1914 Belgium - UD 18/12 - news re German infantry paint scheme

[Dr. The Viking]

I'll jump in the boat with Captain Blut and book my self for BLAM!

Man that really looks the ticket!

[Slayer]

those poppies will be a lovely touch

[Andym]

Wait!! What.....we need to book now?!?! Quick, put me down before the places run out!!!

BTW....  WOW!!!! Having been on here a few years now, I just have to say Steve, its been great to see your skills get better and better and better! If this is the master pieces your turning out now, I can't wait to see what you produce in another few years!

[von Lucky]

Captain Blut

I like the ring to that, but why you didn't call him Cap'n Blod (ie the German instead of the Danish)?

More importantly - Steve the last few pages are looking fantastic. The mix of muddiness of the fields with the grittiness of the rumble is going to look great with miniatures crawling all over it.

[Silent Invader]

  There'll be seats at Blam for the mad Viking and the Scottish craftsman

EDIT: and thanks all for the comments 

One other thing I started on today was the modification of the Minerva armoured car that will represent the Belgians in some games.

The resin cast - and it is a detailed cast - is by 1st Corps and is great though for me it's a bit big versus my smaller footprint buildings, relatively narrow lanes and Mutton Chop minis.

I know that a lot of gamers prefer larger scale vehicles against their minis, which is great, but personally I prefer 1/56 (or thereabouts) with finer/slimmer minis, so I'm going to attempt to scale it back.

The first step is to reduce the overall length, which I did by cutting sections from the bonnet and the crew cab, then gluing back together with 15 min epoxy.





The next steps will be to make good and take a little off the height and width.

[Elk101]

 

This is shamazing!

Book me in with the good Captain,  the Crazy Dane and the Gifted Glaswegian!

[Silent Invader]

  you'd be most welcome Steve  

I've painted a bit more of the drainage ditch but the most progress today has been with the Minerva, which has been somewhat meddled with.

I want to stress -again - that I'm only meddling because the model is about 1/50-1/51 (a fairly common scale for 28mm games) whereas I need about 1/56 to look right (to me anyways) against my small footprint buildings and in my 5cm wide lanes.  All that said, because I am meddling there will be some scale inconsistencies in my resulting model (but the overall aesthetic is more important to me).

Today I took the saw to the sides of the vehicle.  Much like with the length adjustments I cut out sections such that the detached sides can be stuck right back.  First though, the wheels are being fixed as they will determine the width of the running boards, etc.



I also took a ceramic tile cutter to the base of the vehicle ....



..... to create a pocket for a dial cover (the rear casing from a mini buzzer with a segment cut out).



The idea is to create a counter from 0-4 to show how many of the Minerva's crew are alive.  Basically, the rules will allow for each MG to have 3 crew (commander/spotter, gunner, loader) with minis individually based and casualties removed but the Minerva will also have a driver with all 4 minis fixed in place: thus the need to keep track of how many are functioning.

[pocoloco]

Utter madness!!! 

In a very positive way, of course

[Slayer]

cannot wait for you to get this painted, gonna be amazeballs

[Silent Invader]

Thanks chaps 

I might get some more done tonight as family is out.

In the meantime, here's some maps of what the final terrain will comprise.

In essence, 12 tiles each 30cm sq for games with the British in defence to the west and the Germans attacking from the east; the various combinations provide for varying fire positions for the British and cover for the Germans.







These are variants 1 and 20; numbers 2-19 can be found on the website (they're not big files, only 17kb each).

http://www.silentinvader.uk/index_w_taf_index_maps.html

[Monty]

A brilliant project. It's a real pleasure to follow your progress.
 

[Malamute]

This is shamazing!

Book me in with the good Captain,  the Crazy Dane and the Gifted Glaswegian!

Ahem, you missed one out...

The latest shots look terrific SI

[Silent Invader]

  Thanks

Ahem, you missed one out...

So needy!  

A bit of a splurge of activity is coming to an end but I have finished sticking bits of plasticard and resin together.

I have finished the structural changes to scale down the Minerva, the effort of which makes sense when seen against the buildings, etc. I just have holes to fill, joins to smooth, etc.  That said, I do also want to remake the crew to better match the style and size of the Mutton Chop minis.



I've also made the cycles for the repair shop that'll be on town tile 3.  Basically, I bought 6 of 1/50 styrene silhouettes of bikes. As these were a bit too large and very two dimensional, I cut them down then stuck two together to make one, then added frame details, chain guard, pedals with cranks, seat and handlebars.



You can see the raw product at this link, though I bought them from a UK supplier:

http://www.schuckertz.de/en/model-parts/figures-und-vehicles/bicycles/263/bicycles-1-50

Next step is a putty stage, for buildings, Minerva and cycles.

[Duke Donald]

This is really shaping up nicely ... and the little bikes are cute

[Silent Invader]

This is really shaping up nicely ... and the little bikes are cute

Thanks DD - the bikes were fun to make/convert