Water Trailer progress

 Had our 2 weekly painting night and got pretty far along with the water trailer. Most of the work is the brushwork to do the letters, the rest I don't even have to think about anymore, pure muscle memory.
Hope to have some time this weekend to finish it.

As you probably can tell.....I'm really liking making stuff for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.......

Russian Fall - a old monument for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Also, another 50 Cent challenge done!

Another victorious 50 Cent challenge completed (30 cents in this case)!

                                            

 How it started:

Didn't save the original picture, but it had an even bigger base which I cut off and a tennis or something symbol that I replaced with a star.

How it ended:

Paintjob had been finished for a while and I wanted to get it done, so experimented it a bit. I did a trial with the punch on tyhe previous finished building, but those came out a bit dark. So tried again, but using wash instead of paint and it worked like a treat. I'll not be using Beech seeds again, that's for sure. This is much, much easier to tone.

On with the next :)

Oh, in case you are wondering about the leaves, easy peasy: 

 

Cut from regular prining paper, mix up some water, a drop of wash and a drop of not modge podge and stir. Add that batch, make a new one with a different wash, repeat till you are satisfied. I went with some nice orange and golden colours this time.

One is not like the others

 I ordered some items from Warlord last week and they arrived yesterday at dinner time. After clean up and the kids starting movie night I grabbed the Sarissa bunker set I set to work. I'm liking these, quick to build, good fit, the moveable door is a nice plus. Lift off roof gives acces to a 60mm circle inside to fit in a HMG team of your choosing....not for me, but again a nice feature.

Again, fit is great, it takes only a little bit of force to make the parts slot together an after that glueing in the card strips solidifies everything. Rubber band in place to make it even easier (tip: watch where the glue goes, don't glue the rubber band in place ....)

Made the doors left and right swinging on purpose, and you can easily do this on this kit, which is a nice bonus. Not that it really matters, but hey, options!

In my plans I only ever need 2 bunkers, so what to do with the third? Well, it's brick (the other 2 are concrete), has small ports and a steel door....and I've been in plenty electrical and telecom buildings just like that, so transmitter base it is. A quick rummage in the parts bin for a real metal H0 pylon that I picked up a box full of a few years ago for next to nothing for the transmitter tower. Using offcuts from the thin strip of card that held the card parts for these bunkers I turned 3 of the openings into vents (electrical stuff needs to breathe with all of the heat). Did the same with the door after turning the door upside down (again, venting), added a doorknob and drilled through the top to glue and screw the tower in place.

Slice to size, shove in place, add superglue, vents it is.

And at 0:00 stop the clock. An evening well spent. Need to trim and sand the base on the transmitter as well, add superglue to the cardboard rim (helps against fraying when painting) and go over them one more time to see if I missed anything. Primer next week I suppose. 

Fix-r-upper progress, and other stuff

 Decided to focus more on the last things to do on the house so the hobby has been playing the 2nd or third fiddle. I did start some concrete on the Fix-r-upper, added the vents, made the doors, did the broken parts of the concrete and added a thin layer of filler but not 100% sure it will stick, the mix felt very dry this time. Also, while clearing out stuff to sell, found a Italeri 1/35 water trailer which, even if oversized, will work fine as a nice LOS blocker in all rusty baby blue. 

Aluminium fly screen was used as rebar, covered with a thin sheet of foam

 

Used the remains of various sheets to make a easy frame for the steel doors. Handles are a small type of staple.

Covered with filler but it feels too dry so it might not stick....we will see tomorrow.

I've become a huge fan of the Miniart sets of 1/48 stuff. Nice crisp plastic, and excellent decals for not a whole lot of money. The Russian flags, 1 is for a mate, the other for my own 15mm Russians, though might just add one here and there in the Stalker build. The Tamiya one is for the Czech Hedgehogs which I've seen the Russians use painted white etc at entrances as blockers.

A bit big, but it just holds more water.

Drilled out the pump and added solder wire, will drape that naturally once the basing has fully set.

What I want it to look, but in blue, but with the same rust and wear on the frame and wheels.

RUBbing me the right way

 20 RUB free with every box of Oreo's. But I'm on a diet so I only ordered 1 box of Oreo's 

There was a sale, and I had a discount coupon and I find these Really Useful Boxes....really useful! And they even gave a small box of Oreo's for free. Like, bargain.

I have an attic of stuff to sort, sue me :P

Weekend fix-r-upper for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

 Was clearing a box of stuff and found the mobile Airfield control ...cart thingy. The undercarriage got completely smashed during the previous move and I want to use it for this build. Sketched out my plans, need to cut down the MDF base, cut a hard foam base for the shack and bits for the cellar and stairs. Should not take forever.

See, I can plan stuff, I can!

Came back from picking up the kids, grabbed the saw and foamcutter and got this done in an hour incl cleanup. Glued it with polyurethane so it sets rock solid but it has a drying time of 24 hours, so maybe some work tomorrow like cutting the shelter doors and adding the parts for the exposed rebar. Maybe.

All fenced in - almost all built

 Decided to spend 2 days of my time on the fences. Cut the remaining bases, sanded a few but will need to sand the remainder, drill holes, make the poles etc. Still, over 4 metres of fence now. And I really want to get it done.....but not today.

What is ready for cleanup

What I still need to drill/sand and build

RUBs are really useful as projectboxes as well

Progress on the Industrial sidebuilding for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (WIP)

 Had a nice afternoon with the girls, painting and chatting. I just give them free reign of my big box of Vallejo and they just get creative. Both painted a Space Marine, and Emma painted her doplhins as well. A lovely 2 hours spent together while I worked on the side building.

 

Fortunately, my house is not sliding into a sinkhole, no matter how much this photo would prove otherwise....

Emma's Marine on the left, Nikki's on the right

 Getting there, but need to do the brickwork, add a doorknob that I somehow missed, somehow, and find something to dress up the big open spaces on the left and back of the building.

Organize! Organize!

Removed everything I'm not working on or hardly use, made extra labels and removed all tat from this side of the cabinet. Will repeat this next week for the other side.

First industrial buildings for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (WIP)

 Last week I built 2 more Sarissa Precision buildings (the water tower and one of the factory side buildings) and after giving them enough time to dry and set and a few small details, gave them 2 nice coats of sponged primer yesterday. Started doing the basics today and they are now going back in a box till the weekend I think. Small steps and all that. 

Used the MENG pipeset to add a bit of detail as well as scratchbuilding a (not 100% succesful) light at the door of the water tower. Star was added with the usual punch. Weathering and minor detailling is up next.

Got inspired as well by a building that I saw online and which is next up on my to build list. Very nice weathered paintjob too!

It's from here: Zona Alfa: Play Metro 2033, But With Miniatures!

All fenced in - first metre of barrier fence S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ready for basing and clean up.

 ...but man is it a lot of work....

But an hour of this, and an hour of that here and there and we are making progress.

Doesn't look like a lot though, does it? 4x straight 25cm sections and, 3x 90 degree corners and 1x 135 degree corner. Just realised I need to cut 4x 45 degree corners as well to even it out, I forgot those...but no rush.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. building supplies

 Received a nice parcel today with more scatter and trim for STALKER. Should keep me busy for a bit. Also completely stripped down a H0 locomotive shelter and reglueing all the joints. This will be rebuilt into a 28mm scenery piece but that is going to take a while.

Was really looking forward to these parts, that pipeline set alone is worth it. So many parts!

Crisis 2024 loot

 Took a trip to Crisis 2024, together with the girls. They managed to keep themselves going for over 3 hours, colour me impressed. They each got a Primaris Marine so we will paint that the next weekend they are over. Emma even bought a blister of Dolphins....cause she likes Dolphins. Best reason I'd say.

It was nice to talk to the old guard, people I had not seen in a long time. The new place looks great, spacious. Plenty of vendors, even if there were a few cancellations that dropped the entry fee down from 12 to 10 Euros. Quite a bit of choice but not nearly as much as the old Crisis, but I wasn't expecting that. A lot of gaming tables but not crowded at all. Nice variety too.

My purchase goal for the day was 28mm scenery for Stalker, 28mm trees and nothing 15mm. Well.....that dind't quite pan out. 

• Scavengers II for Stargrave/Stalker, had my eye on this one for a while. 

• Silver Bayonet Carpathia and vampires, the Forest Witch and a blister of Cultists. These were from a pre order I made, on the show I saw hardly any SB stuff.  Only 1 seller had a few warbands that I could see, and he had no sales/discount. Saw quite a few plastic army boxes suitable for them but buying a 30 euro box with 40 troops of which you need just a few.... (says the man who routinely buys boxes for just that reason)
•  Gravestones....as I can't find my bag
• Tents....for a Stalker camp. 
• Large scrap piles from Kraken Wargames at 50% off.  For my Postapoc collection. They had some nice bags of barricades as well, but even at 50% off these were expensive....and I think I prefer to make my own anyway. Eventually.
  

I found no 28mm scenery for Stalker that I liked. Some printed stuff, but with (for me) too prominent lines. The MDF choices were limited to mostly Western and what I already have. Foam I can make my own. Trees, I only saw the same stuff. Plastic stem, reindeer moss for the shape and coated with flock. Not my thing. 

Well, 15mm then.

• 40% off on PSC kits if I'd buy 5 kits. You always need trucks, more AT guns are always useful, if only for the towed versions and a box of 38(t) for my future. Pity that yet again, no Russian trucks to be found anywhere.
• 40% discount on all Nam stuff at one shop, seller was kind enough to discount it even more to 5 euros per blister when I took his entire stock of T-34M's....cause I love the T-34 with starfish roadwheels. I want a small stash so I can build them for Iraq, the PLO, AK-47 etc. I doubt Battlefront will ever release these in plastic.....but a man can dream

No where near my usual amount, half of it is just for stock now, the other half I can get working on next week.

After that a quick trip to a Delhaize supermarket to get the kids some Eclairs (not for me, I got pickled flavoured crisps and a big bottle of French herbes cause I'm weird like that - crisps for eating and harbs as forest floor scatter) and then gassed up the car with some much needed and much cheaper Belgian gas and went home again. Spent almost 4 hours driving back and forth, including the traffic jams due to work on the Belgian roads. Like war, that also never changes.

Kids are beat, I'm beat, and a lovely day of nothing tomorrow.