Kings of Ruin

 

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The Winds Of Change

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. ~Harold Wilson


If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. ~Mary Engelbreit


It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. ~W. Edwards Deming


Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine. ~Robert C. Gallagher


When you are through changing, you are through. ~Bruce Barton


Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed. ~Irene Peter

Whitewash City #7

Comparing two building plans side by side shows that the Grand Hotel seems to be drawn up to a smaller scale. The front door is quite a bit shorter, which in turn makes the ceiling/second floor way too low for 28/30mm characters. Might have to scrap my plans for a two story building at this stage.

Whitewash City #6

Beginning the Grand Hotel. Everything is cut out and I'm feeling happy.

The outside walls are almost done.

Fuck It! It's the wrong scale. I think I've printed the plans out at 'fit to paper' rather than 100%. Bugger.

Whitewash City #5

So I'm going to have to re-think the whole 'sign-writing can't be that hard' theory.

Whitewash City #4

I've made a start on the painting of my posse. Sure it's only the smallest of starts, but with my painting speed, any progress is good progress!

Undercoated and whitewashed the outside, ready to add some colour.

Being my test building, it's going to stay 'white', but after finishing the trim, I will be attempting the sign-writing!!

Of course, all three of the buildings I'm currently working on are essentially 'square' single story buildings - my good lady thinks I should try something a little more challenging. Amongst the PDFs I have, none come more challenging that The Grand Hotel.

Once I've managed to build this beauty, I'm thinking of converting the single story Whitewash City Hotel into the Whitewash City Whorehouse - just so Stu's whores have somewhere to hang out!

Whitewash City #3

Probably the smallest building I will make for Whitewash city - the Bathhouse!

Customised the design slightly, removing the back door and adding a ladder so that snipers can access the roof!

The Men in Black. No, not Will Smith, but rather my posse of evil doers undercoated in back, ready for me to start painting!

Whitewash City #2

You can probably tell that this is a different building. I gave up on the bakery after I realised that I wanted it built on a thicker base, so that the boardwalk out front was raised. This would also make it easier to attach the fence thingy that you tie your horse to. Basically this photo shows the progress after constructing the basic building of adding planks of 'wood' to add texture and detail to the front. Next up will be the door frame and window sills.

The Preacher and His Lady Friend

My two special characters from Dixons arrived today. I'll clean them up and base them tomorrow. Then I'll have to figure out a colour scheme for the rest of my cowboys.

Whitewash City

Ok, so this is becoming a bit of a habit, but I've started another project before finishing the one I'm currently in the middle of.
A good friend has given me some cowboys to paint over Christmas, and I've ordered a couple of special characters from Dixons Miniatures to go with them.
Essentially we're planning on playing a bit of Legends of the Old West, so along with about 8 characters to paint, I figured I'd build a small town.
I managed to get some Whitewash City paper buildings, but being a sucker for punishment decided to use these as a template to build some using my spare corkboard.
The first building is coming along nicely, but I've already made one un-mend-able mistake.

Only time will tell if I can get enough down in time for regular gaming nights to kick off again in February.

Dixon's Long Range Desert Group

Whilst browsing Dixon's website for a couple of special figures for my Legends of the Old West posse, I couldn't help myself and looked at their 28mm World War II figures where I discovered these chaps:



I'm going to have to seriously consider these for a little painting project sometime next year. If we ever get back into Pulp gaming, these will go down a treat.

Zombies!

Zombies highlighted... do I know what I'm doing? Nope. Will it work? Hope so!!

Zombies!

I decided to trial a quick pint job on some of my 15mm Zombies! I've decided to start with an undercoat of RED!!!! We'll see how well this actually progresses - knowing me it could take weeks or even months to finish them!

8.8cm PaK43 - Sculpted Bases

I decided to splash out recently and subscribe to the new look Wargames Illustrated, and as a bonus got to choose a small box set from Battlefront as an incentive. I decided to choose the 8.8cm PaK43 Anti-Tank Platoon, mainly because it was the only option available that would fit into my as yet un-started late war German army.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the new PaK43's come on sculpted resin bases, with the base of the gun becoming part of the actual base, making assembly (my most hated part of this hobby) a lot easier. This suits me down to the ground. It means I have a nice base with no real hassle. Of course, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if it was the right direction to go.

It seems that Battlefront are targeting the lowest common denominator these days, in an effort no doubt to get more people playing Flames of War. This is a great direction, don't get me wrong, but what about those of us who enjoy making our own bases, adding little bits of detail to make our army stand out, or to suit a specific battle?

Would it not be better to have two sets available, even if one was special order only, so that hard-core modelers could have the full kit with no sculpted base?

And if Battlefront are going to be re-modeling all their box sets to include sculpted resin bases, what about making a sculpted base for the command team, so that the whole set is consistent?

I do like the new PaK43, and may even get distracted enough to start on it before I've finished my long over due Brit Airborne.

Russian Propaganda Posters

A few years back I decided to try making a Russian apartment building out of foamcore. It turned out quite nice - not that there is really much to a Russian apartment building! But to make it just a little bit nicer, I found some Russian propaganda posters online and printed one out on my colour printer. Getting it the right size was a problem, as for it to be actual scale made it too small to recognise what was on it, so a happy middle goprund was reached with the poster being just a little larger than scale.

But the scale issue was one using preconceived notions that everyone made posters the same size. Looking at the picture above that I recently found in the book Absolute War, I now think my poster may have been way too small to be proper scale! Those Russians certainly knew how to make their point; with HUGE posters.

Carentan - A Litte More Progress

It's probably worth pointing out that my aims for this 'Carentan Project' is not to re-create Carentan in it's entirety, but to create some buildings loosely based on Matakishi's 28mm Carentan project.
For those who want a little more information than just the photos, I'm using 4.8mm Natural Cork Tiles - the ones you are supposed to use for flooring, for the walls and 2mm Cork Craft Sheets for the base. I gave up on using PVA after my first house and instead purchased a tube of Germany's finest glue, UHU - the glue I used to use in England as a youngster building model planes. The roofs are probably going to be made of card with some 2.8mm Cork supports.

Carentan - More Progress

Started the detailing on the second building.
And started to build the third building. Detailing on the first building will wait until I've worked out a few minor details.

Carentan - Progress

Building two is well underway, thanks to a relaxing day at home.

Scale vs Playability Part Deux

I've decided that I quite like the 'close to actual scale' size of the buildings, but after reading some comments on the Flames of War forums, I realised that I could increase the spacing between the windows and floors to increase the size of the building without having to upscale the door or window size.
Side by side you can see that the new building is a fair bit bigger and will hopefully look great on my gaming table.