Skellies Part 2 - the barrow

 So, I had a thick (5cm) lump of insulation foam, but it wasn’t really enough to do anything suitably useful, maybe a stand alone hill, but of course the Bronze Age-y-ness of the Oathmark undead meant a long barrow…

Of course, me being me and not wanting to have a sizeable bit of unplayable terrain, I wanted an interior…

Thankfully, for some reason, I had a hot wire cutter still in its packaging (the model shop in town closed about twenty years ago) and it was just wide enough so cutting out the interior wasn’t horrendous. Straight vertical edges were though. After a bit of fiddly trimming, the interior walls were lined with 5mm foam cut into slabs and textured with a rock. Larger stones (and the roof) were done with 20mm blue foam - I swear the black foam takes imprints from the rock better than the blue. The slab motif continued to the exterior. Much evening out was done with sandpaper and air dry clay (budget meant limiting myself to what I had available).

The bits cut out of the interior will eventually become smaller closed off barrows.

Skellies Part 1

 So, as I slowly work towards getting enough together for Five Leagues I needed more adversaries than just goblins. With the number of plastic ranges nowadays, skeletons/undead seemed like a plan. 

I picked up a sprue of Wargames Atlantic skeletons and a sprue of Oathmark skeletons to plan. I knew GW would be too large as I have some Nightgaunt sprues from one of those part work jobs, so no dice. I did however have a sprue of armoured skellies I bought years ago (2005 on the sprue anc now on eBay if anyone wants it) and inexplicably have a single sprue from the original GW Skeleton Horde (from 1986!). Looking at these arrayed some were obviously not useful - as my collection is tending toward 28mm and matches historicals rather than the current vogue for 32mm heroics. The WA skeletons were very chunky boys, with oddly smaller arms. The GW2005 were too big by far. But the Oathmark and the GW1986 were spot on and of course compared perfectly to the rest of my stuff. So I picked up a couple more sprues and kept a casual eye on eBay for the GW1986.

Now I didn’t fancy depuddling the Oathmark lot, so basing meant them all being on slight hillocks. But enough of the standard boys. This post is about the GW1986 and kitbashing them with the Oathmark, because Oathmark leaves you with lots of options…

The horn (a long standing gag for skeletons) and arm were from the WA set and matches closely enough to the Oathmark arms. I’m not a huge fan of the Oathmark helmets, they are perfect for the theme of Bronze Age undead, but I just think one of the first things someone will lose upon death is the headgear (yes my French Napoleonic undead still have their shakos, don’t judge). Luckily, Oathmark have plenty of options… but not quite enough bare heads to go around. Then I realised (for some reason) the GW skulls sprue are more or less identical to the Oathmark heads. I’m sure Northstar could probably spot the difference but the only ones I can tell apart are the ones with the separate jaws that I used, so works for me…

You have to remove the ball shoulder joints and I drilled in very minor divots to take the spare Oathmark arms, so the shoulders might not be 100% anatomically correct but work. The GW1986 arms were good enough for their time, but big and clunky so not really useful. Similarly the old heads were a little oversized as well. But the bodies mixed well enough with the Oathmark bits. 

(I had to use the GW1986 scythe though)

A bit of greenstuff adds some (very) rough approximations of the armour. I ran out of shields, ArmchairGeneral over on LAF kindly donated some metal Sea Peoples shields that would more match the Oathmark shields, but testing them I got concerned about the weight on that small weld joint at the shoulder, rooting around I found the buckler shields from the WA Conquistador set, a bit different stylistically but work for the sword unit.

So, with some fun kitbashing (and stripping of some bargain eBay GW1986’s) I have more than enough for Five Leagues and even extra for a Dragon Rampant force: 6x bowmen, 12x spearmen, 6x swordsmen and 3x character types. 

I’m happy.

Campaign Map Part 5

 Next batch, marsh, moors and a couple of bits to make up numbers in the batch. Points of interest - my own little Isle of Ely, standing stones, ruins and an isolated moor hall/farm. Last pic is everything so far…

Randomness

 So, end of December and January almost done. But I have been busy… just not finished anything.

All simmering projects that get to move a bit as I’m still out of work. Oathmark Goblins (infantry and slave sprues) have been mixed and matched and almost set for finishing, but I needed a change… so looking at my homemade Mighty Empires lite to act as a Five Leagues campaign map. I’m basing the tiles on what terrain I have so will be river, village/farm, plains and forest initially. I have some 3d printed tiles a while back (50 of them) but they have a little lip within the larger boundary lip, so have been using plasticard to bring it up to one level. This has allowed me to work on the tiles, before committing it to the hex tiles as I was very unsure if this would work. But it’s looking pretty good so far. Settlements are 2mm stuff from Irregular Miniatures and I had some of the tokens from the original 90’s edition of Mighty Empires, and they match quite nicely. 

Woah-Oh, Black Phillip Bam-A-Lam

Being unemployed is getting the back log sorted. Ok, so not very movie accurate, but they one that is available is part of a pack and I’m not buying half a dozen minis for just one, so a trip to Etsy and a more buff looking mountainy goat instead… there’s a shine to him that I just can’t dull down though.

 

Building Bridges and River redux…

So life has been pretty shitty, so I’ve not been very motivated recently, doing little bits as the mojo allowed. Should have finished these much earlier, but hey… done now.

So, I wanted to add some bridges to the river I’d previously made, which of course would mean failing to match the colour of the water and I’d end up doing them all again, again. That also allowed me to try something inspired by a couple of excellent examples on the Lead Adventure Forum.

First off, a stone bridge, the intention being with this to suggest that the river is wide, wide enough to allow river barges/long boats to use the dock section. A planned boat will open up that corner of the board as necessary.

Without the dock section, there’s room for the mill section. It took a while to match the colour of the dirt road to the dirt going over the bridge, but it got there.

I also did a smaller wooden foot bridge, a bit rickety and meant to imply a narrower river. The section is the same width as the stone bridge so it all fits in the same space.

As it joins the same spot as the mill section, so again can go either side or without the mill completely.

And the original sections got a repaint to a more natural looking murk, and I added some new bull rushes I’d had for a while for this intention. The original “grass” rushes are still there, they are reasonably rigid and I’m hoping they will deflect any damage to the lovely detailed bull rushes.

 

Captain Kronos WIP

A quick WIP of the next Hammer homage…

 

Very happy with these even though my greenstuff is pretty much off. Just not sure when I’ll have a painting mojo moment…

Butcher, Baker and…

When I shared the butchers stall last month, I mentioned on a Facebook group that a baker was in progress, so tada… 

Mix of resin bits from Iron Gate Scenery and greenstuff. Jam jars plastic tube and squares of paper.

And, of course, someone had to suggest a candlestick maker just to complete the rhyme… and I couldn’t not after that…

 Candles are plastic tube, candlesticks and boxes are resin. The classic British joke under the table are also plastic tube.

more Silver Bayonet recruits

Some extra options for the Silver Bayonet, all from Black Scorpion. First a highwayman…

Unaltered from the original model. The slight height difference in Black Scorpion alongside historical 28mms isn’t overly noticeable with this chap. Lovely figure.

And a sailor…

As the Perry sailor in the landing party has an odd little head a different option was required. The height was an issue though, so a cut mid thigh and a mm removed.

Next, well another sailor, but as he has a blunderbuss he’ll work as a coachman…

Another bit of leg surgery needed here. Not sure why a coachman would have a telescope though… 

Quick paint jobs, job done.

More Market Stalls

Some more market stalls, first a butchers…

The wooden boards allow me to add ground items, boxes etc, but I reckon work to represent the various market lots available, so I’ll add a couple of empty ones I think to represent empty lots. The butcher set is from Iron Gate Scenery, I added an extra board to table so it matched the width of the other tables and added some more steaks and sausages so it wasn’t empty space. The box of eggs is from a different IGS set. Sausages, black pudding & random apple from greenstuff.

The second lot has the IGS ribs and carcasses, hanging frame from plasticard, butchers block from balsa. Slop bucket from the 3D printed stuff that supplied the wicker baskets, offcuts inside from greenstuff. 

I had intended to add a dog in the space under the table, but have changed my mind…

The locals needed to improve their diet, so I added a second veg stall using IGS bits. I removed the basket of berries and added a box of berries so the wicker and box items mixed better. An empty box was added under the table and some new loose veg on top.

The second stall is turnips and beans (greenstuff using the empty wicker baskets), more loose carrots, bag of apples from I don’t remember where, potatoes from IGS, the cabbages are what I assumed to be melons from IGS with some gs leaves (melons being a tricky grower in the 1600’s). Dressed with more fennel bits from the Etsy set, gs apples and more berries.

Next, a tailor. All from scratch. Balsa central boards and strips of paper wrapped around them. Shears from plasticard, a little big, but will do.

The trough is from a set of garden veg from Temu. Gardens to follow at some point. A close up:

Wallpaper streets

 Wallpaper again - but a decent result. Well I committed. This was an Easter weekend project, posting now though as real things got very real for a bit there. 

Anyhoo, this is Seriano Pietra Wallpaper, from here: https://ukwallpaper.co.uk/products/seriano-pietra-wallpaper-silver-1102.html

Although looking at the picture on the site, it doesn’t look like what I have. But works. It used to be available from B&Q for about the same price, so £2 a metre or so. It could be done cheaper, but wouldn’t look as nice and I don’t want to waste time with individual cobbles or anything like that. But it works and isn’t in the £100 plus range of some really good embossed wallpapers. I finally got round to covering the reverse side of my skirmish board. I couldn’t match the pattern for the life of me, so added a gutter and manhole to avoid that. Works for me and an underground access point could be interesting for scenarios. If I ever have the space for a proper sized table, I’ve plenty to spare. 

Market Hall finished - more or less

Finished Market Hall - well pretty much finished. Anything else will just be furniture and not bolted down.

Windows added. One day I will add them before any painting as they are a bloody pain and if you look closely some are bent and very knackered looking as I forced them in place.

I added a pamphlet about trials to the outer landing as that seemed apt. 

There is also an odd dead space above the outer stairs, so a Crooked Dice chest fills that nicely.