Starting a School Club

[fastolfrus]

We've just spent a couple of weeks building half-timbered houses out of foamcore and coffee-stirrers.
So a fairly easy project might be a good way to get them started.

Last year we spent several weeks (seemed like a whole term at the time) working on pirate ships using a slightly modified version of the Gary Chalk ship plans, modified because we used foamcore (no budget for balsa), but all seemed to enjoy it and we now have a huge flotilla of ships in various shapes and sizes.

Might be worth doing a google search for the Gary Chalk plans to save yourself some of the work...

[Johnno]

I found some old foam core I'd cut for timbered houses so that was part of my plans for terrain....and making rivers and roads...maybe some Styrofoam hills...enough for a "basic" layout....

11 students doing one building, river section and road each is a lot of stuff...

[Johnno]

Bit of an update.

Had 2 sessions this week. Was only going for once per week but they enjoyed it so much that they asked for seconds.

8 of the 11 who signed up have come out. But 2 more students are "lurking" so might join to bolster my numbers. All participants are female which is interesting as I'm not THAT handsome...

We are building rivers and medieval cottages at the moment. Started with terrain while we wait for our miniature order to arrive.

We also received donations from Reaper Miniatures (1x 25 person Paint and Take Kit) and Mantic Games (15 Elven bowmen) so THANK YOU to them as well. A local Charity has also sponsored us to buy figures and supplies to make and paint terrain. The art room staff have generously let us use they classrooms and any supplies they have on hand.

So far so good. Building still in the infancy ( foam core glued together but once some detailing is added I'll post some pictures

[throwsFireball]

1) Lesson Plans - I plan on running 6-8 lessons based on an introduction, assembly/basing/priming, how to paint: fur; bone; skin; cloth; and metal.
Each student will receive 1 miniature per lesson relating to the lesson. So fur = humanoid animal, bone = skeleton, skin = berserker, cloth = mage and metal = knight.
For the fur lesson, I will teach (d'uh) how to paint fur but the students won't paint any metal bone or cloth until those workshops. At the end there will be 1-2 free workshops where the students can finish their incomplete miniatures.
Are there any other areas I should devote an entire workshop to? ie. wood, gemstones etc?
Does this layout make sense or is there a better way?

Can I come?

[Johnno]

Can I come?

My dad asked to participate 

[Conquistador]

Basing, check!

The high school is in a lower income "at risk" area. I'll put out some feelers regarding unwanted miniatures but I 'm dubious that anyone will respond.

There is a charity I have worked with that provides money to fund sports, arts and music programs. They currently fund a ball hockey program I oversee, and have done so for many years.

Painting larger plastic toy soldiers might be a good way to proceed if the funding doesn't come through.

Contact me as I have to reduce the 25+mm figures pile. 

[throwsFireball]

Basing, check!

The high school is in a lower income "at risk" area. I'll put out some feelers regarding unwanted miniatures but I 'm dubious that anyone will respond.

There is a charity I have worked with that provides money to fund sports, arts and music programs. They currently fund a ball hockey program I oversee, and have done so for many years.

Painting larger plastic toy soldiers might be a good way to proceed if the funding doesn't come through.

There's always Zvezda models. They're not the best but they're cheap as chips and you get plenty of them.