Making 28mm Hedges

I used a base of musketeers to get scale worked out. I wanted these hedges to be proper old English hedgerows, nice a high, full or blackthorn etc. There's going to be no jumping these hedges!

A large gap in the hedge will be a bottleneck for any squadron of Horse.

This is a project I've been planning for a while, with most of the materials being bought around four years ago.  Recently I have been putting some thought to painting up some ECW Dragoons. You can't have Dragoons unless you have some nice big, thick hedges, so I finally got the kick I needed to dig out the bits box and get crafting.

This is rubberised coconut hair off eBay, it was actually labelled as hedge making material, so should be easy to find. The bases are wooden paint stirrers, just the right width and pretty sturdy too.

I saw this idea and practice being used by another Blogger and for a while we chatted about it. However, sad to say that was a long time ago now and I've lost the name of the blog. The paint stirrer idea I thought was genius!

The rubberised coconut hair comes in thick slabs, that can be cut to shape with scissors. I also pulled it around to lose any straight edges.

My ancient old Bonsai tree finally gets used up. By turning it upside down it gives the impression of a coppiced tree. Gnarly!

I tried to vary the density of the bushes and to leave gate ways in a few of the lengths. These will be covered in mud with cart tracks running through them.

I also used old trigs from the woods to create trees. These were easy to do as the coconut hair does all the work. A few plastic trees were also used for a bit of variety.

 A shot of my walk to work the other day, however, it does show a nice hedgerow in the background. I plan to flock each bush a slightly different shade to create a nice hedgerow look.

Happy New Year Everyone!

 

Let's get this party started!

Games Day!

Enjoyed another Games Day with the Prince Rupert gaming club. The battles consisted of an epic Oathmark, Lord of the Rings game and a game of Doctor Who from Warlord Games.

The forces of good took the day, the heavy Rohan cavalry sweeping away many orc formations.

 A UNIT patrol engages a Cyberman scouting force 

Hello There!

well, with the release of Xenos Rampant I thought I could finally fulfill a passion of mine. I have always been a big Star Wars fan and painting up these 212th clones was a dream come true.

I started by spraying the figures white then giving them a wash of black ink  The black body glove was then painted in using black contrast paint. I then touched up the white with GW White scar paint.

The best bit was adding the legion colour scheme to the armour. The 212th Attack Battalion has orange markings, for these I used the Foundry triad orange 'B' and used 'C' to highlight it.

I used a pencil to create scratches and carbon marks on the armour, this was great fun. However, the cherry on the cake was using a weathering kit to add carbon scoring on the armour. This is a tip I got after watching someone on YouTube painting a much larger model of a 212th trooper. I am pleased to report the technique works just as well on these smaller 35mm figures too.

Weathering kit...makeup.

These phase 1 clones have quite limited markings compared to their later brethren. Just the helmet and arms. For this officer I gave him more helmet patterns to show his individualism and character.

Clones liked to customize their equipment and this officer shows he has been around longer than most.

 

I also tried some of the weathering dust to add some dirt to his lower legs, subtle but effective.

Lastly I gave them a lick of Kleer floor varnish to give them that Blastoid armour look. I will try one in a satin finish and see which one I prefer. They certainly do pop on the battlefield now in their shiny armour though.

As Star Wars is immensely popular, reference material is easy to come by on the internet. I managed to find markings for the entire Legion and all its different trooper variants, very useful indeed 

Blam Blam Blam!

These are the first two test models in the squad just to get my head around the process.

 Of course another great source of reference are toys, these are very handy for getting 360 turnarounds of colour schemes and insignia.

My little boy watches the Clone wars on loop, you never know, seeing these might catch his interest. Well, you can but try...