Wednesday 18 January 2012

Nope this is not one of mine, lets make that quite clear. I had nothing to do with making this. I have included it because not only is it superb but it has inspired me. When I saw it I asked Kev and Relfie if they thought I should build a dockscape. They both replied very quickly that they thought I should. In an ideal world I can knock one out in about 4 weeks start to finish. HOWEVER I am going to aim for 5 weeks starting Saturday. ( I'll probably over run a few weeks but good to have a target to aim at.)
As you can tell this board is only 24 inches square. The ship here is 6 inches wide and 24 long. I don't know how tall it rises, but as I'll have to scratch build my own I'm not that worried.Nothing wrong with small boards, in fact a lot to recommend them, no vast shooting galleries, and lots of opportunity to get up close and personal. So taking this as a start point I'll try to shoe horn it into the paste table. At this stage I only intend to use 1/2 the paste table, which gives an area of 20 inches by 34 inches. If my players want a bigger area they'll have to wait a few extra weeks, or do it themselves. Yep that means I'll make it the size I want and plan it to expand onto the other half of the paste board when I get a chance.
Given that I want as much versatility as I can get I'll try to keep it as an old dock. That way we can use it for everything from pirates/cutlass all the way to contempory, or horror or even science fiction. Obviously the boats will have to be era specific, but the actual wharfs and jetties in made to look like stone or wood can be of any time period. Concrete can also be used as that dates back to Roman technology, but I'll try to minimise that.

That's all in the planning, but what's in the make. Yesterday when I went up the shed to work on the moon boards some of the paint had frozen in the bottle. I managed to thaw it out OK and it was not a huge amount, but it does illustrate just how cold it was. I have managed to coat boards 2 and 3 with a mixture of paint and PVA wood glue. I am now ready to start the next one. But due to the cold have decided to come indoors and warm up for now. I'll give them both a day to dry out and then start the next. I feel very happy with the progress now that I am 1/2 way through them. I'm so looking forward to a quick tidy up in the shed you would not believe it. But all in all they are coming on fine.

Unfortunately I can't face the painting table at the moment, there's just something about the 10mm dwarfs I am struggling with. I know once I bite the bullet it will all flow, but I'm not in that mind set today. Relfie wants to do some Warmaster at the next club, so with luck I'll feel encouraged to get some more done, just not today.

I will start on the Cutlass shore boards soon but having a short arm deep pocket moment so am not buying the materials this week, or the figures. I have had an expensive week wargames wise, bagged a few eBay bargains despite the fact I still have loads to read and paint but they were just so tempting I had to. I also sent off for the 7ombie TV rules and counters before they sold out. I get paid end of next week so I'll try to resist eBay temptation till then, or maybe put a few things on, just so I don't feel to bad about all the wargames money flowing out of my account. Hey ho!

More again on Friday cheers Clint

2 comments:

  1. That looks a bostin table. Will look forward to seeing your progress with the docks

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah you and me both. That table is one of the Crooked Dice tables they use for quick demo games.

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