Space Truck

 Frequent readers of this blog (hello to you both) will know that I've been trying to get though the huge heap of unpainted metal and unfinished conversions that I've had knocking about for ages. A long time ago, I tried to make an LRDG-type truck for some orks, but it didn't go very well, and I still had the rear of the truck lying around. I also had the cab of a Sentinel (Sentinel legs are really useful, the cabs less so) and some battlewagon tracks that I picked up in a very battered state (them, not me) at a wargames fair.

I found that the three elements fitted together surprisingly well.

The roof of the cab was an absolute pig to build, as I wanted to fill it in with plasticard. It took a lot of patience and fiddly bits of card, but I finally managed to build a new roof for the cab. It was then a matter of adding lots of random detail, most of it either made from thin plasticard or taken from an Airfix Tiger tank that I bought about 15 years ago and have been slowly dismantling ever since.

I felt that it needed some cargo, and so I used some plastic boxes I got in a Mantic sale ages ago. The weird boxy thing next to the cab is a resin aircon unit, which I imagine either keeps the cargo cold or provides air for the cab as it rolls across some strange alien world.

Here's a thrilling rear view.

I did wonder about adding some hinges to the rear door, but I couldn't make them look convincing, so, for now, it's unhinged.

Painting was fairly simple: it got an industrial blue base, which was then shaded and heavily weathered. I didn't add any rust, as I expect it would be in too much use to get rusty, but I expect it would be very battered and dirty.

The Bison all-terrain carrier is one of the most successful vehicles to be produced on the Outer Rim. The sealed cab protects the driver from the hazards of semi-terraformed worlds, and the filtration system can process oxygen from low-yield atmospheres and store it in the integral tanks. Despite these innovations, the Bison's real strength is its ruggedness and ease of repair: some units have been in service for over a century, and a few were recently used as improvised armoured cars in the recent New Luton uprising.

Meanwhile, in Tableton

 A friend of mine decided to name my Frostheim/Mordgrave layout Tableton. To celebrate that, here are a few pictures of what's going on in the city.

Various respectable types go out for a stroll:

The undead horde, taking the night air:

The dwarves, defending their fortress:

Gruk Mansmasher, Ork Warlord

 Here's the second conversion of one of the ogres from the Blood Bowl team. This guy was running forward, presumably to punt the ball. I really liked the dynamic pose, and wondered about making him into a Bioshock-style crudely-doctored mutant. But I felt a bit tired of that look and thought that he'd be good as a great big ork.

So, with some ork bits and a lot of plasticard, I made this:

And then he got some paint.

This was one of those rare moments when I thought quite carefully about the painting and converting. I didn't want to spoil the sense of forward movement, and I was careful not to make him lopsided when adding weapons and gear. When I painted him, I did the stripes on his armour to be painting towards his face, so that his tiny eyes and big mouth remain a focal point.

I think he's still got that feeling of movement:

Gruk Mansmasher is a minor ork warlord of the goff clan. He first came to prominence during a Tau-eating contest in the Agon'Va system, and later put his substantial bulk to good use when he belly-flopped the Nurgle champion Spotticus, causing him to pop. Since then, Gruk has made mincemeat of many enemies and has personally pledged to devour every pie in the Imperium.

Medieval Chapel (Tabletop Workshop kit)

 Whilst looking at random stuff on ebay, I stumbled upon a company called Tabletop Workshop, which must be about the most generic name for a wargaming company I've ever seen. (I once heard of a pharmaceutical company called Generics, Ltd, which probably wins the vaguest-name contest.) I bought a medieval chapel off them, for a very reasonable £15, and thought I'd give it a go.

First up, the kit was very simple to assemble. It consists of 7 pieces: a base, two roof parts, and four sides. The four walls are all double-sided, meaning that you get a fully sculpted interior as well as exterior. The sides slot into the base and push together without much trouble. The roof parts have to be glued to each other, but you should only do that, so you can lift the roof off and see inside. If you really wanted, you could dismantle the chapel and store it in flat pieces (except for the roof).

The sculpting is good. It's not amazingly detailed, but the stones stick out nicely from the walls and details can be picked out without much trouble. The inside has sculpted-on benches, candles on little holders and a crucifix. None of these stick out very far, so it's easy to move models inside the chapel. While the chapel would do for almost any European setting from the medieval period onwards, it might look a bit odd to have a crucifix in Warhammer. If it does, you could just paint over it or stick something else on top, as it's pretty much flush with the wall.

Everything was simple to paint. You could probably add more details without much trouble, if you wanted something less generic, but I'm happy with the result. Overall, I think this is a nice little kit and well worth the money I paid for it. 8/10.

Frostheim Townhouse

 Over the last couple of weeks, I've been chipping away at a new house for my Frostheim/Mordgrave table. I've always really liked the look of the old terrain that Games Workshop used to make, with its decrepit, yellowing walls and twiddy, pointless details.

This house was based on two boxes, one on top of each other. The smaller box is MDF, and the larger one was made out of cardboard. The roof was thinner cardboard, with card pieces of slate, and the wooden panelling was made from the ever-reliable coffee stirrers. Cue the inevitable rubbish WIP picture:

Once the basic shape was together, it was a matter of covering it in as much detail as possible. I bought some old plastic Mordheim windows off ebay, and some larger ones made of MDF. The front door came from Mantic, and most of the extra odds and ends were Games Workshop kits. The chimney was a pillar that I got at an event. The pile of logs at the side was made off off-cuts of wooden rod, heaped up and painted.

And now with paint and detailing.

And that's about it, really. The secret seems to be to pile as much detail onto the house as possible; to make it very "busy" and slightly decrepit. I think it's come out well. I imagine it as the home of some grand person - perhaps a retired mercenary, or a merchant, although it's no less wonky and badly-constructed than the hovels that the normal folk use. In fact, this place comes with bonus nastiness growing on the roof. Can't say fairer than that, can you?

Another Random Futuristic Generator Thing

 Just a quick one this time. I had a used printer ink cartridge lying around and did unto it as I did unto another cartridge in an earlier post - see HERE. Because this cartridge was slightly different in design, I added slightly different bits, but the concept was much the same. Most of the parts I added came off a long-dismantled Airfix tank.

The ink cartridge got a Sigmarine shield on the front - I imagine that the slightly pompous imagery on the shield, with its hammer and lightning bolts, is the insignia of whatever power company makes these things.

Then it got an industrial blue-gray paint scheme, much like the other one. It was made to look dirty and chipped.

And from the other side:

And here it is with the original generator, and a slightly worried citizen for scale.

And that's it!

Old Metal Juggernaut

 I was looking at the shelf - well, cupboard - of unpainted miniatures, and I stumbled upon an old Chaos Juggernaut. It's not a great miniature (although it's a hell of a lot better than the previous version) but it's got a certain chunky charm. I thought it would work best as a fantasy miniature, so I based it on one of the Mantic dungeon bases that I'd got for Frostheim (or Mordgrave). 

The metal was painted with shades of dark tone and black contrast paint. The red was mixed with a dark brown and shaded up towards the top of the armour plates. 

I don't think there's much more to say about this model. I like it and it was fun to paint. Perhaps it's an animated statue, or a steed for someone. I don't have a rider, so at present, he's just wandering free.

Next is - well, it's a bloke with a big hammer whose head is on fire. I had some models left over from a set for the game Wrath of Kings, and decided to use one of the bodies for this guy. His body, legs and weird mechanical apparatus are from Wrath of Kings, while his head and arms come from the Empire Flagellant set. The skull-faced hammer-head was a random bit I had lying in my bits box.