Friday 15 March 2013

Waiting for Paint to Dry.

 
 


The different shades of tan on the land sections of the boards to the right show different levels of dryness of the boards. A wordy way of saying that the boards have not quite dried out yet.  At this stage I have carved out the cliffs and for the most part I am happy with the results except where It has crumbled and needs to be made again. 








It's still a long way from being perfect, but hopefully the close up will show that they are meant to be cliffs and not just "dollops!"

Unfortunately the boards are not perfect fits, but I can and will work round that and get them closer than they are now. But for now I am concentrating on the land masses. The Paint should dry by this evening so I anticipate starting the next step (ground texture and beach texture) either late today or on Sunday, depending on the weather. I have worked out how I will do trees, but until I get scale pinned down I am still open on how I will make some buildings. You would hope that I would have scale pinned down long before I had gotten this stage. I have two choices either the more traditional 1200th scale or the less common 2400th scale. I am waiting for my 1200th scale ships to come back home and then see how many I have of them and in what condition. I also have some 2400th scale ships which are now primed and sitting on my paint table. 1200th scale would look better but until I get them back I will work on the smaller scale. Just incase he somehow "forgets" to give them back!!! And even if he does then I will have to re-paint and no doubt re-rig them so it might be easier to stick with the smaller scale and be done with it. The other advantage of the smaller scale is that the cliffs will look more substantial and therefor impressive. Time will tell.

This picture shows where part of the cliff has crumbled. AT this stage I have dropped some filler (among professional modelmakers Filler of different kinds is known as "Plod"). So this cliff section has been plodded and once dry I will re asses the situation. I could either re surface the cliff in this area or go with the situation and adapt the cliff and cover the error with some form of foliage. This is my preferred option as the cliff is not a prescriptive cliff of an exact coastline. This gives me far greater lee way with how It can look when finished. So we'll call this a "happy accident" and no one other than blog readers will ever know the difference.

Another closer view of the area in question. As mentioned above it's not the desired result, but I hope to turn it into a feature rather than worry about it.

Barring accidents, mishaps and problems with British Rail I should be going to visit the Rejects tomorrow for a game. Needless to say I and no doubt Fran, Big Lee, Ray and I am told the Lead Legion (whom I am don't think I know yet) will all do our own AAR of the battle. To be honest I have very little idea what to expect but as all the guys are quite personable (for a given and set value of personable) I do anticipate quite a good day. I am told it will be a Napoleonic battle organised by Postie. Napoleonic's are really not me period of choice but I can roll bad dice for any set of rules or wargames period so I am not expecting it to go my way at all. However one does not travel to the Rejects home turf expecting to win, but more to witness the banter (erhm... I mean, the slagging of each other off). Let's hope I'm not disappointed!

That's it for today, feel free to wish me luck for tomorrow and the Rejects. Have a good weekend and look forward to the AAr on Sunday (assuming I have recovered from the ordeal!)

10 comments:

  1. Heh.. nice read there, and good luck with the Rejects and LL. Should be fun times indeed!

    Liking the direction of the board currently however. Hoping that the cliffs start to behave as they should for you though. Any chance next time we can see a ship on it for scale? See what 2400th scale looks like compared to these massive boards?

    Cheers and enjoy the weekend!

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    1. Cheers MR. I only have the ships undercoated at the moment, but I see no reason not to show one for scale. I'm actually coming round to the small scale. Easier to paint, no nee to rig them either. and the sea is big so a small scale should fit the Bill.

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  2. Looking good so far Clint, terrain is one of my favorite subjects, looking forward to seeing how this goes.

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    1. Thank you. I agree it is coming together. As for how it will turn out, I'm looking forward to seeing that as well.

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  3. It looks great! I agree with your assessment that it will be more impressive at a smaller scale. I'd also recommend N scale trees. I got a bag of 1000+ for something like $5 and was able to use a pin vise to prepare holes for planting them in the modeled and painted foam board. Trees and clumps of various scales would add to the interest of the land masses.
    Good luck with the Rejects and the nappies! I myself do skirmish of the Penninsular campaign with British infantry performing rearguard against French Dragoons and infantry. Solo play though, as I can only game Warmachine and 40k with live opponents!

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    1. Scale is always a trade-off between realism and how it will look on the table. I hope to find a happy medium.

      The planned land mass will have a small fishing village and some farm/crop fields on one and woods and trees on the other with maybe a couple of wooden cabins so it marries up to the village.

      As for nappies.... I'll happily play, just not my period of choice. And am looking forward to it.

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  4. That my friend is really coming on and looking great. Some time in the future I want to play a beach landing game and the cliff work here is just inspirational.

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    1. Cliffs are fun to do. I want to more and bigger. I conjured up an Idea for a car race game on the coast roads over looking the Mediterranean... I got no further than planning it though. But maybe in the future!

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  5. I'm betting that when shot close up those will look like cliffs. And as for the part that you need to patch, I'd just cover it with foliage as that will add interest and colour to the cliffs.

    Best of luck tomorrow with the game!

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    1. I will know how it looks on Monday, having just added sand an paint to the shore line. Colours will be wrong first of, but I'm only looking for the texture at this stage.

      I have a quiche for the Rejects because real men don't make a fuss! Home made, cheese, Onion and Mushroom. Smells good I'm sure they'll like it. As for the game. I am sure it will get a lot of blog coverage.

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