Why is life so busy? I need to retire and simply build and blog! Ben suggested we send out occasional updates on what we are working on. Like most gamers/ modelers etc.. I tend to have a lot of irons in the fire and summer makes it all the more challenging with family and work obligations.

Unfortunately Ben and I had to put our Stalingrad campaign on hold for the time being as spring went way too fast and he disappears camping during the summer. I took the opportunity to work on some Normandy terrain in the meantime, but eventually the call of Stalingrad called me back. In addition, I gave Kick Ass mail Order some of my hard earned money, buying a number of vehicles I’ve had my eye on for a while. For Father’s Day my son was gracious enough to get me an airbrush. I have no idea what I’m doing yet, but look forward to using it on the upcoming vehicle builds. As this article will be long enough I’m going to skip the vehicle update for now and focus on the terrain.

I got a good deal on some Sarissa Precision rowhouses a while back that I decided to have a go at. I added some texture as they are very plain and did the roof in a plastic Spanish Tile I found on Amazon. Unfortunately like a dumbass and being super excited for the project, I originally placed them on perpendicular grrrr…. Thankfully Ben caught my error. I decided that the glue I used was much too strong and I’d end up ripping the roof so I simply placed another sheet over the top which was still a pain in the ass, but I was able to salvage them. Thanks Ben! I have more work to do on the buildings yet such as ivy, signage, highlights and the insides, but they were good enough to field for a game or two to cleanse my pallete from Stalingrad for a bit.

I worked on some other row houses as well. My favorite being the “edge of the board” terrace house by Charlie Foxtrot models. Great kit, but pretty basic so I added some window sills and some other features, such as a few extra roof tiles to cover the mdf connections on the roof as those are typically annoying to me. I will be adding more to it in the future as well. Just wanted to get it playable for now. I will admit I’m a bit of a terrain/ miniature snob with my own stuff as I don’t like putting anything out without at least some paint on it or some level of completion. Other people’s stuff or terrain is their business so it doesn’t bother me.

I got some Rubicon picket fences through Kick Ass. Excellent kit that honestly I can’t say enough good things about. It also made a ton of fences. It included several sign posts I can fill up with more details on directions to places I’ve never been to, but hope one day to visit. That being said I’ll probably pick up another set to make some winter fences. Highly recommend this kit.

I decided to spruce up my bocage I had made a while back. I added spring leaves from Green Stuff World to the top of the Hobby Lobby dried lichen as well as small viny branches I collected from the woods behind my house. I felt it gave it a much thicker, overgrown look. Simple yet effective I think. Pretty happy with the results.

While I was at it I figured I’d better make some new fields as well from flexible door mats. I cut several rectangles out, sprayed them black, then brown and finally highlighted them a lighter brown. They still looked too “rugy” so I thickened up some paint with sand and gooped some on, spreading it out and scattering in some stones to give more of a field look. Not perfect, but it serves its purpose, especially when greenery is added to really sell it.

Very often my projects are pretty much unplanned and I go with whatever strikes me at the moment. This can lead to to moments of beautiful sporadic inspiration and other times a project just never getting done. However the greatest pay off is I always enjoy what I’m working on. When it becomes a chore it obviously becomes less enjoyable.

A completely unplanned project I started was a railway embankment and overpass for my Stalingrad board. I decided to make it an edge piece as I didn’t want it completely dividing sections of the table. I decided to go pretty basic and while maybe not the most structurally sound by real world standards, it should work for game purposes. In hindsight I should have made it a bit taller, but the 2″ polystyrene bases would work.

I cut out rough slopes with my trusty old bread knife I “stole” from my mom when I was a young terrain builder and surprisingly still use to this day. I went over them with Sculptamold to give it texture and round out the embankment edge. I then spread a gritty coarse sand mixture all over it, taking care to add minimal roughness to the area the track bed or even a road may be. I used the gluing time to seal up all the exposed foam and tried to break off big obnoxious chunks. Once sealed I primed it black.

I then painted on several shades of browns, attempting to remember the colors I used on my Stalingrad sandy board. Eventually I flocked with several types of ballast, flock and sand to close in on a match. The supporting walls then became an issue. I attempted first to roll a brick texture on. It didn’t work very well. I then decided to use foam board with the paper striped off one side and roll on a brick texture. Bleh… didn’t turnout well either. Currently I’m going to lightly texture it and make it concrete.

The bridges turned out much better. Basically used a balsa wood base and cut wood strips to the right length and laid them out to form the planking. I wasn’t sure what I was going to use for the supports and tried a few options before settling on wood posts. However as this is one of those projects I’m just going with instinct instead of properly planning so there is some trial and error. So this might all change yet! This method also works well for me in the sense it gives me a chance to try multiple ideas or techniques and really experiment with what works and what doesn’t. This is not to say I do that all the time, because sometimes mistakes are costly so it’s really a case by case basis.

Last terrain project, as of late, was painting up a bunch of furniture accessories for use in several game systems. I had some furniture I had acquired a while back, but got a huge haul at Adepticon this year for a participation prize from a Bolt Action scenario game we played. The giveaway was a big box full of Mantic Terrain 28-32mm terrain (mostly furniture) for a number of games. So I painted a bunch up as I feel it adds a ton of realism to whatever I’m playing.

Well that’s it for now. I post pretty regular updates on my Misfit Machinations FB page if you want more pics. Upcoming projects I’m looking at are finishing the embankment, some burned out ruins and continuing to work on the pile of grey shame at my work bench. Until next time…