Skellies Part 3 - finished barrow

 Finished the barrow… scruffy clumps of grass for the mound, did try my usual flowers, but in the slope it looked weird being at 90 degrees to the slope - so it’s not quite as good soil as anywhere else, but a bit better than the marsh. Speaking of, the dead grass I used on the marsh is mixed in a bit, especially at the stone tops. Interior skulls from the GW skulls set. Interior bones picked out of the Krautcover Grimdark mix (they are a bit long, but cut in irregular halves they look fine).

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.

Campaign Map Part 1

 After yesterday’s preview. A woodland village tile, not sure how to do the grass yet, and contemplating extending the wooded sides down the side with my finger, but not sure. An original Mighty Empires village tile with an extra street from Irregular. They match quite nicely. 

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. 

A bridge too far…

 So, one final river piece, it’s the exact same size as the footbridge piece, so takes the same spot either side of (or instead of) the mill. Nothing fancy to say on that really…

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.

 

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.

Market stalls…

Some market stalls… these are utilising some 3D printed tables which were pretty awful, the tops and goods they came with were unusable with such pronounced layer lines no paint job would help. They came with canopies which I think can be saved with a lot of work, but they will come later…

Fruit & veg with the previously shared baskets of fennel and carrots (and converted parsnips and red onions) and sack. The apple crate is from Ainsty if memory serves, the berries are railway scale apples (not that they say what scale) but with one of the empty baskets work nicely. Loose apples in greenstuff.

Cheese monger with the most popular cheese of the 17th century - Cheshire. I do my research. Made from jewellery beads, I took a press mold and did a greenstuff copy so I could slice one. Cutting board from balsa and cheese knife from plasticard. Wine bottle is a 3D print and the chest from Crooked Dice.

Pamphleteer. I added an overhead beam and a front piece so I could have display sheets. The pamphlets were found online, reduced and printed. The stacks were just multiple bits of paper, and greenstuff stones to keep them down if the wind picks up. Chest again from Crooked Dice.

Pottery of various types. Earthenware jugs made from nesting plastic tube. Large jug in wicker is from Fenris if memory serves, but may be Ainsty (had them an age). Plates and bowls from Oshiro. I pressmolded the topmost large plate to make a greenstuff shattered one under the table. Vase was from the terrible 3D print market set and smothered in liquid greenstuff. Again, chest from Crooked Dice. Loose apple and table cloth for some colour.

And an attempt at a group shot…

Various bits of scatter…

Some scatter - tents from Renedra and various trade goods from Ainsty. There were a lot of single wool/cotton(?) bundles and the L shaped stack, so I stuck five of the singles into the square stack for ease and should add to the market vibe…

Some scatter

Some lovely scatter terrain from Etsy - really nice 3D prints, no layer lines, highly recommended: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1550656901

FYI I added the tap to the big barrel with some plastic rod.

There’s a lot of fennel in the set, but I’m happy with how the painting ended up.

This is the complete set painted (less the wooden half barrel which is currently the slop bucket in the market hall gaol).

The seller was very helpful and did a custom order for me if mainly empty baskets as I can add my own veg down the line. For the second set of carrots, I went with parsnips (adding an extra one from greenstuff to mix it up) and got the fennel I cut off the stalks, added another with greenstuff and went with red onions.

And some barrels, again from Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1678320358