Back With a Very Minor Bang

Well it's been a long, long time - not an unproductive time for my miniatures hobby, but between needing a new computer that worked better with BlogSpot and doing a lot of unphotogenic prep work, I haven't gotten anything up on here for almost a year, and even then my lone 2014 post was pretty lame.

I still have a bunch of photos from Hotlead 2014 to get up, and since Hotlead 2015 is almost here, I'd better get them up soon!  And then I have some game photos from the 6mm Napoleonics club I'm in and some aircraft shots from Canada's Aviation Museum.

On the topic of Hotlead however, I'm hoping to host my first ever game there, actually a series of short scenarios within one timeslot.  The rules are "Songs of Drums and Shakos" by Ganesha Games, and they're very small scale (8-15 guys per side) cinematic Napoleonic skirmish rules.  Sharpe or Brigadier Gerard types of things.  I also plan on eventually using them for 18th and 19th century adventures in India and variants for the French and Indian Wars/War of 1812.

My first batch of 15mm Napoleonic figures have been painted up by my buddy Ron and I'm now in a panic getting everything else done.  One thing I realized I needed are fences and other minor terrain bits for both Russia and the rest of Europe.  So while I plan on buying 4Ground fences for NW/Central Europe, I wanted something more peasant-like for Russia (apologies to any Russians reading this), so I spent the weekend working on some tests.

This is the collective shot with some figures for scale, on the left is a pig/chicken pen that will fit against a building wall (hence the open side to the left) and will also have smaller wire glued vertically to the crossbars to represent the smaller branches that actually keep the animals in.  Google "old Russian village fences" and you'll see some examples of what I mean.

On the right are my attempt at regular Russian farm fences, the sort used to pen in cattle or maybe between fields.  In retrospect they probably should have been a bit taller - I was aiming for 10mm high posts, or about 4'.  But I think they'll do ok for now, I only need a few of them to start.  Fences 2.0 can be taller. 

Below is a ground-scale view of the fences, a gate will eventually go in the gap, then I'll add some texture to the base and get painting!  All told these involved popsicle sticks, thin (Touch brand) toothpicks, white glue, and 20 gauge hobby wire.

 

Below is the pig pen again, the vertical wire (smaller branches) will be 28 gauge hobby wire.  Some of these will be with a wintery look, others a summer/spring (basically, no snow) look.  I'll also do some all busted up and others (like this) intact with an eventual gate.  The busted winter ones will be for my "Last Pig in Russia" 1812 scenario.

That's all for now, good to be back!