Real life stuff over the past week has meant that I simply have not had the mental energy to paint figures come the early morning or evening, which are my sort of default times to paint. Still all was not lost as aside from reading (always a pleasure), I worked on some terrain for the forthcoming Cotswold Wargames Day get together. Now I love making stuff so was quite happy to fit this in as and when time allowed.
As you may recall I bought an MDF building from Blotz at the recent model show I attended, so picked this up to have a play with. The results of which can be seen below:
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| The basic kit. Pretty easy to put together, aside from filing out a few slots to ease the tabs to go in, but nothing major at all. |
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| The basic kit added to a base and pimped up a bit. The crenellations we made from the negative shapes left from the floors, which have their wooden beams integral to the shape. Pretty easy to add and only one side needed reducing in height to fit the others. |
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| I was toying with the idea of adding bars over the ground floor windows, but in the end left them off for a variety of reasons (ie too lazy to do them!). |
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| The rear view of the model. |
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| I have a pack of 'N' Guage railway accessories that includes doors, so added these to the open gap in the kit. I forgot the put them on before I glued the fort to the base (school boy error), so has to make a frame for it, which worked out OK I think. |
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| More doors and gates added. The main gate is a roller shutter door turned on its side, |
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| To make the roof area less bare, I scribed in some tiles to add a bit of detail, that will be painted in different colours to make the fort pop a bit, or at least that's the plan. |
I've put this to one side now as hopefully I can get back to figure painting this week and this can wait a while to be honest. I need to decide upon colours, but most likely a generic whitewashed finish so that I can use it in other theatres, such as the Mediterranean. I've also ordered more civilian figures from Pendraken so that I can dress it up a bit during the game, which I will be picking up from Colours in a few weeks.
TTFN.
ooh! That's turned out well. Nice finishing touches. Do I scratch that Colonial itch that's been nagging me for years? Maybe wait for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris! I hope the painting works out well as it's a lot bigger than I'm used to. Colonial gaming can be too much of a Splat-a-Rat if you're not careful, which some gamers seem to enjoy. I fancy something more evenly balanced with colourful forces, hence going mid-18thC before the HEIC got too strong.
DeleteSteve a fab piece for a fiver and the additions really pimp it up, that is going to look a splendid (and portable) addition to the table.
ReplyDeleteNot bad at all for £5 and the quality is excellent. I just wish the engraving was deeper so you can see the detail on the roof hatches, but that goes for all the companies making MDF kits. Fingers crossed it works out as I hope...
DeleteVery nicely done Steve 👍
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt:).
DeleteSteve, this is a terrific piece and will look great when you are finished.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon and I am hoping I can make it as good as I envisage it to be in my head!
DeleteFor me, my works rarely turn out as well as I envision but then, I don't have your talent.
DeleteI'm lucky that my former career has given me the skills to make stuff like this, which for me is very easy. However I tend to over worry about how good it is when finished, which is one of the downsides of having had to make very, very realistic models for some 30 years or so!
DeleteAsk me to do a spreadsheet or anything tech related and I'm all at sea!
Yes! Beautiful looking fort sir!
ReplyDeleteThankyou Michal:)!
DeleteVery nice Steve. How big is the “footprint”? I normally tend to use 6mm buildings with 10mm figures.
ReplyDeleteThat was smart thinking on your part to make crenellations from the left-overs.
Cheers,
Geoff
Thanks Geoff! The building is about 5 1/4" x 3 3/4", with another 1/2" on each side for the base. I too normally use 6mm buildings, but as this is a standalone piece, I'm quite happy to go with 10mm. Also I just liked the model and how I could make it work for the planned game in October. The crenellations just came to me one evening when looking at the kit, so quite a happy coincidence:).
DeleteThats a nice-looking model Steve and excellent value if it only set you back a fiver! Reminds me of the time about 6-8 years ago when I was making a bunch of these type of "compounds" based on ideas copied from here - might be worth a look for someone with your model making skills Steve.....https://www.matakishi.net/afghan-buildings.html
ReplyDeleteThanks Keith and excellent value as you say. I love Matakashi's work and had planned to scratch build my own compount-cum-fort, but when I saw the kit it was a no-brainer to buy it. Also if frees up more time to paint those figures that just wont paint themselves;).
DeleteThat came out great. Your touches really tart it up nicely. Nice call using a roller door as the gate. 😀
ReplyDeleteThanks Stew:). The roller shutter door was a last minute idea, as all the others required either a frame or two doors cutting down to size.
DeleteSplendid bit of pimp my mdf kit, not sure if it will catch on as a tv show but you never know these days! Lots if usability away from the subcontinent too, great value at a fiver!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain! A versatile kit I feel and certainly excellent value too. The Real Modelmakers (or Wargamers) of Bristol would probably not quite catch on, but you never know;).
DeleteAlready looking very good; can't wait to the the fully completed item!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Probably a few weeks before I get to paint it as I need to finish plenty of figures first.
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