carry on camping

ok, just to explain that I haven't been completely idle for the last few weeks - although due to a couple of weeks required for cat sitting in November, can't guarantee how much will be happening next month... anyhoo, this little project has been bubbling away for a while and mainly involves the simply splendid APEX Investigators from Fenris... what those figures initially led me to, was a kind of field research team, useable for UNIT or even a SG-1 kind of set up... the main requirement was a main research tent and that took some working out... but I got there in the end...

all very army surplus and Time Team and I have two of them - it's essentially made from a basic frame of metal tubing which kept the basic cereal card cladding in place, additional tubing was added inside to represent the rest of the frame, thin wire was glued on the outside to match the inside upright tubes and then clad over in normal paper (did experiment with tissue paper but didn't work)... the roof is lift off, and is essentially a normal build for any kind of roof, but with tubing and paper cladding to give it some more shape and I reckon it works... the only stumbling block now is whether I try for a wooden sheet floor or plain grass - both appear equally common on photos of the real thing....

now, all the lab equipment inside needs power, so I needed a generator... this came from a handy sci-fi crate again from Fenris. I added some wire for the stand/handle thing, added a petrol cap with some tube and g/s and tweaked some of the detail to show as somekind of dial indicators, need to add some buttons still...

now the crate had no detail on one side from the casting, so I press moulded the grill pattern on one side with siligum and made a g/s copy on the otherside (sorry Ian)... it's not brilliant, does the job and may well get hidden a bit by a bush or something, but after the 2nd attempt, I was happy enough...

a bit big maybe, but for a chunky robust portable generator it does the job...

next was some flood lights, annoyingly this was the greatest time sink after the field tent, as I was happily press moulding the lights I'd made as and when I had a spare bit of g/s - but when I came to add them, I realised that design wouldn't look right - they are good, and will come in handy with the planned bunker as they look more like wall emergency lights I now realise... my second attempt has proved not very press mould friendly, so I need to rethink... but I have a few of these at least...

the final need for this little project were tents for the field workers themselves, so I cut a bit of bluefoam to shape, added wire for the supports and g/s'd it to get a nice smooth(ish) finish... a bit of detail was added for the access flap, seams and so on and tried to make it match one from Argos... there is a vent flap on the back, but it doesn't show up on the photo... all it really needs now is some cleaning up and adding the zip tab thingy... not sure how well that will press mould though as I would like a couple...

strong box cart

I had to make the order up when I got the new windows for the blacksmiths from 4ground, otherwise the postage would have been more than the windows, so I went for this strong box cart...

apparently equally used for powder storage as well as money, it's a nice little kit, very easy to assemble...

of course, I had to tart it up a bit, but that was easy as well, a bit of thin card (one of those business cards you get in with your ebay order actually) to make the main supporting beams stand out a bit more, and some narrow plastic rod put into the hinge recess...

I had toyed with a big sheet metal cross on the back, so the hunters could use it as a mobile altar, but this was a) too GW and b) bordered on the kind of thing puritans didn't do anyway... but as it was more likely to be used with the hunters anyway, it went black... hey ho...

and, as I realised I hadn't done a comparison shot for the blacksmith...

Blacksmiths

As with the other buildings, it only just fits in the lightbox, so photos may not be the best, but, for better or worse, the Blacksmiths is finished... 

As I said in the WIP, I removed the wall extensions from the wooden frame, it made more sense without the roof to only have them on the walls - they are now on the inside of the roof which I neglected to photograph...

 

It is of course an absolute swine to get a good photo of the inside, but hopefully this covers it. The forge floor was a conundrum at first, I didn't want wood, and stone seemed a bit too posh, so, after a pleasing result in the plague house, went for a compacted dirt/clay floor within a brick frame... didn't quite get the same result as the plague house, but it will do... I added a few clumps of grass where the floor could have cracked and seeds taken a foothold... strange fisheye thing happening with the photo, it is straight... honest...

 

and of course, the Smithy himself... rather than track down a blacksmith mini, I decided to go with stuff I already have (a sign of things to come I feel), and this chap is from the Warlord Clubmen set... as a cleaver was included in the weapons options for the set, I had always seen him as a butcher, but a g/s hammer and a brown leather apron and a perfectly compact and rotund blacksmith will do...

 

blacksmiths ooops

ok... this is really for anyone following/copying what I've been doing and buying the window packs from 4ground... the blacksmiths has been a bit of a slow slog, the thatch really annoyed me so I kind of stepped away for a bit and got distracted with some tents I started a while back and did some pressmolding and stuff...

anyhoo, back on with the blacksmiths and painting is all but done (getting the compacted dirt floor right was a pain), which is when I fit the windows... now I bought the market hall windows pack as it had more windows in it than the cottage windows pack so better value I figured... sadly, the market hall windows are a different fricking shape to the cottage and of course I used the cottage as the basis for the frames in the blacksmith... so they won't fit...

my fault I guess (not sure if it's on the 4ground site) but there you go, I'll find a use for them, but now need to order a new set of windows before I can get finished with it... sigh...

September is looking like a dry month for updates, but I have been doing stuff, just not finishing...

Mast Beast...

and the Mast Beast is painted...

happy with this one, painted two at once - the one on the d/s base will be destined for the Fenris display case and webstore...

and the resin master - see, a new foot!

Black Dog

painted the Black Dog... not 100% happy with it to be honest, the eyes work quite well, but the paintjob as a whole isn't winning me over, but I figure I better step away from it... and annoyingly it's still shiny, after several coats of dullcote...

I did resculpt the muzzle from the WIP shot though, the nose is narrower, but the snout is slightly shorter and taller, makes it a bit less wolf-life hopefully...

and for size comparison...

so, he'll do for now - I have more of the basic Wild Warg model, so can always revisit this...