Got the Terrain Bug Again!

After my Amera Plastics terrain I subscribed to the channel that helped me paint them. It's  Lukes Affordable Paint Service. That's the Facebook link he is on YouTube also. He aims at finding cheap but good alternatives to painting and terrain making.
On one video he had found a cheap water effect from Poundland!  For some reason I've always wanted to do a water effect on a piece of terrain and have yet to find a suitable water effect besides paying a lot for a dedicated water effect. 
I went for a simple stream flowing out a pile of rocks into a little pond as an idea.  I broke out the foam board as a base and added some polystyrene bits building up a rock pile.  Topped with some polystyrene eggs left over from x wing asteroids.

I carved out a little dip for the pond and built up around the edges with polystyrene for the sides.  Next was putting a layer of filler on it all.

After the filler I sanded down a lot of the edges making it a touch smoother.
Then it was into painting! As I wanted a rock pile I adopted the same approach that I did on the Amera Plastics stuff. Several layers of dry brushing getting lighter and lighter

Next I added a few little rocks in the dip for underwater rocks then click around the rock pile and edges.

Next up was the water effect. Lukes Affordable Paint Service recommended as a cheap option an epoxy from Poundland

Plus you get this spring loaded clip for holding things together!

I squeezed some epoxy into the gap in rock pile to look like it was running down into the pool  After holding the terrain at an odd angle I added the rest into the dip.  Now to let it dry.  In hindsight what I should do is put the epoxy on in layers so must remeber for next time.  Below is the finished article (with drying epoxy)

The second piece I made as I had left over lollipop sticks from making pallets. I made a wooden watch tower

It's not the most stable level thing but hey it's a post apocalyspe watch tower!!

That's all folks have a great day

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X-Wing Asteroids

As I'm getting into X wing I thought I would try and make 3d asteroids instead of using the counters that come with the game.
I'd seen a YouTube video  with a tutorial of how to make them. This involved hacking chunks of polystyrene up . As this Is a very messy job and there is a strong possibility my wife would object to bits of polystyrene everywhere I started with some polystyrene egg shapes (wanted ball shapes but poundland was all out and only had these) from Poundland. On the video they use spray paint to under coat the polystyrene. As many of you will be aware spray painting polystyrene is never a good idea however some lightly the melting that occurs actually makes it look like the surface of an asteroid.

I put the egg  shapes on old flying model stands and sprayed away. As you can see in pic above I got the desired effect but not all over. So i left them to dry. I then applied superglue but nothing....a flash of genius (more likely stupidity ) came to me and i broke out that cigarette lighter you always have in that draw of odds and ends that you never use.  These have a brilliant effect and you could burn craters into the egg shapes. There were only a few little fires  (mainly the one or two I'd just tried superglue on).

Not the best photos I appreciate but I think you can see the effect.

First lot of brown paint on I might add a wash later.

And above are the asteroids in their first outing!!

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X-Wing Storage

I've been looking at ways to store my x wing stuff. The ships are fine as I like them on the geek shelves for the world to see how ever as some of you know there are a fair few tokens and cards!
After a quick Google of what other people do I found that there is a few different storage options made for x wing but people use other things as well. I found the most popular seemed to be a Stanley box with multiple sections that come out and are all  different sizes. Off I went to home base to see what I could find. They didn't have the exact one but had plenty similar.  Then I spied this case

Now it's not what I was looking for but it was £7 for 2 and they inter lock!  The compartments can be changed in size etc so I can fit everything in! And if (who am I kidding!!! When) I get more x wing stuff and the box get a full I can lock the other box into it.

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X-Wing Miniatures Game

Last night my friend came over and we played our first game of X wing. We decided to play a game with out upgrades etc so we could learn the basic rules first.  I used a squadron builder app to make two lists. I only had 4 Tie Fighters (2 from each core set) but because I'm a rebel fan I have 2 X Wings, an A wing, a Y wing  and a B wing. The Tie fighters were all packing ace pilots and the rebels brought to the fight 2 X Wings piloted by Poe Dameron and Biggs Darklighter. Backed up by a green Squadron piloted A wing.







We set up our battleground. We used my homemade asteroids and my friend very amazingly gave me some warhammer vortex templates  that can be used to represent planets.  Space terrain in place we deployed our forces.  I had control of the rebels and my friend had the Imperials. 
The basic game rules are really simple. Each ship has a manoeuvre dial and you secretly choose a manoeuvre template.  Then in a certan The order you and your opponent reveal your move.  This is a great little feature that really brings out the tactical side as you are having to guess  what your opponent might do. It really helped create the feel of a dog fight  Combat resolved through rolling special dice. The attacker dice has blank and hits on there. The defenders dice has blank and evades(each evade cancels a hit). There is a focus symbol on each dice as well (one action allows you to focus, you then can change a focus result on the dice to a bit of evade depending on circumstances). If hits get through you get a damage card (There are 2 types of damage card.  Straight damage and damage that has an effect on your ship as well)once you have the same amount of damage cards to your ships hull points Boom !! Your ship is destroyed.


The ships initial deployment

The first few turns involved the ships getting into position and then the action heated up with close quarter battling and flying.




Here you can see the manoeuvre template on my x wing

Here you can see my ship cards and the damage a couple have sustained





The first kill went to Poe Dameron  a long range shot taking out one of the tie fighters after that an A wing, another tie fighter and Biggs in his x wing were destroyed  (Biggs taking the hits for Poe like a hero).  That left 2 ties versus one X wing.  After one tie flew into a planet (you can't check the movement template when you choose it on your dial ) Poe took down the other tie fighter for the win. 


Once you have the rules down the game flows so easily. I can't wait to add upgrades and secondary weapons to the fray now!!!
I would recommend this to Any one who likes Tabletop games and star wars! Hell I'd reccomend this game to everyone. My friend that played was also blown away by it (even if he sides with the Empire. ... ).
That's all for today have a great day!



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Amera Plastic Terrain

This evening I've been painting some terrain up. The terrain is what I bought from Porthmadog models,  they are ruined buildings from Amera Plastics. This company do a great range of terrain and very cheap as well. I found in their Facebook page a link to a video of a tuturial on how to paint the exact terrain I had bought. How bleeding jammy! The vid is here  this guy does other stuff as well.
Below are the terrain pieces

This is the biggest piece

The 2nd biggest piece

This is 1 of the 2 same small pieces

I used as the video suggested layers of dry brushing starting from dark grey to lighter grey ending with a light highlight of white. I was more sparing with the flock this time and I think they look really good.
Have a good day folks

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Last night's painting

I managed to do some painting! Last night me and the wife settled to down to watch the last hunger games film (which I quite enjoyed ) I broke out the paints. I put another layer of brown on my asteroids. I'm struggling a bit with these as I cover them then as I put them away to dry I spot white bits?! Might try just touching them up before I try a wash in them. Next up was some of the Mars Attacks ruins. I tried to colour schemes on these. The first was a flash colour then red dry brush on the bricks.

Next up was a black layer first then some space wolves grey.

Now I prefer the red brick work but the grey isn't so bad either and varies up the ruins a bit.
There were mostly walls to paint but there was a bigger one with a window pane and door.

I remeber watching a tutorial about this section so I tried some ideas. The Windows were my first ever attempt at highlighting by this time it was late and I hadn't used my lamp (my eyes aren't what they used to be)  so it's not great yet but hopefully it will look ok.  I used an ink on the green so I will need to pick some bits out and highlight them next time round.

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Awesome little business!!

If I'm ever in mid Wales (which usually is at least twice a year ) I always try to stop by a little shop in Porthmadog called Porthmadog Models (6 Bank Place. Just off the high street ). It's a great shop the owners are always friendly and helpful. It has a bleeding impressive display cabinet (8' x 5') which currently holds a massive (at least 300 hundred off miniatures) Napoleonic battle. Last Christmas It was an American civil war battle. It stocks hundreds of model kits, models and soldiers in various forms. Not many for game systems I play but there are plenty of random bits of scenery all over the shop so I always get something.  He also stocks plenty of Amera Plastics. Which are nice cheap plastic terrain.

These are the building ruins I bought this weekend.  All they need is to be cut out and based and nice and cheap (£6) building ruins.
I also bought a couple of dead trees for £2 each.

Last time round I bought some pre painted fences which are brilliant little scatter terrain. That's the beauty of this shop they might focus more on models but they have an abundance of terrain for most scales of wargaming. If you're ever that way pop in for a look and a chat cracking shop !

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