"Fayre Winds and Foul Tides" now out!

As you'll recall (maybe) from March, I was playtesting a supplement for Ganesha Games' great Galleys & Galleons age of sail/pirate rules by Nic Wright, and those rules are now out!

And available here: http://www.ganeshagames.net/product_info.php?cPath=1_25&products_id=308

The blurb covers what's in the book at a high level, I'll mainly be using it to make my voodoo and ghost pirate factions more spooky, and give the good guys some options to fight them.

It also comes with a ton (or tonne) of newly rated ships as well (don't think the blurb mentions that) - over 20 pages worth!  It gets the game into some new periods or genres too, so all those unpainted Uncharted Seas ships I have sitting in a box could be used with these rules, though Wessex's Strange Tydes was originally slated for them.  I think you could even do fast and furious ACW Ironclads rules with them, though the purists will probably freak out.

6mm Plancenoit AAR

So hopefully this isn't my annual blog post, as things have tended to be lately - still have lots of photos of projects and games backlogged, and stuff going on, but not much here.  In an effort to address that a bit, here's an AAR from last Sunday's game at Glenn's, a 6mm rendition of Plancenoit, with Glenn and Ron S. as the dastardly French, and myself, Dick, and Martin as heroic and manly Prussians.

The AAR was written by Glenn, I've added some commentary and boasting in bold italics. My few photos are from the end of the game, when the issue was no longer in doubt and I wasn't going to jinx anything.  They're after the report, with suitably Prussian captions.

On to the AAR:

Lobau's (dastardly French) plan was simple hold Plancenoit and refuse his left flank outside of the village so it could not be enveloped by the Prussian cavalry that was noted to be facing that flank.

Bulow's (heroic and manly Prussian) plan was also simple. He would attack on both flanks and slowly put pressure on the center.  (Actually we planned to hit hard on the right and centre, my job on the left was not to lose the game by going crazily into the town.  I just wanted to pin down the Guard and set myself up for an eventually multi-pronged attack on the strongpoints, to take away their mutual support for each other.  As it turned out, our attack in the centre was slowed by terrain and bulky units, and I was able to engage the town in time, using firepower to knock out one Guard unit near the end of the game and being ready to hit some others if we hadn't need to use our initiative/tempo on the right flank where Martin could win the game for us.)

The commander of the 1st Prussian Cavalry Brig. Schwerin (this was Martin) promptly put both of his regiments in motion. Their orders were to circle around to the rear of the French line and take out the gun line set up on the hill behind the village. As they were moving they noticed that the French left flank was pulling back.

In view of the changing situation Eicke commanding the 6th Hussars and Beier commanding the 1st West Prussian Uhlans decided to disregard their orders and try and stop the French from withdrawing. Sabers were drawn, lancers were lowered and in they went.

Jeanin (this was Ron S.) commander of the 20th Div. had been keeping a careful eye on the Prussian cavalry as he slowly withdrew his brigades on the French left. He soon noticed that the battalions exposed to the cavalry charges formed into squares.

The French were almost laughing as the Prussians were repulsed again and again. However, as this was being played out Losthin (also Martin) managed to push his 15th. Brig. forward. Now the French were caught in a vice with infantry to their front and cavalry on their left flank and rear.

It was now a struggle to the death which took Tromelin (Ron S.) as he valiantly tried to get the 107th Ligne to hold it's ground. Miraculously the entire Div. held up until the very end when the pressure from the Prussians was above and beyond what any courageous body of men could ever endure. The collapse was complete, the Div. was lost, with only a few stragglers managing to follow Jeanin on the road back to France.

Elsewhere on the battlefield the fighting had been sparse as the French Guard were in very strong defensive positions and the Prussians were only able to make minimal gains. The one exception was the loss of the 2nd Neumark Landwhre under Braunschweig. They tried to advance in the centre and found themselves overwhelmed by the firepower from Simmer's 19th Div. (Dick always tries to advance forces in the centre and they always get shot up, it's his thing!)

The game was ended at 4:00pm with the following standings:

Prussians (Chris, Martin, Dick):   11TP, 19AC, loss of 4 bases

French (Ron S., Glenn): 10TP, 12AC, loss of 8 bases

The Prussians leading in all three categories were awarded the victory.

Of special note the commanders recorded in their respective armies dispatches for honorable mention were Bony & Tromelin (Ron S.) for their valiant defense of the French left flank. Eicke & Beier (Martin) for taking the initiative with the Prussian cavalry in attacking the French left relentlessly, that lead to the destruction of the French 20th Div.

Next game planned for Sunday Jan. 31 Plancenoit revisited (everybody trying it from the other side and new guys slotted in).

This was my flank at the end of the game, that's Glenn's hand-wringing in the background.  My troops have position in and around the town, most of the actual buildings are held by the French, except in the very middle where I've just captured one block of Plancenoit.  On the left, I have two forces ready to go after some hurting French units (including one battery).  Most of the town and area behind it was set up by the French to be mutually supporting, so you had to go after the supports at the same time as the main forces, which was a slow set-up but if the game had gone on I think I was ready.

An overview of the Prussian centre and right (more on the right below).  The French here are down to holding the town blocks on the middle left and the hill at the back left-centre.  Sort of in the upper centre is where Dick's brigade got blowed up. Those fields and hedges slowed Dick's troops down.

Sky shot of the Prussian right.  That plowed field with the sheep is where the French were when they all ran away home on the last turn, after Martin was finally able to take them in a squeeze play.  Lambchops for all!

 Another view of the Prussian right, showing a bit more of the backing forces and the centre. 

For proper historical posterity, another shot of my flank and the town envelopment.  We left the church alone for the most part, though it took some pot shots at anyone getting too close.

No AAR is complete without a shot of the French dead pile...

Even better than one shot of the French dead pile is two shots of it!

6mm Dollar Store Finds & 2mm Cities

Here are some more photos of what I've been up to. First we have four scenic pieces I found in the pet supply section of a Dollar store (Pound store for my UK friends):


Most of these will be for 6mm, but I think the bridge/tower combo might be better as 2mm, or could be used for both. The bit under the bridge is kinda dumb, to lay down a river beneath it will mean the river goes up and down a hump. I'm also thinking I should buy a second Aztec temple and spray paint it a sandy colour to use for 10mm Africa. I may even just do it for this one - since I don't have a single Aztec or Aztec-like fantasy culture in my plans! (well, maybe Warhammer's lizardmen)


Based on an idea I saw on The Miniatures Page, I've started putting together some 6mm sci-fi city buildings from cheap trophy stands available from a local craft superstore (Michael's). I've glued the matching pieces together, I just have to sand them, then glue them together as towers. I noticed last night the craft store has different shapes available now, but I'll wait for their next 25% off everything coupon before I buy more.


I'm also working on some 2mm cities to use either as representational scenics for Aeronef (based on CDs) or as edge-of-the-table pieces for Land Ironclads, Kull, Imaro, and my 18th/19th century historical projects. The latter aren't meant to be fought on, rather as the obejctive behind a defender.  I'm basing them on 2 12"x6" flooring tiles, and they're meant to be a bit closer to true 2mm scale than those on the CDs, which will be more like 0.5mm.

For the CD-cities, I'm doing several for my take on Victorian Venus (basically Space 1889's Mars), Ottoman-esque, and a generally European city or two (should work for North America as well). I may do an Aeronef NY, but bigger and on a tile, using my mini Statue of Liberty. For the bigger 2mm cities, I'm doing a bigger version of a Venuvian city, Victorian Mars (Wells' idea of Mars), a general European one, 18th century India, Valusia (Kull), one of the Giant-Kings' cities (also Kull), and an African-esque city (Imaro).

Then as a special project, I'm doing a "New London", aka Sky City, for Aeronef. Here are some early shots of the basics. Each CD is supported on a heavy bolt, glued to the cap of a toothpaste tube (Sensodyne makes great caps for 2mm scenics), which in turn is glued to the centre of the CD. The three CD's were then joined with popsicle/craft sticks underneath, which will be painted as monstrous girders.


One CD will be the industrical area, one the rich/administrative area with parks and the like, and the other the main city. I have anchors planned, as well as bridges, a telegraph line cable, aeronef docking and repair stations, factories, skyscrapers, etc.

In my universe, it will roam the Atlantic, as sort of a floating place of business for the British Empire (also a backup capital, if the Germans/French/Russians/Turks invade England!).  To defend itself, I'll be picking up some British turrets from Brigade this summer.

Wins (football) and Wins (OOP Ospreys)

I was downtown in Toronto today for a football (Canadian) game (we won) and afterwards hit the World's Biggest Bookstore ("it's just a name") and discovered they may have the World's Biggest Osprey collection. At least it left me in awe, and I've seen a couple pretty nice ones elsewhere.

However, as the WBB is now part of our national bookstore empire, the bricks and mortar prices are about 25% higher than what I can get online.

But...

I've been trying for six months to get the Campaigns: Assaye book. Our national bookstore empire (online edition) tried and gave up after a month, Amazon tried for 5 months, and then I gave up on them, because I found Osprey direct had it listed. Until I told Osprey's website that I lived in Canada, when it mysteriously became unavailable in North America ("but we're still part of the Commonweath - the Queen's on my money (well, most of the big bills, anyway)").

So my first walk through of Osprey heaven didn't turn it up. I wandered away, Osprey-less, and checked at a computer linked to their online store - still listed as unavailable. I went back to the Osprey aisles, mainly because of consternation around an issue I'll bring up below...when I saw Campaigns: Assaye!

So I am now stupidly proud of owning a copy. After my SYW in India project, I plan to roll along into Wellington in India, re-using what I can. Some of the units will get later period paint jobs, the only real new units will be EIC/British cavalry, although I'll probably eventually do two rank EIC infantry.

So why else was I consternated in the store? I found both volumes of Fighting Ships of the Far East, which I've long wanted. Problem: I've long had one of them...but couldn't remember which one! I spent 15 minutes walking around trying to remember which one I had...couldn't do it, and since I didn't want to make a return trip downtown (two hours or so) to return one, I skipped on them. But I now have an order in to the online empire, as they say they can get one, and cheaper.

I also got some VSF/steampunk inspiration: the Steampunk I anthology (I picked up Steampunk II a while ago, couldn't find #1 locally). I also completed Edgar Rice Burroughs' Venus series by finding Pirates of Venus. Now to find suitable miniatures...

I also picked up Russian Amerika, the first book in a series, of which I picked up the second last weekend (Alaskan Republik). It looks like a Crimson Skies sort of thing, with the Russians still owning Alaska, an independent California an Texas, USA and CSA. Mainly though it was the wicked paint jobs of Mustangs on the covers.

So now pictures again...but I'm doing a lot of gluing, basing, and gessoing (or is it gesso-ing?), so nothing sexy to look at. I did pick up some VSF figures from RAFM during their recent sale, once the stupid postal labour dispute is over, I should have them here.

I'm also being distracted thinking about Cold War Commander and Pulp Figures. Um, not at the same time, separate projects!

Sometimes Insomnia is a Good Thing

Sometimes not being able to sleep can work in your favour. Before going to bed last night, I decided to put in an hour painting some Land Ironclad bases I'd mounted previously in my usual green base colour. The ironclads were from "Objects May Appear" available via Shapeways, mounted on Brigade Models UK's 40x40mm bases. After getting all the bases coated once, I decided to putter around with painting the actual ironclads, since they aren't overly detailed, just nice simple shapes.

Once I got started I couldn't stop, at least in terms of doing some colour trials, so I now have my first land ironclad units almost ready to go:These are indigenous ironclads from the Ottoman Empire. Pretty crude compared to other nations', but effective (and cool looking). I painted the armour in a "metallic black sequin" colour, which may just really be a glossy black. Hopefully it holds up after varnishing.

The second (anti-aeronef) turret is an add-on from the pack of accessories availabe from Pat and Walt's Starship Emporium on Shapeways.

Another view. There are 2 more ironclads in the unit, awaiting paint.

As it turns out, the Imperial Chinese Army has bought "export models" of the same ironclad from the Ottomans. The export version has cheaper armour, and as the Chinese could only afford three, they'll all be slight unique in appearance, basically in the colour of the little roofs. One is completely done, other than finishing the base's green - which is where the whole process started to begin with!




The French Republic also has some ironclads from OMA, in particular this self-propelled artillery piece. I have four in total, two will be done with this wood chassis paint job, the others will be spiced up in nationalistic colours.

To defend their borders and coasts, the French also have their Victorian version of the Maginot Line and Atlantic Wall - killer gingerbread houses!This is still in a test phase, as I try out colours on it, but I like the gunmetal grey for the turrets and stacks, an antique copper for the smokestacks, and a metallic white for the "marble" balacony.

Since these windows are really about 3 stories high, I'll paint in some panes to break up their size a bit. Plus having an armoured building with massive windows is silly enough as it is! I still need to figure out the stats for this beast in land Ironclads.

Still in VSF, last fall I used some spare insulating clay to build up a couple of terrain pieces, including this volanco. I'm finally starting to paint it, got the basic rock done and the first coat of lava. The cork patches will be painted as the trunks of trees, then green scrubbing pad glued on top.
Back to my town and village for eastern India, I've puttered around a bit more on them - almost done!


My North American 18-19th century fort has also gotten a bit further ahead, I'm just on the touch-up stage now.

Ditto for my North American windmill piece:
And then switching to 3mm, I've painted up one of SPC's stone churches as a brick church for my 3mm ACW Terrible Sharp Sword project. Still a work-in-progress:
And I've been messing around with SPC's original 3mm ruins set, these are four identical pieces, two being done up in white, two in grey concrete, mainly intended for Vietnam. If you look closely, you'll see the ruin with the story that was painted/wallpapered blue has a picture frame hanging crookedly on the wall - now I need to figure out what picture I can paint inside that frame!
As always, all the pics can be seen in a larger size by clicking on them.

I Steam, You Steam, We All Steam For Elephants

So over on his Steelonsand Blog, Steelonsand has been working on a project to create the airship of Jules Verne's Robur. It's a pretty cool project and has gotten me looking for the books (Robur the Conqueror, Master of the World). Until I did some research I'd forgotten I'd seen the movie with Vincent Price, which was a mishmash of the two books.

I've also been on a Edgar Rice Burroughs kick, specifically around the Mars/Barsoom and Venus books, a result of a month or so of puttering around on VSF stuff.

So last weekend I decided to hit a used bookstore near me that I knew had a Burroughs' crate in the back, mainly hoping to find the first book in each of the Mars and Venus series, I have a bunch of the rest but haven't started either series since I couldn't start at the beginning..

So I did score Princes of Mars, and some Tarzans (the lost city type ones), but I hit a nice motherlode of Verne as well. Michael Strogoff, Up the Niger Bend, and Master of the World (so I'm still stuck looking for the beginning of a series!). Also there were two books, Demon of Cawnpore and Tigers & Traitors, which more in-depth reading of the back blurbs revealed to be the two parts of one novel, The Steam House.

This is a long-winded way of getting to the point: I now have a book about a steam elephant! Not just a steam elephant though, I was planning on doing some of those as Contraptions for Land Ironclads anyways, in fact someone on the Wessex Games VSF mailing list has already statted some up.

This is a steam elephant pulling a caravan of "steam houses".

This is steam-nerd heaven to the nth degree. And I never knew. Now I need a proper land ironclad version, or two in miniature.

So while I just got into a few pages last night, the internet has proved useful, and I now have some initial musings to post.


This is the edition I have:
Kind of small, I'll try to get a scan or photo of my book, but it shows an elephant-like elephant pulling an Indian-esque palace on wheels. The howdah is circular and has a couple of old school bombards sticking out the side. I'm liking this direction.

But not this one:
This looks like Mecha Godzilla or Robo-Kong, a 1930's or 1950's Art Deco steam elephant. No sense of Victorian style. So I ain't doing this version.

I'm back on track with this, from Wikipedia:
Gives a bit more detail, still a round howdah, but no signs of cannon. The trunk with steam coming out is awesome, and I found a perfect 6mm model with Irregular's MP22 Successor Elephant (top picture in the link). The rein thingy will either get cut or turned into a steering cable.

I'm going with 6mm since I want it to look behemoth-like (in the book apparently the beast is called Behemoth), and bigger than the steam elephant contraptions I'll do with Irregular's 2mm elephants. A 6mm elephant should be about 11-12mm tall, or about 3-4 stories in 2mm scale.

This also helps, although I'm not sure what happened to the rest of the caravan...
Or why it's surrounded by elephants! Maybe they're in rut and got confused.

As a backup elephant I might get a couple of Irregular's African elephants with howdahs, and I'm thinking 6mm Hussite wagons may be a starting point for the rest of the caravan, with findings etc. as decoration. I have some coupons for next week to see what I can find. I may just end up scratch-building the caravans.

I don't think I'll mess around trying to make the howdah circular though, unless I find something that's an easy fit. I'll probably just file down the figures sticking out from the top, put on a minaret-style roof, file off one shield hanging from the side and turn the other one into a gun mantlet.

Lardcam

Well since painting and prepping are continuing on without anything sexy to photograph, I thought I'd post a link to some fun stuff that's come out from the Too Fat Lardies gang - their own Youtube channel.

In three parts they describe the basics of Sharp Practice (Napoleonic skirmish) and play a few turns showing off the system. Beware the sound sometimes goes in and out when they switch camera viewpoints, so keep the volume dial handy during episode one, but they're working on this for their next videos.

While I have Sharp Practice, a lack of mini's for that period are keeping me from trying it. However, I was able to pick up the game's basics pretty quickly from one viewing. It may have helped already being familiar with TFL games, but I think this video will help anyone interested in the rules.

In other news, the painting table is again dominated by helicopters and their bleedin' canopies. I finished the US flesh and uniforms, so per my plan then switched to the copters.

The green-tinged top windows turned out nicely, only a few touch ups needed, but I really buggered up on the gray. I'm using gray for windows on open doors and blue for everything else, and for some reason I concluded I wanted dolphin gray, as I'd used that before on my UH-60's. What I wasn't paying attention to was that I'd used dolphin grey for THE FUSELAGE of a couple of UH-60's, and a darker gray for the windscreens. Idiot, idiot, idiot. Eventually I realized the windscreens looked kinda white and repainted what I'd done, but still.

This is when you have to remind yourself "punch pillows, not walls."

On the prepping front, I've started on the Microworld fantasy mini's - really nice stuff, I'd recommend them (and for all you non-continentals, worldwide shipping is only $4 US!).

I've also been on a real VSF funk and have prepped some aeronef and land ironclads, as well as gotten to work on the setting again (it helps avoid painting canopies!). My VSF is set after Victoria (1938) but still has a real Victorian feel, with all the steampunk changes not much has changed other than the Queen's in the ground. I actually don't remember why I went that route initially but I'm good with it.

I also spent my August money on Brigade Models' summer sale, picking up more stuff for three of the four VSF angles - aeronef, land ironclads, and aether ships. Only the navies got neglected.

Anyway, hopefully some helicopter pics soon!

Christmas in July

This morning, while contemplating getting out of bed or having another 9 minutes of sleep, I heard the outer front door slamming, suggesting a parcel being placed between the doors! Bounding downstairs, I found a small, but heavy, package with Royal Mail markings - my latest Irregular order had arrived!

Risking being late for work, I spent some time fondling the new arrivals at the breakfast table. This order was my biggest yet, and was all over the map in terms of projects (hence the ridiculous label list for this post). Actually it was so big and spread out, I can't even remember exactly all of what I ordered until I cross-check the codes with the master list.

But, some early comments and plans...

VSF in Space - I like the Iron Stars rules, but have never been jiggy with the miniatures; to be honest, I've always liked the look of the Battlefleet Gothic ships for VSF. But not their prices. So I picked up the Heirs of Manacus (and expansion) and Heirs of Uranus fleets - look good! There's a new maker of ships in plastic (via Shapeways) of Gothic ships, hopefully that can be a third fleet for my VSF in space ideas.

Star Wars in 2mm - I got a bunch of the basic WWI/WWII infantry and MG/missile stands for troops, and some of the 2mm sci-fi support weapon stands too. I picked up the two and four legged walkers, and I think I'm going to prefer the Ground Zero Games/Germy walkers. Irregular's two-legged walkers look good, but are bigger than the GZG AT-AT clones, so they wouldn't match up (would be ok as AT-ST's on their own though). So I think the Irregular walkers will join the land ironclads I also ordered for some Land Ironclads gaming (they'd look good bronzed up).

WWI in the Air - I picked up the 1/300 WWI aircraft Irregular makes that no one else does, and some others that were just cheaper. This is a case where I can't remember just what that was though, although the Taubes were pretty obvious!

WWI on Land - Picked up some 2mm WWI tanks, either for a future If the Lord Spares Us project, or to trick up for Land Ironclads.

WWII on Land - To supplement my GHQ and CinC stuff, I picked up a fire engine as background fluff, and the steam train, it looks pretty sweet. I also got the doors, windows, roofs, stairs scenics pack, to try making some of my own buildings.

19th Century - Picked up more artillery for my fictional setting, but also for...

18th Century Imagi-Nations/SYW in India - I'd like to do the SYW in India (maybe in Europe too) in 2mm, so I picked up British and French SYW army packs to get me started. Also picked up additional artillery pieces, the army packs tend to be a bit short on that. I plan on using the King of the Battlefield rules, though I also picked up the new pdf of Might and Reason recently too, more for bigger 18th Century battles in Europe though, not India.

Kull and Imaro - Finally, I ordered a ton of codes to get further ahead on my 2mm fantasy projects. Lots of elephants and war mammoths, and infantry. Will have to make another larger order (e.g. 70+ of some codes, times two or three figures per code...) later this year. I messed up my polar war chariot order though, forgot the wolf chariots are single items, so only ordered 3, when I need 6 (see my There's no basing like sno' basing post for the start of the stands). Some of the elephants (the non-Howdah) ones are going to be converted to gunkwu's, I'll see how that goes, it's going to involve a fair bit of chopping.

Anyway, happy, happy!

July's order will be some more Splintered Light Miniatures (they're having a sale), some Calvacade samurai dwarves (another sale), and an order from an architectural model supplier, for 2-6mm civilian stuff (cars, small trains for targets, transport trucks).

Savanna Tiles

I've been distracted lately working up the background for a fictional 18th century India setting (these are called Imagi-Nations in the wargaming community), but I do have a couple of posts for today that have been backlogged for a bit. I'm still getting painting in.

So first up, since I haven't found anyone who makes mats that match an African savanna (deserts and drylands are no problem to find, just nothing with a touch of yellow), I've been tinkering with my own idea.

On the left is the original vinyl floor tile - I'm going to use some of these for smaller scale (skirmish) desert or Martian tiles - and on the right is after a couple of light coats of yellow spray paint. As we speak I'm misting green over it, then another mist of yellow, to see what I get. Twenty-four of these will give me a 6x4 playing area for battles in Nyumbani or colonial skirmishes.

Here's my test tile with my kraal on it.

If I don't end up doing a full set, this at least gives me something to base some scenic pieces on.

In the Beginning...

So these first few posts are going to be catching up with where I am, rather than what I'm doing. I've been seriously into mini's since the late summer of 2008, but I'd had mini's since the early 80's (had no patience as a kid to do them) and I'd been haphazardly "planning" to get back into them since the late 1990's. In a burst of enthusiasm in July 2008 I ordered some GHQ WWII mini's, and I've been running ever since.

These first few pictures, however, are going to be of my 2mm projects, which I jumped into later that summer with a project set in an alternative 1860's era I call "Rifles and Regiments". The short version of that background is pretty much every twist in history that could have happened in North America up to that time, did. The result is a very balkanized continent, with a Union, a Confederacy, Texas, Chinese and Spanish colonies, and a messed up Canada. Oh, and the Russians are hanging onto Alaska. My intended rule set for this period is the free "Republic and Empire".

I'll also being doing some historical gaming in this period, using other rules, including "They Couldn't Hit an Elephant" (Too Fat Lardies), "They Don't Like It Up 'Em" (also TFL), and at a skirmish scale with Gaslight (LMW Works) or Sharpe Practice (TFL yet again - just realized I need to fix my list of links).

So onto the pictures...

A close-up of my first regiments, of Chinese colonial troops from what would have been California in the real world.


All of my first week's efforts, from a gaming perspective that gives the "big battle" effect, where 2mm really shines.


Troops approaching the plantation/capitol building/courthouse. The building is made from some wooden blocks bought from Michael's, various doo-dads lying in my bit box (including some bracelet charms), and a bit of sheet styrene for the steps and veranda.


More buildings - a factory, hotel, and well-off residences. For when gaming near the edge of a city. All are also made from wooden craft blocks and doo-dads for the chimneys, sheet styrene for the awning on the hotel. The windows are done with a Sharpie, but I've had a bugger of a time with Dullcote then wrecking the windows. Nothing seems to protect the ink, I've tried long drying times and a coat of Future. So for now I'm trusting my terrain pieces to stay healthy without a sealing coat.


Village pieces, mainly made from Sculpey/Fimo or more braclet charms, with a wooden block used for the slave trading house on the right.


A kraal for colonial or fantasy battles (in the world of Imaro/Dossouye). The huts are Sculpey, the nettle wall is a brass sink scrubber, disassembled and stretched out.

For "northern" terrain I'm just using a straight-up green (Shamrock) paint over sand to create a grassy surface, but for my African-esque terrain, it's a bit more complicated, and I've settled on a yellow paint base (Moon Yellow) followed by a very light green ink wash, followed by dry-brushing Cadmium Yellow on top.

I should at this point mention that my link list includes the two best starting guides for 2mm - Tony Hughes site helped with an identification scheme, basing, and how to "do" grass at this scale, and SteelonSand's blog is the most active for in-progress 2mm goodness.