Some more scatter terrain for Chain of Command & Ronin - a couple small patches of overgrown rocks. These will be difficult ground which hampers movement, but they won't provide cover like my previous larger overgrown rocks.
Here are a few photos of the finished fences, with some 28mm chanbara & RCW figures for scale. I think they will suit either tabletop battlefield at a pinch. Which saves time & money!
There are enough strips of rickety fences in the pack to make the same quantity of these again, although I'm considering using them on a field base rather than as individually-placed items.
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 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!
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.
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!
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...
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).
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. 