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Monday, August 31, 2020

Skirmish Games and Scatter Terrain, Part 3: Reaper Miniatures Egyptian Range

Pay Day!

Reaper Miniatures has some fantastic Egyptian "Scatter Terrain" and figures for use in Pulp Gaming, Victorian Sci-Fi, or just plain fantasy gaming. First up is the Egyptian Cat Statue from their Dark Heaven Legends line.



The Egyptian Jackal Statue from the same line:



And number three: A statue of Anubis.



And my personal favorite, The Egyptian Sarcophagus:


They did not think fezzes are cool.


Take off the lid . . .



 . . . the pharoah's casket.



 Which comes out of the sarcophagus.

 Which also reveals a mummy inside.

I purchased just a small sample of Reaper has to offer; they have a sitting statue of Horus, guards, small treasures, large treasures, etc. Plenty of offerings to add to the proper atmosphere of an Egyptian Adventure.





Friday, August 28, 2020

Skirmish Games and Scatter Terrain, Part 2: A 3D printed Rock Bridge


For Father's Day, Honorable Son #3 (The Engineer) sent me a bridge that he had printed on his 3D printer. He got the pattern free from Thingiverse.com for free and the cost of the PLA material for his printer was about US $3.00.


Above you can see the original bridge and the material is sturdy and light weight. Honorable Son #3 was concerned that the size wasn't quite right so I immediately took some pictures with my handy phone to show him it was perfect for 28mm (and similar scales).

 Perfect spacing for standing on the rock bridge.





I already had some resin terrain from Gale Force 9's Battlefield in a Box line of terrain so I wanted the bridge to match the coloring. I wish I would have made notes about the browns, washes, and dry brushing I did but I didn't. Basically I "eyeballed" it and tried to get it as close as I could. When finished it a spray a clear matte protective coating.






 Success! Notice the waving lines from the printer - who cares? At gaming distance that can't be seen and recently I saw some similar patterns in the great State of Colorado.

 Not a perfect match in color - but pretty darn close.


 Looks great on the table top.



Next: Some purchased scatter terrain.

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Skirmish Games and Scatter Terrain, Part 1a


A quick update on some other recent scatter terrain I made since I wrote the previous blog with some various pictures for scale and showing the basing and supports.









Change in Comments - It's not you!

"When I find them they will suffer the most painful deaths imaginable!"

Hi all! This is a blog about gaming and painting for hobbyists; and frankly, I have fun writing it and sharing my figures, games and thoughts. Unfortunately over the last month, spammers have also found my blog and are taking advantage of the comments section. Dr. Fu Manchu is not amused. Unfortunately, I'm going to change the settings for comments for me to approve all comments before publication.


Again, it's not you. As Captain Haddock would say, "It's those Blue Blistering Bell-Bottomed Balderdash Cushion footed quadruped Spammers!"  Thanks for your understanding.

Monday, August 24, 2020

Skirmish Games and Scatter Terrain, Part 1


I still play big battles, most notably the English Civil War, Fantasy Battle, 19th Century Colonial battles, Dark Ages, etc.; but over the last 5 years I have really caught the skirmishing bug due to the rules In Her Majesty's Name and Pulp Alley. Terrain plays a role in big battles, but with games where one figure represents one figure - you really do need that terrain piece to duck behind when that expert marksman is shooting at you! Plus it makes the game look cool.


Yep, those are rocks. I found them on walks in the woods with my Danger Dog War Poodles. I first washed them and you can see that three of them I have painted flat services with Vallejo Dark Flesh and have left the others with their natural looks. One rock is already glued to a 25mm circular stand as a test.

Now that I'm a bit older (ahem!) I make sure that I keep up an active lifestyle and one of my preferred activities is walking four to six miles a day with the dogs. While walking, because we all game on a budget, I keep an eye out for interesting pieces. If you have been following my blog, you know during the "Great Time of Isolation" that I have been working on figures, buildings, and other items for a campaign loosely based on the Amelia Peabody series of books with take place mostly in Egypt from about 1885 to 1922. Well if I'm going to excavate with adventurous archeologists, I better have something for them to do. Thus I've been picking up some interesting rocks and show what I have done so far (more ruins to come).
Enter Mr. Google:




There are so many images available on the internet that it makes it easy to reproduce ruins. The above image is what I am going to primarily use to show how I made some Egyptian ruins plus the examples of the hieroglyphics.


 As I mentioned earlier, I washed the rock and then painted the flat service Vallejo Dark Flesh. I then used black to make the outlines. As I started painting on the rock, I was having trouble keeping lines straight, etc. Then I realized, this are maybe 3,000 to 4,000 years old - plus they are ruins and will be seen at "gaming" distance.

I started filling in the details mainly with Vallejo paints. Again I wasn't worried that it would be perfect; but then I realized I painted the ancient Egyptian ancestor of Marge Simpson.

More details and cleanup.

 

Hieroglyphics are easy. I made them just a little bigger than they would be. I noticed in the images I viewed they were mostly carved in and some were painted. I just decided just to go with black paint. Don't worry about the accuracy. It just has to look like Hieroglyphics and since I'm gaming in 28mm they are perfect for gaming distance. I also figured out - If I make a mistake, hey it's a 4,000 year artifact!

 Using some of the other rocks to support the artifacts and basing them with white glue on wood cut outs I purchased inexpensively at Hobby Lobby (in the USA)


 I use hobby sand on vituraly all of my bases using watered down white glue and then added another layer of watered down white glue.

Ta Dah! Instant, inexpensive scatter terrain that is quick, fun and easy to put together.

I use old CD's to add trees and smaller rocks.


Cave in! Rocks also make great obstacles or cover.



Next up: Some inexpensive 3D printed scatter terrain.