Movies On the Horizon

Ok, few more new trailor of an up coming film I have not linked yet;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWxoE7ij8xE&feature=related  Well, this is a spoof on Matrix, good though!

Smoke

Thought it was time to make up some exsplosion and fire counters for various purposes and uses in the assorted games:

So, here are the basic materials, metal bases, you can use washers, steel wool and hot glue gun. Pull the steel wool into shapeless tall columns and move to next step after all pieces are shaped. I did 8 columns for bases.

Hot glue a large ring around some of the base of the column to make sure its where you want it, rather than onto the metal base and hope the steel wool hits where you want it. If its not quiet where you want it after you press it to the metal base, stick the

Hot glue gun under the edge of the column and shoot some more in, and press the wool down. You end up a shapeless  column attached to the base. Next comes the spray painting.

First I sprayed white, very close over all of the wool columns. Let it dry. Paint was a bit drippy but it helps protect the smoke wool bits. Next on the right are the black spray paint. I started from overhead and then streaked it on the sides of the columns, making darker black areas on the top of the columns and lighter towards the bases. Touch up with black and white till your liking what your seeing. Finally you use an old beat up brush to slap lots of red here and there around areas of the bases and up a ways. Repeat immediatly with Yellow paint, over lap, just pat it on, do not try to work it around or it all turns orange, some orange is fine, but other wise you lose the red and yellow.

And here is my final work. Fast, looks decent and cost next to nothing from exsisting left over materials that were in my hobby stock.

Jungle Filler Placards Done

Quick note that I have ground out all the Jungle filler pieces I think I will need in the forseable future. Held myself to it for most of 3 days of hobby assembly time to get there:

Few of the pieces did not make it into the picture, just swept these onto the work mat and snapped the shot.

Items for Asian Temples

Picked these up the other day, perfect for the top steps, flanking the temple main door.

How to Hot Glue Plant Bundles

Having found that tight gripping plastic plant bits to hot glue the bottoms so as to make short plants to mix in with the taller ones, I had a tendency to get the very short clusters to meet my finger tips with the hot glue gun on occasion. A loaf of bread gave me the answer with the twist tie that secured it.  So here I have on the left the As Purchased plant part, and on the right I have the twist tie wrapped tightly around it.

Severing the plant with Xacto knife we have the following result. The cut off piece goes into the bits box and the rest is ready for hot glueing. Care should be used as the plastic is very soft and putting muscle behind the cut can ruin the edge of the blade very quickly.  I leave the twist tie on till after its hot glued of course, using the tie to hold the piece for the glue gun.

Jungle Vegetation

Working up some Jungle undergrowth for some of the various RPGs I do. So, pulled out the plastic leaf stock bin, base material, hot glue gun and off I went.

So here's the first stem of a plant-to-be. I did not want to use standard shaped plants, but some more large leaf types, which means reassembling some. Upper right in the picture is the original plastic leaf stem. Upper left is the disassembled leafs and a part of the stem hot glued to my assembly plate, a piece of metal. This makes it very easy to pop the finished piece off to put on the Jungle Foliage piece.

And repeat with the hot glue, dab of glue, push into place, next!

Large leaves on the bottom and work my way up, 3 fit per level without crowding and give a fairly "full" look to the plant.

Some of the leaves need a bit of support and breath of cooling air to set up faster and not droop. Picture on the right has the finished bush. I made up several at a time to then mix in with other types of plants.

Such as this one, a usual spread out ring of upright leaves that I have clipped the bottom of all of the leaves at the mounting ring while holding them tightly bundled with my fingers. After the bottom ring base was clipped off I Hot Glued the whole bottom area of the many stems to make it a tighter grouping of leaves, the height can be adjusted by trimming them shorter and hot gluing at that point. Next, combining a variety together.

Here are some sample finished pieces of basic assembly. A bit of dead leaf matter, some grass material, dried planter moss, to fill in here and there. And there you have it.

Battle of the Atlantean Ruins

Both Prussian and British forces having established their beach head bases dispatched patrols out to seek contact with any native habitations that might be nearby to initiate contact and begin studies. The terrain being very marsh like and hot lead to slow progress, till both sited what a first was thought to be a village or even small town but turned out to be a ruined temple of some past glory. Both the Prussian and British patrols raced to secure them.

The Race is on. British from a southerly approach, the Prussians from the north. Ruins with in grasp of both, literally a foot race.

Both sides occupy opposite ends of the ruins. Shouted commands to withdraw or "else" go unheeded. Orders go out that any further approach to the ruins by the Prussians and deadly force will be employed to secure them.

Heavy rifle fire sends the Prussian right flanking unit reeling back to the heavy jungle brush. The left flanking unit tries to return fire but seems to be in a state of confusion from the soggy ground they have tried to dig into. Fire continues back and forth but fate is against the British as 2 more units of Prussians arrive on the scene and press forward.

Fire on the both British Units becomes brutal as the Prussians find the range and shake out their lines. Alas the British have to fall back, into the arms of their late to arrive reinforcements.

The Prussians are strongly entrenched but are surprised by the unexpected speed of the British advance! Their ragged volley inflicts but one casualty! 2 light tanks fire but their ranging is off and merely add some tense moments at first.

Capt Klinq orders his men to resist to the death! One suspects that his troopers are from very outlying parts of Prussia as their continued rifle fire remains very ineffective encouraging the British to charge the ruins.

Getting the initative, my stalwart infantry charge across the open ground and into hand to hand melee with the dug in defenders. After a vicious round of melee, the Prussian position is penetrated and the melee spills into the trenches.

Not pictured is the demise of one of the supporting light tanks to the Prussian artillery after an exchange of fire left the vehicle pouring smoke and crew bailing out. The second tank pounded the extreme left portion of the Ruins, causing cumulative casualties.  The supporting infantry unit that was to move up and support the melee was cut to pieces from some really good shooting ... they got the range right or some such! Melee continued with the Prussians being forced slowly back, but attrition was to fail as another Prussian unit shifted out of their trenches and counter attacked, driving the valiant Brit unit back in disorder leaving the ruins in the hands of the Prussians. Surviving members of the British Infantry and last tank withdrew back to the beachhead.

New Movie Trailors

And here are a few more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siQgD9qOhRs&NR=1&feature=fvwp Iron Man 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGhfUq66ADQ&feature=channel   The Warlords , been out awhile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkCsqB803vE&feature=PlayList&p=4E7284AB3A0BFC7B&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1
                 The Last Airbender, fantasy - scifi mix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7h3EnPKRB4&feature=PlayList&p=42DE1FF5022B2B36&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=17
            Spiderman 4 seems to be delayed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-cIjPOJdFM&feature=fvw  Zombieland, now out on dvd

Painted This Year to Date

Thought I would line up and take pictures of what I have painted, repainted or detailed then based up for my Pulp Action rpg use. I have been ordering and working on them a lot, but am holding to it to get them done and ready, so here goes:

Whew... a lot of loading, more to go..

Light Walker Tanks for Kapt Kneemo's Expeditionary Force

Found these vehicles from the Star Wars line of figures and figure that they would work in well with Kapt Kneemo's Force:

Only painting I might do is a Unit symbol or Number.

Mechanified Infantry Modifications

Took the standard Mage Knight Infantry Golems figure and decided to do some modifications to make him a bit more VSFish.  So, as was figures on the left, right out of the order box. Soooooo "clik" went the spikes on his feet, and then a tedious, slow, careful trimming of the romanesk skirt hanging in the front to be removed. Success! no figures lost a leg in the trimming and no blood shed!

Next the crossbow had to go, even with the shoulder drum to feed it...it looked out of place. So enter the plastic and cut and trim, bit of glue and this picture shows the finished belt fed gun. I left the sword for close in work! Will work up a bronze over all color with unit highlights and probably unit number on a leg next. Well, one converted, 9 more to go....they just don't seem willing to convert themselves.

Here is a shot, if you click on the picture it will enlarge and show some of the gun detail better. Might put one more bit on the gun... maybe not.
Painting ahead.

Paint Table Creaures WIP Update

So staying at the painting table for the last day: