Some British Tommies finished

It's been a little quiet at the Mad Padre's workshop this last week, since the sunken road was finished and posted here. That project got some very nice reviews on www.guildwargamers.com, making me think I'm a better terrain modeller than I am mini painter. Reason for the delays - my wife and I decided to watch the entire ABC series Jericho for the first time and found we couldn't stop watching, it consumed our evenings, and also I'm back to my 6am runs (I get up at 5K) and my bedtimes are getting earlier. I'm determined I won't paint more at the cost of gaining weight and losing my fitness, so it's back to the search for the elusive balance.


Some time back I was tempted by a package of British manufacturer Valiant's hard styrene late war British/Commonwealth infantry. These are hulking great figures, closer to 25mm than the 1/72nd scale they're advertised to be. However they have lots of options (the sprues are very similar to Games Workshop products) and they are a treat to paint up. Here's what I got done this last few weeks - they're painted in the light blue patches of 3rd Canadian Infantry Division.

Platoon commander, company commander and signaller:




Infantry section:







Bren gun team:




Tonight I need to get back to my Guild Britannia Russians project, as Sept 20th is creeping up on me and I need to get the little blighters done.

Sunken Road Terrain Project

During my American Civil War reenacting phase (I can't quite call it a career), one of the best events I attended was a march through the beautiful countryside of Loudon County, Virginia. I remember marching through deep sunken roads, with banks above head height, easily 3 to 5 metres, topped by stone walls, trees and vegetation. These were much deeper than the well known Sunken Road at Antietam. I always wanted one for my ACW tabletop, and so it became a project for this summer.

I started with MDF board but to shape, some pink styrofoam insulation, and white carpenter's glue. One the foam was cut into shape, I sculpted it using a hacksaw and sandpaper.





Once the sanding was complete, I filled in the rough bits and holes using plastic wood putty, slightly watered down. Yes, for you Canucks, that is a cup of Tim Hortons in the top of the picture.



Next I painted the whole thing with leftover brown housepaint liberally mixed with play sand. The paint and sand, combined with the wood putty, left the whole thing as tough as rhino hide, which is good for toughness and durability. I then drybrused the whole piece using yellow ochre and some lighter shades.

Next I added Woodland Scenics products for the vegetation:







Here's the finished piece with some of my 28mm ACW collection to give a sense of scale:







While some of the contours are a bit clunky, they are also flat enough to place troops, guns, or additional terrain features such as tree stands. For the time cost I think I have a nice terrain piece to add interest to some ACW battles, and which can also be used in European gaming such as 20mm WW2.

On the Workbench for September

Hopefully a few more projects will be done by Labour Day and the end of my leave period. They include:

My Britannia Miniatures project for the Guild. I've started painting some of the Russian WW2 infantry mentioned in my last post here. They are nice figures, though on the wee side compared to the other 20mm figures currently on my workbench.



Also in the same project is this Britannia Miniatures resin Red Army GAZ Radio/HQ truck, which will go with the Red Army command group shown here previously. I like the level of detailing, such as the stowage on the roof, and it's a lot easier to assemble a resin model than a pastic one.






Two 20mm / 1/72nd scale Armourfast WW2 British Cromwell tanks, which while plastic were also easy to assemble, given that the tracks and wheel bogeys are all cast in one piece.



Using the same colour palette for the Cromwells, I'm working on this 28mm Games Workshop Lehman Russ tank to go with my small collection of Imperial Guard figures. It will give that Ork Battlewagon pause for thought - assuming that Orks pause to think about these things. The white gauze bandage around the main gun is intended to be camo netting that will be painted. I am also planning to add some track sections to the turret and hull as extra armour, as Allied tankers did in WW2.



Same idea with the gauze bandage, to represent camo netting around the rifle of this Imperial Guard sniper, from the GW Imperial Guard command set.



Finally, some more chaps from the same IG command team.