Warfare 2014 - A Show in Reading

Headed down the M4 to Reading yesterday with my good friend Paul. Spent a bit of money, caught up with a few people and still got home in time to watch the rugby.

Until I get round to writing a proper report please see a selection of photos from the day..first up a few shots from the trading hall.

In one of the squash courts there were a number of Starship battles

 

There were a number of participation games in the main hall...

Back to the squash courts..Warhammer Ancient Battles...

The next two photos give a sense of the competitive scale of this event..

I love that purple worm...

 

 

 

Until next time...

A Forest for Under Forty Quid

Hi Folks

Do you want to save yourself money and build great forests?

Ok quick question - how much does this cost?

its about $35 or shall we say £25 for five trees, a base and some scatter. Not particularly good value in my honest opinion. What would say if I told you that the following could be bought and made for less than forty pounds.

Yes that's right 16 bases of trees with approximately 35 trees all for forty quid...

I have spread them out in this picture to give you a sense of the area covered.

Still looks like a dense wood to me..

Ok - interested - where do we start.

Well firstly the trees need to be sourced off ebay. I have discovered this wonderful seller called ethersell see link below

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/ethersell88?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2754

These guys sell a great deal of stuff so you might need to hunt down your product. You can find their trees in Collectables, Model Railways.

Now you are looking for the deciduous trees that stand over 12cm tall that have plastic armatures. There is another type made from twisted wire and these are a real pain.

The following pictures illustrate what you are looking for

These trees typically come in packs of five for around £3.99 - postage is more often than not free.,

So decide what you want - order and pay. Sit back and wait...my big order took 6 weeks to arrive.

The big day has arrived the parcel is here.

The following build was all achieved in three hours so again this project is both kind on your wallet and easy on time.

Step 1.

Cut out your bases from hardboard (cheap offcuts - no cost), sand edges and then cover in sand using pva.

Step 2

Paint bases dark brown and then dry brush light brown

No I am not making biscuits !

Step 3

Once dry scatter and static grass added - cost £2.99 for bags off ebay

really exciting photo...

Step 4

Turn over base board and using drill heads to match thickness of tree trunks make holes

Step 5

Push through tree trunks (must be tight) and hot glue into place

Step 6

Clip off protruding ends once dry

And that is it...a fabulous deciduous forest for less than £40 - Bargain

Apologies & Cats Eyes

Hi Folks

This is just a brief message to let you all know that things are still happening in the Shed...but are not being reported as frequently as the in the past..

Why...I hear you shout across digital space?

Well a couple of things are happening..

firstly I have got myself a new job which has meant I have had little time to put finger to keyboard and write up the various projects I am working on.

Secondly I needed a break from painting and building. The good news is that my mojo has returned an a whole load of new stuff is on its way.

Despite all that I continue to get games in every Monday night and over the last few weeks we have been playing everything from Warmaster to Saga, from a Lord Of the Rings Black Powder game to X Wing. The bad news is that I singularly failed to take any pictures. ;-(

Apologies...

But here is a picture of my cat to satisfy those image junkeys

This of course brings out a whole new way of looking at Cats Eyes in the road..

Coming up soon I promise will be the continuing build of my arid/desert landscape, the start of my major painting programme of a huge Saracen army, more trees from china, a VBCW game called Uprising (set in the walled city of Southchester) and of course a
 photo report from Reading this weekend....I'll be there on Saturday morning. If I am feeling brave Ill wear my Eric the Shed T Shirt

until next time

Rocky Escarpments & Pyramid Finished!!

So with a new month I headed down to the shed for some serious painting. Up to now I had painted all the rock pieces, the temple, the pyramid and the board that dirty old brown colour. Today was the day when I would get these painted.

Part 4 of this project can be found here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/rocky-escarpments-part-4.html

If you want to start from the beginning head here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/egyptian-adventures-rocky-escarpments.html

Sadly I took few photos of the pre stage but to give you a feel for the work involved I firstly dry-brushed every piece with a yellow ochre, on top of this was a dry brush of off white.

The following two pictures give the stages done on the pyramids

I also fixed the temple entrances into the cliff faces. The first you can see in the pictures below. The second and larger of the two has more work to be done.


And finally I finished !

So lets get it all laid out. Before you scan the following pictures Ill point out that I still need to add the scrub and dry grass and paint up all the egyptian paraphernalia. But I am getting there.

When I set out to start this project my ambition was to build an arid landscape that could satisfy a number of genres - ancient Egypt, Indiana Jones, and the Crusades to name a few.

To date there are over 6 metres of rock faces, 6 small mesas, and 9 50x50cm square boards. They are all interchangeable.

 I think I am getting there. Palm trees and oasis next.

Thanks for following

the last part is here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/desert-boards-finally-complete.html