15mm Shanty Town

On Saturday I picked up some 15mm shanty buildings. The masters were made by Rodge and then cast in resin and painted by Shaun.

There are 3 buildings - two large and one small

I've set them alongside so of my Peter Pig AK47 forces

These are the two large ones

The small one is on the left

I was outside taking the photos when it started to rain...

... the sun came out

There are some lovely bits of detail on these shacks

Just the right size for 15mm

Although my bases are a little bit too thick

The shacks will also go well with my 15mm Sci-Fi kit - District 9 anyone?

They are on sale as a pack of 3 unpainted buildings for the outrageous sum of £10 plus £3.50 p&p tn the UK. Shaun doesn't have a website so if you want any then email him at dreamholme (at) aol (dot) com

Apparently there are going to be some more variations based on the masters.

Star Wars Pod Racing in 6mm

One can always find something to whet the appetite at Stroud's markets on a Saturday such as herb infused olive oil, chilli and paprika sausages, pepper crusted goats cheese and ..err... 6mm Pod Racing.

Shaun of dreamholme scenics has a stall opposite Costas where he sells jewelry, resin terrain, Games Workshop bits and pieces and various other things. He usually has a small game going on - cowboys, zombies, ww2 etc. This week it was 6mm Pod Racing. 

The previous week he had downloaded a set of Pod Racing rules and, because he has way too much spare time, knocked up several Pod Racers using GW 40k weapons, back packs etc over the week.

I had a quick try and managed to hammer my pod into a canyon wall. We are going to give it a go at the club on Monday night

Nice one Shaun!

6mm Shanty Town - painted

I've had a busy day - strolled into Stroud, bought some 6mm resin futuristic buildings from Shaun at Dreamholme Scenics, did lunch with my wife, strolled back home, did a post on the buildings, listened to Forest Green Rovers beat Gateshead 2-1on BBC Gloucestershire, painted buildings, listened to Sunderland beat Arsenal 2-0 in FA Cup on Five Live, continued to paint buildings, ate superb Thai Green Curry cooked by my wife, watched Inspector Montalbano on TV and finally posted this blog - what a great day.

I found the 6mm shanty buildings easy to paint. Shaun has put loads of detail into them with tarpaulins, corrugated sheets, planks and a lot more. I managed to avoid all of those and went for my usual dry-brush approach.

I use 75ml tester pots from Wilkinson  (Wilco) for terrain as they have a really good range of colours. I undercoated the buildings and bases in Java Bean and then dry-brushed the bases in Coffee and Sand

I blocked in the buildings with GW Adeptus Battlegrey and then did a wash with Badab Black. Finally I dry brushed with Coat D'arms Horse Tone - Bay and Wilco Sand.

A proper shanty town will have a lot more colour variation - I know that the buildings Shaun painted have loads of variety. My excuse is that this town is built entirely from a single crashed space ship. However I will be purchasing more of these and as I can never remember what colours I used then the next batch will be a different shade.

Once again an  Epic Rhino is prowling the street to provide a scale guide.

6mm Shanty Town

Shaun from Dreamholme Scenics has just produced some very tasty 6mm resin futuristic shanty town buildings.

I picked these up at his Saturday stall in Stroud - 6 different buildings for £5.

I've put an Epic Rhino in to give some idea of the size

10mm Trenches

If you have read my previous postings you may have noticed that I am keen on the RJW

A common feature of the RJW is the trench ranging from the covered concrete constructions found around Port Arthur to the shallow ditches used by both sides from the Yalu to Mukden.

I had certain criteria to be met. I wanted ...

• trenches that looked as though they had just been dug ie no time to fit planking or sandbags
  
• the trenches to be narrow - my bases are 15mm deep so anything up to 20mm would be ok
  
• variation ie straight sections, curved sections, t-juction
  

Using Google I spent a couple of weeks looking at the various trenches on offer.

Down at the Berkeley Vale club KiwiDave has a load of trenches from Ironclad Miniatures. They are meant to be 15mm but work well with his 10mm WW2 kit. They have loads of variation but were too neat and too wide (30mm) for me. I would recommend them for WW1 and later conflicts

I came across a link to Daft Casting who do a really lovely set of 10mm trenches. I especially liked the large footprint as this allowed for the ground to rise up to the trench naturally. The straight section has a couple of zigzags to give it variation. Although the sides of the trenches had been planked I was tempted to go with this range.

Another of the club members is Shaun. He runs Dreamholme which produces some very nice resin scenery. He had just painted some RJW Russians for me and I mentioned that I was looking for some trenches. A few weeks later he turns up with a set of trenches that ticks all of the boxes for me. So he managed to sneak some planks along the floor of the trench.

There are 4 types of trench - straight, curved, T and end section

The figures are all 10mm Pendraken RJW Japanese, They are based on 30mm x 15mm MDF stands which are 2mm high

The trench is very basic as I wanted it to represent hastily dug trenches

The trench is wide enough to fit 20mm bases.

The curved section is not quite 45 degrees but it allows the trench to zig-zag

Troops fit into it which is useful

The T junction works as a trench exit and as a link to a communications trench

Finally we have the end section

Here is a selection of the pieces put together

A very nice set of trench pieces suitable for a hasty defensive line.

I've just started painting them so will do another post when they are done

Shaun hasn't put these on his web-site yet and I'm not sure of the price so if you are interested then drop him an email at dreamholme at aol dot com for more information.