Progress week 24

This week I have finished the painting of my Space Hulk terminators (excluding the bases). It took a lot longer then I first thought it would but who is in a rush?

I think they came out pretty well, maybe it would have been nice to have more battle damage on them but they will do. They are gonna get some 40mm round bases so I can use them for normal 40k games too.

Water mill finished

Last night I finished the water mill and it came out OK I think. The bridge is probably what I am the most happy with as it came to life with the washes and a bit of over growth. 
Hauptsturmführer Ernst Braun, my trusty company commander, gladly did some posing in his Panzer III.

Water mill progress

The water mill is now ready to get some vegetation added.

I painted up the water, first attempt ever for me on water so it came out so-so but good enough to be put on the table without me being ashamed of it.

Summer is over

My US forces got their armored support ready for battle and I have even gotten two games in with them. The support consist of a M7 Priest battery, Armored Recon and an AA section. There are also five HT transports so I can use my rifle company as a armored rifle platoon.

Playable west front table

My terrain for playing Flames of war on the west front is, in my opinion, up in a playable state now. The 4Ground houses are built, my large modular hill is ready, I have some trees, roads and fields. Pretty much what can be expected. To really "finish" it up I would like some cobble roads, boccage, forests and a river. That would probably take another two years at the current pace.

My modular hill, flocking in progress.

 Houses from 4Ground, awesome kits and I will probably get some more.

 Some terrain on the table, lighting in my gaming room could use some improvement.

An old test piece for boccage, it came out ok. It could use some details and some places had to be covered up.

A little bit of everything

Summertime is here in Sweden, so another reason to not get much done with the little plastic and lead guys.
But some stuff has been happening!

First, of all, to increase my motivation and get some grips on how my hobby projects are progressing, I put them up in a Kanban flow at kanbanflow.com It is a free and easy to use online Kanban board. I don't really use all of the features at the moment, lead times can be scary sometimes.
This is what it looks like for me at the moment:

In the terrain department, I have made the stone etching on the bridge for the water mill and put some black color on it. The mill itself got some windows and a second floor, no stairs or anything and it will probably not be any. Time will tell.

I also ordered a small village (seven houses) from 4ground. Really nice little kits and really easy to build when you get the hang of it. Thumbs up for these guys! Three houses done, four to go.

My US tank company is ready for the table top (for me that is basecolors, a first highlight, gloss varnish and blacklining) and this will let me focus a bit more on the terrain. A shot on the support which was the last part of them, no full army shot yet but that will come up sometime. Maybe when they are all weathered and totally ready.

Finally, I built a new paint stand from some left over wood I had lying around since last summer. I knew they would be useful. Ehm.

A lot better now with a good overview compared to having all the paints in a big box. It has also left me with some more space on the desk, which can't be bad (=more WIP).

Water mill #1

I have been making some sketches for some terrain, one of them has been a water mill to add an interesting river feature. The inside of the house will have two floors with a stair leading up, not sure if I will make any interior features apart from that. 

The bridge got a bit steep but it will have to do I guess, cutting with a knife is quite difficult and this might make me wanna build that foam cutter earlier then what I had planned for.

10000 views and some progress

I hit 10 000 views a little while back, not bad for a limping blog like this.
Thanks, who ever you are. Kind of makes it worth it to know that someone likes to have a look every now and then.

So what have I been up to?  A little bit of everything.
I have worked a little bit on my expanded hill, a few minutes here, a few minutes there. It became a small experiment for a waterfall, just had to try that tube of silicone. The result was not that good, but still fun.

I bought that support that I needed for my American Tank Company, they have been primed and highlighted. Excuse the bad photo, the highlights are not that strong in real light. And those Gebirgsjägers? I just couldn't help myself and got a company with some leIg18s and PAK38s. I wonder what year they will get out of their boxes?

Then I stumpled upon a thread on the Flames of War forum about trees (link to the post), and I just had to try it myself. Very easy, just some sisal thread, steel wire, flock, paint and glue. Voila, nice trees. But a note, use a glove if you are going to hold them and use spray glue. My left thumb is now also flocked, a feature maybe.

A side thing that has happened is that a "fellow" war gamer passed away, Mike Norman. I enjoyed his blog and posts in the BF forum. Sucks to see someone go earlier then they should. RIP Mike.

Rural road sections

My workbench was getting overloaded with all my ongoing projects and I needed to make space for some new things. The quickest to finish is a bunch of road sections that has been laying around for months and months now. It's four straights sections, some bends and some intersections. 
They are made from hard board and acryllic sealant as the base. To create the wheel marks I just ran a stick through the sealant.

Today's effort has been to add sand and paint a first layer of brown, they will need atleast one more layer of paint before i highlight them and add flock. To finalise them I will just seal them with varnish through the air brush.

Terrain tests

Since I finished the gaming table I have tried to build some terrain but it has been going pretty slow. I think I need deadlines for my miniatures to really get me going, like the upcoming Total War event at the local gaming club that I am helping to arrange. This will require a bit more of terrain and tanks.

Some of the terrain tests I have been doing just to try out techniques and materials:
Simple fences (tongue depressors, tooth picks and coffee stirrers)

Building hills - Finished

Gave the last pieces of the hills a protecting glue surface last night and also added some medium colored flock to make them less cow patchy looking. The two single piece hills look quite OK but I am not totally satisfied with the four piece hill. The edges are not completely straight since I gave them a bit of plaster to cover up the textured sides. They will do but next time I will skip that step.

Another thing I learned in this process is to add some dish soap to the water/PVA-mix, this really helps in making the mixture flow and reach everywhere.

Building Hills - 2

Time to turn those black piles into something more lively. I use some fine turf from Woodland Scenics (Green Grass and Earth).

Building hills - 1

After the completion of the gaming table (part 1, part 2, part 3) it is time to get going with some terrain. I felt some smaller hills would be nice to have.
For the build I am using:

• Left over styrofoam
• Hard board (I think that is the name for it, used in drawers and as back plates in bureaus )
• PVA glue
• Filler
• Acrylic paint
• Woodland Scenic's flock and grass

First, I started off by cutting out the shapes and beveling the edges a bit. I decided to try to build a four-piece hill that can go against the edge of the gaming table or all four pieces together to form a larger hill.