Paint What You've Got Update

Despite the brick wall I've hit regarding my original plan of completing the MV Australis I have been doing quite a lot on other projects and getting them completed, which I couldn't be more pleased with.

The biggest project that I've completed was this Hudson and Allen castle - 12 full pieces. I picked up several job lots on Ebay last year while I was in South Carolina and they have sat unpainted since.

My original plan was to build something ala the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie where the fort was perched atop a cliff for Historicon last year, which of course never happened.

I was playing around with quite a big idea as you can see by these early idea photos. Always the visual presentation first and foremost at Back to the Tabletop.

I wanted different heights for the walls to give it some variety visually, and this will definitely be something I will do with the castle in whatever capacity it is used in the future.

Anyway, back to what was actually completed and not pipe dreams lol. Here's how the all the castle pieces come, with an initial light gray prime.

I put a black prime put on all the pieces.

Then a dark gray drybrush, and light concrete colour drybrush.

Details with some washes to create moss like effects. 

Though I do think I'll actually put a bit of flock or maybe ivy in some places just to enhance that look a bit more.

Those with a keen eye will notice that I still need to track down a gate to complete the overall set, doh! But regardless I have always wanted to have a castle ever since the Dungeons & Dragons days of my youth and now I do.

I've also been blasting through a lot of 4Ground kits.

When I won that contest from 4Ground a few months ago I used the gift certificate I received to pick up several 15mm kits.

The idea was for a possible tank game in the future as I have lots of 15mm Flames of War tanks sitting that I think would be fun to try to get on the table with maybe What a Tanker by Too Fat Lardies. 

This was a really neat farm complex. 

Why this was never done in 28mm is honestly a real head scratcher to me.

I've built so much 28mm stuff that building the 15mm kits went incredibly fast.

There isn't nearly as much detail on interiors, windows, and doors so I'm not quite sure what I will do to add and enhance the look of these buildings like I do with all the 28mm ones. Roof shingles and tiles are definitely something I need to sort out.

And none of the doors open and close so you have to make a decision on which you want and glue away.

I also built up this stagecoach.  

But decided that I didn't want it to be red so out came the black paint. I think it looks much better black.

I also finished this prison wagon.  This was going to originally be used in the Zorro scenario I made up a few weeks ago. 

The last thing I built was this neat white barn.

Jeff and I got a bit of the ACW bug and wanted to give Sharp Practice a go so I thought this would be a perfect addition to the table.

I really like the roofing material 4Ground have used here, but I'm not sure I'm sold on the weathered effect from the laser "burn" on the outer walls. I think that this is something that will be addressed in the future.

A really nice and big hay loft inside.

I think I will go in and do some detail work on the interior of the barn in the future as well, but she's good to go to hit the table now which is always the goal.

And the last thing I've been plowing through is re-doing all of my tree plates. Something that always bothers me is how when you use store bought trees is that they are all the same height.

So I went back and added some wood dowels randomly to the trunks of the trees to make them a bit taller and I really think it improves the look.

The other thing I did to make the plates easier to play with on the table was to add magnets to each tree.

And of course on the actual plate. When models move into cover in the trees this will make that much easier to manage.

Lots of bits and bobs finished to 100% so a big win for me overall.

Until next time, when the results of that ACW bug mentioned above actually made it to the tabletop for a game of Sharp Practice, thanks for looking!

Ivor