Seaside fun

I had a spare ball of green stuff today and so I used it to try out some ideas. The green stuff was split up and pressed on to small stones. Then I used the retractable pencil to make barnacle bumps and teased out the surrounding putty to look like seaweed. It doesn’t have to be too precise as long as it looks tangled and matted.

Nice and simple with the right tools. I will also be spreading a PVA/ grit mix on the stones to act as smaller limpets etc.

The song of the sea.

 

And Now For Something Completely Different…

From the dark, cold Irish Sea the Fomorians crawled, evil, twisted and gasping.

I thought it would be nice to have a go at something very different from what I’ve done before. I had the idea of making the Fomorian bases very sea themed to help with the feel of the army.

I was thinking I could cover stones with a grit and wood glue mix, and dry brush it to look like barnacles. Then add some green stuff sea weed and starfish etc.

I saw this nice pattern and thought it would make a nice shield design. Right, store that one for later.

Blue barnacles would make a nice contrast on the light rocks.

Lovely yellows and purples here, nice reference for sea weed cloaks.

This is another useful picture. The lighter weed on top with the darker kelp around the bottom. I will definitely be using this when sculpting the green stuff.

When you walk by a pool,

And a blade makes you fall,

That’s a Fomori!

This rock colour would make a great skin tone for the Fomorians I thought. Greenish grey with mottled darker patches. It looks wet, so maybe a satin varnish over the skin would make it look dank and slimy.They would be hard to spot as they clambered over the wet rocks. Surprise would be their strongest asset here, along the dark northern coast.

Useful reference for my green stuff sea weed cloaks again. I’m sure I’ve done some like this.

 Spots of colour can be had with these little fellas, shouldn’t be too difficult with the sculpting.

I’ve also found some 28mm seagulls to stick on the bases. Ravens and other Corvids follow the armies of man on land, but it makes sense to me that flocks of hungry sea birds would follow the raiding Fomori. Their shrill cries heralding the approach of the Fomori war bands.

A Bridge to Far

Well… what an amazing weekend I’ve just had, today was even better than yesterday. What was special about today is some people came and found me out after seeing the first post on the blog! It makes all the years I’ve been doing this hobby blog well worth it. I even got to meet ‘Two Sheds Fred’, which was great, because I had brought some of his terrain pieces to use in the game. 

The layout of the table was a clever ‘S’ bend so players could get to all the terrain. It also looked quite different and helped pull people over to the game.

Heavy armour rolls towards the bridge to crush anything in its path. These were a real hard nut to crack and were held off until the last. The heavy armour could be stopped with concentrated fire but the odds were high. Better hope that Royalist column hurries up or all will be lost.

I realised in my last post I hadn’t taken any pictures of the amazing terrain that group model maker had created. His name is Richard Brown and he uses very clever materials to create simple, yet stunning effects.

Dragoons exchange fire across the river into the neighbouring parliamentarian fortification.

We also had a civil war props table, it looks a bit bare here as the musket etc had been packed away. These tables are always a great draw for kids and it’s always fun to stick a hat on them for a photo.

A close up of some of the injured Dragoons holding out against the mounting forces of Parliament.

It was interesting to see the many outcomes to the games. Many ended true to the historical events, while others totally rewrote them!

“Well, I always thought it was a bridge to far…”

A recce force of Round heads thunders towards the bridge to test the strength of the enemy. 

Royalist Dragoons hold out doggedly.

Parliamentary troops dig in and prepare to hold the second bridge at all costs.

The tattered Royalist standard flies definitely over the shattered remains of the inn.

The relief column pushes on trying to reach their beleaguered comrades.

 

The band of brothers. A weekend of hard fighting but with rich rewards at the end. The game won silver for the participation category which was a great end to a brilliant weekend. Most of us had gone out on the town and enjoyed the ales in a local pub. Much fun was had, even if we had to pay for it the next day, but like true veterans we fought on to the very last!

 The award is a lovely looking piece, a dragon in the middle of a glass block. I was doubly pleased as I was the one who got to take it home to keep. 

I love the little details on Richard’s bridge, the little trowel on the mortar board and the stones etc. Lovely tiny details, very easily overlooked at that scale. A real work of art! The final block is put onto the bridge to finish it off!

First Day at Warfare 2021

Blogging this after a late night drinking into the wee hours. The first day was a good laugh and we got quite a few people wanting to play the game. I didn’t really get much of a chance to look around as the game kept me busy.

I wasn’t going to take much but I thought I would bung in a box of wheat fields at the last minute, I was glad I did. I had made these years ago but never used them,  they really helped fill in flat areas of the board and helped set the C17th vibe.

Im kicking myself because I have some nice resin hay stacks that would of looked great scattered in the fields. Next time I will take them along!

This is our spot before the show opened.

The poster seems to have gone down well and a lot of people took pictures of it which was nice. It seemed to do its job in bringing people over to the game.

The Blew coats kit up for war.

The Calm before the storm.