Prehistoric. Terrain 1

As with all my games, it does not take me long to start itching for some terrain, and this project will be no different. because I am looking at a European, early Ice Age I can reuse some of the terrain I have already put together for mt Erin and Dark Age projects. More foliage will always be useful and I have had some wooded sections on my lists for some time.

I started with an obligatory cave, had some spare bark chippings, and a hot glue gun so quickly put together a little outcrop.

Cardboard framework and front roof, I want to be able to use the inside as well and can always use it to represent the entrance to a larger cave system off-board

Sides and front built up with bark chippings 

gaps and extra texture added with All-purpose filler

Extra texture added to the base and structure with sand and gravel

Initial dark grey coats before layers of dry brushing and washes

An extra section was made up for the roof. not a complete fit but enough for when not in use

Completed Cave with the other bark terrain pieces 

Top view. 

After the painting foliage was added, flock and Static Grass, tufts and my own mix of ground debris which is made up from birch seeds, garden debris, tea leaves and several types of dried herbs

Inside the cave 

Cave paintings. Bull hunt and stylized sun.

(Not sure about these and may go back and redo at some point.)

Prehistoric. Animals

First on the paint table for my new Prehistoric project is the animals. 

Starting with these would also give me a chance to decided on the basing style. In a change from my usual generic bases, I went for heavy forest undergrowth with patches of snow. I would not need to play them in a variety of environments, which is always my reluctance to make too much of bases so they look out of place. 

Great Black Bear from Deezee

Jaguar and Wolf from Deezee

Wild Dogs from Deezee which I have painted up as Shar-Pei

Two Wolves made by Hinchliffe Miniatures. These are OOP and have been sitting in a box for decades, nice to finally give them a place.

Giant Snake made by RAFM, another salvage from the box 

Group Beast shot.

Planned expansion will be some more Deezee wolves to make a full pack, and then some herds, Auroch and Mammoth.

Arcane scenery and models

Prehistoric.Begining

History has always been a keen interest of mine and it doesn't take much to hook me into a new one. Recently I read Bernard Cornwalls Stonehenge, I have been a fan of his books originally from the Sharpe series (well before the TV show) and then his Aurtherian and Saxon novels, with that in mind I picked up this one. Set in an imagined Bronze Age England it follows the conflict between two settlements, a ruling family and the construction of Stonehenge.

A rich setting on its own, I already have similar games with Saga and Erin but after reading I was inspired to look even further back into prehistory and early man, the potential for some interesting narrative themes with hunting and survival as well as inter-tribal warfare between different hominid groups,

For background material, I read online and used Youtube to get a better view of early man, and how quickly the picture has changed about that period and different hominid species.

Youtube Prehistory Playlist

For lighter reading, I have picked up Jean M. Auel's Earths Children series, the Famous Clan of the Cave Bear and Steven Baxters Mammoth series.

There are several companies producing miniatures but I settled on the Cave Men Tribe from the Deezee line by Arcane Scenery and Models

Arcane Scenery and Models

Excellent communication and very fast delivery, I can easily recommend the Company. The figures came needed a very little cleanup and are made with solid metal. As well as the ten-man tribe I also picked up a bear and several other animals. They sell a full range of ancient Fauna including several excellent Mammoths which I plan on picking up in the future.

Along with the figures I will be going through some of the rule sets available and reviewing them as well as looking into writing my own.

Doctor Who.Robot 2

Cycling through my various projects I have found myself back on Doctor Who. 

Back with the Robot Project, I have started on the rest of my SRS troops (some more WW2 NKVD) and felt it was time to bite the bullet and get some companions and Doctors done!

First off is Sarah Jane Smith. The outfit is from her time with the Third Doctor and the photo I used as a guide from The Time Warrior

Next is Harry Sullivan with the guide photo from The Ark in Space

Not actually in the RObot story but had K9 to hand so added him 

The Doctor at last! This will be my first Doctor for the collection and have matched him up with photos from the episode

This costume went through quite a lot of tweaks throughout the series such as the scarf becoming a red cravat but wanted to get it as close as possible to the story

Production photo but perfect scarf guide!

The whole Team.

Now back to green...SRS and then UNIT!

Relics. Vaettir 2

Work has continued on my Relics Vaettir, I would like to be able to paint enough to be able to field them before I move back onto another faction, possibly the Britanan's as they are now have the least painted ( excluding Mercenaries!)

After enjoying painting my first two Vstonin I was able to picked up another from ebay (under the heading of 'Goblin Champion'!) to make up a pair. As with the others I filed down some parts and added Baking Soda texture. I had an arm missing so cut the blade to one handed and built a new arm out of GS to take another shield.

Pinned and glued and metal wire to take the GS arm

Completed Vstonin Units

Inspired by this paint guide by Epic Duck Studio Youtube

They have several other Relics figure guides as well as huge selection of other painting resources. 

Epic Duck Studio

I worked on the Evocatours next. They are multipart figures and I most were too slim to pin so i reinforced the superglue with GS. The figures have three legs with the front leg raised. To add some variety I created a straight leg with small rod (paper clip) and GS

Completed Evocatours

Between the others I also painted up a couple of the Elvspon.

They will show off the faction colour, each type will be a different shade so the ball sculpt will be a lighter purple again.

So far the total painted force is at 98 points and I have started assembling a Vaelad and Huntawalu which require a fair amount of pinning and GS after which i will look at some troop options, probably the Hunta.

The UnSeelie Court

Relics. Britanan 2. The Fort P1

As part of my Relics project, I planned on building a terrain piece for each Faction and for Britanan's it is a colonial style wooden fort.

The base model is a Medieval Fortress kit from Zvezda models

The kit is an easy assemble with the four towers and four wall sections. Scale wise it fits perfectly with the Britanan's as a small frontier outpost.

The roof sections stand on four posts.I have left them unglued so I can access the tower tops

The kit comes with 8 ladders as accessories

rather than cut into the plastic and enlarge the tower entries I constructed doors of the right size. 

One issue withe model, the join between tower sections is clearly visible and ruins the image of log built, I corrected this by using a Dremel to sand down the sections.

Decking was added to the tower tops and the walkways were planked to allow for the wider bases.

Based glued and covered in filler to helm secure and add textures.

Relics. Britanan. 1

With most of the other Relics factions getting moved up my painting list I thought I would check in on my Britanan's as well!

Excluding the recent Maverick Mike and his Boys and the musings for a separatist force styled on the Continental Army, I had already done a test figure for the Britanan's in traditional red

As I write down all the paint schemes I use, there was no problem in copying the look and settled on a bomber. On the official photo the bomb is on the same stand as the bomber but I decided to give it is own stand which makes it lies cramped but also allows for the possibility of some home-brew rules and the trooper surviving to get another bomb!