15mm Roads

Last year I was looking at urban roads to add to my 15mm terrain for Flames of War. As nice as the Battlefield in a Box roads are, they're quite expensive, so I looked at making my own.

I had tried a variety of materials for roading in the past. The most successful was railway ballast glued to felt as gravel, but I was after a sealed look this time. EVA foam looked okay, but curls with age and is so light that it blows away in the slightest draught. MDF is rigid so doesn’t conform to terrain.

In the end I went with 1.5mm rubber sheet. This was $40/metre on a 1.2m wide roll from Para Rubber (https://pararubber.co.nz/industrial-rubber-strip/692-rubber-insertion-sheet.html).

I cut it into 3" wide strips, scuffed the surface with sandpaper (otherwise the glue beads up), brushed  on PVA, and covered it with budgie sand. Once the glue was dry and the excess brushed off, I sprayed it with flat black to help seal it. Using an art foam roller, I rolled on grey acrylic paint. It would have been quicker to spray them grey, but the hope was a heavier coat of acrylic would help give the surface some durability. The total cost worked out to be about NZ$1/foot.

The rubber scuffed up with sandpaper

Gluing down the sand

After being rolled with paint

The finished product

On the reverse side I am working through rolling on the grey paint without any sand, and adding centreline markings, for when I want a more modern look for Team Yankee.

Here are some photos of it in action in a game late last year.

Black Seas Conversions

This is a post where I probably get a whole lot of nautical terminology wrong, but this week I’ve been working on a couple of conversions for Black Seas.

The first is a Gunboat Squadron.

I decided that the boats in the stock kit looks a little too much like a trireme for my liking, so set about modifying them. 

How the kit is meant to look

I added bowsprits made from brass rod, removed the original mainsails and replaced them with gaff-rigged ones. 

Modifications with 1mm brass rod

The resin Warlord has used is quite ductile, so it drilled easily without fracturing. You may not see them in the photos, but there are 1mm holes drilled for rigging just above the waterline, on a line right between the two cannons. Apart from the metal topsail, the other sails were made from paper, based off the ones in the brig kit.

The second conversion was a 12-gun Sloop made from the 18-gun Brig kit.

I sliced out the four middle guns with a razor saw, and joined the resulting halves together, while also removing the rear-most pair of guns and placing the mast slightly aft of where the main mast was on the brig. From the mast I removed the lower two yards. The result is a little bit fat, probably by about 2mm, but the surgery that would be required to remove that extra width from the kit doesn't bear thinking about.

The hull after joining the halves together

The bits that were removed

I’ve used the headsails and spanker from the Third Rate kit while keeping the Brig kit’s topgallant. With the spanker boons from the Brig being too small for the 3rd Rate sail, I could have used the ones from the Third Rate, but wasn’t prepared to cannibalise the kit to that extent, so the brass rod came out again to make new ones. 

Sloop next to a Brig

Both the Gunboats and the Sloop should see action in the Smuggler’s Run campaign, hopefully kicking off in March.

Richard's January

At the start of the year I set myself eight goals for 2020, with the intention of posting my progress at the end of each month. So, how did I go during January?

1. Painting 28mm FJ. 

I painted the pants on another squad, and bought a StuG to support them. I guess that counts as progress?

2. Find a set of WW2 rules that I enjoy playing in 28mm.

A couple of ideas for systems have been kicked around by people at the club, so I'm sure something will happen with this.

3. Paint a Landsknecht square for Impetus.

I took a few figures out of their boxes, looked at them, freaked out and put them away again.

4. Complete a Black Seas fleet box. 

I've been a bit all over the place on this. Last year I was heading towards a Spanish fleet box, but then I received USS Constitution for Christmas, so began looking at the US version. But then Warlord Games released their 'Smuggler's Run' campaign, and it looks great. So rather than a fleet box, I'm going to change this goal to be the ships for the campaign, both my own company and HM Customs.

My smuggling company will start with the two brigs and the frigate that I originally painted up as Spanish, and I will add to it when the Schooners and Merchants are released next month (assuming business is good and the company can afford new ships...), the incentive being that I can't add a ship to my roster until I have a painted model of it.

For the British, I need the following to be able to field all of the combinations that the campaign can throw at you:

• 1 x First Rate
• 1 x Third Rate
• 2 x Frigate
• 3 x Brig
• 1 x Sloop
• 2 x Cutter
• 3 x Schooner
• 2 x Gunboat Squadron

So, in January I painted and rigged two Royal Navy Brigs.

I still have have two Brigs and two Frigates left from the starter box, plus a box each of the Third Rates and Gunboats, so will continue by working on those in February. I will get the Schooners when they are released, and maybe even see if I can convert the second of my spare Brigs into a Sloop.

5. Try out Battlegroup: NORTHAG, and write a review. 

It sounds like this will be released at Salute in April.

6. Complete some of the random FOW platoons that I have lying around. 

I haven't painted anything, but I've had a good look through the pile, and have a bit of a plan.

• Early War British - complete this army by painting some armoured cars and Vickers MkVIb.
• Mid War British - repaint and rebase my old 8th Army support weapons to match my more recent work.
• Late War British - rebase my infantry company, and paint the kits that I have in order to make a 100pt force under the upcoming D-Day: British book.

I've also cleared the decks a bit by selling most of my MW British Armour, and may do another pass through the collection at some point because, to be honest, I have way too much FOW.

7. Syrians for Team Yankee.

No progress.

8. Put together an event or campaign of some kind. 

This is going to be the Smuggler's Run campaign.

Overall Theme: Uncompleted Projects

I've already failed here. I had toyed around with buying into 40K when the Chaos new releases came out last year, but in the end decided against it. Then this month I saw the Adeptus Mechanicus Pteraxii and Serberys Sulphurhounds that were announced at LVO, and I was immediately grabbed by the aesthetic.

Rather than going crazy and jumping straight in, I have picked up a second hand set of Skitarii Rangers sprues to see whether I like the models. They are my first ever GW models, never having played any of their games, and my first impressions are that they're amazing. The casts are beautiful, the sprues are packed with parts, and I'm looking forward to painting them.

January Summary

• Models Painted: 2
• Leadpile Size: Increased
• Month Rating: Poor