Russian village church

I finally got round to painting this village church for Russian Civil War games.  It's a laser-cut MDF kit from Sarissa Precision.  It was one of their more challenging kits to build because oft he multiple roofs & the crucifix orb, but nothing ridiculous.  I left the roof unglued for access, & painted the interior before gluing the walls to the base.  The building is tall but not that wide, so it's actually a little tricky to place models inside.  But the only viewpoint for those inside is out the doors anyway, so it might not happen that often.

I find these MDF buildings require a couple of spray-coats of undercoat before they're ready to paint, as the material really absorbs the initial coat.  After that they take the paint well.  I used a simple colour scheme based on a few reference photos, & I'm pretty happy with the outcome, although I may add more severe weathering the the wood cladding to 'age' the building a bit more.

I went with a 'gold' theme to highlight the importance the church would have in a village, & because it'll be the centrepiece of many RCW tabletops.  Should make an inspiring focus point for the Whites defending Mother Russia from revolution, whilst the iconoclastic  Reds & Blacks will have less respect for it!

Overgrown rocks

I finished some more scatter terrain for use in Samurai or Russian Civil War games - a couple piles of overgrown rocks.  These are simple stones glued onto some laser-cut ply discs from Fenris Games, with gaps & earth added using coarse paint thickener, then drybrushed & weathered, before painting the areas that were to be dirt & plants in dark brown & khaki green respectively. I then used PVA to affix various flock mixtures & GamersGrass tufts, moss, & wildflowers.  I think the latter really bring the pieces to life.  Makes miniature basing so much easier!

I have very nearly finished painting my first buntai (band/group) for 'Ronin' now - some villainous Edo-period Yakuza.  I'm just trying to find the best way to model a few sheathed katanas to a handful of models that should be equipped with them - it's surprisingly difficult to source non-sci-fi 28mm scale katanas :-s  I'd appreciate any tips of where I might be able to order some, cheers!

My back-up plan is that I have a few leftover empty wakizashi scabbards that I might be able to Green Stuff hilts onto - but my first attempt at this was a mess.

Wooden barrels & boxes

Last week I painted some 28mm scatter terrain - 3 sets of wooden barrels & boxes.  These will be suitable both for my 'Ronin' (chanbara skirmish games) & my 'Chain of Command' Russian Civil War collection.  The pieces are a mix of resin barrels & boxes from Fenris Games, & 2-piece plastic barrels in 2 sizes manufactured by Renedra (I purchased through Perry Miniatures as part of a Samurai figures order).  Both were easy to prepare (the resin pieces merely needed a quick scrub with soapy water to remove casting residue; whilst the 2-piece plastic barrels required clipping from their sprues & gluing together.

A nice touch to the Renedra plastic barrels is that they are cast in brown plastic, so could be table ready in a basic manner very quickly.  They also look a lot like traditional Japanese barrels.  However, not all of their joins fitted perfectly during assembly.  I used basic drying brushing to paint mine in a variety of wooden hues.  I'd been trying to decide what to do for the basing for a while, reasoning that my usual 'wilderness' look of grass & moss tufts would seem a bit out of place for barrels - they would be in a street or yard, not laying in a field or wood.  Then I stumbled on a very old bag of fawny-coloured flock (from the first few years of my miniatures hobbying, nearly 2 decades ago!), & found that mixing it 3-to-2 with my dark earth flock of choice made for a pleasant 'compacted/dusty earthen street' look, as seen in many chanbara films (e.g. the Zatoichi & Sleepy Eyes of Death series).  I added a sprinkle of small dark green flock plants for variety, & the look was complete.

Great lizards

Some more creatures for my Lustrian Warhammer Quest set - 1D3 'great lizards'.  These cheap hard rubber toys have a surprisingly good level of detail & texture, & painted-up really easily.  They are slightly too big to count as the 'giant lizards' from the Lustrian bestiary, so I'll cook-up some rules for 'great lizards', in a similar vein to great wolves & the great spiders that forest Goblins ride - I'm thinking slower but tougher than a great wolf, & without any special abilities.  Except maybe Poison... Everything in Lustria seems to be poisonous...

I based the colour schemes on real lizards, with a bit of artistic licence - e.g. a Serengeti Agama for the one with a neck-frill, a leopard gecko for the orange/yellow/purple one, & various monitor lizard patterns for the camouflaged one; whilst tying them together as a group with purple on each.  I'm really pleased with how they turned out, & have another nine of these to paint.  However,  I am wondering whether to add a horn or a few spikes to them, to match the more fantastical look of the GW Lustrian snakes.  Any thoughts on this? Cheers!

Crocodile

Another creature for my Lustria Warhammer Quest collection finished - a crocodile (yeah, I know it's actually a caiman, but I've had this toy in my bits box for many years, & thought it'd look great in this role).  I repainted the model based on real-life reference photos, giving it more camouflaged tones like I did with the gigantic scorpion, to offer a contrast to my garish Lizardmen warriors.  Meanwhile I prepared a Ø60mm base using my usual jungle recipe of coarse paint thickener for texture, with card flagstone pieces & resin blocks pressed in.  Then I added various Gale Force Nine flock, static grass, & Gamers Grass tufts.  The finishing touches, after I glued the crocodile into place were to drill a few holes for some carefully positioned snippets of plastic aquarium plants.

Here are a few photos of the finished crocodile, with a Lizardman Saurus for scale, & also battling a gigantic scorpion.  Both of these beasties take up a 2x2 squares on a Warhammer Quest dungeon tile, given their large bases.  However, the gigantic scorpion is the more deadly, being tougher & causing more damage - it's worth 450 gold for slaying, compared to 140 gold for the crocodile (I found stats for it on the excellent Chronicles of the Old World & Beyond).  I think I'd add the Ambush ability to the crocodile's stats though - at least on a dungeon tile that has a water feature...

Snakes

I've been back on my long-running Lustria-set Warhammer Quest collection this week, & needed a quick starter to get me back in the flow of painting brightly hued Mesoamerican-inspired monsters - so I painted-up two bases of snakes.  These were decorative extras on a sprue of Saurus Cold One riders, & I really like what the sculptor has done with them - they look to be inspired by decorative Aztec serpents, so I painted one of the three types in jade & turquoise hues.

Snakes in Warhammer Quest are not much of a threat to the heroic Warriors (a paltry 30 gold each for slaying), so I could do with a few more of these.  I had been planning to scratch-build 2D6 bases of snakes using Green Stuff putty, but these are superior to anything that I could sculpt.  I need to paint up a lot more little critters yet - all the giant spiders, giant bats, & giant rats from the original boxed game, but source or make giant leeches, giant millipedes, giant insects...  I do at least have some plastic toys to use as giant lizards, although they are slightly too big in comparison to the others, so I will probably treat them as 'great lizards', & invent some suitable stats of a similar to 'great spiders' (as ridden by forest Goblins).

Atmosphere processor

I've been working on quite a few wargaming bits this spring, but haven't finished much of it yet, hence the lack of posts recently.  However, today I finished this piece of scenery for Necromunda / 'Inquisimunda' - an atmosphere processor; or maybe a large water still for Underhive gangs to fight over?  This is a 3-piece resin model from Fenris Games.  It's chunky & durable, with great detailing.  The sections only needed minimal filing to remove some air bubble bumps to allow them to stack neatly.  [Top tip for those new to resin pieces: a quick wash in soapy water removes residue left over from the casting, which will improve the adherence of the paint].

I mounted it on a disposable 'raft' left over from a 3D-print job, which I think makes for an excellent metal grille effect.  I'm considering strengthening this base with a card disc underneath too, as the raft is slightly brittle.  A couple small pieces of rubble were added to tie the piece in with the rest of my ruined Underhive terrain, but I painted this atmopshere processor in a slightly better state of repair than my usual corroded & rusty scenery.

It had been a while since I'd tried painting the classic 'gem' effect on a miniature, but I'm really pleased how the indicator lights turned out on this - I think they help bring the machinery to life ( +++ALL HAIL THE OMNISSIAH+++ ).

Battle for the town hall

Here is a brief summary of mine & Tim's 2nd Crossfire game from the weekend.  In this, another Meeting Engagement set in 1982 Lebanon, we switched sides, so that I was the Syrians, & Tim the Israelis.  We also played the board in the opposite axis for some variety without having to rearrange the scenery.

As in the first game, the Syrians were able to begin advancing just prior to the IDF, due to the particular deployment rules of this scenario favouring smaller forces.  My Syrian regulars moved through a patch of woodland to occupy the objective - the town hall on one side of the board; whilst my AT commandos advanced through nearby ruins, taking up forward defensive positions amongst the barricades in front of the hall, & at the crossroads in the centre of the board, bristling with ATGMs & RPGs to strike any IDF armour that might reveal itself.

Battle for the crossroads

This Saturday, my friend Tim & I finally got some more Crossfire gaming in.  The setting was Lebanon, 1982.  Our first battle was the basic Meeting Engagement from the rulebook, which saw Tim as the Syrians - with a platoon of regulars & a platoon of 'hunter-killer' AT commandos; & me as the invading Israelis, with a platoon of Golani regulars, & a platoon of Sayeret Golani veterans. We also each had a single piece of self-propelled AA as armoured support.  This was the largest game we had played so far.  The objective was to take & hold the designated objective for five consecutive Initiative Phases (or kill/capture two thirds of the enemy units).