Middle East buildings 9 (FoF)

I made a couple of ruined adobe buildings for 15mm Force on Force this week.  They are constructed from foamboard as usual, but with polystyrene chunks to bulk up the rubble before I added all-purpose filler, small blocks of foamboard, & sand for texture.  I've painted them up as burnt-out to indicate artillery bombardment or airstrike, rather than having them as simply being old buildings that have collapsed through shoddy construction & lack of maintenance.  Below is an IDF fireteam retreating through the ruins:

This week I also finally got round to ordering pretty much everything I'll need to play US Army / Rangers / Marines / Delta Force in missions from the Day of the Rangers (Somalia 1993) & Road to Baghdad (Iraq 2003) sourcebooks, including various Humvees, but barring helos & MBTs.  I'm particularly looking forward to playing the tense Mogadishu scenarios.

Middle East buildings 8 (FoF)

Below are a few more of my new batch of Middle East buildings.  They are still rather 'generic' at the moment as I'm bulking out my collection, but I've started to sketch-out plans for more interesting pieces, like warehouses & industrial plants.

The smaller buildings could represent adobe village dwellings, or slum housing in more urban settings.  I see the painted building as another 'semi-detached' house, but with the households back-to-back instead of side-by-side.

Middle East buildings 7 (FoF)

Here is the 1st of my new batch of buildings for Middle East Force on Force gaming (without removable roofs).  Much quicker to build when you don't fuss around with unnecessary internal details - I should have enough to represent Beirut (& Mogadishu..) soon. This one is a block of flats:

15mm Warhammer Quest part 2

My Copplestone Castings fantasy figures for my 15mm Warhammer Quest project arrived, & I have to say the quality is brilliant.  The poses are dynamic, the detail is very good, & there were only minimal mould lines/flash to clean up.  They are 'heroic' 15mm scale- that is to say the humans are about 17mm tall (but then they are barbarians!), & the Dwarves are about 14/15mm high, but I've allowed for a bit of scale creep in the 3D dungeon sections that I've been making.  I've concentrated on making the corridors & basic rooms so far, & plan to do the texturing & painting & other fancy details when I've got the set together- though I may get bored & dive into this fun stuff sooner!  Below is the 1st of the dungeon rooms, to represent the Torture Chamber card:

If my skills are up to it, I plan to add racks & possibly a crucifix-type-thing to make it more specific in appearance.  & of course plenty of bloodstains!  Chains may prove too challenging at 15mm scale, but ropes should be easier.  Any suggestions welcome!

15mm Warhammer Quest part 1

Imagine that you've wanted to get back into Warhammer Quest, & you've also been looking for an excuse to use these very cool 15mm scale fantasy figures from Copplestone Castings? (I really like the Hyborian look to them!)  Well, from within the ever-shifting Warp on my gaming plans - specifically my long-term want to make 3D WQ sections - the idea to make a 15mm scale WQ set manifested...

Below are some photos of WIP 15mm scale 3D Warhammer Quest corridors, which I built specifically with the above Copplestone Castings range in mind.  Over the course of a few days I've put together 3 door layout variants of the 1st corridor type, plus 1 of the more 'Dwarven' 2nd type, & yesterday I added the stair section shown in the 3rd photo.

Now imagine that you wanted to buy the following (or nearest equivalent) from Games Workshop.  Undoubtedly their miniatures are some of the finest out there, but how much would it cost for:

Trouble with Tau urban camo (W40K / TW)

Having hatched a plan with Tim to try out some skirmish games set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, but using Ambush Alley's Tomorrow's War rules, I've dusted off my Tau Fire Warriors, & have been attempting to sort out the urban camouflage scheme that I started many months ago.  Right from the start soon after the first Tau Codex came out, I've wanted to use the lush Hawk Turquoise colour in the overall paint scheme, but my poor minis have been through various guises (including a hideous purple/turquoise/orange combination at one point!) until I finally settled on a 'realistic' urban camo effect for the armour, but retaining the turquoise (which is the colour of my Battlefleet Gothic Tau fleet) for the undersuit.  Below is a run-through of the process I've been struggling with in finalising the urban camo pattern...

Syrian T-62 crews (FoF)

I've just finished these T-62 (Soviet) tank crewers for 15mm scale Force on Force.  These are miniatures from the excellent Peter Pig AK 47 Republic range. For when inevitable bailouts occur!

Ratings / Gangers (W40K)

A little diversion back into Warhammer 40,000 now.  Below are some photos of a group of ratings I've finished, intended to represent the lowly crewers of a Rogue Trader spaceship for my long-planned Inquisitor adventure campaign.  They were made using the Imperial Guard Catachan sprues, with the odd bit of Chaos Marauder & an Imperial Guard tanker's las-carbine.  I've painted them with a 'House Orlock' look, so they could double-up as hive city / urban gangers too.

Below are two less-well-equipped ratings / gangers, armed only with cudgels.  The one on the right has a device / remote made from part of the Cadian voxcaster backpack...

PLO fighters (FoF)

Next up are the first batch of 15mm scale PLO fighters that I've finally completed.  This group are wearing the so-called 'Black September' Palestinian camo pattern.  After experimenting with a heavier emphasis on civilian clothing, I decided that I prefered the look of a mix of camouflage schemes, as shown in the Osprey guides to the Arab-Israeli wars.  With the rest of my PLO, I'll probably paint a variety of fatigues including 'lizard' & 'leopard' patterns for a nice rag-tag - but still military - look.