Sniper - VC in the grass!

[mattspooner]

Found a good way to spend an afternoon....The Guild Speed build - Sniper

The plan is for a VC spiderhole and shooter amongst a scenic base.

Selected a Westwind VC figure in a suitable shooting pose and dug out a GW monster base (all my other Nam stuff in 28mm is on slotta bases). Some matchsticks will form the base of the spider hole.



Cut down the figure to a suitable height and made the hole of a depth that will allow me to fill the base up to the lip to try and give a better impression of a hole (rather than a half figure stuck to a base  :beg: ).



Sniper gets base colours





Base gets 'filled'



Sniper gets minor highlighting (the dip will do the shading)





Base gets a coat of chocolate brown.



Base gets first pass of added foliage. I ordered some artificial grass samples off of eBay a while back (just type astroturf into the search) and have cut some down to small clumps to use here. Trapdoor for the tunnel made from bits of balsa.



The joys of a sunny 29 degree afternoon is that the 'dip' dries uberfast and allows me to get the sniper matt varnished without waiting 24hrs.







The base gets a coat of PVA and them my 'tealeaf' brown scatter. Thsi is just the cheapest Tesco's teabag contents and gives a great textured and multi-tonal earth effect with no painting or fannying about required. Added some other static grass and clump foliage



Added the sniper, a log and the trapdoor - Natural light fading fast so I'll take some better piccies of the finished item tomorrow but all done in one afternoon. Paternity leave is a wonderful thing!!!









woo-hoo!!!

[Johnno]

Very nice work.

[mattspooner]

Tranh waited in the tunnel until the sound of the American patrol had passed his position. He held his breath as he carefully lifted the trapdoor that concealed the entrance and placed it to one side. The Americans had stopped at the river edge, just as Lt Nguyen had said they would. They stood talking noisily to each other, passing cigarettes around and laughing. Tranh could see two men looking at a map and decided that these would be his target. If he could get both, the Americans would be stuck here for an hour trying to find him and evacuating their wounded, time that Lt Nguyen would use to prepare a full ambush further downstream......









WIP here - http://www.guildwargamers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=104&t=13832&view=unread#unread

[M Blakey]

that is soo sweet i will definatly be using this guide thanks alot!

[Bravo Six]

Indeed! That looks great Matt!

-Todd

[Helen]

Very nice work, well done.

Helen

[SBRPearce]

One detail - I'd take some narrow scissors and cut the tips of the Astroturf at a sharp angle. The "flat-top" cut is a little jarring.

That said, beautiful work and a great marker to spring on a game table!

[Traveler Man]

The straight edges to the grass doesn't look quite right, but other than that it's a little gem. 

[jamesmanto]

Yes, the astro turf straight edges rather spoil the effect of an otherwise very dramatic piece.

I've been pondering the use of tea leaves myself.

Of course I'd been thinking of drinking the tea first and then drying out the leaves after. Probably simpler really to just buy the cheapest stuff that isn't workth drinking.

James