NEW BUILD HOUSING

Apologies for the few posts, I'm really into my 54mm Toy Soldier collecting at the moment (see my other blog) capturing my childhood once more, combined with the magic of old-time toy shops. But here is something which will work perfectly with my 28mm French Revolutionary armies.

Several years ago I purchased a music box biscuit tin for Christmas. It cost £5 and included a pack of shortbread biscuits. The Swiss mechanism plays, rather quaintly, DECK THE HALLS with Holly. With hindsight, it wasn't that great looking, and recently decided to get rid of it. Change of plan, decided to see if it could be converted into something more attractive. 

Completed yesterday, here it is. I'm a lot happier with it, and the tin container can also store some walls, railings, and street lamps. And the music only adds to my old style 'Toyshop Atmosphere'.

MGB

CHARITY SHOP FIND

I'm rather pleased with this latest find in a charity shop. Its an earthenware model of an early industrial building. At a loss to understand why it was made, perhaps to hold an internal light? Its well crafted, and looks perfect with 28mm figures. Originally buff-coloured, I gave it a prime, and painted it in more realistic colours. I've also covered the original foliage with more authentic tree scatter material. Not bad for £4. 

MGB

18TH CENTURY POLICE/GEORGIAN TOWN 28MM

Despite my recent absence from wargaming some general maintenance did take place to my Georgian town. Thought it was also time the civil authorities had some ability to keep the peace without having to call out the Local Volunteers. The foot police are Trent Miniatures, the mounted are some converted Hinchliffe figures. I include some photos of new wagons, and another of His Majesty King George the Third inspecting some vintage artillery, these old pieces may date back to the 1930s?, and they can still fire matchsticks. Hope my paintjob has given them new life. 

MGB

 

MY RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH (Christmas Project)

On Christmas Day I was inspired to start a suitably appropriate project, to build a Russian Orthodox Church. It was a year ago that I picked up a wooden container in a charity shop for £1, and it was obvious the lid would be quite suitable for something eastern, and perfect for something Russian. The following photos are pretty well self-explanatory. The completed model is not really dateable as it has features from several periods in Russian history, but as it was my intention to not only capture my interest in the State of Muscovy, but also my love of Christmas, I don't think it matters. The green roof is inspired by a 17th century Russian palace, the dome is very 16th century, the yellow walls are 18th century, while the woodwork ornamentation is medieval. Together, they make a very colourful ornament on the war-games table. Additional costs were £3 for the yellow paint, and £2 for the glass taken from a broken lantern in a charity shop. With additional paint and glue it came to £7 total. Being pleased with the results, I took time to cast up some Orthodox Christian crosses. For the record, working on and off, I completed this project at 11.45am today, New Years Day. Hope you all had a great Christmas, and have a Happy New Year!

Michael

Finally, A Road System I'm happy with!

My lack of roads on my main table has long been an issue. Commercial products are costly and often fail to provide a suitable flat surface for figures to cross over. Decided to use a piece of moleskin-cotton fabric I had in my store of cloth, which was uncannily the same colour as my brown bases. Chris (family/wargamer) felt it provided the answer but hardly looked anything special. So I decided to texture and seal the edges with wood glue and green static grass. But then I tested out some acrylic paint to create tracks on the roads, using brown, sand, and white combinations. To my pleasure, it not only soaked in perfectly but is totally permanent. What I also like about this material is that it stays snug and lays flat on the static grass covered board, no movement whatsoever. Did I mention the border edge is only 1mm high, and has little impact on multi-based figures. I'm very pleased with the results and have more than enough for any possible projects. The cloth was actually given to me by a lady friend in the trade.
MGB
(ps. recently put together this home-cast cart and some odd wheels which fortunately were the same diameter, decided to make a small vignette............... I blame the roads lol.)

Garden Ornaments for the Georgian Age

As a follow on to the previous post, I thought some garden ornaments could be produced out of odd Christmas decorations. Decided to cut up several wooden snowmen for tubs and pots. While some small conifer trees, costing 10 pence each, could be trimmed into other shrubs. As I have often admitted, I get a real pleasure in utilising the unwanted. Also picked up a second-hand lorry in a local toy shop for two quid, but it was the eleven medium sized barrels that caught my eye, and they have painted up quite nicely.
MGB

Floral Decorations on a Budget

I've been busy restoring my late mother's cast iron garden bench so wargaming projects have been somewhat on the hold. However, as I like my wargaming to develop on a strict budget, and find particular pleasure in new uses for the discarded, or even household rubbish, it occurred to me that even a pile of sawdust from the newly cut bench slats might be painted, dried, and then applied to my homemade shrubbery. Having seen the price of commercial alternatives, mainly sold to the miniature railway enthusiasts, I'm quite pleased with the results. (And here is a photo of the restored bench, now that must be a first on a wargaming blog!)

MGB

Scratch Built Mediterranean Houses

Not much painting of figures lately, but I was interested to try my hand at using some corrugated cardboard which had arrived as packaging, and I had kept aside for about six months. The idea was to put together some smaller farm buildings which could serve in the French Revolution, or for many other conflicts in southern Europe over several centuries. Working on and off over two days, completed three buildings, and improved the roof on another older model.
MGB