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Author Topic: Adventures in Safranistan - my NWF project (update hillfort finished, new pics)  (Read 9246 times)

Offline westwaller

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 770
Re: Adventures in Safranistan - my North-West Frontier project
« Reply #15 on: October 28, 2017, 02:55:12 PM »
Try looking for landscape gardening/kids adventure playground suppliers. Failing that some pet shops have it for reptile tanks too.

Offline Arundel

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1221
  • Galloping Outward Into the Weather!
Re: Adventures in Safranistan - my North-West Frontier project
« Reply #16 on: October 28, 2017, 03:08:30 PM »
Simply gorgeous work, Admiral. Much of the terrain work reminds me very much of the Guru's work - and that's meant as a compliment. I've always loved the look of bark rock formations, ever since seeing them years ago in a Wargames Illustrated article; complete with Mike's Models Sudan figures! I'd love to see that article again.

Fifteens Away makes a good point that some of the terrain looks somewhat unfriendly to figures, but of course significant patches of the Frontier are rough going - so you can simply claim authenticity! Or make them impassable.

Thank you for the inspiration!

Offline Monty

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 224
    • Monty's Caravan Blog
Re: Adventures in Safranistan - my North-West Frontier project
« Reply #17 on: October 28, 2017, 03:22:54 PM »
Last week I was lucky enough to see the whole collection in natural and I testify its quality honestly and happily. Truly some wonderful pieces of work, my friend!

I'm very much looking forward to seeing the step-by-step report of the hill fort. The building itself is just such a sublime piece of craftsmanship that I'm really curious to see how you built it.

And thanks for mentioning my humble threat. I cannot wait to see everything coming together next week.

Cheers
Stefan
Please visit my blog: Monty's Caravan


Offline DintheDin

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 6214
Re: Adventures in Safranistan - my North-West Frontier project
« Reply #18 on: October 28, 2017, 05:15:43 PM »
Awsome minis and terrain! Great paintjob! Congrats!
Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. – Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

Offline Jeff965

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2637
Re: Adventures in Safranistan - my North-West Frontier project
« Reply #19 on: October 28, 2017, 06:50:43 PM »
I love threads like this, I learn so much. The terrain and figures are absolutely first class :-*
More please :)

Offline Mad Guru

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 711
    • Maiwand Day blog
Re: Adventures in Safranistan - my North-West Frontier project
« Reply #20 on: October 28, 2017, 06:58:57 PM »
Admiral Benbow, have to say I am honored to be mentioned in the same post as those reference works you cite, all of which are on my bookshelves and near and dear to my heart, and I thank you for including my humble blog, and that of my good friend and fellow Second Afghan War/NWF gamer, Michael "Reggie" Davis.

Your woodchip rocky hills look fantastic!  In fact I must say that in regards to my own efforts... they are a woodchip off the old block! (shouldn't say that, but I will anyway!)

And another thing: CTMM -- aka: Chris The Model Maker -- is without doubt my "Master Modeller Hero" as well!  In fact, the nicest thing I can say about my Afghan Hill Tower, is that I also tried to "follow his approach."  So I can't tell you how excited I am to see your new fort when you post some pics of it here. I'm really looking forward to it -- and also to pics of you and Monty's coming games!

Oh, and one other thing: the quality of your photos is simply off the charts!
« Last Edit: October 28, 2017, 07:01:25 PM by Mad Guru »
"We shall see what wisdom lies beneath my madness!"

Offline GamesPoet

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 300
Re: Adventures in Safranistan - my North-West Frontier project
« Reply #21 on: October 28, 2017, 07:16:13 PM »
Looking very good, congrats!

Offline skirmisher

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 164
Re: Adventures in Safranistan - my North-West Frontier project
« Reply #22 on: October 28, 2017, 09:34:39 PM »
Beautiful figures and terrain. Good luck at Crisis!

Offline miltiades

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 534
Re: Adventures in Safranistan - my North-West Frontier project
« Reply #23 on: October 29, 2017, 10:38:41 AM »
WONDERFUL JOB... so fitting figures and terrain! These hills are awsome... Very inspiring. You are mastering a new school of terrain making :o

Offline Admiral Benbow

  • The Queen's Own Gizmologist
  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2743
  • "Creativity is a drug I cannot live without."
    • The Benbow Workshop
Thanks for all your nice comments, chaps! New entertainment to follow - starting the afghan hillfort (or pathan watchtower or whatever you'll call it).

It's not so easy as it might seem to find good comtemporary pictorial material about afghan hillforts or watchtowers. After searching the net I couldn't get what I wanted, but looking through my own books got me to this photo in Barthop's NWF book:




That gave me some inspiration and I started drawing some rough floorplans, thought about overall size and transport choices (!) and went over to my books and Google again to look around for possible modelling approaches. Ian Weekley's famous "Buildings for the Military Modeller" came to mind and his mighty plywood afghan hillfort from the early Eighties:






And of course, all the fantastic models from Chris Riordan aka "Chris The Model Maker" who sells on Ebay.ca and regularly gets appropriate prices for his masterworks. Two examples:






He is a master of wall structures and realism in miniature and as another good friend of mine was able to buy some of CtMM's models in the past, I could borrow the one or other and studied them extensively, trying to work out how he did things. If I was successful is up to you to decide in the end ...



First things first, construction of the first building directly on top of 5 mm plywood. Why not foamboard, balsa, cork tiles etc.? Would be much easier to work with, that's for sure, and I did it myself for years. But if you ever had a plywood model in your hands you could feel the stability and sturdiness of that model, it feels you could drop it to the floor and nothing would happen (provided it was properly built ...). And no problems with warping at all. Anyway, I still like to learn new things and wanted to know if I could do it right. Of course I needed some new tools  ;D




Got this nice little machine for 60,- Euros on Ebay, a Proxxon fretsaw. Not the top tool of the month and you could freak out when it comes to changing the blade, but it did all the work it should do quite nicely:






The girders were made from kind of skewers I bought in different sizes and diameters in a garden centre and just roughly broken into smaller pieces with pliers.






To get square angles, pieces were temporarily fixed to a heavy right angled steel piece after getting the wood glue on the edges and then clamped together for some minutes. This is really essential when working with wood, only this way you'll get strong and permanent joints. I use a fast setting wood glue needing only about 5 minutes to set.














The last two pics show different approaches to brickwork structures. The foundation of the tower was simulated using styrofoam with carved in stone rows. A real small rock piece was used to press some stone structures into. The shed's brickwork is from my own mastermould and cast in some household compound. I used different ready made fillers and spackle to smooth out contours and fill some gaps. All quite roughly as it will be covered heavily later.






Some steps further, details added, moveable doors modelled and painted, all single pieces on the last shot. What else to say ending the first part building the fort? Always plan your terrain pieces to fit into an existing transport case, not the other way round! Learned it the hard way ...!  :)



You note there is much more space to be filled ...?
 :)


Offline DintheDin

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 6214
It is coming out very nice, a great job you are doing there!
Sturdy and beautiful! 

Offline Arundel

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1221
  • Galloping Outward Into the Weather!
Oh my, but that is looking luverly...Breathtaking work, Admiral!

Offline Andym

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Galactic Brain
  • *
  • Posts: 6562
Lovely textures! :-* I think you’re on course to out do your peers!

Offline marianas_gamer

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3886
  • Our Man on Guam Watchman in the East
Beautiful sturdy build :-* I agree on the textures. They should really "grab" the paint and allow for nice contrasts.
Lon
Got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight.

Offline Mad Guru

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 711
    • Maiwand Day blog
Simply amazing miniature construction work, truly worthy of the legendary "Chris The Model Maker" influence!

 

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