Sunday, October 25, 2009

Western Fence: Part 2

Last month in Part 1 of this article, I explained how I began assembling a 28mm fence for my Western games. This installment features a photo showing how I stabilized the fences so they glued straight onto the popsicle stick bases. Believe it or not, I bought the two Xacto clamps way back in the late 1970's! The technique worked without a hitch.


The painted product. I used the following paints in the following order, using heavy drybrushing up to lighter drybrushing. I wanted that grey/brown look of bleached wood, using actual photos as my guide.
1. Black gesso primer
2. Americana Neutral Grey
3. Ceramcoat Mudstone
4. Americana Slate Grey
5. Americana Gray Sky
6. Polyscale RLM 63 Light Grey (for very light extreme highlight. Hey, I had it handy on my desk, so why not?)





All I have to do is finish the bases and varnish. With the weather looking like it will be breaking here in FL, hopefully I'll be able to spray some Dulcote on this very soon and use it!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Splintered Light 15mm vs Caesar 1/72 Fantasy

Once again, I'm dabbling with my boxes of 1/72 Caesar's figures. We own a box of Elves, Undead, and Ch'in Chinese. A few months ago, the kind folks at Splintered Light sent me a sample pack of their 15mm figures from their Splintered Light range, which mostly are sculpted by Bob Olley.

Tonight, I snapped a couple quick comparison photos of the two ranges side-by-side. Wanting to show off the great detail on these figures, I kept the full-size photos at their 500k size. To me, the figures work great together. In the photos are some dwarves, a kobold, bugbear, goblins, Druid's children, saytr, and animals.

Dwarves Will Be Dwarves
The SL dwarves are about the right size, though a tad taller would have been nice. Yes, Caesar makes a box of dwarves, but they make only one box. Splintered Light's Bob Olley dwarves gives a gamer much more variety. Still, having taller cousins (or shorter cousins depending on one's point of view) might not be that bad after all. The choice is yours.

Mixing & Matching Other SL Figures
I would not mix 1/72 figures with some of the other SL figures in their older ranges, though I am curious how their orcs would compare with 1/72 figures. Yes, Caesar makes a box of orcs and a box of goblins, but once again that is the extent of their range.

So there you have it. I don't want to jaw on. Check the photos and decide for yourself.

For more photos and info on Caesar's several fantasy sets, see Plastic Soldier Review.



Saturday, October 17, 2009

15mm Battle Honors & Old Glory ACW Union

With the low humidity and cool temps that suddenly hit Florida today, I finally finished varnishing several sticks of Battle Honors 15mm ACW Union firing line figures. Wanting to get some photos online quickly and being too tired to set up the photo booth, I shot the figs in the evening sun, which picks out every last detail--not what I had intended! The figs look much "smoother" under normal viewing, if that makes sense.

This Is The Blue For You
The trousers are Pollyscale's military colors and found British P.R.U. Blue, which turned out just right. The coats are Ceramcoat Navy Blue. I used back magic wash on the figs. I highlighted the trousers using Ceramcoat Winter Blue and the coats using Americana Wedgewood Blue. I highlighted the black leather using P3's Coal Black, which I also used on the rifle barrels. Coal Black has a blue tinge to it. Wanting a worn look, I dirtied the uniforms using Ceramcoat Trail Tan. The Winter Blue also makes the trousers look worn, as if the soldiers had been wearing their digs for some time on campaign.

Old Glory Bonus Figs?
I got a couple Old Glory figs stuck in my Battle Honors bag and painted them as well. You can see a comparison photo below. For the same price as the OG figures, I prefer the BH figures--better sculpting and detail. The OG rifles are extremely thin and bend with the slightest touch, which constantly drove me crazy. Still, Peter Pig are my all-time favorite 15mm figures but cost about 2.5 times as much per figure.