Gaslands wreck - before the gazillion washes, tipping and dust. (basically a 50 cent challenge)

Not much to see....picked a car out of the bag, one of the many bought over the year. Based it, added some spare roadwheels and bits. Left it. Picked it up again for the holiday.

The idea is a Gaslands car that hit...."something" during a race as burned out completely. No team colours left. armour plate on the side and rear windows, a oil or smoke tank on the back with some kind of dropper underneath. This car was meant to lead. And now it is dead.

It is pretty rough now, just basic stippling of a few mixed colours to get the basics. Now it is time for wash after wash after wash......then detailing and dust.

Who's on guard? Part 3 - Filling sandbags. And more sandbags.

My order of greenstuff has arrived so I got cracking on making sandbags. And more sandbags. And more sandbags. Ugh.....

The seperate blastwall is done and ready for basecoat, Might add some more planks to the roofs of the towers...well, maybe. Still need to sort out the MG?light fixings. The Command bunker is coming along nicely as well. Slow Xmas holiday progress I guess, new meds aren't doing the thing to keep me going, near constant headaches. But there is always tomorrow :)

Who's on guard? Part 2 - Multiply by 2

While cleaning the attic I found the other 2 boxes I misplaced.  I had a free hour so I made the bases.

After putting the kids to bed I built the other 2 and now the lot is ready for sandbags on the roof .

The bases I can and will paint seperately, I need to remove one or 2 mouldlines anyway (bit pointless to remove them all beforehand as most won't be visible anyway) and the towers I will paint together with the roofs in one go.

Wrists are holding up ok-ish, plenty of breaks help. Still having massive headaches though, so back to the doc it is.

Who's on guard? Part 1

I could have sworn I had picked up 4 boxes of these, but after opening all 4 boxes one was missing the tower, and 1 contained parts from another set. <sigh>

Base, tower and roof are seperate atm for ease of painting.  I'll build 2 more bases like this for the other 2 so I can build them straight away when they arrive. Also sort out 4 magnetised searchlight mounts / LMG mounts, and discuss with myself if it is smart to add sandbags on top of the roofs.

Northag; Buying the farm - part 3a - The Excavator

And the Excavator is done. Might add some tiny highlights tomorrow before I varnish. Or not.

Northag; Buying the farm - part 3

After a small sacrifice to the Blood God, and bits that have been figthing me all evening.....these 2 conversions are now drying and ready for priming tomorrow.

The arm of the excavator might be a tad too large, but it looks the part.

Northag: Buying the farm - Stables - part 1

Well, I seem to have received Nurgle's blessing so not a lot has been done....

Cleaned up what little needed cleaning on my Leven order, gave everything yet another scrub with degreaser and sanded the 4 barns and epoxied them together to make 2. Clipped off the chimney stacks, regrooved the roof in those locations and did a basic infill with greenstuff.

Not much to show for yet, but hey.

Now to scratchbuild 4 silos to go with the stable, 2 for each, and maybe 2 smaller ones as well. Not sure yet, depends how fast I can make then and if I have the right stuff in my styrene shapes for them.

Not very happy with the size of the storage tanks, they are a bit small for what I have in mind, I might replace it with a 1/700 oil tanks from the harbour set I have, and modify that a bit.

The vehicle shed pipe got a cap as a test of the styrene Leven uses for pipes, but it seems to hold up fine. I'll cut a vehicle in half to glue it to the open side for a 3D effect. The single garage is going on the side of the farmers house. The glasshouse and a small shed will go on seperate allotment.

I can't for the life of me remember why I bought the other big shed. Can't find it in my notes either, so for now it is going in the spares bin for later use.

My Scotia order arrived today, and their MiG-21 is miles better than the H&R one, so I now know what will happen to the H&R ones..... The other models are fine, even if I earmarked them as wrecks, but the casts are so good I will order up a few more. I need a few models for other purposes anyway, but more about that later.

Back to the Future: Desert Town

Remember the 20mm desert town I made a few years ago? And them dumped into boxes for later.

Well, later is now. With my thumb removed from my arse, having a quiet sunday afternoon with the girls crafting and me firing up the airbrush after getting the first box of buildings (Kim was off for a high tea).

So.....1 basecoat of Vallejo RAL8000 airbrush primer later (and a bit of grey primer on some doors for practice).

And the basics are done. And then realised some bases are not completely sanded yet <sigh>.

My high quality phone cam *cough* bullshit *cough* washes it out so much it looks grey, but these are washed with Brown and Black  and then airbrushed on a 45 degree angle with VMC Dark Sand. (just trying out stuff here to get the look)

Slightly better shots of how they look now.

But......my VMC paints are now 10+ years old and in need of replacing. Many have clogged beyond use, and with my more frequent use of the air paints (not just Vallejo but many others) I think it is time to no longer to use them for my airbrush (as all of the cleaning when they clog (and clog they do!) is getting annoying. So, I picked up some AK Real Colours lately, and the AK RC079 CARC Tan (beats me what that means) come damn close to the Dark Sand I used so I am giving that a try, and will highlight it with AK RC041 Portland Stone and that will be the paintbase for all of them.


I grabbed the 3 water trougs as well as they are nice and small practice models. The missing basing sand on a few isn't an issue either, I'll paint the buildings first anyway and the real weathering is done first, and the basing finished last.


The factory/barrack toilets are ready to be primed.....but I can't for the life of me get a colour in my head that is neutral yet fitting. Pictures of the wrecked one are plentiful though, like this one:

On a sad side note: Googling "Open pit latrines" breaks your heart. Drownings, and the amount of people in the world who don't even have this most basic of toilet plus the pics of kids.

Northag: Buying the farm - the actual farm I bought from Leven.

Was pleasantly surprised by the order I made with Leven a while back being handed to my wife (who was a bit less, shall we say, happy about it).

A slow unpack later (everything is individually  wrapped with extra protection on all of the chimneys which is very, very good product care) all the bits are in front of me. Grand total of the order is 30 GBP.

I ordered:
- ACC07 - Garden Accessory Set
- FAR06 - Corrugated Shed
- HOU08 - Detatched Bungalow
- IND03 - Modern Storage Tanks
- IND16 - Joinery Shop
- MIL01 - Airfield MT Workshop (4pcs)

First impression: Leven still makes a great quality product for a nice price. Definately reccomended.

Second impression: The airfield MT Workshops, when viewed from the side, have sag in the front and back. It is a rather large piece and not a major issue, but it is there. The Modern storage tanks, the 2 large ones have the same miscast....but again, no major issue and easily solved with some spare plastic. I washed the pieces in hot soapy water as always, but they were still a bit slippery. I sprayed them with degreaser but after that that it still felt very smooth. With my current "hand-issue" I have a bit of trouble feeling is the resin is just very smooth or still has some mould release on it.

I'll start with the Airfield shops as I want to want to make 4 identical pieces that all have their own feed storage, clean up the very few resin bubbles and then give them a good scrub again, add some details and glue them to nails for painting. But more on that later.

It might smell a bit funny - part 1

As I'm waiting for parts I was cleaning my harddrive of no longer needed bits, and ran across a picture of the S&S toilet block for Africa (or other places).

Which I like, but let's face it.... not paying 10 quid each plus shipping for a bubbly cast that needs fixing, cleaning and basing anyway. So, a few bits of scrap foam, a plasticcard base and cardboard for the panels later, I have the basics for a very shitty toilet on the left, a UN sponsored toilet on the right that I need to add a handwash basin on the side and a privacy wall in the front of the doors, and a army barracks/factory toilets in the back. So I get to paint a well made, a ok one and one that has gone completely to shit.....jay.

As it is now planned, paint the army one this week first, while doing finishing work on the other 2 when I have the time so something might be done in between.

What a difference a 2 weekly Life coach makes.

Heleen has been my Life coach for 2 months now, and we did work in the attic and living room to make it all a lot less messy. And now we are tackling my hobby room so I actually have space to work, paint and photograph to sell stuff. Granted, I can't do a whole lot without frequent breaks, but I sure do work.

So I've gone from this:

To this:

The last eyesore is the gamestable full of stuff, but I will be hitting that between now and the next session. Also I need to put the AB back in its hidey hole.

Air Raid sirens / speakers - a trip down memory lane - completed

...and with the base done and the varnish dry, the speakers are ready to dispense the word of God/Allah/El Presidente.

Northag: Buying the farm - part 2, subsection A

Had a spare hour so painted the little stinker. Airbrush base for the yellow, and then just 2 dozen washes and detailing. Looking forward to receiving the scenery I ordered so I can modify it and put it on the final base.

Air Raid sirens / speakers - a trip down memory lane - part 1

Back in Juli 0f 2015 I made a master of a speaker and press moulded them a few times, not all very succesful. Made a top for the Minaret I was then working on and it was then forgotten.

As I want to spend less on the hobby and you know, finish stuff, going over the WIP drawers is a smart thing to do as they are stuffed to the brim with unfinished kit.

So, here she is ( I picked a few other things to play with, but settled on just the speakers in the end)

I added a mechanically bit on the top, to cover the drill hole for the power cable that now smeaks down the pole and into the floor, nicely bolted down. A bit of tape keeps it stuck to the lower part of the pole.

Sofar I've painted the speakers, mechanical bits and pole. The sneaking cable, hatch and concrete floor are for a later time....maybe tomorrow evening, maybe monday. I will not start painting anything else till this is done....which is somthing I should have done ages before. But hey :)

I'm also motivating myself to get the desert city done, so this one going on the top of the Minaret is my proverbial kick in the bum. It will do double duty on Russian (backed) installations as well...stay tuned for those :)

Northag: Buying the farm - part 2

Consdering the amount of bullshit in my life these days, what is more apt to make than a parked liquid manure tank trailer for Northag?

We start off with a PSC  M3 Honey spare fuel tank, and 2 roadwheels from the old Matchbox StuG IV (I think), both 20mm scale.

<then I do some magic, use my extensive parts box, enjoy Youtube while sniffing glue, and cough>

Et voila!

Looking forward to painting it when I find the time, maybe next week or so.