scratchbuild – Skinflint Games

Armies On Parade (Hyperian Wars) – The Ancien Regime

Posted on January 29, 2024January 18, 2024 by skinflintgames

Cast your eye over these holiest of places. This, this, is where Humankind came to Hyperia so many centuries ago, fleeing the dying world and the ceaseless war. Here our prophet planted his flag and said “Today mankind stands reborn!”.

Many are those who have left to seek fortune elsewhere, to explore and conquer this world. Humanity - or those close enough to fit the genus – raises it’s flag on every island and continent on Hyperia. But here is where it all began. Here, on this, hallowed ground. Here the Ancien Regime was born, and in the unnumbered millienia of our history, here is where we have weathered every storm, beaten back every would-be destroyer, built our world anew. This is humanity’s rock on which all others will dash themselves.

Here we are with the fourth and (so far final) instalment of our Hyperian Wars escalation project, focusing on the Napoleonic-meets-Tolkien-meets-The Empire from Warhammer faction of humanity – the Ancien Regime! This massive, continent-spanning empire represents the numerically and geographically greatest of the various human societies, and its kings and nobles all claim (with varying degrees of legitimacy) to trace their lineage back to the First Leader who brought humanity from it’s dying home to escape a war they believed would consume humanity and end the world (wonder what he could be referring to…) – but they have also stagnated technologically and regressed into mysticism and Vril-worship to keep their creaking empire rolling.

These guys are actually seasoned veterans, having been featured in the blog when it was nought but a bairn, and came as a part of a massive 2012 Ebay haul… and it was while we wondering what the bloody hell to do with a bunch of Napoleonics and WW1 Brits that the concept of Apocalypse: Earth having a fantasy/steampunk/ VSF cousin, and featured in the very first test game back in 2016… and in that game, you may notice the Mk. 1 Dauntless – rather less refined than it’s successor – and a superheavy steam tank called the Ironclad.

Which having got 90% ready, then sat unfinished until September 2023. Of course. And it was during The Summer Of Tidying that we decided to get the Ancien Regime faction properly finished and tarted up. The Ironclad (which began life as a papercraft from Landships II, the Holt Steam Wheel Tank in 1/48 so suitably imposing for 1/72) got a new paint job (matching the repainted A7V Steam Tank) and because it looked pretty undergunned as was, I strapped a massive howitzer onto the back made from a defunct pen to ensure the lads had some sort of parity with the horrors that Hyperia has to offer.

So, pics:

Went heavy with the sponge chipping as I figured this old girl would have seen some action..

Flags, as is de riguer in all Hyperian militaries

Overhead shot of the massive Bombard howitzer, giving a welcome indirect fire capability

Big Brother and Little Brother at the back

Will it be enough to hold back the Beasts?

And so right now, the Ancien Regime stands (reluctantly) shoulder to shoulder with the Skyborne 301st in facing down the beasts of the Virum Nascii and the Orca in the shed as our slow burning Hyperian Wars campaign comes to a climax! So that’s what you can look forward to in the next few weeks 😉

Meantime, stay safe, thrifty and Slavia Ukrainia – we’ll see you soon

Crossing The Rubicon Nostalgius Pt. XII – BIG. RED.

Posted on November 27, 2023November 10, 2023 by skinflintgames

Betcha thought I’d forgotten about these lads, didn’t you 😉

OK, I’ll admit, we are no stranger to big red things here. But this particular one…

WAAAAAY back in the mists of time, when humble old COVID seemed like the apocalypse, I acquired a haul of Space Marines off eBay with the intent of creating the Blood Angels 3rd Company army from WD 139. And one of those vehicles – albeit not one that I think they ever got round to painting – was the Land Raider.

Now, a modern bog standard vanilla Land Raider kit will set you back… (checks GW website) £55. That’s almost a gallon of petrol. Bugger that.

Enter Paperhammer! This particular template was downloaded from In The Grim Cheapness STC Archive (a Mk 1, obvs), printed out onto paper and glued to cereal box cardboard. I followed the instructions as best I could fathom them (cheating a but with the smoke launchers and exhausts, going with copped up drinking straws for those), until we got to the sponson lascannons.. I had such plans for them, an ingenious double pivot system based around spare 25mm bases and cocktail sticks… But in the end, they failed to survive contact with the real world – so I went with Foam ex, detailed with cardboard squares, glued on kebab skewers and added card on the end of the barrels… and off to the shed for priming we went.

Application of nylon tulle to make grating.. NOT recommended without alcohol on standby

Now with tracks, guns & detailing – thanks Roger for the heavy bolter

Primed white (natch) prewash with Smokey ink and then covered the whole thing with Vallejo Hot Orange and washed with Red Ink, and a mix of craft red thinned with red ink and matte medium. Came out a little darker than the Rhinos in the end – as I’m too thick to have thought about keeping one of them on hand for reference – but pleasingly crimson nonetheless. And I can always give a wash to the Rhinos too.

A shout out to Roger from Rantings From Under The Wargames Table – his very generous gift of MANY BITZ to us earlier in the year included a heavy bolter which I added to the command hatch for extra Rogue Trader vibes and authenticity. Thanks again Roger!

Here you can see the grill – glued the tulle to the cardboard, then more card over the top, then painted the area black and drybrushed silver. It’s a pretty cool effect but I’m buggered if I’m doing it too many more times…

Pics with the rest of the lads:

Got to admit, it took a while to get this put together but it’s made a great centrepiece for the lads and it’ll come in very handy when the Blood Angels eventually make their final assault on Orklahoma City! Til next time, stay thrifty and we’ll see you soon.

More Hyperian Wars Escalation! DIY Virum Nascii Death Roller

Posted on November 12, 2023November 9, 2023 by skinflintgames

Time marches ever onwards, and it’s startling to realise that the big Hyperian Wars game we’re currently prepping for was one we actually planned to play over the summer holidays… oh well!

You’ve already seen the 301st Skyborne with their new reinforcements and superheavy, Dan’s Waagh-Ghazhrag horde have their big new heavyweights, there’s something due for the Ancien Regime but for now here’s something for everyone’s favourite chittering treacherous hordes, the vile Ratmen – the Virum Nascii (who are absolutely nothing to do with GW’s Skaven, we’re sure)

Now, originally I had planned to make a Doomwheel – and had gathered peanut butter jar lids accordingly – but I just couldn’t get anything together that looked right, so I decided to toss the idea and come up with something that fulfilled the same role but looked a bit cooler – inspired more than slightly by this post from the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts blog.

However, while the Doomwheel was too dopey, a rat-tank just didn’t seem quite dopey enough for Ratticus and the crew, so I hit upon the idea of a roller pushed by a weird scrap construct firing Vril-lightning.. functionally identical to the Doomwheel, but hopefully cooler looking.

I even sketched out a rough concept drawing – I know, check me out! – and then it was time to hit the Pile Of Interestingly Shaped Crap.

Yep, that’s an asthma inhaler. Again. And a pepper pot, and a pair of milk carton lids. My house is a ridiculous place at times.

Cardboard added for the “Horned Rat” superstructure, and kebab skewer for the Vril-lightning cannons

Padding out the booty with corrugated cardboard…

Details added! Cardboard strips, blobs of PVA dotted on with a cocktail stick to represent rivets and superglue tube lids for the cannons… you may also notice the tail (!) which was a wire tie thingy, and the cocktail stick legs… why have wheels when you can walk, right?

By this point, the Muse had taken me!!! So after having glued everything I had to hand to everything else I had to hand, I left it and when to bed….

Yep, that’ll do! Out to the shed for priming – attempting this zenithal business again, so a grey base dusted from above with white….

…and then a brain fart, as either I didn’t take any more photos, or I did and managed to delete them.. but here we are with the finished product:

Of course, flags are now *de riguer* in our Hyperian Wars armies…

Showing off the junk in the trunk.. in fact, that’s a mechanical tail capped with a Vril tipped blade, so this thing should be a beast in close combat!

And here with the rest of the crew, Lord Ratticus’ horde….

So there we go, one new grand war machine for the Virum Nascii to match the Dauntless Redux and the Orca War God…. just the Ancien Regime to get tooled up and that’ll be everyone!

You’ll be glad to hear that Hyperian Wars now actually exists as a PagePlus DTP file – a whole 7 pages already! So there actually is a chance that we might finally get around to publishing this one before the heat death of the universe and/or the release of Legiones Imperialis… so till next time, stay thrifty and Slave Ukrainia!

#Orctober – Hyperian Wars Escalation

Posted on October 26, 2023 by skinflintgames

If you’ve been a regular subscriber to this blog, you’ve probably seen the on-again, off-again Hyperian Wars sort-of-campaign featuring Warchief Ghazhrag The Bloody’s attempts to acquire all manner of mysteriously sacred stones, and I’m sure the question that’s been uppermost in everyone’s minds is “just what does he want them for?”

I mean, it’s not like there’s anything else to be worrying about right now, is there?

Well, the time has come to reveal the terrifying truth… the Orca have summoned their War God! And here he is!

Yep, that’s the Hulk. Actually, I’ve kind of got Midwinter Minis to thank for this idea – Guy’s repurposing of his Hulk model made me realise that big, green and ANGRY = Orc/ Ork/ Orca, and so I acquired a Hulk of my own off eBay, a little converting (helmet, club), primed and based and here we are!

Greenstuff wrapped around a cocktail stick with granny grating spikes, old paint pot cut open and dotted with PVA blobs to be rivets as the helmet – base covered with Garage Floor Dust (TM) before priming!

Paint scheme was the same as the rest of the horde, so no need to go into that again here.

For the second part of the project, I took inspiration from an ooooooooooooold White Dwarf WHFB report which featured an Orc Shaman on a War Wyvern… so I started with a T-Rex toy I picked up for a quid from a local charity shop.

Next, wings – these were cocktail sticks snapped in two and the joints sealed with superglue, and then I cut some wings out of paper and superglued them in place. Then, to make them more organic looking, I rolled a cylinder of greenstuff and smeared/ applied it to the structure.

Next up, priming – grey, dusted with white, and a thinned wash of Vallejo Smokey Ink, before painting. I started with a yellow base and then gradually layered up green with Army Painter Goblin Green and Green Tone ink washes. The cream parts were a craft bone washed with Vallejo flesh wash and then more bone stippled and drybrushed over the top, and I used the bone to pick out the teeth and claws before doing the eyes in red. Then out to the shed for basing and varnish, and that’s that done!

So, pics of Whaaagh-Ghazhrag in full:

Pretty impressive horde, eh? Those Skyborne won’t know what hit them! Stay tuned for our upcoming HW mega smackdown, and stay thrifty out there!

#Orktober 2023

Posted on October 12, 2023 by skinflintgames

Can someone explain to me how the HELL it’s October?? I know it’s an age thing, but this is ridiculous – I’m still writing 22 on the end of dates…

Still, enough griping – October is Orktober, and we’ve been preparing! Let us begin by turning our attention to Da Black Ork Cav – I’ve gone for a bit of low hanging fruit as time has been something of an issue, and finished up the second battlewagon that I started last year (!) and a bit of extra terrain for Orklahoma City… wanna see? Course you do!

Classic RT/ 2nd Ed vibes right there, and it didn’t cost a penny!

Engine compartment – got to be a hemi in there, right? No Net Zero pledges for da boyz…

Ran put of lollipop sticks detailing the wheels so had to make do with cardboard strips…

Attempted a zenithal prime – white over grey… still not entirely sure of this yet! Dinosaur in the corner is Dan’s project, I’ll let him tell you about that 😉 Painting was otherwise the same as last year’s model

And now, let’s check out the terrain:

So what we have here is a multivitamin container, thin cardstock glued over the top, rivets added (PVA blobs added with cocktail stick). kebab skewer legs, lolly stick walls mounted on FoamEx base with texture sprinkled on to PVA painted onto the base..

OK, and now let’s take a look at the whole lot formed up and ready:

New arrival on the left hand side, next to Da Dread.. Orklahoma City HQ providing the backdrop!

Water tower all painted up – ain’t she purrty?

‘TEN-SHUN!! Da Black Ork Cav, ready to roll out…

So that’s #Orktober started, how are you all doing out there in hobbyland? Let us know! We’ll be back with more soon, so stay thrifty out there!

Armies On Parade (Hyperian Wars) – The Grand Alliance 301st Skyborne

Posted on September 27, 2023September 4, 2023 by skinflintgames

In this great coalition of nations, there are those amongst our populace who rail against the use of force, who would offer the hand of friendship to monstrosities such as the Orca or the Dead.. those who would see us lie down naked and supplicant in the face of the Virum Nascii. To those in our parliaments and cabinets who question the need for the forces we maintain, I would ask them to look a charging Orca in it’s hate-filled red eye and convince it of the justice of our cause. I would ask them how we should use “soft power” and “social justice programs” to defend against a murderous tide of Ratmen bent on destruction, death and enslavement. I would ask by what means of deterrence would we keep the Cousin Races of the Ee’la and Stoc’d from turning upon us. How we might keep in check the dogmatic religious zealots of the Ancien Regime kingdoms from upending our cherished democracies.

I would remind these people, as they sit in safety and comfort, pondering abstract matters of state.. I would remind them that they have that privilege only so long as rough men stand ready to deliver violence on their behalf. I would remind them that such privilege is bought solely with the blood and bravery of the Skyborne!

Back to our steampunk/fantasy world of Hyperia, and here we are looking at the newly reinforced detachment of the Grand Alliance faction – a loose coalition of floating cities and islands spread across the western hemisphere of Hyperia, bound together by mercantilist tradition and by far the most technologically advanced of the human factions, even if the more esoteric elements of Vril lie beyond their grasp.

Not bound to the rank & file regiment system of all the other powers, the Skyborne Infantry are all able to operate as skirmishers and with hefty firepower are able to punch well above their weight numerically, particularly given their “Mad Minute” special training, although when enemies can get in close in numbers, things get sticky quickly…

These lads have been in the blog before, but they’ve been given a new Dauntless, some Whippets, a nicer basing job and crucially some flags so I thought it’d be nice to give them an airing as they’ve been part of the Hyperian Wars project right from the start.. so, pics:

The lads in parade order – the command section featuring Lt. Caruthers, his ADC, Tactical Identification Device (aka flag) Bearer, signaller (chap with 2 flags), mortar, Enchantment Denial Device crew and an Artificial…

Behind them are the grunts, 3 nine man rifle sections each commanded by a sergeant, and behind them is the heavy support – three FV1066 Whippets (*Willie The Wimp, Winifred, Walter*) and the *Dauntless Redux* (with her crew pictured in front of her).. there were a couple of casualty figures left over which I painted up as objective markers.

*Willie The Wimp* leads the Whippet squadron forward

Artificial – made from a couple of cocktail sticks and card.. close up of the Enchantment Denial Device crew, which in-game provides a degree of defence against magickal powers.

The grunts – old hands may recognise these as Airfix British WW1 infantry

Not to give too much away, but there’s probably going to be an uptick in Hyperian Wars content over the next few weeks as the slow burn “campaign” comes to a head… Stay thrifty out there and see you soon!

Apocalypse Then! Apocalypse: Earth Battle Report

Posted on August 28, 2023August 15, 2023 by skinflintgames

The fan overhead beat rhythmically, echoing the antigrav pulse of the ubiquitous Silverbug engines. Alone in his bunk, Lt. Grant found it hypnotic. He’d been on this new assignment a week now – getting softer, getting weaker.. while out there, the Russians and Chinese only got stronger. He understood now why McAuliffe took solace in whisky – what else was there to do, when peace was just a dream.

The next thing he knew, he was being held under a freezing shower by two MPs. Clean shaven and with his most presentable fatigues on, he struggled not to sway as the Colonel briefed him.

Reading through his notes, Grant couldn’t believe they’d given him the right file. The officer they’d named had been a paragon of anti-Soviet resistance, even volunteering for and passing out through Foreign Legion training at age 38. Grant buried his resentment at the mission as best he could – but his platoon sergeant had no such reserve.

“We’re short and they want to take us upriver to kill a friendly? God F*CKING damn it! I thought you were going up to blow up a bridge, or some railroad lines? Ruskies and Chinese are piling in across the borders every day and we’re supposed to go kill our own goddamn allies?”

Grant gritted his teeth. “This is my task force. We put this thing down where we need to and do what it takes to get the job done.”

Mac looked hard into his Lieutenant’s eyes. “Sir. Yes sir.”

Out on the landing fields, Grant watched the surf crashing against the beach, squinting against the low morning sun. Behind him the familiar pulse of antigravity boosters boomed out as the Silverbugs roared to life, the smell of ozone and cordite wafting across. In spite of himself, Grant couldn’t help but smile, he loved that smell first thing in the morning. It smelled like… victory.

Off we go again with another Apocalypse: Earth Summer Smackdown! Hard on the heels of seeing what Dan can do with a soap dish and a biro, it’s time to put our newly reinforced League of European Nations forces to the test.. and a certain LoEN colonel, deep in the Southeast Asian jungles of an unnamed European protectorate has gone certifiably off his rocker, creating a new wonder weapon with the fruits of espionage on the secret Atlantic Alliance antigrav programs… and the Alliance need to get the situation under control! So who else but Buffalo 2-7, reconstituted after their encounters with a zombie horde and a couple of time warping, reality-bending scraps not to mention their heroic defence of Faslane naval base, to do the job?

Facing the boys would be Kampfgruppe Kurtz, a renegade LoEN colonel commanding Lt. con Hulkenberg’s platoon of regulars including their 88Gw laser cannon, a territorial platoon (not shown you them yet), a squadron of Jaeger tank hunters, Ocelot light tanks and of course the brand new Haunebau.. eagle eyed observers might notice our “Stargate” terrain pieces and a certain piece of wonky looking tech that’s got a flash new paint job! Both sides would deploy along the short edges of the 6×4 table.

Buffalo 2-7 deploy, armour to the fore, skimmer units and Rocketeers set up a flank manoeuvre

Ze Churmans, caught under Kurtz’s spell, rush to meet them!

The Atlantic Alliance win the initiative, first shot from the lead Centurion demolishing the 88Gw laser as the rest of the LoEN force holds out in cover trying to weather the storm..

Alliance forces push forwards at top speed across the exposed open ground, infantry taking cover wherever they can

Haunebau makes its’ debit! And although the plasma cannons are laughably ineffective against the target M60 Centurion, those twin linked machine guns take a terrible toll on the Allied infantry

The state of play after Turn 1- note the burned out M60, a casualty of combined Ocelot laser cannon fire.. on the opposing side, one Ocelot destroyed and another one with a laser cannon blown off.

It had to happen – boosted by a few Command Points spent on her, Silverbug shreds the Haunebau powerfields with her Avenger cannons and demolishes it with Stinger/TOW ADATS missiles! Still, at least it lasted a turn…

Surviving Ocelots attempt to light up another M60…

Kurtz’s HQ section manage to target the underside of the lead Silverbug and manages to penetrate it’s armour, causing a catastrophic explosion! Wingman arrives and scythes through the Jager squadron..

With their armoured assets mostly stripped away by murderous Allied fire, von Hulkenburg gathers his platoon in cover preparing to counterattack the Allied infantry assault

The surviving Ocelot prepares to go down swinging..

Struggling to target von Hulkenburg’s regulars, the Allied APCs absolutely ventilate the territorials up on the hill guarding the objective

The jaws of the Allied trap begin to shut..

Rocketeers vault up onto the clifftop and massacre the Territorials at close range, suppressing them

However Territorial HQ wreaks a terrible vengeance!

Despite the panzerfaust operator being unable to hit the side of a barn door, concentrated rifle and machinegun fire manages to cripple the two Humvees trying to flank von Hulkenburg’s regulars

As the Allied noose draws tighter, von Hulkenburg’s regulars knuckle up on the objective with the remains of the Territorial platoon

But they’re not quick enough as the minigun armed Humvee (bolstered by ALL my Command Points this turn) catches them out in the open, massacring a rifle squad and all Kurtz’ staff!

A last ditch effort by surviving LoEN assault troopers land in by jump pack and massacre Bravo squad

An M113 draws a bead on Kurtz with a grenade launcher and two LMGs..

Surviving Silverbug massacres the Territorial HQ

Surrounded by the Atlantic Alliance Command Element, and wounded by the M113, Col. Kurtz is helpless as Grant icily draws a bead and pumps three rounds at close range into his head…

The first round hit home. “For my men”
The second round hit home. “For von Hulkenburg”
The third round hit home. “For me”

Looking down at his foe, Grant saw him mouthing something. leaning closer, he could just faintly hear.. “The horror…. the horror..”

Hau Nau Haunebau – DIY Flying Saucer!

Posted on August 8, 2023 by skinflintgames

And we return with a thud from the 41st millenium to an alternate 1950s.. Up til now something of a sideshow on the blog compared to the Atlantic Alliance and Holy Soviet Empire, the League Of European Nations is nevertheless on of the main combatants in the fluff for Apocalypse: Earth, representing a proto-EU formed in the wake of the cataclysmic Six Months War of 1914-15 which ended (SPOILER ALERT) in an effective stalemate after a military coup in Germany overthrew and executed the Kaiser..

The upshot is that by 1954 and the Soviet invasion, the Germans are “first among equals” in a mostly-united Europe – quite how happy the French are about that remains to be seen- and are doing their own share of Weird Science Wunderwaffen experimentation..

Oh, and Hitler? Shot in a trench in 1914. Yeah, no Nazis in this game, one lunatic genocidal baddie is enough for us.

Of course, the UK not joining the Six Months War meant no bankruptcy and an alliance with the US on a much more equal footing… plus never being invited to join the League meant no Brexit either, which means that the population have nothing to argue about in the pub and are therefore far more economically productive..

BUT back to the plot! The LoEN might not have had the help of mysterious outside forces (cough *ROSWELL* cough) to help boost their technology levels, but they do have Einstein, and they do have motivation in the face of the Holy Soviet Army amassed on their border.. so without further ado, let me introduce the highly experimental Messerschmitt Me-434 “Haunebau” Repulsor Attack Vehicle (“Antigravitations-Angriffsfahrzeug”)!

It begins! Base shape is an old soap dish discovered during a recent clearout.. Lines drawn are for reference when adding further detail later on.

Rivets added – dots of quick dry-PVA added with a cocktail stick.. I didn’t quite measure these but paid attention to eyeballing them at the same levels… this is a German vehicle, after all!

The force field projector on the top is from a defunct pen, the plasma cannons are cocktail sticks with the spring from the same pen cut into two and wrapped around to represent energy coils… machine gun emplacements are greenstuff blobs with (you guessed it) granny grating embedded in them.

After white priming and a prewash of Vallejo Smokey Ink, I applied two thin coats of Crafter’s Choice tan, a bit of a dry(ish) brush with bone, and then stippled on first Russian Green…

…and then a brain fart happened and I didn’t take any more pictures until the whole thing was done… so next up was a stipple of craft brown, a pin wash of Smokey Ink and a thinned wash of brown in the “creases” of the model.. base was a mini CD (remember them) with a tactical rock affixed and about an inch of clear styrene rod to give the impression of flight. I tried magnetising but the damn things just wouldn’t stick to anything else but each other.. so blue tack to the rescue!

After that it was white on the energy coil and then washed with thinned craft blue, heavy sponge chipping with black around the edges, flocking on the base and out for varnish.. so fanfare please:

On patrol with elements of Kampfgruppe Hulkenberg…

So there we are, a new “Super” unit to give the LoEN something on a par with with the Atlantic Alliance Silverbug gunships or the Holy Soviet Colossus – and oh yes, right now there is quite the scuffle going on in the shed, based around a certain classic Vietnam movie.. and we’ll be bringing that to you as a battle report before long!

Stay safe, thrifty & we’ll see you again soon

Terrain Talk Pt. 23 – A Miscellany!

Posted on June 27, 2023 by skinflintgames

What are the two words most dreaded by wargamers? “Rounding out”? “Finishing off”? “New 40k?” (meow) – no, my friends, not even close. Brace yourselves for the full horror that is:

TIDYING UP.

Recently we’ve been getting our feng shui on in Jim’s gaming shed, informally christened “Apocalypse Junction”, and this has required some organising and rationalisation to make the best use of the space available – buying storage boxes, putting up shelves etc – and this has thrown up many a long-abandoned mini-project and piece of Interestingly Shaped Crap.

So while Jim was busy nailing himself to a wall, I got busy creating some more scenery from said Interestingly Shaped Crap with a view to big Apocalypse: Earth dust-up in the coming months.

Front and centre we have two soap dish holders, now surplus to requirements for several years. For the bases we have cut up CDs (soak in boiling water and then cut with kitchen scissors), and some offcuts of craft and insulation foam to create rocky outcrops. I used a mix of fast drying PVA and superglue to put these together – superglue gives the initial grip while the PVA provides are more durable and flexible bond when it’s dry. There was also a rogue piece of polystyrene Jim threw my way – or at me – which got added into the build.

It’s filler time! Cheap stuff from the local Poundland, this goes in all the gaps and over the smooth surfaces, and over the bobbly surfaces on the polystyrene.

Texture paste – PVA, filler, sand and black paint thinned with water. This gets applied liberally with a big and old brush – the idea being that black paint made it easier to see if I’d missed any bits. Then all likely nooks, crannies & crevices got painted with PVA and I drizzled cat litter on top. This is a ridiculously easy but effective way to add detail to pieces like this.

Leopard spotting! First we daub it with thinned yellow…. oh, no

And then a thin black wash… oh, okay, starting to see it now

..and then the drybrush does it’s thing… NOW, I see it.. actually, this was where I realised I’d gone a bit heavy with the black wash and the drybrush was a bit too high contrast – a thin grey wash sorted out the balance and smoothed everything out a bit.

And here they flocked, sealed, varnished and are in situ, with the Blood Angels fending off nasty beasties from Hive Fleet Imprudens…

The rocky crag you can see in the background is a sister piece to his Golgothan Spire which Jim made and never got around to doing a blog entry for.

Defending the Star – no, best make that Space – Gate!

I also found a last bit of insulation foam, glued some thick mounting card underneath it (figuring the foam itself would keep from any warping), carved a couple of slopes and got busy with the bark chip and the filler, and the texture paste..

Finished and in situ with the rest of the new terrain – fine companion to Bose Cliff

“This would never happen if we were on a model railway”

Genestealers REALLY interested in how we did the stonework…

So now we have few more eye-catching terrain pieces providing some depth and interest to the next battlefield – stay tuned for the write up! Stay thrifty out there…

May The 4th Be With You 2023 – DIY Epic Star Wars Reinforcements

Posted on May 9, 2023May 10, 2023 by skinflintgames

I think we may be in danger of starting Yet Another Skinflint Tradition here… over the last couple of years, regular viewers will have seen me appropriate the granny grating techniques that Dan picked up to scratchbuild some Epic scale Star Wars armies, in a somewhat ambitious attempt to recreate one of my favourite old RTS games, “Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds” on the tabletop. It’s also served as an incubator for our “epic scale” version of the Apocalypse: Earth rules, nd believe it or not these are actually in a pretty good state, albeit existing as stapled together Post-It notes and scattered pages of A4 paper!

So this year I figured the Galactic Empire And Rebel Alliance might fancy having a crack at Outpost 44 again, after a pretty tasty fight last year, but this time with some extra support. In SWGB everyone gets basically the same units, albeit with different sprites and different upgrades to differentiate them, so I’ve been building each force to be symmetrical – we started with an infantry company, a pair of speeder bikes and of course Luke & Vader to lead them, and since then they’ve had reinforcements in the shape of a support platoon with heavy blasters and a squadron of mechs each.

This time I wanted to add an aerial dimension – so what else but a flight of TIE fighters for the Empire and X-Wings for the Alliance? And if you’re going to have air, you need anti-air assets, so that meant infantry packing SAMs.. and while I’ve got the granny grating out, why not add infantry packing personal mortars able to provide indirect fire support? Well, it would be rude not to, right? In fairness, I’ve no idea if this is “canon”, but Star Wars lore seems infinitely malleable depending on who owns the IP – and let’s not forget George Lucas was making it all up as he went along anyway – so I decided to stick by SWGBs template!

Right, enough talk, let us get to business – I won’t go into the infantry because it’s pretty much the standard drill now, granny grating & hot glue, granny grating lengths cut to represent SAM launchers and mortar barrels and bipods, 20mm wine box cardboard for basing, you can read all about that in innumerable posts on this blog… and, well, I clearly forgot to take any pictures. Whoops.

But the interesting stuff is here – the ships! X Wings first: