May 5, 2025

Down on the Farm


Let me present to you the large terrain project I've been working on. It's a rural farm complex with a bunch of buildings and greenery. I sort of made it up on the go, so things are of a bit mixed styles, but I think they look good together.

Apr 30, 2025

Painting Tally April 2025

This month included, for the most part, terrain projects, so the output is way less than in March. However I felt I needed to take a step back and do things more leisurely. At the end of the month I continued with my Italian Wars 28mm project, which I abandon and return to casually.

Completed:
28mm
Farmhouse
Barn
Outhouse
Well
A 6-part hedge section
A longboat

1/350
A large galley

Painted (requires varnish and basing):
28mm
13 Warlord plastic Landsknechts
4 Perry plastic mounted MAA

Assembled and primed (no paint):
28mm
29 Warlord plastic Landsknechts
4 Perry plastic mounted MAA

This brings my Painting Unit total to 571, still a decent amount but nowhere near the March tally. Of course the PU count will become more useful once I have more comparable data.

Purchases:
Only a pair of IKEA drawers for storage. 

We will go to Northern Italy in May and I expect to spend more there.

Apr 29, 2025

Whatever floats your boat.


This month has mainly been about terrain projects. I might have mentioned that I've got some pirate themed gaming in mind, and for that I needed a longboat at least. (A one-mast ship with four guns is a work in progress.)

It's made out of balsa wood, the outer planks were soaked then bent to shape as with a plank-on-frame model ship. It includes six oar benches and forks, some equipment for longer voyages, and a swivel gun at the bow.


The pair of random Bloody Miniatures figs are just there for scale. 

Apr 15, 2025

Block Galleys WIP

 


No posts in a while, but that's only because after last month's painting frenzy I took a step back and started focusing on smaller scratchbuilding projects, mainly revolving around terrain pieces.

I showed a completed 1/350 scale 'Block' galley a while back, these are the follow-ups on the slipway. I completed the main parts of the hulls and started adding the rowing benches. (They are called Block galleys because I would simulate damage to the ship by removing parts from the model during gameplay.)

The one in the middle is a large 15cm long Capitana or Lanterna, that is a flagship with more rowers and soldiers aboard. You can see one of my printed templates doing its job on the oar banks.

The last bunch of balsa I got is from a producer named Santiago, so obviously these are going to be Spanish...

Apr 2, 2025

2 Atak Kampanü, I Bertoldu Armored Battalion, 1st Independent Ebhardu Cavalry Brigade


This time a post with a picture. I made 1/32 versions of the same vehicle before, but now I completed an armored company with the G-93 Kontot Kombatot for my 1/72 collection.

There are four tanks in a Jazygian interwar armored company, but they are supplied with variants on a sort of ad-hoc basis. 2/I/1 Atak Kampanü has the following, from left to right:

G-93ac Ozmot "Rinokerüs" - An open top variant, with the HMG at the back of the vehicle, a 3pdr anti-tank gun on the right side of the chassis, and field modifications to break down hedges. The figures are HäT Prussians with modified caps.

G-93c Astaba with open turret and radio antenna - commander's version. Its frontal armor was strengthened by adding sandbags. The commander is a Zvezda Russian female soldier and she can be taken out of the vehicle.

G-93 reserve/engineering/close support vehicle - standard armament, but with a medium mortar bolted to the undercarriage, sort of a makeshift SPG. This one's got some Green Stuff World shrubbery glued to the front, and the figures are cheap Chinese knights with green stuff modifications.

G-93c Astaba, standard version, closed turret.

Soon the company will roll out on a policing action along the Ahbanian border, we shall see what comes out of that...

Mar 31, 2025

Painting Tally March 2025

From January on I started summarizing what I paint, the first two months being the test period for the method. I keep the total tally in a separate diary, but thought it would be a good idea to post it here.

Further on I limit my scope of activities to up to five projects per month, which helps me focus better on the current tasks instead of meandering and starting minor side-projects, never finishing one.

Mar 25, 2025

Worry not if you aren't the Duke of Porpoises...

 


... you can still be the Prince of Wales! (pun intended)

Here's a rare WIP shot of a 1/2000 scale scratchbuilt HMS Prince of Wales. I usually post completed products on the blog, but this one looked kind of nice the way it is, and it highlights some of the methods I use for tiny ships.

My main components for this build were: balsa wood, bamboo skewers, Magic Sculpt, 0.5mm plasticard, push pins and broom bristles. First I shaped the hull, and did the rest in five main sub-assemblies (that is the three turrets and two main parts of the superstructure).

Balsa wood has very large grain and soaks up paint/glue like a sponge, so I learned to harden its outer surface with either mopping on liquid superglue or acrylic medium, and then after many passes with sandpaper some PVA. For the quad turrets I also added some magic sculpt for detail.

I made an attempt to sculpt each of the quad barrels, but in the end I just went with my usual solution of using a single slab of bamboo and painting the detail on.

The occasion for this build is that I want to refight the Battle of the Denmark Strait in the near future, so after painting this one, next up is the Mighty Hood.

During the build I came to appreciate the no-nonsense approach of the King George V class design. Everything has its place and works, and that's about all a fighting ship needs. However, I anticipate building Hood for her excellent looks for a change.

Mar 17, 2025

Orks and Ork Accessories


I bought some used Ork Boyz a while ago, then stripped and painted them. A few of them were posted here before, but not the entire band. The rest are still available from the same place, so I might just buy more.

They also found a sort of VTOL ground attack craft and made it more orky.

Mar 12, 2025

The Mighty ZS Lakardo (Not Quite Charles Martel)

As part of my ongoing 1/1000 scale Trashy Fleets exploits, I'm finally done with the almost Charles Martel, she is joining the Zinqaguri Navy, a peripheral minor power in my world of imagi-nations. Being quite fancy AND a battleship, she is going to bear the fleet admiral's flag.

Steaming alongside the Charles Martel, or as she will be known in Zinqagur, the ZS Lakardo, is the small torpedo boat destroyer TB-1 Marsal, modelled after the real world Claymore-class French ship, so they are kind of matching.

The only ahistorical element of the battleship is the fact that I left a tier of the main deck out, so the fore and aft main turrets are on the same level, while in fact the rear one should be placed a bit lower.