Finished Averland sergeant sculpt

I've finished sculpting the Averland sergeant yesterday and must say that I'm quite pleased with the results. I did some major conversions before and tried to sculpt a few minis, but this one is actually the second complete sculpt of mine (the first being my 15mm Aragorn). There are some things I'm not really happy about: mostly the blade of the sword (I have to get my hands on some brass sheets as shaving the ProCreate putty can be quite tricky), the hilt of the dagger on his back and the armor on his right leg. The facial features may also seem shallow when you look at the photos - but they came out much better IRL.

WIP Averlanders

Just some quick sculpts of Averlanders for my Mordheim/Warmaster gaming. I plan to use mostly different Landsknecht/Swiss/Burgundian miniatures as the bulk of my army - but as there are few or none militia/free company type troops available, I decided to sculpt a few myself. The dollies I use are from Splintered Light Miniatures (not available on the site, but you can order them by dropping Dave an e-mail with your order).

An old archer

Sergeant (he will be armed with sword and shield).

Fences & WIP ruined tower

Some time ago I've picked up a H0 scale railing set from Auhagen (Auhagen 42558). I bought it mostly for the bridge railings I use as ladders on my sci-fi terrain pieces (see here), but I thought that I will eventually find some use for the other two types included in the pack. I guess I was right:

Those are probably the most simple terrain pieces I've ever made - it took me less than half an hour to make the above pieces - and most of that time was spent on painting.
It gets down to the following:
1. Cut two strips of fieldstone-textured decorflex, 20cm long and 1cm wide.
2. Glue them back-to-back with a bit of PVA glue.
3. When the glue is still drying, push the plastic fencing between the two strips of Decorflex. As the fencing is slightly longer than 20cm, you may want to cut the last bar with some modelling clippers.
4. Cut a strip of 1mm plasticard or PVC, 20cm long and 1-1,2 cm wide and glue the wall to it. This will make your fences more stable and sturdy.
5. Paint to match the rest of your terrain.

I've also started to work on a bigger piece: a ruined Mordheim tower with an overstreet bridge - the pictures below show the very first stages of building the tower, but I guess they give an overall idea of where I'm going with it:

Another 15mm Mordheim building

Painter's block doesn't let go - but I find making those fantasy buildings really entertaining, so I shouldn't complain about not doing anything about my projects... I'll probably post a tutorial on making buildings such as the one below in a foreseeable future.

Front view

Back view

Troll Slayer (Demonworld) confronting some Ork Boyz (Splintered Light Miniatures) in the ruins

WIP: Some (welcome) distractions

Oh, the irony: it appears that when I finally have some time to spend on the miniatures and terrain - I can't find enough of it to post updates on a regular basis. But if you are reading this the issue has apparently been resolved and the news about me being back from the dead weren't an exaggeration.

As I was working mostly on Sci-Fi terrain and miniatures for the last month or so, I needed a distraction. I tend to get bored rather quickly if painting or modelling within a single period or army - and doing some pieces for fantasy gaming seemed an obvious way to go.

Decorflex terrain
If you happen to be in a railroad modelling shop, you may take a look at a stuff called 'Decorflex' or textured foam. These are large (12,5cm x 37cm in most of the cases) textured and prepainted sheets imitating various surfaces. A package of two such sheets costs about $6-$7 - a reasonable price, I'd say.
There are a couple of terrain projects I plan to use them for somewhere in the future (namely: a 15mm Helm's Deep) - but at the moment I decided to go for a couple of small pieces for LotR/Mordheim/Song of Blades and Heroes gaming.
But enough talking - what can these be used for?

A finished ruin next to a WIP piece (before the sand was added to it)

Ruins are an obvious choice - just cut some rectangle pieces measuring 4x5, 4x6, 4x8cm (or so) from the sheet, break off some of the stones at the edges (the sheet is thinner where the 'mortar' goes, so it breaks up neatly) and glue the walls back-to-back. Put the tiny pieces you broke on the base and cover the 'inside' (untextured) part of the wall with some PVA glue and sand. Paint, flock, varnish - you're ready to use them on the board.

All kinds of buildings can be made with this material - here's a Mordheim-style tavern I began to work on today. The doors and windows are from different H0 scale railroad accessories sets (mostly by Auhagen).

Giant

I got back to work on a Splintered Light miniature I have started quite some time ago - a giant I plan to use in my Orc army. I presume I will be able to post pictures of a finished miniature somewhere next week.

No Sci-Fi? Wait a minute...

A WIP conversion from a Splintered Light mini. Do you recognize him? :)

In the next update: Etoiles Mortant!

Back from the dead: Stairways and connectors

Well, not from the dead, exactly. As I have mentioned in one of the previous posts, I had some pretty tough exams in the first ten days of February - and therefore had to commit as much time as possible to revisions, with little to no time for the hobby. But well - it's ten days later and three '5s' (or 'As' if you prefer) later and I finally can do some work on the miniatures and terrain.
So here are the first pieces I managed to finish after the break - small connector plates (4x4cm) and stairways (you can see the examples of how these pieces can be connected below):

Connector pieces. Dropzonetoe suggested on the TMP boards that I could break up the monotonous colour scheme with some danger stripes - I think they turned out quite good (but I may stick to printed ones in the future, though)

Stairways. Notice that there is no floor at the top as it allows for more possible setups.

Stairwell example.

Teams of Bauhaus Militia and Capitol Infantry fight for the bridge.

A three-level industrial tower (it measures 20x20x12cm).