Dusty spaceport town building Pt 2

Hello and Welcome back, 

Some progress has been made on the peices I started back in this post.

The ruined walls got a dry brush of Coat d Arms sand while the coated portions of the wall got a dry brush of Coat d Arms Light grey. They then whole of the models got a light drybrush of Coat D Arms Bone. I like it as it gives everything a nice dusty feel. 

Here are the finished power generators. 

All the other buildings also got a dry brush of Coat d Arms sand followed by a light drybrush of Coat D Arms Bone. The bottoms of all walls got a drybrush of Barbarian leather to give a dirty appearance to them. 

The pipes and control panels were picked out and detailed. After this the compulsory graffiti was added using Posca Markers. Posters and signs were added from pictures I had printed off. 
I fancied some graphics on the building so a corner was masked off and purple craft paint was sponged on. Once dry extra graphics was masked on and white painted on. This was followed by a yellow top coat. Weathering was added.

As I want the models to look like they have a purpose I made a sign from plastic card salvaged from some packaging. Two peices were cut and glued back to back to add some lamination and strength to the sign. 

It was painted to look a bit rusty as I thought it would make a good contrast with the shiney letter stickers I picked up on ebay. I envisioned this building being a some sort of munitions dealer that adventurers (or ship's crews) could go to stock up before going off to explore the world. 

The Ammo Shack could be a interesting tabletop hazard too. Anyone hitting the building in a fire fight might cause the munitions within to explode causing further tabletop mayhem. 

The compulsory graffiti was then added using Posca Markers and posters and signs were added from pictures I had printed off. 

I have yet to decide which Fogou Desert buildings are going to be worked on next. There has been a flurry of activity digging through bits boxes looking for stuff to add details to the next bunch of buildings. 

Keep watching for the next thrilling installment of Dusty Space Port Town Building.  

Thanks for looking, take care out there.

Fogou's Battle at the Farm set.

Hello and Welcome back, 

After the joy of painting Fogou's Fantasy ruins and Ringfort, I was still in the groove and eager to paint the other stone model set I have by Fogou - the battle at the farm set. 

For those of us of a certain vintage, the phrase "Battle at the farm" may make us misty eyed as we recall playing the battle using the counters at the back of the 40K Rouge Trader book. Even replaying the game once we had miniatures (painted or otherwise), most of us would have been using proxy models to make the farm. 

On seeing Fogou's set, I had to have it. 

The set has a ruined farm house, enough low walls and barricades to make up the defenses. It also comes with some scenic scatter. 

The models were painted exactly the same way as the Fantasy Ruins. The ammoboxes, oil drums and pots were painted with appropriate colours and also treated to the magic wash. Is there any model this wash doesn't improve? Maybe, the magic wash needs it's own blog post? 

This means I will have to replay this classic scenario at some point. 

Thanks for reading,

Take care out there.

Fogou Fantasy Ringfort

 Hello and Welcome back,

After painting the Fogou fantasy/dark age ruins, I was in the groove and pulled the Fantasy Ring Fort from the pile of shame. 

I ordered the Ring Fort after receiving the Fantasy ruins from Fogou, after a short period of oohing and ahhhing of course (less than 3 seconds). 

To be honest, I have no idea what I will use it for. Maybe a stronghold on a distant frontier world? 

The painting was done exactly the same way as the Fantasy Ruins. There was the additional step of using the Down and Dirty Moss effect paint to give it the mossy look. 

The painting of this large model was surprisingly quick. One thing I noticed is that it had no steps to get to the ramparts. I quickly ordered a couple of sets from Fogou. They arrived quite quickly and were painted on the day they arrived. That's how quick the paint process is. The longest part is waiting for the magic wash to dry. 

I also ordered the Kev Addams Fantasy gate for this model. When I decide what colours to paint it, there will be a follow up post. 

Next up - Battle of the Farm set. 

Thanks for looking 

Take care out there.

Fogou Ruins

Hello and Welcome Back. 

Time for a visit to some beautiful resin terrain by Fogou Models. 

I ordered the Fantasy Ruins from Fogou's Kickstarter campaign. 

They could be used for Post Apocalyptic too, but I intended to use them for either Frostgrave or perhaps Late Stone Age fantasy. 

A colonial defence force investigate some old ruins. 

Fogou's models are cast in a heavy Jesmonite resin. They are very durable on the tabletop. While being heavy the resin isn't brittle. One of the nice things about painting Jesmonite, is that it doesn't usually need a undercoat. Paint goes on nicely and doesn't wear off.

My painting approach was quick. The steps are: 

1. Despite what I said above, these models were primed with Acrylic rattle can primer. 

2. The models all got a heavy dry brush with Coat d Arms Mid Grey (I prefer to use paint in pots for terrain rather than dropper bottle paint). 

3. If you look at any old stone buildings the stones are not uniform in colour. I picked out individual stones with the following colours. Note: don't pickout too many stones, it is only to break up the colour.

I. Coat D Arms Hairy Brown

ll. Nostaliga 88 Snakebite Leather

iii. Coat D arms Light Grey

4. Lightly dry brush with Coat d arms Light Grey

5. Pick out the wood with Coat d arms Bone.

6. I give all the models a wash with my magic wash formula (wood included). This is mix of Burnt Sennia acrylic craft paint and Sepia Ink in a rough 80:20 mix. This is watered down to a 50:50 and then a drop of washing up liquid added to aid flow. Just apply the wash, dilute it in places. The aim is to get the wash into the nooks and crannies as well to tie all the colours together.The wash doesn't have to be even as when it comes to stone buildings uniformity of the stone colour doesn't exist. 

7. Once dry the wood parts of the models were given a further wash of Army Painter Dark Tone Quickwash.

I was thinking of adding tufts to these models but then I want to be able to use the models in different settings, including Sci Fi. I also like the rubble inserts for the edge of the walls.

I know I am lucky to have quite a few of Fogou's models in my collection, to my mind these models are well worth the coin. 

Note: I am not affiliated with Fogou in any way other than being a fan of their models. 

Next up, the Fogou Ringfort. Keep watching.

Thanks for looking

Take care out there. 

March Hobby Update.

 Hello and Welcome back, 

Time for my hobby Progress report for March. A little late I admit. Again spare time has been short and my hobby mojo has been a bit hit and miss this month. As well as the usual drains on my time, I managed to get my Bike MOTd. It passed with a clean bill of health. I am looking forward to get some miles on it this year. There has been a bit of car hunting and getting my current car's scratches repaired.

The old Eldar figures I started in February are still on the paint table and the dwarf conversions have stalled. They have both progressed a little before another bunch of projects distracted me. 

Terrain wise, I have finished some Fogou Ruins and their rather wonderful Ring Fort. Currently work is progressing on Fogou's Battle of the Farm set. I am hoping to get some decent pictures and blog posts up soon. 

In addtion I have been working on a few small scatter terrain bits by Mantic for my table. Hopefully I will be able to show them off soon. As these Terrain sets can be made up with several items I have taken the Terrain tallies off the list. 

No figures bought during May, although I did order some stairs and the Kev Addams Fantasy gate for the Ringfort from Fogou. 

The order from Ramshackle hasn't arrived yet. But then given the avalanche of work Curtis has I am not expecting them any time soon as he clears the backlog. 

Figures finished* = 7 *Figures that needed bases finishing from 2024

Figures painted = 6

Figures reworked = 0

Vehicles finished = 0

Vehicles reworked = 0

Figures bought = 1

Vehicles bought = 0

That's all for now.

Thanks for reading and take care out there.

Fogou's Stackable Shacks.

Hello and Welcome Back, 

Sometime last year I backed the Stackable Shacks kickstarter by Fogou Models. I thought they would fit perfectly with the Fogou Wasteland Fortress.

The Stackable shacks would work nicely for a Starport or futuristic mega city slum. Or real estate in a post apocalyptic city. To my mind such tall structures in a wasteland town would be for public utility or the wealthy. You need some way to show off an excess wealth of scrap.

The Stackable shacks come in one story blocks which can be stack to make No Where Near skyscrapers. Each level comes with a roof, so the towers could be broken down to single level buildings to make a entire town. Or figures can play inside each level.

Like all Fogou Models they are nicely detailed and cast in tough Jesmonite resin. The resin is a delight to paint and happily takes paint without primer. Although I would always advise priming.

Paradise Towers (aka the Barracks):

Every township needs a place for the wasteland warriors to rest up after a hard day's barbaric raiding. The paint scheme is similar to that used on the wasteland Fortress (link). I kept this one with just white metal panels.

The Radlight Hotel:

When you wander through a town and you need some place to rest up, then visit the Radlight Hotel. Comfortable beds. Radioactive bedbugs provided for free. Breakfast provided for extra. All forms of salvage accepted. I handpainted the sign on a bit of old gift card. 

The Hospital:

Been wounded out in the wastelands? Spent a little looking for salvage near that crater that glows in the dark? Then rush on down to Dr Wildethroat's Hospital. All manner of health problems looked at. Free tetanus or sepsis with every operation. The sign was hand painted on a old gift card. I thought a hospital would have some sort of signage to be seen from some distance away, so I painted some slap dash looking red cross signs.

The Warlord's Tower:

If you are the Warlord what better way to declare to the wasteland rabble you are the boss than a huge tower. For this tower I used 5 of the Stackable shack segments to make the tallest tower of the lot.

To my mind the tower needed a platform for the Boss to deliver his daily ranting and raving. So I added one knocked up from plastic card and bits of plastic box section. What's the point of ranting if the entire horde can't hear you? No Warlord wants to have gone hoarse when issuing vital orders or threats. The speakers and stage lamps came from a Ramshackle Games Speakers & Tartan Blast set (toy car scale range).

Of course every despotic Warlord needs a banner. I drew this by hand on paper and painted it. It is based loosely on the logo I designed for this Blog page.

I think I should make some stencils of the spikey radiation logo, I would look great sprayed on a motorbike tank or car door.

At some point I may add a flag pole and flags to the Boss tower in the future. Should I ever decide to increase the height of any of these towers all I have to do is order the right sized shack from Fogou (a future plan).

Here is a shot with all the models split to make lots of shacks. I haven't painted a lot of the floors yet as I didnt see a need because I plan to use the Stackable shacks as towers. I can't split them down to single story buildings as I have glued them together. 

A rumble breaks out in scrap city. 

Thanks for looking and get a room booked in the Radlight Hotel. 

Happy New Year 2023

Happy New Year, may 2023 be a great year for you and your families. 

22 was a real rollercoaster of a year for us with great high points and quite a few very low points which includes the loss of my Dad and two aunties. There seems to have been a lot of arguing with officialdom about stupid changes the local council want to inflict on our street. Don’t get me started on the global shit show and the state of the U.K. 

Normally I would do a look back at the year hobby wise but this Christmas season has been uncommonly busy at a personal level and I haven’t had the time to do one.

I was going to draft out a 2023 hobby plan, but looking back at previous years I see that I stray off course early on in the year and end up doing something else. No plan survives past its first draft intact as they say. 

A quick overview of what I hope to achieve in 2023 is:

Continued expansion of my Mattblackgod’s World and Last City setting (there are plenty of new factions and terrain in the paint queue).

Further expansion of my Wild Galaxy setting. As above there are plenty of new faction ideas waiting for paint. I have some painted minis from Evilbay which I hope to get based and into the wild Galaxy.

I am slowly working on bits and background fluff for my Zone Raiders/Matrioshka setting. I am thinking I will need some rusty high tech terrain. There is some plans forming in my mind. One advantage is that it would happily fit my post apocalyptic setting. 

I have several sets of Fogou’s beautiful resin terrain to get painted which will fit various game settings. 

Stoneage project: A new project for me. A shaman and his/her tribe trying to save their world from a great evil. 

The siren call of 15mm keeps attracting me too. 15mm has great storage advantages of 28mm. My problem is getting rid of or selling my old 28mm models. I seem to get attached to them and always regret selling old figures and models on. 

Get some games in. It’s the centre point of this hobby after all and to be honest I haven’t had a game in a long while. None in 2022. I think I only got one game in during 2021. There are plenty of rulesets I want to try including a few with solo rules.

Thanks for reading. 

Stay safe, stay healthy and stay lucky out there.