David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Thursday 16 June 2016

"Keep right on to the end of the road..."

Over the last couple of weeks my painting effort has mainly been focused on the buildings and walls for my north European town. It is my expectation that when it is completed and based it will do service on the table here in GHQ from the SYW through to 1914, and perhaps beyond. To that end there will be no period specific details or extras on the base, they will all be separate and changed as the era changes. I still have to complete the church, with its alternate spire and onion dome detail yet, and the grave stone markers which will add the used look to the building. The town itself will sit on a 3mm MDF base, represented in the pictures by a sheet of A3 craft paper I borrowed from Sue! The church and graveyard will be on a similar, though less deep, sheet of 3mm MDF, enabling its location to be varied from game to game. Several viewpoints of the town of Peendeforde follow ~
The monument in the town square is from Ainsty, the rest from Hovels.











The gaps will need disguising with greenery.



















The 20mm wall is just right to mark an exit fom the stable yard.















The covered well and gates are from the Waterloo building sets.














A low wall will run in an 'L' shape in the bottom left of the picture.





















The buildings are all the venerable Hovels 28mm offerings from a number of sets. I think that they work well together to give the appearance I'm looking for in my town.There are a few gaps between walls and buildings to disguise with greenery when they are based permanently and the square will be cobbled, using the free sample anaglypta paper from DIY outlets. There will be a low 'L' shaped wall crossing part of the square at the end opposite the walled gateway and in front of the church. I used mostly cheap craft paints on all the elements, though the final stone coating is Foundry Butternut Light and the woodwork is Foundry Musket Stock Brown and Bay Brown shades. The cobbled square will be the same stone shade that you see in the buildings which will lift the predominant reds of the buildings and walls. The stonework of the church and the grave stones will be the same stone colour as on the building details. I need a break from buildings from time to time as they are very heavy for my hand when the arthritis plays up, so I have also managed one or two figures along the way: a third base of French skirmishers for my FRW project and a standard bearer for the South Staffs in our VBCW games to be precise ~
Trent Miniatures of course!













Lt Barfield carries the colour into action!
Pete Barfield kindly made the banner for me again. Top chap!
























As I said, its back to figures for a week or so now: firstly, eight Hanoverian infantry to bring an understrength  unit up to the mark in my FRW project; secondly, some weasley chaps Phil kindly gave me for the VBCW project, probably to serve as the Chillington Estate workers; and thirdly, another base of FRW French skirmishers to use up the spare figures I have in the lead pimple! That's it for now! Oh, I forgot to mention: I won a game at Phil's on Monday. There's a full write up and photos on his Blog, "News Fom the Front" {see sidebar for the link}.
Toodle Pip! Off to Taffistan on Saturday for a break. It usually rains when I go to Wales, so here's hoping!

12 comments:

  1. Jolly nice work there, those buildings will look just dandy on the table.
    Have a good break,but don't mention who won there :-)

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    1. Thanks for the encouragement Phil. But I shall be asking the odd Taffy how they did.

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  2. Great looking town! I really enjoy hovel terrain as well as they have a lot of character to them.

    Christopher

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    1. Thanks for the kind words Christopher? Truth is, I chose the Hovels buildings for their price mainly.

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  3. Lovely buildings nicely finished off

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    1. Thanks Matt, still some work on them after they are all based I think.

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  4. I see I have been promoted, lol, but actually it was my pleasure to do the flags and I am happy that you enjoy them and fine them of use. Nice buildings too

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  5. An excellent piece of work. I just love the town and will have to pinch the idea.......again.

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    1. I'm glad you approve Colin, I take that as a considerable endorsement given the quality of your table, as I do when you borrow an idea...

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  6. Outstanding work on the town. I also like the Trent Miniatures skirmish stands.

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