Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Stuff... you know... stuff!

As my painting/gaming year draws to a close I have some "cute" things to share.  I'm not one for impulse buys, having the frugality of a Scotsman, in a Welshman's body.  But when I saw a pack of Foundry Russian SYW hand mortars, I had to have them.

I have no idea how they will fit in our BAR games (Batailles des Ancien Regime) or whether they even should, but how can you resist a weapon you can put your fist down the barrel AND fire it from the shoulder?  There were six in the pack with different poses.  I painted up these two and we'll see where it goes from there.

Next up, an "objective" and some tank camo.  I have the questionable pleasure of playing Flames of War which calls for objectives to serve as an artificial purpose of the game.  Being of that frugal nature again, I am loathe to play 12.5USD for something I can make, so I give you the HQ!


Here we've dropped to 15mm scale.  The whole thing is basically "gubbins" as dear Mr. Grant used to say.  The sandbags are leftover from some toy set, wheels from a Bofor, frame for the netting made from sticks and we're ready to go.  The netting is some leftover gauze from a mosquito screen we made for our tent.  Some watered down paint, white glue and then a matte spray to stiffen it up a bit and we're golden!  Nothing spectacular but certainly functional.

Having some left-over I decorated the barrels of some of my Fireflies.  I had seen pictures of attempts to disguise the long barrels so as not to attract extra 88 shells and this seemed to work well.


I may darken them up a bit or add some tiny tufts of foliage.  We'll see how my mood goes.  So one last look at the HQ, now inhabited by a Soviet command stand and we'll bid you a good night.
 
Good night!





 

4 comments:

  1. Fun and satisfying. Good for you Michael!
    Cheers,
    Bill

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael,

    I would agree that your camouflage netting needs to be darkened. In your pictures it looks white. Might I suggest some dark tan or lighter brown staining?

    Your HQ objective piece does look nice, even better since you were able to make it from "bits and bobs."

    Jim

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi!
    I've just discovered this blog, and it's a real pleasure to look at wonderdul posts :
    - Fantastic minis and stands in this post, I really like the HQ, details are amazing.
    - The post "Crisis on the Nishnabotna River" is really impressive!
    Thanks for sharing, I'll come back!
    Phil.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, a very nice addition to the battle ground--I like it! You won't mind if I 'appropriate' your idea, I hope! My troops can always use a good idea or two.

    ReplyDelete