It's been a while, eh? Not that I've been lounging around, no, quite the opposite! First thing's first; my Zombiesmith grey aliens. Well, actually they're more the classic "little green men", but the point is now they have a ride. The UFO is known as the "Area 51 Flying Saucer, but I forget who made it. If you know please comment and I'll give the manufacturer their proper credit.
Now I'd like to find a skirmish game to use them with. Especially against the women from Venus I found a while ago.
Unfortunately the glue I used to attach the windows fogged them over. It's an annoyance, but not worth buying another kit.
My next project (and the one consuming most of my time) is the expansion of my new board. The original is starting to show its age and now is the time to upgrade. I started the project with gluing some trees I had lying around that I originally bought for 15mm gaming to some Games Workshop titan bases. The trees were far too big to be used in either Hordes of the Things or Song of Blades and Heroes, so they were pressed into service on my new board.
I then covered the bases with medium railroad ballast using Elmer's Wood Glue. Let me tell you, this stuff works wonders. I've yet to have anything I attached using this stuff come apart, and it goes on easily with a brush and a little water.
Next outside for a coat of brown paint. The stuff I use is as close as I could find to Vallejo "Earth" at Wal-Mart. I know, boo hiss for supporting a "big box store", but there's just not a mom and pop hardware store around here.
After the paint dried I drybrushed the closest color I could find to "Khaki" over the bases. This approach has given me a board that looks much closer to a desert than I had originally cared for, but over time the color has grown on me. Besides, the original game this stuff was assembled for is MalifauX. If that game doesn't take place in a desert no game does.
I kind of miss playing MalifauX, but oh, well. More eBay fodder for if I get into Dust Warfare. I do however once again digress.
I also went through and repainted my original forest templates from my first board. There was already static grass on the boards which kind of made them look a touch sub-optimal. I'm not sure if these are going to make the final cut. I'm leaning toward yes as I just don't want to go through and cut out more templates. You see, Demitra's jigsaw is a touch, well he uses the term "classic". This means the blade is dull and you have to push it with both hands in order to get it to cut. As I like my fingers where they are, I don't think we'll be utilizing that particular tool any time soon. In fact, that particular tool has stalled our current "making hills so that the table isn't totally flat and boring" project. I'll have more on that in a later post, but just know that they're in the works.
Next it was on to expanding the board from its original 4'x4' size to 6'x4' so that games like Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000, and maybe one day Dust can be played on it. This job, while the easiest, would prove to be by far the most time consuming. The boards (made of MDF- ask for it at your local hardware store if you don't know what it is) were first covered in wood glue. You'll need to thin it out a very little bit to get it to go on evenly. Once that's accomplished, sprinkle your railroad ballast over the board, making sure to coat the whole thing. Now the boring bit; leave it alone for several hours to dry. I suggest playing video games during this time. Once the glue is set, go over it with your base paint using a paint roller like you'd use for your walls. This makes sure the paint both goes on fast and evenly. Now it's time for more waiting. The paint must be given plenty of time to dry, or the next step will only make a mess.
Grab your can of paint you intend to use as a highlight and a large paintbrush. Like painting your house large. A cheapo one will do the job just fine, as you're about to destroy it. Drybrush the table. be sure you get a good, even covering. This will keep your table from looking all streaky (like a few of mine do). As I said before, this will probably destroy your brush, so don.t invest in a good one. In fact, the stiffer bristles of cheap brushes actually help this part.
That's it, you now have a fully painted table!
You may, as I have done with this 3'x3' table, wish to add patches of static grass and/or flock of varying shapes and sizes to the finished board. Be sure to attach this with Elmer's Glue-All as wood glue will turn everything yellow.
One final thing:
The long wait is finally over. just a couple of days ago my Candy and Cola miniature for Super Dungeon Explore arrived. Again, finally. The wait time and total lack of communication on the part of Sodapop Miniatures was totally unacceptable. At least I eventually got my miniature.
Well, here she is! all painted up and ready to whack some Kobolds.
Now to wait for the weather to break (the humidity is nightmarish) so I can varnish her.
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