AS you can see I have started the coast/cliff boards. But I got called away, so it will have to wait until next week before I do any "REAL" work on it. The top picture shows the wooden edge that will be common on all the cliffs so they can fit side by side without leaving massive gaps. I have not measured the angle, as I did not see the need, I just went with what I thought looked about right but I'm now thinking I could have made them steeper. This is the "outside corner and as such will take a lot of materials especially as I think I want a lighthouse on the top. But I shall be making it up as I go along so pretty much anything could happen.

This board is 24 inches square. and should reach a height of 11 inches plus the light house. I have glued the first few layers of polystyrene down and will give it a chance to dry before I add more layers and take it to full height. Originally I was going to work to the pencil lines but I could not get the polystyrene sheets I wanted at B+Q so I settled for some smaller and cheaper ones. As with all things I'll try to save money on wargames projects where I can so I was not too disappointed with getting smaller ones. In an Ideal world Blar Blar Blar...

I'll settle on the rusty armour for the skaven Marines. I was asked why I thought metals that far in the future would rust. I can think of several reasons, like they use a material that corrodes for the same reason that we don't make modern tanks out of stainless steel. It could be expense, durability, resilience, scarcity of materials or the reason I have selected, because I like the look of it. Other than that I have not sat at my freezing cold attic painting table, because it is just that at the moment, freezing cold. I'll no doubt use the excuse of being to hot in the summer!

Lastly to Kev who broke his ankle on Thursday. Get well soon mate, take care and we'll talk soon no doubt.

All the best Clint.

As mentioned previously I was looking to start a Warhammer 40k Chaos Marine army and trying to work out the colour scheme for the force. Well here are my two options.  I can either go for a grey armour or a rusty armour. (Hope you can tell it's rust!) I want them to have a run down shabby look that I think is suitable to rats as I don't see them looking after their equipment particularly well. I know skaven Marines have been done before a number of times, which tells me that it's not a terrible idea. I imagine their fleet got trapped in some kind of Chaos storm and the only other living organisms (of a certain size Germs don't count) on board the ships  mutated into a meld of species. As shipborne Marines I see them as less reliant on big fighting machines and more on close quarter battles. I appreciate that the fleet could and probably would have a stock of Land Raiders, rhinos and the rest, so I may allow myself a couple of vehicles but on the whole I'll try to limit them. I do like the idea of dreadnoughts though as I can see them along with terminators being used on board ships. As I want this to be a cheap project I think I'll stick to what I can get at the right price on eBay. I have enough pieces to get a complete squad done before I need to go looking for more though . These were painted about 6 months apart as I was dithering over them and could not decide where it was going. My nephew by the way loves them and really wants to make his own, but I am trying to restrict him as while he's a good painter/modeller for his age he is only 10 years old.  So for now I'll just decide on the colours and maybe get some more done. Always open to suggestions colour wise, but orange and purple stripes is not going to happen. And if you insist that It should I look forward to seeing yours.

Elsewhere in the Shed, the moon board has had another coat of muck and should get it's final one on Monday when it should be dried out. I'm not gonna rush them as that's no use to anyone and WILL result in more work needed to tidy up where they would have gone wrong. I did have a look at it this morning and it does need several days to dry out, so I anticipate a week before this one is to the same stage as the others. And then only two more after that.

It was raining very heavily when I knocked of work this morning and I didn't fancy going to B and Q. But that is the next step for the First BROADSIDE board. I have sketched it out roughly and am happy with the sizes. I would like the cliffs taller but we do have to be "semi"-realistic so they are only 10 inches tall. It's the kind of crazy thing I might change later and double the height, but for now they look about right. As you can tell I am not being decisive.

Nothing much is happening on the painting table, I seem to be out of the swing of it for the moment. Maybe that will change over the weekend.

Thanks for reading, I'll post again Saturday and hope to get to B+Q>. Cheers Clint

This is just to remind you all what the moon boards turn into once coloured up.The figures are 25mm space suited figures by Ground Zero Games Painted in a very bright green so as to strongly contrast with the greys of the terrain. These are two of my own boards and not part of the ones I'm currently making,  although they should look the same when done. As mentioned previously the latest one is drying out and if the weather is ok, (Not to cold or wet) it should get another layer of paint glue and sand before I write again. Kevin pointed out a set of Horror clix zombies in space suits currently on ebay. I'm still umming and ahhing about getting them, so for now I'll pass although "Zombies from Outer-Space!" really does sound like such a NAFF B movie you'd have to go and see it.

Moving on. It has been a slow couple of days on the painting and making front. Nothing new to share just yet.feels like a "Must do Better" type school report.

 I have however been thinking, The dock-scape is going on hold for a bit (I imagine Kev and Relfie scowling at me as I type that). Having had a better look at the one that Karl at Crooked dice has done I think using the paste table is no longer the way to go. I have not given up, just set it aside till after Cavalier (end of Feb) where I can have a chat with the CD guys and pick some brainz.

 I'm looking after my nephew for the next couple of days as he's been sent home from school ill today and I'm down as his emergency contact, it's nothing serious to worry about, but far to serious to play on the X BOX. If he's well enough to play X BOX he's well enough to go to school. That's the rules as laid down by my beloved sister and who am I to argue with her. So it looks like it will be a Jurassic Park afternoon, or maybe Eight legged Freaks.!

Hopefully I should have something to show on Thursday... Must do Better!

It's hard to make out the details due  to the colours, however these are the moon scape so far. If you squint though you can see enough to get a pretty good idea. Each board is 2 foot square so this area is 4 foot square, I have 2 more boards to do after these are done. Obviously they need to be fully painted BLACK and then painted in various shades of grey. The sand coloured board has only had one layer of muck on it but I'll put a couple more on this week and allow it to dry completely so that it comes to the same stage as the other three.

This is the "Start" of the coast boards for the Broadside show. This one is again 2 foot on each side. As yet I have yet to determine if they will all be 2 foot by 2 foot squares OR if I can make 2 2foot by 4 foot rectangles. I realise I could do either, it's just what comes down to being the better game boards for storage and transportation so for now I am not going to over think it, I'll just play it by ear. You can see in this shot that one corner has been notched this is so I can attache the cliff walls  in such a way that they can but up to each other without a nasty gap. Having visualised it I think it should have 11 inch  high cliffs with a 2 inch reverse slope. (Not sure that makes sense enough for anyone to understand, but when I work on it again I'll take a pic and it should become clear.

I will have to make two boards that are square, one with an inside curve and one with an outside curve. This will allow me to turn a couple of corner and vary the coastline sufficiently. The tables we have at Broadside are 2 foot wide and 6 foot long thus with 2 tables set  at right angles will give an 8 foot by 6 foot coastline. By having a choice of both inside and outside corners we can set the adapt as we need to. Anyway this will all become evident as work goes on.

As mentioned on Friday the dock board will start in earnest on Monday. Brummie has suggested a thick layer of paint to disguise the texture of the hard board. It's so obvious that I missed it as a solution. I still like the idea of foil though, not because of the shininess but because if I screw it up and un-screw it carefully it will create a very different texture.Still time will tell.

Nothing from the painting table to talk about today. so with that I'll finish writing for today. Cheers Clint